Cointelegraph

Russia’s government submitted a bill to its parliament’s lower house in an effort to amend the country's legal code to attach criminal liability for crypto services offered without regulatory approval or licensing.

In a draft law sent to the State Duma on Friday, Russian lawmakers proposed that entities "carrying out activities related to the organization of digital currency circulation,” that operate without a license from Russia’s central bank, could be subject to criminal liability.

Without registration with the Bank of Russia, individuals could face up to $4,000 in fines and up to four years in prison, or more severe penalties if part of an organized group.

“The same act committed by an organized group, or involving the infliction of damage or the extraction of income on a particularly large scale, would be punishable by compulsory labor for up to five years or imprisonment for up to seven years,” the bill’s text said.

The bill also proposes a “fine of up to 1 million rubles [$13,100] or an amount equal to the convicted person’s salary or other income for a period of up to five years.”

The draft law followed a package of bills initially proposed in March that included criminal penalties for illegal crypto miners, but the most recent legislation included details on fines and potential prison time for any unregistered digital asset services.

According to Russian media outlet RBC, the country’s Supreme Court said that the crypto bill lacks “reasoned justification” for criminal penalties.

The court said that the measure was “premature” until Russia enacted its “Digital Currency and Digital Rights law,” expected to go into effect in July. If the bill passes it would give Russia’s government more control and oversight over the crypto industry.

Russian crypto exchange Grinex still reeling from $14 million hack

Grinex, a Russia-based crypto exchange currently being sanctioned, halted trading for users on Thursday after losing more than 1 billion rubles — about $13.7 million — in a hack it suspected was carried out by “entities of hostile states.”

The company said it forwarded relevant information on the attack to law enforcement agencies and filed a criminal complaint.

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Polymarket prediction market odds of the Strait of Hormuz “returning to normal” by the end of May spiked to 73% on Friday, following news that Iranian officials have temporarily opened up the Strait of Hormuz as part of a ceasefire deal.

The odds climbed to a high of 82% on Friday, after Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi announced that the Strait of Hormuz is open. Since that time, the odds have fallen back down to 73%. He said in an X post:

“The passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of the ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by the Ports and Maritime Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Polymarket odds for oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz returning to normal by the end of May 2026. Source: Polymarket

However, traders on the platform placed the odds of the Strait returning to normal activity by the end of April at just 40%.

The war in Iran sent shockwaves through financial markets, impacting crypto and energy prices, as investors and financial analysts react to political developments in the ongoing conflict. 

Bitcoin rises on the ceasefire news, but the truce is “fragile”

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) surged on Friday in response to the temporary reopening of the Strait under the ceasefire, briefly tapping $78,000 before climbing down to about $77,358, the price at the time of publication.

The price of Bitcoin surged after Iranian officials announced that the Strait of Hormuz would remain open during the ceasefire. Source: TradingView

Crypto market analyst Nic Puckrin told Cointelegraph that the ceasefire between the US and Iran announced in April is “fragile” and that core issues remain unresolved.

The fallout from the conflict will likely cast a shadow over financial markets for most of 2026, pushing back any interest rate cuts to Q3 2026 at the earliest, if rate cuts materialize at all this year, Puckrin said.

“A ceasefire that results in the end of geopolitical tensions, a sustained drop in oil prices toward $80, and ideally also softer-than-expected economic data that calms stagflation fears” are all needed for BTC to reclaim the $90,000 level, he said.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that the US naval blockade on Iran would “remain in full force and effect” until the “transaction with Iran is 100% complete.”

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Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal questioned US authorities responsible for overseeing Binance about whether the company is complying with anti-money laundering laws and sanctions under its 2023 court-imposed monitoring program.

According to a report published by Fortune on Friday, Blumenthal sent letters to the Justice Department and the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), asking for details on Binance’s compliance. 

Binance and its former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao reached a deal in 2023, in which the exchange would pay $4.3 billion to settle civil regulatory enforcement actions, and CZ would plead guilty to one felony charge.

The deal also required that Binance be subject to monitoring and reporting requirements by US officials.

Blumenthal’s letter said he was concerned about “mounting allegations of dangerously lax anti-money laundering prevention by Binance.” Fortune reported that DOJ and FinCEN officials responsible for overseeing the exchange as part of the deal would not comment.

The letter followed reports that Binance was under scrutiny regarding US sanctions imposed on Iran.

The crypto exchange reportedly fired individuals responsible for telling Binance executives that $1 billion flowed through the platform to entities tied to Iran. A spokesperson for the exchange has denied the claims.

In February, a group of senators urged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and former Attorney General Pamela Bondi, who was fired by US President Donald Trump in April, to complete a “prompt, comprehensive review” of Binance’s compliance controls.

The letter sent by US Senator Chris Van Hollen and 10 other lawmakers in February demanding a compliance review of Binance. Source: Senator Chris Van Hollen

Trump-Binance ties are still under scrutiny

Some US lawmakers have alleged that connections between Binance and Trump create conflicts of interest for the US President and his family’s crypto businesses.

In March 2025, a United Arab Emirates-based entity purchased a $2 billion stake in Binance using the USD1 stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, the company co-founded by Trump and his sons.

Trump also pardoned Binance’s former CEO, CZ, in October 2025 after he served four months in prison as part of his 2023 guilty plea.

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Ether’s (ETH) rally to $2,400 is nearly 38% above its swing low at $1,750, but is ETH’s price move simply a momentum trade, or do longer-term data points suggest a paradigm shift at play?

ETH accumulation addresses absorb 6.5 million Ether

Ether’s recent rally was preceded by an 89% surge in daily active addresses (DAA), which jumped to 730,278 from 384,763 on April 5.

The increase in Ethereum’s active addresses indicates increased user interaction with the network, which is generally a positive.

The chart below shows that activity increased significantly as Ether price rose to $2,300. 

Ethereum daily active addresses. Source: CryptoQuant

Similar activity has been consistently observed near macro bottoms since 2022, preceding significant ETH price rallies.

Daily inflows into accumulation addresses have also increased since mid-2025, reaching an all-time high of 1.14 million ETH in November 2025. The inflows have continued to climb in 2026, averaging 200,000 ETH per day, with a spike to over 358,000 on Thursday.

The amount of ETH held in accumulation wallets, or holders with no history of selling, has increased by 6.5 million to 26.16 million from 19.64 million on Jan. 1, representing a 33% increase.

The ETH supply held in accumulation addresses is a key indicator for traders and market participants, as it reflects overall confidence in Ether’s long-term outlook.

ETH inflows into and balance in accumulation addresses. Source: CryptoQuant

The total value of ETH staked further reinforces this outlook. The metric now stands at 39.2 million ETH, signaling growing investor confidence.

Staked ETH supply. Source: Dune

As Cointelegraph reported, Ether supply held on exchanges has fallen to multi-year lows, further tightening liquidity on order books. 

Ether cup-and-handle chart breakout targets $3,150

The ETH/USD pair may resume its prevailing bullish trend after breaking out of a cup-and-handle (C&H) chart pattern, as shown in the chart below. A 12-hour candlestick close above the cup’s neckline at $2,400 may signal the start of a stronger uptrend.

The target is set by adding the cup’s depth to the breakout point, which comes to around $2,960, an approximately 22% increase from the current price.

ETH/USD 12-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The relative strength index has risen to 68, suggesting that ETH bulls are back in control. 

Trader TheSkayeth spotted a larger C&H pattern forming over the last two months on the daily time frame, saying ETH was “setting up for a massive move.”

“If the cup and handle pattern continues, I think we get to the golden zone next.”

ETH/USD daily chart. Source: X/TheSkayeth

The measured target of this larger formation is $3,150, which is 30% above the current level.

Applying this framework, ETH bulls will need to hold above the $2,350-$2,400 zone to confirm a sustained upward breakout.

As Cointelegraph reported, a close above the $2,400 level would increase the prospects of the ETH/USDT pair rising to $2,800 and later to $3,050.

Bitcoin (BTC) rallied above $78,000 to hit another 10-week high on Friday as crypto and equity markets reacted to cooling tensions in the US and Israel war in Iran. The rally above range highs also resulted in a large liquidation of leveraged Bitcoin positions.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

More than $660 million in short positions were liquidated, with Bitcoin accounting for $353 million of that total. Ether (ETH) followed with $160 million in short liquidations.

Across the board, $826 million was wiped from the futures market over the last 24 hours.

Crypto market liquidations. Source: CoinGlass

The single biggest liquidation occurred on Hyperliquid, where a $15.75 million BTC-USDT short position was closed.

Large clusters of short liquidations typically amplify the reach of asset rallies and data from CoinGlass showed a 13% rise in Bitcoin’s aggregate futures open interest (OI) over the last 24 hours.

Total Bitcoin open interest. Source: CoinGlass

Even though futures longs (buyers) and shorts (sellers) are always matched, rising OI suggests greater leverage and market participation, which, in this case, appears to be on the side of bulls.

Hyblock data showed ask liquidity sitting between $77,500 and $78,000 being absorbed as BTC rallied to its intra-day highs on Friday.

BTC net short positions. Source: Hyblock

Bitcoin MACD forecasts a “big move“

Bitcoin’s moving average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator has signaled a buy on its weekly chart, a pattern that has historically preceded sharp price rallies.

The MACD is a popular momentum indicator used in technical analysis that helps traders identify the strength, direction and duration of a trend of an asset’s price.

The indicator reached its lowest level in history and has formed a bullish cross on the weekly chart, as shown in the figure below.

“Not only do we have a 1W MACD bullish cross and break of trend, we have it from the lowest point the MACD has ever dropped to,” analyst Sykodelic said in a recent post on X, adding:

“We are at a very important level here, and the weekly close will be very important.“

Previous instances show that Bitcoin tends to rise sharply when the MACD line (blue) crosses above the signal line (orange). The last time this happened was at the bottom of the 2022 bear market, which preceded a 376% increase in BTC price.

BTC/USD weekly chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

“A big move usually follows whenever this weekly MACD bullish cross happens,” analyst Mikybull Crypto said in a recent post on X.

Fellow analyst The Chart Report told their followers that previous crossovers have “historically produced a 93% win rate with a median 12-month return of +195%.”

BTC price performance after weekly MACD crossovers. Source: X/The Chart Report

Other Bitcoin analysts suggest that the altcoin could continue its recovery to retest higher resistance levels, with BTC price targets set at $90,000 and above. 

Payward, the parent company of the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Friday that it has entered into a “definitive agreement” to acquire Bitnomial, a US-licensed cryptocurrency and derivatives exchange; the deal values Bitnomial’s equity at $20 billion.

Bitnomial is the “first” crypto-native exchange in the United States to hold all three regulatory licenses from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), including exchange, clearinghouse, and brokerage permits, according to Payward’s announcement.

“Settlement mechanics, margin models, and contract structures define what products can exist and who can access them. The US has had no clearing infrastructure built for digital assets,” Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said. He added:

“Bitnomial spent a decade building it: crypto settlement, crypto collateral, continuous 24/7 markets. These are capabilities that cannot be retrofitted onto legacy systems. They have to be built natively.” 

Payward will use Bitnomial’s infrastructure to offer spot margin trading, perpetual futures contracts and options trading for US clients, the company said. 

Source: Kraken

Payward’s business clients can also integrate crypto services for their users, including spot crypto trading, tokenized stocks, crypto derivatives and fiat onramps through Payward Services, an application programming interface (API). 

The announcement follows Kraken’s expansion into tokenized stocks, tokenized perpetual futures trading and the company securing a limited-purpose account with the United States Federal Reserve, a first for the crypto industry.

Kraken secures Federal Reserve limited-purpose master account

In March 2026, Kraken became the first crypto company to gain approval for a limited-purpose master account, which was issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, one of the US central bank’s 12 regional districts.

The account gives Kraken access to the Federal Reserve’s central payment system used by banks, credit unions and other traditional financial institutions, so it can settle transactions directly through the Fed’s Fedwire platform.

However, the limited-purpose master account has a term of one year and features some restrictions. 

Source: Senator Cynthia Lummis

Kraken’s limited-purpose account is similar to the ‘skinny’ Federal Reserve master accounts proposed by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller and promoted by Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis in 2025.

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Key points:

Bitcoin soared above $76,000, opening the doors for a further rally toward $84,000.

Several major altcoins are showing strength, signaling broad-based buying by the bulls.

Bitcoin (BTC) skyrocketed above the $76,000 resistance on Friday after Iran’s foreign minister said that the Strait of Hormuz will remain open for the remainder of the ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran.

Another positive sign for the bulls is that BTC’s rise has been supported by solid accumulation by the whales. According to CryptoQuant data, BTC whales holding more than 1,000 BTC have added about 270,000 coins in the past 30 days, the largest buying spree since 2013.

However, some analysts remain skeptical about BTC’s advance. Glassnode said in its latest Week Onchain newsletter that the current recovery has more legs to it, but is likely to face selling pressure at the True Market Mean at $78,100. Buyers will have to sustain the price above $78,100 on a mid-term basis to create a “structural shift toward a bull market.”

Crypto market data daily view. Source: TradingView

Another cautious view came from trading resource Material Indicators. In a video posted on X, Material Indicators said that BTC will have to cross the yearly open at $87,500 and the 50-week moving average near $97,000, and the relative strength index has to close above the 41 level on the weekly time frame to confirm that a bull market has returned.

Could BTC and select major altcoins sustain above their overhead resistance levels? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price prediction

BTC surged above the $78,000 level on Friday, its highest level in ten weeks, indicating sustained buying by the bulls. 

BTC/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The upsloping 20-day exponential moving average ($72,136) and the RSI near the overbought zone indicate that the bulls are attempting to seize control. A close above the $76,000 level will complete a bullish ascending triangle pattern, opening the door to a rally to $84,000, then to the pattern target of $92,000.

The moving averages are critical support levels to watch on the downside, as a close below them suggests the bears remain in control. The BTC/USDT pair may then tumble toward the triangle's support line. 

Ether price prediction

Sellers attempted to halt the recovery at the $2,415 level in Ether (ETH), but the bulls continued to exert pressure and did not allow the price to dip below the 20-day EMA ($2,235).

ETH/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

If the ETH price closes above the $2,415 resistance level, the recovery may extend to $2,800, then to $3,050. Such a move suggests that the ETH/USDT pair may have bottomed out at $1,748.

This bullish view will be invalidated in the near term if the price turns down sharply and breaks below the moving averages. That suggests the break above the $2,415 level may have been a bull trap. The pair may then decline to the $1,916 level.

XRP price prediction

XRP (XRP) closed above the 50-day simple moving average ($1.38) on Wednesday, indicating that the bears are losing their grip.

XRP/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The 20-day EMA ($1.37) has started to turn up gradually, and the RSI is in the positive territory, indicating an advantage to the bulls. The XRP price may rally to the downtrend line of the descending channel pattern, which is expected to behave as a formidable hurdle. If buyers clear the hurdle, the XRP/USDT pair will indicate a potential trend change.

The moving averages are the vital support to watch out for on the downside. If the support breaks down, the pair may retest the crucial $1.27 level.

BNB price prediction

BNB (BNB) closed above the 50-day SMA ($626) on Thursday, indicating that the selling pressure is reducing. 

BNB/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

If the BNB price remains above the moving averages, the next stop is likely to be the $687 level. Sellers will try to halt the recovery at $687, but if buyers bulldoze their way through, the rally may reach $730 and eventually $790.

On the contrary, if the price turns down from the current level or the overhead resistance and breaks below the moving averages, it signals that the BNB/USDT pair may remain within the $570 to $687 range for a while longer.

Solana price prediction

Solana’s (SOL) close above the moving averages suggests that the bulls are attempting to push the price to the $98 resistance.

SOL/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Sellers are expected to fiercely defend the $98 level. If the SOL/USDT pair turns down sharply from $98 and breaks below the moving averages, it signals that the consolidation may extend for a few more days.

The first sign of strength on the upside will be a break and close above the $98 resistance. That opens the doors for a rally to the $117 level, where the bears are again expected to step in.

Dogecoin price prediction

Dogecoin (DOGE) turned up from the moving averages on Wednesday and rallied to the $0.10 level on Thursday.

DOGE/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Sellers will strive to halt the recovery at the $0.10 level, but if buyers do not give up much ground from the current level, it increases the possibility of a rally to $0.11 and subsequently to $0.12.

The bears are likely to have other plans. They will attempt to pull the DOGE price back below the moving averages. If they succeed, the DOGE/USDT pair may plummet to the solid support at $0.09. 

Hyperliquid price prediction

Sellers are attempting to pull Hyperliquid (HYPE) back below the breakout level of $43.76, but the bulls have held their ground.

HYPE/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

If the HYPE price continues higher and breaks above the $46 level, it suggests that the bulls have flipped the $43.76 level into support. That increases the likelihood of a rally to the $50 to $51.43 zone.

Time is running out for the bears. They will have to pull the HYPE/USDT pair below the 20-day EMA ($40.78) to make a comeback. If they manage to do that, the pair may slump to the 50-day SMA ($37.38). 

Cardano price prediction

Cardano (ADA) continued its recovery and is likely to test the resistance at the downtrend line of the descending channel pattern.

ADA/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Sellers are expected to aggressively defend the downtrend line, but if the bulls prevail, the ADA/USDT pair may climb to $0.32, then to $0.37. Such a move signals a potential short-term trend change.

On the contrary, if the ADA price turns down from the downtrend line and breaks below the moving averages, it suggests the pair may remain within the channel for some time. 

Bitcoin Cash price prediction

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) pierced the 20-day EMA ($447) on Thursday, but the relief rally is facing selling at the 50-day SMA ($454).

BCH/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The 20-day EMA is flattening out, and the RSI is near the midpoint, suggesting that the selling pressure is reducing. If bulls prevent the BCH price from dipping below $443, it could signal a shift in sentiment. That increases the likelihood of a break above the 50-day SMA. If that happens, the BCH/USDT pair may surge to $486, then to $520.

Alternatively, if the price breaks below $443, it signals that the bears remain sellers on rallies. The pair may then plunge toward the solid support at $419.

Chainlink price prediction

Chainlink (LINK) is attempting to break above the $8 to $10 resistance, where bears are expected to mount a strong defense.

LINK/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

If the price turns down from the overhead resistance and breaks below the moving averages, it suggests that the LINK/USDT pair may consolidate inside the range for a few more days.

On the other hand, if the LINK price closes above the $10 level, it indicates that the consolidation has resolved in favor of the bulls. The pair may then rally to the $11.61 level, where the bears are expected to step in. There is resistance at $10.94, but it is likely to be crossed.

Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB) has introduced a service that lets institutional clients mint and redeem stablecoins directly from their bank accounts, using the Solana layer-1 blockchain network to enable round-the-clock settlement between fiat and digital assets.

The service will initially support Circle USDC (USDC) transactions above $100,000 and includes temporary fee waivers for minting and redemption on the Solana network, according to SGB’s announcement.

Additional assets such as Tether’s USDT (USDT), Ethena’s USDe (USDe) and Global Dollar (USDG) are expected to follow, the company said.

The new feature is integrated into the bank’s internal clearing system, allowing funds to move between onchain and traditional balances without relying on intermediary banking networks, SGB said.

The launch comes as payment networks, regulators and banks around the world move to integrate stablecoin settlement and blockchain infrastructure into the traditional financial system to reduce costs and settlement times.

Banks, payment networks and regulators push stablecoin integration

In March, Mastercard agreed to acquire stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK in a deal valued at up to $1.8 billion.

Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s chief product officer, said “most financial institutions and fintechs” are moving toward services built around stablecoins and tokenized deposits.

Separately, Visa began operating validator nodes on the Tempo network on Tuesday. Validators on the network can earn stablecoin-based rewards for processing transactions.

A Visa spokesperson told Cointelegraph the company is focused on the technical and strategic aspects of operating a validator, rather than generating revenue.

Regulatory frameworks around the world are also beginning to catch up. In April, Pakistan’s central bank allowed banks to serve licensed crypto firms, ending years of legal restrictions.

Earlier this year, the country signed an exploratory agreement to assess World Liberty Financial’s USD1 (USD1) stablecoin and its potential use for cross-border payments.

Meanwhile in Europe, where euro-denominated stablecoins still lag far behind dollar-backed tokens, a consortium of banks including ING, UniCredit and BBVA is developing a euro-pegged stablecoin.

The total stablecoin market cap. Source: DefiLlama

The banks plan to distribute the stablecoin across crypto exchanges and banking channels, with a launch targeted for the second half of 2026.

The moves come as the stablecoin market cap, which exceeds $320 billion at the time of publication, according to data from DeFiLlama, continues to grow.

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Roland Lescure, France’s finance minister, backed an initiative by European banks to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in 2026 to compete with US dollar-backed tokens, which currently dominate the market.

According to a Friday Reuters report, Lescure supported the euro-pegged Qivalis stablecoin plan launched in September 2025 by EU banks, including Dutch lender ING and Italy’s UniCredit.

The goal of the banks was to create a stablecoin in compliance with the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework; the MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin is expected to be launched in the second half of 2026.

“That is ‌what ⁠we need, and that is what we want,” said Lescure, according to Reuters. “I also strongly encourage banks to further explore the launch of tokenized deposits.”

EU banks are collaborating to create an alternative to the US-dominated stablecoin market, led by Tether’s USDt (USDT) and Circle’s USDC (USDC). As of Friday, USDT had a market capitalization of about $186 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Lescure, who reportedly made the comments in a pre-recorded message, said the relatively small volume of euro-pegged stablecoins compared to dollar-pegged ​ones was “not satisfactory.”

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in January, Banque de France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau said that tokenization and stablecoins were likely to be “the name of the game” in 2026, highlighting benefits of blockchain infrastructure for finance.

However, he opposed interest-bearing stablecoins, claiming that they could destabilize financial systems, a criticism shared by several EU and US policy makers, as well as central bank officials, as stablecoin yield continues to be a contentious regulatory topic.

Stablecoin yield is still an issue in US market structure talks

As of Friday, lawmakers in the US Senate had not announced any compromise that would allow a crypto market structure bill to move closer to a vote.

The CLARITY Act, a crypto market structure bill that passed in the US House of Representatives in July, has been stalled amid disagreements on how to address stablecoin yield, tokenized equities, ethics and other concerns.

Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?

Bitcoin (BTC) refreshed February highs on Friday as attention focused on the upcoming weekly close and a longer-term rally to $88,000.

Key points:

Bitcoin hits its highest levels in ten weeks as markets abandon geopolitical nerves.

BTC price strength may bring back $88,000 in just two to four weeks, a trader predicts.

$72,800 becomes the level to watch for the next weekly candle close.

Bitcoin price local peak brings hope of $88,000

Data from TradingView confirmed new ten-week highs of $77,027 on Bitstamp.

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

BTC price action attempted to capitalize on recent strength across risk assets, with geopolitical tensions and uncertainty over global oil supplies increasingly priced in. A ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon appeared to further boost market confidence.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 hit 7,050 points for the first time in history, sealing its highest-ever close and its second all-time high of the week.

S&P 500 one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Commenting, crypto trader Michaël van de Poppe said that Bitcoin should soon gain more thanks to reduced macro volatility, notably in the VIX volatility index.

“As long as the VIX continues to fall, and we're in a new equilibrium, where oil volatility goes down, Gold volatility significantly drops,” he wrote in a post on X. 

“What will you start to see? More inflows in the $BTC ETF as allocators can allocate more towards Bitcoin.”

US spot Bitcoin ETF netflows (screenshot). Source: Farside Investors

Van de Poppe referred to the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which have seen $330 million in net inflows week-to-date, per data from UK-based investment firm Farside Investors.

“That would also benefit altcoins and $ETH, as they'll follow the path of Bitcoin,” he added. 

“In that case, I see a strong case for Bitcoin continuing the rally to $85-88K in coming 2-4 weeks.”

BTC/USDT one-day chart. Source: Michaël van de Poppe/X

Trader and analyst Rekt Capital, meanwhile, put $72,800 as the “pivotal” level to reclaim at the upcoming weekly candle close for BTC/USD.

“If Bitcoin wants to Weekly Close above the Weekly resistance ($72,810, blue), then price would need to hold the blue level as support on any upcoming dip,” he explained alongside a chart showing key price points. 

“The last time Bitcoin rejected from the black resistance in mid-March, price also lost the blue level as support. Which is why a Daily Close below the blue level after any upcoming dip could see price drop back into the blue-blue Weekly Range.”

BTC/USD one-day chart. Source: Rekt Capital/X

Trader warns of volume-led BTC price downside

Bearish perspectives included that of trader Roman, who maintained expectations of lower levels next.

Declining trading volume into the highs, he warned, was a telltale sign of fading momentum.

“We’re in a macro downtrend which when we see high volume continues downward. Low volume implies consolidation/correction to continue the overall trend,” he explained on X. 

“The next high volume move likely takes us lower.”

BTC/USDT one-day chart. Source: Roman/X

As Cointelegraph reported, sub-$50,000 price levels remain a popular bet for Bitcoin’s next macro bottom.

Neo co-founder Da Hongfei has proposed a sweeping overhaul of the Neo Foundation after years of deadlock with co-founder Erik Zhang left one of crypto’s oldest networks effectively paralyzed.

The plan follows Neo’s first public financial disclosure since 2019, showing about $461 million in assets held across the Neo Foundation (NF) and Neo Global Development (NGD) at the end of 2025.

The proposed restructuring aims to replace what Hongfei described as informal, founder-driven governance, arguing the outcome could serve as a test case for how aging blockchain networks manage large treasuries and transition away from founder control.

Zhang has pushed back on key elements of the proposal, exposing further divisions at the top of the project and increasing scrutiny from users and investors.

Hongfei told Cointelegraph that at the core of the restructuring is a break with the founder-centric model that defined Neo’s first decade.

The proposal would redomicile the foundation to the Cayman Islands, create a five-member board and an independent Supervisor with power to block bylaw breaches, and impose a 24-month ban on either founder sitting on the board or supervisory body. 

Neo’s fight has become a case study in how older blockchain networks with large treasuries struggle to move beyond founder-centric governance, especially after years of informal control and limited public financial disclosure.

Returning NEO tokens to the community

According to the disclosure, NF and NGD currently control about 41 million NEO (31.3%), mainly under single-signature control. Hongfei’s “Giveback II” plan would return 49.5 million reserved NEO (NEO) to the community and consolidate NGD-managed investments back into the foundation, which would operate under mandatory annual financial reports, onchain attestations for large transfers, and fully disclosed multi-signature wallets for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), stablecoins and other liquid assets.

Neo financial report. Source: NeoNewsToday

He said the changes are designed to replace “trust me” governance around treasury and custody, pointing to Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin’s influence-through-research model as a standard founders should emulate.

Zhang remains unconvinced, arguing that the proposal grounds Neo’s legitimacy in offchain legal structures and still leaves room for opaque third-party attestations instead of directly verifiable onchain addresses.

He said excluding him from the board for 24 months strips Neo of essential technical oversight, calling the Cayman “reset” a cosmetic shell change that dodges historical accountability and unresolved transparency issues.

Governance woes across decentralized finance

The push comes as governance fights and perceived insider advantages dominate debate across decentralized finance. Aave’s long-running dispute between the founder-aligned Aave Chan Initiative and other stakeholders has raised questions about how much power entrenched service providers should wield inside decentralized autonomous organizations.

The Trump family-linked World Liberty Financial drew scathing criticism from stakeholders this week, including Tron founder Justin Sun, over a proposed new unlock schedule for its WLFI governance token and discretionary control over treasury assets.

Neo’s bet to revive network relevance

Behind the governance reset sits an attempt to give Neo a credible new thesis in a market where activity has consolidated onto Ethereum, a few layer-2s, Solana, and a handful of other chains. 

Hongfei conceded Neo’s user base today is “not where it was in the 2017 to 2021 cycle,” and the numbers “reflect a project that has seen better days.”

He said users are more concentrated in long-term holders and community groups; the Chinese market that once fueled activity has shrunk under Beijing’s bans, and Neo missed “DeFi Summer” after delays in shipping its N3 upgrade.

He now argues that the next decade of onchain activity will be driven less by humans than by autonomous AI agents transacting on their behalf, positioning Neo X as an “agent-first” blockchain optimized for the shift. 

He said the real test for both the governance reboot and the AI thesis will be whether, over the next 12 to 24 months, Neo can complete its restructuring and attract a meaningful pipeline of agent-native projects, and whether he would still seek a board seat if those milestones are missed.

Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?

The frequency of kidnap and ransom attempts on prominent cryptocurrency executives has skyrocketed in recent years.

Referred to, perhaps crudely, in the crypto community as a “$5 wrench attack,” these attempts to extract millions from crypto bigwigs have spurred politicians to mitigate risk. 

Policymakers in France are currently working on safeguards, including a prevention platform announced at Paris Blockchain Week yesterday. In the private sector, insurance companies are offering bespoke coverage to crypto execs, which includes awareness and prevention training.

With kidnap and ransom attacks on the rise, the crypto wealthy are adopting new tactics and practices to stay secure. 

Why are crypto execs targets?

Ransoming wealthy crypto holders is not a new problem. Cypherpunk and early Bitcoin adopter Jameson Lopp keeps a Github repository of such attacks. While not exhaustive, it has recorded at least 316 since 2014.

Rigel Walsh, a software developer at Swan Bitcoin, was already giving lectures on the topic in 2019, covering different attack vectors, from impersonation to home invasion and kidnapping.

According to Lopp’s repository, 79 ransom attacks occurred in 2025, while already in 2026, media have reported 27 attacks on crypto holders. 

This type of crime is hardly exclusive to the crypto-rich, but the nature of digital assets and the industry itself makes crypto executives and investors particularly vulnerable.

Christian Ogden Davies, global head of distribution and innovation at Relm Insurance, told Cointelegraph that some of the new crypto-rich “don’t have big risk infrastructure around them.” 

Traditionally, as an organization grows, “you usually then have more people come into your organization like a CEO that's experienced and maybe a chief risk officer or a chief legal officer, and then they start to look at insurances and how that kind of impacts them.”

As revenue increases, “you might have asset managers and wealth managers who turn around and go, ‘have you talked about or looked at your own personal security?’”

“Instead, in crypto, some people go from zero to hundreds of billions of net worth in weeks or months.”

This lack of concern, or at least attention, to personal security follows them into the very social and friendly space that is crypto. Davies said that crypto is one of the only sectors where “you'll have five CEOs of competing firms go and sit down for dinner and [...] see how things are going.”

Crypto is also highly liquid. Despite the increased amount of attention on crypto, be it through government monitoring and sanctions or private security and analysis services, crypto criminals can still cash out fairly easily.

Davies said that, while countries like North Korea and Iran have been sanctioned heavily, state-connected actors like hacker group Lazarus have still been able to get away with stolen funds. “If you have the right avenue and exit venue for it, you can still make it liquid.”

Legal and cultural elements may play a role in eliciting criminal attacks on crypto holders. France, and Paris in particular, has become a hotbed of ransom attacks on the crypto-rich. It “eclipses every other region by a country mile” in terms of crypto ransom attacks, said Davies. 

One of the most high-profile attacks was the 2025 kidnapping and ransom of Ledger wallet co-founder David Balland. His colleague and co-founder, Eric Larchevêque, has reportedly said that French law, namely a requirement that entrepreneurs register their names and addresses, is at least partly to blame.

Then there’s the cultural draw. Davies said, “everyone loves Paris [...] It's a beautiful city and it just attracts lots of visitors as well. Whether you're an A-list celebrity, musician, actor, film star, you want to go out and hang in Paris and go and eat [at] the restaurants and stuff. If you're a crypto exec, you do the same thing. If you're an investment banker, you do the same thing. So you do have a lot of high concentration of visiting wealth to that area.”

Overall, the lack of security has created a new reality that “everyone has kind of had to wake up to very violently.”

Crypto execs spend more on personal security

And woke up they have. Spending on personal security among crypto executives has skyrocketed. 

In 2024, American crypto exchange Coinbase spent $6.2 million on executive protection for its CEO Brian Armstrong. According to TechCrunch, this was more than the combined security costs of executives for JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Nvidia.

Larchevêque pays over $50,000 a month for security for himself and his family. He has cameras and weapons in his home and has reportedly lobbied for crypto executives to be allowed to carry firearms for their protection.

There have also been government-level efforts to address the problem. Yesterday at Paris Blockchain Week, Jean-Didier Berger, minister delegate to the interior minister of France, said his office had launched a prevention platform which has already drawn thousands of sign-ups. The platform will improve security coordination, which Berger said he’ll be working on with Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez in the coming weeks.

At Paris Blockchain Week, police reportedly had a strong presence. In a post on X, The Block’s head of growth Tim Copeland said some conference attendees had police escorts through Paris. 

Source: Tim Copeland

Insurance companies have also seen a surge in interest. Ben Davis, who runs a crypto-centric insurance brokerage in the UK, Native Broking, told Reuters last year, “Two years ago, kidnap and ransom wasn't really a big problem. No one really wanted to talk about it. Now 100% of our clients are talking about it."

Christian Ogden Davies told Cointelegraph that Relm started offering a K&R (kidnap and ransom) policy after massive client interest. “The reason we launched it is because we're being asked by so many people for it.”

The product offers security expertise and remuneration of funds to clients should they find themselves in a situation where they need to pay a ransom. But much of the policy, and of mitigating possible ransom attacks generally, is making sure the client knows how to avoid that situation altogether. 

“There's initial training and education of the people first. Try not to get yourself in that situation. This is what you say. This is what you don't say. This is who you speak to, how you speak, how you engage.”

“Don't turn left down that dark alley. It might be a shortcut, but just take that normal route.”

Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?

Iran’s foreign minister said Friday that the Strait of Hormuz is open to commercial vessel traffic for the remainder of the current ceasefire, prompting quick market reactions.

“In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi in a Friday X post.

US President Donald Trump confirmed the opening of the passage in a Friday post on Truth Social.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose above $76,210 on Friday following the news, rising around 1%, following a 5% weekly recovery, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Brent crude oil futures sank to around $85 per barrel, falling 10% on the news, according to Tradingeconomics data.

Easing geopolitical tensions may bring more risk appetite among crypto investors. However, the two-week ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran is set to expire on April 22, with the threat of renewed escalation continuing to weigh on market sentiment.

Source: Seyed Abbas Araghchi

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov warned Friday that the European Union’s new age-verification app could become a stepping stone toward broader online identity tracking, days after the European Commission said the system was technically ready for rollout.

In a Telegram post on Friday, Durov cited analysis from security consultant Paul Moore, who said the app is hackable in “under two minutes” after examining its technical design.

“This product will be the catalyst for an enormous breach at some point,” Moore said in an X post on Thursday, adding that the system could be tricked so the age check isn’t properly tied to the actual user or their device.

Durov argued that the security concerns went beyond age checks and could, over time, be used to justify broader identity verification across online services in Europe.

The criticism reflects a wider debate over how age verification is being built into online platforms, as regulators in multiple regions push similar systems, raising concerns over security and digital identity infrastructure.

System promoted as being “completely anonymous”

The European Commission released the first version of its age-verification blueprint in July 2025, with the aim of letting users prove they are over 18 without disclosing other personal information.

The age verification framework was developed as an open-source project designed to preserve privacy and support future interoperability with European Digital Identity Wallets.

Source: Ursula von der Leyen

In a statement on Tuesday, EC President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU’s age verification app is “technically ready,” describing the tool as “completely anonymous” and claiming users can prove their age without revealing personal data or being tracked.

However, after researchers said the system can be bypassed in minutes, it’s unclear whether its privacy and security promises will hold up in real use.

According to Durov, the app is “hackable by design,” suggesting it was built in a way that makes it easy to break in practice, which he argues could later be used to justify stronger identity checks.

Source: Pavel Durov

“The EU bureaucrats needed an excuse to silently start turning their ‘privacy-respecting’ age verification app into a surveillance mechanism over all Europeans using social media,” the Telegram CEO said.

Durov has emerged as a major advocate of free speech and digital privacy. He remains under judicial investigation in France over allegations tied to illegal activity facilitated through Telegram, including organized crime, fraud and the platform’s alleged failure to cooperate with authorities.

Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026

Fintech company Ramp Network said Friday it launched a multichain self-custodial wallet designed to tackle a common friction point in crypto of needing to rely on outside providers for core actions such as buying, swapping and cashing out.

The company said the wallet allows users to buy, sell, trade and cash out digital assets inside a single application, using Ramp’s own on-ramp, off-ramp and cross-chain infrastructure rather than handing users off to external services, according to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Ramp said the wallet launches with support for Ether (ETH) across eight networks: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Linea, MegaETH, Optimism, Polygon zkEVM and zkSync Era. It will also offer support for additional networks, including Bitcoin, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Apechain, Avalanche, Celo and Gnosis.

Simplifying self-custody remains one of crypto’s biggest product problems. Ramp is betting that bringing payments, swaps and cash access into one app can make non-custodial wallets feel less fragmented without taking control of user assets. Ramp said it uses USDC (USDC) on Base as a core balance for transfers, payments and in-app activity, while assets remain secured through a self-custodial setup using passkeys and optional key export.

Other crypto wallets that offer integrated decentralized exchange (DEX) features for asset purchases and swaps include Metamask, Phantom, Best Wallet and Exodus.

Ramp Network launches non-custodial wallet. Source: Ramp Network

Wallet launches outside the EU

Ramp said the wallet will be available globally, excluding the European Union, due to regulatory requirements.

Ramp Network is authorized as a Crypto Asset Service Provider under the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) since December 2025, according to the European Securities and Markets Authority’s MiCA register.

However, launching a product such as a wallet requires “additional regulatory steps,” which are expected to be finalized in the coming months, Przemek Kowalczyk, co-founder and CEO at Ramp Network, told Cointelegraph.

Ramp said it previously operated mainly as the infrastructure layer behind crypto purchases in partner apps, including MetaMask and Trust Wallet, serving more than 10 million users globally.

Ramp pitches simpler self-custody flow

Kowalczyk said Ramp built the infrastructure itself so users would not have to leave the app to buy, swap or cash out, while still keeping control of their assets.

“We would not frame this as becoming a new intermediary, but rather as reducing the number of intermediaries involved in a transaction,” Kowalczyk said. “By bringing these flows into a single system, we reduce those handoffs and make the experience more consistent and predictable,” he added.

Kowalczyk argued that this unified wallet infrastructure will enable better execution control and simplify the fragmented wallet experience while users still maintain asset ownership.

Magazine: ‘Account abstraction’ supercharges Ethereum wallets: Dummies guide

Flow Capital Partners is planning to tokenize its private credit fund through Singapore-based DigiFT, Bloomberg reported Friday, as the Hong Kong credit manager looks to tap blockchain-based distribution for its next capital raise.

According to the report, Flow Capital plans to bring its $150 million private credit fund on the blockchain through Singapore-based tokenization platform DigiFT by the end of April, seeking to raise an additional $30 million in tokenized shares by the end of 2026, Jacky Tian, chief investment officer of Flow Capital, said.

The $30 million raise is part of the company’s plans to expand the size of the fund to $250 million with a target net return of 12%. The fund launched in mid 2025, with $125 million in seed capital, according to the company. Cointelegraph has approached Flow Capital and DigiFT for comment.

The move adds to a growing push to use tokenization as a distribution channel for traditional credit products.

Some of the largest TradFi companies have announced similar tokenization initiatives, including asset manager BlackRock, which launched its BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), a tokenized treasury fund on Ethereum, in March 2024. Investment banking giant JPMorgan also launched its tokenized money-market fund, My OnChain Net Yield Fund (MONY), on Ethereum in December 2025.

However, industry leaders have raised misconceptions tied to the liquidity of tokenized assets.

Executives warn tokenization isn’t liquidity

Oya Celiktemur, Ondo Finance sales director for Europe, said tokenization doesn’t magically make hard-to-trade assets liquid.

“I think there’s still this idea that tokenizing something illiquid will somehow magically make it a liquid asset, which is just not true,” said Celiktemur, speaking during a panel discussion at Paris Blockchain Week 2026.

Francesco Ranieri Fabracci, head of tokenization expansion at Tether, made a similar point, arguing that tokenizing an asset won’t make it liquid, but added that some instruments, including bonds, money market funds and stablecoin, will likely see consistent liquidity on blockchain rails.

Tokenized RWA value, all-time chart. Source: RWA.XYZ

The total value of tokenized assets rose 9.6% during the past 30 days to $29.9 billion on Friday, data from RWA.xyz shows.

Tokenized US treasury debt was the largest sector with $13.7 billion in value, followed by commodities with $5.4 billion and asset-backed credit with $3.2 billion.

Magazine: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized?

Tempo unveiled a new “Zones” feature Thursday aimed at giving enterprises bank-style privacy on public stablecoin rails, but not everyone in crypto is convinced the trade-offs are worth it.

The payments-focused layer-1, co-developed with backing from Stripe and Paradigm, said Zones will let companies run transactions in permissioned environments while still tapping public blockchain liquidity. The pitch targets a long-standing issue for institutions: sensitive data like payroll, merchant volumes or treasury activity being exposed on public ledgers.

Some privacy-focused developers argue that the design sacrifices too much. Because each Zone is controlled by an operator that can see full transaction data and suspend a user’s ability to transfer or withdraw funds based on its own compliance rules, critics say it introduces centralized trust assumptions closer to an exchange than a trust-minimized blockchain.

The debate reflects a broader divide in crypto infrastructure as projects compete for institutional adoption. While Tempo is betting on simplicity and interoperability, rivals are leaning into advanced cryptography to keep transaction data confidential end-to-end.

Tempo’s Zones aim to hide enterprise flows

Tempo says that Zones are structured as parallel, permissioned chains attached to Tempo’s main network, designed for use cases such as payroll, fund management and B2B settlements. Companies can transact inside these environments while assets remain interoperable with the public chain, other Zones and shared liquidity pools.

Tempo Zones. Source: Tempo

Each Zone is run by an operator that controls access and has visibility into transactions, while the public network verifies batched state updates and proofs. Tempo says this approach preserves the benefits of a public blockchain while offering the compliance and auditability enterprises expect from traditional financial systems.

While some projects rely on advanced cryptography to hide transaction data and provide user anonymity, Tempo argues that these approaches “introduce unnecessary operational complexity and usability tradeoffs.”

Some rivals prefer cryptographic privacy

Tempo’s operator-centric model has drawn criticism from some builders, who argue it weakens both privacy and self-custody. If a single party can access transaction data and control availability, they say, users are effectively trusting an intermediary rather than relying on cryptographic guarantees.

Projects like ZKSync, for example, rely on private chains anchored to public networks using zero-knowledge proofs. Arcium is exploring distributed models where data remains encrypted across nodes and only verified outputs are revealed, and Zama uses fully homomorphic encryption to enable computation on encrypted data.

Ghazi Ben Amor, senior vice president, business development at Zama, told Cointelegraph that, while the underlying cryptographic algorithms are “indeed extremely complex,” Zama abstracts that complexity and allows developers to code the smart contracts using Solidity and without any prior knowledge of cryptography.

He said that enterprises using Zama Protocol “don’t even notice any cryptography is operating behind the scene,” and argued that Tempo’s Zones are essentially private blockchains, no different from existing centralized payment systems, which have proven their limitations in terms of scalability.

Tempo did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for additional comment.

Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?

Foundation, one of the better-known Ethereum-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces of the 2021 boom, is shutting down after the sale that was supposed to keep it operating fell apart.

Kayvon Tehranian, Foundation’s founder and CEO, took to X on Wednesday to announce the marketplace’s closure following a failed acquisition by the digital art distribution platform Blackdove.

Although Tehranian did not directly mention Blackdove, he said the original goal of the sale was to ensure the platform would continue operating under new ownership. “That’s no longer possible,” he said, adding that Foundation is not in a position to bring the marketplace back online.

Foundation later said the site would briefly return so users could delist NFTs, in a message signed by the Blackdove team.

Source: Foundation

The shutdown underscores the ongoing decline in NFT trading activity since the 2021 boom, as lower liquidity has left fewer independent marketplaces able to survive.

Foundation rose in the 2021 boom

Foundation was launched in early 2021, capturing a massive year for tokenized digital art, when some NFTs sold for as much as $69 million apiece.

According to Blackdove, the platform facilitated more than $230 million in primary sales for artists around the world, hosting NFT sales for artists like Jen Stark, James Jean and Reuben Wu.

Foundation also became a venue for digital art by US whistleblower Edward Snowden, whose NFT piece “Stay Free” sold for about 2,200 Ether (ETH) in 2021, worth roughly $5 million at the time.

Source: CozomoMedici

As broader NFT activity cooled after peaking in 2022, platforms like Foundation faced shrinking liquidity and fewer sustainable transaction flows. Blackdove initially announced Foundation’s acquisition in early 2025, with the platform announcing transitioning ownership a year later.

NFT market consolidation deepens

Foundation’s closure adds to a growing list of NFT platforms that have shut down or pivoted away from trading digital art recently, with the sector’s market cap falling back to pre-hype levels seen in 2021 as of February 2026.

Mint Blockchain, an NFT-linked infrastructure network built on Ethereum, also announced Friday that it has ceased operations and instructed users to withdraw assets.

This year alone, at least two other NFT platforms announced they were winding down operations, including Gemini exchange-backed Nifty Gateway and the social NFT platform Rodeo.

Top 10 NFT marketplaces by volume. Source: DefiLlama

MakersPlace shut down amid declining NFT activity last year, while X2Y2 wound down and pivoted away from NFTs. Crypto exchange Bybit has also closed its NFT marketplace as trading volumes fell.

OpenSea has remained the dominant NFT marketplace despite the broader downturn, accounting for more than 73% of all activity across the sector at publishing time, with competition from rivals such as Blur, according to DefiLlama.

Despite the sharp decline in NFTs, some industry figures, including Animoca Brands chairman Yat Siu, predicted that the sector could recover and reach new all-time highs.

Magazine: Your guide to surviving this mini-crypto winter

Tokenization does not automatically make hard-to-trade assets liquid, industry executives said at Paris Blockchain Week, pushing back on the idea that putting private credit, real estate or other illiquid products onchain will by itself create active secondary markets.

Speaking during a panel moderated by Cointelegraph CEO Yana Prikhodchenko, Oya Celiktemur, Ondo Finance sales director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said there is still a misconception that tokenizing illiquid assets can make them easier to trade.

“I think there’s still this idea that tokenizing something illiquid will somehow magically make it a liquid asset, which is just not true,” said Celiktemur. She added that assets like real estate and private credit “were never that liquid” to begin with.

Francesco Ranieri Fabracci, head of tokenization expansion at Tether, made a similar point. “It’s not that if you put an asset onchain, it will be liquid,” he said, arguing that only a narrower set of instruments, including bonds, money market funds and stablecoins, are likely to achieve consistent liquidity in tokenized markets.

The discussion comes as the tokenized real-world asset (RWA) sector continues to expand, shifting attention from issuance growth toward whether tokenized products can achieve meaningful activity and move beyond limited distribution channels. 

Panel discussion on Real-World Asset liquidity in Paris. Source: Cointelegraph

Tokenized RWA market grows, but remains concentrated

Data from RWA anayltics platform RWA.xyz shows the tokenized RWA market expanded from $8.8 billion on April 16, 2025, to roughly $29.9 billion on April 16, 2026, more than tripling in size in one year. 

The growth was led by relatively standardized and widely traded assets. Tokenized US Treasury Debt and commodities accounted for a large share of the market throughout the year. 

By contrast, categories typically associated with lower liquidity remained comparatively smaller despite strong percentage growth. Tokenized real estate increased from about $35 million to $296 million, while private equity rose from nearly $60 million to $223 million.  

Real-world asset data excluding stablecoins. Source: RWA.xyz

Other segments, including asset-backed credit and corporate credit, also expanded sharply in absolute terms, indicating rising issuance across a broader range of instruments.

But market value alone does not prove liquidity. Outstanding value can rise because more assets are issued, even if secondary market trading remains thin.

Magazine: Singapore isn’t a ‘crypto hub’ — it’s something better: StraitsX CEO

A Texas man found guilty of helping orchestrate a cryptocurrency scam project that defrauded $20 million from nearly 1,000 investors has been sentenced to 23 years behind bars by a US judge on Tuesday.

US District Judge LaShonda Hunt sentenced Robert Dunlap, who served as a trustee of the project that sold the fictional token Meta-1 Coin, to prison and ordered him to pay restitution to victims of the fraud, according to the Illinois US Attorney's office.

Assistant US attorneys Jared Hasten and Paige Nutini said in the government’s sentencing memorandum that Dunlap was “unrepentant” and that his lies grew “over the years.”

“Would-be criminals planning to engage in similar conduct need to know that such actions will be met with a serious repercussion that includes loss of one’s liberty for an extended period of time,” they added.

Source: US Attorney's Office

Regulators and authorities are turning up the heat on crypto scammers. In March, a man accused of hacking defunct DeFi platform Uranium Finance was charged with one count of computer fraud and one count of money laundering.

Token backed by $44 billion in gold, rare artworks

A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois convicted Dunlap in November on two counts of mail fraud, each carrying a possible sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison.

He was accused of conspiring with others to market and sell Meta-1 Coin through a Meta-1 Coin Trust from 2018 to 2023, making false and misleading statements to investors, including that the token was backed by a $1 billion art collection made up of works by Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh and $44 billion in gold.

Dunlap and his co-conspirators used automated trading bots to artificially inflate the market price and trading volume of the Meta-1 Coin on the Meta Exchange, a website Dunlap created, according to authorities.

In March 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered an asset freeze and other emergency relief orders to stop Dunlap, another alleged accomplice, Nicole Bowdler and former Washington state Senator David Schmidt from marketing and selling Meta-1 Coin.

The defendants allegedly told investors that Meta-1 Coin was risk-free and could offer returns of up to 224,923%. Instead, the coins were never distributed and the funds were used to cover personal expenses and buy luxury cars, including a Ferrari, according to the SEC.

Magazine: Forget stablecoin yield, how does the CLARITY Act treat DeFi?