Cointelegraph

Evan Tangeman, a 22-year-old resident of California, was sentenced on Friday to 70 months in prison for his role in a criminal enterprise that stole about $263 million in cryptocurrencies from victims through social engineering scams and burglary.

Tangeman pleaded guilty to the charges in December 2025 and admitted to helping members of the criminal organization launder at least $3.5 million in illicit funds, according to the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) announcement.

He also received three years of supervised release in addition to his prison sentence for his role in the scheme, the DOJ said. 

“This criminal enterprise was built on greed so brazen it borders on the cartoonish. They stole millions, spent it on half-million-dollar nightclub tabs, Lamborghinis, and Rolexes,” Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia (DC), said. She added:

“Evan Tangeman didn't just launder the money that fueled that lifestyle. When his co-conspirators were arrested, he moved to destroy the evidence. That is consciousness of guilt, and this office and the court have treated that accordingly."

Source: US Attorney for Washington, DC

The sentence comes as losses from crypto scams and hacks reached $482 million in Q1 2026 amid an uptick in criminal organizations targeting crypto users through online social engineering scams and violent physical attacks.

France grapples with rise in violent wrench attacks

France has experienced a sharp rise in wrench attacks, which are violent physical assaults and burglaries targeting crypto users, in 2026, according to Pavel Durov, co-founder of the Telegram messaging platform.

There have been 41 kidnappings of French crypto holders in the first quarter of 2026 alone, Durov said in an X post.

He attributed the rise in violent theft to tax data leaks that expose the holdings and identities of crypto holders in the country and accused French officials of selling this tax data to organized criminals.

Source: Pavel Durov

Speaking at Paris Blockchain Week in April, Jean-Didier Berger, minister delegate to the interior minister of France, said the government would roll out “preventative measures” to mitigate the number of wrench attacks in the country.

Magazine: How to fix suspected insider trading on Polymarket and Kalshi

Several members of the Bitcoin community cast doubt on the US government’s understanding of the Bitcoin network after a high-ranking military official told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the US government runs a Bitcoin node.

“Our research into Bitcoin is as a computer science tool. It's the combination of cryptography, a blockchain, and a proof of work,” US Navy Admiral Samuel Paparo told the Senate Armed Services Committee. 

Bitcoin educator and advocate Matthew Kratter said that it sounded like the admiral was reading from the Bitcoin “Wikipedia page,” casting doubt on Paparo and US Senator Tommy Tuberville’s knowledge of the protocol. Kratter added:

“This is actually pretty embarrassing. These two guys are talking about something they don't understand. And when he says that, it's a way of ‘projecting power,’ or that it's a ‘computer science tool,’ he never really talks about what he means.”

“All I could think is they're saying absolutely nothing,” Kratter continued. Lola Leetz, a journalist at The Rage, said that Paparo’s Senate testimony was “babbling.” 

Samuel Paparo testifies before the US Senate Armed Services Committee. Source: US Senate Armed Services Committee

The testimony followed the Iranian government's announcement that it would accept Bitcoin for shipping tolls through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway through which about 20% of the global oil supply passes, strengthening BTC’s case as a strategic asset. 

Current geopolitical tensions highlight the role of Bitcoin as a strategic asset

Iran’s government is accepting oil tolls in Chinese Yuan, US dollar-pegged stablecoins and Bitcoin, but prefers dollar-pegged stablecoins, Sam Lyman, head of research at digital asset advocacy organization Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI), told Cointelegraph. 

However, stablecoins can still be frozen at the smart-contract level by the issuer, Lyman said, whereas Bitcoin cannot be frozen because there is no central issuer. 

Transactions carried out by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps account for nearly half of the total crypto market volume in Iran. Source: BPI

“This is one of the most significant situations where Bitcoin is very clearly a strategic asset,” he told Cointelegraph.

“The reason why Iran wants to use Bitcoin for these transactions is that no one can freeze Bitcoin. No one can shut down the Bitcoin network,” he added. 

Magazine: Is China hoarding gold so yuan becomes global reserve instead of USD?

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a lawsuit against New York to stop the state from applying its gambling laws to federally regulated prediction market platforms, escalating a growing clash over who has authority to oversee these products.

In a complaint lodged in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, the CFTC argued that federal law gives it exclusive authority over these markets, asking the court for a declaratory judgment and a permanent injunction against New York’s enforcement actions.

“CFTC-registered exchanges have faced an onslaught of state lawsuits seeking to limit Americans’ access to event contracts and undermine the CFTC’s sole regulatory jurisdiction over prediction markets,” CFTC Chair Michael Selig said.

Earlier this week, New York filed suits against Coinbase and Gemini, claiming their offerings violated state gambling rules. The state had also previously targeted Kalshi, ordering it to halt parts of its sports-related contracts.

States say federal law doesn’t legalize sports betting

On Friday, a coalition of 37 states and Washington, D.C. filed an amicus brief supporting Massachusetts in its case against Kalshi, urging Massachusetts’ highest court to reject Kalshi’s argument that federal law allows it to offer sports betting nationwide without following state rules.

Kalshi argues its betting products are “swaps” regulated by a federal agency under a 2010 financial law. The states say that law was never meant to legalize or control sports betting and does not clearly override state authority, which has historically governed gambling.

37 states back Massachusetts in amicus brief. Source: New York Gov

The states also argue that removing state oversight would weaken protections. State laws currently handle licensing, age limits, fraud prevention, and gambling addiction, which are areas not covered by federal financial regulation.

States ramp up crackdown on prediction markets

State officials have taken a more aggressive stance against prediction markets in recent months, issuing cease-and-desist letters and pursuing legal action against firms offering prediction contracts.

States like Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois are seeking to enforce gambling laws against prediction platforms. Earlier this month, a Nevada judge extended a ban preventing Kalshi from offering event-based contracts in the state, siding with regulators who argue the products amount to unlicensed gambling.

Magazine: How to fix suspected insider trading on Polymarket and Kalshi

Bitcoin (BTC) risked a return to $73,000 as the weekend began after bulls failed to reclaim a key trend line.

Key points:

Bitcoin price analysis increasingly sees $73,000 getting retested in the short term.

A weekly trend line has stayed in place as resistance since October 2025.

Bearish BTC price forecasts keep sub-$60,000 in play — even with a weekly close above resistance.

$73,000 in focus as BTC price retracement zone

Data from TradingView showed Bitcoin’s 21-week exponential moving average (EMA) refusing to give up control of BTC price resistance.

The moving average, which BTC/USD has traded below since October 2025, sat at $78,400 on the day.

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

Commenting, trader and analyst Rekt Capital warned that continued rejection at the 21-week EMA would result in a reversal to retest local lows.

“Bitcoin continues to resist from the 21-week EMA (green),” he wrote in an X post alongside an explanatory chart, repeating earlier concerns. 

“Unless BTC is able to reclaim the 21-week EMA as support... Then this EMA could indeed force BTC into a post-breakout retest of the top of the Double Bottom price broke out from last week.”

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

As Cointelegraph reported, the resistance forms one side of Bitcoin’s bull market support band.

Bitcoin still risks a sub-$60,000 comedown

Continuing, trader Killa, long bearish on the BTC price outlook, had fresh bad news for bulls.

Even a close above resistance at $80,000 or higher, they argued, might not be enough to save BTC/USD from new macro lows under $60,000.

“With the monthly close next week, volatility and fakeouts are likely. If May opens strong and pushes higher early in the month, there’s a good chance that move could mark the pivot high before a bearish May follows,” an X post on Friday read. 

“Either way, a close above resistance does not always mean true acceptance. In a broader macro downtrend, breaks above key levels can often be used to trap late positions.”

BTC/USD chart with key nearby levels. Source: Killa/X

Killa added that there was a “strong chance” of price revisiting $73,000. 

Brazilian authorities have moved to shut down 27 prediction market platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket.

The decision, announced Friday, follows a directive from the Ministry of Finance and enforcement by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), according to state-owned news outlet Agência Brasil. Authorities claimed that such services fall outside Brazil’s current legal framework and therefore operate illegally.

“We have been monitoring the evolution of this sector in Brazil, which suffered a period of anarchy because there were no rules, no oversight, from 2018 to 2022,” Finance Ministry executive secretary Dario Durigan reportedly said during a press conference at the Palácio do Planalto.

The crackdown follows Resolution 5.298 issued by Brazil’s National Monetary Council (CMN) on Friday, which takes effect in early May and sharply limits what prediction market platforms can offer. Under the new rules, contracts tied to sports, politics, entertainment, or social events are banned, as authorities consider them closer to gambling than financial investments.

Only contracts linked to economic indicators, such as inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, or commodity prices, will remain allowed and fall under financial market oversight.

Brazil flags prediction platforms as debt risk

Durigan claimed that prediction markets could deepen household debt and expose users to financial harm. “At a time when we are working to reduce debt levels among families, small businesses, and students, we must also prevent new forms of harmful indebtedness,” he said.

The blocked platforms include a mix of international and Brazil-focused services, with major names including Kalshi, Polymarket, PredictIt, Robinhood (via its forecasting feature) and Fanatics Markets.

Banned prediction markets in Brazil. Source: Agência Brasil

Other affected platforms include ProphetX, Hedgehog Markets, Novig, Polyswipe, PRED Exchange and Stride, alongside several Brazil-focused services such as Palpita, Cravei, Previsao, and MercadoPred.

More countries ban prediction markets

A growing number of jurisdictions have moved to ban prediction markets, often folding them into gambling or financial regulations. Several European nations, including France, Belgium and the Netherlands, have blocked or penalized platforms operating without authorization.

In the United States, the situation is more fragmented, with an ongoing tug-of-war between federal regulators and individual states over prediction markets.

Magazine: How to fix suspected insider trading on Polymarket and Kalshi

XRP (XRP) has rallied more than 30% in the last three months, and fresh technical and on-chain signals suggest the XRP/USD pair may have more upside ahead.

XRP/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

Key takeaways:

Exchange outflows, positive whale flows and strong ETF demand raise XRP’s bullish outlook.

A wedge setup sees the price rising roughly 30% by June.

Nearly 35 million XRP in exchange outflows boost upside case

As of Saturday, XRP Ledger (XRPL) had recorded nearly 35 million XRP in exchange outflows in the last 24 hours, logging its sixth-largest daily outflow of the year, according to Santiment.

Large exchange outflows typically suggest investors are moving tokens into private wallets or custody, reducing the amount of XRP immediately available for sale. Earlier this year, these spikes preceded modest rallies in the XRP price.

XRP Ledger exchange outflows versus XRP price. Source: Santiment

In March, a similar spike in exchange outflows preceded a roughly 20% rebound in XRP. February’s outflow surge was followed by an even stronger move, with XRP rising about 48&–50%.

Those precedents strengthen the view that the latest withdrawal spike may lead to higher XRP prices in May.

Also, US-based spot XRP ETFs have witnessed three consecutive weeks of net inflows, totalling about $82.88 million as of Saturday, according to SoSoValue data. The streak pushed the total assets under management to $1.1 billion.

XRP ETF weekly net flows. Source: SoSoValue

This indicates an increased institutional appetite for XRP products.

Positive whale flows reinforce upside sentiment

XRP whale flows have also flipped positive, according to CryptoQuant data, suggesting larger wallets are now accumulating rather than distributing.

The 90-day moving average of XRPL whale flows has moved back above zero after spending much of early 2026 in negative territory.

XRP whale flow 30DMA. Source: CryptoQuant

Historically, positive whale-flow regimes have preceded stronger XRP price trends, including the May–July 2025 rally.

The shift supports the broader accumulation narrative already visible in exchange outflows and ETF inflows.

XRP wedge setup hints at 30% rally next

XRP’s technical structure supports the upside case.

The XRP/USD pair has spent the past two years inside a falling wedge, defined by two downward-sloping, converging trend lines. Its April rebound from the lower trend line support now raises the odds of a move toward the upper boundary.

XRP/USD weekly chart. Source: TradingView

That target zone aligns with the 50-week EMA and the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement near $1.87–$1.89, about 30% above current levels, by June.

Conversely, a decisive break below the wedge’s lower trend line risks invalidating the bullish narrative altogether.

It may instead raise the odds of the price declining toward the $0.98 mark, aligning with the wedge’s apex point and the 0.786 Fib line.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have extended their inflow momentum through late April, notching a nine-day streak amid growing investor conviction.

During the period, which spanned April 14 and April 24, total net inflows reached roughly $2.12 billion, with the strongest single-day performance on April 17, when funds attracted $663.91 million. April 14 and April 22 also posted robust gains of $411.50 million and $335.82 million, respectively.

The weakest day came on Friday, with a more modest $14.45 million in net inflows. BlackRock’s IBIT led the day with $22.88 million in inflows. In contrast, Fidelity’s FBTC recorded outflows of $1.69 million, while Bitwise’s BITB and ARK 21Shares’ ARKB saw withdrawals of $8.85 million and $9.02 million, respectively. Other funds, including Grayscale’s GBTC and smaller products, reported largely flat flows.

The April streak is the first nine-day run for spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs since a similar run in October, when inflows surged, including $1.21 billion on Oct. 6 and $875.6 million on Oct. 7.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs see 9-day inflow streak. Source: SoSoValue

The sustained inflows also come alongside a strengthening Bitcoin market, with BTC currently trading at $77,516.55, up 10.73% over the past month, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin ETF investors hold firm

The recent steady stream of capital has pushed flows back into positive territory for 2026, with cumulative total net inflows reaching $58.23 billion.

This trend comes even as Bitcoin remains about 35% below its record high reached in early October, ETF analyst Nate Geraci wrote in a recent post on X. He said this pattern suggests that ETF investors are taking a longer-term approach rather than reacting to short-term volatility. The continued inflows during a market drawdown point to a more resilient investor base, often described as “diamond hands” in crypto circles.

“ETF investors proving to be longer-term allocators,” he wrote.

Ether ETFs see strong inflows

US spot Ether (ETH) ETFs also maintained a strong inflow streak from April 14 through April 22, posting nine consecutive days of net positive flows. However, the streak was broken on April 23, when funds recorded net outflows of $75.94 million.

During the nine-day run from April 14 to April 22, total inflows were consistently solid, with the strongest single-day performance on April 17, when Ether ETFs attracted $127.49 million. Other standout sessions included April 22 with $96.44 million and April 20 with $67.77 million.

Magazine: AI-driven hacks could kill DeFi — unless projects act now

Key takeaways:

A whale linked to asset manager Fasanara Capital holds a $38 million crypto short position, but will it impact Bitcoin’s price?

Negative futures funding rates at Binance and Bybit point to unusual demand for bearish positioning despite BTC’s recent price gains.

Bitcoin (BTC) struggled to trade above $78,000 on Friday, but the overall setup remains bullish. BTC gained 29% since the $60,100 yearly low on Feb. 6, and many analysts believe it is on the verge of a longer-term breakout. At the same time, a bearish Bitcoin whale on Hyperliquid exchange has maintained a large short position. The whale has made $159 million in profits over the past seven months. Does its positioning provide any signal that the market should pay attention to? 

Hyperliquid whale profit and loss data. Source: CoinGlass

The entity behind address 0x7fda…c517d1 (also known as BobbyBigSize) on Hyperliquid exchange excelled during the market crash between October to November 2025 by placing leveraged short bets on Ether (ETH), Hyperliquid (HYPE), Avalanche (AVAX), and Fartcoin, among others. The account has failed to sustain its gains, resulting in a $561,000 loss over the past 30 days.

The whale is bullish on ETH, but bearish on BTC and altcoins

Using algorithmic trading, the whale opened short-duration long positions in Bitcoin and Solana (SOL) in the past, resulting in a staggering $11 billion in trades on Hyperliquid exchange. BobbyBigSize currently holds $19.4 million in assets deposited on the platform. 63% of its trades result in positive outcomes, which is considered highly successful.

BobbyBigSize’s current positions, USD. Source: Hyperdash

Currently, BobbyBigSize holds a $38 million short position in BTC and multiple altcoins. The trader also opened a $21 million leveraged long ETH position last week, indicating short-term confidence. Generally, the portfolio positioning is bearish, suggesting an expectation of a short-term correction.

The average trade duration for BobbyBigSize has been slightly longer than two weeks, while the median position has lasted for less than four days, according to Hyperdash data. Arkham data previously linked this address to Fasanara Capital, a London-based institutional asset manager. The company reportedly manages over $5 billion in assets.

Source: X/Arkham

According to Fasanara Digital’s website, it launched in 2018 and manages $400 million across market-neutral strategies and venture investments. In parallel, a quantitative multi-manager approach in various liquid markets manages $150 million. However, the strategy behind the fund’s approach to cryptocurrency was not clearly specified.

Hyperliquid DEX annualized funding rates. Source: Hyperliquid.xyz

Funding rates for BTC and ETH stood slightly positive on Hyperliquid, indicating moderate demand for leveraged long positions. Under neutral circumstances, longs pay 6% to 12% annualized rates to maintain their positions. Currently, funding rates are negative on Binance and Bybit, signaling unusually high demand for bearish leverage.

Algorithmic traders are erratic and unpredictable, and losses by “BobbyBigSize” over the past couple of months evidence that no single trading strategy lasts indefinitely. However, this whale’s bearish positioning aligns with the increased demand for leveraged short positions; therefore, Bitcoin traders should not discard the possibility of a retest of the $75,000 level.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned several wallets tied to Iran, resulting in authorities freezing $344 million in cryptocurrency.

In a Friday X post, Bessent said that the move by OFAC was part of the US’ efforts to “systematically degrade Tehran’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds.” The US and Israel launched joint airstrikes on Iran in late February.

“We will follow the money that Tehran is desperately attempting to move outside of the country and target all financial lifelines tied to the regime,” said Bessent.

Source: Scott Bessent

The Treasury Secretary’s announcement came just one day after stablecoin issuer Tether said it had frozen more than $344 million of its USDt (USDT) at the request of US authorities for “activity tied to unlawful conduct.” The company did not explicitly mention Iran at the time.

As part of a Friday notice on OFAC’s list of Specially Designated Nationals, the government agency sanctioned two crypto addresses on Tron with a

combined $344 million. Treasury officials claimed that the wallets were tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Islamist political group Hizballah. 

Iran reportedly pocketing crypto tolls for Strait of Hormuz passage

The sanctions announcement followed reports that Iran was planning to charge ships in Bitcoin (BTC) for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for transporting oil and other supplies. Forbes reported on Thursday that Iran had banked revenue from the crypto tolls.

Although US President Donald Trump said that the US was under a ceasefire agreement with Iran as of this week, tensions continue to escalate over the Strait. Iran reportedly attacked three ships using the waterway, while US naval forces have set up a blockade.

Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?

Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc announced on Friday that a new hard fork of the Bitcoin network called eCash will be deployed in August.

Bitcoin holders will be able to exchange their BTC for eCash at a 1:1 ratio once the hard fork is live, Sztorc said in an X post.

He added that the layer-1 node software for the chain will be a “near-copy” of the BTC Core client software and will use the SHA-256 hashing algorithm used by the Bitcoin blockchain, with a reduced initial mining difficulty to make it easier for participants to mine blocks.

Source: Paul Sztorc

The new layer-1 hard fork will also have seven layer-2 scaling networks called “drivechains,” for increased transaction throughput and optional onchain privacy, he said.

Sztorc distanced the eCash hard fork from previous attempts to hard fork the Bitcoin protocol, including Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which was created in 2017 but failed to become the dominant chain. However, the announcement drew mixed reactions.

Bitcoin community reacts to Sztorc’s announcement

“Unlike BCH, the 2017 fork, there is no ‘Bitcoin’ in the name,” Sztorc said, adding, “This is a permanent and sustainable fix to Bitcoin's problems.”

He added that the forked chain would “manually” reassign a portion of Satoshi Nakamoto’s 1.1 million BTC stash to early investors.

“Taking Satoshi coins is theft and disrespectful, and eCash is already used for Lightning payments with Cashu and Fedi. Those are poor choices,” Bitcoin advocate Peter McCormack said in response.

Source: Paul Sztorc

“I give you two or three years to fold completely,” Bitcoin advocate PakoVM said about the planned hard fork.

The announcement came amid a growing debate about Bitcoin’s tech stack and whether the protocol should introduce privacy-preserving features and post-quantum resistance.

“Back in 2017, the Bitcoin tech stack was strong, and expectations for Lightning were strong. Today, it is the reverse,” Sztorc said.

The Bitcoin Lightning Network is a layer-2 scaling solution for BTC that allows transactions to be processed within seconds, instead of waiting 10-minutes for transactions to settle to the main Bitcoin ledger.

Magazine: Bitcoin will not hit $1M by 2030, says veteran trader Peter Brandt

In a repeat of 2025, top holders of US President Donald Trump’s memecoin, Official Trump (TRUMP), will gather for a private event that many critics have described as selling access to the presidency.

On Saturday, Trump and up to 297 of his memecoin holders will meet at the president’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida. According to the project behind the memecoin, attendees will include stablecoin issuer Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, cryptocurrency exchange Upbit founder and CEO ChiHyung Song, Bitcoin (BTC) advocate Anthony Pompliano, Anchorage Digital co-founder and CEO Nathan McCauley and many others associated with financial institutions, crypto and blockchain.

Source: GetTrumpMemes.com

Notably, however, there was no public statement confirming the appearance of Tron founder Justin Sun, a prominent supporter of the president, an investor in the Trump family crypto business World Liberty Financial, and the TRUMP holder at the top of the memecoin project’s leaderboard, with 2.4 billion points.

Cointelegraph reached out to a spokesperson for Sun regarding his potential appearance at the luncheon, but did not receive an immediate response.

Sun made headlines this week after announcing a lawsuit against World Liberty, alleging that the crypto platform co-founded by Trump’s sons froze his tokens and threatened to burn them “without any proper justification.”

The Tron founder publicly stated that he was an “ardent supporter” of Trump, but “certain individuals on the World Liberty project team have been operating the project in a manner that goes against President Trump’s values.”

“The only thing more ridiculous than this lawsuit is spending $6 million on a banana duct-taped to a wall,” said World Liberty co-founder Eric Trump, referring to Sun’s November 2024 purchase of a piece of art called the Comedian, which the Tron founder then ate. 

Sun attended a similar May 2025 dinner for TRUMP memecoin holders, along with Synthetix founder Kain Warwick, Kronos Research chief investment officer Vincent Liu and others. Crypto user Morten Christensen attended last year’s dinner for a $1,200 investment in the memecoin and reportedly won a seat for Saturday’s event for about $500.

“Trump is much less liked right now than he was after inauguration,” said Christensen, according to a Bloomberg report. Now with the whole year of tariffs, crypto is bleeding, his reputation within the crypto community is not as good.”

Second memecoin event raises eyebrows among lawmakers, interest groups

The Saturday luncheon has drawn criticism from many lawmakers, who said that Trump was “dang[ling] access” to the presidency, as well as organizations monitoring potential conflicts of interest.

“Crypto wallets associated with [TRUMP] have engaged in financial maneuvers that make it difficult or impossible to track how much Trump may be profiting from the burst in trading,” said the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in a Friday BlueSky post. “But what we do know is that despite the value of Trump’s coin decreasing since its first release, he can still make an enormous profit just by collecting small fees on each trade. The more people buy and sell, the more money Trump can make.”

Since its launch just days before Trump was sworn into office in January 2025, the price of the TRUMP token has fallen more than 93% from its all-time high of about $45 to under $3 at the time of publication.

Magazine: How to fix suspected insider trading on Polymarket and Kalshi

Aurelion, a Nasdaq-listed company building a Tether Gold-backed treasury, has allocated 10,000 units of the token, worth about $48 million, to a newly launched protocol designed to generate yield on tokenized gold.

The DeFi protocol, XAUE, was introduced earlier this week by the Aurise Foundation as a treasury layer for Tether Gold, allowing tokenized gold to be used in yield-generating strategies while maintaining exposure to the underlying asset.

Aurelion is the rebranded form of wealth and asset manager Prestige Wealth and is positioning Tether Gold as a primary reserve asset. In October 2025, the company raised $150 million in financing, including a $100 million private investment in public equity and a $50 million debt facility, to support the strategy.

According to the Aurise Foundation’s initial announcement on Wednesday, Antalpha, a digital asset financial services company, was also among ecosystem partners that committed a combined 16,052 XAUT, or around $76 million, to seed the protocol.

XAUE generates yield through strategies such as institutional lending and quantitative trading, with returns reflected in an increase in the gold backing per token rather than being distributed separately.

The protocol operates on Ethereum and uses a fixed-supply model, in which deposited XAUT is converted into XAUE at a 1,000:1 ratio. Under this structure, reserves may grow over time as yield accrues while token supply remains unchanged.

Users can redeem XAUE for the underlying gold-backed tokens. Access is limited to whitelisted, KYC/KYB-verified institutional participants in eligible jurisdictions, the foundation said.

Aurelion said it will hold a total of 33,318 units of Tether Gold following the allocation, including 10,000 units deployed to XAUE and 23,318 units held outside the protocol.

The price of Aurelion (AURE) stock was up about 2.6% in midday trading, according to Yahoo Finance data.

Aurelion stock price. Source: Yahoo Finance

Tokenized gold moves toward yield-generating structures

Gold has traditionally been considered a non-yielding asset, offering price exposure without generating income. But tokenization, the process of representing real-world assets like gold on blockchain networks, is beginning to introduce new structures that enable yield while maintaining exposure to the underlying commodity.

In March, crypto exchange Bybit launched a yield-bearing product tied to Tether Gold, allowing users to earn interest on tokenized gold while maintaining exposure to the underlying asset.

That same month, tokenization platform Theo introduced a yield-bearing model backing its gold-linked stablecoin thUSD, using deposited funds to purchase tokenized gold while simultaneously shorting gold futures to hedge price exposure.

In April, DeFi protocol Altura introduced an onchain gold arbitrage strategy that puts user deposits into short-duration physical gold trades, aiming to generate returns from price discrepancies rather than long-term exposure to bullion.

Tokenized commodities are largely concentrated in gold-backed assets, which typically provide price exposure without yield. Data from RWA.xyz shows the sector at roughly $5.25 billion, with Tether Gold and Paxos Gold accounting for the majority of the market.

Tokenized commodity market size. Source: RWA.xyz

Magazine: Adam Back says current demand is ‘almost’ enough to send Bitcoin to $1M

Project Eleven, a quantum security research company, awarded a prize to researcher Giancarlo Lelli for using a quantum computer to break a 15-bit elliptic-curve key — a small-scale version of the same cryptography used in Bitcoin, which relies on far larger 256-bit keys.

Lelli was able to derive a private key from the public key paired to it, using a “variant” of Shor’s algorithm, an integer factorization algorithm for quantum computers, according to Project 11’s announcement on Friday.

Bitcoin’s keys are 256 bits long, representing a “large” gap from the 15-bit key Lelli was able to crack, Project 11 said. However, the gap between Bitcoin’s 256-bit keys and the number of bits a quantum computer can factor has “fallen sharply” since 2025. Project 11 added.

“The resource requirements for this type of attack keep dropping, and the barrier to running it in practice is dropping with them,” Alex Pruden, CEO of Project Eleven, said.

The supply of BTC exposed to quantum attacks. Source: Rand Group

The attack is the “largest public demonstration” of a quantum computer breaking an ECDSA key, and it threatens about $2.5 trillion in value secured by elliptic-curve cryptography algorithms, according to Project 11. 

Bitcoin community debates the timeline of the quantum threat

Quantum computers threaten about $450 billion in BTC held in older wallet addresses whose public keys are exposed, according to crypto industry executives and computer scientists.

The Bitcoin community has about three to five years to prepare for the quantum threat, according to analysts at Bernstein.

Speaking at a Cointelegraph panel at Paris Blockchain Week in April, Blockstream CEO Adam Back said that the Bitcoin industry should start preparing post-quantum solutions now, even though the threat is decades away.

Source: Adam Back

“Quantum computing still has a lot to prove. Current systems are essentially lab experiments. I’ve followed the field for over 25 years, and progress has been incremental,” Back said.

In March, Google published a report showing that quantum computers may require far fewer qubits, the basic computational unit of a quantum computer, than previously thought to break modern cryptography standards.  

Magazine: How AI just dramatically sped up the quantum risk for Bitcoin

The Fellowship political action committee (PAC), which launched claiming to have more than $100 million from crypto-aligned backers, has reportedly backed out of an advertising deal to support Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a crucial US Senate race.

According to a Thursday report from Axios, Republican leaders contacted US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on his connections to Fellowship, which has been partially funded by Cantor Fitzgerald.

Lutnick, as the former president and CEO and whose sons are now in charge of the financial services company, reportedly faced questioning from Republicans about Fellowship’s support of Paxton, whom on Tuesday the PAC reported spending $1.75 million in supportive advertising.

Fellowship PAC expenditure report on Ken Paxton. Source: FEC

The advertising expenditure, which Fellowship disclosed to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) through the marketing company Nxum Group, was reportedly never placed. As of Friday, the FEC filing showing the $1.75 million expenditure was still public. Cointelegraph reached out to Fellowship for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

A crypto-backed PAC like Fellowship backing out of support for a candidate in a US Senate race, possibly in response to pressure from Republican leaders, is somewhat unusual. Political action committees tied to digital assets support candidates on both sides of the aisle who they consider pro-crypto.

Along with Fellowship, PACs like Fairshake and others are expected to spend a combined hundreds of millions of dollars in the US midterm elections after pouring money into ads for 2024 candidates to influence voters. 

Paxton, who failed to win outright in a March primary against Senator John Cornyn, will face the Republican incumbent in a May 26 runoff before the November general election. Whichever Republican wins a majority of the vote will likely face off against Democrat James Talarico in a race for one of Texas’ US Senate seats.

Crypto entities calling for action on market structure bill in Senate

Republicans have held a slim majority in the US Senate since January 2025, leading to the passage of the stablecoin bill, the GENIUS Act, and the consideration of other pieces of crypto legislation. However, if Democrats gain majority control of the chamber in the 2026 midterm elections, it could change how the Senate approaches crypto laws.

Since July 2025, the Senate has been considering a bill on crypto market structure, expected to be one of the most comprehensive pieces of legislation affecting the industry. Delays, in part due to government shutdowns, ethics concerns and questions about stablecoin yield, have persisted for months, with no vote on the bill scheduled in the full chamber.

On Thursday, more than 120 entities affiliated with the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry urged Senate Banking Committee leaders to stop stalling on advancing the market structure bill, the CLARITY Act. The committee will need to hold a markup on the bill before the Senate can potentially schedule a vote.

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Familiar names have been aggressively accumulating Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), but this time, their buying comes amid early signs of a market reversal.

This week, Strategy made one of its largest Bitcoin purchases on record, bringing its total holdings well north of 800,000 BTC. Bitmine Immersion Technologies, despite sitting on steep unrealized losses, executed its largest Ether purchase since December.

Beyond digital asset treasuries, traditional finance continues to test blockchain infrastructure, with Japan exploring the use of government bonds onchain. In the United States, regulation is still grinding forward, albeit slowly, as lawmakers remain divided over key market-structure legislation.

This week’s Crypto Biz revisits those familiar names and strategies, alongside the latest developments at the intersection of technology and regulation.

Strategy doubles down with $2.5 billion Bitcoin buy

Michael Saylor’s Strategy is back in accumulation mode, adding 34,164 Bitcoin in a $2.54 billion purchase that pushed its total holdings to 815,061 BTC. 

The latest buy — one of the company’s largest ever — was executed at roughly $74,395 per coin, bringing its total Bitcoin spend to more than $61.5 billion. The move cements Strategy’s position as the largest institutional BTC holder, with its treasury now the owner of a significant share of total supply. 

The purchase was funded through at-the-market sales of preferred and common stock, underscoring Strategy’s continued reliance on capital markets to finance its Bitcoin accumulation.

Source: Michael Saylor

BitMine ramps up ETH accumulation

BitMine Immersion Technologies continued building its Ether position, purchasing 101,627 ETH in its largest single acquisition since December. The latest buy brings the company’s total holdings to roughly 5 million ETH, extending a multi-week accumulation streak.

The purchase is the latest signal that BitMine remains committed to its long-running Ether treasury strategy rather than a shift in direction, despite being severely underwater on its position.

With holdings now representing a notable share of circulating supply, the company is advancing toward its stated goal of controlling around 5% of all ETH, even as market conditions remain uneven.

BitMine is the largest ETH treasury company. Source: CoinGecko

Japan tests government bonds on blockchain rails

Japan Securities Clearing Corporation is testing the use of Japanese government bonds as collateral on the Canton Network, marking another step toward tokenization in traditional finance. The pilot will explore whether existing financial assets can be used onchain without altering their legal status.

The pilot involves major institutions, including Mizuho Financial Group and Nomura Holdings, along with blockchain developer Digital Asset. The initiative is focused on improving collateral mobility and settlement efficiency, particularly in cross-border transactions.

US senator presses pause on crypto markup

Senator Thom Tillis has called for more clarity on digital asset legislation, urging Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott to delay a planned markup of the CLARITY Act. The request has pushed the timeline from April into May as lawmakers work through unresolved issues.

At the center of the debate are disagreements over how certain provisions, including those tied to stablecoins, should be structured. The delay underscores ongoing divisions in Washington, where efforts to establish a comprehensive crypto framework continue to face pushback from both traditional finance and digital asset stakeholders.

Source: Brendan Pedersen

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Bitcoin (BTC) stayed glued to $78,000 on Friday with markets “awaiting clarity” from the US-Iran war.

Key points:

Bitcoin stalls in its bid to recapture $80,000, as US stocks tread water.

Strong earnings are needed to sustain the equities push, says analysis.

BTC price support is at risk of giving way next.

Bitcoin joins risk assets "chopping sideways"

Data from TradingView tracked flat BTC price action into the week’s last Wall Street trading session. 

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

Amid a lack of fresh geopolitical cues, risk-asset catalysts presented a mixed picture, leading to sideways movements for US stocks. WTI crude oil, after nearing a rematch with the $100 mark, cooled to $95.

CFDs on WTI crude oil one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

“$BTC & Stocks started the week off strong as metals have sold off. But as $OIL has been starting to move again the past few days, risk assets have stalled and are now chopping sideways,” trader Daan Crypto Trades responded in a post on X. 

“Market is eagerly awaiting clarity from the conflict in the middle east. The longer it drags on and oil keeps moving higher, the more pressure will be put on these.”

Macro asset price comparison. Source: Daan Crypto Trades/X

The day prior, trading resource Mosaic Asset Company said that positive earnings figures would be essential to sustain continued upside for stocks, with the S&P 500 already hitting new record highs.

“With the first quarter reporting season about to pick up, it will be crucial to monitor forward earnings estimates for any changes in trend since the start of the year,” it wrote in its latest analysis.

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

Analyst "surprised" that BTC price support holding

Focusing on BTC/USD, trading resource Material Indicators hinted at early signs of a deeper retracement next.

“Bid liquidity at $76.5k already rugged, as predicted yesterday, and LTF order flow is trending down,” it wrote on X, referring to data from one of its proprietary trading tools.

Material Indicators added that it was “surprised” that bid liquidity below spot price had not been pulled.

BTC/USDT order-book liquidity data with whale orders. Source: Material Indicators/X

Trading account JDK Analysis referenced a “news-driven pump” as further evidence that the low-time frame rally was overextended.

“The profile shows $BTC at the upper value extreme of the past two days,” an X thread read, analyzing exchange order-book data.

BTC/USDT order-book data (Bybit). Source: JDK Analysis/X

Solana’s (SOL) MACD indicator sent a “buy” signal on its weekly chart, an occurrence that has historically preceded parabolic rallies.

Key takeaways:

Solana’s MACD indicator sent a “buy” signal that has led to a 100%-860% SOL price rallies in the past.

Solana’s price chart’s symmetrical triangle targets $130.

Solana’s MACD forecasts a “powerful move” in SOL price

Solana’s weekly chart showed that the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) indicator flashed a bullish signal when the MACD line (blue) crossed above the signal line (orange).

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

The last time the indicator sent the “buy” signal was in May 2025, preceding a 100% rally above $250 reached on Sept. 18, 2025, from just around $125. The SOL/USD gains were 860% in 2023 and 617% in 2021.

SOL/USD weekly chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Meanwhile, the relative strength index, or RSI, is at levels that marked Solana’s bear market bottom in 2022, preceding a 2,500% run to $210 in March 2024, from areas below $10 in December 2022.

The RSI has now recovered to 35 from 25 in mid-February. When combined with a buy signal on the MACD, the picture begins to resemble previous cycles.

“Over the last four weeks, Solana’s RSI has finally reached sub-35 levels for the first time in 1,200 days,” analyst Tyler Hill said in a recent video posted on X, adding:

“When we were here the last time, it marked the bottom of the bear market for Solana and we saw its price rally over 3,000%.”

Fellow analyst Sixtysecondalpha said that the MACD cross after its “lowest stretch ever” and the bullish divergence from the RSI meant that SOL price is ready for its “most powerful move” in two years.

SOL/USD weekly chart. Source: Sixtysecondalpha

Other SOL price analysts said that the altcoin’s market setup suggested that Solana’s macro bottom is in, paving the way for a continued recovery to new highs. 

Solana’s symmetrical triangle targets $130 SOL price 

Solana’s price action has formed a classic symmetrical triangle on the daily chart, as shown below. 

The pattern will resolve once the SOL/USD pair breaks above the triangle’s resistance line at $90. If this happens, the price could rise by as much as the maximum distance between the triangle’s trend lines.

That puts SOL’s breakout target at about $130, up by more than 50.5% from current price levels.

SOL/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The daily RSI has increased to 52, from oversold conditions at 11 on Feb. 6, suggesting increasing upward momentum.

However, the breakout could be curtailed by resistance from the $90-$96 resistance zone, where the 100-day moving averages converge.

According to Solana’s cost basis distribution data, there is a large supply overhang above the spot price, with investors holding approximately 9.9 million SOL at an average cost of $90-$92, creating a potential resistance zone.

This concentration suggests many investors may sell at break-even, potentially stalling SOL’s rally.

Solana cost basis distribution chart. Source: Glassnode

As Cointelegraph reported, Solana’s immediate resistance is at $91, which bulls are required to flip into support to confirm the trend change.

Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin treasury company Nakamoto announced on Friday an actively managed Bitcoin derivatives program designed to generate recurring income from volatility while hedging part of its downside exposure.

Nakamoto said the program has been in place since the first quarter of 2026 and uses a portion of the company’s Bitcoin holdings as collateral for a derivatives strategy managed by Bitwise Asset Management in a separately managed account.

Under the arrangement, a portion of the company’s Bitcoin is held in Kraken’s qualified custody solution and used as collateral for a derivatives strategy managed by Bitwise Asset Management in a separately managed account.

The move highlights how Bitcoin treasury firms are looking for new ways to manage balance sheet risk as prolonged price weakness puts pressure on companies holding large crypto reserves.

“Bitcoin's implied volatility is one of the most persistently mispriced assets in capital markets,” wrote Tyler Evans, chief investment officer of Nakamoto and UTXO Management, adding that the new framework seeks to “harvest that premium systematically, at scale, and convert that opportunity into long-term value for shareholders.” 

Bitcoin is down around 38% from its all-time high of $126,198 set in October 2025 and traded at $78,151 at the time of writing, TradingView data shows.

BTC/USD, 1-year chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Nakamoto's share price traded at $0.22 at the time of writing, down around 4.5% since the market open, with the company's price down by around 46% year-to-date, according to Yahoo Finance.

Bitcoin treasury firms pressured by Bitcoin’s downturn

The new derivatives program adds another tool for treasury companies seeking to avoid outright sales while still generating cash flow or reducing downside risk during periods of market volatility.

Nakamoto is the largest Bitcoin treasury company to publicly disclose selling part of its holdings this year. The company announced a sale of 284 Bitcoin (worth about $20 million at the time) in a March 30 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Nakamoto is the 20th-largest Bitcoin treasury firm and currently holds 5,098 BTC worth about $395 million, according to Bitcointreasuries data.

Nakamoto INC, Bitcoin holdings over time, 1-year chart. Source: Bitcointreasuries.net

Treasury company Genius Group announced the liquidation of its entire treasury holdings of 84 BTC for about $5.7 million in February, which it used to repay an $8.5 million debt obligation, according to an SEC filing.

Days later, Bitcoin treasury management company Empery Digital said it had sold 357.7 BTC at an average price of $66,632, generating about $24.7 million in gross proceeds.

Magazine: Adam Back says current demand is ‘almost’ enough to send Bitcoin to $1M

South Africa’s National Treasury has published draft rules that would bring cryptocurrency transactions under the country’s capital flow regime, requiring some holders to declare digital asset holdings and routing certain transactions through authorized providers or Treasury-approved channels.

Published on April 17, the draft Capital Flow Management Regulations bill proposes that crypto holders above a yet-unspecified threshold would be required to declare investments to the treasury within 30 days. In some cases, crypto acquired through an authorized provider for a stated purpose would have to be offered for sale if it was no longer needed for that purpose.

The draft is open for public comment until May 18 and would replace South Africa’s Exchange Control Regulations of 1961, marking the most significant overhaul of the country’s exchange control framework in decades.

The proposal would also limit certain crypto transactions above the threshold to authorized crypto asset service providers or require prior permission from the National Treasury or an authorized person. It would also criminalize cross-border Bitcoin transactions executed without permission and force travelers to declare their crypto holdings during border crossing.

Those caught breaching these rules may face fines of up to 1,000,000 South African rand (around $60,000) and prison terms of up to five years.

Draft Capital Flow Management Regulations of 2026. Source: Treasury.gov.za

Cryptocurrencies are currently regulated by the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, after the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) of South Africa declared crypto to be a financial product in 2022.

Crypto investors may be forced to declare holdings at the border

Under the new draft, every person leaving South Africa would be requested to declare crypto asset possessions intended to be removed from the country or held by the person.

Draft Capital Flow Management Regulations of 2026. Source: Treasury.gov.za

An “enforcement officer” would search any article in a person’s possession or under their control, “for the purpose of ascertaining whether the person possesses or has control of any currency, crypto assets,” meaning that they could theoretically force holders to share their seed phrases and show their digital asset balance. 

The draft bill's short window for public feedback is “not enough time for changes of this magnitude,” according to Carel van Wyk, the founder of Bitcoin payment company MoneyBadger. He wrote in a Wednesday LinkedIn post:

“It introduces compulsory purchase powers over declared crypto, and restricts person-to-person transactions above a threshold.” 

The draft would also “limit cross-border crypto transactions to a new category of specially authorised service providers,” he added.

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Strategy’s MSTR stock has jumped roughly 25% over the past month, outperforming Bitcoin’s circa 9% gain and reviving a historical signal that has often appeared near BTC cycle bottoms.

MSTR vs. BTC/USD one-month price performance. Source: TradingView

Key takeaways:

Historically, a sustained MSTR outperformance versus Bitcoin has preceded the latter’s bear market bottom.

Strategy’s stock looks poised to grow 50% in the coming months.

What does it mean when MSTR outperforms BTC?

MSTR has often risen two to three times more than BTC during bull cycles. In the 2022-2024 bull market, for instance, MSTR rose by around 4,000% versus Bitcoin’s circa 550% gain.

MSTR vs. BTC/USD monthly chart. Source: TradingView

That outperformance shows traders are taking on more risk. Instead of buying BTC directly, they are willing to pay a premium for Strategy stock, which offers leveraged exposure to Bitcoin through the company’s massive treasury holdings.

In other words, traders are positioning for a higher-risk, higher-reward recovery phase. This could also be a sign that the market believes the worst of the drawdown is over.

Is Bitcoin bottoming out?

Historical patterns since 2020 show that Bitcoin often finds its cycle low after MSTR starts outperforming BTC following a strong downtrend.

In 2022, for instance, the MSTR/BTC ratio rose 155% in the six months after bottoming in May, even as Bitcoin fell another 58.8%. BTC finally bottomed in November 2022, while MSTR was already in its outperformance phase.

MSTR vs. BTC/USD monthly chart. Source: TradingView

The current setup is starting to resemble the early stages of that 2022 fractal.

The MSTR/BTC ratio has jumped by around 30% after forming a local bottom in January 2026. BTC’s price has dipped by 39.25% in the same period.

For the signal to fully align with past cycles, the MSTR/BTC ratio would need to establish a stronger uptrend, marked by consistent higher highs and continued MSTR outperformance over the next few weeks.

MSTR eyes 50% breakout

MSTR appears to be forming an ascending triangle on the 3-day chart, a pattern typically associated with bullish continuation.

The structure shows rising higher lows pressing against a horizontal resistance zone near the $180–$200 range, indicating growing buying pressure.

MSTR three-day chart. Source: TradingView

A decisive breakout above this ceiling may send the price toward the measured upside target of over $260, up around 50% from the current price, by June or July.

This level is closer to the 0.618 Fibonacci level near $269, with further upside toward the 0.5 Fib line at $320 if momentum strengthens.

On the downside, a breakdown below the rising trend line risks invalidating the setup and exposing the $120 support area.