Polygon aims for $100 million for stablecoin initiative as the crypto market stalls
Polygon Labs is reportedly in early funding talks to support the development of a new stablecoin payment service, aiming to raise as much as $100 million.
The company is looking to sell equity worth between $50 million and $100 million in the new stablecoin unit.
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The capital raising is happening while broader crypto markets are still under pressure. The new initiative could be a strategic move for the company "to diversify out of a market that has stalled," notes The Information.
Canary Capital advances the crypto ETF front with PEPE filing
Canary Capital Group has filed an S-1 registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) that tracks PEPE Coin (PEPE).
The proposed Canary PEPE ETF will hold Ethereum (ETH)-based meme coins directly and mirrors the structure of existing spot ETFs.
According to the application, the Canary PEPE ETF will sell or redeem shares in increments of 10,000 units. The prospectus does not specify which exchange the ETF will be listed on, which price reference will be used, or who the digital asset manager is.
Stablecoins are set to dominate the payment industry — here are the data
Stablecoins handled $ 28 trillion in real economic activity in 2025. A new report from Chainalysis predicts that this figure could reach $ 1.5 trillion by 2035. Two forces are driving this shift.
Two macro trends — a historic generational shift in wealth and the normalization of crypto payments — are changing global finance.
The largest generational shift in history
From around 2028, Millennials and Gen Z will make up the majority of adults in North America and Europe. Nearly half of them own, or have owned, crypto already, according to a Gemini survey from 2025.
Trump's WLFI falls 10% after sanction ties and $440M security stake collides
World Liberty Financials WLFI token fell nearly 10% on April 9, down to $0.0888 — the lowest level since the token's debut late in 2025. Two different controversies arose in quick succession, giving sellers little reason to hold onto the token.
WLFI now faces questions about both who they are partnering with and how they manage their own treasury.
A partner with inconvenient background
An investigation carried out by The Times, published on April 7, shows that WLFI had integrated its USD1 stablecoin with AB DAO, a Southeast Asian blockchain project. AB DAO had, until a few weeks before the agreement, promoted a resort associated with Cambodia's Prince Group. U.S. and British authorities sanctioned Prince Group founder Chen Zhi in November and seized $15 billion in bitcoin due to alleged involvement in extensive online fraud.
Bitcoin's ceasefire surge dies quickly as war chaos returns
Bitcoin briefly touched $72,700 on Wednesday as traders celebrated a ceasefire agreement between the US and Iran, but fell below $71,000 within hours as new violence in the Middle East crushed optimism.
The rise was real — but it did not last long enough to be significant.
Hormuz still blocked, oil rises back
Israel carried out its largest attack on Lebanon to date, hitting over 100 Hezbollah targets in Beirut in under ten minutes. Iran's parliamentary leader stated that three ceasefire clauses had already been breached, sending WTI crude oil up 2.8% to $97.03 and Brent up 2.5% to $97.14 per barrel, reversing most of the previous market drop of 16%.
Trump-pardoned gives £5.3 million to Farage's Reform UK
Ben Delo, co-founder of BitMEX and pardoned by Trump, has donated £4 million ($5.3 million) to Nigel Farage's Reform UK party.
Delo announced the contribution in a post in the Telegraph published on April 8. He described the donation as his first step into political activism.
Why a pardoned crypto-founder supports Reform UK
Delo co-founded the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX in 2014. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) for failing to maintain anti-money laundering controls on the platform.
Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin ETF goes live with massive inflow
Morgan Stanley's spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF began trading on NYSE Arca under the ticker MSBT, with 1.6 million shares and approximately $34 million in cryptocurrency inflow on the first day.
The launch makes Morgan Stanley the first major American bank to issue a spot Bitcoin ETF under its own name.
Cheapest BTC ETF in a tight market
MSBT has a management fee of 0.14%, underpricing BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) which stands at 0.25%.
The fund joins more than 10 spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in the last two years, which together have over $85 billion in assets.
Trump considers NATO troop changes as punishment: Could tariffs be the next measure?
President Trump is considering a plan to move American troops away from NATO countries he believes are 'not very helpful' in the conflict with Iran, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The proposal, which is still in an early phase, is one of several alternatives The White House is considering to pressure allies over limited support for US-led operations.
NATO disagreement over Iran increases
The plan will relocate parts of approximately 84,000 American soldiers stationed in Europe. Trump and his team have expressed frustration over allies who have denied the US logistical assistance, access to airspace, or use of bases during the attacks on Iran.
Nasdaq will provide new ETFs with a smoother launch day
Nasdaq submitted a regulatory change proposal on April 7 to expand its definition of Exchange-Traded Product (ETP) to include Class ETF Shares, a hybrid product that combines features from traditional funds and ETF structures.
The change in Equity 1, Section 1(a)(15) allows issuers of these products to use the exchange's optional Initial ETP Open process on the first trading day.
What the regulatory change means for ETF issuers
Class ETF Shares are publicly traded shares issued by open-end funds that also offer traditional share classes for fund shares.
MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor does not buy the story that Adam Back is Satoshi
MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor dismissed the New York Times investigation identifying Adam Back as Bitcoin's (BTC) pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Saylor said that stylometry is “interesting, but not proof.”
Why Saylor demands cryptographic proof
Saylor pointed to contemporaneous emails from 2008 between Satoshi and Back as evidence that the two were different people.
Back first received a message from Satoshi in August 2008, where Satoshi confirmed the reference to Hashcash in the upcoming white paper.
Standard Chartered takes over the entire crypto custody platform Zodia
Standard Chartered plans to take back customer-facing custody tasks at Zodia Custody into the digital assets department of the company's Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB).
The restructuring, which could be announced as early as this month, will according to sources from Bloomberg familiar with the matter, lead to Zodia only operating as a separate Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for custody technology.
From incubation to independence to backtracking
Standard Chartered established Zodia Custody in late 2020 through its innovation environment SC Ventures, along with Northern Trust.
The SEC's new enforcement chief David Woodcock has no background in crypto
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has appointed Gibson Dunn partner David Woodcock as the new head of the agency's enforcement division, after Margaret Ryan suddenly resigned last month.
Woodcock will take over the leadership of the department's 1000 employees on May 4. Acting director Sam Waldon will continue in the role until then.
Why Ryan's departure still casts a shadow over the appointment
Ryan resigned on March 16 after just six months. She is said to have pushed for fraud charges against individuals in Donald Trump's circle, including cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun.
Whales fight for $51 million in Bitcoin battle as Iran's ceasefire breaks over Lebanon
Two Bitcoin (BTC) whales have taken enormous opposite positions with high leverage, totaling $51 million, while the fragile ceasefire between the USA and Iran shows signs of breaking down over Lebanon.
These high-risk leveraged bets reflect the extreme uncertainty currently plaguing the crypto markets, with BTC trading near $71,500 after a 4.5% rise overnight linked to the announcement of a ceasefire.
Whale duel puts $51 million at stake
On-chain-sporeren Lookonchain reported that two whale wallets are taking opposite positions. Wallet 0x2fc3 opened a 30x long position at 325.88 BTC, worth approximately $23.22 million, with a liquidation price of $70,092.
Can the silver price ride the ceasefire wave past $100? A falling dollar opens the door
Silver (XAG/USD) is trading at $77.31 on April 8 and is forming a cup pattern on the 12-hour chart with a breakout estimate of 32%, making triple-digit levels possible.
This setup comes at the same time as the ceasefire between the USA and Iran caused the Brent oil price to fall by 15%, and the US Dollar Index (DXY) fell 1.63% from the peak on April 6. A weaker dollar traditionally lifts the silver price because the metal becomes cheaper for foreign buyers. Whether this macro advantage leads to a confirmed breakout depends on how the handle is formed, and whether the futures market supports it.
$ 5 billion first year? Bold prediction about Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin ETF
Morgan Stanley has launched Morgan Stanley Bitcoin (BTC) Trust on NYSE Arca under the ticker MSBT, becoming the first major American bank to issue a spot BTC ETF.
The fund enters an already crowded market with over 10 spot BTC ETFs that collectively have over $ 85 billion in assets.
Competing on costs and distribution
ETF analyst Eric Balchunas predicts $ 5 billion in managed assets in the first year and $ 30 million in trading volume on the first day.
MSBT has a management fee of 14 basis points, making it the cheapest spot BTC fund on the market. It is one basis point lower than Grayscale Investments BTC and 11 basis points lower than BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).
BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards nomination: Fireblocks for Best Digital Asset Manager
The market for digital assets has officially grown out of the age of speculation. The real story in 2026 is not about price movements, but about the quiet, extensive restructuring of global finance that is taking place behind the scenes. At the center of this shift is Fireblocks.
While others focused on the hype, Fireblocks concentrated on the infrastructure, creating the secure, high-speed solutions that now allow the world's largest institutions to move value at the same pace as the internet.
Wall Street's most powerful men support CZ's prison memoir
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) released his 366-page memoir “Freedom of Money” on April 8, with endorsements from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio.
The book, mainly written while CZ spent four months in an American prison in 2024, describes his journey from the countryside of China to building the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange and settling with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for $4.3 billion.
Wall Street's most powerful men support crypto's most controversial founder
Iran demands cryptocurrency payment in ceasefire agreement, petrodollars may disappear
Iran will demand that shipping companies pay tolls of up to $2 million per tanker in cryptocurrency for oil vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz during the two-week ceasefire, according to a spokesperson for the country's union of oil exporters.
Hamid Hosseini, spokesperson for Iran's association for the export of oil, gas, and petrochemical products, told the Financial Times that Tehran aims to collect fees from each fully loaded tanker passing the waterway and to inspect each vessel's cargo for weapons.
Pi Network price aims for $ 0.189 as 3 indicators point to a bullish reversal
Pi Network (PI) price is currently at $ 0.1714 inside a descending channel on the 8-hour chart. But three indicators are now starting to give bullish signals. Two of them diverge from the downtrend. And the third supports the price.
The change comes after Pi Network completed its first KYC validator reward distribution, processing 526 million tasks across more than 1 million validators. With the V21.2 hard fork completed on April 6 and 119,000 pioneers having completed other migrations, the network is delivering milestones while the Pi Coin price is still declining.
CZ’s “Freedom of Money” Book Rekindles China’s Ugliest Crypto Feud
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) released his 457-page autobiography “Freedom of Money” on April 8. The book has already sparked a public war of words with OKX founder Star Xu.
The autobiography chronicles CZ’s journey from rural China to building the world’s largest crypto exchange, but the most explosive claims involve other Chinese crypto leaders, including Huobi founder Li Lin and Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun.
The roots of a ten-year-old rivalry
CZ joined OKCoin, the predecessor of the OKX exchange, as Chief Technology Officer in mid-2014. His tenure lasted less than a year.