How to Invest in Crypto, CFDs and Private Equity
Alternative investments—crypto, private equity and contracts for difference (CFDs)—are gaining attention among affluent Irish investors seeking diversification. Crypto remains volatile, with Bitcoin swinging over 10% in March 2024, and regulators warn of high risk and no compensation protection. Private‑equity access now comes via fund‑of‑funds structures, but the entry point is roughly $272,500 and capital is locked for a decade. CFDs and spread‑betting offer leveraged exposure to stocks, indices or commodities, yet they amplify losses and, in the case of spread‑betting, generate tax‑free gains.
SEC Sues Crypto Founder, Alleging $16M Token Fraud Built on Phantom Insurance
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against crypto entrepreneur Donald G. Basile and his firms, accusing them of a $16 million token fraud. The SEC alleges Basile misled investors by claiming the Bitcoin Latinum token was insured for...
Neutral Trade Teams Up with Copper (ClearLoop) to Enable Institutional-Grade Access to CEX Liquidity for Solana Vaults
Neutral Trade announced a partnership with Copper’s ClearLoop platform to give its Solana‑based vaults direct, institutional‑grade access to centralized‑exchange (CEX) liquidity. The integration lets vaults settle trades in under 100 ms without pre‑funding exchange accounts, while assets remain secured in Copper’s...
Mining for a Joint Venture: A Crypto “Partnership” That Never Got Off the Blocks
In Tesla v. Pelinkovic, a New York federal court dismissed the plaintiff’s claim that a crypto investment formed a joint venture, finding the complaint failed to allege the essential elements of a partnership. The district court and the Second Circuit affirmed...
From Enforcement to Empowerment: SEC’s Inaugural Podcast Signals Continued Course Correction on Crypto
On April 16, 2026 the SEC debuted its "Material Matters" podcast, hosted by Chairman Paul Atkins and featuring Commissioners Mark Uyeda and Hester Peirce. The series is designed to demystify securities regulation and signals a strategic pivot from "regulation by...
DeFi Protocols Launch Joint Escape Hatch for Aave ETH Lenders and Loopers
Fluid, a DeFi DEX and lending platform, launched an aWETH Redemption Protocol with Lido, Ether.fi, 1inch, 0x and Kyber to free ETH lenders and borrowers trapped after Aave’s WETH pool froze following the $293 million Kelp DAO exploit. In its first...
Major Crypto Platform Shuts Down Amid Market Slump
Netrunner, an AI‑powered tax reporting platform for Solana users, announced it will shut down on April 30 after failing to achieve sustainable scale in the ongoing crypto winter. The service automatically generated IRS Form 8949, Schedule D and Schedule 1 for activities across more...
Last Week Tonight‘s John Oliver Says He Won‘t Placate Prediction Markets Users
John Oliver used his HBO platform to call out prediction‑market operators Kalshi and Polymarket, highlighting trivial event contracts and the ease of outcome manipulation. He pointed to Donald Trump Jr.’s advisory role and criticized the CFTC for allowing contracts on...
Bitcoin Bounces Above $76,000 as DeFi Suffers $14 Billion Exodus After KelpDAO Hack
Bitcoin surged past $76,000, gaining about 2.4% despite heightened Iran‑war tensions that lifted oil to near $90 a barrel. Spot‑ETF inflows and modest leverage underpin the rally, concentrating capital in large‑cap assets while altcoins lag. Meanwhile, the $292 million KelpDAO exploit...
Polymarket Updates Prediction Markets with Short-Duration Contracts Prioritizing Automation : Analysis
Polymarket has rolled out ultra‑short prediction contracts, including 5‑minute markets launched in February 2026, which now account for roughly 20‑25% of the platform’s trading volume. Within eight weeks, 5‑minute contracts generated $2.3 billion in notional volume, dwarfing the $795 million accumulated by 15‑minute...
Aave Models $124M to $230M in Bad Debt From Kelp Exploit
Aave’s service providers released an incident report quantifying the protocol’s exposure to the April 18 Kelp DAO rsETH bridge exploit, estimating bad‑debt between $123.7 million and $230.1 million. Attackers moved 89,567 rsETH onto Aave, borrowing roughly $193 million in WETH and wstETH, with health factors...
Coinbase Opens Services Marketplace for Agentic Commerce
Coinbase has launched Agentic.Market, a services marketplace that lets developers and AI agents discover, compare, and integrate tools for autonomous commerce using the x402 protocol. The platform spans categories such as inference, data, media, search, social, infrastructure and trading, and...
Coinbase Now Offers Crypto Backed Loans in the UK, Shares Rise
Coinbase has introduced crypto‑backed lending in the United Kingdom, allowing users to pledge Bitcoin, Ethereum or Coinbase‑wrapped ETH as collateral for USDC loans. The service, powered by Morpho, offers variable rates and permits borrowing up to $5 million per borrower, with...
What Iran's Hormuz Toll and Romance Scams Have in Common
Iran announced that vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz must pay a cryptocurrency toll, using the US‑pegged stablecoin Tether. The same Tether infrastructure is also used by U.S. investors defrauded in “pig‑butchering” romance scams, with illicit funds flowing through offshore...
The Ultimate Guide to Crypto Futures Trading in 2026
Crypto futures have become a cornerstone of digital‑asset investing in 2026, offering traders exposure without owning the underlying coins. BitMEX now commands over 30% of the futures market, providing both perpetual and fixed‑date contracts with deep liquidity and ultra‑low latency....
One Year Under Paul Atkins, SEC's Crypto Stance Shows Break with Past
Paul Atkins, confirmed as SEC chair in April 2026, has steered the agency toward a markedly softer stance on digital assets. Within his first year the SEC approved several crypto‑linked exchange‑traded funds, signed a coordination MOU with the CFTC, and...
Price Predictions 4/20: SPX, DXY, BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, SOL, DOGE, HYPE, ADA
Bitcoin’s price rallied on strong buyer sentiment, buoyed by $996 million of inflows into US spot BTC ETFs—the best week since early January—and a $2.54 billion purchase of 34,164 BTC by Michael Saylor’s Strategy. The S&P 500 reached a fresh all‑time high of...
Anchored Finance Introduces US Tokenized Stocks
Anchored Finance has launched tokenized versions of the ten largest Nasdaq‑listed companies on Monad’s Layer 1 blockchain, backed one‑to‑one by real US shares. The offering leverages Alpaca’s brokerage technology to provide regulated, instant settlement via USDC stablecoins and 24/7 on‑chain trading....
Why the BIS Is Worried About Stablecoins
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) warned that the stablecoin market’s concentration—dominated by Tether and Circle, which together hold about 85% of the $315 billion supply—poses systemic risks. BIS General Manager Pablo Hernandez de Cos called for stronger international regulatory coordination to...
Scot Becomes Second Scattered Spider-Linked Crook to Plead Guilty in US
Tyler Robert Buchanan, a 24‑year‑old Scottish national linked to the Scattered Spider cybercrime group, pleaded guilty in California to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft for a phishing and SIM‑swap scheme that stole at least $8 million in...
Dune Analytics Reveals 47% of LayerZero OApps Use Minimal DVN Security Following KelpDAO Hack
Dune Analytics examined roughly 2,665 active LayerZero OApp contracts over the last 90 days and found that 47 % run with a 1‑of‑1 Decentralized Validator Network (DVN) security floor, the weakest possible setting. A further 45 % use 2‑of‑2 configurations, while only...
Crypto Infrastructure Company Blames $290 Million Theft on North Korean Hackers
Crypto infrastructure firm LayerZero says a North Korean hacking group, TraderTraitor, stole nearly $290 million from the Kelp platform by exploiting a single‑verifier (DVN) setup. The attackers minted counterfeit rsETH tokens without collateral, used them as loan collateral on platforms like...
Five Times President Trump Made a Statement that Moved Bitcoin, and Why It Might Happen Again This Week
President Donald Trump’s social‑media posts and policy remarks have repeatedly sparked sharp Bitcoin moves, with five documented incidents causing price swings between 5% and 12%. The most dramatic were a 7.1% drop after his 2019 anti‑crypto tweet and a 12.4%...
Bitcoin Faces Near-Term Pressure as Liquidity Tightens, Hilbert Group CIO Says
Hilbert Group chief investment officer Russell Thompson warns that global liquidity could contract by 20‑25%, creating near‑term headwinds for Bitcoin. He expects the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve to respond with tools such as a Treasury General Account draw‑down, supplementary...
UK Gas-Investment Firm Weighs Bitcoin Mining, Draws Criticism
London‑based Reabold Resources, a gas‑investment firm, is evaluating a pilot gas‑powered bitcoin mining operation at its West Newton A well in northern England. The company says the venture will generate revenue to fund further development of the on‑shore gas field...
Illicit Activity and Software Solutions: Identifying Illegal Activity with Software Solutions
Software solutions are increasingly able to spot illicit activity in cryptocurrency by leveraging the inherent transparency of public blockchains. The process begins with massive data collection from ledger records, followed by processing that attributes wallet addresses to real‑world identities and...
Bitmine Buys 101,627 ETH in Largest Purchase Since December 2025
Bitmine Immersion Technologies purchased 101,627 ETH—about $234 million—between April 13 and 19, marking its largest buy since December 2025. The acquisition lifts its treasury to 4,976,485 ETH, valued at roughly $11.5 billion and representing over 4% of the total Ether supply. Bitmine also reports 3.33 million ETH staked,...
Six Years After “DeFi Summer” Is the Sun Already Setting on the Decentralized Finance Revolution?
A series of high‑profile hacks – KelpDAO’s $292 million rsETH exploit, Drift’s $285 million privileged‑access breach, and Venus’s $14.9 million loss – triggered an estimated $10 billion outflow from DeFi over a single weekend. The attacks exposed vulnerabilities in governance, cross‑chain bridges, and operational...
ZachXBT Asks MemeCore to Explain Valuation and Token Supply
On Monday, on‑chain analyst ZachXBT publicly challenged MemeCore to justify its claimed $6 billion market capitalization and the assertion that insiders control more than 90% of the M‑token supply. Major price trackers list the token’s valuation between $4.3 billion (CoinMarketCap) and $5.97 billion...
AI Crypto Mining in 2026: How Cloud-Based Mining Platforms Work
AI crypto mining has emerged in 2026 as a cloud‑based alternative to traditional hardware‑intensive Bitcoin mining. Platforms such as AngelBTC, ECOS, NiceHash, BitFuFu and Binance Pool use data‑driven algorithms to allocate hash power, optimize uptime and automate daily payouts. These...
Hardware Wallet Tangem Announces Global Rollout of Its Retail Payments Service
Switzerland‑based hardware wallet maker Tangem has launched Tangem Pay, a retail payments service that lets users spend USDC via virtual Visa cards on Apple Pay and Google Pay. The product, now available in the United States (excluding some states), Latin America and...
OCBC Launched Physical Gold Fund Token
OCBC, Lion Global Investors and DigiFT have launched GOLDX, Southeast Asia’s first tokenised physical gold fund on public blockchains. The token is available on both Ethereum and Solana and can be bought with stablecoins or fiat through the DigiFT platform....
Polymarket Seeks $15B Valuation as It Raises Capital Ahead of U.S. Regulatory Outcome
Polymarket is in talks to raise an additional $400 million, expanding its current round to $1 billion and valuing the platform at roughly $15 billion. The funding follows a $600 million investment from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which may increase its strategic stake to $2 billion....
Wall Street Moves Beyond the Bitcoin ETF Trade as XRP Leads Altcoins on Fragile Macro Relief
Institutional investors are rotating capital from Bitcoin and Ethereum into altcoin-focused ETFs amid heightened Middle East geopolitical risk. XRP-linked funds led the surge, pulling in $55.4 million last week, the second‑best weekly inflow of 2026. Altcoin ETFs collectively attracted more than...
DeFi Contagion Spreads Beyond Aave as LayerZero, Lido, Ethena Suffer Sharp Declines: Santiment
The recent turbulence in decentralized finance traces back to a bad‑debt episode at Aave, one of the sector’s largest lending platforms. Aave’s token fell 22%, while LayerZero’s ZRO and Lido’s LDO dropped 22% and 19% respectively. Even protocols without direct...
LayerZero Post Mortem Shows Lazarus Group Stole $290M From KelpDAO via RPC Node Compromise
On April 18, 2026, North Korea’s Lazarus Group stole roughly $290 million from KelpDAO’s rsETH bridge by compromising two LayerZero RPC nodes that feed the protocol’s verifier. The attackers injected malware that supplied false transaction data only to the verifier while keeping external...
Paris Blockchain Week 2026: Four Things the Main Stage Didn’t Tell You
Paris Blockchain Week 2026 drew over 10,000 attendees, with banks such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan and EU ministers onstage, signaling a maturing European crypto ecosystem. Behind the polished narrative, participants learned that the EU is already planning a MiCA...
Coinbase Testing AI Agents on Slack and Email
Coinbase has begun testing two internal AI agents that appear in Slack and email, each modeled after former executives Fred Ehrsam and Balaji Srinivasan. The Ehrsam‑based agent provides strategic guidance, while the Srinivasan‑based agent is tasked with sparking innovation. CEO...
Stablecoins Are No Longer Arriving—They’re Here
Stablecoins have moved from a niche concern to a core component of traditional finance strategy, driven by the July 2025 GENIUS Act and subsequent OCC charters for major digital‑asset firms. The OCC’s proposed 376‑page rule and the FDIC’s upcoming regulation...
The Business Case for Blockchain in B2B Payments
Blockchain is being repositioned as a utility for B2B payments, distinct from cryptocurrency. Finance leaders can use distributed ledger technology to speed settlement, cut intermediaries, and improve transparency. Stablecoin‑based rails and integration with ERP systems enable automated, auditable transactions, reducing...
Piero Cipollone: Sparking the Transformation of Finance - Tokenisation and the Role of Central Banks
Piero Cipollone of the BIS argued that tokenisation and distributed ledger technology could finally reduce the long‑standing 2% cost of financial intermediation in the United States and Europe. He contrasted this potential breakthrough with past innovations—derivatives, electronic trading, dematerialisation—that improved...
DeFi Users Pull $10 Billion Out of the Market as $292 Million Exploit Sparks Bank-Run Optics
A $292 million exploit of KelpDAO's cross‑chain bridge drained roughly $10 billion from DeFi markets, prompting a cascade of withdrawals. The attacker siphoned 116,500 rsETH, a liquid restaking token, and moved the funds through Tornado Cash before targeting lending platforms. Aave suffered...
BingX Reports Strong Q1 2026 Growth as AI Users Surpass 5 Million and TradFi Hits 50% of Volume
BingX launched its TradFi Market in Q1 2026, offering over 100 traditional assets and capturing 50% of the platform’s trading volume. The exchange’s AI suite expanded with AI Claw and the AI Skills Hub, driving AI user numbers past 5 million...
Three Major Japanese Financial Institutions Tap Canton to Bring Government Bonds On-Chain
Mizuho Financial Group, Nomura Holdings and Japan Securities Clearing Corporation have launched a joint proof‑of‑concept with Digital Asset’s Canton Network to manage Japanese Government Bond (JGB) collateral on‑chain. The initiative, backed by the Financial Services Agency’s Payment Innovation Project, aims...
Is This Hot New AI Crypto a Millionaire-Maker?
Venice (VVV) has surged 460% this year, lifting its market cap to roughly $413 million and placing it among the top‑100 cryptocurrencies. The token’s price spiked from $0.50 to $22.45 in early 2025 before crashing back to the $3‑range, illustrating the...
ESMA Reminds Crypto Firms of End of Transitional Periods Under MiCA
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) warned that the MiCA transitional period ends on 1 July 2026, after which any crypto‑asset service provider operating in the EU without a MiCA licence will be illegal. ESMA expects all unauthorised crypto‑asset service providers...
Could This Under-the-Radar Cryptocurrency Set You Up for Life?
Hyperliquid, a performance‑grade decentralized exchange for perpetual futures, launched its HYPE token in November 2024 and has amassed a $10.6 billion market cap without any venture‑capital funding. The platform routes roughly 99% of its trading fees to buy and permanently burn...
Crypto Traders Spend $9.7B on Fees as the Next Bitcoin Drawdown Will Expose Which On-Chain Costs Are Real
Crypto users shelled out $9.7 billion in on‑chain fees during the first half of 2025, a 41% year‑over‑year increase and the second‑largest total on record. 1kx projects on‑chain fee revenue to exceed $32 billion in 2026 as application usage accelerates. The firm’s...
Stablecoins Can Help Businesses Turn Costs Into Revenue, Paxos Labs Cofounder Says
Paxos Labs raised $12 million to build an Amplify Suite that lets firms earn yield, borrow against digital assets, and mint branded stablecoins. The utility stack moves stablecoins from basic payment rails to revenue‑generating tools, enabling merchants to slash 2‑3% transaction...
Why No One Is Serving Cryptocurrency’s Most Important Users
Crypto’s most valuable investors are now over 35, controlling the bulk of assets and providing market stability. Yet most platforms remain built for a youthful, gamified audience, offering sparse support and jargon‑heavy interfaces. This mismatch forces seasoned investors toward traditional...