DL News

Robinhood stock will nearly double by year’s end, according to Bernstein analysts who predict outsize growth in crypto and prediction markets.

The retail trading platform could see its stock top $130 per share — an 81% increase from its Tuesday price, according to analysts. They expect 23% year-over-year growth in Robinhood’s crypto-based revenue and whopping 286% growth in the company’s revenue from prediction markets.

Robinhood shares are down in 2026 despite announcing a $1.5 billion buyback programme last month.

Bernstein analysts say they see major events fuelling a boom in prediction markets.

“We expect 2026 to be catalyst-rich for prediction market volumes as U.S hosts the Football world cup in the summer and political activity heats up in H2 on U.S mid term elections,” they wrote.

The analysts also see a record-breaking Bitcoin rally fuelling a revival in retail crypto trading. By the end of 2027, crypto could be the single-largest revenue source for the company.

“This is driven by our expectation of Bitcoin touching $150K by 2026 year-end and $200K by mid-2027,” the analysts wrote. “Crypto has been Robinhood’s most significant differentiator relative to traditional brokers.”

Crypto embrace

CEO Vlad Tenev has jumped headlong into crypto over the past year.

In 2025, the company announced it would build a Layer 2 blockchain on Ethereum, acquired crypto exchange Bitstamp, and launched prediction markets in partnership with Kalshi.

“We have a chance to prove to the world what we’ve believed all along, that crypto is much more than a speculative asset,” Tenev said last year at a crypto event in Cannes. “It has the potential to become the backbone of the global financial system.”

When Donald Trump’s victory in 2024 drove crypto prices to all-time highs, Robinhood was one of the beneficiaries.

Crypto trades accounted for half the company’s transaction based revenues in the fourth quarter of 2024, a 700% jump. The performance contributed to a 58% jump in Robinhood’s net total revenue of $2.9 billion in 2024. Crypto also helped the brokerage record net income of $1.4 billion.

Robinhood’s latest quarterly earnings showed that the company’s crypto-side of business took a hit along with the price of Bitcoin.

“We’re not getting distracted by short-term [price] fluctuations,” Tenev said in the company’s earnings call.

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.

BlackRock’s crypto business is growing — kind of.

The $13 trillion asset manager pulled in $935 million of net inflows into its crypto exchange-traded funds in the first quarter of 2026 and $32 billion over the past year.

In total, the company saw $130 billion in net inflows to its products in the first quarter, according to the company’s Q1 earnings.

“This was one of the strongest starts to the year in BlackRock’s history,” Larry Fink, BlackRock’s CEO, said at the company’s earnings call.

Even so, BlackRock’s crypto category remains a rounding error on the firm’s balance sheet. These products generated a scant $42 million in quarterly base fees. That’s pretty meager for a firm that posted $6.7 billion in total revenue over the same time period.

BlackRock posted its results for the first three months of 2026 as competition in Bitcoin ETFs is heating up. Earlier in April, Morgan Stanley became the first Wall Street bank to launch a Bitcoin ETF, which aims to compete with BlackRock’s fund with lower fees.

And no wonder, institutional interest in digital assets is growing. While Bitcoin used to be the sole domain of hedge funds and family offices with an appetite for higher risk assets, pension funds and university superannuation funds increasingly invest in the asset class too.

If Morgan Stanley is successful, then many other banks might follow suit.

BlackRock is leading the pack. Of the 1.6 million Bitcoin that sits in ETFs, around 890,000 of that belongs to BlackRock clients, according to Dune. That’s more than 50% of the entire sector’s market share. Trailing far behind is Fidelity, with 12%.

Doubling down

And BlackRock isn’t slowing down.

In January, the company filed for a second Bitcoin product that would sell call options on IBIT shares to generate a monthly yield for its investors.

The move signalled that BlackRock sees sustained demand for Bitcoin products among its investor base, even if revenue still hasn’t caught up to the interest just yet.

Fink and some of the firm’s top executives have been among the most vocal Bitcoin bulls on Wall Street.

Last year, as Bitcoin “decoupled” from traditional equities, Jay Jacobs, BlackRock’s US head of equity ETFs came out saying that investors were “looking for those assets that behave differently.”

And then only four days later, Samara Cohen, BlackRock’s CIO of ETF and Index Investments, said "Institutional investors are really largely focused on Bitcoin."

Pedro Solimano is a markets correspondent based in Buenos Aires. Got a tip? Email him at psolimano@dlnews.com.

Deutsche Börse AG said Tuesday that it invested $200 million in Kraken’s parent company, Payward, as the American crypto exchange pushes further into the traditional finance world.

The German finance firm, which runs the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, said the deal was to “leverage their complementary capabilities to bridge traditional financial markets and the digital asset economy.” The deal — secondary transaction — sees Deutsche Börse AG buy existing shares, giving it a 1.5% fully diluted stake in the company.

“Spanning trading, custody, settlement, collateral management, and tokenised assets, the partnership will unlock a new range of enhanced products and services that deliver frictionless access to both ecosystems, creating a holistic experience for institutional clients,” the firm said in a statement.

Kraken — like other crypto exchanges — is pushing into the traditional finance world, allowing users to trade stocks, bonds, and other assets. It is even selling one of its products, the Krak mobile money app, as a “primary account for everything.”

The company made five acquisitions in 2025. Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi told DL News in September that the crypto exchange had more deals lined up.

Bridging TradFi and digital 

Kraken and Deutsche Börse first said they were working together in December in a “partnership to bridge traditional and digital markets.”

The idea is that to break down barriers so funds can flow across both ecosystems with little friction.

Kraken last year said it would integrate directly with 360T, a Deutsche Börse Group subsidiary and one of the world’s largest foreign-exchange trading venues, to give clients access to its liquidity pools.

Tokenisation is playing a part, too. The two firms said they were working to integrate Kraken’s xStocks product — tokenised representations of US equities and ETFs — within Frankfurt-based fintech company 360X’s ecosystem.

Kraken did not immediately respond to questions from DL News. 

Lots of deals 

Kraken’s latest deal comes as the company expands its portfolio — within the digital asset space and outside of it.

Kraken’s portfolio now includes futures trading platform NinjaTrade, which it bought for $1.5 billion, proprietary trading form Breakout, tokenised assets platform Backed Finance, and token management platform Magna.

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.

The Kremlin wants to know who is trading crypto in Russia.

The Russian central bank wants to block citizens from withdrawing crypto from wallets operated by domestic firms unless they complete identity checks.

The bank wants to force domestic exchanges to use know-your-customer protocols to de-anonymise Russian crypto transactions as part of a package of crypto regulations set to come into force in July.

And the regulator also wants to keep tabs on its citizens’ offshore crypto holdings.

“No one is trying to stop Russian individuals and legal entities from continuing to hold cryptocurrency in foreign wallets, Vladimir Chistyukhin, the bank’s first deputy chair, told Russian media outlet RBC. “The only fundamental requirement we have is that they declare [these holdings] to the Federal Tax Service.”

The Kremlin is still reeling from poor economic results in the first few months of the year, but the bank will bid to reverse Russia’s financial fortunes in the months ahead when it launches its blockchain-powered digital ruble.

The proposed background checks risk running counter to many crypto traders’ ideals. Privacy has been a key tenet across the industry ever since early cypherpunks dreamed up the asset class.

Stemming capital outflows

Russia’s crypto exchange sector is still completely unregulated. But that is set to change this summer, with lawmakers currently working on broad-ranging crypto-related legislation.

The central bank is aware that most Russian crypto traders currently keep their coins in wallets based overseas. But Chistyukhin’s comments suggest the bank wants to stem — or at least monitor — Russian capital outflows.

He said the bank will not move to block crypto transfers from “permit-holding Russian intermediaries” to global exchanges such as Binance or Bybit.

However, Chistyukhin said the Kremlin wants to outlaw the transfer of crypto from Russian custodial crypto wallets “to non-custodial wallets abroad.”

Custodial wallets are managed by third parties, such as crypto exchanges, which manage private keys and secure assets on their customers’ behalf.

Non-custodial wallets, by contrast, hand control over private keys to their users. These do not allow anyone other than the coins’ owners to access the wallets.

The new rules, meanwhile, will ensure that crypto traders will not be allowed to move their crypto from overseas exchanges into a non-custodial wallet without first moving it to “official Russian cryptocurrency depositories and exchanges.”

These official channels will be legally obliged to verify the identities of all of their customers —  provided the central bank gets its way.

“From a compliance standpoint, we want [Russian crypto service providers] to be as transparent as possible,” Chistyukhin said. “This will help ensure Russian intermediaries do not put themselves at risk.”

Crypto industry’s plea

The bank said it was not interested in seizing Russians’ crypto.

“Nothing will happen to [Russian citizens’] coins,” the central bank executive said. “They belong to Russian residents, and that will remain to be the case. There will be no penalties for possession, and no restrictions on the use of these coins.”

Chistyukhin said crypto industry representatives had asked the central bank not to make any distinctions between custodial and non-custodial wallets for withdrawals.

However, he said the central bank “believes it is especially difficult to establish a control mechanism for non-custodial wallets” that could comply with anti-money laundering and KYC rules.

What Russians do with their crypto only becomes a concern if the funds move to wallets based in Russia, Chistyukhin said.

“If a Russian individual, with funds in a custodial wallet abroad, transfers those funds to a non-custodial wallet outside the Russian Federation, we won’t be involved,” the executive said. “That is the sole responsibility of foreign legislation and foreign regulators.”

Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.

A version of this article appeared in our The Decentralised newsletter on April 14.

GM, Tim here.

On Sunday, Aave creator and Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov made a bold proclamation: Aave will win.

Aave DAO, the cooperative that governs the $45 billion DeFi lender, had just passed a landmark vote that redefines its relationship with Kulechov’s company.

In exchange for the DAO providing funding to Aave Labs, starting with a whopping $25 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE tokens, the firm will direct 100% of revenue from Aave-branded products directly to the Aave DAO treasury.

It addresses a months-long argument between the DAO and Labs over who should receive revenue from a swap feature on the Aave website, the main way to access the lending protocol.

There’s just one snag.

Three of Aave DAO’s biggest service providers — organisations that have been with the DAO for years — announced their intention to break from the collective in the leadup to the vote.

While each organisation has specific reasons for leaving, their complaints follow a common theme: a dislike of what they call a growing centralisation of power around Aave Labs.

Aave DAO departures

The Aave DAO strife comes as DeFi lenders compete to woo institutions dipping their toes into onchain finance.

Many protocols are compromising on decentralisation, openness and transparency in order to make themselves more attractive to investors used to the closed, permissioned world of traditional finance.

The question is if Aave is among the projects trading away those crypto ideals.

For Marc Zeller, founder of Aave DAO service provider Aave Chan Initiative, the answer is a resounding yes.

He slammed Aave Labs’ request for DAO funding, arguing that it didn’t meet the same transparency standards that his organisation and other service providers hold themselves to.

“We spent three years building a culture of accountability inside the Aave DAO,” Zeller said in a post on the Aave governance forum announcing ACI’s departure from the DAO. “When we applied those same standards to the entity requesting the largest budget in DAO history, the system stopped working.”

What’s more, Zeller and other DAO delegates have criticised Aave Labs employees for using their voting power to influence the Labs funding vote.

Zeller isn’t the only critic of Aave Labs’ perceived control over the DAO.

“Aave Labs believes that the whole Aave DAO and contributors should pivot in the direction they believe in, without sufficient consideration of existing contributors’ expertise,” said BGD Labs when it announced plans to cease contributions to Aave in February.

‘No room for friction’

Kulechov’s response seems to affirm the concerns of the DAO’s service providers.

“The DAO is taking a zero-bureaucracy approach,” he said in his Aave will win post. “There is zero room for friction.”

It sounds like Kulechov is saying the quiet part out loud.

Most proponents say DAOs are meant to function like a democracy. Token holders entrust their voting power to delegates who propose protocol changes and debate them in an open forum.

Delegates often disagree, and that’s recognised as healthy. Debate fosters intellectual growth, sparks innovation, and prevents groupthink, ultimately leading to better decision-making, so the argument goes.

So, if there’s no room for “friction,” as Kulechov puts it, is Aave DAO really a democracy, or something else?

Top DeFi stories of the week

This week in DeFi governance

VOTE: Aave DAO to decide if it will axe Aave V3 on Scroll blockchain

VOTE: Sky DAO votes to launch new cross-chain bridge for Avalanche blockchain

VOTE: Across DAO greenlights transition from DAO to US-based C corporation

Post of the week

Hyperbridge joked about getting hacked on April Fool’s Day. The protocol got exploited 13 days later.

@inversebrah get me in pic.twitter.com/72OZ0TgG8S

— Ethereum Intern (@ethereumintern_) April 13, 2026

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.

A trade association for US banks dismissed a recent White House report that concluded banks would see little benefit from a ban on yield-bearing stablecoins.

That report “studied the wrong question” and reached a misleading conclusion, Sayee Srinivasan and Yikai Wang, respectively the chief economist and banking research VP at the American Banking Association, wrote in an essay published by the organisation’s in-house magazine, the ABA Banking Journal.

“The live policy concern is not whether prohibiting yield on payment stablecoins would impact bank lending,” the executives wrote. “It is whether allowing yield on payment stablecoins would encourage deposit flight — especially from community banks.”

Clarity Act quagmire 

It is the latest salvo in a long-running battle over stablecoin yield. That row has threatened to derail negotiations over the Clarity Act, a bill that would create a long-sought regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in the US.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. Not only would the bill provide the crypto industry with some much needed clarity, the passing of the bill is also seen as a key trigger for Bitcoin’s next rally.

Bitcoin and other top cryptocurrencies are trading at roughly 40% below the record highs they hit last year.

Some stablecoin issuers have paid customers yield on their digital dollars. But last year’s stablecoin legislation, the Genius Act, banned the practice. Banks feared customers would abandon traditional checking and savings accounts for stablecoins, which often pay depositors substantially higher interest rates.

It was unclear, however, whether the law banned third-parties, such as crypto exchanges, from paying interest on customers’ stablecoin holdings.

Banks have lobbied lawmakers to include language in the Clarity Act that would close this supposed loophole. Crypto companies, in turn, have slammed banks for attempting to relitigate components of a bill months after it was signed into law.

As a result, the Clarity Act has been mired in legislative limbo for months. And the window to pass it is rapidly closing, with Democrats expected to reclaim the House in November and put crypto policy on the backburner.

White House economists’ report

The banking lobby’s latest missive comes just days after White House economists said that banks would only get a boost of $2.1 billion — or 0.02% — if lawmakers banned stablecoin rewards.

“In short, a yield prohibition would do very little to protect bank lending, while forgoing the consumer benefits of competitive returns on stablecoin holdings,” the report read.

It also found little impact on the smaller banks found outside major metro areas.

“Altogether, the empirical evidence suggests that our own model overstates an already small effect of stablecoin yield on community banks,” the report adds.

The industry quickly jumped on the news.

“We now know why stablecoin rewards critics wanted it suppressed," Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at Coinbase, said on X. "The most respected economists in the government found nothing that shows rewards cause deposit 'flight.' Facts are hard sometimes.”

But the bank lobby said the Council of Economic Advisers was asking the wrong question by focusing on the effect of a yield prohibition, rather than the consequences of allowing yield.

“By focusing on the effects of a prohibition, the CEA paper risks creating a misleading sense of safety by avoiding the much more consequential scenario: yield-paying payment stablecoins scaling quickly,” the ABA says.

And, contrary to the White House report, allowing yield-bearing stablecoins would indeed have a disproportionate impact on community banks, according to the ABA.

“This is not primarily a question of whether the system has enough reserves,” the executives wrote. “It is a question of whether smaller banks have the balance sheet flexibility to absorb outflows without cutting back credit.”

US President Donald Trump has previously sided with the crypto industry in the yield debate.

“Americans should earn more money on their money,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

“The banks are hitting record profits, and we are not going to allow them to undermine our powerful crypto agenda that will end up going to China, and other countries if we don’t get the Clarity Act taken care of.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Mike Selig, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins, and former White House Crypto Czar David sacks all called for the passing of the Clarity Act earlier in April.

Despite the banking lobby’s latest attack, White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt struck a bullish note when discussing the Clarity Act’s future this week.

He told CoinDesk on Monday that senators squabbling over the bill seem to have reached a compromise over key issues over stablecoin yields.

He also said the lawmakers have made “considerable progress” on other key issues.

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com. 

Crypto hardware wallet firm Ledger has got a new position in its C-suite: chief human agency officer.

The role has been assigned to the firm’s chief experience officer Ian Rogers, and will help it deal with the growing headaches of operating in a world that's increasingly relying on so-called AI agents.

AI agents, autonomous software programmes designed to achieve specific goals without constant human oversight, sit at the bleeding edge of the booming sector. While proponents say agents promise huge efficiency gains across multiple industries — including crypto — they can be unreliable.

Rogers will lead Ledger’s artificial intelligence initiatives and ensure that the use of AI agents does not come at the cost of individual control.

“The biggest threats come from AI systems being granted too much access to sensitive credentials, wallets, and financial decision-making without human oversight,” Rogers told DL News.

“These agents are only growing in number and can act incredibly fast, which is great until something goes wrong. If they’re not tightly permissioned and authenticated, attackers can hijack them or trick them into doing the wrong thing.”

Ledger’s announcement, which coincides with the release of its new AI security roadmap, comes as the technology redefines how crypto firms approach their security and that of their users.

Traders are increasingly relying on agents to execute transactions on their behalf — sometimes with unintended consequences.

At the same time, AI is making crypto hacking cheaper, easier, and faster, allowing attackers to overwhelm defenders and putting millions of dollars at risk.

Ledger’s AI roadmap 

Roger’s first focus in his new position is defining how AI agents operate and what they can do.

In its AI roadmap, Ledger says it will create systems to connect the identities of agents to hardware like Ledger’s wallets. This will let users and observers know where an agent came from and who controls it.

Later in the year, Ledger plans to introduce a so-called “human-in-the-loop” feature where agents propose actions for users to review. Users will be able to set boundaries, such as spending limits or specific smart contract permissions, for the agents they task with making transactions on their behalf.

These updates will culminate in the final three months of the year with the development of Proof of Human, another new system which is designed to combat bot-spam and multi-accounting. The goal is to help prove a unique individual is behind a given agent interaction, not just another agent.

Ledger is not the first crypto firm to attempt to create such a system.

World, a crypto firm backed by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, has since 2019 worked on a system that uses biometric data from scans of users’ irises to prove they’re unique humans.

The firm has been criticised for its data collection practices, which involve offering potential users valuable WLD tokens for signing up to have their irises scanned.

Several regulators worldwide have banned World from collecting biometric data, while several more have launched investigations into Tools for Humanity, the firm behind the project.

Rogers said Ledger’s Proof of Human is hardware-based and doesn’t rely on biometric data or social reputation like World’s system.

“It links human attestation to the secure element inside a Ledger device,” Rogers said. “Each attestation confirms that a unique, verified individual is authorising or controlling an agent’s actions, without exposing personal data.”

“We’re not trying to prove the identity of the whole world,” he said.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.

What do a legendary boxer, financial wizards, the US President, and the top 297 TRUMP memecoin holders have in common?

They’re all set to descend on the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on April 25 for Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency conference and gala luncheon, billed “a memory you will talk about forever!”

The celebrity roster includes heavyweight champion Mike "Iron Mike" Tyson and life coach Tony Robbins, with Trump’s attendance confirmed, at least according to the official website.

They will be flanked by the likes of Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, venture investor Tim Draper, and Founders Fund partner Joey Krug.

On the crypto side, the roster includes Tether boss Paolo Ardoino, Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley, Upbit founder Chi-Hyung Song, and a16z’s Arianna Simpson.

“This gala is proof that the Trump family is always exploring new ways to reward loyalists of the asset,” Shawn Young, chief analyst at MEXC Research, told DL News. “This is a good thing.”

pic.twitter.com/1TAAFu2EOn

— TrumpMeme (@GetTrumpMemes) April 8, 2026

Despite the company’s hype machine, the TRUMP memecoin is still down 96% from its January 2025 peak after it jumped slightly after Trump announced the event. It now trades at $2.84.

“The TRUMP memecoin gala might be a good avenue to revive interest in the sector, but many won’t bank on a new wave from this speculative asset at this time,” Young said.

The event — the second by the US president’s memecoin team — comes as the first family’s crypto business ventures are under increasing scrutiny from lawmakers months before the midterm elections in November.

Take two

The first gala dinner for TRUMP holders attracted controversy.

In May 2025, the top 220 holders of the TRUMP token attended a similar gathering at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia.

Democratic lawmakers, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, slammed the event as “pay-to-play corruption.”

Chris Murphy, a Democrat who has proposed banning officials from selling memecoins, described the gala as “a real problem.” He warned it could let wealthy and influential foreign individuals bypass normal diplomatic channels and try to lobby the president directly.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at the time that there was nothing wrong with the dinner.

“It’s absurd for anyone to insinuate that this president is profiting off of the presidency,” she said. “This president was incredibly successful before giving it all up to serve our country publicly.”

This year, the scale and stakes are even bigger.

The invite list has expanded to the top 297 holders, with the top 29 promised a “VIP reception” with their “favourite president” and celebrity guests.

The 29 top holders will also receive some Trump-branded fragrance, a commemorative poster, a trading card, and a watch.

Fight Fight Fight LLC, the corporate entity behind the TRUMP memecoin’s official website, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Democrats' criticism from DL News.

“‘There will be no private meetings with the president and no solicitations,” the TRUMP memecoin website says.

Fanbase turmoil

Last year’s gathering happened amid industry exuberance following Trump’s pro–crypto blitz that propelled Bitcoin to new all-time highs.

And billionaire crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain and the top TRUMP memecoin holder with $40 million last year, was in the spotlight.

“I really appreciate, like, everything the Trump Administration has done to our industry,” Sun, clad in a tuxedo, can be seen telling the audience in a video shared on X.

真没看错 https://t.co/OiQYXc7IgA

— H.E. Justin Sun 👨‍🚀 🌞 (@justinsuntron) May 23, 2025

But now, things are different. Even top tokens are reeling from a crypto industry downturn that has vapourised $2 trillion, or about half, of the total cryptocurrency market’s value.

And some of Trump’s biggest fanboys — notably Sun — have turned on World Liberty Financial, another Trump family crypto venture.

On Sunday, Sun posted a series of tweets accusing World Liberty Financial of secretly controlling user funds, freezing assets without warning, and using the crypto community like a “personal ATM.”

In response, World Liberty Financial accused Sun of “playing the victim” while making “baseless allegations to cover up his own misconduct.”

“See you in court pal,” World Liberty Financial wrote on X.

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com.

Bitcoin jumped to a four-week high of $74,929 after President Donald Trump said that Iran had reached out for potential peace talks even as the US moved ahead with its naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Crypto traders believe that while White House rhetoric has become more aggressive, the actual policy stance has softened, according to a note to investors from digital asset trading firm QCP on April 13.

The US may talk big, but it is highly unlikely that the Americans would intercept Chinese vessels and risk a global escalation, the analysts wrote.

“Despite renewed blockade threats, implied vols and risk reversals have drifted back toward pre-conflict levels, a signal that panic has faded even if uncertainty has not,” QCP wrote. “BTC and ETH continue to absorb geopolitical noise and weekend liquidation events, suggesting a steady underlying bid rather than fragile positioning.”

Bitcoin and Ethereum are up 5% and 9% respectively over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin trades at $74,586 and Ether at $2,378.

The rally marks a bullish signal for the overall cryptocurrency market, which has lost 39% of its total value since October to be worth $2.6 trillion on Tuesday.

Exchange-traded funds reflect that slight optimism in the market. Last week, Bitcoin ETFs saw $833 million in inflows whereas their Ethereum counterparts saw investors inject $187 million, according to data from DefiLlama.

To be sure, traders kicked off this week with some caution. Bitcoin ETFs have so far seen $291 million in outflows. Investors have poured just over $9 million into Ethereum ETFs.

Stock markets offer a similarly optimistic view. The S&P 500 index is up 1% over the past 24 hours and over 4% over the past five days. The Nasdaq is up 1% over the past 24 hours and just under 6% over the past week.

Still, a key driver of Bitcoin’s price remains the state of the US economy. Low inflation will embolden the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. Low interest rates usually incentivise investors to bet on risk-on assets like Bitcoin.

Officials of the US central bank will next meet on April 28 and 29 to set interest rates.

This week, investors will carefully consider three sets of inflation data for clues to how the US economy is doing. Those are the publication of the March’s Producer Price Index on Tuesday, Wednesday’s industrial production data, and Thursday’s job market data.

Eric Johansson is DL News’ managing editor. Got a tip? Email him at eric@dlnews.com.

View source version on dlnews.com: https://www.dlnews.com/articles/markets/bitcoin-rises-to-dollar74000-as-traders-call-trumps-bluff-on-iran/

View source version on dlnews.com: https://www.dlnews.com/articles/markets/bitcoin-rises-to-dollar74000-as-traders-call-trumps-bluff-on-iran/

The Internal Revenue Service is stepping up its crackdown on crypto tax evasion — and investors are running out of excuses, experts say.

What was once a murky grey zone is now a brightly lit compliance regime backed by the agency’s Criminal Investigation division, according to Andrew Duca, founder of tax platform Awaken Tax.

“This year, we are seeing the IRS clampdown on crypto tax evasion more than ever before,” he told DL News. “The IRS's Criminal Investigation division is going after crypto cases more and more”

His stark warning lands right before the April 15 filing deadline for US crypto investors.

Some 61% of US crypto investors are unaware of the IRS’s new reporting rules for the 2025 tax year, according to a March report by Coinbase and CoinTracker shared with DL News. The report described an “environment of high compliance intent but low functional understanding.”

Duca said that 52% of US crypto investors are worried about filing their crypto taxes incorrectly this year and receiving an IRS penalty.

“There have been so many changes this year, and it’s clear investors are struggling to get their heads around it,” he said.

Filers should gather records from every exchange, connect every wallet, and report accurately, he urged.

That’s because voluntarily coming forward carries far lighter consequences than being caught. Criminal tax fraud can lead to a fine of up to $100,000 and five years in prison, according to Cornell Law School. That would be a worst-case scenario.

What’s new?

The biggest shift for 2025 is Form 1099-DA.

For the first time, brokers must report gross proceeds from digital asset transactions to taxpayers and the IRS. That brings crypto reporting closer to traditional brokerage accounts.

But there is a critical catch: brokers are not required to report cost basis to the IRS for 2025.

That means crypto investors remain fully responsible for calculating and reconciling their adjusted cost basis across platforms. And this is where many stumble, according to Duca.

“Make sure you don’t just accept what those exchanges send to you, or you could dramatically overpay,” he said.

Duca urged crypto investors to file their taxes in an honest and good-faith manner.

“The consequences of voluntarily coming forward rather than being caught out are far less.”

Crypto market movers 

Bitcoin is up 5.3% over the past 24 hours, trading at $74,524.

Ethereum is up 8.4% over the past 24 hours at $2,373.

What we’re reading 

Crypto critics lament SEC enforcement reversal — DL News

One of Trump’s biggest crypto supporters just turned on him — DL News

Aave DAO Passes “Aave Will Win” Proposal, Directing 100% of Product Revenue to Token Holders — Unchained

U.S. blockade on Iran = markets hostage — Milk Road

Coinbase adds ‘DeFi mullet’ to UK offering in drive to become an everything exchange — DL News

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com

A version of this story appeared in The Guidance newsletter on April 13. Sign up here.

Since Paul Atkins replaced crypto bogeyman Gary Gensler as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency has made what feels like a 180 degree turn.

We now have the numbers to support that feeling, and — spoiler alert — crypto critics are mad.

The SEC filed 456 enforcement actions in the 2025 fiscal year, which ended on September 30. That’s the lowest number in at least 21 years. Since 2006, when it filed 574, there hasn't been a single year in which the agency filed fewer.

The SEC has cast this as a necessary reset, a fresh commitment to the cases that really matter.

“Central to an effective enforcement programme is determining which cases to bring and responsibly stewarding Commission resources,” the agency said in a statement.

"The current Commission deliberately refocused the enforcement programme on matters of fraud—cases that inherently require more time and resources to develop and bring, often requiring up to two or more years to manifest results.”

On crypto specifically, the SEC made a “necessary course correction,” it said, citing its decision to drop cases brought against Coinbase, Consensys, Binance, and four other firms.

“Over the past year, the Commission has put a stop to regulation by enforcement and recentered its enforcement programme on the Commission’s core mission,” Atkins said in a statement that used crypto industry language summarising his predecessor’s approach to policing financial markets.

“We have redirected resources toward the types of misconduct that inflict the greatest harm — particularly fraud, market manipulation, and abuses of trust — and away from approaches that prioritised volume and record-setting penalties over true investor protection.”

Critics cry foul

This change has crypto critics writing eulogies for the SEC’s enforcement division.

John Reed Stark, the founder and former head of the agency’s Office of Internet Enforcement, called the announcement a “political manifesto” and lamented the “collapse of American securities regulation.”

“Chairman Paul Atkins used the occasion not to report results, but to rewrite the definition of success itself: the cases we didn't bring, the investigations we closed, the penalties we chose not to seek,” Stark wrote on LinkedIn.

He was particularly incensed by the agency’s “extraordinary request to be credited for 1,095 investigations the agency chose to abandon.”

To be sure, Gensler had it out for the crypto industry. In a September 2024 analysis, crypto venture capital firm Paradigm found that over half of the crypto-related enforcement actions the SEC had taken since 2015 came during Gensler’s tenure.

Gensler, in turn, said that nearly one-fifth of tips, complaints, and referrals were crypto-related, even though crypto accounted for less than one percent of US capital markets.

Atkins’ approach hasn’t just rankled industry critics. It seems it has also been controversial within the SEC.

In September, Atkins hired former military judge Margaret Ryan to lead the enforcement division. Last month, she abruptly resigned. Last week, the SEC hired attorney David Woodcock to lead the division.

"Even compared to President [Donald] Trump’s first term the numbers have fallen off a cliff,” Amanda Fischer, Gensler’s chief of staff, wrote on X.

“These numbers combined with the clear conflicts of interest with White House business entanglements and the abrupt departure of the Enforcement Director call into question the integrity of the agency.”

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.

Coinbase is opening up its decentralised exchange services to UK customers as it tightens its grip over the British market.

The new initiative is one of several planned UK rollouts this year in the firm’s bid to become an “everything exchange,” Keith Grose, Coinbase UK CEO, told DL News.

“This is our most important market outside of the US,” Grose said. “It's also where we have the most employees outside the US and the biggest presence outside of the US. The UK is a cornerstone for us.”

The launch will “show and demonstrate” to the government that DeFi can be safe, if handled correctly, Grose said.

The comments highlight Coinbase’s ambitious growth plans and its campaign to sway UK lawmakers to introduce crypto-friendly rules.

'DeFi mullet'

Coinbase previously rolled out the service in the US and Brazil.

The new launch will enable UK customers to access DeFi vendors like Uniswap and Aerodrome through the Coinbase app. Through the decentralised exchange trading integration, UK users will be able to trade assets that are native to Base, Coinbase’s layer 2 network. It also plans to rollout the offering to other networks like Solana.

“This will increase the number of assets they can trade on Coinbase from 300 to millions,” Coinbase said in a blog announcing the UK rollout.

The service is built on the idea of the “DeFi mullet” — easy Coinbase experience in the front and DeFi in the back — that exchange has championed for over a year.

Coinbase will work with “trusted third parties” to screen out and highlight risks to assets, such as a high ownership concentration, Grose said. A high ownership concentration could raise the risk of a rug pull, which is when creators of a project withdraw all or most of the liquidity, including the deposits made by investors, leaving token holders holding empty bags.

‘Everything exchange’

Coinbase has made no secret of its plans to become an “everything exchange’ where users can trade everything from stocks to memecoins.

These efforts have seen it debut stock market trading and predictions markets on the platform to, as CEO Brian Armstrong put it, “bring the world onchain.”

Most of these efforts have been made in the US, but Grose says more services will come to the UK.

Grose declined to say what other services Coinbase plans to roll out in the UK, but said to look for the services that the firm has launched in the US to “get a sense” of what’s coming.

“I have gray hairs for a reason — it’s shipping season,” Grose said.

Eric Johansson is DL News’ managing editor. Got a tip? Email him at eric@dlnews.com.

The arrest of the alleged ringleader behind a network of cryptocurrency-fuelled “revenge agencies” has failed to halt a market for on-demand harassment and violence, with operators continuing to solicit clients online days later.

Police detained the suspect on April 3, accusing him of coordinating operations that paid as little as $300 in Tether’s dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT for acts such as smearing rotting food and human waste on victims’ doorsteps.

But Korean-language online advertisements posted on Monday, as seen by DL News, were still promoting a menu of services, including intimidation, assault, and even murder disguised as accidents, with would-be clients directed to Telegram and asked to pay deposits in the dollar-pegged stablecoin.

And on April 12, South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo spoke to an agency operator who even offered to kill people in exchange for USDT.

Police have spent weeks tracking these revenge agencies, carrying out raids and arrests in Busan, Gyeonggi Province, and Seoul. In most cases, police say, masterminds ask for payments in USDT, and use the same stablecoin to pay convicted criminals to carry them out.

‘Settling scores’

“I can help with debt resolution, settling adultery scores, school or workplace bullying, and all other personal grievances,” wrote one “agency” on X, in a post seen by DL News dated April 13.

DL News has decided not to link to these posts, which may contain harmful or distressing content.

The post’s authors wrote the agency had a “six-year track record.” The poster offered to carry out “acts of terror” on their clients’ behalf. They also said they would inject clients’ targets with narcotics or forge “public or private documents” upon request.

Chosun Ilbo reporter Jung Sang-hyuk spoke to one of these operators via Telegram.

When Jung made a preliminary enquiry about prices, the operator reportedly immediately replied by asking: “Would you like us to kill someone and make it look like an accidental death?”

The operator said the agency could also arrange a “debilitating upper or lower body injury.”

The price would vary between $1,700 and $5,700 depending on the severity of the injury, the operator said.

“Our staff wear body cameras and film the results, which they send you via Telegram,” the operator explained. “We will get to work once you send us a 50% down payment in USDT.”

When Jung asked the operator how he could be sure this was not a scam, the operator directed him to a portal full of hundreds of testimonials.

“This service provides good value for money,” read one of the reviews.

Data leak

So far this year, police have investigated over 50 cases of retaliatory violence, graffiting of offensive messages, and defamation, making around 30 arrests.

They believe all of these cases involve crypto payments.

The agencies use a range of highly sophisticated methods, police say. One “employee” allegedly infiltrated an outsourcing company used by the courier service Baedal Minjok.

This reportedly enabled the illegal agency to steal personal information on victims, such as home addresses, allowing other operatives to carry out retaliatory terror attacks.

Baedal Minjok has apologised for the data leak and says it has cut ties with the outsourcing firm.

Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.

Hyperbridge, a popular crypto bridge, has been left reeling after a hacker used a code bug to create unbacked crypto tokens.

The hacker tricked the bridge into creating one billion of Polkadot’s DOT token on the Ethereum blockchain, multiple security experts reported on Monday. Although the haul had a paper value of some $1.2 billion, a lack of liquidity meant the hacker sold the tokens through decentralised exchange Uniswap for just over $237,000 worth of Ether, onchain records show.

Seun Lanlege, founder of Polytope Labs, the firm behind Hyperbridge, said the protocol has been paused while his team works to patch the bug.

A spokesperson for Parity Technologies, a Polkadot developer, told DL News that based on the information currently available, the issue does not indicate any vulnerability in Polkadot’s protocol, consensus, or audited core code.

Last year, hackers swiped over $649 million through code exploits, according to a report from Slowmist, a blockchain security firm.

Even battle-tested protocols like Balancer, whose code had been live on the Ethereum blockchain since 2021, were not immune. It lost $128 million in November after a hacker exploited a code bug.

In recent months, DeFi developers fear hackers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to find DeFi protocol vulnerabilities and exploit them.

Most vulnerable DeFi protocols

Hyperbridge was created by Lanlege and co-founder David Salami through Polytope Labs, a Lagos-based blockchain research company started in 2023.

The protocol lets users send assets between various unconnected blockchains, such as Polkadot and Ethereum. Hyperbridge launched on Polkadot in November 2024.

The root cause of the incident appears to be a forgery of the messages the bridge uses to ensure users can only withdraw tokens equivalent to the amount they deposit, BlockSec, a crypto security firm, said on X.

The hacker, BlockSec said, found a way to fake these messages. This allowed them to trick the protocol into creating one billion DOT tokens without depositing the same amount into the bridge.

At one point, crypto bridges were viewed as some of the most vulnerable DeFi protocols.

In 2022, a hacker used a bug in Wormhole, a crypto bridge that connected Solana to several other blockchains, to steal some $322 million. Like the Hyperbridge attack, the hacker tricked the bridge into letting them create fake tokens.

A month later, North Korean hackers stole some $625 million from a crypto bridge connecting the Ronin blockchain to Ethereum. This time, the theft resulted from the hackers gaining access to the password-like private keys that controlled the bridge.

While attacks against crypto bridges have become less common in recent years, many of the same design choices that make them vulnerable still remain.

Polkadot's DOT token has fallen around 5% over the post 24 hours.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.

Bitcoin traders are positioning for falling prices, according to Maxime Seiler, CEO of crypto trading firm STS Digital.

The higher demand for put options — meaning investors are paying for downside protection while selling off upside bets — signals fear, Seiler said in a note shared with DL News.

“Puts are trading at a significant premium to calls across the board,” Seiler wrote.

The bearish signal comes as Bitcoin trades just above $70,000 after falling nearly 4% over the weekend amid President Donald Trump’s threat to blockade the Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, oil surged back above $100 a barrel after US Central Command said the Navy will block all ships entering or leaving Iranian ports starting Monday at 10am ET.

High oil prices means higher inflation — something that central bankers around the world will weigh heavily as they meet later in April. The prices of risky assets like Bitcoin are heavily dependent on these institutions' policies because they determine the amount of money in the financial system.

“The unresolved Middle East conflict will remain center stage this week,” said Ed Yardeni, president of Yardeni research.

Here are four other critical events to watch this week, according to Yardeni.

Inflation pressure

Tuesday’s March Producer Price Index looms large. Headline and core PPI are expected to rise to 4.0% year-on-year, extending a heating trend that began even before the war intensified.

Energy sits at the heart of this shift. A US blockade of Hormuz pushes oil prices higher at the start of the week, feeding directly into producer costs. Rising price indexes already signal mounting inflation pressure over the next six months.

For Bitcoin, that matters. Persistent inflation keeps the Federal Reserve cautious. A cautious Fed keeps interest rates elevated — and higher rates dampen investors’ risk appetite.

Industry numbers

Wednesday’s industrial production data will offer a read on manufacturing momentum. Output has been trending higher since early 2025, especially in information technology hardware and defense.

War-driven demand often lifts defense production even as other sectors wobble, Yardeni said. That creates a strange mix: solid output numbers alongside rising geopolitical risk.

Markets read that as inflationary rather than stimulative, Yardeni argues. For Bitcoin’s price, stronger production tied to defense spending does little to ease concerns about tightening financial conditions.

Labour market

The US labour market remains resilient. Initial jobless claims ticked up to 219,000 for the week of April 3, while continuing claims fell to 1.8 million. The energy shock has not yet dented hiring in a meaningful way.

Thursday’s claims data will confirm whether cracks are forming. A strong jobs market paired with rising energy prices would be seen as a negative for crypto prices. A weaker report means the Fed could slash interest rates sooner to stimulate the economy — thus boosting prices.

Fed signals

Regional Fed surveys from New York and Philadelphia will deliver the first forward-looking snapshots of business sentiment since the blockade threat. These surveys are volatile but closely watched.

The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index will also reveal how smaller firms are reacting. It stood at 98.8 in February, just above its long-run average. Energy shocks have crushed small-business confidence before. They are poised to do so again.

Meanwhile, investors will parse comments from Federal Reserve officials before the Open Market Committee on April 28-29.

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com

World Liberty Financial is declaring war on its top investor — billionaire crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun.

On Sunday, the Trump family’s crypto venture blasted Sun in a fiery social media post, accusing him of “playing the victim” while making “baseless allegations to cover up his own misconduct.”

“See you in court pal,” World Liberty Financial wrote on X. “We have the evidence. We have the truth.”

The public threat of a lawsuit marks a dramatic escalation in a feud between World Liberty Financial and one of US President Donald Trump’s biggest crypto allies. The venture’s WLFI token is trading 75% below its September peak as fresh questions swirl around its finances amid decentralised finance manoeuvres that market watchers say are highly risky.

What’s the feud about?

Sun has been a key backer of Trump-linked crypto projects.

The Tron blockchain founder has invested at least $75 million in the project’s WLFI token and about $18 million in the president’s TRUMP memecoin, which launched in January 2025.

The Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur has appeared alongside Trump family members at conferences and private events.

In November, 2024, Sun said he was “thrilled” to be World Liberty Financial’s largest investor and saluted the president’s pro-crypto policies.

“The US is becoming the blockchain hub and Bitcoin owes it to [President Trump],” Sun tweeted.

Now, however, the relationship has soured.

On Sunday, he fired off a barrage of tweets that accused the World Liberty Financial team of implanting backdoor controls over user assets, freezing investor funds without disclosure or due process, and treating the crypto community like a “personal ATM.”

“As the largest investor in this project, I demand that those responsible come forward by name, instead of hiding in the shadows,” he said.

The outburst comes after World Liberty Financial froze one of Sun’s wallets in September after the crypto mogul moved WLFI to the HTX crypto exchange, which he owns. The block meant that Sun couldn’t move more WLFI out of that wallet.

I am calling on World Liberty Financial @worldlibertyfi to publicly disclose who controls the single guardian EOA and the 3/5 multisig that govern the WLFI smart contract.
Every investor has the right to know who holds the power to freeze their assets.
Here is what on-chain… https://t.co/dxYKDp5Zbi

— H.E. Justin Sun 👨‍🚀 🌞 (@justinsuntron) April 13, 2026

Sun’s X spree came in response to a post that commented on Sun and the Trump project’s relationship, saying Sun had been “punished” for moving the funds.

Sun urged World Liberty Financial to “publicly disclose who controls the single guardian [external owned account] and the 3/5 multisig that governs the WLFI smart contract.”

A multisig is a type of crypto wallet that requires several private keys to authorise transactions. Whoever sits on those accounts has “the unilateral power to freeze any token holder’s assets,” Sun wrote.

“Let me be clear about what this structure means: community governance and voting are meaningless,” Sun said. “Every proposal, every vote, every claim of decentralised decision-making is theatre. Real power — the power to freeze, to move funds, to control the protocol — sits with one anonymous EOA and a 3-of-5 multisig that answers to no one.”

World Liberty Financial hit back, telling the Tron founder that they’d see him in court.

Neither World Liberty Financial nor Sun immediately replied to a request for comment from DL News.

Questions swirl 

At stake is not only reputations, but the credibility of a Trump-linked crypto project that has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and the crypto community.

The WLFI token plunged 13% on Friday to about $0.079, an all-time low, after reports that the company used five billion tokens as collateral to borrow $75 million in stablecoins, including its own USD1, through the DeFi protocol Dolomite.

Dolomite was founded by Corey Caplan, an adviser to World Liberty Financial. The transaction left the lending pool exposed to sharp price swings and left some USD1 lenders unable to withdraw funds until World Liberty Financial unwinds its position, according to reports.

World Liberty Financial dismissed the criticism as “FUD” and said it was nowhere near liquidation, but it did not directly address the withdrawal bottleneck.

The project’s risk profile has also drawn fire. CORE3, a crypto ratings firm, assigned WLFI a D grade, placing it among the riskiest projects it tracks. The assessment cited insider-heavy token ownership and limited security monitoring.

To be sure, WLFI’s bearish price performance mirrors the broader altcoin market as the industry reels from a $2 trillion downturn. Prominent tokens like Solana and Dogecoin are also down over 70% from their peaks.

Political heat

The feud is escalating amid an incendiary political backdrop months ahead of the US midterm elections. Republicans are bracing for a sweeping defeat in November, a White House insider told Politico last week.

In March, Sun settled a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit from 2023, part of a broader crypto enforcement retreat under Trump. Rainberry, one of the companies associated with the Tron network agreed to pay a $10 million settlement.

But his ties to World Liberty Financial  — and links to the Trump family — have become a key point of attack for Democratic lawmakers who accuse the administration of favouritism toward crypto allies.

The most outspoken of those is Senator Elizabeth Warren, who in March blasted the SEC for being a “lap dog for Trump’s billionaire buddies.”

“Any crypto legislation moving through Congress must stop the president’s crypto corruption,” Warren said.

The White House has repeatedly rejected allegations of wrongdoing.

Crypto market movers 

Bitcoin is down 1.3% over the past 24 hours, trading at $70,677.

Ethereum is down 1.3% over the past 24 hours at $2,185.

What we’re reading 

Bhutan Bitcoin ‘sell-off’ gathers pace, amid crypto mining halt claims — DL News

Falling oil prices a ‘powerful catalyst’ for crypto price growth, say experts — but there’s a catch — DL News

Bessent Presses Senate on Clarity Act, Labels Resistant Crypto Leaders ‘Nihilists’ — Unchained

Retail Is Quitting Crypto at the Worst Possible Time w/ Guy Wuollet — Milk Road

Bitcoin treasury Nakamoto aims for reverse stock split. Is it a good idea? — DL News

Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email him at lance@dlnews.com

US and Iranian negotiators’ failure to strike a deal during peace talks in Pakistan this weekend could hit oil prices when markets open on Monday, but for the moment Brent crude prices remain below the $95 mark. Over the past five days, oil prices have tumbled by 14%, while Bitcoin and Ethereum rallied.

Should oil prices remain low, experts say, a chain of events could see money cascade into the crypto markets.

“Lower oil prices directly reduce global inflation expectations, easing pressure on central banks and improving the liquidity environment that crypto thrives in,” Ryan Lee, Chief Analyst at Bitget Research, told DL News. “If lower energy prices continue to anchor inflation [...], it could open the door for more dovish monetary policy later in the year, acting as a powerful catalyst for risk assets.”

While the future of the crypto markets remains decidedly in the balance due to events in the Middle East, the prospect of lower crude prices has spurred stagnant crypto markets into life, dragging Bitcoin above the $70,000 mark for the first time since late March.

Capital flow

“A drop in oil prices could lead to greater supply and [an] ease [in] inflation, which will be quite supportive for Bitcoin,” Marcel Thiess, CEO at the private equity firm Thiess Invest, told DL News. “Lower energy costs will reduce the operating expenses of miners, while softer inflation gives central banks more room to cut rates. That would create an environment that has historically benefited [...] assets like Bitcoin.”

And sustained lower oil prices would help the market transition from a “defensive posture” to a more aggressive stance “where capital can flow back into growth assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum without the overhang of energy-driven inflation fears,” Lee said.

For Bitcoin, falling oil prices are significant, particularly if they reflect market relief at the prospect of a ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

“If [oil prices are] falling because geopolitical risk is being priced out, that tends to ease inflation expectations and support liquidity. That’s generally constructive for risk assets, including Bitcoin,” Raphael Zagury, CEO of the crypto mining firm Elektron Energy, told DL News.

On thin ice

Some experts, however, say hopes of a prolonged market recovery hang by a thread.

“Markets reacted to the ceasefire as though the Strait of Hormuz problem had been solved. It has not,” Matthew Pinnock, chief operating officer at the crypto firm Altura, told DL News, “The 16% oil price collapse was driven entirely by sentiment, with not a single additional barrel reaching the market.”

“The strait remains effectively closed, the ceasefire was already disputed within hours of signing, and [Iranian officials] described ongoing smart management of Hormuz transit,” Pinnock said, “That is not the language of a country surrendering its most powerful geopolitical lever.”

Others still say oil’s influence on crypto prices may be fleeting.

“Oil should be viewed as a proxy for broader economic conditions rather than a directional driver of crypto prices,” Markus Levin, co-founder of the blockchain company XYO, told DL News.

Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.

The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has stepped up what experts have called a Bitcoin reserve sell-off, apparently dumping around $216 million worth of the world’s top crypto since the start of the year.

The nation, which has raised over $765 million in Bitcoin mining-related profits, has slashed the size of its Bitcoin pot by 70% since October 2024, per Arkham Intelligence data.

At the end of 2024, the country’s wallets contained 13,000 Bitcoin, currently worth $931 million.

The apparent sell-off continues to gather pace. The data shows Bhutan has moved over $12 million worth of Bitcoin out of its wallets in the past 24 hours alone.

Has mining ‘halted?’

The size of Bhutan’s holdings has shrunk down to 3,774 Bitcoin, currently worth around $270 million.

The transfers follow a similar pattern, with funds moving out of the state-controlled wallet into newly created accounts.

The Bhutanese government has been extremely tight-lipped about its Bitcoin investment strategy.

It has placed its sovereign investment fund manager Druk Holding and Investments in charge of its Bitcoin mining and wallet management operations.

Neither the government nor the sovereign investment fund immediately responded to a DL News request for comment.

“It’s been over a year since Bhutan recorded a mining inflow exceeding $100,000, suggesting that the kingdom may have halted its hydropower-backed Bitcoin mining operations,” the crypto analyst Colin Wu’s media outlet WuBlockchain wrote on X.

“Hydropower-based mining looks [to have slowed] or halted” in Bhutan, wrote the digital assets analyst Crypto Patel, adding that Bhutan has “gone from one of the most unique sovereign mining strategies to silent selling.”

Bhutan has not posted revenues worth $100,000 or more from its hydroelectric energy-powered Bitcoin mining operations for over a year.

Crypto market movers

Bitcoin is trading at $71,663 on Sunday, down 1.7% over the past 24 hours. 

Ethereum prices are down 1.2% over the same period. The coin is currently trading for $2,216.

What we’re reading

Roman Storm defends Tornado Cash operation as judge weighs acquittal — DL News

Falling oil prices a ‘powerful catalyst’ for crypto price growth, say experts — but there’s a catch — DL News

Scott Bessent leads Trump administration push for Clarity Act as crucial deadline approaches — DL News

Perpetuals are crypto’s next killer app — Milk Road

‘No deal’— Bitcoin braces for crash after fruitless Vance Iran talks — Forbes

How these key crypto regulatory dates in Q2 will affect the industry — DL News 

Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.

Bitcoin and Ethereum made gains this week following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ceasefire with Iran.

The two biggest cryptocurrencies are up 8% and 9%, respectively, over a seven day period.

But the biggest winners this week are Zcash and Dash, having shot up by double digits, according to CoinGecko data.

Zcash was trading for $371 on Saturday morning in New York — a 49% weekly rise — and Dash had shot up by nearly 53%. Dash, a smaller privacy coin, was priced at nearly $46.

Other privacy coins — including Monero — also made impressive gains: the original privacy cryptocurrency had risen by 7% over the past seven days.

The rise in privacy coins comes as top crypto entrepreneurs again pump the category:  crypto entrepreneur Arthur Hayes this week spoke on Bitcoin podcaster Anthony Pompliano’s show where he again pumped Zcash.

And Changpeng Zhao, founder and ex-CEO of Binance, spoke about the dangers of public blockchains.

Privacy coins got a boost last year after AngelList founder Naval Ravikant wrote on X that while “Bitcoin is insurance against fiat,” Zcash is “insurance against Bitcoin” — making note of privacy concerns around the biggest public blockchain.

Since then, crypto bigwigs have pumped privacy projects and Winklevoss Capital, the venture capital fund owned by billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, even backed a Zcash treasury company.

Foundry Digital, the world’s leading Bitcoin mining pool operator, in March announced it was debuting a mining pool for Zcash.

Crypto market movers

Bitcoin was trading for $72,727 per coin on Saturday, up more than 8% over the past week. 

Ethereum’s price hit $2,244, a 9% seven-day jump.

What we’re reading

Scott Bessent leads Trump administration push for Clarity Act as crucial deadline approaches — DL News

Roman Storm defends Tornado Cash operation as judge weighs acquittal — DL News

How these key crypto regulatory dates in Q2 will affect the industry — DL News 

 Is ETH the operating system for AI? — Milk Road

World Liberty Financial Borrows $75 Million Against Its Own Token on a Protocol Its Advisor Co-Founded — Unchained

Mathew Di Salvo is a news correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email at mdisalvo@dlnews.com.

Bitcoin treasury Nakamoto’s stock has collapsed 99%. And to avoid getting kicked off the Nasdaq, it’s now turning to a bit of financial engineering.

But not everyone is convinced it will work.

“The reverse split buys time,” Satish Patel, investment analyst at CoinShares, told DL News. “It’s not a fix to their business strategy.”

The beleaguered Bitcoin treasury has been facing gale force headwinds after it raised hundreds of millions to create the “Bitcoin treasury for Bitcoin treasuries.”

Shares today trade at $0.21; last year they topped $34.

In December, Nakamoto received a delisting notice from the Nasdaq after its stock fell below the exchange’s $1 minimum requirement.

So now it wants to change gears — and is counting on a reverse stock split.

A reverse stock split is an artificial form of boosting a company’s stock price without actually addressing any of the underlying issues that have caused the price to drop.

In a reverse stock split, a company consolidates existing shares; with fewer shares, those that remain trade at a higher price. Think of it as swapping five $1 bills for one $5 bill. Meanwhile, the overall value of the company remains unchanged.

Nakamoto wouldn’t be the first Bitcoin treasury to attempt a reverse stock split. French-based chipmaker Sequans Communications also managed to pull it off in September 2025 after the Nasdaq threatened to delist it. Shares are worth $2.70 today.

‘Theater of the Absurd’

What renowned short seller Jim Chanos recently called the “Theater of the Absurd” went a bit like this.

In February, Nakamoto completed all-stock acquisitions of BTC Inc., which owns Bitcoin Magazine, and UTXO Management, a Bitcoin-focused hedge fund. Both companies were founded by Nakamoto founder David Bailey.

The deal doubled Nakamoto’s outstanding shares to 690 million, massively diluting existing shareholders.

One month later, Nakamoto disclosed it had sold 284 Bitcoin for $20 million at an average price of $70,000 per coin. That’s a 40% realised loss against its average purchase price of around $118,000.

That sale raised a critical question, however. If the recently acquired businesses — BTC Inc. and UTXO Management — were generating sufficient cash flow, why sell Bitcoin at such a steep loss?

“The reverse split signals that the company cannot self-fund operations from its acquired businesses and remains dependent on capital markets access,” said Patel.

As long as Nakamoto is on the exchange, the company can sell new shares to raise cash whenever it needs to, up to $4.99 billion worth.

Lose the listing, lose that ability.

Bailey fires back

CEO David Bailey strongly disputed Patel’s analysis.

“Not only is the analysis nonsense — how does a reverse split have any relevance to our operating business? — but the basic facts are incorrect,” Bailey told DL News.

“If the reverse split isn't approved we have another six months to get the votes, but we talk to our investors daily and it’s widely viewed as the right decision.”

Bailey is correct that if the initial vote fails, the Nasdaq could grant an additional 180-day extension.

But Patel argues that the issue isn’t about split mechanics. Instead, it’s about whether the business can function without constant capital raises.

'Negative connotation'

Not everyone is bearish on the strategy, however.

André Dragosch, head of research at Bitwise, thinks the reverse stock split makes sense for Nakamoto.

“It’s true that their stock price has fallen quite significantly due to the crypto winter and the gradual distributions of early PIPE investors,” Dragosch told DL News referring to someone who buys shares of a publicly traded company at a fixed price before those shares become available to regular investors.

“A reverse stock split is usually done in order to avoid the impression of a ‘penny stock’ that bears a negative connotation.”

Track record

Patel also pointed out that the empirical evidence on the success of reverse splits is pretty poor.

Most companies post negative returns over the following six to 12 months, mostly because firms that execute them are typically in distress, “and split signals distress to the market without resolving it.”

Examples of unsuccessful splits abound. Citigroup executed a 1-for-10 reverse split in 2011 at around $4.50, only to see shares fall to $3 by November. AIG’s 1-for-20 split in 2009 didn’t stop its decline. RadioShack did a 1-for-10 split in 2013 and filed for bankruptcy two years later.

Moreover, institutional investors often have minimum price thresholds, so a reverse split could widen the buyer pool. But that’s only if there’s a fundamental reason to buy, Patel added.

And therein lies the problem.

Nakamoto investors pay just 59 cents for every dollar of Bitcoin the company holds. That deep discount reflects “structural concerns,” Patel said. That includes “dilution risk, ongoing operational burn, and weakened investor confidence following the forced Bitcoin sale.”

Even after the split, Nakamoto plans to keep its authorised share count at 10 billion — leaving billions of shares available for future issuance.

"That creates a substantial forward dilution overhang that is increasingly reflected in the share price," Patel said.

Broken flywheel

Nakamoto’s troubles reflect acute stress across the entire Bitcoin treasury sector.

The model has been built on what's called mNAV, or market-to-net-asset value. The idea is reasonably straightforward. Companies issue shares at, say, $110 to buy $100 worth of Bitcoin. That $10 premium is pure profit for existing shareholders. Then the company can buy more Bitcoin, issue more shares at a premium, repeat.

But when Bitcoin’s price falls, the flywheel reverses. Equity valuations compress, premiums evaporate, and access to low-cost capital tightens precisely when it’s needed most. Already last year, one in three Bitcoin treasuries slipped below their mNAV value in what one analyst called a “spiral of doom.”

Nakamoto was one of them — and its problems seem to have gotten even worse.

“It’s not a capitulation in the sense of abandoning the Bitcoin thesis but it is an admission that the equity structure is broken and they’re running out of runway that is beneficial to the shareholder,” said Patel.

Pedro Solimano is a markets correspondent with DL News. Got a tip? Email him at psolimano@dlnews.com.