![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d77f6-3abc-7c0b-ab59-aa0254c7842a.png\")
Mirroring a breakout setup from Q2 2025, Bitcoin (BTC) is now eyeing a possible rally toward the $86,000–$90,000 range over the next few weeks.
The bullish view is supported by robust Bitcoin whale activity and large BTC inflows to exchanges, which have dropped by $5 billion over the past two months.
Bitcoin reached a weekly high of $73,255 on Friday after testing the $72,000 level earlier in the week, with the price compressing between $70,000 and $72,000 over the past four days. The higher price range is showing more stability for BTC than in March, when BTC quickly corrected after reaching the key level.
The 30-day rolling volume-weighted average price (VWAP), which indicates where most recent trading activity has occurred, and the 50-day moving average have converged below the price, forming a dynamic support base.
Currently, the $76,000 level marks the upper boundary of a 64-day sideways phase. A push above this level aligns with the descending trendline formed after the October highs near $126,000.
A breakout from this trend may signal a major shift and remove the psychological barrier that capped rallies over the past few months.
In Q2 2025, a similar setup formed after a prolonged compression below the moving averages. Once the price cleared the descending trendline, it expanded quickly into the next supply zone.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d77f3-a0c8-7cf8-88a5-fc8366500fb4.png\")
The current structure mirrors that sequence, with liquidity stacked between $86,000 and $90,000. This indicates a clean path for price expansion once the bearish trendline gives way.
Related: Bitcoin can be made quantum-safe without protocol upgrade: Researcher
Crypto analyst Amr Taha noted that the 30-day Bitcoin inflows to exchanges from whales dropped to $2.96 billion, the first sub-$3 billion reading since June 2025.
The lower inflows reduce immediate sell-side pressure on exchanges. For context, the whale inflows to exchanges were as high as $8 billion in February.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d780d-4994-7dd8-a200-3724b13a9659.png\")
At the same time, the long-term holder realized cap change reached $49 billion on April 9, marking renewed accumulation.
Taha noted a transfer of supply from weaker to stronger hands across these metrics. The divergence highlights steady absorption rather than aggressive selling.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d780e-55fc-78c1-839d-aa665df8d8da.jpg\")
Additionally, whale-sized orders of $1 million to $10 million pushed the spot cumulative volume delta (CVD) above $600 million on April 9, while market analyst CW pointed to renewed buying from other whale cohorts as well.
This activity coincides with price stabilization above $70,000. The $76,000 level now acts as a trigger zone, with the $86,000 to $90,000 range holding a visible, concentrated liquidity zone.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7813-d08a-7f7b-ba3f-495f07dada58.jpg\")
Related: Bitcoin hits $73K as cool US CPI data shows 60-year record gas price hike
", "description": "Bitcoin’s price action tilts back toward the bulls, and data suggests that a rally to $88,000 is coming into focus.", "published": "2026-04-10T17:47:01+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-analysis" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "derivatives" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-traders-set-dollar88k-target-as-market-bias-finally-tilts-toward-bulls", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Price Analysis" } ] }, "id": "260667" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "US CPI comes in lower than expected, but April rate cut still unlikely", "leadText": "Although US inflation was weaker than expected in March, the ongoing war between the United States, Iran and Israel has fueled macroeconomic uncertainty.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for March, showing a 0.9% month-over-month rise in headline CPI inflation.
CPI inflation is up 3.3% year-over-year, according to the BLS report published Friday. Although inflation came in slightly lower than analyst expectations, inflation remains elevated above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
A surge in energy prices from the Iran war drove March’s inflation figures, with the energy index rising by nearly 11%, led by a 21.2% rise in gasoline prices, the BLS report said.
![\"Federal](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7818-a140-77cf-b8eb-e6f36399ff93.png\")
Managing inflation is part of the Federal Reserve’s dual mandate of price stability and maximum employment, which influences its decision-making on interest rates and broader monetary policy.
Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency prices are significantly impacted by interest rate policy, with lower interest rates stimulating asset prices by expanding credit that flows into financial markets and higher rates restricting capital flows and asset prices.
Related: Bitcoin steadies after PCE inflation data, $80K target remains
Investors forecast a 0% chance of an interest rate cut at the April Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.
The odds that the FOMC will keep rates on hold are 98.4%. Rate cut odds increase only incrementally throughout the year.
![\"Federal](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d781b-df3e-7029-af5b-0495379e7947.png\")
FOMC members are divided on further rate cuts in 2026, due to inflationary pressures from the ongoing war, and rate hikes have not been ruled out.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) rose by over 1.5% on Friday, briefly tapping the $73,000 level following the latest CPI print.
“The $73,000–$75,000 zone is our next major target,” said Matt Mena, senior crypto research strategist at crypto exchange-traded product provider 21shares.
“If BTC clears this, expect a brief period of sideways consolidation before a test of $80,000. Should the Clarity Act pass, the stage is set for $100,000 BTC and a $3 trillion–$3.2 trillion total crypto market cap by the end of Q2,” he added.
Magazine: Big Questions: Can Bitcoin save you from the dreaded Cantillon Effect?
Disclaimer. This content is part of a paid partnership. The text below is a sponsored article that is not part of Cointelegraph.com editorial content. The material is written by our advertorial team and has undergone editorial review to ensure clarity and relevance, it may not reflect the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.com. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the company. Disclosure.
![\"Business,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7731-cfa2-7aa0-af1c-1010e5933890.jpg\")
Whether a token is a security or not has been a hot debate in the crypto space for years. Many tokens and cryptocurrencies were treated as securities in the past due to inaccurate classification, structuring and misalignment between regulators and projects.
A security is traditionally defined as capital invested with the expectation of profit, which is derived from the effort of others. Jurisdictions across the world reach a similar conclusion through different analysis. For example, in the EU, securities are defined under the MiFID framework, while in the United States, assets are assessed under the Howey test.
Though the form of analysis varies, triggers are common:
profit participation
dividends or yield
interest payments
pooled investment structures
expectation of capital appreciation
active management by an issuer or manager
An asset that does not meet these criteria may fall outside securities regulation.
Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization is often associated with securities. The categorization is valid for many RWAs, as they usually represent equity, debt or investment interests.
However, not all RWAs meet the aforementioned criteria, and they may potentially avoid securities classification.
For example, commodity tokens — tokens that represent ownership or claim to physical commodities like gold, silver and oil — are not investment instruments; they rather function as a digital warehouse receipt. As the RWA holder only owns the asset and does not rely on an issuer to generate profits, these tokens may be considered as non-securities by regulators.
Similarly, asset-backed payment tokens backed by gold reserves, or even government bonds, may escape security classification. These tokens are primarily used for settlements, and they do not provide profit participation, dividends or interest. Such RWAs can be treated under payment, e-money or commodity frameworks instead.
Real estate RWAs are usually associated with securities. However, RWAs that represent direct ownership of a real asset recorded in an official registry rather than shares in a company that owns the asset may fall outside of security categorization. Such a model is explored and recognized in several jurisdictions, like Dubai. The model offers fractional property ownership that is actually linked to the official land registry, placing it outside the scope of securities laws.
RWAs that represent mere ownership of certain assets may also be considered non-securities, such as collectibles, art and carbon credits. The crucial condition is the absence of capital pooling or promise of financial returns.
Yet, understanding the regulations is just the first step for RWA projects. Determining whether an RWA token is a security and structuring the legal foundation accordingly is hugely important for compliance with regulations.
Legal Nodes, a legaltech company, helps RWA projects stay on a compliant track. The company assists projects in turning a real-world asset into a legally workable token structure.
The work starts with deciding what sits behind the token. The same asset can be structured through different legal instruments, and that choice can change the nature of the product altogether. A token may represent equity, debt, a commodity claim or a hybrid arrangement. Each route affects what the holder actually receives, what obligations attach to the issuer and how regulators are likely to view the offering. Legal Nodes helps projects make that choice deliberately, with the regulatory outcome in mind.
The company then structures the legal wrapper around the tokenized asset. This is the framework that links the offchain asset to the digital token and defines how the arrangement works in legal terms. It sets out where the asset sits, what kind of claim or ownership the token conveys, which entity issues or holds the relevant rights and how those rights are passed to the tokenholder.
Legal Nodes also helps establish SPVs and other legal vehicles suited to the asset class, giving the token a legal foundation that matches the nature of the underlying asset.
That structure then has to be tested against the rules of the markets the project wants to serve. Legal Nodes maps the project across jurisdictions and evaluates how regulators are likely to classify the token, as that classification determines which compliance route the issuer may face. A structure intended to sit outside securities laws in one market may be treated differently in another. This makes jurisdictional analysis a necessary part of the setup.
Once the structure is defined, the company helps shape the rest of the compliance framework around it. That includes licensing and authorization analysis, offering and distribution design, cross-border considerations and investor-facing documentation. It also works on identifying legal risks before launch and addressing them through the setup itself.
The process carries into implementation as well. Legal Nodes works with product and development teams so that the rights described in legal documents are reflected in smart contract logic and platform design. After issuance, it also supports ongoing compliance and corporate governance.
RWA issuance raises legal questions that go beyond the token itself. Legal Nodes’ work focuses on the legal structure that supports the issuance, as that structure can shape both the regulatory treatment of the token and how the project functions after launch. That can make the difference between a token that holds up and one that breaks under regulatory scrutiny.
", "description": "An RWA reaches the market only after its legal basis is worked out. That is where a legaltech firm enters the picture and helps translate the asset into a compliant token model", "published": "2026-04-10T17:00:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "business" }, { "slug": "tokens" }, { "slug": "rwa" }, { "slug": "tokenization" }, { "slug": "rwa-tokenization" } ], "slug": "rwa-tokenization-starts-with-a-legal-exercise-here-s-why", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Use Case" } ] }, "id": "260597" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bittensor's TAO risks 45% dip amid 'decentralization theater' accusation", "leadText": "TAO drops 30% from its weekly high, confirming fractal setups that projected deeper downside targets for the token in the past.", "author": { "slug": "yashu-gola" }, "bodyText": "Bittensor’s TAO token may drop by up to 45% in the coming weeks as Covenant AI, one of its top subnet operators, publicly announced its full exit from the ecosystem.
Key takeaways:
Covenant AI accused Bittensor of being centralized, leading to a 30% drop in TAO prices.
Fractals indicate that the token may drop another 25%–45% in the coming weeks.
TAO’s price dropped by roughly 30% from its weekly high to around $249. A huge part of that downside came after Covenant AI accused Bittensor of running a “decentralized theater.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7747-2240-75b1-af31-5c5e518ea34c.png\")
In a Friday post, the team behind the subnet argued that Bittensor may not be as decentralized as it looks. That went against Bittensor’s whole pitch, built around the idea of an open AI network where different subnets can compete fairly.
Once that claim hit the market, traders started to worry that the project’s main story was weakening. If builders begin to lose confidence and leave, traders may fear reduced activity on the network, weaker demand for TAO and slower long-term growth.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7762-488c-7e08-bcd7-f88041814e72.png\")
The Friday selloff was accompanied by a roughly 250% rise in trading volume, indicating that most traders backed the downside outlook.
In the futures market, around $11.83 million in positions were liquidated, of which $9.71 million were long. That suggests many bullish traders were caught offside, adding forced selling pressure to TAO’s drop.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7762-fe1c-74cd-9921-f6bfc62b20d7.png\")
As Cointelegraph covered earlier, TAO was hinting at a 40% selloff after confirming a golden cross between its 20-day (green) and 200-day (blue) exponential moving averages (EMA).
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7772-aa73-7eb8-89f0-8eb6dfad56b3.png\")
By Friday, the Bittensor token was moving toward that bearish setup’s projected target near $200, implying roughly 25% more downside from current levels.
Another fractal structure supports the downside case.
TAO is currently consolidating inside the 0.382–0.5 Fibonacci retracement range, a zone that has historically acted as a short-term consolidation area during TAO’s broader macro-top corrections.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7768-979d-7e1d-ad2e-5f7a69c3adf3.png\")
For instance, in November 2025, a breakdown from this same range triggered a drop of over 30% toward the 1.0 Fib level and lower, thus marking a full retracement of the prior rally.
A similar setup emerged in June 2025, when TAO broke below the same Fibonacci range but managed to stabilize near the 0.618 Fib level before rebounding.
Related: Onchain real-world perps surge, while altcoin rout drags on: Report
TAO could first decline toward its 0.618 Fib support near $230 If ife pattern repeats.
Prevailing bearish fundamentals may push TAO lower toward the 1.0 Fib retracement near $144, down about 45% from current levels.
", "description": "TAO’s short-term downside could include another double-digit drop as technical data and souring investor sentiment take their toll on the altcoin’s price.", "published": "2026-04-10T16:30:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "altcoin" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "ai" }, { "slug": "price-analysis" }, { "slug": "tech-analysis" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" }, { "slug": "altcoin-watch" } ], "slug": "bittensor-s-tao-risks-45percent-dip-amid-decentralization-theater-accusation", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Altcoin Watch" } ] }, "id": "260652" }, { "category": { "slug": "markets" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin hits $73K as cool US CPI data shows 60-year record gas price hike", "leadText": "Bitcoin saw a fresh attempt to hit new local highs on the back of lower-than-expected US CPI data, despite a giant gas-price increase.", "author": { "slug": "william-suberg" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) tagged $73,000 following Friday’s Wall Street open as crucial US inflation numbers came in below expectations.
Key points:
Bitcoin edges higher as US CPI data remains slightly below market expectations.
Gasoline prices see a historic surge within the CPI release.
Bitcoin traders plan out key resistance levels overhead.
Data from TradingView showed BTC price eyeing new multi-week highs as markets digested the March print of the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d77c5-daa1-76bb-92b9-8fdcc9ec09f5.png\")
This was the week’s key macro data release, and the first CPI report to reflect the impact of the US and Israel war in Iran.
Gasoline prices jumped over 21% month-on-month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) confirmed, but overall CPI finished 0.1% lower than markets’ expectations.
“Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.3 percent before seasonal adjustment,” an official news release read.
“The index for energy rose 10.9 percent in March, led by a 21.2-percent increase in the index for gasoline which accounted for nearly three quarters of the monthly all items increase.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d77c2-a836-76d6-ac86-ba7412e9af73.png\")
Reacting, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter noted that the gas-price CPI jump was the largest monthly gain since 1967. The energy increase, it added in a further post on X, was the largest since 2005.
With the resulting mixed picture of inflationary forces, US stocks were mostly flat at the open, while BTC price action also avoided major moves up or down.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d77c2-1b5b-7f0d-870c-98e9ea181222.png\")
Markets, however, had no hope for the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates — a conclusion already in place on the back of Thursday’s Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index release, per data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
Among Bitcoin market participants, there was modest reason for optimism over the short-term price outlook.
Related: Bitcoin analysis sees $55K BTC price 'iron bottom' by December 2026
In their latest X analysis, trader JDK Analysis flagged BTC/USD acting within a narrowing wedge — a topic of debate since February.
“If price makes another attempt at the current key high, the reaction there will be critical!” they wrote in accompanying commentary.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d77c0-738c-7acf-85b9-0eb89419f504.jpeg\")
Trader Daan Crypto Trades meanwhile eyed exchange order-book liquidity below $74,000.
\n\n\n$BTC Liquidity levels to watch in close proximity are that ~$71K region below, and $73K-$74K above (local high). pic.twitter.com/BlKsaZXdpb
— Daan Crypto Trades (@DaanCrypto) April 10, 2026
Earlier, Cointelegraph reported on a copycat signal from Bitcoin’s relative strength index (RSI) that began to echo the end of the 2022 bear market.
", "description": "Bitcoin rallies toward its range highs as a cool US CPI print masks a giant gas price increase driven by the war in Iran.", "published": "2026-04-10T15:37:16+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-hits-73k-as-cool-us-cpi-data-shows-60-year-record-gas-price-hike", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Market Update" } ] }, "id": "260642" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "White House warns staff as Iran bets add to growing insider trading concerns", "leadText": "Reuters reported that White House staff were warned against using confidential information after suspicious Iran-linked oil futures bets and fresh scrutiny of prediction markets.", "author": { "slug": "zoltan-vardai" }, "bodyText": "The White House warned staff against improperly using confidential information to place bets in futures markets after suspicious oil trades ahead of President Donald Trump’s March 23 Iran announcement drew scrutiny, according to Reuters.
Reuters reported on Thursday that the White House sent the internal email on March 24, a day after Trump ordered a five-day delay in attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
The warning followed a roughly $500 million bet on Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude futures placed in a one-minute burst shortly before Trump’s March 23 announcement, according to Reuters calculations based on exchange data. Oil prices fell about 15% after the policy shift.
The episode has intensified scrutiny of whether officials or politically connected traders could profit from nonpublic information tied to military or policy decisions. It has also added momentum to a broader push in Washington to tighten rules around prediction-market trading.
The STOCK Act amendment in the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) prohibits federal officials, congress members, executive staff and judicial officers from using non-public information derived from their positions to trade commodity, futures or options markets. The amendment was signed into law on April 4, 2012.
Cointelegraph has approached the White House for a copy of the internal email.
Related: US Senate bill targets prediction markets on war and assassinations
Lawmakers have also stepped up scrutiny of prediction markets, where well-timed bets tied to military and political events have raised similar concerns about the misuse of privileged information. Polymarket traders netted around $1 million by accurately betting when the US would strike Iran.
In response to the concerns, Congressman Adrian Smith and Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski introduced the Preventing Real-time Exploitation and Deceptive Insider Congressional Trading Act (PREDICT Act) on March 25, a bipartisan bill seeking to ban members of Congress and federal officials from prediction market trading.
On March 26, US lawmakers Todd Young, Elissa Slotkin, John Curtis and Adam Schiff unveiled the bipartisan Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026, a bill aimed at curbing prediction market insider trading by government officials.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d776b-f5c1-77ae-bdd2-69a0326f6b49.png\")
The same day, Senator Jeff Merkley introduced the End Prediction Market Corruption Act, seeking to ban event contract trading by government officials with “material non-public information,” including the president, vice president and members of Congress.
Magazine: Crypto traders ‘fool themselves’ with price predictions — Peter Brandt
", "description": "The White House issued a warning to staff about insider trading by government officials, adding to growing concerns tied to oil and prediction market trading by politicians.", "published": "2026-04-10T15:28:02+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "politics" }, { "slug": "iran" }, { "slug": "donald-trump" }, { "slug": "trading" }, { "slug": "oil-and-gas" }, { "slug": "industry" }, { "slug": "prediction-markets" } ], "slug": "white-house-insider-trading-warning-oil-prediction-markets", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260637" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Here’s what happened in crypto today", "leadText": "Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.", "author": { "slug": "cointelegraph" }, "bodyText": "Today in crypto, Hong Kong has issued its first stablecoin issuer licenses, approving Anchorpoint Financial and HSBC’s Hong Kong banking arm under its new regime, a researcher has proposed a way to make Bitcoin transactions quantum-safe, but it is an expensive temporary measure, and CoreWeave’s latest financing highlights Wall Street’s shift away from volatile, hardware-backed crypto lending toward cash-flow-driven AI infrastructure.
Hong Kong has granted its first stablecoin issuer licenses, approving Anchorpoint Financial and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation under a new regulatory framework overseen by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).
The HKMA announced the initial batch of licensees on Friday, marking the first approvals under its stablecoin regime.
Anchorpoint Financial is the stablecoin joint venture formed by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Animoca Brands and Hong Kong Telecommunications. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited is HSBC’s Hong Kong-based banking entity and one of the city’s three note-issuing banks.
The first approvals highlight Hong Kong’s cautious approach, with regulators appearing to favor bank-linked and institution-backed issuers in the regime’s opening phase.
The announcement comes after weeks of unconfirmed reports about potential licensees and a missed March timeline, marking a cautious start to Hong Kong’s stablecoin licensing rollout. HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue said in February that a very small number of issuers would be licensed in March, a timetable the HKMA ultimately missed before granting the first approvals.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d76b1-2b8f-74ea-bbef-9c4ea442a40f.jpg\")
A Bitcoin researcher has come up with a way that could immediately make Bitcoin transactions quantum-safe without the need for a soft fork.
In a proposal published Thursday, StarkWare chief product officer Avihu Levy proposed a Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) transaction scheme that he said would remain secure “even against an adversary with a large-scale quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm.”
He added that the scheme requires no changes to the Bitcoin protocol and operates entirely within the existing legacy script constraints. The downside is that it is costly and likely is not useful for everyday transactions, he said.
The Bitcoin community has been split on how to tackle the quantum problem. QSB presents a temporary solution while a long-term approach is ironed out.
The scheme’s main feature is replacing the proof-of-work signature-size puzzle with a hash-to-sig puzzle.
Instead of relying on elliptic curve math that quantum computers can break, the spender must find an input whose hash output randomly happens to resemble a valid ECDSA (elliptic curve digital signature algorithm) signature, requiring brute-force work that even a quantum computer cannot shortcut.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7574-3ccf-7771-8db1-30b8d74621d8.jpg\")
CoreWeave’s recent $8.5 billion AI-backed loan highlights a major transition in how Wall Street finances digital infrastructure, marking a shift from “MinerFi” to “ComputeFi,” according to TheEnergyMag.
In its latest Miner Weekly newsletter, TheEnergyMag examined CoreWeave’s multibillion-dollar raise from a group of banks and investors, backed by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms. As Bloomberg reported, the financing underscores how companies are finding new ways to fund data center construction and expand GPU capacity.
Although CoreWeave has pivoted away from the digital asset sector toward AI-focused data center compute, the move offers a broader lesson on the shortcomings of Bitcoin (BTC) mining finance.
Historically, lenders funded Bitcoin mining operations using application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, as collateral. However, these models proved fragile due to crypto price volatility and rapid hardware depreciation. When markets declined, both revenues and collateral values fell sharply.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d734f-a8c4-7c2b-a2fe-a31e198b13e9.png\")
French officials are pushing for tighter oversight of crypto from two directions, as a Bank of France official called for stricter limits on non-euro stablecoins under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), and lawmakers in Paris advanced a separate reporting requirement for some self-custody holdings.
Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, delivered a speech at the EUROFI High Level Seminar in March, calling on the EU to restrict the use of stablecoins for payments, particularly those pegged to non-euro currencies.
Published on the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) website on Thursday, he said the Bank of France has been “pressing for a strengthening” of MiCA in this regard.
In a separate move, France’s National Assembly adopted on April 7 a provision in an anti-fraud bill that would require annual reporting of self-hosted crypto wallets above a 5,000 euro threshold, according to Gregory Raymond, founder of local outlet The Big Whale.
Taken together, the developments show French policymakers hardening their stance as Europe weighs how to contain the growing role of US dollar-linked stablecoins while tightening oversight of crypto assets held outside regulated platforms.
Addressing ways to respond to the global dominance of US dollar-pegged stablecoins, which account for 98% of the stablecoin market, Beau highlighted the role of supporting tokenized central bank money and private money, as well as stronger regulation.
While reporting progress on tokenization initiatives related to settlement infrastructure, such as Pontes and Appia, the official suggested that current regulatory measures might not be sufficient to address the issue.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d776a-3a8d-70ec-9042-0824dfc0630a.png\")
“MiCA only partially addresses the risks posed by changes in the sector, particularly in the event of widespread adoption of stablecoins issued by non-European players,” Beau said.
Related: ECB paper questions if DeFi DAOs are decentralized enough to sit outside MiCA
In 2025, Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta said MiCA had a limited impact on the adoption of compliant stablecoins in Europe, pointing to the digital euro as a key tool to address the issue.
Separately, France’s National Assembly on April 7 adopted a provision in an anti-fraud bill that would require taxpayers to report certain self-hosted crypto holdings to the tax administration each year.
The measure would apply when the fair value of assets held in self-hosted wallets exceeds 5,000 euros, though the bill has not yet completed the legislative process.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d776a-3ca5-7bba-902f-f02d8595051d.png\")
Raymond said the proposal has faced opposition from lawmakers and parts of the government and tax administration, who raised concerns about enforcement limits and potential data security concerns.
The developments come as the community prepares to gather at Paris Blockchain Week next week, a major industry event hosted by Chain of Events. According to media reports, President Emmanuel Macron is expected to deliver a special address at the conference, which is scheduled for April 15-16 at the Carrousel du Louvre.
Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026
", "description": "France urges stronger MiCA rules to curb USD stablecoin risks as lawmakers move to mandate reporting of self-custody crypto holdings above 5,000 euros.", "published": "2026-04-10T15:05:50+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "france" }, { "slug": "law" }, { "slug": "dollar" }, { "slug": "taxes" }, { "slug": "central-bank" }, { "slug": "euro" }, { "slug": "stablecoin" }, { "slug": "mica" }, { "slug": "regulation" }, { "slug": "self-custody" } ], "slug": "france-mica-limits-stablecoin-payments", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260632" }, { "category": { "slug": "markets" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin analysis sees $55K BTC price 'iron bottom' by December 2026", "leadText": "New BTC price analysis predicted that the bear market would bottom out later in the year, before beginning a \"two-year accumulation phase.\"", "author": { "slug": "william-suberg" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) should find a floor near $55,000 in the second half of 2026, a new prediction says.
Key points:
Bitcoin’s MVRV Z-score metric still needs to match old bear-market bottoms to signal trend change, says CryptoQuant.
That should result in a trip to $55,000 in late 2026 before a market rebound.
Going forward, the next cycle top is expected in the second half of 2029.
In one of its “Quicktake” blog posts on Friday, onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant set out the timeline for Bitcoin’s next “iron bottom.”
“Bear market bottoming is a marathon of exhaustion,” contributor Sunny Mom wrote.
“While data suggests we are halfway through, a final ‘wash-out’ is likely still ahead. As the saying goes: history may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
CryptoQuant flagged three onchain indicators to support the theory that the next bear-market bottom is still ahead. Among them is the market value to realized value (MVRV) Z-score.
MVRV measures the price at which the BTC supply last moved, also known as its realized cap, versus the value of all BTC in existence (its market cap). The Z-score divides the resulting ratio by the standard deviation of market cap, giving clear “overvalued” and “undervalued” ranges for Bitcoin at a certain price point.
“This valuation metric is cooling but has yet to enter the negative/undervalued zone,” the analysis noted.
“Every ‘iron bottom’ in history has seen this score dip below zero; currently, the market is merely cooling, not despairing.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d76b8-31dd-7558-9a7b-3e9ab2f9d760.png\")
The last time that the MVRV Z-score dipped below zero was during the bottoming phase of Bitcoin’s last bear market in 2022. Sunny Mom sees history “rhyming” between October and December this year.
“Target: $55K – $60K, coinciding with a sub-zero MVRV Z-Score,” they concluded.
In January, Cointelegraph reported on two-year rolling Z-score values already undercutting old bear-market floors and other periods of intense market stress.
Related: Bitcoin RSI ‘nearly perfectly’ copying end of 2022 bear market: Analysis
At the time, crypto trader Michaël van de Poppe predicted that Bitcoin was “near the end” of its latest macro drawdown.
Meanwhile, Crypto Mom saw the second half of 2029 as a likely blow-off top for Bitcoin’s next bull run.
“Rationale: Following a late 2026 bottom, we expect a two-year accumulation phase,” they argued, without giving a price target.
“Combined with the April 2028 Halving, the market typically peaks 12–18 months post-halving, making late 2029 the likely window for the next parabolic bull run.”
![\"Bitcoin](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d76c2-7f44-75c3-9dd7-3030cc4ee9a7.png\")
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget has launched IPO Prime, a proxy offering tied to the pre-initial public offering (IPO) phase of Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturing and space transportation company, SpaceX.
Bitget said Friday that IPO Prime will start with preSPAX, a Republic-issued token designed to give retail users economic exposure tied to SpaceX’s post-IPO performance. The exchange said the product does not give buyers direct ownership of SpaceX shares, and that SpaceX has not endorsed, approved or authorized the offering.
The launch highlights how crypto exchanges are bringing more traditional investment products onto blockchain rails in a bid to attract users with round-the-clock access to assets that have historically been harder for retail investors to reach.
The announcement comes as Bloomberg reported that SpaceX is said to have confidentially filed for an IPO, with valuation targets ranging from $1.75 trillion to over $2 trillion, though the company has not publicly confirmed the move.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7706-3cdd-78c2-ae32-4c3388de59b0.png\")
Bitget said the offering will be available across all jurisdictions where the exchange is compliant, through a subscription-based model where users can apply for allocations through a tiered structure.
Bitget said the subscription window for preSPAX will run from April 18 to April 21, with distribution on April 21 and OTC trading scheduled to begin later that day. Gracy Chen, Bitget’s CEO, told Cointelegraph that VIP users will receive early access through two exclusive pre-launch airdrop rounds ahead of the broader rollout.
“Pre-IPO exposure used to be limited to small circles, but tokenization has changed that, providing access to traditional assets that were typically out of reach. preSPAX is our first offering and we will be bringing more such opportunities to our users this year.”
Crypto-native companies with similar pre-IPO offerings include Solana-based PreStocks, Orderbook and Republic. Competitors from traditional finance include Nasdaq Private Market, Hiive, Forge Global and EquityZen.
Related: Crypto exchanges chase TradFi commodities market as pricing gaps persist
Bitget positions the pre-IPO platform as a “new route” to traditional finance opportunities and part of the company’s “universal exchange” ambitions, seeking to bring more TradFi assets under tokenized wrappers.
Other large cryptocurrency exchanges have also launched access to TradFi investment products in a bid to widen their investor base. In January, Vienna-based crypto exchange Bitpanda said it was expanding its offering to include about 10,000 stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
In April 2025, Kraken announced the launch of 11,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs with commission-free trading in an effort to bring “equities and digital assets together” under one trading platform, as part of a “phased national rollout.”
Coinbase exchange also launched stock trading at the end of 2025 and rebranded its wallet app as an “everything app,” as the first step to enable 24/7 trading of stocks and ETFs along with crypto assets.
Crypto research firm Delphi Digital called the phenomenon the “super app” race, predicting an “aggregation era” for the crypto industry, as value shifts from protocols to platforms with the most users and trading products.
Magazine: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized?
", "description": "Bitget launched IPO Prime with a Republic-issued token tied to SpaceX’s post-IPO performance, widening retail access to pre-IPO proxy exposure.", "published": "2026-04-10T12:47:34+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "investments" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "ipo" }, { "slug": "elon-musk" }, { "slug": "stock-investment" }, { "slug": "bitget" } ], "slug": "bitget-spacex-pre-ipo-proxy-republic", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260607" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "World Liberty signals phased WLFI unlock vote after early holder backlash", "leadText": "World Liberty said its WLFI unlock proposal will go through community input before a formal vote, outlining a phased vesting plan rather than a full token release.", "author": { "slug": "ezra-reguerra" }, "bodyText": "Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform World Liberty Financial said Friday it plans to put forward next week a governance proposal that would set a phased unlock schedule for WLFI tokens held by early retail purchasers.
The Trump family-linked DeFi platform said the proposal will be opened for community input before proceeding to a formal vote. According to the project, the vote will not cover a full, immediate unlock, but instead a structured, long-term vesting plan designed to release tokens in stages.
WLFI tokens remain largely locked for early buyers, with transferability tied to governance-approved unlocks. Tokenomist data shows that about 24.67% of WLFI’s 100 billion token supply has been released, while roughly 75.33% remains locked or pending future unlock decisions.
The proposal could determine when early buyers can finally access liquidity in WLFI, whose use is largely limited to governance. It comes as some holders publicly push back against the prolonged lockups and threaten legal action.
The concerns add to earlier governance decisions around token restrictions. On March 16, WLFI token holders approved a proposal introducing a six-month lock-up rule for certain transfers, marking one of the first formal changes to the project’s transferability framework.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7701-0a15-7ed5-ba5a-65ee8a76ef75.jpg\")
World Liberty’s early sale materials said WLFI tokens were non-transferable and could remain locked indefinitely, with any future unlock subject to a governance vote no earlier than 12 months after the token sale and with no guaranteed timeline.
That 12-month threshold has already passed, with WLFI’s public sale beginning around mid-October 2024, placing the current proposal roughly 18 months after the initial sale. The company raised at least $550 million from WLFI token sales across two funding rounds.
Some self-identified WLFI presale buyers have publicly complained that most of their holdings remain locked, even as parts of the broader token supply have become transferable.
At least one self-identified buyer said they had filed legal notices and were pursuing claims in the United States and the Netherlands against World Liberty Financial and its backers. Cointelegraph could not independently verify that any lawsuit had been filed.
Cointelegraph reached out to World Liberty Financial for comments, but had not received a response by publication.
Related: WLFI proposes governance staking system and USD1 usage incentives
One community member said in an X post that the project’s borrowing activity raised concerns among token holders, questioning how treasury funds were being used. Onchain data shows that World Liberty Financial’s treasury borrowed roughly $75 million in stablecoins from Dolomite using WLFI as collateral.
Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?
", "description": "Most WLFI tokens remain locked pending governance decisions, with only about 24.67% of the 100 billion supply currently released, according to Tokenomist data.", "published": "2026-04-10T12:19:28+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "altcoin" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "donald-trump" }, { "slug": "defi" }, { "slug": "governance-token" } ], "slug": "world-liberty-wlfi-unlock-vote-early-holder-backlash", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260592" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Aethir halts bridge exploit, promises compensation after $90K loss", "leadText": "Aethir said it halted a bridge exploit on its Ethereum-linked contracts, limiting losses to under $90,000 after PeckShield estimated $400,000 in damages.", "author": { "slug": "helen-partz" }, "bodyText": "Aethir, a decentralized GPU cloud infrastructure designed for artificial intelligence, confirmed an attack on its bridge contracts and said it halted the exploit.
The platform said Friday that it had detected and contained an attack on its Aethir (ATH) bridge contracts connecting Ethereum to other chains.
The team behind Aethir said it promptly disconnected the compromised contracts upon detection and worked with major exchanges to blacklist tracked wallets, limiting losses to under $90,000.
The update came the day after the blockchain analytics platform PeckShield reported an exploit of Aethir’s cross-chain smart contract, AethirOFTAdapter, on Thursday. Estimating the losses at $400,000, PeckShield said the exploiter bridged the stolen funds from the BNB Chain to Tron, pointing to several addresses.
Aethir’s response comes amid a broader wave of hacks in decentralized finance (DeFi), where attackers stole nearly $170 million from dozens of protocols in the first quarter of 2026.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d76e5-322b-7d17-a8d9-e5eaf3e64512.png\")
After disconnecting the compromised contracts, Aethir said its main ATH supply on Ethereum is fully intact and unaffected.
The platform said it will release a full compensation plan next week and share a list of attacker wallets, along with a detailed post-mortem and repayment plan on Discord.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d76e5-341c-7e05-8602-a9ffe6054949.png\")
“Aethir remains fully operational,” Aethir said, adding that the platform is working with authorities and exchanges to freeze funds and trace the attackers.
Related: Drift sends onchain message to wallets tied to $280M exploit
Among partner exchanges that responded to the attack, Aethir mentioned exchanges such as Binance, South Korea’s Upbit and Bithumb, as well as HTX. It noted that the Web3 cybersecurity platform ZeroShadow contributed to the hack investigation by providing expert analysis.
Aethir is a decentralized GPU cloud computing network that provides distributed infrastructure for AI, gaming and enterprise workloads. Instead of relying on centralized data centers, Aethir aggregates GPU resources across a global network.
The platform reported $127.8 million in revenue in 2025, saying its decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) stack counted at least 440,000 GPU containers across 94 countries by the end of the year.
The platform is backed by major Web3 investors, including Animoca Brands, Hashkey and others, with over $140 million in funds raised for the ecosystem.
Magazine: Nobody knows if quantum secure cryptography will even work
", "description": "Aethir said it halted a bridge exploit on its Ethereum-linked contracts, limiting losses to under $90,000 while tracing funds with exchanges and security partners.", "published": "2026-04-10T11:58:46+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "smart-contracts" }, { "slug": "ai" }, { "slug": "cloud-services" }, { "slug": "gpu" }, { "slug": "hacks" }, { "slug": "defi" }, { "slug": "scams-and-cybercrime" } ], "slug": "aethir-bridge-exploit-halt-user-compensation-90k-loss", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260582" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Covenant AI exits Bittensor over ‘decentralization theatre,’ TAO drops 18%", "leadText": "Covenant AI said it was leaving Bittensor due to its overreaching control on subnets and their large-scale TAO token sales, but Bittensor’s founder denied all allegations.", "author": { "slug": "zoltan-vardai" }, "bodyText": "Bittensor subnet developer Covenant AI said Friday that it is leaving the decentralized artificial intelligence network, accusing Bittensor of operating under a concentrated governance structure that undermines its decentralization claims.
In a Friday post on X, Covenant AI founder Sam Dare said the team could no longer build on or raise for Bittensor because its governance was not meaningfully distributed.
“It is decentralization theatre,” Dare said. “Jacob Steeves maintains effective control over the triumvirate, resists any meaningful transfer of authority, and deploys changes unilaterally whenever he chooses, without process and without consensus.”
The dispute cuts to the core of Bittensor’s decentralization pitch. Covenant AI alleged that founder Jacob Steeves, known as Const, exerts outsized influence over governance and network operations, an accusation Steeves denied.
Bittensor’s governance documents describe a transitional system in which a “Triumvirate” of Opentensor Foundation employees holds root permissions alongside a senate, rather than a fully open governance model.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d76a3-d341-761e-82b3-16790cf1a47e.png\")
Covenant AI said Steeves had taken several actions against the project in recent weeks, including suspending emissions to its subnet, restricting moderation powers in community channels and applying “direct economic pressure” through visible token sales during the dispute.
Steeves rejected the allegations, claiming that he cannot suspend subnet emissions and that he does not hold “any privilege beyond what normal TAO holders have.”
In a Friday X response, Steeves said he sold some of his “alpha holdings on his three subnets because they were not running and were on near 100% burn code,” which changed the emissions the same way “all buys and sells on Bittensor do.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d76a3-d911-7076-b829-6dc99ccdc157.png\")
Steeves also denied stripping Covenant AI of its moderation rights, saying he only temporarily removed the team’s ability to delete posts before restoring it. He added that large token sales would have been visible onchain.
“Not large. Less than 1% of what i had invested in his teams. Visibility is impossible to avoid in my position. I reserve my right to buy and sell tokens which is what underpins the entire system of dTao,” he added.
Bittensor previously garnered mainstream attention after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised the decentralized training run on Bittensor Subnet 3, calling Covenant’s milestone of pre-training the largest decentralized LLM a “remarkable technical achievement,” during the All-In Podcast on March 19.
Related: Bittensor's TAO price may plunge 40% within five weeks: Fractal data
The governance dispute also weighed on Bittensor’s (TAO) token, which was down around 18% over the previous 24 hours as of Friday morning, according to market data.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d76a3-da86-7c4c-9daa-27bdb0a2d865.jpg\")
However, sell volume on TAO rose to its highest level since December 2024, about 24 hours before Covenant AI announced its departure. “If you think that’s a coincidence, you don’t understand the game you’re playing. This was a calculated exit and execution,” wrote crypto analyst Ardi in a Friday X post.
Cointelegraph reached out to Covenant AI and Bittensor for comment but had not received a response by publication.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d76a3-e451-7cbd-9ad7-7342401aad77.png\")
The dispute raises wider concerns for projects striving for decentralization, according to David and Daniil Liberman, co-creators of the decentralized layer-1 blockchain Gonka protocol.
“Decentralized networks that want serious builders have to answer one question: can the infrastructure you build on be used against you? If the answer is yes, the decentralization is cosmetic,” they told Cointelegraph.
Magazine: Michael Heinrich loves AI coins Goat, Turbo & Aethir… but not TAO
", "description": "Covenant AI said it was leaving Bittensor due to decentralization concerns, as the TAO token dropped 18%, despite Bittensor’s founder denying the claims.", "published": "2026-04-10T11:36:26+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "decentralization" }, { "slug": "ai" }, { "slug": "tao-network" }, { "slug": "defi" }, { "slug": "governance-token" } ], "slug": "covenant-ai-leaves-bittensor-decentralization-tao-drops-18", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260567" }, { "category": { "slug": "guides" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "The fake website that led to an arrest: Inside the CoinDCX impersonation case", "leadText": "A spoofed CoinDCX site sparked a 7.16 million rupee fraud case, triggering arrests before a court ruled the exchange was impersonated", "author": { "slug": "dilip-kumar-patairya" }, "bodyText": "Impersonation scams can be low-tech yet highly effective, using fake websites that closely mimic trusted cryptocurrency platforms to deceive users.
The CoinDCX case shows how a 7.16 million rupee fraud complaint escalated into legal action before it was identified as an impersonation case.
The fake domain coindcx.pro, not the real platform, was used to mislead the victim and carry out the fraud.
Scammers built a complete fake ecosystem using websites, Telegram channels and social media to create credibility.
While coverage of the cryptocurrency industry often focuses on market volatility, smart contract vulnerabilities and shifting government policies, some serious threats are remarkably low-tech. Deception often wears a familiar face. A fraudulent website that perfectly mirrors a legitimate exchange can cause both financial and reputational damage.
The CoinDCX impersonation incident is a stark case study of this pattern. What began as a 7.16 million rupee ($77,000) fraud complaint eventually escalated into police proceedings against the exchange’s leadership. However, the court’s intervention ultimately shifted the blame away from the actual platform, revealing that the culprit was a spoofed platform operated by scammers.
The case originated from a complaint filed by a 42-year-old insurance consultant based in Mumbra, a suburb in the Thane district within the Mumbai metropolitan region. The complainant alleged that he had been defrauded of about 7.16 million rupees. During the scam, he believed he was dealing with CoinDCX, which was presenting investment opportunities to him.
The offer allegedly included assurances of 10% to 12% monthly returns and references to a crypto franchise-style model linked to the platform. These elements, namely the promise of high returns and the apparent legitimacy of the brand, formed the core of the alleged fraud.
What sets this case apart is what happened next. Instead of being identified as an impersonation scam, the complaint escalated into legal action that led to the arrest of the company’s co-founders, Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d76c2-6e15-7e9e-ae53-5aa8bb4631ed.jpg\")
Central to the incident was a counterfeit website, coindcx.pro, which the victim interacted with instead of the real CoinDCX website, coindcx.com.
Such fake domains are a common method in impersonation scams. They appear visually similar, seem trustworthy and deliberately exploit the brand’s established credibility.
According to statements issued by CoinDCX, no money connected to this matter was processed through its exchange systems. The scam did not originate within the platform itself. Instead, external actors allegedly used its name and reputation as bait.
Did you know? Domain impersonation scams often use subtle tricks, such as replacing letters, for example “o” with “0,” or adding extra words, to make fake websites nearly indistinguishable from real ones at a glance.
The impersonation reportedly extended well beyond a single domain. The scammers also built supporting infrastructure, such as Telegram channels and social media accounts, to reinforce the illusion of legitimacy. This reflects a broader trend in crypto scams today, where perpetrators no longer rely on a single deceptive element but instead build an entire parallel ecosystem.
For the victim, this setup created a seamless and consistent experience: a website, an associated community and representatives, all seemingly connected to a recognized brand.
The complaint was filed at the Mumbra police station in Thane on March 16, 2026. As the investigation progressed, CoinDCX’s co-founders were taken into custody in Bengaluru.
This turn of events highlights a key complexity in impersonation cases. When victims mention a prominent company in a complaint, it can take time to distinguish genuine involvement from misuse of the brand name. In fast-moving investigations, this lack of clarity can sometimes lead to action against legitimate companies before all the facts are established.
The case reached a critical stage when it came before a Thane magistrate court. The court granted bail to CoinDCX’s co-founders and noted that no prima facie case had been established against them. It observed that the complainant had been deceived by individuals impersonating the company’s promoters, not by the company itself. The victim also admitted having had no interaction with the company’s co-founders.
Did you know? Cybercriminals often buy expired or similar-looking domains in bulk, enabling them to launch multiple fake versions of a popular crypto platform within hours once a scam template proves effective.
The CoinDCX case is not an isolated incident.
According to the company, it reported more than 1,200 fake websites impersonating its platform between April 2024 and January 2026. This suggests that, for fraudsters, impersonation is not a sporadic tactic but a scalable strategy.
CoinDCX also stated that the first information report (FIR) filed against its co-founders was false.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d76c3-691e-704d-8e82-59d55918fd55.jpg\")
Creating a domain that closely mimics a well-known platform is relatively inexpensive. When combined with messaging apps and social media, it allows fraud networks to recreate an appearance of trust at scale.
A central feature of the alleged scam was the promise of 10% to 12% monthly returns.
Such claims are a common element in financial fraud. In the cryptocurrency space, they are often paired with urgency, exclusivity or an association with a recognized platform.
From a behavioral perspective, these promises serve two key roles:
They draw attention in a saturated market.
They reduce skepticism by presenting the opportunity as organized or linked to an institution.
In many cases, the perceived legitimacy of the brand helps overcome doubts that might otherwise arise from the unusually high returns.
Did you know? Many impersonation scams reuse the same scripts and layouts across different brands, allowing a fake site built for one exchange to be repurposed for another within days.
Although the court found no case against CoinDCX’s co-founders, the incident highlights the wider consequences of impersonation scams.
For companies and their executives, such events can result in:
Temporary legal exposure
Reputational damage
Heightened scrutiny from both users and regulators
For users of any exchange, seeing it associated with negative news can be unsettling. Those who have invested through the platform may fear financial loss. Even when a recovery process exists, few would want to become involved in a difficult and often lengthy procedure.
The case also raises important questions about how law enforcement handles digital impersonation, where identities can be replicated far more quickly than they can be verified.
In the aftermath of the incident, CoinDCX announced a 100 crore rupee ($10.76 million) initiative called the Digital Suraksha Network (DSN), focused on fraud prevention and user awareness.
The reported measures include:
An AI-driven WhatsApp helpline
APIs for sharing fraud-related data
Collaboration with law enforcement for training and improved response
While these steps cannot completely eliminate the risk of impersonation, they reflect a move toward more proactive defense and stronger coordination across the ecosystem.
The CoinDCX impersonation case offers several practical lessons:
Verify domains carefully. Even minor variations can indicate a fraudulent site.
Be cautious of promises of fixed or unusually high monthly returns.
Treat Telegram groups and social media handles as unverified unless they are officially confirmed.
Ensure that all transactions are conducted only through official platforms.
In many cases, the difference between a legitimate service and a scam is not advanced technology but careful verification.
", "description": "A fake CoinDCX website led to a 7.16 million rupee fraud case and arrests. Explore how impersonation, rather than the platform itself, drove the incident.", "published": "2026-04-10T10:43:29+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "fraud" }, { "slug": "hackers" }, { "slug": "scams" }, { "slug": "hacks" }, { "slug": "scams-and-cybercrime" } ], "slug": "fake-coindcx-website-fraud-case-explained", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Privacy & Security" } ] }, "id": "260557" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Hong Kong grants first stablecoin licenses to Anchorpoint and HSBC", "leadText": "Hong Kong has issued its first stablecoin issuer licenses, approving Anchorpoint Financial and HSBC’s Hong Kong banking arm under its new regime.", "author": { "slug": "ezra-reguerra" }, "bodyText": "Update April 10, 2026, 10 am UTC: This article has been updated to add more details from the announcement.
Hong Kong has granted its first stablecoin issuer licenses, approving Anchorpoint Financial and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation under a new regulatory framework overseen by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).
The HKMA announced the initial batch of licensees on Friday, marking the first approvals under its stablecoin regime.
Anchorpoint Financial is the stablecoin joint venture formed by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Animoca Brands and Hong Kong Telecommunications. The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited is HSBC’s Hong Kong-based banking entity and one of the city’s three note-issuing banks.
The first approvals highlight Hong Kong’s cautious approach, with regulators appearing to favor bank-linked and institution-backed issuers in the regime’s opening phase.
The announcement comes after weeks of unconfirmed reports about potential licensees and a missed March timeline, marking a cautious start to Hong Kong’s stablecoin licensing rollout. HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue said in February that a very small number of issuers would be licensed in March, a timetable the HKMA ultimately missed before granting the first approvals.
Hong Kong’s stablecoin regime took effect on Aug. 1, 2025, and requires issuers of fiat-referenced stablecoins to obtain an HKMA license and meet rules covering reserve backing, redemption, governance and Anti-Money Laundering controls.
The stablecoin regime also gives the HKMA power to investigate violations and take enforcement action, including fines, suspensions and license revocations.
Yue said the new regime gives stablecoin issuers a regulated framework to operate in Hong Kong while requiring safeguards around user protection and risk management.
The licensed issuers are expected to launch their operations in the coming months, according to the HKMA.
Related: Hong Kong, Shanghai authorities to test blockchain for cargo trade data
On April 1, the HKMA said it was actively advancing the licensing process after missing its earlier March timeline.
Earlier media reports also pointed to possible frontrunners. On March 13, HSBC and a Standard Chartered-backed venture were tipped as likely recipients, but the regulator had not confirmed any names at the time.
Cointelegraph reached out to the HKMA for more information, but had not received a response by publication.
Magazine: Asia Express: Phantom Bitcoin checks, China tracks tax on blockchain
", "description": "The HKMA has granted a local HSBC unit and a Standard Chartered-Animoca venture the first stablecoin issuer licenses under Hong Kong's domestic rules.", "published": "2026-04-10T10:36:01+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "hsbc" }, { "slug": "hong-kong" }, { "slug": "banks" }, { "slug": "stablecoin" }, { "slug": "regulation" }, { "slug": "standard-chartered" } ], "slug": "hong-kong-first-stablecoin-licenses-issued", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260547" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "CZ hopes in 5 years people stop talking about crypto and just use it", "leadText": "Some industry insiders speculate the crypto sector may be just one market cycle away from full-scale mainstream adoption.", "author": { "slug": "stephen-katte" }, "bodyText": "Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said he hopes that cryptocurrencies and blockchain will simply become an invisible part of daily infrastructure by 2031, much like the internet today.
Speaking on Scott Melker’s Wolf of All Streets podcast posted Thursday, Zhao said that while new use cases and advances will continue to emerge, he hopes talk of the technology will subside as it becomes part of everyday life.
“I'm hoping that we don't talk about crypto as crypto in five years, just like we don't talk about the internet anymore, we don't talk about TCP/IP, we don't talk about HTML, JavaScript, etc. We don't talk about that stuff anymore. We just use it.”
“I think in five years, I'm hoping we'll just use crypto,” he added. “There will be other use cases for the blockchain, for data storage, so there will be other cases, but I'm hoping in five years, we stopped talking about the technology, we are just using it and it will be used everywhere.”
\n\n\nFreedom of Money with CZ (AMA) https://t.co/ig5azu5ZcU
— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) April 9, 2026
Global crypto adoption is steadily increasing. An estimated 559 million people worldwide use crypto in 2026, according to data and analytics firm DemandSage.
Industry insiders predicted last September that the sector may be just one market cycle away from full-scale mainstream adoption.
CZ isn’t alone in his lofty hopes for the future.
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest predicted in a January report that by 2030, digital assets could grow into a $28 trillion market, while Tether co-founder Reeve Collins said last October he expects all currencies to become stablecoins in the same timeframe.
Meanwhile, blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis recently estimated that stablecoin volumes could hit $1.5 quadrillion by 2035, and a Citi survey of banks and asset managers last September found that most expect a tenth of the global post-trade market turnover to be handled through stablecoins and tokenized securities in less than five years.
Zhao added that blockchain technology could also get a boost in adoption and development thanks to AI.
“The speed of development, the speed of writing code is going to increase quite dramatically, and AI agents are going to use crypto a lot,” Zhao said, adding that “I'm hoping that blockchain, and I also kind of know blockchain will get there.”
In March, Zhao argued that AI agent developers should prioritize their intrinsic utility, not the launch of in-house native tokens to raise funds.
At the same time, Zhao said that countries that avoid blockchain technology and AI will be at a huge disadvantage in the future.
Related: CZ memoir revives feud with OKX founder Star Xu over contract forgery, Huobi arrest
“I think there's really three big industries in my adult lifetime: the internet, blockchain and AI. Any country that misses one of them is going to be severely disadvantaged,” he added.
Customer onboarding platform Signzy ranked Switzerland as the most crypto-friendly country in its January blog. While Arkham flagged the country as one of the top innovating jurisdictions globally.
A January AI report from Microsoft, meanwhile, named the US as the leader in AI infrastructure and frontier model development, though it noted the country lags behind smaller, highly digitized economies like the United Arab Emirates in actual usage.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7602-7a12-7d92-89ae-82c494bad985.png\")
Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?
", "description": "Binance co-founder CZ hopes crypto won’t be discussed in five years as it becomes standard global infrastructure used every day, similar to the internet or coding languages.", "published": "2026-04-10T07:24:48+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "business" }, { "slug": "technology" }, { "slug": "adoption" }, { "slug": "changpeng-zhao" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "cz-crypto-invisible-mainstream-adoption-ai-blockchain", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260522" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Japan approves bill to classify crypto as financial instruments", "leadText": "Japan tightens oversight with insider-trading bans and new disclosure rules as crypto markets attract more institutional participation.", "author": { "slug": "martin-young" }, "bodyText": "The Japanese government amended the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act on Friday to classify crypto assets as financial instruments.
The amendment also bans insider trading and other activities that involve buying and selling based on undisclosed information, Nikkei reported.
The amended act will also now require cryptocurrency “issuers” to be more transparent and disclose information once a year.
Japan’s Financial Services Agency has previously regulated crypto assets under the Payment and Settlement Act, citing their potential use as a means of payment. However, the regulations and classifications have been updated to reflect increasing institutional investment in the asset class.
By reclassifying crypto as a financial instrument rather than just a payment method, Japan is moving crypto out of the experimental payments category and into the same league as its stock market.
![\"Japan,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7601-53ea-7d51-8603-61bafb3e3134.jpg\")
“We will expand the supply of growth capital in response to changes in financial and capital markets, and ensure market fairness, transparency, and investor protection,” said Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama at a press conference after the Cabinet meeting.
Fines and sentences for unregistered crypto exchanges have also increased under the amendment.
Related: Prediction markets are testing legal limits in strict Asian markets
Japan signaled that it was bringing crypto under the same umbrella as traditional finance in January when Katayama said, “To ensure citizens benefit from digital and blockchain-based assets, the role of exchanges and market infrastructure will be essential.”
The government backed plans in December to significantly reduce Japan’s maximum tax rate on crypto profits, with a flat rate of 20% across the board.
Japan is also planning to legalize crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by 2028, marking a major shift toward mainstream crypto adoption, according to a January report.
Major financial groups, including Nomura Holdings and SBI Holdings, are among the first companies expected to develop crypto-linked exchange-traded products.
Asia Express: Phantom Bitcoin checks, China tracks tax on blockchain
", "description": "Japan amends the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act to regulate crypto like stocks and ban insider trading.", "published": "2026-04-10T07:13:12+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "japan" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-investment" }, { "slug": "regulation" } ], "slug": "japan-approves-bill-classify-cryptocurrencies-financial-instruments", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260517" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "BlackRock Bitcoin ETF sees $269M inflows, best day since early March", "leadText": "Fidelity and Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETFs also saw a combined $68.2 million in inflows, while four other Bitcoin ETFs also tallied inflows on Thursday.", "author": { "slug": "brayden-lindrea" }, "bodyText": "Investors piled $269.3 million into BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust on Thursday, in its best-performing day since early March, around the time the US-Iran war started to kick into high gear.
The inflows helped to end two days of net outflows among the 12 US spot Bitcoin ETFs, which recorded a net inflow of $358.1 million.
Bitcoin ETF inflows are just one way to gauge retail and institutional demand for Bitcoin.
The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) brought in the second most inflows at $53.3 million, while the new Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT) was the next biggest contributor, recording $14.9 million on its second day of trading, according to data from Farside Investors.
The Bitcoin ETFs issued by Bitwise and ARK 21Shares saw $11.7 million and $4.8 million worth of inflows, while Franklin Templeton and VanEck’s Bitcoin products tallied around $2 million.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d75f5-69ff-765d-a922-082d90ab6baa.png\")
BlackRock’s IBIT has now seen $1.5 billion worth of net inflows this year, withstanding a broader crypto market pullback, which has seen Bitcoin’s price fall from a 2026 high of $97,000 to $72,100 at the time of writing.
BlackRock’s digital assets head, Robert Mitchnick, said in March that investors of BlackRock’s IBIT have shown to be “disproportionately long-term buy and hold” investors — even when there’s been strong selling pressure elsewhere in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Related: Bitcoin may hit $110K as Strategy absorbs nearly 3x new BTC supply
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley’s digital asset head, Amy Oldenburg, noted in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday that MSBT was the institutional bank’s best-performing ETF launch ever.
“This is just the first of a long roadmap of new products on the asset management side,” Oldenburg said.
Morgan Stanley has also filed to list a staked Ether (ETH) ETF and Solana (SOL) ETF.
With the latest day of inflows, US spot Bitcoin ETFs are now close to tipping back to a year-to-date net inflow.
The Bitcoin ETFs finished 2025 at $56.59 billion in net inflows and are currently at $56.51 billion, meaning that they’re just $80 million away from clawing back to their inflow figures at the start of the year.
Magazine: Bitcoin may face hard fork over any attempt to freeze Satoshi’s coins
", "description": "BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, tallied nearly $270 million worth of inflows on Thursday, marking the fund’s biggest day since early March.", "published": "2026-04-10T07:12:29+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "morgan-stanley" }, { "slug": "data" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-etf" }, { "slug": "blackrock" }, { "slug": "etf" } ], "slug": "blackrock-biggest-btc-etf-inflow-in-month", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260512" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Elon Musk’s xAI sues Colorado arguing its AI rules restrict speech", "leadText": "xAI argues that the law could force Grok to align with state-defined standards, which would conflict with its goal of “maximally truth-seeking” AI.", "author": { "slug": "brayden-lindrea" }, "bodyText": "Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado, seeking to block incoming AI rules that restrict speech from AI chatbots like Grok.
The AI company is specifically challenging Colorado’s Senate Bill 24-205, which aims to protect AI users from “algorithmic discrimination” in areas like employment, housing and finance.
However, in a filing to a US district court in Colorado on Thursday, xAI argued that “Colorado cannot alter xAI’s message simply because it wants to amplify its own views on the highly politicized subjects of fairness and equity.”
The company further argued that the law, set to take effect on June 30, is contradictory as it promotes “differential treatment” in an effort to “increase diversity or redress historical discrimination.”
Forcing xAI to change Grok would also interfere with its goal of being “maximally truth seeking,” it said.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d75b3-3f4b-7f13-bb91-8607b2892727.png\")
Colorado isn’t the first state that xAI has sued over AI regulations. In December, it sued California over its Generative AI Training Data Transparency Act, arguing that disclosure requirements compel speech and reveal trade secrets in violation of the First and Fifth Amendments.
Related: AI agents overwhelmingly prefer Bitcoin over fiat in new study
The Colorado and California AI laws come after accusations of Grok making racist, sexist and antisemitic comments in the past.
White House AI czar David Sacks has led a push for state regulators to steer clear of crafting AI rules, arguing for a single federal standard for AI instead of a \"patchwork\" of state laws.
“The problem that we're seeing right now is that you've got 50 different states regulating this in 50 different ways, and it's creating a patchwork of regulation that's difficult for innovators to comply with,” Sacks said in late March.
Sacks was appointed as co-chair of the newly established President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to address that issue.
Magazine: IronClaw rivals OpenClaw, Olas launches bots for Polymarket — AI Eye
", "description": "Elon Musk’s xAI has filed a lawsuit against Colorado seeking to prevent an AI law from taking effect, arguing that it violates freedom of speech under the US Constitution.", "published": "2026-04-10T05:50:28+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "law" }, { "slug": "colorado" }, { "slug": "elon-musk" }, { "slug": "ai-and-hi-tech" } ], "slug": "xai-sues-colorado-over-ai-law-restricting-free-speech", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260507" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "x402 protocol adds usage-based pricing for AI compute requests", "leadText": "The upgrade from flat fees to variable pricing is designed to support the use of AI agents for LLM inference, compute and data queries. ", "author": { "slug": "brian-quarmby" }, "bodyText": "Coinbase has announced an upgrade for the x402 protocol, enabling usage-based pricing for agentic AI compute requests, which replaces the former flat fee model.
In a post on X on Thursday, Coinbase Developer Platform announced the \"Upto\" scheme has gone live, adding it will help open up \"variable-cost services\" for agentic AI such as large language model inference, compute and data queries.
\"Until now, x402 only supported exact, fixed-price payments. That works great for deterministic APIs. But it blocked an entire category of services where the cost depends on usage, such as token count, compute time, or query complexity,\" Coinbase Developer Platform said.
\"Upto is an EVM implementation, supporting all ERC20s, and CDP Facilitator supports fully gasless payments,\" it added.
The move comes amid growing support for the x402 protocol as a wide range of firms prepare for future agentic commerce adoption, which is expected to bring extreme levels of network demand and require frictionless payments and near-instant transactions to support agentic AI.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7592-6f8a-7a30-adfc-4863124a8f38.png\")
The Upto scheme allows sellers to configure maximum prices, while buyers will be able to authorize prices up to a specific amount.
On the server end, where costs fluctuate, the server will charge only for how much it actually takes to complete the task, meaning users won't be overcharged and may even pay less than the specified maximum price.
Previously, simple and complex requests cost the same amount, resulting in some users either overpaying or underpaying for tasks done by AI agents. This upgrade will help users set prices they are willing to pay before a task instead of guessing how much they think the task will cost for an agent to complete.
Related: CIA to integrate AI ‘co-workers’ to process intelligence, catch spies
Developed by Coinbase, the protocol's ownership was handed over to the nonprofit Linux Foundation earlier this month, with big tech firms such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services having a stake in the protocol via the x402 Foundation.
Despite the hype surrounding x402, the network has seen declining adoption rates in 2026 after hitting peak levels in November, according to Dune Analytics data. Between Nov. 4 and Nov. 10, the protocol saw 13.7 million transactions, its biggest week on record.
However, it has been on a steep decline since then, with weekly transaction volume dropping below 1 million in early January and continuing to plunge further over the first quarter. As of the last week in March, x402 saw just 112,708 transactions.
Magazine: AI agents will kill the web as we know it: Animoca’s Yat Siu
", "description": "The upgrade introduces a scheme that lets sellers set maximum prices and buyers authorize amounts up to a limit, with servers charging only for actual compute costs.", "published": "2026-04-10T05:41:19+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "coinbase" }, { "slug": "transactions" }, { "slug": "ai" }, { "slug": "upgrade" }, { "slug": "ai-and-hi-tech" } ], "slug": "coinbase-x402-rolls-out-usage-based-pricing-agentic-ai", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260502" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin can be made quantum-safe without protocol upgrade: Researcher", "leadText": "A proposed workaround could enable quantum-resistant Bitcoin transactions without a protocol change, but high compute costs limit real-world use.", "author": { "slug": "martin-young" }, "bodyText": "A Bitcoin researcher has come up with a way that could immediately make Bitcoin transactions quantum-safe without the need for a soft fork.
In a proposal published Thursday, StarkWare chief product officer Avihu Levy proposed a Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) transaction scheme that he said would remain secure “even against an adversary with a large-scale quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm.”
He added that the plan requires no changes to the Bitcoin protocol and operates entirely within the existing legacy script constraints. The downside is that it is costly and likely is not useful for everyday transactions, he said.
The Bitcoin community has been split on how to tackle the quantum problem. QSB presents a temporary solution while a long-term approach is ironed out.
The plan’s main feature is replacing the proof-of-work signature-size puzzle with a hash-to-sig puzzle.
Instead of relying on elliptic curve math that quantum computers can break, the spender must find an input whose hash output randomly happens to resemble a valid ECDSA (elliptic curve digital signature algorithm) signature, requiring brute-force work that even a quantum computer cannot shortcut.
The proposal comes with caveats. It costs the sender between $75 and $150 per transaction in GPU compute and is more complex than a typical Bitcoin transaction, and thus would only make sense for securing large BTC transactions.
Related: Bitcoin’s quantum challenges are ‘more social than technical’: Grayscale
“This is huge,” said StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, claiming that it essentially makes Bitcoin quantum-safe today.
Still, Bitcoin ESG specialist Daniel Batten said it was “an overstatement” because exposed public keys and dormant wallets are “not addressed in the paper.”
Batten was referring to an estimated 1.7 million BTC locked in early P2PK addresses that could be cracked by a quantum computer.
Its existence has led to fierce debate about what to do with the dormant coins, with the community split between leaving Bitcoin as-is to preserve its core ethos, freezing or burning the vulnerable coins entirely or upgrading the protocol to support quantum-safe signatures.
The researchers acknowledged that this is a last-resort measure as transactions are non-standard, costs don’t scale to all users and use cases like Lightning Network are not covered.
They concluded that protocol-level changes remain the preferred long-term path.
“While this article describes a solution that works today for quantum-safe Bitcoin transactions, it should be treated as a last-resort measure.”
Google published a paper in March that unsettled the Bitcoin community as it suggested that a quantum computer could potentially crack Bitcoin’s cryptography using far fewer resources than previously thought.
Meanwhile, Lightning Labs chief technology officer Olaoluwa Osuntokun on Wednesday published a quantum “escape hatch” prototype that enables users to prove Bitcoin wallet ownership from the original seed phrase without revealing it, which could serve as an alternative Bitcoin authorization method.
Magazine: Nobody knows if quantum secure cryptography will even work
", "description": "Starware’s CPO has proposed a solution that would make Bitcoin users make quantum-safe transactions today without protocol changes, though high costs make it impractical for everyday use.", "published": "2026-04-10T04:44:27+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptography" }, { "slug": "quantum-computing" } ], "slug": "researchers-say-bitcoin-can-be-made-quantum-safe-without-protocol-upgrade", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260497" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "OKX Ventures, HashKey back VPBank-linked CAEX for Vietnam crypto pilot push", "leadText": "OKX Ventures and HashKey are buying into VPBank-backed CAEX as Vietnam’s strict crypto pilot pushes offshore exchanges toward a challenging onshore licensing regime.", "author": { "slug": "christina-comben" }, "bodyText": "CAEX, a crypto platform linked to the Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) ecosystem, said OKX Ventures and HashKey Capital are backing the company as it seeks to qualify for Vietnam’s pilot regime for crypto exchanges.
CAEX said Friday that the two offshore companies will join VPBank Securities (VPBankS) and technology partner LynkiD as shareholders.
According to a release shared with Cointelegraph, their investment is intended to help CAEX reach Vietnam’s minimum charter capital threshold of 10 trillion dong (about $380 million), a key condition for participating in the pilot program.
The move comes as Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance and State Securities Commission press ahead with a five-year crypto pilot that will admit only a limited number of licensed digital asset service providers. Officials have said no more than five enterprises will be allowed to operate exchanges under the pilot, which opened its licensing window on Jan. 20.
The framework also caps foreign ownership at 49% and requires at least 65% of capital to be held by institutional shareholders, creating high barriers to entry even for bank-backed contenders.
Authorities have also signaled they may block access to unlicensed overseas platforms once the first onshore exchanges are operational, raising the stakes for foreign firms seeking a compliant route into the market.
A spokesperson for OKX told Cointelegraph they could not disclose the size of the investment or the companies’ stakes in CAEX, nor whether the investment confirms the exchange’s selection in the pilot, saying it would “not be appropriate to comment further on the regulatory process.” However, they said the investment would enable CAEX to meet the capital requirements to pursue entry into Vietnam's regulated crypto pilot program.
CAEX is part of VPBank’s broader financial ecosystem and previously said it was in the final stages of raising its charter capital to 10 trillion dong to qualify for the pilot, while VPBank is one of Vietnam’s largest private lenders.
The OKX spokesperson said that, as a strategic partner, the company would work with the other shareholders “as appropriate” to ensure CAEX has “the financial strength and technical know-how” to meet user expectations and regulatory standards. Potential areas of collaboration include technical infrastructure, security systems, compliance and risk management, they said.
Related: Banks want to run Vietnam’s crypto exchanges, Boyaa’s $70M BTC plan: Asia Express
Vietnam’s crypto market has boomed in recent years, with Chainalysis ranking the country fourth in global crypto adoption in 2025. However, that growth has been marred by several high-profile scams and fraud investigations, giving regulators additional impetus to tighten control.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7298-7661-74f1-a38c-eaa317ffe924.png\")
In March 2026, Vietnamese authorities detained multiple ONUS-linked suspects after alleging they used false promotions and manipulated token trading to misappropriate billions of dollars of investor funds through the crypto platform.
The spokesperson said Vietnam is an important market for digital asset innovation, and that the “development of a regulated framework” is a “constructive step” for the country’s industry.
Big Questions: Is China hoarding gold so yuan becomes global reserve instead of USD?
", "description": "OKX Ventures and HashKey invest in VPBank-linked exchange CAEX as Vietnam caps its strict crypto pilot at five licensed platforms and signals a clampdown on offshore venues.", "published": "2026-04-10T03:30:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "business" }, { "slug": "vietnam" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "okx" }, { "slug": "regulation" }, { "slug": "policy" }, { "slug": "hashkey" } ], "slug": "okx-and-hashkey-back-vpbank-linked-bid-for-vietnam-s-tight-crypto-pilot", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260357" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitmine uplists to NYSE as share buyback is increased to $4B", "leadText": "A listing on the NYSE requires a company to meet strict requirements covering financial health, share distribution and corporate governance.", "author": { "slug": "stephen-katte" }, "bodyText": "Ether treasury company Bitmine Immersion Technologies has started trading on the New York Stock Exchange after uplisting from NYSE American as the company expanded its share buyback program.
The Ether (ETH) treasury company’s stock began trading on the NYSE at market open on Thursday under its existing “BMNR” ticker symbol, Bitmine announced Thursday.
Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said it’s a major milestone for the company as the NYSE is considered one of the world's top exchanges.
“The NYSE is the most prestigious venerable stock exchange with a storied history. The NYSE is the envy of capital markets around the world and Bitmine is proud to be the newest company traded on this exchange.”
NYSE American is designed for small-cap and growing companies. Bitmine’s uplisting to the NYSE suggests the company is gaining momentum, and increases the company’s exposure to larger capital pools.
The process to gain a listing on the NYSE requires a company to meet strict requirements covering financial health, share distribution and corporate governance. Some of the requirements include having more than 400 shareholders and 1.1 million publicly held shares.
A majority of directors involved in corporate governance must also be independent, with no significant financial interest in the company and audit, compensation and governance committees must be formed.
One of the final steps involves filing a registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The NYSE review before a listing usually takes about four to eight weeks.
Chris Taylor, the NYSE Group’s chief development officer, said in a statement that Bitmine is a strong addition to the stock exchange.
Related: Ripple to buy back $750M in shares through April: Report
“We are pleased to welcome Bitmine to the New York Stock Exchange,” he said. “With its focus on advancing the Ethereum ecosystem, Bitmine is a strong addition to the NYSE community.”
Meanwhile, Bitmine's board unanimously expanded the July 2025 share repurchase program from $1 billion to $4 billion, including shares previously repurchased.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7501-ea6b-7441-9c25-7124c5bbede5.png\")
“Bitmine's expanded $4 billion buyback reflects our commitment to shareholders,” Lee said, adding that “there may be a time in the future when Bitmine shares are trading below intrinsic value, and the company wants to be in a position to accretively retire common shares.”
Bitmine stock (BMNR) closed Thursday at $21.08, down more than 64% in six months, according to Google Finance. Last September, analysts told Cointelegraph that treasury companies are using buybacks to boost stock price and legitimacy.
Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?
", "description": "Bitmine has uplisted to the New York Stock Exchange and started trading Thursday under its existing “BMNR” ticker symbol while also expanding its share buyback to $4 billion.", "published": "2026-04-10T02:38:25+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "business" }, { "slug": "ethereum" }, { "slug": "adoption" }, { "slug": "stocks" }, { "slug": "tom-lee" }, { "slug": "stock-exchange" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "bitmine-nyse-listing-4b-share-buyback-ethereum", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260492" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "CIA to integrate AI ‘co-workers’ to process intelligence, catch spies", "leadText": "The CIA has already tested AI across 300 projects to process large data sets, assist with language translation and publish reports.", "author": { "slug": "brayden-lindrea" }, "bodyText": "The US Central Intelligence Agency said it will embed “AI co-workers” directly into its analytics platforms to assist analysts with detecting spies and anticipating hostile moves by foreign adversaries.
“Within the next couple of years, we will have AI co-workers built into all of the agency’s analytic platforms — a kind of classified version of generative AI that will help our analysts with basic tasks,” CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis reportedly said on Thursday during an event hosted by the Special Competitive Studies Project in Washington, DC.
According to Politico, Ellis said the AI co-workers would assist intelligence officers with drafting key judgments, testing analytical conclusions and identifying trends in intelligence that the agency gathers from abroad.
However, he said humans would continue to make the “key decisions.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d74fe-dbd1-7d59-b87b-af2998ef6036.png\")
The CIA’s AI plans come amid a feud between the US Department of Defense and AI firm Anthropic. Despite having a $200 million contract with the Department of Defense, Anthropic prevented the use of its flagship AI product, Claude, for mass domestic surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.
US President Donald Trump ordered all federal agencies to immediately cease using Anthropic's technology in March, while the Department of Defense declared Anthropic a supply chain risk.
The parties remain locked in a legal dispute over the designation, with a US appeals court on Wednesday denying Anthropic’s emergency request to temporarily pause the label.
While Ellis didn’t point out Anthropic, he said the CIA “cannot allow the whims of a single company” to constrain its capabilities.
The CIA has already adopted AI for other intelligence tasks, having tested about 300 AI projects last year to “bring new capabilities to our mission,” such as processing large data sets and language translation, Ellis said.
Ellis also noted that the CIA recently created its first intelligence report with AI while predicting that AI’s role in the agency’s work would continue to grow.
Related: North Korean cyber spies are no longer just remote threats
A major motivation for the CIA is to stay ahead of China, Ellis said, noting that the once-large gap between the US and China has narrowed significantly.
“Five to ten years ago, China was nowhere near America, in terms of technological innovation,” Ellis said. “That’s just not true today.”
In May, Ellis said Bitcoin and crypto were matters of national security, adding that the agency reviews blockchain data to support its counterintelligence operations.
“It’s another area of technological competition where we need to make sure the United States is well-positioned against China and other adversaries.”
Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?
", "description": "The CIA said it will introduce “AI co-workers” to help analysts process intelligence gathered from abroad but that humans would remain the ultimate decision-makers.", "published": "2026-04-10T02:31:37+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "government" }, { "slug": "military" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "cia" }, { "slug": "data" }, { "slug": "ai-and-hi-tech" } ], "slug": "cia-ai-co-workers-help-intelligence-analysts", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260487" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Ex-SEC, Coinbase staffer becomes Securitize president", "leadText": "Newly appointed company president Brett Redfearn briefly worked as Coinbase’s head of capital markets and served for more than three years at the SEC.", "author": { "slug": "turner-wright" }, "bodyText": "Tokenization platform Securitize has named Brett Redfearn as president, with the former official at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also joining its board of directors.
Securitize’s Thursday notice said Redfearn previously served as the SEC’s director of its Division of Trading and Markets, worked as Coinbase’s head of capital markets and held various roles over a decade spent at JPMorgan. He has most recently been a member of Securitize’s advisory board.
Redfearn is the latest former government official to move into the crypto industry, raising questions about their roles overseeing digital assets while in office. Caroline Pham, who served as a commissioner and acting chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), left the agency in December to join crypto payments infrastructure company MoonPay.
![\"SEC,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d73fe-7869-7dd0-bd96-81c12f153b97.png\")
Related: Crypto exchanges chase TradFi commodities market as pricing gaps persist
He joins Securitize as the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) has seen increasing demand in the crypto industry. According to data from analytics platform RWA.xyz, the company had $3.85 billion in distributed asset value in March, at a time when tokenized stocks surpassed $1 billion in total value onchain.
On Wednesday, the SEC announced that David Woodcock would become the director of its Division of Enforcement, starting on May 4, replacing acting head Sam Waldon.
Several US lawmakers are calling for answers from SEC Chair Paul Atkins regarding the departure of former enforcement director Margaret Ryan. Members of Congress questioned whether Ryan left due to the SEC’s decision to drop several crypto-related enforcement cases, including one against Tron founder Justin Sun.
Magazine: Asia Express: Phantom Bitcoin checks, China tracks tax on blockchain
", "description": "Tokenization company Securitize said Brett Redfearn had been appointed president and a member of its board of directors.", "published": "2026-04-09T22:32:21+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "sec" }, { "slug": "jpmorgan-chase" }, { "slug": "rwa-tokenization" }, { "slug": "companies" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "sec-official-securitize-president-board", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260467" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin nears $73K as recession risks and weaker dollar support demand", "leadText": "Bitcoin continues to show strength even as US recession risks rise and the fragile ceasefire with Iran begins to show cracks.", "author": { "slug": "marcel-pechman" }, "bodyText": "Key takeaways:
Bitcoin climbed to $72,000 as increasing recession odds and a weak US dollar boosted the appeal of scarce financial assets.
Rising oil prices and a wobbly truce with Iran threaten to reverse Bitcoin’s recent gains.
Bitcoin (BTC) reclaimed the $72,000 level on Thursday despite data showing rising inflation and weak economic growth in the United States. Crude oil prices jumped back to $97 after senior Iranian leaders claimed that the US and Israel had violated the ceasefire. Traders now fear that risk markets could react negatively, potentially sending Bitcoin price back below $68,000.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7410-cc5a-70ca-bb59-a5bbaeedb5e8.png\")
The inverse relationship between oil prices and risk markets became increasingly evident. Shortly after US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire on Wednesday, the S&P 500 index futures jumped to their highest levels in 30 days, while WTI crude oil prices dropped below $100. Hence, Bitcoin traders fear that the fragile truce between the US and Iran could lead to bearish outcomes.
Iranian parliamentary speaker and former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has emerged as a leading voice within the regime, said that Israel's continued campaign in Lebanon against Hezbollah, the illegal entry of military drones in Iranian airspace and the denial of uranium enrichment violate the ceasefire negotiations, according to Yahoo Finance.
Inflation data reported by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis on Thursday likely helped to lift traders’ spirits. The core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index rose by 0.4% in February over the previous month. In parallel, the US fourth quarter gross domestic product was revised down to a 0.5% annualized rate. Overall, data points to increased recession risks.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7410-d1d0-70d7-87d1-d600582155c9.png\")
Although counterintuitive, the higher odds of economic stagnation amid sticky inflation have led traders to become less risk-averse, as the US government will likely be forced to inject liquidity to support markets. Reduced confidence in the US Federal Reserve's ability to avert a recession without causing inflation has led to a weaker US dollar, when measured against a basket of foreign currencies.
While the correlation between Bitcoin and the US stock market is far from perfect, traders tend to seek protection when real yields are diminished. Although Bitcoin is not widely seen as a reliable hedge against fiat debasement, a weaker US dollar tends to support demand for scarce assets.
Related: Fed minutes crack door to further rate cuts amid Iran war
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7410-d593-7a82-a1a5-e05b0dc6df73.png\")
The S&P 500 index traded a mere 2% away from its all-time high on Thursday, a clear indication that investors do not fear issues in private credit markets or the surging debt cost protection for AI infrastructure companies.
Ultimately, Bitcoin seems to have merely followed investor expectations regarding the war in Iran rather than reacting to weak US macroeconomic data.
For now, recession risks favor scarce assets; hence, there is little reason to believe that inflation or job market perspectives could act as a sell-off trigger.
", "description": "Bitcoin moves higher even as US economic data show inflation running hot and the economy slowing down.", "published": "2026-04-09T22:21:11+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "federal-reserve" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "economy" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "inflation" }, { "slug": "donald-trump" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" }, { "slug": "s-p-500" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-rally-extends-toward-73k-despite-concerning-us-economic-data", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Market Update" } ] }, "id": "260462" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "US Treasury expands cybersecurity threat intel to crypto industry", "leadText": "The Treasury Department said the move reflects increases in frequency and sophistication of actions targeting digital asset platforms.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection (OCCIP) announced on Thursday that it is expanding its cybersecurity threat identification program to include digital asset companies.
Blockchain companies that choose to take part in the program will receive the same cybersecurity threat intelligence provided to traditional financial institutions at “no cost,” according to the Treasury’s announcement.
“Cyber threats targeting digital asset platforms are growing in frequency and sophistication,” Cory Wilson, the deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity at the OCCIP, said.
![\"United](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d740d-c134-71c3-84e2-5d9c0572a951.png\")
The initiative fulfills policy recommendations from US President Donald Trump’s administration, outlined in its July 2025 report, titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology.”
Cointelegraph reached out to the Department of the Treasury but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The initiative reflects the ongoing challenge of countering evolving cybersecurity threats impacting blockchain protocols and their users, as financial losses from decentralized finance (DeFi) platform hacks alone reached nearly $169 million in the first quarter of this year.
Related: Google Threat Intel flags 'Ghostblade' crypto-stealing malware
Crypto projects and users are increasingly subject to evolving cybersecurity threats, which can be carried out by social engineering or infiltration by state-affiliated hackers, including the North Korean-linked Lazarus Group.
Drift Protocol, a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a $280 million exploit this month at the hands of suspected North Korean-affiliated hackers.
The Drift team physically met the malicious actors at a “major” crypto industry conference and interacted with them for months after the initial meeting, according to a preliminary incident report from Drift Protocol.
![\"United](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d740f-d4a7-71ba-8fae-6774e63bb0f1.png\")
During the months-long interaction, the hackers deployed crypto-stealing malware on the Drift team’s developer machines, which was activated in the April exploit.
The individuals who first approached the Drift team at the industry conference were not North Korean nationals, according to the report.
The Seals911 team, a group of blockchain cybersecurity specialists, said with “medium-high confidence” that the attack was likely carried out by the same hacker group responsible for the October 2024 hack of the Radiant Capital DeFi platform.
Magazine: Lazarus Group’s favorite exploit revealed — Crypto hacks analysis
", "description": "The US Department of the Treasury announced that it will share its cybersecurity threat intelligence reports and advice with players in the crypto industry.", "published": "2026-04-09T22:19:29+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "cybercrime" }, { "slug": "cybersecurity" }, { "slug": "hacks" }, { "slug": "scams-and-cybercrime" } ], "slug": "us-treasury-cybersecurity-intel-crypto", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260457" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Circle stock sinks 10% amid analyst downgrade, Drift Protocol probe", "leadText": "The stablecoin issuer faces pressure after a stock downgrade and Drift Protocol exploit fallout, raising concerns over USDC exposure, crypto regulation and market risk.", "author": { "slug": "sam-bourgi" }, "bodyText": "Shares of stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group fell sharply Thursday following a Wall Street downgrade and reports tied to a legal probe connected to a recent crypto exploit.
Circle’s stock price closed near session lows in Nasdaq trading, falling 9.9% to $85.10.
The decline adds to a broader slide in the company’s shares, which are down nearly 24% over the past month and about 43% over the past six months, reflecting continued volatility after Circle’s high-profile public debut last year.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d73ef-f2fe-71b7-a262-e6a13ac7a65b.png\")
However, the latest pullback may also reflect profit-taking after Circle shares surged between February and March, driven largely by growing stablecoin adoption.
Nevertheless, some analysts are urging caution. On Thursday, Compass Point downgraded Circle to “sell” from “neutral” and issued a $77 price target, implying roughly 9% downside from current levels.
Circle has also faced pressure from regulatory uncertainty in the United States. Progress on market structure legislation has stalled, while banking industry groups continue to lobby against yield-bearing stablecoins.
Analysts at Bernstein said the concerns are overstated, noting that Circle’s underlying business remains unaffected and pointing to growing USDC (USDC) adoption and strong reserve income.
Related: Crypto investor sentiment will rise once CLARITY Act is passed: Bessent
Separately, legal scrutiny tied to the recent exploit of decentralized exchange Drift Protocol has added another layer of uncertainty to the broader crypto market, indirectly weighing on sentiment toward Circle.
According to a notice circulated this week, investors affected by the $280 million Drift exploit are being urged to contact the Oakland, California, law firm Gibbs Mura for potential financial recovery. The outreach signals the early stages of a possible class-action investigation tied to losses from the incident.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d73ef-f5c8-7f02-a2b9-e085b13d4350.png\")
While Circle is not directly implicated in the exploit, the episode has renewed concerns about counterparty risk and the stability of decentralized finance platforms — an overhang that can spill over into publicly traded crypto-linked equities.
The perpetrator of the Drift exploit moved the stolen assets into USDC, prompting speculation over whether the funds could have been frozen by Circle, though no action was taken.
Related: Crypto hacks fall to $49M in February as attackers shift to phishing scams
", "description": "Circle shares drop following an analyst downgrade and ongoing legal scrutiny tied to the Drift exploit, as investors weigh regulatory risks and the outlook for USDC growth.", "published": "2026-04-09T22:06:16+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "circle" }, { "slug": "investments" }, { "slug": "stocks" }, { "slug": "stablecoin" } ], "slug": "circle-stock-downgrade-drift-exploit-impact", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260452" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "ETH valuation metric hits level not seen since 2022: Is rally to $2.5K next?", "leadText": "A rare signal from an ETH price indicator suggests Ether is undervalued, while demand in spot and futures markets hints at a rally to $2,500.", "author": { "slug": "biraajmaan-tamuly" }, "bodyText": "Ether (ETH) may be on the path to retesting $2,500 if the current rally above $2,150 and the bullish spot and futures market volumes pushing prices higher are sustained.
Ether is also supported by a key macro indicator that places the altcoin in a rare undervaluation zone not seen since 2022. The data points to fading selling pressure and the early stages of an accumulation process for Ether.
Ether’s daily chart shows bulls leading the charge after a 6.33% rally pushed the price above the $2,150 resistance. ETH now eyes a retest of its March highs near $2,385, with further upside toward the $2,475–$2,635 fair-value gap acting as a price magnet for bulls.
Repeat retests of $2,150 over the past two months suggest weakening resistance, as buyers continue stepping in at higher levels.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d734b-052c-76c0-aed7-e87cd8c2d6b7.png\")
Charts show ETH market structure improving and the current volumes being largely spot market driven. On the four-hour chart, ETH maintains higher lows while attempting to break into the $2,250–$2,300 range.
The aggregated spot cumulative volume delta (CVD) has remained elevated in April at 184,500 ETH, reflecting sustained spot demand.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d734b-9a30-750c-b7be-7ae759b190bf.png\")
The futures CVD has also trended gradually upward to 4.36 million ETH, suggesting that derivatives traders are beginning to support, rather than lead, the move.
The funding rate remains positive at 0.0052, indicating a long bias, and the open interest near 4.75 million ETH is still range-bound, signaling limited leverage.
Data shows ETH is in a controlled accumulation phase, marginally led by spot demand, though a stronger breakout would likely require an expansion in futures positioning.
Related: Ethereum stablecoin supply hits $180B all-time high: Token Terminal
Ether may be nearing a macro bottom according to the Capriole Macro Index Oscillator with a reading at -2.42. This puts Ether in a rare undervalued zone historically linked with capitulation and trend reversals.
The indicator tracks investment behavior, cycle positioning, and onchain data, with deeply negative values often signaling seller exhaustion.
Previous signals highlight the metric’s reliability. In June to July 2022, ETH bottomed near $1,000–$1,200 when the indicator fell to -2.2. In October to November 2023, a drop to -1 aligned with ETH’s price breaking out after a drop to $1,500.
In April 2025, another negative reading marked a local bottom near $1,500, setting the stage for a rally above $4,000.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7349-0e68-7a5c-9be8-577a5f7c000c.png\")
The current setup mirrors prior capitulation phases. ETH has fallen from highs near $4,800 to $2,100, while the oscillator sits near cycle lows.
With ETH now in a rare undervalued zone, the downside risk appears limited relative to the upside potential. However, the confirmation would come with a reclaim of the $2,400–$2,500 level and a move back toward zero for the macro indicator.
Analyst crypto sunmoon noted that the ETH taker buy/sell ratio has been trending upward for four to five months.
Combined with the current drawdown, the structure resembles the setup preceding the April to May 2025 rally, suggesting a similar recovery phase may be forming.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d734e-acf6-7b76-b73e-3f43e96f3467.jpg\")
Related: Three reasons why Ether traders expect ETH to hold above $1.8K
", "description": "Converging Ether price metrics suggest the altcoin is heavily undervalued. Will spot market and futures market demand provide the fuel for a rally to $2,500?", "published": "2026-04-09T20:59:27+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "altcoin" }, { "slug": "ethereum" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "derivatives" }, { "slug": "price-analysis" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" }, { "slug": "altcoin-watch" } ], "slug": "eth-valuation-metric-hits-level-not-seen-since-2022-is-rally-to-dollar2-5k-next", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Price Analysis" } ] }, "id": "260442" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Senators question Trump memecoin event attendance amid schedule clash: Report", "leadText": "With a potential scheduling conflict, several senators want to know if the president plans to attend a luncheon for memecoin holders in Florida or is just seeking to generate fees.", "author": { "slug": "turner-wright" }, "bodyText": "Three US senators have reportedly asked one of the people behind US President Donald Trump’s memecoin whether the president intends to “dangle access” to himself at a luncheon event, given he is already planning to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner the same day.
According to a Thursday Politico report, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, and Adam Schiff sent a letter to Bill Zanker, the individual behind the launch of the memecoin Official Trump (TRUMP). The lawmakers questioned whether Trump had been leveraging his appearance at a luncheon event scheduled for April 25, which the memecoin project announced in March.
“[O]rganizers are promoting a conference by dangling access to President Trump to potential attendees (and in doing so, are encouraging purchases of his meme coin that will generate transaction fees for the President and his family) on a day he may not actually be able to attend,” said the letter to Zanker, according to Politico.
While the memecoin event at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago property is scheduled for April 25, so, too, is the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, DC, which the president said on March 2 that he planned to attend for the first time after boycotting it in his first term. Even before taking office, Trump attended many crypto-themed events, from the Bitcoin 2024 conference to the first dinner for TRUMP memecoin holders in May 2025.
Related: Bessent ramps up pressure on Congress to pass CLARITY Act
According to the terms and conditions from the project behind the memecoin, Trump “may not be able to attend” the April 25 event, and it could be canceled for any reason. Cointelegraph reached out to the White House for comment on the president’s schedule and travel costs, but did not receive an immediate response.
Amid the concerns from senators over potential conflicts of interest and “selling access” to the presidency, lawmakers and industry leaders have yet to publicly announce a compromise to allow a digital asset market structure bill to advance in Congress and be signed into law.
In July 2025, the House of Representatives passed the CLARITY Act, a bill to establish a market structure framework for cryptocurrencies in the US. Once passed to the Senate, the chamber’s agriculture committee advanced the legislation in January, but its banking committee indefinitely postponed a markup amid concerns over tokenized equities, stablecoin yield and ethics.
As of Thursday, the Senate Banking Committee had not scheduled a markup on the bill, necessary to address securities laws before a potential floor vote. The White House released a statement on Wednesday claiming that a ban on stablecoin yield in the bill “would do very little to protect bank lending” in response to concerns from the banking and crypto industries.
Magazine: Anger grows over Polymarket bets on Iran war: ‘Dystopian death market’
", "description": "Donald Trump is scheduled to attend a Florida memecoin event and the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on the same day.", "published": "2026-04-09T20:56:16+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "politics" }, { "slug": "government" }, { "slug": "donald-trump" }, { "slug": "corruption" }, { "slug": "regulation" }, { "slug": "memecoin" } ], "slug": "us-lawmakers-questions-donald-trump-memecoin-event", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260437" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "CoreWeave’s $8.5B loan shows how AI is replacing crypto mining finance", "leadText": "CoreWeave’s financing highlights Wall Street’s shift away from volatile, hardware-backed crypto lending toward cash-flow-driven AI infrastructure, according to TheEnergyMag.", "author": { "slug": "sam-bourgi" }, "bodyText": "CoreWeave’s recent $8.5 billion AI-backed loan highlights a major transition in how Wall Street finances digital infrastructure, marking a shift from “MinerFi” to “ComputeFi,” according to TheEnergyMag.
In its latest Miner Weekly newsletter, TheEnergyMag examined CoreWeave’s multibillion-dollar raise from a group of banks and investors, backed by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms. As Bloomberg reported, the financing underscores how companies are finding new ways to fund data center construction and expand GPU capacity.
Although CoreWeave has pivoted away from the digital asset sector toward AI-focused data center compute, the move offers a broader lesson on the shortcomings of Bitcoin (BTC) mining finance.
Historically, lenders funded Bitcoin mining operations using application-specific integrated circuits, or ASICs, as collateral. However, these models proved fragile due to crypto price volatility and rapid hardware depreciation. When markets declined, both revenues and collateral values fell sharply.
CoreWeave’s financing structure is “what MinerFi tried — and failed — to become,” TheEnergyMag said.
Unlike prior models, CoreWeave’s deal ties financing to active AI infrastructure with contracted customers and predictable cash flows. GPUs must be deployed, operational and revenue-generating before capital is extended, which reduces lender risk.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d734f-a5a2-7ee9-8c48-33fad016538c.png\")
Related: Bitcoin mining’s 2026 reckoning: AI pivots, margin pressure and a fight to survive
CoreWeave’s early pivot away from crypto mining has helped position it as a leading “neocloud” provider, a term used to describe companies offering GPU-based cloud infrastructure for artificial intelligence workloads, according to a recent analyst note by Bernstein.
The report compared CoreWeave with peers IREN and Nebius, highlighting differences in scale, infrastructure and financing strategies.
CoreWeave’s head start has translated into a significantly larger backlog of roughly $67 billion, compared with about $9.7 billion for IREN and $47 billion for Nebius.
While all three companies are expanding into AI infrastructure, IREN still generates most of its revenue from Bitcoin mining as it continues its transition.
The Bernstein analysts gave CoreWeave top marks for its “commercial model,” thanks to the “depth in the software stack, a mix of contracted and on-demand revenue, strong backlog and an increasingly diversified customer base.”
However, they said IREN has an advantage in infrastructure, citing its sizable real estate footprint rather than its reliance on leased data center capacity.
Related: Crypto Biz: Mining weakness tests Bitcoin’s market cycle
", "description": "CoreWeave’s $8.5 billion loan highlights Wall Street’s pivot from volatile Bitcoin mining models to cash-flow-driven AI infrastructure financing backed by real demand.", "published": "2026-04-09T20:42:22+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin-mining" }, { "slug": "ai" }, { "slug": "data-center" }, { "slug": "ai-and-hi-tech" } ], "slug": "coreweave-8-5b-ai-loan-shift-crypto-mining-to-computefi", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260432" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Pyth Network targets traditional data distribution with new marketplace", "leadText": "Institutions can publish pricing feeds onchain via a pay-as-you-go model, offering an alternative to traditional data distribution systems.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "Pyth Network, a blockchain data oracle provider, is launching a platform for financial institutions to publish and monetize their market data across blockchain networks.
The Pyth Data Marketplace will initially support datasets for spot foreign currency exchange markets (FX), precious metals and crude oil swaps, while allowing publishers to retain “full control” over the data they share, according to Thursday’s announcement.
Seven new institutional data providers will publish price feeds on the marketplace at launch, the announcement said.
![\"Data\"](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7396-aef8-7a07-a2c6-a71af08468af.png\")
These include stock exchange Euronext, data provider Exchange Data International, asset manager Fidelity Investments, financial exchange OTC Markets Group, Singapore Exchange FX and the Tradeweb trading platform.
The announcement reflects how blockchain technology can democratize access to financial data, which has traditionally been controlled by a handful of service providers who charge exorbitant fees for high-quality market pricing data.
Related: Polymarket expands into equities and commodities with Pyth price feeds
Pyth’s data pull model allows customers to pay for market data on demand, instead of traditional push-based oracle models that force users to pay for entire datasets, which they may or may not need.
This could reduce costs for end users, according to Douro Labs
Traditional service providers monopolize the $50 billion financial data industry, James told Cointelegraph at Consensus 2025. That is now being challenged by new emerging blockchain alternatives like Pyth and Chainlink.
\"These data vendors have no competition in traditional finance, and so they have all the pricing power in the world,” he said.
Banks, hedge funds, trading firms and other financial institutions are forced to buy this financial data for “compliance” reasons, James added.
![\"Data\"](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d739b-c68d-732e-9b7c-08c4f330cb5c.png\")
In August 2025, the US Department of Commerce selected Pyth and blockchain oracle provider Chainlink to publish economic data onchain.
Pyth was initially selected to publish quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) data, including five years of historical GDP figures, according to a previous announcement from the oracle provider.
However, Pyth anticipates adding support for more government economic data sets in the future.
Magazine: Can blockchain solve its oracle problem?
Data shows Bitcoin (BTC) investors who had held their positions for over seven years took profit by selling $271 million in BTC.
A similar wave of “OG whale” selling in January coincided with a more fragile market that lacked buyer demand, triggering a sharp dip in the BTC price. Current onchain data reflects a much stronger market where BTC supply absorption and reduced selling may allow Bitcoin to hold its place in the $70,000-$72,000 range.
Data from Capriole Investments shows that the Bitcoin “OG whale spent value” moved roughly $271 million on Sunday. That marks the largest surge in activity for this cohort since Jan. 10, when a $280 million outflow spike preceded a 13% correction to $78,700 from $90,000 within two weeks.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72c0-b060-7645-a317-2c9c7e53c781.png\")
While the whale movement may raise concerns among investors, this activity historically aligns with measured profit-taking rather than with chaotic selling.
Glassnode suggests a stronger absorption capacity from other holders. Data shows that the 30-day net position change for long-term holders remained positive at 88,000 BTC on Thursday. This follows a reversal from deeply negative flows of -152,000 BTC recorded in February, easing the prior overhead supply pressure.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72bf-6c97-79bc-8b29-c1863e9a2a5d.png\")
The accumulating cohorts also continued to expand their holdings. Cointelegraph reported that the total balance exceeded 4.3 million BTC on Tuesday, rising further to 4.5 million on Thursday.
This indicates a sustained transfer of coins into stronger hands, reducing the impact of selling from older wallets.
Related: Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF trails BlackRock with $30M in first-day inflows
CryptoQuant analyst MorenoDV highlighted two key indicators shaping the current BTC positioning. The short-term Sharpe Ratio has dropped to -40, a level historically associated with major accumulation phases in 2015, 2019, 2020, and 2023.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72c6-cbc4-7e19-8ace-8b6d878c1c8e.jpg\")
At the same time, the buy-and-sell pressure delta (30) indicates a completed capitulation phase, marked by intense sell pressure below -0.05. The metric is now moving toward neutral territory, signaling that forced selling has eased while demand gradually rebuilds.
Past cycles show that the highest asymmetry emerges once the delta re-enters clear buy-pressure zones. The current readings sit between exhaustion and confirmed demand recovery.
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72c6-3c1f-74e4-9622-40f9e75cbfdd.jpg\")
The analyst noted that the macro conditions and liquidity flows continue to shape the pace of this transition, adding,
“For investors with a cycle-aware framework, the data suggests we are closer to the beginning of an opportunity than the end of one.”
Related: Bitcoin price surfs US PCE inflation as trader keeps $80K BTC price target
", "description": "Dormant Bitcoin whales sold $271 million in BTC last week, but steady accumulation from other buyer cohorts shows the selling was absorbed. Are the bulls back in control?", "published": "2026-04-09T19:41:24+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-analysis" }, { "slug": "markets" }, { "slug": "price-analysis" }, { "slug": "market-analysis" }, { "slug": "whale" } ], "slug": "old-bitcoin-whales-sold-dollar271m-in-btc-is-the-crypto-rally-at-stake", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Price Analysis" } ] }, "id": "260422" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "TON blockchain claims sub-second finality with Catchain 2.0 upgrade", "leadText": "Transactions on the Open Network layer-1 blockchain protocol previously took about 10 seconds to settle, before the Catchain 2.0 consensus upgrade.", "author": { "slug": "vince-quill" }, "bodyText": "The Open Network (TON), an independent layer-1 blockchain that has integrations with the Telegram messaging application, said it has slashed block times to 400 milliseconds with the release of its Catchain 2.0 consensus upgrade.
Payment transactions now settle in about 1 second, while trades settle in “real time,” and decentralized applications will now operate at speeds comparable to traditional apps, according to TON’s announcement on Thursday.
Faster block times produce more validator rewards, as the number of blocks added to the chain increases. TON’s annual inflation is projected to increase sixfold, to 3.6% from about 0.6% following the update, TON said. Inflation reflects the net issuance of new Toncoin.
![\"Telegram,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7312-0800-7d21-8a10-821aadea9846.png\")
“More blocks mean more validator rewards, which create stronger staking incentives and bring more TON into the network,” according to TON’s announcement.
The update builds on TON’s Catchain consensus algorithm, first proposed in 2020, and brings near-instant settlement to the blockchain network integrated into an application with more than 1 billion users worldwide.
TON was trading up 2.3% to $1.28 at last look on Thursday, data from CoinMarketCap showed. Volume was $130.1 million, up more than 35%. The token’s market cap was $3.17 billion.
![\"Telegram,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7314-fe41-7fc0-bfbd-f546a9c00a0e.png\")
Related: Dynamic adds embedded wallet infrastructure to TON for Telegram apps
Pavel Durov, the co-founder of Telegram, said that despite government bans in Iran and Russia, significant numbers of people in both countries still use the application.
Telegram bans have backfired, as users circumvent national firewalls and state-imposed online restrictions by using virtual private networks (VPNs), which mask IP addresses, allowing users to bypass banned content online.
“The government hoped for mass adoption of its surveillance messaging apps, but got mass adoption of VPNs instead,” Durov said.
![\"Telegram,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7316-5e4e-7410-bce9-5590b8f2fcf9.png\")
The integration with TON enables Telegram users to send crypto payments directly within the messaging application to other users, including businesses.
In February, the in-app crypto wallet in Telegram introduced self-custodial vaults that allow users to earn yield on Bitcoin (BTC), Tether’s USDt stablecoin (USDT) and Ether (ETH).
Earlier this month, the wallet launched perpetual futures trading for users directly in the Telegram application.
The integration was launched with perpetual decentralized exchange Lighter, and supports perpetual futures trading across multiple asset classes, including crypto, equities, commodities, precious metals and energy.
Magazine: As Ethereum phishing gets harder, drainers move to TON and Bitcoin
", "description": "The Open Network (TON) layer-1 blockchain protocol's latest consensus upgrade is now live, slashing block times from about 10 seconds to 400 milliseconds.", "published": "2026-04-09T17:59:26+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "altcoin" }, { "slug": "telegram" }, { "slug": "ton" } ], "slug": "ton-sub-second-finality-catchain-2", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260397" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Three reasons why Ether traders expect ETH to hold above $1.8K", "leadText": "Onchain and technical data hint that $1,800 may have been the macro price bottom for Ether. Is there sufficient bullish momentum for a rally to $3,000?", "author": { "slug": "nancy-lubale" }, "bodyText": "Ether’s (ETH) recent sell-off was stopped at $1,800, as bulls aggressively defended the level. Ether’s rebound above $2,100, along with on-chain and technical data, suggests that traders will hold the price above $2,000 for the short-term.
Key takeaways:
Ether’s profitability metrics drop to levels that have historically marked local bottoms.
The MVRV Z-score and pricing bands suggest ETH price drop to $1,800 marked the bottom.
ETH price bounced off a multi-year trend line that has marked previous macro lows.
Onchain data shows that Ether’s Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR) is at 0.96, suggesting ETH investors are still selling at a loss.
This metric dropped as low as 0.92 on Feb. 6, implying that Ether’s price drop to $1,800 was driven by traders realizing losses amid panic and extreme fear.
Related: Ethereum stablecoin supply hits $180B all-time high: Token Terminal
SOPR measures the profit or loss of spent ETH outputs by comparing the value of coins when they were last moved to their value when they are spent again.
A value below 1 might suggest capitulation or a market bottom, historically associated with accumulation phases.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72c6-679a-7a83-805f-b570814d1006.png\")
Historically, this scenario has often preceded price recoveries. When SOPR fell to 0.86 following Ether’s drop to $1,500 in April, it was followed by a 246% price recovery to its current all-time high of $4,950.
Similar scenarios in 2022 and 2023 were followed by 130% and 155% ETH price rallies, respectively.
Some investors saw the pullback from the $4,950 high — including the drop to $1,800 — as an opportunity to buy.
Ether’s MVRV Z-Score, a key onchain metric used to identify market tops and bottoms, has dropped into the historical accumulation zone (the green line in the chart below), strengthening the argument that ETH may have found a bottom.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72c6-6b6a-7bab-bc1e-4c549009e4dd.png\")
The last time Ether’s MVRV Z-score fell to the current levels was in April 2025, after a 66% price drawdown. This coincided with a macro market bottom at $1,400 and preceded a multi-month rally, with the ETH/USD pair rising 258% to its current all-time high of $4,950.
Meanwhile, the 0.80 MVRV pricing band, which has historically marked cycle bottoms, is currently at $1,880.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72c6-7131-7936-b623-19849b74a8a9.png\")
This indicates that, from an onchain perspective, Ether is undervalued and may continue the ongoing recovery, potentially rising toward dense liquidity clusters between $2,400 and $2,600 in the short term.
Data from TradingView shows that ETH price has successfully held above a key support zone over the last two months, as illustrated in the chart below.
This is the area around $1,800, where investors acquired more than 1.35 million ETH, according to Glassnode’s cost basis distribution heatmap.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72c6-774f-72e9-82b0-062293377186.png\")
This level aligns with a multi-year trendline that has historically marked the bottom for ETH/USD, as seen in 2022 and in April 2025.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72c6-7e11-753e-a482-475283901d6e.png\")
Ether’s rebound from this level in early February suggests the trendline still holds as support, paving the way for a sustained recovery toward $4,800.
As Cointelegraph reported, a drop below $2,000, where the 20-day EMA and the 50-day SMA converge, could see the price drop toward the next major support at $1,750.
Binance Wallet has integrated prediction market features into its app, saying it will cover all trading and settlement transaction fees for users as it makes a play for a piece of the $20 billion market.
In a Thursday notice, Binance said it will launch probability-based markets as a feature on the company’s app through an integration with third-party platforms, starting with Predict.fun. According to the crypto exchange, the integration will be “gasless,” with the company sponsoring fees for trades and settlements on the BNB Smart Chain.
![\"Cryptocurrency](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72d0-744e-7cd4-9386-d97f6846a534.png\")
Prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket offer users the chance to take a position on the outcome of events in a variety of topics, including politics and sports. The latter has put those platforms in the sights of multiple US state authorities who have filed lawsuits for allegedly violating state gaming laws by offering sports bets.
Binance’s integration is the latest example of a crypto platform moving deeper into prediction markets despite some of the more controversial bets on the platforms. Polymarket, for example, has offered users contracts on events related to US-Israeli military actions against Iran.
Related: DOJ and CFTC seek halt to Arizona action against Kalshi
According to data from TRM Labs, the monthly transaction volume across prediction markets platforms reached $20 billion in January — a twenty-fold increase from levels seen in early 2025.
While state-level gaming authorities pursue the platforms in court, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has claimed it has “exclusive jurisdiction” to oversee prediction markets. Amid challenges by federal regulators to state actions, ties between some of the companies and the current US administration have stoked concerns among industry leaders and lawmakers about conflicts of interest.
In an Axios interview released on Thursday, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and co-founder Luana Lopes Lara addressed questions about conflicts due to hiring US President Donald Trump’s son as a strategic adviser shortly before his father took office.
“We have never asked for any favors […] and he has never done anything, any regulatory ask, nothing like that,” said Lara, referring to Donald Trump Jr. using his connections to the US government.
Magazine: Anger grows over Polymarket bets on Iran war: ‘Dystopian death market’
", "description": "Binance Wallet has integrated prediction markets features on its app as platforms like Polymarket face scrutiny for controversial bets.", "published": "2026-04-09T17:34:33+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "applications" }, { "slug": "binance" }, { "slug": "industry" }, { "slug": "prediction-markets" } ], "slug": "binance-prediction-markets-app", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260382" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "MarketVector and Coinbase launch index tracking Bitcoin and tokenized gold", "leadText": "A new Bitcoin–gold index highlights shifting views on crypto’s role as a store of value as correlations with equities increase and gold outperforms.", "author": { "slug": "sam-bourgi" }, "bodyText": "MarketVector Indexes and Coinbase Asset Management have launched a new index tracking Bitcoin and tokenized gold, offering investors exposure to assets commonly associated with wealth preservation.
The companies unveiled the Coinbase Store of Value Index on Thursday, which tracks Bitcoin (BTC) and Pax Gold (PAXG) — one of the largest gold-backed tokens by market cap. The index is designed as a benchmark combining digital assets with traditional store-of-value instruments.
Bitcoin and gold are weighted using an inverse volatility model, meaning lower-volatility assets receive a higher allocation.
The benchmark is rebalanced quarterly and calculated as a price-return index in US dollars.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72db-3b0d-71db-9428-47f33375daf9.png\")
MarketVector is a Europe-based regulated benchmark administrator with a background in traditional indexing, though it has expanded into digital assets through products such as the MarketVector Digital Assets 100 Index and the Coinbase 50 Index.
Related: Crypto’s 2026 investment playbook: Bitcoin, stablecoin infrastructure, tokenized assets
The companies said the index reflects an evolving definition of “store of value,” one that extends beyond gold to include BTC.
Bitcoin has long been viewed as a potential store of value, underpinned by its strong long-term performance relative to traditional assets and its perceived hedge against inflation.
However, that narrative has come under pressure over the past year, as Bitcoin has at times traded more like a risk asset — often moving in tandem with equities, particularly in the technology sector.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-02/019c57da-7bfd-77fc-9466-91c6f21abfe2.png\")
This dynamic was highlighted in February research from Grayscale Investments, which found that Bitcoin has behaved more like a growth stock than a traditional store of value amid ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty.
Investors have also pointed to Bitcoin’s diminishing returns, with gold outperforming the biggest digital asset in 2025. After peaking above $69,000 in 2021, Bitcoin’s next cycle topped out at around $126,000 last October — a price that was less than double its previous high.
Related: Digital gold or tech stock? Bitcoin’s identity crisis deepens
", "description": "MarketVector and Coinbase debut a Bitcoin–gold index amid a challenge to BTC’s store-of-value narrative from its correlation with equities and gold’s 2025 outperformance.", "published": "2026-04-09T17:09:46+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "gold" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-price" }, { "slug": "price-indexes" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "marketvector-coinbase-bitcoin-gold-index-store-of-value-debate", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260377" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "UK-led Operation Atlantic freezes $12M tied to crypto scams", "leadText": "Operation Atlantic, a joint US, UK and Canadian operation, froze more than $12 million tied to crypto approval phishing scams and identified over 20,000 victims.", "author": { "slug": "helen-partz" }, "bodyText": "Authorities in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada have frozen millions of dollars tied to crypto scams in a joint enforcement operation called Operation Atlantic.
The operation, focused on phishing attacks, took place in March and was coordinated by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the US Secret Service, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Securities Commission.
Operation Atlantic identified more than 20,000 victims across the US, Canada and the UK, securing and freezing more than $12 million in suspected criminal proceeds, the NCA said Thursday. It also identified “more than $45 million stolen in cryptocurrency fraud schemes,” the agency added.
“Operation Atlantic is a powerful example of what is possible when international agencies and private industry work side by side,” NCA Deputy Director of Investigations Miles Bonfield said.
The operation involved assistance from major cryptocurrency exchange Binance, according to a separate statement by the company.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72a3-15fc-7c1f-abee-ed53c2d9e63f.png\")
Approval phishing scams trick users into signing malicious permissions that allow attackers to access and drain crypto wallets.
Unlike typical scams, where perpetrators trick victims into sending them crypto, approval phishing misleads victims into unknowingly authorizing malicious transactions that allow scammers to spend specific tokens inside the victim’s wallet.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d72a3-180e-7d89-b254-55cc30812110.png\")
“Approval phishing is one of the most damaging types of scams targeting crypto users today,” said Flavio Tonon, Binance’s senior regional advisor for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
Related: Drift explains $280M exploit as critics question Circle over USDC freeze
He noted that the operation underscores how effective crime fighting is possible when private and public partners work together, adding that blockchain transparency makes it difficult for criminals to get away with phishing exploits.
Operation Atlantic included on-site investigations at the NCA’s London headquarters, where Binance said its Special Investigations team provided support, including live account screening and scam intelligence.
The company also provided insights on potential bad actors in order to assist with asset seizure efforts, and conducted research that identified scam websites that were still actively defrauding victims at the time of the operation.
Binance said no funds were frozen on Binance accounts.
Magazine: AI agents will kill the web as we know it: Animoca’s Yat Siu
", "description": "Operation Atlantic, a cross-border operation involving the US, UK and Canada, froze $12 million in crypto phishing proceeds with assistance from Binance.", "published": "2026-04-09T15:49:52+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "phishing" }, { "slug": "canada" }, { "slug": "transactions" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "united-kingdom" }, { "slug": "binance" }, { "slug": "enforcement" }, { "slug": "scams-and-cybercrime" } ], "slug": "operation-atlantic-crypto-approval-phishing-freezes", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260362" }, { "category": { "slug": "markets" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin steadies after PCE inflation data, $80K target remains", "leadText": "Bitcoin avoids major volatility after the first of the week's two key US inflation reports, while a trader sees a \"new upwards leg\" coming for BTC price action.", "author": { "slug": "william-suberg" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin (BTC) hovered near $71,000 at Thursday’s Wall Street open after US inflation data conformed to expectations.
Key points:
Bitcoin waits for new catalysts as US PCE inflation data conforms to market expectations.
Friday’s CPI release may begin to reflect any impact of the US-Iran conflict, analysts say.
$80,000 remains in play as a BTC price target, a trader says.
Data from TradingView showed cooling BTC price volatility after local highs near $73,000 the day prior.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7280-1128-7197-a8d2-a85ecbb7c6a6.png\")
Relief over a US-Iran ceasefire combined with favorable readings from the Federal Reserve’s “preferred” inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, helped steady risk assets.
Core PCE year-on-year came in at 3% for February. On a monthly basis, core PCE was at 0.4%, per data from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA). The data reflects February activity and may not yet capture recent geopolitical developments.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d727d-3880-77a8-8a5f-b5aa8f9d95fa.png\")
Reacting, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter noted that the impact of the US-Iran war and oil-supply squeeze were not yet reflected in PCE.
“This marks the final pre-Iran War PCE inflation datapoint,” it wrote on X.
Markets remained cautious about future Fed policy, with data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool continuing to show no expectations of interest-rate cuts in 2026.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d727c-62aa-7f6c-9d1a-5db802c7bd5c.png\")
While Bitcoin offered no obvious reaction to the latest data, meanwhile, economist Mohamed El-Erian argued that Friday’s March Consumer Price Index (CPI) release was more important.
“While PCE inflation is widely regarded as the Fed’s favorite measure, the bigger inflation focus this week will be on tomorrow’s CPI data, as PCE covers February and not March,” he told X followers.
As Cointelegraph reported, CPI is particularly susceptible to fallout from oil-price swings.
BTC price action thus left traders guessing as to when and where the next move would be.
Related: Bitcoin RSI ‘nearly perfectly’ copying end of 2022 bear market: Analysis
In their latest market commentary, pseudonymous trader LP leveraged liquidation clusters to give potential targets.
“On the HTF, some upside low-leverage liquidation clusters have been cleared, but sizeable liquidity still remains around 73K and above the highs near 76K. Meanwhile, liquidity is starting to build on the downside, mainly around 69K and 64K,” an X post stated.
“With price still range-bound, both sides remain in play. If the 69–68K level holds, price is likely to push higher and target the remaining upside liquidity around 73K.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d727b-912f-70d2-b544-b83cc96bf90a.jpeg\")
Crypto trader Michaël Van de Poppe was more optimistic, keeping the $80,000 mark in play.
“As long as Bitcoin continues to hold these ranges, there's a strong new upwards leg on the horizon towards $80K,” he summarized on the day.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d727b-29a7-72b3-9e67-0d98681b5d4f.jpeg\")
A trader lost about $3 million after building a large leveraged Fartcoin position on Hyperliquid that unraveled in thin liquidity, triggering the platform’s auto-deleveraging (ADL) mechanism.
Lookonchain said, citing Hyperliquid data, that the trader accumulated about 145 million tokens across multiple wallets before being liquidated. The liquidation redistributed gains to opposing traders, with at least two wallets seeing around $849,000 through ADL.
PeckShield said the unwind produced about $3 million in accounting losses and left Hyperliquid’s HLP vault down roughly $1.5 million over 24 hours, though Hyperliquid had not publicly confirmed those figures by publication.
The episode highlighted how ADL can crystallize gains for traders on the other side of a collapsing position, while raising fresh questions about how Hyperliquid’s liquidation and vault structure behave in low-liquidity markets.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d723e-5797-755f-95ce-1ad7553c1ec2.jpg\")
PeckShield said the activity appeared structured to trigger liquidations in low-liquidity conditions, potentially pushing losses onto Hyperliquid’s liquidity pool while being offset by positions elsewhere.
Cointelegraph reached out to Hyperliquid for comments, but had not received a response before publication.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d723e-5a67-7dd0-b1ff-894c56ace3e7.jpg\")
This is not the first time Hyperliquid’s liquidity system has come under pressure from large, concentrated positions.
On March 13, 2025, the platform’s Hyperliquidity Provider (HLP) vault took a roughly $4 million hit after an oversized Ether (ETH) position was unwound, triggering liquidations under thin market conditions. After the incident, the team said that losses stemmed from market dynamics rather than a protocol exploit.
Related: Onchain perp DEX volumes fall for five straight months after October peak
A similar episode occurred later that month involving the JELLY memecoin. On March 27, 2025, a trader used multiple leveraged positions to exploit the platform’s liquidation system.
However, the final outcome remained unclear, with Arkham saying the trader withdrew about $6.26 million but may still have ended up down nearly $1 million.
On Nov. 13, 2025, a similar pattern occurred when a trader built large leveraged positions in the POPCAT market, triggering cascading liquidations that left a $5 million hole in the HLP vault. Community members said the strategy appeared designed to create and then remove liquidity to force the vault to absorb the impact.
Magazine: Solana exec trolls crypto gamers, Pixel tackles play-to-earn issues: Web3 Gamer
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) asked a federal court to block Arizona from enforcing state gambling law against Kalshi’s event contracts, arguing that they fall under the CFTC’s exclusive authority over swaps markets.
The Wednesday filing argues that event contracts listed on federally regulated platforms such as Kalshi are swaps under the Commodity Exchange Act and therefore fall within the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction.
The filing says Arizona’s enforcement effort unlawfully intrudes on the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction over federally regulated event-contract markets.
If granted, the order would block Arizona from applying its gambling laws to prediction markets that are listed as federally regulated event contracts. An arraignment in the criminal case against Kalshi is currently scheduled for Monday.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced charges against the companies behind Kalshi on March 17, accusing them of operating an “illegal gambling business in Arizona without a license” and offering illegal election wagering.
Kalshi co-founder and CEO, Tarek Mansour, claimed the charges were a “total overstep” and “not about gambling.”
The dispute has become a major test of whether prediction market contracts belong under federal commodities law or state betting rules.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7247-ef4c-74c7-882f-40216961a00d.png\")
On April 2, the CFTC filed three separate lawsuits against the gaming regulators of Illinois, Connecticut and Arizona, arguing that those states could not apply their gambling laws and licensing requirements to event contracts listed on CFTC-regulated platforms.
In those suits, the CFTC says it has exclusive jurisdiction over CFTC-registered designated contract markets that list lawful event contracts. Kalshi is the clearest example in the current litigation.
Related: Kalshi, Polymarket face trading halt in Nevada after court rulings
Prediction markets are facing growing regulatory pressure in the US, where 11 states have pursued legal action against them.
Prediction market activity has been rising since the beginning of the US and Israeli military conflict with Iran, fueling renewed insider trading allegations, after six Polymarket traders netted $1 million by accurately betting when the US would strike Iran.
In response to insider trading concerns, Democratic Party Senator Adam Schiff has introduced legislation seeking to ban prediction markets on war, death and terrorism.
Magazine: Train AI agents to make better predictions… for token rewards
", "description": "Regulators argued that prediction market contracts fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the CFTC and requested a temporary restraining order to halt the Arizona court’s prosecution of Kalshi.", "published": "2026-04-09T14:24:30+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "law" }, { "slug": "arizona" }, { "slug": "court" }, { "slug": "regulation" }, { "slug": "kalshi" }, { "slug": "prediction-markets" } ], "slug": "doj-cftc-arizona-court-kalshi-action", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260332" }, { "category": { "slug": "features" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "North Korean cyber spies are no longer just remote threats", "leadText": "North Korea’s crypto playbook now spans fake developers, conference contacts and major DeFi exploits reaching deep across the industry.", "author": { "slug": "yohan-yun" }, "bodyText": "This month’s $285 million exploit on Drift, a decentralized exchange (DEX), was the largest crypto hack in over a year, when exchange Bybit lost $1.4 billion. North Korean state-backed hackers were named as prime suspects in both attacks.
This past autumn, attackers posed as a quantitative trading firm and approached Drift’s protocol team in person at a major crypto conference, said Drift in an X post Sunday.
“It is now understood that this appears to be a targeted approach, where individuals from this group continued to deliberately seek out and engage specific Drift contributors, in person, at multiple major industry conferences in multiple countries over the following six months,” said the DEX.
Until now, North Korean cyber spies have targeted crypto firms online, through virtual calls and remote work. An in-person approach at a conference would not typically raise suspicion, but the Drift exploit should be enough for attendees to review connections made at recent events.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d71ff-97d8-731d-9a2c-ff67b5527bb0.jpg\")
Blockchain forensics firm TRM Labs described the incident as the largest DeFi hack of 2026 (so far) and the second-largest exploit in Solana’s history, just behind the $326 million Wormhole bridge hack in 2022.
The initial contact dates back about six months, but the exploit itself traces to mid-March, according to TRM. The attacker began by moving funds from Tornado Cash and deploying the CarbonVote Token (CVT), while using social engineering to persuade multisig signers to approve transactions that granted elevated permissions.
They then manufactured credibility for CVT by minting a large supply and inflating trading activity to simulate real demand. Drift’s oracles picked up the signal and treated the token as a legitimate asset.
When the pre-approved transactions were executed on April 1, CVT was accepted as collateral, withdrawal limits were increased and funds were withdrawn in real assets, including USDC.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7200-d350-7ac5-9802-e63d1d9ad394.jpeg\")
Related: North Korean spy slips up, reveals ties in fake job interview
According to TRM, the speed and aggressiveness of the subsequent laundering exceeded that seen in the Bybit hack.
North Korea is widely believed to be using large-scale crypto thefts such as the Drift and Bybit attacks alongside longer-term tactics, including placing operatives in remote roles at tech and crypto firms to generate steady income. The United Nations Security Council has said such funds are used to support the country’s weapons program.
Security researcher Taylor Monahan said infiltration of DeFi protocols dates back to “DeFi summer,” adding that around 40 protocols have had contact with suspected DPRK operatives.
North Korean state media reported Thursday that the country tested an electromagnetic weapon and a short-range ballistic missile, known as the Hwasong-11, fitted with cluster munition warheads.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7201-69d3-72a1-9ac2-e71e4063b1ee.jpg\")
A separate investigation revealed how a network of North Korea-linked IT workers generated millions through prolonged infiltration.
Data obtained from an anonymous source shared by ZachXBT showed the network posing as developers and embedding themselves across crypto and tech firms, generating roughly $1 million a month and more than $3.5 million since November.
The group secured jobs using falsified identities, routed payments through a shared system, then converted funds to fiat and sent them to Chinese bank accounts via platforms such as Payoneer.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7201-d11a-7c42-add5-a637d2e73374.jpg\")
Related: Are you a freelancer? North Korean spies may be using you
The operation relied on basic infrastructure, including a shared website with a common password and internal leaderboards tracking earnings.
The agents applied for roles in plain sight using VPNs and fabricated documents, pointing to a longer-term strategy of embedding operatives to extract steady revenue.
Cointelegraph encountered a similar scheme in a 2025 investigation led by Heiner García, who spent months in contact with a suspected operative.
Cointelegraph later took part in García’s dummy interview with a suspect who went by “Motoki,” who claimed to be Japanese. The suspect rage quit the call after failing to introduce himself in his supposed native dialect.
The investigation found operatives bypassed geographic restrictions by using remote access to devices physically located in countries such as the US. Instead of VPNs, they operated those machines directly, making their activity appear local.
By now, tech headhunters have realized that the person at the other end of a virtual job interview may indeed be a North Korean cyber spy. A viral defence strategy is to ask suspects to insult Kim Jong Un. So far, the tactic has been effective.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7202-53cf-7edc-a5b9-33ddc327e399.jpg\")
However, as Drift was approached in person and García’s findings showed operatives finding creative methods to bypass geographic restrictions, North Korean actors have continued to adapt to the cat-and-mouse dynamic.
Requesting interviewees to call North Korea’s supreme leader a “fat pig” is an effective strategy for the time being, but security researchers warn that this won’t work forever.
Magazine: Phantom Bitcoin checks, China tracks tax on blockchain: Asia Express
", "description": "Crypto firms keep finding ways to spot North Korean operatives, but the Drift hack shows cyber spies are constantly adjusting their tactics.", "published": "2026-04-09T14:05:36+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "cybercrime" }, { "slug": "north-korea" }, { "slug": "defi" }, { "slug": "features" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "north-korean-cyber-spies-not-just-remote-threats", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "Analysis" } ] }, "id": "260322" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin Depot discloses $3.7M BTC theft in cybersecurity breach", "leadText": "Bitcoin Depot said a hacker stole 50.9 BTC, worth about $3.7 million, after gaining access to internal systems linked to corporate wallets.", "author": { "slug": "amin-haqshanas" }, "bodyText": "Crypto ATM operator Bitcoin Depot said it lost 50.9 Bitcoin, worth about $3.7 million, after a hacker gained access to some of its internal systems.
The breach happened on March 23 after the attacker took control of credentials linked to Bitcoin Depot’s corporate Bitcoin (BTC) wallets, according to a Monday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said that customer accounts, platforms and personal data were not affected.
Bitcoin Depot added that the attack has not had a major impact on daily operations, and said it has insurance that may cover some of the losses. “As the investigation of the incident is ongoing, the full scope, nature and impact of the incident are not yet completely known,” the filing said.
Shares of Bitcoin Depot jumped sharply on Wednesday, closing at $2.74, up $0.37 or 15.61% on the day, with additional gains in pre-market trading pushing the price to $2.90, a further 5.84% increase, according to data by Yahoo! Finance.
Related: Bitcoin Depot enters Hong Kong as part of Asia expansion
Bitcoin Depot has been facing growing legal and regulatory pressure across several US states. The company recently had its money transmission license suspended in Connecticut, along with a temporary cease-and-desist order, with regulators citing violations such as high fees and failure to fully refund scam victims.
The company has also faced a lawsuit from Massachusetts alleging overcharging and facilitating scams, and paid $1.9 million in Maine to compensate affected users.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7204-8f4c-7f1e-8a5f-beda00dc223d.jpg\")
In June 2024, Bitcoin Depot experienced another data breach that exposed the personal information of 26,732 customers. The breach was linked to an external system, and authorities cleared the company to issue notifications after the probe concluded in June 2025.
Related: Australia’s financial watchdog may gain power to ban crypto ATMs
US cities are increasing pressure on crypto ATMs as concerns over fraud increase. Stillwater, Minnesota, banned crypto ATMs after residents lost large sums to scams, while Spokane, Washington, introduced a citywide ban in June, calling the kiosks a “preferred tool for scammers” following a spike in fraud cases.
Haverhill, Massachusetts, is considering banning crypto ATMs, with a proposed ordinance citing fraud and money-laundering risks that would require all machines to be removed within 60 days if approved.
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
", "description": "Bitcoin Depot says hackers stole 50.9 Bitcoin worth $3.7 million after accessing internal systems, while customer accounts and data remained unaffected.", "published": "2026-04-09T13:13:28+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "atm" }, { "slug": "coinatmradar" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-depot" } ], "slug": "bitcoin-depot-3-7m-cybersecurity-breach-customer-data-safe", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260312" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Crypto exchanges chase TradFi commodities market as pricing gaps persist", "leadText": "Crypto exchanges are seeking market share of TradFi trading venues, but tokenized commodities adoption is limited by pricing and liquidity concerns.", "author": { "slug": "zoltan-vardai" }, "bodyText": "Update April 9, 2026, 1:00 p.m. UTC: This article has been updated to include a comment from Mamadou Kwidjim Toure, CEO and founder of tokenization platform Ubuntu Tribe.
Cryptocurrency exchanges are taking market share from traditional finance (TradFi) trading venues through tokenized commodities products, but finding that mainstream adoption of tokenized precious metals is limited by pricing and liquidity issues.
Silver perpetuals have peaked at about 40% of the equivalent volume of the Comex Silver (SI) Contract, the world’s largest silver futures market that accounts for over 70% of global exchange-traded silver futures volume, according to a Thursday report from Binance Research.
During March and April, tokenized silver accounted for 14.90% and 14.98% of the Comex’s volume, respectively, up from just 1.37% in January.
The growth suggests crypto exchanges are capturing more demand for round-the-clock exposure to traditional assets, particularly in metals-linked perpetuals, but analysts at Kaiko said liquidity depth and price formation still pose major obstacles to wider adoption among traditional investors.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d71ed-79f5-7c84-af02-16205ea97a6a.png\")
Tokenized commodities offer 24/7 trading, which can create vulnerabilities compared to TradFi gold and silver futures, where the holiday and weekend close create “natural circuit breakers that actually protect market quality,” Kaiko research analyst Laurens Fraussen told Cointelegraph.
This exposes tokenized commodities to degraded order book depth, widened spreads and less reference pricing from closed traditional venues.
Legacy commodities offerings avoid these issues through centralized clearing, consolidated liquidity, standardized contracts and “coordinated operating hours that prevent liquidity deserts,” Fraussen said, adding that crypto needs “better chain abstraction and unified liquidity aggregation” to compete with TradFi.
Others argued that cryptocurrency exchanges lack the necessary trust and reserve audits to attract more institutional precious metals investment.
Crypto exchanges won’t become the “settlement backbone of global commodity markets, because they lack the one thing institutional actors require: a credible, audited claim on physical metal,” Mamadou Kwidjim Toure, CEO and founder of tokenization platform Ubuntu Tribe, told Cointelegraph.
Related: NYSE taps Securitize for 24/7 tokenized securities platform
Despite the infrastructure concerns, tokenized gold perps have surpassed the gold futures trading volumes of several regional commodity exchanges, a trend seeing monthly acceleration, according to Binance Research.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d71ed-7c0d-732d-b9f7-a1895879fb76.png\")
Binance Research also said gold perpetuals outpaced several regional commodity exchanges in March, reaching 401% compared to gold futures trading on the Japanese energy commodities futures exchange TOCOM, 228% of India’s Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and 216% of the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX).
Binance attributed part of this growth to “market-moving events” that routinely occur on weekends, which would leave investors exposed to gap risks through traditional venues operating under regular trading hours.
Magazine: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized?
", "description": "Crypto exchanges are emerging as new TradFi venues for gold and silver, but tokenized commodities adoption remains limited by pricing and liquidity concerns.", "published": "2026-04-09T13:03:16+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "gold" }, { "slug": "silver" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "binance" }, { "slug": "tokenization" }, { "slug": "rwa-tokenization" }, { "slug": "industry" } ], "slug": "crypto-exchanges-tradfi-precious-metals-pricing-liquidity-risks", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260307" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Gold, silver and oil drive 65,000% jump in commodity perpetuals", "leadText": "BitMEX said commodity perpetual swaps volume jumped from $38.1 million to $25 billion in Q1 as traders flocked to 24/7 gold, silver and oil exposure.", "author": { "slug": "zoltan-vardai" }, "bodyText": "BitMEX said in a Thursday report that commodity perpetual swaps were the fastest-growing segment of TradFi perps in the first quarter of 2026, with weekly volume rising 65,463% from $38.1 million to $25.0 billion.
The report said silver, crude oil and gold drove most of that growth. By the week of March 15, Silver (XAG) accounted for 34.8% of the market share of tokenized commodities, followed by crude oil (CL) for 27.7%, gold (XAU) at 27.5% and Silver on Hyperliquid for 6%, according to a Thursday report.
BitMEX said the March entry of crude oil added a new leg to the market, attributing that move to Iran-related geopolitical tensions and broader demand for 24/7 commodity exposure on crypto-native venues.
The figures point to a fast-growing niche inside crypto derivatives markets.
![\"/home/user/workspace/image-15.jpg\"](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d716a-9eaa-7975-9fc9-a5b9b614c02b.jpg\")
Brent crude oil has risen by around 44% since the first US/Israeli strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, from around $69 to above $99 at the time of writing, according to data from Trading Economics. Oil prices peaked at around $114 on Tuesday, their highest level since the beginning of the conflict.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d722d-c2cb-7033-8a46-0281b96fbe7d.png\")
Onchain TradFi perps are driving traders to “speculate and hedge against weekend geopolitical events like the recent Iran conflict, in real time,” Stephan Lutz, CEO at BitMEX, told Cointelegraph. “While the perpetual swaps model will continue to capture significant market share in commodities trading due to its 24/7 nature, we are highly skeptical about tokenising spot assets,” he said.
However, minting physical commodities on the blockchain is complicated by the legacy financial system’s “complex, arbitrary legal rules,” Lutz said, adding that onchain derivatives will continue to eat into the trading share of traditional commodities, until “legacy giants like the CME” launch their own 24/7 trading venues.
Related: Crypto exchanges gain as tokenized commodity market climbs to $7.7B
In the broader market, the total market capitalization of onchain commodities declined by 2.7% during the past 30 days to $7.34 billion as of Thursday, according to data aggregator RWA.xyz.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d716a-a043-736e-b302-0e5bb259a857.png\")
BitMEX, which says it launched the first perpetual swap in 2016, now offers more than 20 TradFi contracts, according to the report.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, introduced gold and silver perpetuals in January. It offers contracts spanning precious metals and tokenized equities. Its Silver (XAG) contract saw an average daily volume of $1.31 billion during the quarter, according to the report.
Magazine: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized?
", "description": "BitMEX said weekly commodity perpetual swaps volume climbed from $38.1 million to $25 billion in Q1 as traders piled into 24/7 silver, gold and oil contracts.", "published": "2026-04-09T13:00:00+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "blockchain" }, { "slug": "gold" }, { "slug": "bitmex" }, { "slug": "silver" }, { "slug": "cryptocurrency-exchange" }, { "slug": "commodities-investment" }, { "slug": "rwa" }, { "slug": "rwa-tokenization" } ], "slug": "gold-silver-oil-drive-65000-percent-jump-in-commodity-perpetuals", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260297" }, { "category": { "slug": "market-analysis" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Bitcoin analysts say this must happen for BTC price to ‘continue rising’", "leadText": "Bitcoin needs to regain momentum with higher trading volumes for BTC to reclaim $80,000 as support and sustain the recovery.", "author": { "slug": "nancy-lubale" }, "bodyText": "Bitcoin’s (BTC) relief rally to $72,000 appears to be cooling off, but analysts said that the BTC price may “continue rising” in the short term.
Key takeaways:
Bitcoin must flip the short-term holder realized price at $80,000 into support to confirm the trend change.
Spot volume and trading activity must recover to ensure a sustained breakout in BTC price.
Bitcoin’s 8% climb over the last three days to $72,000 saw it reclaim key levels, including the 200-day exponential moving average (EMA) at $68,000, and the 50-day EMA at $70,000, where it has found support.
“$BTC is currently in a buy wall zone. The current zone is a support zone,” said analyst CW8900 in a Thursday post on X, referring to the area between $67,700 and $70,000.
Related: Bitcoin eyes $90K as Binance data shows surge in aggressive buying
The bullish case for BTC now hinges on cracking a sell wall between $72,000 and $73,000, where investors acquired 386,100 BTC over the last three months.
“There is a sell wall up to $73K,” CW8900 said, adding:
“It must break through this sell wall to continue rising to $75K.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d71a8-12ae-7cf3-aa06-35ab91f84e31.png\")
Glassnode’s risk indicator reveals another major resistance higher up between the true market mean at $78,000 and the short-term holder cost basis level around $80,000.
“This is a particularly meaningful threshold,” Glassnode said in its latest Week Onchain newsletter, adding:
“Until price reclaims this level, the mid to long-term bias remains tilted to the downside, as any rally into this zone is likely to encounter meaningful distribution pressure from recent buyers seeking to exit at or near breakeven.”
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d71a8-2a82-75b6-82eb-2f6b18b0c3ea.png\")
As Cointelegraph reported, the bulls must decisively break above the $76,000-$80,000 range to confirm a trend change.
The market remains in a cool-down phase, with Bitcoin onchain transfer volume and spot trading volume still down.
The seven-day moving average of onchain transfer volume has dropped by about 50.5% to 660,000 BTC on Thursday, from 1.36 million BTC less than 30 days ago.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d71a8-4005-710c-8910-2fe400b42b8a.png\")
Additionally, spot activity remains subdued, with the 30-day spot relative volume across all exchanges muted below 1.0, significantly lower than the cyclical peaks seen in the latest bull market.
This divergence further underscores the lack of speculative intensity required to drive prices higher.
The chart below shows only a mild uptick in the spot volume, but nothing that suggests a meaningful return of participation.
“Until spot demand picks up, rallies are likely to feel fragile, with limited follow-through,” Glassnode said, adding:
“A clear expansion in volume would signal stronger conviction and a healthier foundation for continuation.”
![\"Cryptocurrencies,](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d71b7-3fc5-7b6e-8c73-0cceeded1be3.jpeg\")
As Cointelegraph reported, spot and derivatives markets are entering recovery mode, with Bitcoin’s spot net volume delta and taker cumulative volume delta edging back into the positive territory.
Bhutan moved more Bitcoin from its sovereign-linked wallet on Thursday, further reducing its once sizeable BTC stash and extending its months-long selling.
Arkham data showed a wallet attributed to the Royal Government of Bhutan and its investment arm Druk Holding & Investment, transferred about 319 Bitcoin (BTC), worth roughly $22.68 million, bringing total outflows since late October 2024 to more than 9,000 BTC.
The transfer follows a series of recent wallet movements by the country flagged by Arkham. In March alone, the Bhutan-tagged wallet moved more than 1,667 BTC (roughly $120 million), taking Bhutan’s Bitcoin holdings from about 13,000 BTC in late 2024 to 3,654 BTC in April, according to Arkham Intelligence’s tracking dashboard.
While that constitutes a roughly 70% drop in the country’s BTC holdings, Bhutan is still the fifth-largest publicly tracked nation-state holder, behind the United States (328,000 BTC), the United Kingdom (61,000 BTC), El Salvador (7,600 BTC) and the United Arab Emirates (7,000 BTC).
Bhutan has not publicly commented on the recent disposals, and the activity is inferred from wallet labels and transaction patterns tied to the government and Druk Holding & Investment.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d71b2-9700-755a-a3b3-cdf1152d8c1b.png\")
The kingdom built much of its position through state-backed mining that uses hydropower to support data centers, a strategy officials have framed as part of a “green Bitcoin economy” and a way to diversify export revenues beyond electricity sales.
Bhutan uses surplus, carbon-free hydropower to run energy-intensive supercomputers that mine Bitcoin, turning excess electricity into a liquid digital export and exploring whether large corporations could buy its “green” coins to meet environmental, social and governance targets.
Related: Bhutan to deploy Sei validator in Q1, eyes tokenization collab
In December 2025, Bhutan unveiled a national Bitcoin Development Pledge committing up to 10,000 BTC (roughly $1 billion at the time) to support the long-term development of its Gelephu Mindfulness City special administrative region.
Authorities said the allocation would be managed through options such as using Bitcoin as collateral, low-risk yield-generating instruments or long-term holding as part of a broader strategy to anchor the new economic hub in digital assets and sustainable finance.
Magazine: South Korea gets rich from crypto… North Korea gets weapons
", "description": "Bhutan has offloaded more than 9,000 BTC since late 2024, slashing its sovereign stash by about 70% while still backing a state-run “green Bitcoin” strategy.", "published": "2026-04-09T11:39:46+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "bitcoin" }, { "slug": "adoption" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-mining" }, { "slug": "bitcoin-adoption" }, { "slug": "bhutan" } ], "slug": "bhutan-offloads-a-further-23m-bitcoin", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260267" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "South Korea court cancels Upbit suspension, citing regulatory gaps: Report", "leadText": "The decision closes a legal battle spanning more than a year, after Dunamu moved to overturn the sanction and halt its enforcement.", "author": { "slug": "ezra-reguerra" }, "bodyText": "A South Korean court has canceled the Financial Intelligence Unit’s (FIU) three-month partial business suspension of Dunamu, the operator of crypto exchange Upbit, according to local reports.
Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday that the Seoul Administrative Court sided with Dunamu in its lawsuit against the FIU, overturning the sanction tied to alleged Anti-Money Laundering (AML) violations.
The court said clear rules existed for transactions above 1 million won (about $675), but found that regulations for smaller transfers were not specific enough, weakening the basis for enforcement within the case.
The ruling narrows the FIU’s ability to impose major AML sanctions on crypto exchanges where the underlying compliance standards are not spelled out clearly enough in practice. It also ends a dispute that began after FIU imposed the sanction in February 2025, and that was later paused by the court while Dunamu’s challenge was under review.
Addressing the FIU’s claim that Dunamu failed to take adequate measures, the court said the regulator had not provided specific guidance on what actions were required. In that context, the court found that the company had taken its own measures.
The court said that even if those measures appear insufficient in hindsight, it is difficult to conclude that Dunamu failed to fulfill its obligations due to intent or gross negligence, undermining the basis for the sanction.
Related: Bithumb launches legal action to recover 7 Bitcoin from payout error
On Feb. 25, 2025, the FIU imposed a three-month partial suspension on Dunamu, restricting new Upbit users from transferring digital assets.
The regulator said the measure followed an on-site inspection that found Dunamu had facilitated transactions with unregistered overseas virtual asset providers (VASPs) and failed to meet customer due diligence requirements.
The FIU previously said it identified over 600,000 suspected Know Your Customer violations during a review of Upbit’s exchange business license.
In response to the sanction, Dunamu filed a lawsuit and requested an injunction to halt its enforcement shortly after the penalty was announced. On Feb. 28, 2025, Dunamu said it had submitted the case seeking to overturn the partial suspension order.
On March 27, 2025, the court granted the injunction, allowing Upbit to continue onboarding new users while the case was under review.
Magazine: Asia Express: Phantom Bitcoin checks, China tracks tax on blockchain
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has asked Congress to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act without delay, warning that Senate floor time is limited and now is the moment to act.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday, Bessent said the legislation is critical for providing clear regulatory rules for digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, tokenized assets and decentralized exchanges. He warned that with the global crypto market rising to $3 trillion and nearly one in six Americans holding digital assets, the stakes for US leadership in financial innovation are higher than ever.
“To preserve it and rise to the challenge before us, Congress must pass the Clarity Act. Senate floor time is scarce, and now is the time to act,” he wrote.
The US House of Representatives passed the CLARITY Act in July 2025, but the legislation has been repeatedly met with delays in the Senate over how stablecoin yields would be treated under the legislation.
Traditional financial institutions have warned that stablecoin yields could significantly reduce bank lending, while industry advocates argue they are essential to unlock innovation and keep the US competitive.
Related: Chainalysis claims stablecoin volumes could reach $1.5 quadrillion by 2035
On Wednesday, a report by White House economists challenged claims by banking groups that stablecoin yields significantly threaten traditional lending, arguing that banning yields on stablecoins would have a minimal impact on bank lending.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7198-4969-71da-9a4f-71866c076bd1.png\")
The Council of Economic Advisers estimated that banning stablecoin yields would lift total US bank lending by only $2.1 billion, or 0.02% of the $12 trillion market, with community banks gaining just $500 million. On the other hand, they found that such a ban would impose an $800 million annual welfare loss per year due to lost yield for users.
President Donald Trump has slammed banks for obstructing crypto legislation, arguing they are using stablecoin yield disagreements to hold the CLARITY Act and GENIUS Act “hostage.”
Related: Dubai clarifies token issuance rules for RWAs and stablecoins
On Wednesday, the Treasury proposed new rules under the GENIUS Act requiring payment stablecoin issuers to implement Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing programs. The framework would mandate sanctions compliance and give issuers the authority to block, freeze or reject certain transactions, treating them as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act.
Industry experts say the move effectively turns stablecoin issuers into bank-like gatekeepers. Snir Levi, CEO of blockchain intelligence firm Nominis, told Cointelegraph that compliance could lead to significantly more wallet freezes, transaction blocking and asset seizures at scale.
Magazine: Your guide to surviving this mini-crypto winter
", "description": "Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urges Congress to pass the CLARITY Act, warning that U.S. leadership in crypto is at risk as firms consider moving offshore.", "published": "2026-04-09T10:58:19+01:00" }, "tags": [ { "slug": "cryptocurrencies" }, { "slug": "senate" }, { "slug": "united-states" }, { "slug": "donald-trump" }, { "slug": "stablecoin" }, { "slug": "regulation" }, { "slug": "policy" } ], "slug": "bessent-presses-congress-to-pass-clarity-act", "postBadge": { "postBadgeTranslates": [ { "title": "News" } ] }, "id": "260247" }, { "category": { "slug": "latest-news" }, "postTranslate": { "title": "Morgan Stanley Bitcoin ETF trails BlackRock with $30M in first-day inflows", "leadText": "Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF drew $30.6 million in first-day inflows, ranking second behind BlackRock’s IBIT as US spot Bitcoin ETFs clocked net outflows on Wednesday.", "author": { "slug": "helen-partz" }, "bodyText": "The Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT), the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) offered by a US bank, recorded $30.6 million in inflows on its trading debut, giving the Wall Street bank a respectable entry into the spot Bitcoin ETF market.
MSBT started trading on the NYSE Arca on Wednesday, generating $34 million in trading volume, slightly above the expectations of Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, who predicted first-day volume would reach $30 million.
As of April 8, MSBT held 444.4 Bitcoin (BTC), worth around $31.7 million, accounting for 0.03% of the estimated 1.29 million BTC collectively held by US spot BTC ETFs.
Offering the lowest fee among its peers, Morgan Stanley’s ETF trailed only BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) on the day, which saw $40 million in inflows, highlighting competition in a market dominated by a few large issuers.
The debut matters less as a challenge to BlackRock than as a sign that traditional finance still sees room in Bitcoin ETFs, but Morgan Stanley is arriving two years late to a market where the 2024 launch class set a far higher bar for first-day demand.
IBIT and MSBT’s inflows were not enough to offset selling from other funds, as the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) saw outflows of $79 million and about $75 million, respectively, according to Farside data.
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC) added another $11 million in redemptions, bringing total daily outflows from US spot Bitcoin ETFs to $124.5 million.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7173-7301-70a5-946b-2609615babff.png\")
The outflows marked two consecutive days of selling, following Tuesday’s $159 million in outflows, after the funds recorded $471 million in inflows on Monday, the largest daily inflow since late February.
Related: Canary Capital submits application for US-based spot PEPE ETF
MSBT’s debut was modest compared with the January 2024 launch wave that followed the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of the first US spot Bitcoin ETFs.
GBTC and IBIT handled $2.3 billion and $1 billion in opening day volume, respectively. IBIT saw about $112 million in inflows on its first day, while GBTC recorded $95 million in outflows.
Although trailing, Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF is still on track to be among the top ETF launches in the past year, according to Bloomberg’s Balchunas.
![](\"https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7173-7aea-793f-a551-48b76b9f9fa7.png\")
The ETF analyst referred to funds including the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL), the Canary XRP ETF (XRPC) and the Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM), highlighting a $60 million volume threshold.
Magazine: Your guide to surviving this mini-crypto winter