Cryptopolitan

Tether reported about $1.04 billion in net profit for Q1 2026, with its gold reserves becoming one of the biggest parts of its balance sheet story.

The company published its first-quarter attestation, covering the assets backing USD₮ as of March 31, 2026, and showed that the company’s excess reserves reached a record $8.23 billion. Tether said the reserve base stayed mostly in short-term, liquid, high-quality instruments, while markets stayed rough across the quarter.

USD₮ stayed large and steady through the same period. The company reported about $183 billion in token-linked liabilities at the end of March, and listed total assets at $191,767,741,495 and total liabilities at $183,535,531,717.

Out of those liabilities, $183,438,487,810 came from issued digital tokens. That left assets above liabilities by $8,232,209,778. No stock ticker applies to Tether, BDO, or the World Gold Council, while Bitcoin trades as BTC.

Tether holds $141 billion in Treasury exposure while gold and Bitcoin sit inside reserves

Tether kept most of its reserves in short-term instruments tied to the U.S. government. Direct and indirect exposure to U.S. Treasury bills reached about $141 billion by March 31, 2026. The company said most reserve assets sat in government-backed holdings and short-term liquidity facilities.

That reserve layout placed Tether as the 17th largest holder of U.S. Treasuries worldwide. The company kept its main reserve focus on short-dated sovereign debt, which matters because USD₮ is used at scale and must meet redemptions without drama. In crypto, drama already comes free.

The reserve book also included other assets. Physical gold holdings stood at about $20 billion. The company said the precious metal portion was fully made up of actual gold, not paper claims. Bitcoin holdings were about $7 billion, giving Tether exposure to the largest crypto asset by market value.

Tether also separated its proprietary investments from the reserves backing issued tokens. Those investments sit under Tether Investments and are funded with excess capital and profits. The company said those holdings are not counted as part of the reserve backing for USD₮, and they allegedly do not affect the liquidity, quality, or transparency of the token reserve base.

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, said, “Our responsibility is to make sure USD₮ works without compromise. That means building a system that behaves the same way in any market condition, not just when things are stable.”

By April, Paolo said USD₮ was trading at or near record circulation levels, and more than 5 billion USD₮ had been added into the second quarter. He also tied that demand to the launch of Tether Wallet, a self-custody app built for people who use USD₮ every day.

Gold drops as the U.S. and Iran standoff keeps central banks cautious

The gold market was under pressure while Tether reported its large bullion position, as prices fell as much as 1.2% after gaining 1.5% in the prior session. Traders were watching the standoff between the U.S. and Iran, which hurt hopes for central bank rate cuts.

Trump said the naval blockade on Iran would stay in place. He was also briefed by military commanders on further options. Iran said the blockade had to end before the Strait of Hormuz could reopen.

This whole war has been bad for gold because bullion does not pay interest. Gold has fallen about 13% since the conflict started at the end of February.

Gold still gained on Thursday when the yen posted its biggest jump in three years, and Japan’s government announced an intervention in the currency market. A weaker U.S. dollar usually helps gold because the metal is priced in dollars.

The World Gold Council said central banks added gold in the first quarter at the fastest pace in more than a year. Most analysts stayed bullish on bullion, even after the latest drop.

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Japan is eager to build more data centers. But finding enough electricity to power them while maintaining efficiency and global competitiveness is a delicate balancing act. 

Data center capacity will dictate how quickly AI rolls out and which industries benefit first.

At Japan’s largest technology expo, SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, industry leaders drew attention to increased bidding competition for electricity between households and AI data centers.

Will AI drive up electricity bills?

Rocky Lee of Zettabyte, an AI infrastructure company based in Taiwan, said that tackling latency is a major factor behind electricity volume.

“If you ask an AI a question and get a response 40 seconds later, that’s not an ideal customer or enterprise experience. Power has to be transferred to GPUs, which is where we see the shortage.”

He warned that households in Japan will likely bear the brunt of rising electricity costs.

“AI is competing with you. If somebody is willing to pay a little bit more than you, then you have a problem,” said Rocky Lee of Zettabyte, an AI infrastructure company based in Taiwan.

Wholesale electricity prices have already soared in U.S. cities with a high concentration of data centers, such as Virginia, Texas, and Silicon Valley.

What is regional Japan’s role?

The need for low-latency AI services is prompting companies to build data centers around big cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. However, the Japanese government is trying to buck this trend.

Japan is home to an estimated 256 operational data centers. The U.S., on the other hand, operates a whopping 5,400 facilities, followed by approx. 520 in Germany, 500 in the UK and roughly 450 in China.

On April 24, it announced an expansion of its GX strategy with the aim of creating industrial clusters around renewable energy sources in regional Japan. The designated regions have not been made public, but likely include Hokkaido, Tohoku, and Kyushu.

GMI Cloud is one AI cloud startup that is poised to build Japan’s largest data center in the southern city of Kagoshima. The massive $12 billion gigawatt-scale (GW) project is expected to be completed by 2030.

Japan is a safe haven for data

GMI Cloud Founder and CEO, Alex Yeh, explained that ample availability of nuclear power is just one reason for the location.

“Japan is a huge hub for fiber optic internet access from the U.S. to Asia, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia. That’s why Google, Amazon, Microsoft Azure are located in Japan.”

Its data protection policy is an added advantage. Alex Yeh said Japan is the best choice when it comes to building highly sought-after sovereign data centers.

“Data is sensitive. There’s government data, military data, and enterprise data. You don’t want data situated in geopolitically sensitive areas such as the U.S. and Korea. That’s why Japan matters.”

Corporate giants bet on AI infrastructure

Japan’s legacy industrial giants are pivoting toward data centers and power infrastructure in an effort to reinvent their business model and generate new avenues of growth.

Japanese telecommunication giant NTT is expanding R&D into AI-native infrastructure. It currently holds the largest market share of data centers in Japan. It has more than 160 sites across all 47 prefectures.

On April 27, it announced the AI x OWN initiative. It’s NTT’s effort to redesign the internet around real-time AI use.

In a statement, NTT President Akira Shimada said “NTT’s AI infrastructure must shift from conventional ICT infrastructure to infrastructure for a new market premised on AI utilization.”

NTT also plans to triple its domestic power capacity from approximately 300 MW today to around 1 gigawatt by fiscal 2033.

Can data center deregulation boost AI competition?

At SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, Alex Yeh of GMI Cloud said top-down deregulation could make Japan globally competitive in AI data centers. He criticized legacy businesses for stifling innovation as well as the government’s preference for traditional, concrete-built data centers.

“In the U.S. and Taiwan, data centers are built modularly. These are 40-foot container units that can be shipped and deployed quickly. They’re essentially pre-built data centers, with all wiring integrated, that can be dropped on-site. So why can’t we do that in Japan?”

Yeh hopes Japan will turn to modular data centers, slashing construction timelines to six to eight months instead of the 18 to 24 months needed for conventional concrete facilities.

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Iran’s rial extended its decline to a record low in April 2026, reflecting mounting economic pressure tied to U.S. actions and ongoing regional tensions.

Data tracking the open market exchange rate shows the currency falling to 1,800,000 rials per U.S. dollar on April 29. The move follows a long-term devaluation trend that began in early 2025 and expanded in recent months.

At the start of 2025, Iran’s rial traded near 800,000 per dollar, moving within a narrower range during the first half of the year. However, the second half marked a turning point, as the currency weakened more consistently.

By September, it had crossed 1,100,000, then climbed past 1,300,000 in December and continued its decline into 2026.

Iran’s rial decline accelerates under pressure

Iran’s rial recorded short-term volatility in early 2026, but the overall trend remained negative. By late April, the surge to 1,800,000 marked the highest level recorded in the reported period.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pointed out the economic pressure came from the U.S. campaign Operation Economic Fury. He said the campaign aims to disrupt financial networks by seizing assets, freezing accounts and preventing global financial transactions.

Bessent said that almost $500 million has been seized in Iranian crypto assets. He also reported that the U.S. is freezing accounts and monitoring assets overseas, including properties and savings associated with Iran. He said the campaign has been ongoing for more than a year and has been ramped up since orders issued in March 2025.

Inflation rises as economic conditions tighten

Iran’s rial depreciation coincides with rising domestic inflation. Data from Iran’s central bank shows annual inflation increased from above 40% before the conflict to 50% as of April 4. The change reflects rising costs for essential goods.

Prices for items such as rice, eggs, and chicken have increased during the same period. The shift has followed reduced access to foreign currency and disruptions in trade flows. Imported goods, including food, medicine, and raw materials, remain directly affected by exchange rate movements.

In addition, according to Cryptopolitan’s earlier report, the blockade on Iranian ports has reduced access to oil revenues and limited foreign currency inflows. This restriction has affected a key source of government income. As a result, economic pressure has continued to build alongside currency depreciation.

Strait of Hormuz tensions and global impact

Iran’s rial has moved alongside geopolitical tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway handles a large share of global oil and gas trade during peacetime. Its closure has disrupted supply chains and contributed to rising global fuel and related goods prices.

Although Iran and the United States agreed to a ceasefire on April 8, tensions remain. The U.S. imposed a blockade on April 13, further limiting Iran’s ability to generate revenue from exports. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump rejected a proposal from Iran to reopen the strait in exchange for easing restrictions.

The proposal aimed to delay discussions on Iran’s nuclear program, leaving key disagreements unresolved. As a result, the standoff has continued, with multiple countries calling for the reopening of the route for economic and humanitarian reasons.

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The money big tech poured into artificial intelligence is starting to show results, but Wall Street remains nervous about the hundreds of billions being spent on chips and data centers, and not every company is winning.

Reddit’s stock (NYSE: RDDT) rose 16% before the market opened on Friday, after the company furnished investors with a higher-than-expected revenue outlook for the coming quarter.

The gains show how well Reddit’s AI-powered advertising solutions are doing.

The company developed a system that inserts advertising into relevant discussion threads (interest-based communities known as subreddits) and utilizes AI to help advertisers write copy, manage campaigns, and automatically crop images to match different ad placements.

Strong numbers set Reddit apart from tech rivals

The numbers backing this up are hard to ignore. Reddit’s daily active visitors grew 17% to 126.8 million in the quarter, and the average revenue it made per user worldwide jumped 44%.

That puts Reddit in a strong spot against much larger tech rivals like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. Unlike those companies, Reddit is also still bringing people on board.

“Reddit is still hiring and adding to our talent base,” Chief Operating Officer Jen Wong said.

That’s a contrast to what Meta, Snap, and Pinterest have been doing. All three have cut thousands of jobs in the past year to cut costs and redirect money toward AI.

Reddit’s content library has become valuable for another reason too. AI companies are competing to get their hands on text data to train their large language models, the systems behind tools like ChatGPT, and Reddit’s archive of discussions is a sought-after resource.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley said that how well Reddit executes across these areas will be key to showing its value “even in a future GenAI enabled and agentic landscape.”

Apple caught off guard as chip shortages bite

On the hardware side, things look different. 

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook said demand for Mac minis and Mac Studios has outpaced what the company expected, largely because developers are using them to run an AI agent platform called OpenClaw.

The software lets users run AI agents locally on their own machines using their own data, and it caught on fast among developers.

“The Mac Mini and the Mac Studio, both of these are amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools, and the customer recognition of that is happening faster than what we had predicted,” Cook said on the company’s Q2 earnings call.

He added that reaching supply-demand balance for those products “may take several months.”

The base model M4 Mac mini is already sold out on Apple’s website.

On eBay, refurbished units are going for as much as $979. Demand has since spilled over to the Mac Studio, which is also sold out in several configurations.

The shortage is costing Apple real money, even if the problem is one that other companies might envy.

Cook also flagged a longer-term concern: memory chip costs. “Beyond the June quarter, we believe memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business,” he said.

Memory prices have risen sharply because so much of the global chip supply is being funneled into AI data centers.

Research firm IDC expects PC shipments overall to fall 11.3% in 2026 because of this shortage. Apple’s MacBook Neo has also been hit. A shortage of A18 Pro chips has made the $599 laptop hard to find.

The bigger picture is that the entire tech industry is feeling the pressure.

Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon together spent $410 billion on infrastructure last year and are projected to spend more than $670 billion in 2026.

“We’re seeing constraints across the board. The hyperscalers who are trying to get into the gold mine, they’re having to wait, or spend more to get in,” said Brent Thill, a tech analyst at Jefferies. “It’s good for the picks and shovels, but it’s not good for the people who are assembling all the pieces.”

Overall, AI is creating clear winners in software while driving up costs and shortages across hardware.

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Prediction market giant Polymarket has stepped up surveillance and compliance controls following a high-profile insider trading scandal. The prediction market operator is collaborating with Chainalysis to tighten oversight following the $410,000 insider bet on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

According to Polymarket, it will work with Chainalysis to create a more reliable and transparent betting environment and, hopefully, set the gold standard for market oversight.

It also stated that they will collaborate to introduce new monitoring and detection tools and reinforce on-chain security to prevent threats. Chainalysis will also help train Polymarket’s team, build new detection capabilities, and support complex investigations.

Chainalysis and Polymarket will introduce a new detection model

Primarily, their deal centers on a detection model built on Chainalysis Data Solutions, which would sift through and identify wagers made using insider information. The model would add more muscle to the multi-level security setup Polymarket already relies on to spot rule-breakers.

Speaking on the partnership, Shayne Coplan, Founder and CEO of Polymarket, emphasized that the platform intends to prioritize transparency. He commented, “This partnership with Chainalysis pairs that transparency with the monitoring and enforcement infrastructure to back it up, and helps us continue to build the most trusted source of truth in markets.”

Jonathan Levin, Co-Founder and CEO, Chainalysis, also noted that, with the team-up, they are paving the way for on-chain markets to grow into the world’s most reliable and trusted tools for understanding global news as it happens.

The recent clampdown, however, follows a string of messy headlines about traders making a killing off insider information or manipulated storylines. Recently, a US special forces soldier, Van Dyke, allegedly made more than $400,000 on classified information of Maduro’s capture.

So far, Dyke pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges against him in court and has been granted bail of $250,000. Though the federal judge restricted his travel, limiting him to parts of North Carolina, New York, and California. His case represents the first time the Department of Justice (DOJ) has pursued insider trading charges involving a prediction platform.

More recently, the US Senate passed a unanimous vote to bar senators and their staff from trading in prediction markets. As earlier reported by Cryptopolitan, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno had led the charge on the resolution, even asserting at one point, “United States Senators have no business engaging in speculative activities like prediction markets while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck, period.” 

Nevertheless, Polymarket, after the Senate’s decision, voiced its support, calling it a progressive move that aligns perfectly with its own existing anti-insider policies. 

How are prediction platforms holding up against lawmaker criticism?

Overall, prediction markets are holding their ground against state and public opposition. A Bitget-Polymarket report found traders pushed monthly volumes to a staggering $25.7 billion in March during a crypto dry spell.

Their analysis showed retail participants are leading the activity, moving away from isolated bets toward more consistent engagement, especially in sports. Dune Analytics also reported similar results, noting that markets saw over $23.7 billion in trading volume in March.

In the past few months, prediction platforms have been embroiled in several controversies. Polymarket and Kalshi are still caught in the middle of a showdown, with state governors pushing for bans on the platforms in the name of protecting residents, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) arguing over its sole authority to regulate them.

A group of Democratic lawmakers recently even pushed the CFTC to address “the rapid erosion of integrity” in prediction markets. In a letter to the agency, they requested that the agency take measures to curb insider trading and corruption within the platforms. Meanwhile, New York recently filed suit against Coinbase Financial Markets and Gemini Titan, contending that their prediction market platforms violate state gambling laws.

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US stocks went ballistic all through April and gave Wall Street its strongest month since 2020, with investors piling back into tech while oil, inflation, and the Iran war kept the macro side messy.

The S&P 500 ended the month at a record close after gaining 14.2% from its March 30 low. That rebound added about $8.1 trillion in market value across 23 trading days, which is the kind of number that makes even crypto traders blink twice.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 15.29% in April, its best monthly run since April 2020, when markets were bouncing from the early Covid crash.

The tech trade got help from earnings, with Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT) all beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations and showing stronger cloud numbers.

Big Tech carries stocks as AI demand pushes traders back into growth names

Alphabet (GOOGL) jumped 10% after its earnings report and finished April up 34%. That was its strongest month since October 2004, the same year it went public.

Amazon (AMZN) gained 27% for the month, helped by its cloud performance and the wider rush into AI-linked tech. Meta Platforms (META) had a rough Thursday, falling 9% after saying it would spend more on capital projects, but the stock still ended April higher by nearly 7%.

Chip stocks had an even wilder month because data center demand is still pulling serious money into the sector. Broadcom (AVGO) gained 35% in April.

Qualcomm (QCOM) jumped close to 40% for the month after having its strongest session since last year on Thursday. Micron Technology (MU) climbed 53%, while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) surged 74%. Nvidia (NVDA) rose about 14%, giving the AI chipmaker its strongest month since June.

Intel (INTC) had the loudest rebound in the group. Its shares doubled in April, giving the company its best month in 55 years. 

Intel is still trying to fix years of late launches and weak production results that allowed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) and Nvidia (NVDA) to pull ahead in AI hardware. Traders are now paying attention to Intel’s 18A chips, which are coming out of its new Arizona factory.

Another reason Intel got attention is the return of demand for central processing units as agentic AI spreads. Bank of America (BAC) expects the CPU market to more than double by 2030.

Oil, inflation, Fed cuts, and Asia keep pressure around the stock rally

April’s rally in stocks came even as energy prices turned ugly. Brent crude climbed above $125 a barrel on Thursday, sending gasoline to about $4 per gallon across the US.

That matters because expensive fuel can keep inflation hot, squeeze consumers, and make the Federal Reserve less willing to cut interest rates.

Citi (C) lifted its rating on US stock markets to overweight versus other regions in April. Beata Manthey, Citi’s head of global equities strategy, said “tech is carrying the weight” of the wider market. The data backed that up. Tech stocks were flying, but the economy did not look clean.

The US economy grew at a 2% annualized rate in the first quarter, when economists had expected 2.2%. Investors then cut back their bets on Fed rate cuts for this year because oil and gas prices raised the risk of another inflation problem.

Meanwhile, trading in Asia was thin because the May Day holiday shut several large markets. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 (.AXJO) rose 0.74% to 8,729.80. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (.HSI) fell 1.28% to 25,776.53. South Korea’s KOSPI (.KS11) dropped 1.38% to 6,598.87. India’s Nifty 50 (.NSEI) lost 0.74% to 23,997.55. China’s Shanghai Composite (.SSEC) added 0.11% to 4,112.159.

Japan traded higher. The Nikkei 225 (.N225) rose 0.38% to 59,513.12. The Topix recovered from earlier losses and ended up 0.04% at 3,728.73.

The yen also firmed a little against the dollar on Friday after reports said Tokyo stepped into the market on Thursday to support the currency. The yen was last at 156.56 per dollar after crossing 160 earlier in the week and touching 160.72, its weakest level in two years.

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BTC ended April in the green, with 11.87% net growth. The leading coin closed in the green for the second month in a row and completed the most successful month for the year to date.

BTC reversed some of the deep losses from February and moved up to $76,960.11 in early May. The coin has accrued 12.94% in gains for Q2 to date, leading to more bullish expectations of a price reversal.

BTC ended April with nearly 12% in net gains, repeating the recovery pattern from 2025. | Source: CoinGlass.

The recent monthly gains arrived after a five-month streak of net losses. Based on the fear and greed index at 26 points, traders are still not confident to set up large long positions. However, April achieved a reversal, abandoning the ‘extreme fear’ trading from the previous month. 

Historically, April has mostly been a positive month for BTC, with only five years with a red monthly candle. BTC made a similar return in April 2025, paving the way for the all-time highs later in the year. May is a more bearish month on a five-year time frame, with deeper losses and shocks.

BTC passed several stress tests in April

BTC passed several stress tests in April, with both macro factors and crypto insider shocks. April saw a record of hacks and exploits, as Cryptopolitan reported earlier.

Oil shocks and the uncertainty of the situation in the Strait of Hormuz also led to fearful trading. Trader interest shifted to stocks and oil futures, while BTC attracted mostly whales on the spot and futures markets. 

The leading coin gained support from ongoing accumulation by whales and some cohorts of retail wallets. Demand also came from treasury companies, with Strategy performing its third-largest weekly purchase in history, adding 34,164 BTC as of April 20. 

BTC dominance recovered slightly to 58.2%, as interest in altcoins and tokens remained at historical lows. The coming months may continue with a sentiment of BTC maximalism, as the rest of the crypto market deals with hacks and the lost trust in DeFi lending. 

BTC options point to a relief rally

BTC options markets may be the reason for a short-term relief rally. On May 1, a total of $1.74B in BTC options expired, with another $394M in ETH options. 

The BTC weekly event expired with a put/call ratio of 1.1, suggesting cautious positioning and downside protection. The relatively small event for the new month still suggested prevailing downside protection.

Ahead of the options expiry event, the market was close to the maximum pain point of $76,000 per BTC.

Put options have now shifted to $75,500, setting up a higher level of downside protection.

BTC options suggest strong downside protection, and more bullish positioning if BTC breaks out above $80,000. | Source: CoinGlass.

The biggest accumulation of call options is at $79,500-$80,000 per BTC, which is seen as a level potentially triggering a breakout. 

Options markets still signal cautious downside protection rather than an upcoming bull market. The weekly options’ expiry near maximum pain may lead to a gamma squeeze, as traders abandon the attempt to push the price to the maximum pain point, where the most options expire worthless.

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Eric Trump is no longer shown on the leadership page of Alt5 Sigma Corp., the Las Vegas company that became closely tied to the Trump family’s crypto business, World Liberty Financial Inc.

His name had appeared on the company’s website as recently as March, when he was listed as an adviser and board observer. By last week, Eric was no longer there.

Alt5, which now calls itself AI Financial (NASDAQ: ALTS), became part of the Trump crypto story after it agreed to hold World Liberty tokens on its balance sheet in August, and agreed to build a $1.5 billion crypto reserve. In return, World Liberty received stock in AI Financial and board seats..

Alt5 keeps other World Liberty names listed while Eric leaves the public page

Eric was first lined up for a stronger role at Alt5. The early plan had him joining the board as a director. He was expected to sit there with Zachary Witkoff, the son of presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, and Zak Folkman. Zachary and Zak are also co-founders of World Liberty Financial.

That plan did not stay the same. Eric later became a board observer, not a director. A board observer can usually attend board meetings, read materials, and stay close to the company’s internal discussions. The person does not normally vote on board decisions.

Zachary and Zak are still listed on the company’s board page. Alt5 reported a loss of more than $341 million in its latest fiscal year. In its newest annual filing, management warned investors that there was serious doubt about whether the company could keep running for another year.

World Liberty faces legal heat, falling token prices, and questions over outside crypto ties

The trouble around World Liberty has been getting louder. Last month, Cryptopolitan reported crypto billionaire Justin Sun sued the company. Justin accused World Liberty of extortion and of illegally freezing his tokens. Eric responded on X and called the lawsuit “ridiculous.”

Other Trump-linked crypto assets have also lost value since launch. Shares tied to a Bitcoin mining company have fallen. The $TRUMP virtual token has also been steadily crashing.

AI Financial has also agreed to buy Block Street, a crypto infrastructure startup owned by one of the company’s own advisers. SEC filings say the Las Vegas company signed the deal last Monday. The purchase could be worth up to $43 million.

Morgan, the adviser behind Block Street, pushed back against the idea that the deal was self-dealing. He told Fortune that Block Street is not making revenue. He also said he had offered the startup to several public companies in late 2025 and turned down proposals with possible value above $100 million in “upside.”

Another issue comes through AB, a crypto venture that announced an arrangement with World Liberty less than a month after the Trump administration brought criminal charges and sanctions against a large alleged scam network. One AB-linked project was a planned “blockchain”-themed resort in East Timor.

Two men tied to that resort were later named in the U.S. crackdown. They were the controlling shareholder and the general manager of the resort project. U.S. officials said the men had worked for the Prince Group, which the government described as one of Asia’s biggest criminal organizations.

The Justice Department said on October 14 last year that Prince Group ran at least 10 violent scam compounds in Cambodia. Officials said enslaved workers were forced to run online fraud, including “pig butchering,” where scammers build fake relationships with victims before stealing their money.

That same day, the Treasury Department sanctioned more than 140 people and companies over alleged Prince Group activity and money-laundering networks.

A lawyer for World Liberty denied any relationship with the sanctioned men. He said the company did not know about the planned resort when it announced the AB arrangement.

He also said the AB deal was not a partnership, but a “limited non-exclusive technology integration” that would allow AB’s network to use the Trump family’s USD1 stablecoin. The lawyer added, “WLF takes its compliance obligations very seriously.”

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The XRP ecosystem is once again at the center of both optimism and long-term technological concern, as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse doubles down on XRP being the company’s “North Star,” even as broader discussions around quantum computing risks begin to surface in the crypto industry.

XRP Ledger validator Vet cautions that some quantum processors might eventually compromise the very earliest wallets of the XRPL, the equivalent of the “Satoshi Era” Bitcoin addresses.

Vet said, after studying 7.8 million accounts looking for quantum threats, that most of the XRPL network is safe, but 0.02% of the total XRP supply, the Genesis wallets, are vulnerable to quantum decryption. That puts approximately 23.16 billion XRP completely secure from potential quantum risks.

He wrote, “23.16B XRP is completely Quantum Safe. These accounts either rotate keys or never sign a transaction.”

Recent statements from Garlinghouse have reinforced XRP’s position as the core asset guiding Ripple’s long-term strategy. In multiple appearances and social media posts, the CEO has consistently described XRP as the “North Star” of the company, meaning every major product and institutional initiative ultimately aligns with the token’s ecosystem.

According to recent industry reports, Garlinghouse reiterated that “all roads lead back to XRP,” framing it as the foundation of Ripple’s payments, custody, and institutional blockchain services.

Vet asks users to change to more secure wallets and protect themselves from quantum attacks

In a subsequent post, Vet detailed that the 300,000 Genesis wallets were receive-only and therefore their cryptographic signatures have not been revealed, rendering them quantum-resistant.

He further commented, “Dormant, vulnerable XRP whales are almost nonexistent. The rest are active and have their public key exposed, but it is also reasonable to expect to rotate keys if needed.”

Additionally, responding to a question on X, Vet said users can protect themselves by adopting quantum-safe signatures or rotating their keys, but raised concerns about what happens to inactive accounts—should their assets be left vulnerable, frozen, redistributed, or burned?

So far, the XRPL has already put key pieces in place to enable forward migration in a post-quantum era. According to reports, if traditional encryption ever fails, the network is prepared to flip the switch on a backup plan for a secure migration.

XRPL is looking to fully deprecate classical signatures and force a shift to post-quantum security measures. 

The network said it would be stepping up trials of globally recognized cryptographic standards recommended by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The team is also aiming to integrate new quantum-resistant signature schemes alongside today’s elliptic curve signatures, first on Devnet for developer trials.

What did Google say on its quantum research and cryptographic protections?

Google recently published a white paper showing that future quantum systems might crack current cryptographic protections with fewer qubits and gates than once believed. According to analysts, the analysis means that the quantum threat has shifted from theoretical to credible, and the timing of quantum-safe upgrades is absolutely critical.

Google reported that a 500,000-qubit solution could run some cryptographic circuits almost instantly, reducing the number of qubits required for an ECDLP-256 algorithm by almost 20 times, which is sufficient to secure most blockchains.

However, according to a researcher, bad actors are “playing the long game” by collecting ledger data now and betting that future tech will eventually unleash a master key, employing a more ‘harvest now, decrypt later’ approach. The threat at hand is still modest, but the findings serve as a ‘start-your-engines’ alert for any future secured systems seeking long-term value.

Nevertheless, Google has promised the crypto community that it will continue to pioneer the process into the post-quantum age, alongside Coinbase, the Stanford Institute for Blockchain Research, and the Ethereum Foundation, to meet its 2029 timeline. The announcement also encouraged users to ditch exposed wallets and offered policy options for handling abandoned crypto assets.

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A U.S. Senate effort to overhaul crypto market structure through the CLARITY Act is approaching a mid-May committee markup, though negotiations remain strained by disputes over ethics rules, stablecoin yield provisions, and political concerns tied to Donald Trump’s crypto-related business interests.

The legislation would establish a federal framework dividing oversight of digital assets between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a long-sought regulatory clarity effort for the industry.

Bipartisan agreement remains uncertain as lawmakers struggle to resolve both technical and politically sensitive issues.

Legislative push toward May markup

Sen. Tim Scott, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said the CLARITY Act is nearing a critical stage, with lawmakers aiming for a bipartisan committee vote in May. Sen. Thom Tillis told Politico he would oppose final passage without ethics provisions included.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins described the agency’s March guidance as “an important bridge” while Congress develops permanent rules, Axios reported.

The House passed its version in July 2025 by 294–134, including 78 Democrats. The Senate Banking Committee released a 278-page draft in January 2026, but multiple scheduled markups have been postponed.

Banks continue to oppose proposals that would let crypto firms offer yield on stablecoin deposits. Standard Chartered estimates stablecoins could divert up to $500 billion in US bank deposits by 2028, per Reuters.

A White House Council of Economic Advisers report countered that stablecoin yield would displace only about 0.02% of total bank loans, roughly $2.1 billion, as Cryptopolitan reported when industry group NC Blockchain pushed Tillis to advance the bill last week.

Trump crypto ties drive ethics standoff

Bloomberg reported Trump has earned at least $1.4 billion through crypto-related ventures, including World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance and stablecoin project. His family also holds a stake in bitcoin mining firm American Bitcoin.

Democrats argue that these financial ties raise the potential for conflicts of interest in shaping digital asset regulation. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) told The Block that bipartisan support depends on resolving ethics and illicit finance concerns.

Earlier this year, the Senate Agriculture Committee advanced a related crypto bill without Democratic support, with lawmakers citing Trump-related crypto ties as a key concern.

Vote math tightens as time runs out

The bill needs 60 Senate votes, meaning unanimous Republican support plus seven Democrats. That path tightened after Sen. John Kennedy said he would not support it, per Punchbowl News. Kennedy’s defection drops effective Republican backing to 52 from 53, raising the Democratic threshold from seven to eight.

Polymarket odds moved from 38% to 46% over the past week. Estimates cited by The Block place the probability between 15% and 50%.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis has warned that failure to pass this Congress could delay comprehensive crypto regulation for years. Sen. Bernie Moreno delivered an ultimatum at a Washington event on April 22, declaring the bill must clear Congress by end of May.

Digital policy analyst Adrian Wall told Reuters: “If this doesn’t get passed and put in front of the President’s desk by July, I think everyone feels that window will have been closed because of the mid-terms.”

The Polymarket move suggests the market sees the path widening. The 60-vote math says it has not widened by enough.

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The Financial Conduct Authority finalised rules on Thursday allowing UK asset managers to maintain official investor registers on blockchain and introduced an optional Direct-to-Fund dealing model that removes intermediaries from fund transactions.

The changes, set out in policy statement PS26/7, take effect immediately. They apply to about 2,600 firms managing an estimated £16.5 trillion in assets across the UK market.

The policy formalises a framework the regulator has tested since January 2025, when it authorised the UK’s first tokenised UCITS fund under the industry “Blueprint” model. PS26/7 turns that pilot into permanent rules.

Onchain records gain regulatory recognition

Under the new rules, authorised fund managers can use distributed ledger technology (DLT) as the official register of investor ownership.

A full off-chain duplicate is no longer required, provided firms maintain operational resilience and comply with governance, data protection, and financial crime standards.

The framework builds on an industry “Blueprint” model already used to approve the UK’s first tokenised UCITS fund.

Funds may operate on public or private blockchains, including across multiple networks, as long as investor rights and fee structures remain unchanged.

Simon Walls, the FCA’s executive director of markets, said tokenisation would “play an important role in asset management” and that the regulator had delivered “a practical framework to give firms confidence in how fund tokenisation can operate within the FCA’s rules.”

Direct-to-fund dealing reduces intermediaries

The FCA also introduced an optional Direct-to-Fund (D2F) dealing model.

Under D2F, the fund or its depositary becomes the counterparty to investor transactions. This removes the need for an asset manager or intermediary between the investor and the fund.

Transactions are executed in a single step, with units issued or cancelled as cash moves directly between investor and fund. The regulator said the structure could reduce operational friction and better align with faster settlement systems, including blockchain-based infrastructure.

Firms will still be able to use traditional dealing models or combine both approaches within umbrella fund structures.

Three-stage roadmap signals what comes next

PS26/7 sits at stage one of a broader FCA digital assets path. Stage two extends to traditional securities moved on-chain. Stage three involves tokenised cash flows enabling portfolio management through wallets and smart contracts. The regulator said it may explore settlement using digital cash and stablecoins in consultations later in 2026.

The framework sits alongside the broader cryptoasset regime. As Cryptopolitan reported, the FCA’s CP26/4 consultation proposes Consumer Duty rules, safeguarding requirements for client cryptoassets, and stricter governance for large stablecoin issuers. That regime takes effect in October 2027.

The industry has been signalling this shift for months

Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan and head of research Ryan Rasmussen wrote in a July client note that “tokenisation, the shift to issuing stocks, bonds, and other real-world assets on blockchains instead of traditional rails, is having a moment.”

The global stocks and bonds market is worth roughly $257 trillion combined, against current tokenised real-world assets at about $25 billion.

Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev offered a sharper version at Token2049 in October. “Tokenisation is like a freight train. It can’t be stopped, and eventually it’s going to eat the entire financial system,” he told the conference, predicting most major markets will have tokenisation frameworks within five years.

The first tokenised UCITS launched 16 months ago. The framework that authorised it is now permanent.

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The U.S. Senate has taken a rare unanimous step. It voted on Thursday to ban lawmakers, staff, and chamber officers from betting on prediction markets. Senate Resolution 708 passed by unanimous consent and took effect immediately as a change to the Senate’s standing rules.

The vote came eight days after federal prosecutors indicted a U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant for using classified information to win more than $400,000 on Polymarket, and one week after Kalshi fined three congressional candidates for betting on their own races.

Republican Senator Bernie Moreno introduced the measure. Democratic Senator Alex Padilla widened it to include Senate staff.

Moreno framed the issue bluntly. “United States senators have no business engaging in speculative activities like prediction markets while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck,” he said, according to Reuters.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer backed the move. He warned against turning public service into speculation.

“We must never allow Congress to turn into a casino where members representing the public can gamble on wars or economic crises,” Schumer said.

Prosecutors acted on U.S. Army Master Sergeant’s bet

The vote did not happen in a vacuum. It followed a case that stunned both lawmakers and regulators.

Federal prosecutors charged Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a 38-year-old Army Special Forces master sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg, with using classified information to place wagers on Polymarket. The trades were tied to Operation Absolute Resolve, the U.S. military mission that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on January 3.

Van Dyke “was involved in the planning and execution” of the operation, the Justice Department said in announcing the indictment. Prosecutors allege he placed approximately $33,034 in 13 bets between December 27 and January 2, all on “Yes” positions for contracts predicting U.S. forces would enter Venezuela by January 31.

The wagers won him approximately $409,881 in profit. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a parallel civil complaint, calling it the agency’s first insider trading action involving prediction markets.

Van Dyke pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday and was released on $250,000 bail.

Experts warn that prediction markets remain vulnerable

For many experts, the case confirmed long-standing concerns.

“The idea that insider trading is somehow permissible in prediction markets is a myth,” said David Miller, CFTC Director of Enforcement. He named insider trading on prediction markets as one of the agency’s five enforcement priorities going forward.

Academic research published days earlier reached a similar conclusion. Columbia Law professor Joshua Mitts and University of Haifa professor Moran Ofir analyzed two years of Polymarket data through February 2026 and identified more than 210,000 suspicious wallet-market pairs.

Flagged traders posted a 69.9% win rate, well above chance, and accumulated approximately $143 million in aggregate anomalous profit.

Mitts told American Banker that prediction market regulation is “a lot trickier” than securities-market enforcement because the contracts are commodities, not securities, and so fall outside the SEC’s classical insider trading framework.

When outcomes are yes-or-no and trading is thin, even one informed bet can move the market.

The polymarket ban has limits

Despite the strong vote, the Senate’s action has clear limits. This is not a criminal law. It is an internal rule. That means the Senate polices itself. Penalties could include reprimands, loss of committee roles, or fines tied to ethics violations.

But there is an important catch.

If a lawmaker uses insider information, existing federal laws could still apply. Regulators and prosecutors can still step in. So the rule acts more like a guardrail than a hammer. It is designed to stop the behavior before it starts.

How does this ban compare to the stalled stock trading ban?

Feature Prediction Market Ban Stock Trading Ban (Proposed) Status Already in force Still stalled Who it covers Senators and staff Members of Congress What it bans Event-based bets Stock trades Enforcement Senate ethics system Would require federal law Penalties Internal sanctions Proposed legal penalties

A narrower, simpler rule passed in a single afternoon. The broader stock trading ban, debated for nearly a decade, remains stuck. Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., have introduced separate legislation to ban all federally elected officials and government employees from using insider information on prediction markets.

Young called Resolution 708 “a good first step.”

Prediction markets remain a global gray area

Around the world, prediction markets sit in a legal gray zone. In the U.S., regulators are starting to treat them like financial derivatives.

In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority has taken a cautious approach. Across Europe, rules vary widely. Some countries treat them as gambling. Others treat them as financial instruments.

This patchwork creates gaps. And those gaps can be exploited.

Regulators are watching the Van Dyke case closely. A conviction would set a precedent for how Rule 180.1 of the Commodity Exchange Act applies to government-sourced classified information.

As Cryptopolitan reported in March, Polymarket has already updated its insider trading rules across both its DeFi platform and its U.S. exchange, citing pressure from regulators and the Ritchie Torres bill that has drawn 40 Democratic co-sponsors.

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Hackers stole over $625 million across 20 to 30 separate attacks in April 2026 alone. That’s nearly one attack every single day. DefiLlama posted a chart on X showing that April averaged nearly 1 attack per day, compared with previous monthly records that rarely exceeded 12 to 15 incidents.

This outstripped the total for all previous quarters, pushing the month toward a record high for security breaches.

Why did two attacks cause almost all the damage?

Several high-impact incidents defined the month. On April 1, 2026, the Drift Protocol lost $285 million. A North Korean group spent about six months building trust with Drift employees, only to steal the funds in 12 minutes using pre-signed withdrawal instructions.

As earlier reported by Cryptopolitan, KelpDAO followed suit on April 18, losing $293 million after attackers tricked its system into releasing tokens with no real backing.

Both attacks originated from North Korea, but used different methods, demonstrating a level of sophistication the DeFi industry was not ready for. Together, these two incidents alone accounted for the majority of April’s losses. This shows how a small number of sophisticated attacks can destabilize large portions of the DeFi ecosystem.

Why did one hack freeze billions in money that had nothing to do with KelpDAO?

The group behind the KelpDAO attack deposited the stolen tokens as collateral on Aave and borrowed nearly $190 million in real Ethereum against them. 

Aave was now holding worthless tokens as security for real loans, and the platform’s deposits fell from $26.4 billion to around $17.9 billion in just 48 hours. Stablecoin pools on the platform hit 100% utilization, and according to Galaxy Research, Aave’s bad debt rose to between $123.7 million and $230 million.

Over $13 billion exited DeFi protocols within days of the attack as users panicked and began withdrawing funds. Platforms like Morpho, Spark, Lido, Yearn, Beefy, and Ethereum itself froze certain operations due to massive outflows as trust across the industry broke down.

None of these accounts for the collateral damage seen across TVL, user trust, valuations, and the space’s morale. DeFi remains a niche market until risk can be properly priced.” DeFi analyst, as quoted by BeInCrypto.

Who is responsible, and how much have they stolen in total?

According to TRM Labs, government-backed hacking units in North Korea were responsible for 75% of all crypto hack losses through April 2026 ($577 million out of a total $759 million).

As documented by the United Nations, the US Treasury, and multiple blockchain intelligence firms, North Korea steals crypto to fund its government and weapons programs due to severe international sanctions. TRM Labs reported that North Korea stole over $6 billion in crypto since 2017.

“What we are watching is not a North Korean campaign that is broader — it is one that is sharper,” Ari Redbord, Global Head of Policy and Government Affairs at TRMLabs, said. “North Korea is moving faster and more precisely than ever.”

What happened to the rest of April, beyond the two big attacks?

Rhea Finance lost $18.4 million on April 10. Tether froze $3.29 million of those funds in time, but the attacker used flash loans to manipulate prices and drain the pool of the remaining amount.

Similarly, the crypto exchange in Kyrgyzstan, Grinex, lost $13.74 million in USDT on April 15 after hackers split the funds across 54 wallets and converted them into SunSwap to make them difficult to track. Hyperbridge also lost $2.5 million on the Polkadot network, and CoW Swap $1.2 million on April 14.

Onchain analyst Wazz posted on X on April 29, saying, “Hundreds of wallets (many of which haven’t been active in 7+ years) just got drained by the same address on ETH mainnet.” He added, “Seems like a new live exploit, worth flagging.”

It didn’t end there, though, because Wasabi Protocol lost approximately $5 million on the last day of April after an attacker used a compromised deployment key to exploit the system

Is DeFi getting safer or more dangerous?

Both, depending on how you look at it. For example, response times after attacks have greatly improved over the years, as more than 14 organizations pledged over $300 million to the DeFi United rescue fund after the KelpDAO incident.

The Arbitrum Security Council even froze $71 million of the attacker’s funds using emergency powers, something that was never possible a few years ago. 

However, the attacks are also evolving faster than defenses can keep up, because the two biggest April incidents exploited human manipulation. Years ago, most hacks exploited bugs in the smart contracts.

If losses continue at this rate, with the same number of hacks, the industry might lose about $7.5 billion in the coming months. That’s 3 times the losses in 2024.

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A crypto-stealing tool called StepDrainer is draining money from wallets across Ethereum, BNB Chain, Arbitrum, Polygon, and at least 17 other networks.

StepDrainer operates as a malware-as-a-service kit. It uses fake but realistic Web3 wallet pop-ups to trick people into approving transfers. Some of those screens are made to look like Web3Modal wallet connections.

Once someone connects their wallet, StepDrainer looks for the most valuable tokens first and automatically sends them to wallets controlled by the attackers, according to LevelBlue.

StepDrainer misuses smart contract tools

StepDrainer misuses real smart contract tools like Seaport and Permit v2 to show wallet approval pop-ups that look normal. But the details inside those pop-ups are fake.

In one case, cybersecurity researchers found that victims saw a fake message saying they were receiving “+500 USDT,” making the approval look safe.

StepDrainer loads its harmful code through changing scripts and gets its setup from decentralized on-chain accounts.

That setup helps the attackers dodge normal security tools because the harmful code is not stored in one fixed place where it can be easily scanned.

StepDrainer is not just one person’s project. Researchers said there is a developed underground market selling ready-made drainer kits, making it easier for many attackers to add wallet-stealing features to scams they already run.

EtherRAT siphons crypto from Windows users

Researchers also found another malware besides StepDrainer, called EtherRAT. It targets Windows through a fake version of the Tftpd64 network admin tool.

According to LevelBlue, EtherRAT hides Node.js inside a fake installer, makes sure it stays on the computer through the Windows registry, and uses PowerShell to check the system.

EtherRAT first targeted Linux. Now it is bringing malware tricks and crypto theft to Windows.

EtherRAT quietly runs in the background. It checks things like antivirus tools, system settings, domain details, and hardware before it starts stealing.

According to a recent Cryptopolitan report, over 500 Ethereum wallets have been drained in the past 24 hours. The attacker siphoned more than $800K in crypto assets and then swapped the funds via ThorChain.

Many of the drained wallets have been inactive for over 7 years, according to on-chain research Wazz. The drained funds were directed by a single wallet address controlled by the attacker.

Cybersecurity researchers advise users connecting wallets to unknown sites to verify the domain, read the transaction details before signing, and remove any unlimited token approvals.

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An open-source crypto trading project received a malicious npm package called @validate-sdk/v2 after Anthropic’s Claude Opus AI model made it a dependency. This gave hackers access to users’ crypto wallets and funds.

Security researchers from ReversingLabs (RL) found the breach in the openpaw-graveyard project, which is an autonomous crypto trading agent hosted on npm. They called it PromptMink.

The bad commit was made on February 28, 2026. ReversingLabs says that the package pretends to be a tool for checking data but really steals secrets from the host environment.

North Korean hackers linked to PromptMink malware

ReversingLabs said that the attack came from Famous Chollima, a North Korean state-sponsored threat group.

The group has been spreading malicious npm packages since at least September 2025. They have been improving a two-layer strategy that is meant to trick both human devs and AI coding assistants.

The first layer is made up of packages that don’t have any malicious code. These “bait” packages, like @solana-launchpad/sdk and @meme-sdk/trade, seem like real tools for crypto developers.

They list a few second-layer packages that carry the actual payload, along with popular npm packages like axios and bn.js as dependencies.

When the second-layer packages are reported and taken down from npm, the attackers just put in a new one without losing the reputation they’ve built around the bait packages.

ReversingLabs says that when @hash-validator/v2 was taken off of npm, the attackers released @validate-sdk/v2 the same day with the same version number and source code.

AI agents are more susceptible to hacks than humans

Security researchers stated that Famous Chollima’s method seems more suited to taking advantage of AI coding assistants than human developers. The group writes long, detailed documentation for its malicious packages, which researchers call “LLM Optimization abuse.”

The goal is to make packages look real enough that AI agents will suggest and install them without any problems. The infected packages were “vibe-coded” by generative AI tools. Leftover LLM responses are visible in the file comments.

Since late 2025, the PromptMink malware has taken on many different forms.

It started as a simple JavaScript infostealer, then grew into big single-executable applications, and now comes as compiled Rust payloads that are made to be stealthy, according to ReversingLabs.

When the malware is installed, it looks for configuration files related to crypto, steals wallet credentials and system information, compresses and sends project source code to itself, and drops SSH keys on Linux and Windows machines so it can always access them remotely.

The PromptMink campaign is not the only recent attack targeting crypto developers through package managers.

Last month, Cryptopolitan reported on GhostClaw, a malware that targeted the OpenClaw community through a fake npm installer. It harvested crypto wallet data, macOS Keychain passwords, and AI platform API tokens from 178 developers before removal from the npm registry.

PromptMink and GhostClaw use social engineering as an entry point and target developers working in crypto and Web3. What makes PromptMink different is that it targets AI coding agents and uses them as the attack path.

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Hertz Global Holdings announced a new unit, Oro Mobility on Thursday. It is partnering with Uber Technologies on two different deals for both driverless cars and regular ride services. Hertz stock went up 17.14% to $6.55 during trading.

Oro Mobility will handle the day-to-day operations for Uber’s self-driving taxi program. This includes charging the vehicles, fixing them when needed, keeping them clean, and managing the facilities where they’re stored. The company plans to start this service in the San Francisco Bay Area before the year ends, with possible growth into more cities by 2027.

The second partnership focuses on regular rides with human drivers. Oro will run its own fleet of vehicles on Uber’s platform using drivers who work directly for Oro. Company officials said this setup helps handle increasing customer demand while making sure riders get the same quality of service each time. This program is already running in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Northern New Jersey will get the service this spring.

Hertz explained that launching Oro Mobility fits into its broader plan to move beyond just renting cars to tourists and business travelers. The company wants to use what it already knows about managing large numbers of vehicles to support both computer-driven and human-driven transportation services.

The deals expand on an existing arrangement between the two companies, where Uber drivers can rent vehicles from Hertz.

Uber is going far beyond ride services

On Wednesday, Uber revealed a new feature in its app in the realm of hotel bookings at its Go-Get event in New York. It is working with Expedia for the hotel booking tool in its app. Users can surf through over 700,000 hotels all over the world to make bookings. The feature seems especially convenient for tourists to have both car ride services alongside hotel bookings in just one app.

If that wasn’t good enough, the company has also included a Travel Mode feature for local spots suggestions and restaurant reservations.

Uber is also incorporating voice commands with an AI assistant for customers to book rides. The system understands where you want to go and what type of ride you need, then shows the best options.

These latest updates suggest that the company is aiming to become the go-to app for all travel needs. It may be getting a cut from hotels, which it doesn’t own, for each booking. The new multipurpose features will help retain customers on the app.

A new Shop for Me service lets customers request items from any store, even ones not listed in the app. Users can ask for specific products from local shops, whether it’s a gift, specialty foods, or household items.

Select cities will soon get Eats for the Way, letting riders who book Uber Black or Uber Black SUV reserve vehicles that show up with coffee or snacks already inside. After confirming the ride reservation, customers can add their drink or food order.

Investors betting on a rebound

The change in direction comes while Uber shares have struggled to gain ground in early 2026. Meanwhile, traders buying and selling options contracts seem to think better days are ahead.

Data from Barchart shows the ratio of put options to call options for contracts ending in mid-September sits at just 0.22. This heavily favors bullish bets, with the top price target at $87 representing a possible 17% jump over the next five months.

Uber’s quarterly earnings report, set for May 6, could move the stock significantly. Analysts expect revenue to hit $13.3 billion, which would mark a gain of more than 15% compared to the same period last year.

Despite falling from its 2026 peak, the stock has held steady around two key technical levels, its 20-day and 50-day moving averages. This suggests investors who believe in the stock haven’t given up yet.

Analysts covering Uber largely share the optimistic view seen in options trading. The overall rating sits at “Strong Buy,” with the average price target near $106. That would represent potential gains of more than 40% from current levels.

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The Ethereum Foundation has opened applications for the seventh cohort of its Ethereum Protocol Fellowship today, Thursday, April 30.

The program is designed to bring new developers into core protocol work months after co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced a period of fiscal restraint for the organization.

The applications for the cohort tagged EPF7 are going to be open through May 13, and the cohort is expected to run from June through November. 

The selected participants will receive monthly stipends and mentorship from active core developers. An introductory town hall is scheduled for May 6 at 1500 UTC.

In January, Buterin wrote on X that the Foundation was “entering a period of mild austerity” to balance an aggressive technical roadmap with long-term financial sustainability. The Foundation held roughly 172,000 ETH at the time and had faced criticism for annual spending that previously reached as high as $100 million, according to Cryptopolitan’s earlier reporting. 

Currently, the Foundation holds over 92,500 ETH per Arkham Intelligence, having sold some of its holdings to BitMine six days ago.

What is the Ethereum Foundation’s upcoming cohort about?

According to the Foundation’s protocol support team, the coming cohort will be smaller compared to previous rounds. The team stated that they are “prioritizing depth of engagement over breadth.”

Fellows who join the cohort will get to work more closely with the mentors, and this should also enable them to make “higher-impact contributions to the projects they take on.”

The program targets software engineers with a solid technical foundation who are self-directed and motivated by open-source work. The makeup has always revolved around gathering a diverse group with the goal of advancing Ethereum’s roadmap. 

Fellows will contribute to client implementations, testing, specifications, and core protocol research. Past participants have joined client teams and remained long-term contributors, according to the Foundation.

The May 13 application deadline will determine the size and composition of the cohort. Buterin’s January commitment to personal austerity, including earmarking 16,384 ETH for ecosystem goals over five years, set expectations that the Foundation would do more with less. 

How did Ethereum use its resources in Q1?

A day before the EPF7 announcement, the Foundation’s Ecosystem Support Program published its Q1 2026 allocation update. The report lists grants across cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs, security tooling, and protocol research, suggesting that while spending discipline has tightened, core development funding continues.

The Ethereum Foundation presents the initiatives it has supported since 2024. Source: Ethereum Foundation

Among the funded projects are maintenance for the EthereumJS TypeScript stack, Lighthouse client development for the Fusaka transition, L2BEAT’s 2026 operations, and a performance benchmarking initiative to stress-test states 10 times the size of the mainnet. 

The Foundation also funded several positions through its 2026 internship program in areas including protocol consensus, cryptography, and protocol security.

The Ethereum Applications Guild, a new nonprofit announced on April 29, adds another layer to the Foundation’s developer recruitment effort. In its bio on X, the organization describes itself as “a global non-profit collaborative organization dedicated to advancing the innovation, adoption, and real-world impact of Ethereum-native applications.”

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Apple (AAPL) beat Wall Street’s fiscal second-quarter targets with $111.18 billion in revenue and $2.01 in diluted earnings per share, while iPhone sales reached $56.99 billion and missed the analyst forecast by a small margin.

Analysts polled by LSEG had expected $109.66 billion in revenue and $1.95 in EPS. The stock barely changed in extended trading after the report, because the numbers were strong, but not spotless.

The cleanest part of the quarter came from Services, not hardware. Services revenue climbed to $30.98 billion, up from $26.65 billion a year earlier.

iPhone revenue rose from $46.84 billion to $56.99 billion, but analysts expected $57.21 billion. That was the only major line in the report that fell short, and it was the second iPhone miss in three quarters.

Apple beats profit and revenue targets as Services revenue hits a new high

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, said, “Today Apple is proud to report our best March quarter ever, with revenue of $111.2 billion and double-digit growth across every geographic segment.” Tim also said the iPhone reached a March-quarter revenue record because of demand for the iPhone 17 lineup.

He said Services reached another all-time record during the quarter. Tim also pointed to new products added to Apple’s lineup, including the iPhone 17e, the M4-powered iPad Air, and MacBook Neo.

Kevan Parekh, Apple’s CFO, said, “Our strong business performance during the March quarter generated over $28 billion in operating cash flow and drove new March quarter records for both operating cash flow and EPS.”

Kevan said demand for Apple’s products and services helped push the company’s active device base to a new all-time high across every major product category and region.

For the three months ended March 28, Apple posted $80.21 billion in product revenue, compared with $68.71 billion in the same quarter last year. Services brought in $30.98 billion, up from $26.65 billion. Total net sales were $111.18 billion, compared with $95.36 billion a year earlier.

Apple’s product costs came in at $49.18 billion, up from $44.03 billion. Services costs reached $7.22 billion, compared with $6.46 billion. Total cost of sales was $56.40 billion, while gross margin reached $54.78 billion.

Apple’s research and development costs rose to $11.42 billion from $8.55 billion. Selling, general, and administrative expenses reached $7.48 billion, up from $6.73 billion. Total operating expenses came in at $18.90 billion.

Apple reports stronger regional sales and approves a $100 billion buyback

Apple’s operating income reached $35.89 billion, up from $29.59 billion last year. Other expense was $52 million, down from $279 million. Income before taxes was $35.83 billion. Apple paid $6.26 billion in tax costs, leaving net income at $29.58 billion, compared with $24.78 billion a year earlier.

For the first six months of the fiscal year, Apple reported $254.94 billion in total net sales, up from $219.66 billion. Products brought in $193.95 billion, while Services produced $60.99 billion. Total cost of sales for the six-month period was $130.93 billion. Gross margin reached $124.01 billion.

Six-month operating expenses were $37.28 billion, with R&D at $22.31 billion and SG&A at $14.97 billion. Operating income reached $86.74 billion. Income before taxes was $86.84 billion. Apple’s net income came in at $71.68 billion, up from $61.11 billion.

Regional sales were higher across the board. Americas’ revenue reached $45.09 billion, up from $40.32 billion. Europe came in at $28.06 billion, compared with $24.45 billion. Greater China produced $20.50 billion, up from $16.00 billion. Japan posted $8.40 billion, while the rest of the Asia Pacific reached $9.14 billion.

By product line, Apple’s Mac revenue was $8.40 billion, compared with $7.95 billion. iPad revenue reached $6.91 billion, up from $6.40 billion. Wearables, Home, and Accessories brought in $7.90 billion, compared with $7.52 billion.

Basic EPS was $2.02, up from $1.65. Diluted EPS was $2.01, also above $1.65 last year. Basic shares used in the EPS count fell to 14.67 billion from 14.99 billion. Diluted shares fell to 14.73 billion from 15.06 billion.

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Two new deals by ventures with ties to the Trump family could soon become fresh probe points for Democratic lawmakers such as Elizabeth Warren, Maxine Waters, and Richard Blumenthal, who have initiated past inquiries into the first family’s business dealings. 

Earlier today, Fortune reported that AI Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: AIFC), a publicly traded crypto firm with links to President Donald Trump’s family, has purchased Block Street Corp., a crypto infrastructure business founded by one of its own advisors, Matthew Morgan. The deal is worth up to $43 million. 

In another press release, Autonomous Power Corporation (Powerus), a US-based drone maker, announced that it closed a deal for its Guardian-2 Interceptor systems after a U.S. Air Force trial. 

The Trump connection in both deals is expected to be a red flag for lawmakers. 

What is the AI Financial deal about?

Block Street Corp. is designed to help companies issue digital tokens. The acquisition is meant to expand its payment systems into “tokenized assets” and “real-world asset tokenization.”

Since August 2025, when Ai Financial, formerly known as Alt5 Sigma, announced a partnership with the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial to stockpile $1.5 billion in cryptocurrency, shares have fallen more than 90%.

Following the acquisition, Morgan, who is the biggest shareholder of Block Street, joined AI Financial as the “global head of vision.”

He told Fortune that Block Street was offered to multiple public companies in late 2025, and he rejected offers with “potentially more than $100 million in upside.” 

Matthew denies that the transaction is self-dealing, but records show Block Street was only created in late October 2025 and has yet to generate any revenue. 

Is the Powerus deal legitimate?

According to the release by Powerus, the Guardian-2 Interceptor is a “low-cost, semi-autonomous, high-speed counter-drone interceptor platform” that is designed to neutralize enemy drones directed at US assets. 

It recalled that the air force tested it out to “address critical capability gaps for small teams operating ‘outside the wire'” for a “lightweight, deployable capability to detect, track and defeat Group 1-3 small unmanned aerial systems in austere environments.” 

Speaking about the deal, Brett Velicovich, Co-Founder of Powerus, said: “This is about saving American lives,” citing round-the-clock threats to critical infrastructure and lives in the Middle East. Velicovich added, “The Guardian-2 works. The kill chain works.” 

According to a PBS report, Powerus denied any conflicts of interest after it brought POTUS’ eldest sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., on board in March. 

Why are Democrats investigating Trump? 

Democratic Senators and Representatives have opened multiple investigations into the Trump family’s financial ties to the crypto industry.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is investigating a $314 million purchase of 16,000 Bitmain mining machines by American Bitcoin Corp., a company connected to Eric Trump.

Cryptopolitan previously reported on her request to the Commerce Department for records on communications between Bitmain, Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and agency officials. Warren intends to determine whether national security decisions at the Commerce Department have been influenced by firms with Trump family business ties. 

Representative Maxine Waters, the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, launched a separate investigation into the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank for granting crypto exchange Kraken a limited-purpose master account. 

Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) is demanding records about why the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped fraud charges against Justin Sun, a major investor in the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial platform. 

Blumenthal’s letter to SEC Chairman Paul Atkins also pointed out that the SEC’s top enforcement official, Margaret Ryan, left the agency shortly before the case against Sun was dismissed. 

Cryptopolitan previously covered the joint efforts of Senators Warren, Adam Schiff, and Blumenthal to investigate the memecoin conference held at Mar-a-Lago, which was only open to the largest holders of the $TRUMP token.

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