Bitcoin, Broader Market Flat as U.S.-Iran Negotiations Begin
Bitcoin slipped below $73,000, down about 0.6% in the last 24 hours as high‑level U.S. and Iranian officials began talks in Islamabad. The broader crypto market remained largely flat, with the CoinDesk 20 index up 0.12% and Ethereum gaining 0.1%. A two‑week cease‑fire earlier this month sparked a derivatives short squeeze that eliminated more than $430 million of bearish positions. Ongoing regional tensions, including Israeli strikes on Lebanon and Iran’s new Hormuz toll, keep market sentiment cautious.
Iran War Oil-Price Shock Revives Inflation Trade and a New Stablecoin Play
The Iran‑related oil shock has pushed U.S. inflation up 0.9% in March, reigniting investor interest in inflation hedges. Michael Ashton’s USDi stablecoin aims to fill a gap in crypto by tracking the CPI rather than a fixed dollar, preserving purchasing...
Crypto Perpetuals Predict the Direction of Wall Street’s Monday Open with 89% Accuracy, Data Shows
Crypto perpetual futures tied to traditional assets now predict the direction of Monday’s opening price in conventional futures with 89% accuracy, according to Binance Research. Over half (57%) of the expected price move is already reflected in these crypto markets...
Crypto Clarity Bill Has 30% Chance of Passing This Year, Wintermute’s Hammond Says
Wintermute policy chief Ron Hammond estimates a 30% chance the Crypto Clarity Act will pass in 2026, citing bank opposition over stable‑coin yield, shifting timelines, and broader political friction. A recent Punchbowl survey of lobbyists placed odds at 26%, while...
The Bitcoin Market Is Splitting in Two. Here's Who Is Buying and Selling Amid the War
Six weeks of conflict have split the bitcoin market into two camps: a handful of mandated buyers that keep accumulating and a broad group of discretionary sellers exiting positions. Strategy, U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs and Bitmine Immersion Technologies together account...
Star Xu Calls CZ a ‘Liar’ as Founders of World’s Largest Crypto Exchanges Argue over Past Allegations
The long‑running feud between OKX founder Star Xu and Binance chief Changpeng Zhao resurfaced after the release of Zhao’s memoir, prompting Xu to label Zhao a “habitual liar.” Xu revived a 2015 contract dispute from Zhao’s brief stint at OKCoin, sharing a...
The Magic Word for Digital Assets Adoption and Success: Choice
The column argues that the digital‑asset ecosystem will only thrive if market participants are given genuine choice—across blockchain networks, tokenized asset classes, custody models, and wallet providers. Fragmented chains risk locking assets and stifling liquidity, so interoperability and a "network...
Bitcoin Gains After Core CPI Rose a Less-than-Forecast 0.2% in March.
U.S. core CPI for March rose 0.2% month‑over‑month, under the 0.3% forecast, while headline CPI matched expectations at 0.9% amid a sharp oil price surge linked to the Iran war. The softer core reading nudged Bitcoin higher, with the cryptocurrency...
Institutions' Bitcoin Positioning Lacks Conviction; CPI, Iran Talks Might Help
Bitcoin is hovering around $72,000 as institutional investors hedge their bets with both $80,000 call options and protective puts. Options tied to BlackRock’s spot bitcoin ETF show strong open interest in the May $45 call, while skew remains negative, indicating...
Bitcoin Holds Steady as Inflation Data Looms, Bittensor Drama Unfolds
Bitcoin held near $71,700 on Friday as its Bollinger bands narrowed to the tightest level since early 2024, reviving analyst forecasts of a possible 40% price swing. The upcoming U.S. CPI report, projected at 3.3% year‑on‑year, could add macro pressure...
HSBC and Standard Chartered-Led Group Land Hong Kong’s First Stablecoin Licenses
Hong Kong’s monetary authority granted its first two stablecoin issuer licences to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial, a Standard Chartered‑led joint venture. The licences are the inaugural approvals under the Stablecoins Ordinance that took effect in August 2025, following an assessment...
XRP Adjacent Flare Proposes Protocol-Level MEV Capture and 40% Inflation Cut
Flare has submitted a governance proposal to capture maximal extractable value (MEV) at the protocol level by shifting block building to a designated builder and eventually to a confidential compute layer. The plan creates a new entity, FIRE, to funnel...
Mike Novogratz Spotlights Helios as $15 Billion Powerhouse in Galaxy Digital Annual Report
Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz highlighted the firm’s transformation from a pure‑play crypto trader to an infrastructure‑focused powerhouse in its 2025 annual report. The company’s Helios AI data‑center campus in West Texas is now valued at over $15 billion, backed by...
Banks Are Treading Carefully on Stablecoins Despite Market Growth, S&P Global Says
U.S. banks are proceeding cautiously with stablecoins despite the market swelling past $300 billion, according to S&P Global. Only 7% of smaller institutions are developing frameworks and none are running pilots, highlighting a wait‑and‑see posture. Larger banks may explore issuing tokenized...
Tokenized Perpetual Swaps Hit $31 Billion Weekly Volume on Commodities Volatility
Tokenized perpetual swaps surged to $30.7 billion in weekly volume, representing 1.72% of the crypto derivatives market. Commodities led the rally, with oil‑linked swaps alone reaching $6.9 billion after heightened geopolitical tension. Stock perpetual swaps exploded 908% to about $4.9 billion, while overall...
Fartcoin's Price Crashed 50% After $145 Million Manipulation Bet Went Wrong
A group of wallets built a $145.24 million long position on the meme token Fartcoin on the Hyperliquid perpetual futures exchange. The oversized bet collapsed, slashing the token’s price by 50% in one hour, from $0.2519 to $0.1244, and costing the...
Bitcoin’s $80,000 Bull Bet Just Took over the Market
Bitcoin’s market sentiment has flipped bullish as the $80,000 call option on Deribit became the most‑traded contract, overtaking the previously dominant $60,000 put. Open interest at the $80,000 strike now exceeds $1.6 billion, while whale wallets holding more than 10,000 BTC...
Bitcoin Stalls Below Key Resistance as Analysts Clash over Next Move
Bitcoin is trading around $71,200, stalled just below the $75,000 resistance level that many traders view as a catalyst for the next market move. Analysts are divided, with Bloomberg’s Mike McGlone warning a drop to $10,000 if the level fails,...
Strategy’s STRC Sees One of Its Highest Volume Days, with Just One Penny of Volatility
Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock STRC logged $333 million in trading volume on April 9, marking its seventh‑highest daily volume since its July 2025 debut. Despite the heavy flow, the security stayed anchored at its $100 par value, delivering just one penny of price...
CZ Says SBF Asked for Billions 'Like a Bologna Sandwich' As FTX Collapsed
In his memoir "Freedom of Money," Binance founder Changpeng Zhao reveals he signed a non‑binding Letter of Intent to acquire FTX in November 2022 merely as a formality, never intending to buy the exchange. Zhao recounts Sam Bankman‑Fried asking for...
Bitcoin Vaults Past $72,000 as U.S. Stock Futures Surge on a Two‑week U.S.–Iran Ceasefire
Bitcoin surged past $72,700, climbing about 5% in 24 hours as U.S. stock futures rallied following President Donald Trump’s announcement of a two‑week cease‑fire with Iran. The cease‑fire eased geopolitical tensions, sending West Texas Intermediate crude down more than 10%...
Stablecoin Issuers Get Closer to U.S. Federal Rules with FDIC's New Proposal
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) has formally proposed its first stablecoin‑issuer rule under the GENIUS Act, aligning closely with the OCC’s earlier framework. The proposal, which includes 144 regulatory questions, opens a 60‑day public comment period and sets capital,...
Trump-Linked World Liberty Faces Scrutiny over Ties to Sanctioned Network: The Times
World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency venture co‑founded by former President Donald Trump, is under renewed scrutiny after its partnership with Southeast Asian blockchain firm AB DAO, which had promoted a resort tied to Cambodia’s Prince Group—a network sanctioned by the...
‘Don’t Waste Time with Crypto': Here Is What Solana Foundation's Cryptic Message Really Means
The Solana Foundation unveiled a San Francisco billboard that reads “Don’t waste time with crypto,” signaling its push to make crypto invisible infrastructure for AI agents. It promotes the new x402 micropayment standard, which already supports more than 15 million AI‑driven transactions....
Inflation Takes Center Stage: Crypto Week Ahead
Inflation data dominates the crypto agenda this week as the U.S. core PCE and March CPI numbers are set to test whether the Federal Reserve can delay rate cuts. Market odds of zero cuts in 2026 have surged from 2.9%...
XRP Drifts Higher to $1.33, but Range-Bound Trade Still Dominates
XRP nudged up 1.08% to $1.33, trading in a tight $1.30‑$1.35 band as volume rose 23% above its 7‑day average. Buyers defended the $1.30 support, creating higher lows, but repeated selling near $1.33 capped further gains. The token’s movement mirrors...
AI Is Making Crypto's Security Problem Even Worse, Ledger CTO Warns
Ledger’s CTO Charles Guillemet warned that artificial intelligence is dramatically reducing the cost and speed of crypto hacks, turning what was once a high‑skill, expensive endeavor into a near‑zero‑cost operation. Over the past year, crypto attacks have siphoned roughly $1.4 billion,...
Ant Group’s Blockchain Arm Unveils Platform for AI Agents to Transact on Crypto Rails
Ant Digital Technologies, the blockchain arm of Ant Group, unveiled Anvita – a platform that lets autonomous AI agents tokenise real‑world assets and settle payments in real time using USDC stablecoins. The offering comprises Anvita TaaS for asset tokenisation and...
Bitcoin Tends to Outperform Gold and Stocks After Global Shocks, Mercado Bitcoin Finds
Mercado Bitcoin’s research shows Bitcoin consistently outperforms gold and the S&P 500 in the 60‑day periods following major economic or geopolitical shocks. The study cites examples such as a 24 % Bitcoin gain after the 2023 U.S. tariff announcement, a 21 % rise at...
Ex-UK Chancellor Backs Bitcoin as Alternative to Failing Systems
Former UK Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, reflecting on the 2022 mini‑budget fallout, warned that Britain is trapped in a fiscal “doom loop” of overspending and rising taxes. He criticized short‑term political thinking and promoted Bitcoin as a resilient, long‑term monetary alternative....
Schwab Plans Spot Bitcoin, Ether Trading Launch in First Half of 2026
Charles Schwab announced it will launch spot trading for Bitcoin and Ether in the first half of 2026 via its Charles Schwab Premier Bank unit. The firm has opened a wait‑list for a new Schwab Crypto account that will let...
Naoris Protocol's Quantum-Resistant Blockchain Goes Live as Bitcoin and Ethereum Face 'Q-Day' Threats
Naoris Protocol launched a quantum‑resistant mainnet built on NIST‑approved post‑quantum algorithms, marking its shift from proof‑of‑concept to production. The network has already validated over 100 million transactions and mitigated more than 603 million threats during testing. Its debut comes as Bitcoin and...
Todd Blanche, Author of DOJ Crypto Enforcement Memo, Is Now Interim AG
Todd Blanche, former personal attorney to Donald Trump and deputy attorney general, was named interim Attorney General after President Trump removed Pam Bondi. Blanche previously authored a DOJ memo that halted crypto regulatory‑violation prosecutions and dismantled the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement...
Crypto Market Structure Bill Release Pushed Back as Industries View Revised Stablecoin Yield Compromise This Week
The release of the crypto market‑structure bill has been delayed as industry representatives meet with Senate staff to review revised stable‑coin yield language. The compromise bans yield paid solely on stable‑coin balances while allowing activity‑based rewards, a point that raised...
Coinbase Wins Initial Bank Regulator Nod for Trust Charter, Boosting Custody Push
Coinbase received conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust company charter, a key step toward becoming a federally regulated crypto custodian. The OCC requires the exchange to build compliance infrastructure, hire key...
Elon Musk's X to Deploy Scam Kill Switch by Auto-Locking First-Time Crypto Mentioners
Elon Musk's platform X will automatically lock any account that mentions cryptocurrency for the first time, requiring extra verification before further posting. The feature targets a surge in phishing attacks that hijack accounts to promote scam tokens, which Musk’s product...
Galaxy Digital's Testnet Suffers Hack but No Client Funds or Information Were Compromised
Galaxy Digital disclosed an unauthorized intrusion into an isolated research‑and‑development testnet, resulting in a loss of less than $10,000. The breach was contained quickly, and the firm confirmed that no client funds or account information were accessed. Core trading platforms,...
Crypto Long & Short: Governance Is the Real Layer 1
The article argues that blockchain governance, not just technology, is the true foundational layer for digital assets. Recent crises, such as the 2023 Silicon Valley Bank collapse that destabilized USDC, highlight how traditional finance failures can ripple into crypto, underscoring...
Cango Raises Capital as It Faces NYSE Delisting Risk with Shares Below $1
Cango (CANG) faces NYSE delisting after its shares traded below $1 for 30 consecutive days, triggering a six‑month cure period. To shore up its balance sheet, the bitcoin miner issued a $10 million convertible note with DL Holdings and closed a...
Franklin Templeton Launches Crypto Division with 250 Digital Acquisition
Franklin Templeton is launching a dedicated cryptocurrency unit called Franklin Crypto, integrating the newly acquired 250 Digital team with its existing liquid crypto strategies previously managed by CoinFund. The division, led by former CoinFund executive Christopher Perkins, will focus on...
Bitcoin’s Crashes Are Shrinking, and Wall Street Is Starting to Notice
Bitcoin’s price corrections have shrunk to roughly 50% from previous 80‑90% drawdowns, signaling a maturing market. Analysts like Jason Fernandes and Fidelity’s Zack Wainwright attribute the compression to deeper liquidity and growing institutional participation. Bloomberg’s Mike McGlone, however, warns a “normal...
Coinbase’s Base to Focus on Tokenized Markets, Stablecoins, Developers This Year
Coinbase’s Base layer‑2 is pivoting to an in‑house tech stack, moving away from Optimism’s OP Stack to gain greater independence and scalability. The 2026 roadmap emphasizes three pillars: expanding tokenized asset markets such as equities and commodities, scaling stablecoin‑based payment...
Chainalysis Adds 'Natural Language' AI Agents to Its Blockchain Investigation Platform
Chainalysis is adding customizable natural‑language AI agents to its Reactor platform, letting users build investigative workflows through plain‑English prompts. The agents draw on roughly ten million prior investigations, providing audit trails and evidentiary standards without requiring coding expertise. The feature...
Downside Risk Remains as Bitcoin Nears Record-Tying Six-Month Losing Streak
Bitcoin is hovering around $66,600, down roughly 1% for March and on track to match a six‑month losing streak last seen in 2018‑19. The cryptocurrency would need a modest 1% rally before month‑end to close above the $67,300 threshold that...
Bearish Sentiment Builds in Crypto as Volatility and Hedging Rise
Bitcoin’s brief rally to $68,300 evaporated as volatility surged, with the BVIV index climbing to 58% and futures open interest slipping 18% year‑to‑date to $103.79 billion. The market’s risk‑off tone was amplified by a war‑driven oil price spike, pushing Brent to...
FTX Payout, U.S. Jobs: Crypto Week Ahead
Crypto markets face heightened volatility this week as the FTX Recovery Trust is slated to distribute roughly $2.2 billion to its creditors on March 31. At the same time, U.S. macro data—including non‑farm payrolls and unemployment figures—are due early April, potentially influencing...
The Bitcoin Market Remains Boring. Investors Chasing Yields May Be Partly to Blame
Bitcoin has been stuck in a narrow $70,000‑plus range since mid‑February, as institutional investors harvest yield by selling covered call options on their spot holdings. The flood of call premiums has transferred positive gamma exposure to market makers, forcing them...
Bitcoin Recovers to $67,400 After Dipping Below $65,200 as Houthis Enter Iran War
Bitcoin fell to a five‑week low of $65,112 on Monday before rallying to $67,402 as Asian markets opened. The dip broke a pattern of higher lows that had supported the crypto rally since the war began, while the broader market...
Hyperliquid Traders in Tokyo Get 200-Millisecond Edge, Glassnode Research Shows
Glassnode research shows Hyperliquid’s validators are clustered in AWS Tokyo, giving nearby traders a latency edge. Tokyo‑based users can reach the matching layer in 2‑3 ms, roughly 200 ms faster than users in Europe or the U.S. The speed advantage improves order...
Stablecoin Payments Go 'Invisible' In Southeast Asia as Crypto Card Business Surges
Singapore‑based StraitsX saw its stablecoin‑backed card program explode, with transaction volume increasing 40‑fold and card issuances rising 83‑fold between Q4 2024 and Q4 2025. The surge mirrors a broader crypto‑card boom, where global monthly volumes jumped from about $100 million in early 2023 to...