Today's Crypto Pulse
Bitcoin slides below $70k as energy‑price worries spark $1.8B in liquidations
Bitcoin fell under $70,000 amid heightened energy‑price uncertainty linked to U.S.–Iran tensions. The dip triggered roughly $1.8 billion in crypto liquidations, while institutional investors pulled more than $4.2 billion from digital‑asset positions.
Also developing:
By the numbers: Strive acquires 2,500 Bitcoin for $185.2M
OnePay Teams with Stripe-Backed Tempo to Deploy Stablecoin Payouts for Millions
OnePay announced a partnership with Tempo, the payments‑first Layer‑1 blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, to launch stablecoin‑powered payouts and instant account‑funding for its Banking product. The collaboration includes OnePay running a validator on Tempo, positioning the fintech to offer always‑on settlement and lower infrastructure costs for its millions of workers and consumers.
NYSE Arca Names XRP in Revised Crypto Trust Rules, Expanding Eligible Asset List
NYSE Arca, the NYSE’s listed‑products unit, filed a rule amendment with the SEC that lists XRP alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana as an example of an eligible asset for crypto commodity trusts. The proposal mandates that at least 85% of...
ICMA Publishes the Digital Bonds Annex, an Addition to the GMRA Digital Assets Annex
On April 30, 2026 ICMA released the Digital Bonds Annex, extending the Global Master Repurchase Agreement (GMRA) to cover transactions involving natively‑issued digital debt securities. The annex, crafted by ICMA’s Digital Assets Legal Working Group in partnership with ISLA and...
Jack Mallers' Twenty One Capital Surges After Majority Holder Tether Proposes 3-Way Merger
Tether Investments, the majority shareholder of Twenty One Capital (XXI), has proposed a three‑way merger that would combine XXI with Strike, Jack Mallers' Bitcoin financial‑services platform, and the mining firm Elektron Energy. The deal would unite Bitcoin treasury, mining, lending...
Pump Fun’s Airdrop Promises Collapse Under Flawed Token Strategy
"Pump Fun should have given the biggest airdrop the world has ever seen and prayed it drew down 95%. They would own the entire float and this thing would be vertical" Luca on why Pump Fun's token strategy makes zero sense "We...
FXRP Enables Tax‑Free DeFi on XRP via Flare
Flare watches the XRP mainnet through Oracle feeds. Lock XRP in place, get FXRP back, an over-collateralized asset that lets you participate in DeFi without moving your XRP off mainnet. No transfer means no taxable event. The Oracles that feed...
RealOpen and TRON Verify $9.4M in USDT for Crypto-Enabled Real Estate Purchases
RealOpen and TRON completed the “Fast Moves, Fast Payments” holiday campaign, verifying roughly $9.4 million in USDT on the TRON blockchain for crypto‑enabled home purchases. The initiative attracted 343 sign‑ups, 27 KYC‑verified buyers and onboarded 69 real‑estate agents, demonstrating tangible demand...
Pump's Missed Airdrop Could've Enabled Vertical Price Surge
"If I was [Pump], I would give people the biggest airdrop they've ever seen, and pray that the token would draw down 95% and then they could buy the entire float, and this would be vertical, up only. "But they...
Onchain USDC Payments Seed Crypto Super Cycle
"Creators getting paid in USDC onchain is planting the seeds for the crypto super cycle" Luca on why the network effect of onchain payments changes everything "I'm a creator, I get paid in US dollars onchain. Then I see an NFT on...
Digital Assets Oversight Moves From Early-Stage Policy Discussions to Implementation Phase : Analysis
CertiK’s Skynet State of Digital Asset Regulations Report shows that global crypto oversight has moved from early‑stage policy talks to full‑scale implementation. Major jurisdictions—including the U.S., EU, Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, Japan, Turkey and Brazil—now enforce mature regimes that mirror traditional...
DeFi Faces Total Loss Risk Unlike Traditional Finance
"You don't hear about North Korea raiding a Goldman Sachs office and taking all their gold. Not even a speck left in the whole building. But that's basically what happens in DeFi" Kain on the one type of risk that only...
Bitcoin Holds Up, Poised for May FOMC Rally
Classic risk-off move during the FOMC speech and data. If you see the structure on #Bitcoin, and looking at it technically, there's no breakdown of the lower timeframe uptrend. It sustains. I do expect that we'll see it continue to go up in...
#BVL045: Knockin’ on $80k’s Wall
Bitcoin recently tested the $80,000 resistance level and was rejected, yet it remains above the mid‑$70,000 range. The price’s ability to hold this ground without a sharp decline suggests a tentative resilience in a broader bear market. Analysts warn that...
Eric Trump Says Bitcoin in Its 'Greatest Period Ever' As Wall Street Falls in Line
Eric Trump, co‑founder of American Bitcoin, told the Bitcoin Las Vegas 2026 conference that the past six months represent the cryptocurrency's "greatest period ever." He highlighted a surge in bitcoin ETFs, corporate treasury allocations, and major banks rolling out bitcoin‑backed...
Bitcoin Dips Under $76K as Fed Holds Rates in Rare 8-4 Split
Bitcoin slipped below $76,000 on Wednesday, trading at $75,282, a 4.4% drop for the week after the Federal Reserve left its benchmark rate unchanged at 3.50‑3.75%. The decision, marked by a rare 8‑4 vote split, signaled a more hawkish stance,...
ZetaChain Suspends Cross-Chain Operations on Mainnet After Security Incident Involving GatewayEVM Smart Contract
ZetaChain announced a temporary suspension of all cross‑chain transactions on its mainnet after detecting a targeted exploit on its GatewayEVM smart contract. The breach impacted only internal team wallets, and the protocol’s monitoring systems blocked the attack vector within minutes,...
US and EU Sanctions Intensify Focus on Crypto Transactions : Research
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic highlighted new U.S. and EU sanctions aimed at curbing crypto‑facilitated sanctions evasion. The U.S. Treasury’s OFAC placed two Iran‑linked Tether wallets holding about $344 million on its sanctions list, while the EU approved its 20th package banning...
Meta Launches Stablecoin Payouts In Colombia And The Philippines
Meta has begun offering creators in Colombia and the Philippines the option to receive payouts in the USDC stablecoin, using either the Solana or Polygon networks. Creators must link a compatible third‑party wallet such as MetaMask or Phantom, and Stripe...
Deep Dive: Sanctions, AI Deal, DeFi Tensions, Market Arrest
Chris and Ram went deep this week: 🏳️ Iran's deal offer 🇺🇲 how Tether became a US sanctions tool 🏆 why Microsoft won in its revised deal with OpenAI🛟 the DeFi United response to Kelp DAO, and ⛓️ the arrest...
FBI, Dubai Police, and Royal Thai Police Conduct Crackdown on Scam Centers
International law‑enforcement agencies—including the FBI, Dubai Police and Thailand’s Royal Police—have arrested at least 276 individuals and shut down nine cryptocurrency‑investment scam compounds. The operation targeted “pig‑butchering” schemes that lured U.S. and global victims into fake crypto investments, resulting in...
Kustodia Launches Smart Contract Escrow for LATAM's $600m Fraud Crisis
Kustodia has rolled out Mexico’s first peso‑denominated blockchain escrow, linking the country’s instant SPEI payment rail with smart contracts on Arbitrum. The service lets buyers and sellers lock funds via a WhatsApp‑driven interface, releasing pesos only after mutual confirmation, and...
XRP Doesn’t Need Retail to Pump
The author argues that XRP’s price upside no longer depends on a retail buying frenzy but on institutional adoption of the XRP Ledger for large‑scale fiat‑to‑crypto payments. He notes that a $300 billion market cap can only be achieved when payment...
Bitcoin Falls as Traders Cut Risk Ahead of FOMC: Will TradFi, Spot ETF Volumes Bolster $70K Support?
Bitcoin slipped from its recent high of $79,500 to roughly $77,000 as traders trimmed exposure ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Historical data since early 2025 shows the cryptocurrency typically corrects after rate‑cut announcements, with seven of the...
Polymarket Hit $25.7B in March Volume as Retail Traders Bet on Sports, Politics and Crypto
Polymarket recorded $25.7 billion in trading volume in March, with retail participants accounting for the bulk of activity. Users are trading more frequently, increasing their average active days from 2.5 to 9.9 and expanding from 1.45 to 2.34 market categories. Sports...
NY AG Secures over $5M From Uphold HQ for Promoting Fraudulent Investment Scheme
New York Attorney General Letitia James secured a settlement of more than $5 million from cryptocurrency platform Uphold after it promoted CredEarn, a fraudulent investment product. Uphold advertised CredEarn as a safe savings vehicle while the underlying loans were high‑risk micro‑loans...
US Judge Bans Celsius Founder Mashinsky From Any Product Involving 'Assets'
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote approved a $10 million FTC settlement with Alex Mashinsky, founder of the collapsed Celsius Network. The order permanently bars Mashinsky from promoting or operating any product involving the deposit, exchange, investment, or withdrawal of assets, effectively excluding...
Square Still Doesn’t Support Crypto Payments for Merchants
I tried to get the owner of my local coffee shop to enable Bitcoin on his Square terminal (so I could pay him in Zcash), but he says Square hasn’t notified him about it by email and he doesn’t see...
Decentralized Mining Enables Open‑Source Heat‑Reuse Innovations
I voted for @256foundation myself. It's really important that mining be decentralized, obviously. A less obvious factor here is that we have a long tail of mining heat-reuse applications that are only really practical with open source hardware and firmware, e.g....
Stable Sea Taps WisdomTree to Bring Tokenized Treasury Yield to Business Operating Cash
Stable Sea has partnered with asset manager WisdomTree to embed its tokenized money‑market fund WTGXX into the Stable Sea Terminal platform, giving business treasuries direct access to on‑chain U.S. Treasury yields. WTGXX holds about $855 million in tokenized Treasuries and ranks...
Mike Casey Labels P2PK as Satoshi-Era, Not Satoshi’s
Really good to hear Mike Casey describe the famous P2PK coins as the "Satoshi-era coins", rather than claiming they're Satoshi's coins. https://t.co/kNLbEvTDAh
Net Backyard Introduces Cost‑Based Token Pricing Layer
just visited the new @netbackyard office and 🥹🥹🥹 if you haven’t read it yet, they’re building a financial layer (accounting, billing, payments) to price tokens based on infrastructure cost, model efficiency, and execution conditions 👇 https://t.co/vEEcSgiCux
Blockrise Looks to Bunq for Financial Infrastructure
European neobank bunq has gone live with its Banking‑as‑a‑Service (BaaS) platform, partnering with Bitcoin platform Blockrise to deliver Bitcoin‑friendly bank accounts. Through bunq’s Dutch banking licence, Blockrise users gain regulated fiat deposit protection up to €100,000 (about $108,000) under the...
OKX's APP: Open, No Lock‑In, Unlimited Integration
The thing I care about most in APP from @OKX is that it's open. - No vendor lock-in. - Any team can build a compliant implementation. - Any builder can integrate the Payment SDK. - No permission required. https://t.co/xk1NstVATr
Stablecoins Power Creator Payouts via Stripe, Meta
Creator payouts are one of the killer use cases for stablecoins Excited for @tempo to be working with Stripe and Meta to payout to shiny @link wallets
Crypto Community Rallies Behind Aave After Exploit
The entire crypto community is coming together to support Aave after the recent exploit. There are no government bailouts with crypto. https://t.co/2TYNmNJqd8
Democrats Demonize Crypto, Citing Libra While Meta Uses USDC
"Libra/Diem was the first time Democrats said 'Crypto is the devil.'" 😂 -- @kaiynne on Meta paying people in USDC https://t.co/WRtMtepjzU
Meta Pays Billions in USDC to 100M Creators
"100 million people being paid in USDC to the tune of billions of dollars is amazing." 😍 -- @kaiynne on Meta paying creators in stablecoins https://t.co/WRtMtepjzU
Meta's Stablecoin Payouts Could Trigger Crypto Supercycle
On Meta paying people in stablecoins: "The seeds being planted here, for all my delusional bulls, is setting us up for a supercycle." 🚀 -- @LucaNetz https://t.co/rVJpbAZab2
Meta Shifts Creator Payments to Stablecoins, Expands Instagram Payout Engine
On Meta paying creators in stablecoins 😮 "The Instagram industrial complex must be one of the largest creator payout systems." -- @kaiynne https://t.co/WRtMtepjzU
US Plans 300k Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Update Soon
300,000 BITCOIN FOR THE USA BITCOIN STRATEGIC RESERVE? I feel like this was common knowledge but still exciting knowing we will get a BSR update SOON https://t.co/WeK4pKW0wf
DeFi Must Offer Massive Yields to Offset High Risk
What's the appropriate amount of yield to offer to lenders in DeFi? "If yield on Treasuries is 4%, but in DeFi, you get blown up every week, then in DeFi, you need to earn 104%" 😂 -- @kaiynne https://t.co/WRtMtepjzU
Donation Drive Won’t Fix KelpDAO Hack Complexity
Is a donation drive a good solution to the KelpDAO hack? "It's an unusual situation since LayerZero built the bridge, but it was KelpDAO's bridge, and the victims were on Aave." 🤔 -- @tayvano_ https://t.co/WRtMtepjzU
Luca Jokes LayerZero’s DeFi United Donation Is Stingy
Was LayerZero stingy about its DeFi United donation? @kaiynne asks @LucaNetz 🎙️ "Pellegrino -- that's my guy." 😂 -- Luca https://t.co/WRtMtepjzU
Speculating XRP's Support: How Low Can It Drop?
Attention all Ripplettes How deep into support do you Ripplettes think price could go? $XRP
Stablecoin Adoption Grows as Crypto Hype Wanes
Had too much fun chatting stablecoins with @segall_max, @zcabrams and @pariscribben at @stripe sessions. We were in a room full of bankers. And the biggest surprise? The more the hype blows off of crypto and stablecoins. The more enterprises and volume comes....
Euphoria Signals Crypto’s Downturn: Stay Cautious
One thing I always remember when it comes to crypto that has helped me make money: Crypto will always be painful and unforgiving. The moment euphoria hits, I remind myself, this is the beginning of the end.
Blockworks Raises $192M to Bridge Crypto Trust Gap
Congrats to the incredible team @Blockworks. They are building a very important business for crypto.
Still Bullish on BTC, Eyeing Lower Targets Q2‑Q3
Although I nibbled my middle target ~a month ago (< 5% of available cash), still expecting the bottom two targets to be tested in Q2 or Q3. Reminder that I always remain significantly long $BTC in some form, increasingly through...
Paid by Crypto Firms? Expect only Bullish Praise
If someone is getting paid a lot of money by a crypto company, what do you expect them to say? That crypto is going to go down? That investing in crypto is a bad idea? Come on man.
Paul Tudor Jones Calls Bitcoin Best Inflation Hedge
The legendary wall street hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones: “Bitcoin is unequivocally the best inflation hedge that there is…it has the greatest scarcity value of anything.”