Alphabet's record-setting performance underscores its robust growth trajectory, potentially reshaping tech industry dynamics and investor strategies.

The post Google parent set to open at fresh record after blowout Q1 earnings appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

PayPal's reorganization could enhance its competitive edge in the evolving fintech landscape, fostering innovation and user-centric growth.

The post PayPal reorganizes business to accelerate crypto and fintech growth appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Alzheimer's cases are set to triple by 2050, underscoring the urgent need for brain health innovations.

The post Louisa Nicola: Alzheimer’s prevalence projected to triple by 2050, the critical role of deep sleep in brain health, and how digital content consumption impacts cognitive decline | Shawn Ryan Show appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

The attack on Wasabi Protocol highlights the critical need for robust security measures in DeFi platforms to protect against admin key vulnerabilities.

The post Wasabi Protocol hit by multi-chain attack after admin key compromise: Reports appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

AI integration in finance is reshaping enterprise systems, enhancing efficiency and transforming user interactions globally.

The post Rob Goldstein: Technology is reshaping financial services, AI’s unpredictability challenges accountability, and asset management relies on information processing | Odd Lots appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strike CEO Jack Mallers Announces Lending Proof-of-Reserves, Volatility-Proof Loans, and Backs Tether Merger Plan

Strike CEO Jack Mallers announced a series of product updates and strategic moves Wednesday, including the launch of lending proof-of-reserves, a new “volatility-proof” bitcoin-backed loan structure built with Tether, and a $2.1 billion credit facility. 

He also said he supports a proposal by Tether Investments to merge Strike with Twenty-One Capital and bitcoin miner Elektron Energy.

Mallers said Strike’s bitcoin-backed loan and line-of-credit business has grown since launch, with users drawn to the ability to borrow against bitcoin rather than sell it. 

He described bitcoin as a savings account for many customers and said Strike cut its rate tiers across the board. Pricing now ranges from approximately 10.5% APR for loans under $250,000 to approximately 7.49% APR for loans above $5 million.

Strike announced the first iteration of its lending proof-of-reserves, which gives borrowers the ability to verify that their collateral is present and segregated in a distinct on-chain address. 

“We want you to trust us and know that we are who we say we are,” Mallers said. The disclosure mechanism was developed in partnership with Tether, which Mallers credited with helping Strike build the transparency infrastructure.

The two companies also jointly developed what Mallers called “volatility-proof” bitcoin-backed loans, a structure that removes the risk of forced liquidation when bitcoin prices fall or broader markets drop. 

Mallers said the segregated collateral product is available now through Strike’s private client desk, and the volatility-proof loan feature is available to customers as part of the bitcoin-backed lending suite.

Mallers announced that Strike has secured a $2.1 billion credit facility, which he said gives the company capacity to meet demand at any order size within its lending business.

Merger proposal

Earlier Wednesday, Tether Investments published a proposal to merge Twenty-One Capital with Strike and Elektron Energy, a large-scale bitcoin mining operator that manages approximately 50 EH/s, or roughly 5% of the current Bitcoin network hashrate. 

Tether said the combined entity would integrate bitcoin treasury holdings, mining, financial services, lending, and capital markets under a single listed platform.

Mallers said he backs the plan. “Simply put, I think it’s a great idea,” he said, adding that building a Bitcoin company — not a narrow payments app — was his founding goal. Elektron founder Raphael Zagury has been proposed as President of the combined entity under the plan.

The bitcoin company quadrant and Maller’s vision

Mallers used a quadrant framework onstage to argue that the Bitcoin industry has a gap at the intersection of high conviction and high operating income. 

He placed crypto exchanges in the high-income, low-conviction corner, saying they run profitable businesses but list many coins and build products across asset classes. He placed bitcoin treasury companies in the high-conviction, low-income corner, describing them as deeply committed to bitcoin but limited in operating business scope. 

He cited Coinbase as an exchange that could carry more bitcoin on its balance sheet, and praised MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor while drawing a distinction between a treasury strategy and a product strategy. “I love him and his company,” Mallers said of Saylor, “but I want to build bitcoin products.”

His answer to the gap was a four-pillar model: a financial services arm covering brokerage, custody, lending, payments, treasury, and prime services; bitcoin infrastructure spanning energy, power generation, mining, hardware, and hosting; a capital markets operation built around loan-book securitization, mining revenue securitization, bitcoin-backed debt, and structured products; and a mergers-and-acquisitions function targeting profitable bitcoin businesses across software, custody, payments, energy, and distribution. 

The stated goal of the M&A arm, as presented on his slide, is to give “every dollar of operating income one job: buy more Bitcoin.”

Mallers closed by saying a platform of that scope could “change the world with its products” and cited a phrase he has used throughout his career: “Fix the money, fix the world.”

This post Strike CEO Jack Mallers Announces Lending Proof-of-Reserves, Volatility-Proof Loans, and Backs Tether Merger Plan first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Strategy and Blockstream CEOs Paint Vision of Bitcoin’s Financial Future

Strategy CEO Phong Le and Blockstream CEO Adam Back appeared Wednesday on a panel moderated by Natalie Brunell, covering Bitcoin treasury strategy, tokenization, digital credit, and the enduring mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto. 

The conversation drew a picture of a financial system in transition, with Bitcoin at its center.

Le opened with a striking observation about Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings. The company now holds 818,334, putting it second behind only one entity. 

“There is only one individual entity with more Bitcoin than Strategy,” Le said. “That’s Satoshi.” 

The firm is on pace to reach 1 million BTC in the next couple of months, a milestone that would cement its place in financial history.

Digital credit in the bitcoin space

Much of the discussion centered on Stretch, or STRC, Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock that pays an 11.5% annual dividend with proceeds used to purchase Bitcoin.

Le was direct about why the product matters. “This product does good,” he said, contrasting it with industries like tobacco and processed food. 

Investors use STRC as a place to park short-term money, and it has served as a lower barrier for people seeking BTC exposure. Layer 2 products and DeFi protocols are now being built on top of it, Le said, describing STRC as “the most important credit product of all time” and a cornerstone for bringing BTC and DeFi together.

Back addressed the intersection of cypherpunk ideology and institutional finance, a tension the Bitcoin community has long wrestled with. 

He said BTC’s acceptance by sovereign wealth funds and private funds is “a sign of success,” not a compromise. Cypherpunks, he explained, believed in capital formation and free markets, not just cryptographic privacy. 

Back said treasury companies exist to grow Bitcoin per share, and when they do, individual holders benefit too.

Le reinforced the point, saying he learned much from Back when they first met. “Cypherpunks are gifted minds who understand the markets very well,” Le said, framing the movement as one that has always operated at the intersection of technology and capital.

On tokenization, both men saw it as the next structural shift. Le described it as “the digitalization of markets,” with blockchain providing the transparency layer.

He pointed to tap-to-pay as an analogy. “Why can’t you do that to a stock, peer to peer?” he asked. Back added that tokenization enables 24/7 trading, use of assets as collateral, and unlocks value in assets that are hard to discover or trade, like private notes and contracts.

When asked if major banks would compete in bitcoin digital credit, Le said he expected them to. He compared it to Amazon reshaping retail and forcing Walmart to respond. 

Then he added: “I’d love to see Morgan Stanley on that list” regarding massive bitcoin companies. 

The panel closed on a lighter note. Brunell asked Back about a New York Times investigation published earlier this month that named him as Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. 

Back, who denied the claim when the story broke, did not address it directly. “We are in a very good place regarding people adopting the technology,” he said. 

This post Strategy and Blockstream CEOs Paint Vision of Bitcoin’s Financial Future first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Morgan Stanley Executive on Bitcoin: ‘We Are Still So Early on This Journey’

Morgan Stanley launched its bitcoin exchange-traded product, the Morgan Stanley Bitcoin Trust (MSBT), into a market it believes is still in its infancy. 

At a panel on Wednesday moderated by Tyler Evans, Amy Oldenburg, the bank’s head of digital assets, spent the better part of an hour making a case for bitcoin that few clients have heard in full, and said that gap is the industry’s most urgent problem.

“We have to start with bitcoin,” Oldenburg told the audience, citing the asset’s roughly 1.5 trillion dollar market cap and its distance from the rest of the crypto landscape. 

She was careful to draw a line between bitcoin and crypto as a broad category, a distinction she said most retail and institutional clients still do not make with confidence. The firm wants to see that distinction anchored in fundamental research, not just narrative.

Oldenburg: Bitcoin has an education problem 

The education problem, she said, runs deep. Many investors still associate bitcoin with its early history of use by bad actors, and struggle to see past that frame when weighing an allocation. 

Oldenburg said that when clients ask about yield or structured exposure, her team tries to be direct: “you can present it as a yield, but the underlying asset is bitcoin.” That clarity, she said, is still missing from most conversations in the market, and there is “so much more work to do.”

MSBT pulled in more than $100 million in its first week of trading, a strong early signal for a product the bank describes as designed for the full spectrum of its client base rather than a narrow segment. 

But Oldenburg was quick to put that number in context. All of the initial flows came through self-directed accounts, because the fund had not yet been made available on the advisory platform.

She noted that the bank has announced a 2–4% crypto allocation recommendation, and that even with that guidance in place, take-up through advisors has been slow. The product, she reminded the audience, has been on the market for less than a year.

To bridge that gap, Morgan Stanley is working from the inside out. Oldenburg said the firm is rolling out internal training so that financial advisors can speak to clients on bitcoin with confidence, and that her team spends “hour after hour after hour” on the phone walking clients through models and allocation frameworks. 

She said the bank designs products for clients with different needs and wants its platform to cover each of those needs, including clients who want a direct ETP wrapper, and that spot crypto trading is coming for those on the wealth management side.

On custodians, Oldenburg acknowledged the complexity of the decision. The market has no shortage of providers, and choosing among them was not straightforward, which led the firm to work with more than one. Morgan Stanley ultimately tapped Coinbase and BNY Mellon as custodians for MSBT.

When the conversation turned to high-beta bitcoin plays, Oldenburg called Strategy, the Michael Saylor-led company formerly known as MicroStrategy, “a good friend of Morgan Stanley,” and said the bank has worked alongside it through its evolution. 

She said most of the exposure in that vehicle so far is coming from retail and that “digital credit” as a category will take time to develop.

Morgan Stanley buying bitcoin is “not out of the question”

On the question of banks holding bitcoin on their balance sheets, Oldenburg said it is “not out of the question” if regulatory progress continues, but was measured in framing it. 

The U.S. needs greater alignment among its financial regulators, she said, and for a global firm like Morgan Stanley, the picture is more complex still — each jurisdiction comes with its own framework.

She closed where she began: on the need for research with reach. The market has commentators and personalities that investors trust and follow, she said, and the work ahead is to bring that kind of accessible, grounded analysis into the mainstream. 

“We are still so early on this journey,” she said. “So little allocation. It’s still really early.”

This post Morgan Stanley Executive on Bitcoin: ‘We Are Still So Early on This Journey’ first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Bitcoin, WikiLeaks, and a Film the Streamers Wouldn’t Touch: Jack Dorsey and Eugene Jarecki Make Their Case

Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki and tech entrepreneur Jack Dorsey took the stage Wednesday to discuss The Six Billion Dollar Man, Jarecki’s documentary on Julian Assange, and the role the bitcoin community may play in getting it to the public — a conversation that stretched from censorship and surveillance to Satoshi Nakamoto and the original principles of the internet.

Dorsey joined the panel virtually. The setting itself carried weight: Jarecki told the crowd that the casino sitting close to where he stood had ties to the private security firm that spied on Assange while he lived inside London’s Ecuadorian Embassy — a revelation the documentary places at the center of its surveillance narrative.

Dorsey: Bitcoin embodies a gatekeeper-free, open network

Jarecki said he went to Dorsey first for money. He needed help distributing a film that, despite premiering at Cannes and earning recognition on the festival circuit, found no takers among major streaming platforms. Dorsey shifted the conversation. 

Rather than write a check, he told Jarecki that the bitcoin community represented something larger than a funding source — a constituency built around the same principles Assange had fought to defend.

“Bitcoin is an open protocol for money transmission,” Dorsey said. “It routes around the gatekeepers — Visa, Mastercard, the banks.” 

He described the community as one that views Assange as a hero, someone who stood for the idea that information should remain free and open, values he traced back to the founding culture of the internet itself.

Dorsey pointed to 2011 as a proof of concept. After financial institutions cut off WikiLeaks from donation channels under pressure from the U.S. government, bitcoin stepped in as the only payment rail that could not be blocked.

He called WikiLeaks adopting bitcoin out of necessity one of the most significant moments in the protocol’s early history — not because it was planned, but because it revealed an immediate, real-world use case under conditions of state pressure.

He then drew a line between Assange and Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin. Dorsey said what matters most about bitcoin is that its founder walked away. He called that exit a selfless act — one that made the network founderless, and therefore resistant to the kind of pressure that governments and institutions can apply when a single person stands at the center of a project. 

He placed Assange and Edward Snowden in the same category: people who trusted the technology they used, put their lives at risk for principles larger than themselves, and paid for it.

Jarecki said making the film carried its own risks. While shooting in Russia, he said his crew felt they were being followed and monitored — a layer of pressure that shaped the production from the inside. He described the mutual regard between Assange and Snowden, two figures who understood each other’s positions with precision, as one of the documentary’s most striking undercurrents.

A pay-per-view watch party in less than 60 days

The film’s distribution model is the most unusual element of the project. Dorsey proposed a global private pay-per-view watch party as an alternative to the traditional release pipeline. Ticket buyers at thesixbilliondollarman.com receive a credit line on the film itself, turning the audience into participants in the project rather than passive consumers. 

Jarecki framed it as a test of whether a community organized around open financial infrastructure could do what media gatekeepers would not — get a film about press freedom in front of the people who need to see it.

Dorsey said the website and the viewing model offer a way to crowdfund and bring the community together around a shared cause. 

At the panel, Jarecki showed never-before-seen clips from the documentary — behind-the-scenes footage that gave the audience a direct look at material that has not circulated publicly.

Jarecki and Dorsey are betting that the bitcoin community, which absorbed that argument in 2011 when it mattered most, will carry the film where the streaming industry declined to go.

This post Bitcoin, WikiLeaks, and a Film the Streamers Wouldn’t Touch: Jack Dorsey and Eugene Jarecki Make Their Case first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin Magazine

Eric Trump, John Koudounis Call Bitcoin a Global Reserve Asset, Float $1M Price Target

At Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas, Eric Trump and Calamos Investments CEO John Koudounis sat down with Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas for a panel that covered bitcoin’s maturation from speculative instrument to global reserve contender. 

The conversation ranged across institutional adoption, government debanking, currency debasement, and the challenge of winning over ordinary investors who still view bitcoin as too risky, too complex, or both. 

It was a panel that reflected how much the room has changed — a mix of long-time bitcoin believers and fresh institutional money that, a decade ago, would have dismissed this gathering entirely.

Trump: Bitcoin is a sticky, limited supply asset

Trump opened on a structural theme, arguing that bitcoin has become “sticky.” The U.S. government now holds approximately 300,000 bitcoin and will not sell, he said, a claim consistent with the creation of a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve. 

Corporate treasury buyers like Strategy and Metaplanet, which surpassed 40,000 bitcoin in holdings by the end of the first quarter of 2026, are doing the same. The world’s largest financial platforms — Trump named Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley — have also moved in. 

American Bitcoin, the company Trump co-founded, is mining bitcoin and holding every coin rather than selling. 

“We are compressing bitcoin,” Trump said. “There is a limited supply.”

The argument, in essence, is that the natural sellers are leaving the market while a new class of permanent holders takes their place.

Koudounis put the bitcoin supply compression argument in the context of a broader capital shift. He cited research projecting that 124 trillion dollars in wealth will transfer across generations through 2048, and said the 60 billion dollars that have moved into spot bitcoin ETFs so far represent a fraction of what is coming. 

For context, 60 billion dollars is roughly the size of a mid-tier U.S. asset manager’s total book. Set against a 124 trillion dollar transfer of accumulated Boomer wealth to Millennial and Gen Z inheritors who are far more comfortable with digital assets, it reads as a starting line.

Koudounis told the audience that the institutional conversation has already moved on. “The question used to be, ‘Are you buying bitcoin?'” he said. “Now it’s, ‘What percent are you allocating?'”

And his conclusion on what full institutional entry means for the asset: “Once institutions get involved, it’s game over.”

How can bitcoin attract retail clients?  

Balchunas pressed both men on the retail challenge, asking how they would sell bitcoin to his mother — a stand-in for the generation of older investors who remain nervous about volatility and complexity. It is a question the industry has never fully answered. 

Bitcoin’s price history, with its 80% drawdowns and euphoric recoveries, is not a comfortable pitch to someone managing a fixed retirement income. 

In response to this quandary, Koudounis said that Calamos has built a line of protected bitcoin ETFs that cap downside and smooth returns, turning a perceived deterrent into a feature for conservative investors who want exposure without the full ride. 

The goal, he said, is to add bitcoin exposure to products that already feel familiar to traditional investors. 

Trump’s answer to the same question was more direct. Fixed income, he argued, is not a genuine alternative at current yields. 

“Do yourself a favor, go invest in fixed income at 4%,” he said. “I’ll invest in bitcoin. I’ll ride out the volatility and we’ll see who wins that equation in a 10-year period of time.” 

He claimed BTC has averaged roughly 70% annual growth per year over the past decade and called it “a better gold,” adding that “every country in this world needs it.”

The macro case Trump made was not only about returns. He pointed to currency weakness and geopolitical instability — citing Iran specifically — as reasons traditional store-of-value assets are under pressure, and argued that BTC’s ability to transfer value across borders without a bank intermediary is a feature that becomes more valuable the more fragile existing systems look.

Currency debasement, he said, is real and ongoing, and bitcoin is designed to resist it. “Would you rather have the euro,” he asked, “or would you rather have bitcoin, an asset that’s grown at 70% a year on average, year over year for the last decade? It’s not even close.”

Koudounis: Banks can ‘debank’ you at any time

On the question of why he became an advocate at all, Trump’s answer was personal. He described how major banks shut down hundreds of Trump Organization accounts — covering buildings, golf courses, and restaurants — following the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot.

JPMorgan has since confirmed it closed those accounts. Trump and the Trump Organization later filed suit against Capital One over similar closures.

“They threw us away like dogs,” Trump said on stage. 

The debanking experience, combined with what he described as slow, friction-heavy bank wire transfers, pushed him toward bitcoin’s censorship-resistant architecture. “That’s why I advocate like hell for this industry,” he said. 

On usability, Trump conceded that early crypto technology was clunky, but said banks entering the space will be the force that finally makes the experience simple.

“The industry will grow,” he said, “when the user experience is simple and easy and not torturous.”

Koudounis broadened the debanking argument beyond the Trumps. He drew on personal history, recounting Greece’s 2015 debt crisis, when the government imposed daily withdrawal limits on bank accounts that lasted roughly four years before capital controls were fully lifted. 

Citizens woke up one day to find the state had placed a ceiling on how much of their own money they could access. 

“You don’t have to be the Trumps to be targeted by banks,” Koudounis said. “This can happen to anybody. You, me, any of us.” 

Banks told you to stay away, then ‘snuck into’ bitcoin

Koudounis then turned the spotlight on the financial industry’s own behavior. While banks spent years publicly dismissing BTC and warning customers away from it, they were constructing the infrastructure to invest in it out of sight. 

“Banks got the clue,” he said, and delivered a pointed summary to the crowd: “You guys won.”

Trump closed with three statements that drew the loudest reaction of the panel. He called government spending “dangerous” and pointed to a federal investigation that found some government spending to be fraudulent, citing it as evidence for why a transparent, programmable, decentralized form of money has real-world value beyond trading.

If fraud of that scale is hard to eliminate in the best-administered country on earth, he argued, it is a structural problem that BTC’s transparent ledger is built to address. He acknowledged the macro backdrop has been rough for holders over the past three months but told the audience to stay the course.

And then he closed his remarks in plain terms: “I have absolute conviction that bitcoin is going to hit one million dollars… I’ve never been more bullish on this asset class in my life.”

This post Eric Trump, John Koudounis Call Bitcoin a Global Reserve Asset, Float $1M Price Target first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.

Bitcoin entered yesterday's Fed decision already capped below a dense on-chain supply zone, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell's press conference gave buyers little reason to push through it.

The Federal Reserve kept the target range at 3.5%-3.75% and explicitly linked elevated inflation to higher global energy prices, citing the tensions in the Middle East as a source of uncertainty for the economic outlook.

Powell added to that framing in his opening remarks, estimating that total PCE ran at 3.5% through March, core PCE at 3.2%, and that higher oil prices are set to push overall inflation up in the near term.

The committee also fractured in the most divided Fed vote since 1992. Eight officials held, one dissenter wanted a cut, while Hammack, Kashkari, and Logan objected to retaining any easing bias in the statement at all.

The internal split exposed the committee's actual posture of easing bias and kept the language in the text, while three officials argued that the language was already too accommodating.

For Bitcoin, the consequence is a macro environment where a dovish pivot has become harder to price, even as the March Summary of Economic Projections still showed a median 2026 fed funds rate of 3.4%, implying one cut this year.

Futures markets came away pricing little chance of that cut materializing by year-end, with some traders putting a small probability on a hike over the next twelve months.

The oil hinge

The Fed's inflation problem traces to an external energy shock that Powell said the central bank cannot control.

Brent oil averaged $103 per barrel in March, with the EIA forecasting a peak near $115 in the second quarter, followed by a decline below $90 in the fourth quarter.

Both headline and core inflation are running hot through separate channels, as energy is pushing up PCE, while tariff effects continue to work through core goods prices.

That two-channel setup prevents the Fed from quickly looking through the oil shock because the committee must first confirm that higher energy costs are not feeding into inflation expectations before justifying a cut.

Near-term inflation expectations are already running higher, according to Powell's own account. Bitcoin sits below a heavy supply zone at the moment, and the macro case for absorbing that supply has the least near-term traction.

Where Bitcoin gets stuck

Glassnode's latest report places Bitcoin's key resistance at the True Market Mean, near $78,000, and the short-term holder cost basis around $79,000.

Both levels converge into a supply zone between $78,000 and $80,000 that BTC has already tested and rejected. The pattern Glassnode describes is a classic bear-market rally structure: price rallies to the breakeven zone for recent buyers, those holders distribute into strength, and incoming demand fails to absorb the supply at that level.

Spot BTC trading near $75,900 puts it below that resistance band and close to $76,000, which Glassnode flags as a downside short-gamma zone.

At that level, dealer hedging flows carry a structural bias to amplify price movement in either direction, selling into any further weakness or buying into any break higher, turning $76,000 into a volatility trigger.

The main support sits between $65,000 and $70,000, with the -1 standard deviation band near $68,000 as the first meaningful structural floor.

A test of $68,000 would put the short-term market structure on trial, with the threshold Glassnode identifies as the level below which distribution accelerates, and the broader base weakens.

Two outcomes

In the bull case, oil follows the EIA's base path lower through the second half of 2026, headline inflation cools, and the Fed's one implied cut becomes more credible again.

If that repricing begins and BTC clears $80,000, Glassnode says the $82,000 short-gamma zone could force dealers to buy into strength, amplifying the move.

Perpetual futures positioning has already flipped to its most negative level on record, building deep fuel for a squeeze. A sustained break above $80,000, with spot and ETF flows confirming the move, would pull the market toward the lower band of Glassnode's overhead supply cluster near $84,000.

In the bear case, oil stays elevated through the EIA's second quarter peak and keeps headline inflation sticky enough to push any cut into late 2027.

Bitcoin keeps failing at the True Market Mean and short-term holder cost basis, and the market retreats toward the $65,000-$70,000 support cluster.

The $68,000 band then becomes a waypoint. If ETF flows fail to stabilize and spot demand remains thin, the structure below $68,000 deteriorates, opening a path toward the deeper accumulation zone from which the current rally launched.

Between those two outcomes, the oil path is the deciding variable.

Powell stated that the committee cannot calibrate away an external energy shock the way it manages a domestic demand cycle, so Bitcoin bulls need oil to cooperate at least as much as they need Powell to soften his tone.

Glassnode's positioning data adds asymmetry to an otherwise cautious picture, as perpetuals are at a record net-short level, suggesting the market has already priced in considerable pain.

Even a plateau in the inflation narrative, with oil stalling below its second-quarter peak, or a single cooler PCE print, could be enough to trigger a sharp upside move from that positioning.

Glassnode also says spot selling is easing, and ETF AUM has begun to stabilize, two early signs that distribution at current levels is losing momentum.

The breakout and retest scenarios both hinge on real demand arriving in the $78,000-$80,000 zone before macro uncertainty forces another leg lower.

The post Here’s why Bitcoin is stuck below $80,000 and what Powell’s FOMC meeting did for BTC price appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Libra launched in 2019, rebranded to Diem, and sold its blockchain assets to Silvergate Bank in 2022, three years of work that ended when regulators pushed back, and bank partners withdrew.

On Apr. 29, Meta announced USDC payouts to eligible creators through compatible crypto wallets on Solana and Polygon, starting with selected creators in Colombia and the Philippines.

Meta is plugging creator payouts into dollar-stable rails that Stripe, Circle, and others have spent years building. The current rollout asks eligible creators to connect a compatible wallet and receive USDC directly from Meta's creator payout system.

Goldman Sachs pegged the creator economy at roughly $250 billion in 2023 and projected it could reach $480 billion by 2027, spanning roughly 50 million creators whose income flows from brand deals, platform ad revenue shares, subscriptions, tips, and direct payments.

Goldman found that brand deals account for about 70% of creators' revenue, meaning most creator income flows through business-to-creator payment pipelines.

A 10% slice of a $250 billion creator economy represents $25 billion annually, roughly $2.1 billion per month, flowing over stablecoin rails. By 2027, 10% of Goldman's projected $480 billion market puts that figure at $48 billion annually, or $4 billion per month.

These TAM scenarios are pegged to the broader creator economy's total payment flow and calibrate the scale of what this pilot could open up at modest penetration rates.

According to a BIS report, payment-related stablecoin flows in 2025 reached roughly $390 billion. The amount is distinct from the $35 trillion in total on-chain stablecoin volumes, most of which are for trading and settlement.

A $25 billion to $48 billion annual creator economy flow would equal between 6.4% and 12.3% of all current real economy stablecoin payments, large enough to visibly move the real-payments share of stablecoin activity if adoption materializes.

Why the infrastructure is ready

The Libra window closed partly because stablecoin infrastructure did not exist at scale.

Stripe now explicitly markets stablecoin payouts as practical for creators, freelancers, and remote teams, offering USDC on networks including Solana and Polygon, the same chains Meta chose, with KYC/AML onboarding and reach into more than 60 countries.

Stripe says stablecoin cross-border payments settle in minutes. Businesses in 101 countries previously unsupported by Stripe Treasury can now hold dollar-denominated balances and move money across stablecoin rails.

A platform that runs USDC payouts can reach a creator in Manila or Bogotá faster and with less friction than a traditional wire transfer, while settling the transaction in dollars.

The choice of Colombia and the Philippines traces to that logic, since both markets combine meaningful creator economies with real-world friction in cross-border payouts and demonstrated appetite for dollar-denominated savings.

Because roughly 98% of stablecoins are dollar-denominated, any meaningful expansion of creator payouts over these rails would effectively move more internet income onto dollar infrastructure. This is digital dollarization of the internet labor market, settling cross-border creator income in dollars with fewer intermediaries between the payer and the creator.

Meta's own help page language walks creators through compatible wallets, blockchain network choices, and security steps, far from the interface a typical brand-deal creator would navigate without guidance.

Stripe flags the same friction, noting that assets sent across incompatible chains can vanish without recourse, and apparent low transaction costs can rise once on-ramps, off-ramps, compliance overhead, and local exchange conversion are factored in.

The BIS frames the macro version of that same problem when noting that out of the $35 trillion in total stablecoin volumes in 2025, only $390 billion traced to real-economy payments.

Paths for stablecoins in the creator economy

In the bull case, wallet abstraction advances quickly enough that creators receive USDC the way they receive Venmo payments, while off-ramps in key markets become cheap and instant.

In that setup, the 10% scenario looks conservative. Once a major platform normalizes stablecoin payouts, gig platforms, affiliate networks, brand deal intermediaries, and subscription tools all have an incentive to offer the same option.

Creator payments would become one of the first large non-trading stablecoin categories, and the real-payments share of stablecoin activity would grow in a way that cannot be explained by crypto-native volume alone.

In the bear case, wallet confusion and off-ramp friction keep crypto-native adoption at bay. Meta's pilot stays a niche feature for creators who already hold digital assets or who work in corridors where payout speed and dollar access justify the friction of managing a wallet.

The BIS's $390 billion real-payments estimate is the best evidence for that path. The rails exist, but mainstream adoption has not kept pace with the infrastructure behind them.

Between those two outcomes, the deciding variable is abstraction. If the wallet disappears from the user experience, adoption follows commerce, and the creator economy becomes a real-world stress test for stablecoins.

If creators have to manage private keys and choose networks, adoption stays inside the existing crypto base, and Meta's pilot becomes a footnote.

The post Meta’s USDC pilot shows how stablecoins could capture billions in creator payouts appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The old Bitcoin playbook ran on the simple logic that when global M2 expands, capital flows into risk assets, and Bitcoin captures a disproportionate share.

That relationship powered the 2020-2021 bull market, and crypto Twitter spent the better part of 2024 charting M2 overlays as proof that the next leg was imminent.

Now, the global M2 has been expanding while Bitcoin has continued to underperform.

Related Reading

Bitcoin breaks from M2 money supply as dollar strength overrides global cash growth

Liquidity is still expanding, but faster-moving dollar strength is tightening conditions before it reaches Bitcoin.

Apr 1, 2026 · Gino Matos

March 2026 US M2 printed at nearly $22.7 trillion, up 4.6% year over year, and Bitcoin spent much of the first quarter unable to hold above $76,000, a level that Real Vision chief crypto analyst Jamie Coutts identified as key resistance on CryptoQuant's Unbiased podcast.

Coutts' diagnosis was that the transmission mechanism had changed, as the kind of liquidity now determines if the expansion actually reaches financial assets.

In the post-2008 QE era, the Federal Reserve bought assets directly, flooding the system with bank reserves that had nowhere to go but into equities, credit, and eventually crypto.

Today, Treasury issuance, reserve management, cash balance swings, and bank credit creation have replaced the central bank's balance-sheet firehose.

The plumbing problem

The US public debt closed the fourth quarter of 2025 at over $38.5 trillion, up 6.3% year over year. Meanwhile, US M2 grew by 4.6% over the same period.

Based on the most basic numbers available, debt is outpacing broad money by nearly two percentage points annually. The debt stock now equals roughly 1.70x total M2, a ratio with no modern precedent in a supposedly accommodative monetary environment.

The Treasury's own borrowing estimates called for $574 billion in net marketable debt in the January-March 2026 quarter and another $109 billion in April-June, while maintaining a cash balance above $1 trillion.

The Treasury General Account, which sits at the Federal Reserve, held roughly $1 trillion in the latest H.4.1 data. Cash parked at the Fed drains reserves from the banking system even as M2 continues to tick up.

Reserve balances fell to about $2.9 trillion in the Fed's Apr. 22 release, down approximately $355 billion from a year earlier.

Broad money expands on paper while the plumbing that actually moves reserves into financial markets tightens at the margin.

Bank credit is still expanding, with commercial loans and leases reaching roughly $13.7 trillion by mid-April, while that credit appears to be flowing into real-economy absorption.

At the Apr. 29 FOMC meeting, the policy rate was held at 3.5%-3.75%, and total assets stayed around $6.7 trillion. Officials cited inflation as their primary restraint, with no balance sheet expansion on the agenda.

Why the old chart broke

Coutts argued on the podcast that Bitcoin's underperformance reflects plumbing friction.

The selloff from late 2024 into early 2025 drew on tightening reserve conditions in the fourth quarter, Treasury dynamics tied to a government shutdown, derivatives-driven deleveraging, and the expanding role of ETF and derivatives markets in Bitcoin's price structure.

None of those forces appear in a global M2 overlay, as they are features of a financial system in which Treasury supply, reserve management, and funding conditions have become the real battleground.

Gold offers the clearest cross-market confirmation. Central banks bought 244 tonnes of gold in the first quarter, up 3% year over year, with total gold demand reaching 1,231 tonnes and a record $193 billion by value, per the World Gold Council.

Official institutions are hedging sovereign debt credibility at scale, but they are doing it through gold, an asset central banks can legally hold.

The IMF's latest Fiscal Monitor found that global public debt now looks set to reach 100% of GDP by 2029, with the US and China driving most of the acceleration.

The Congressional Budget Office projects a $1.9 trillion federal deficit in FY2026 and debt held by the public expanding from 101% of GDP to 120% by 2036, a structural supply overhang that will continue to compete with risk appetite for the same pool of reserves and capital.

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Two outcomes

In the bull case, inflation cools toward the Fed's projected path, the Treasury cash balance declines, reserves rebuild, and bank credit continues to expand without a growth scare.

In that setup, the “liquidity is still expanding” thesis regains traction. Bitcoin can re-rate quickly because the debt-to-liquidity mismatch prevents the tightening of financial conditions at the margin.
Coutts treated the $60,000 zone as a value floor and put the odds that the cycle low is already in at better than 50-50.

In the bear case, debt issuance stays heavy, inflation stays sticky, Treasury funding strain persists, and the Fed cannot ease without reigniting the inflation it has spent two years suppressing.

Bitcoin then behaves less like a monetary hedge and more like a high-beta risk asset exposed to rates, funding conditions, and periodic deleveraging.

The April flash PMI from S&P Global already described growth running close to a 1% annualized pace. This fragile expansion does not need to tip into recession to generate the kind of funding shocks that hit Bitcoin hardest.

Coutts separates the long-term monetary case for Bitcoin from the medium-term price behavior that reserve flows actually drive.

In a regime where debt outpaces broad money, where the Fed manages from a restrictive floor, where Treasury cash balances drain reserves even as M2 ticks up, the operative question for investors is whether that expansion is running fast enough to absorb debt, reserves, and Treasury supply simultaneously.

Until debt and reserve conditions turn decisively in Bitcoin's favor, the asset will keep delivering the sharp drawdowns and frustrating consolidations that define a market caught between a constructive long-run thesis and a tighter-than-expected short-run funding environment.

The post Bitcoin’s next risk is hiding in the gap between debt and liquidity appeared first on CryptoSlate.

This month, Israel and Pakistan supplied a quieter test for crypto than the one playing out in US capital markets. What if the more important 2026 shift is happening where digital assets meet local money and bank accounts?

Israeli crypto firm Bits of Gold said Israel's Capital Market Authority approved the issuance and distribution of BILS, a shekel-pegged stablecoin, after a two-year pilot. Days earlier, the State Bank of Pakistan issued BPRD Circular Letter No. 10 of 2026, replacing its 2018 virtual-currency prohibition.

The Pakistan circular allows regulated entities to open bank accounts for PVARA NOC or licensed VASPs and their customers under defined compliance conditions.

Those two moves sit far from the US spot ETF cycle. Yet they point to the operational layer that decides whether crypto becomes more than an investment wrapper. The US has supplied legitimacy, liquidity, and a powerful digital-dollar debate.

Other jurisdictions are testing a different operating layer: whether crypto can connect to local money, bank accounts, merchant checkout, and enforceable market rules.

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Perhaps we need to rethink how global adoption should be evaluated. A Bitcoin ETF lets investors buy exposure. A regulated shekel stablecoin lets users hold a domestic currency on-chain.

A central bank circular that lets licensed crypto firms open accounts gives the sector a bridge back into supervised banking. The first validates an asset class. The second and third test whether crypto can become usable financial infrastructure.

The test remains early. BILS still needs proof of issuance and usage. Pakistan still needs licensed VASPs with actual bank relationships. Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s new stablecoin licensees still need business launches, while the UAE, South Korea, Japan, the UK, and the EU are each testing different parts of the same adoption stack: payment tokens, merchant checkout, market conduct, authorization, and supervisory rules.

The UAE still needs clearer public mapping between dirham-token announcements and Central Bank register entries. Still, the pattern is becoming harder to dismiss: in 2026, the practical crypto work is increasingly about where digital assets touch money, banks, merchants, and settlement systems.

Local money and bank access

Bits of Gold says the approved BILS project is a shekel-pegged stablecoin designed initially on Solana, with Fireblocks, QEDIT, EY, and the Solana Foundation involved in the pilot.

The policy signal is the local-currency component. BILS brings the shekel into an on-chain market still dominated by dollar stablecoins and asks whether a national currency can gain a programmable version without ceding the entire payments layer to USD tokens.

That is monetary-sovereignty. Dollar stablecoins have become the working unit of much of crypto's settlement activity.

A shekel token, if issuance and adoption follow approval, gives Israel a way to test domestic-currency rails inside that same infrastructure. The result would be measured less by market attention and more by whether wallets, exchanges, payment firms, and regulated counterparties find a reason to use it.

Pakistan supplies the banking half of the opening. The State Bank of Pakistan circular is concrete because it replaces FE Circular No. 3 of 2018 and permits SBP-regulated entities to open accounts for PVARA NOC or licensed VASPs and their customers.

The circular also ties access to bank controls, documentation, monitoring, customer-risk checks, and compliance with Pakistan's virtual-asset framework.

That changes the operating surface for licensed crypto firms. Bank accounts are basic financial plumbing. They determine whether a regulated VASP can hold client money, reconcile flows, satisfy due diligence, and bring activity into monitored channels.

For a market such as Pakistan, which Chainalysis ranks among leading crypto adoption countries, banking access can decide whether usage remains informal or moves into traceable institutional structures.

Hong Kong offers a licensing comparator for the same rails-first pattern. On April 10, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted stablecoin issuer licenses to Anchorpoint Financial Limited and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.

The HKMA register lists both with effective dates of April 10, 2026. That moves the jurisdiction from policy design to named licensed issuers, while leaving the business-launch and user-adoption tests ahead.

The active map is straightforward*:

* These focus on 2026. Brazil, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines are also moving pieces of crypto into regulated financial channels, from VASP licensing and stablecoin rules to tokenized settlement, tourist payments, and bank-supervised activity.

Rulebooks are becoming operating layers

The same movement shows up in conduct rules. Japan's Financial Services Agency has published materials pointing toward a shift from Payment Services Act treatment to Financial Instruments and Exchange Act-style oversight for crypto-assets.

The working-group report recommends information provision, crypto-asset service-provider controls, market-abuse rules, insider-trading rules, SESC powers, and stronger user protection. The FSA's weekly review also notes draft Acts submitted to the Diet tied to FIEA and PSA amendments.

Japan's signal is about classification and conduct. Crypto assets are being pulled toward a framework where disclosure, surveillance, and misconduct rules shape participation. That makes access conditional on behavior, supervision, and accountability.

It also shows why regulatory design can be a form of infrastructure. Markets use law as a routing layer when participants need to know who can list assets, who can custody them, who can market them, and which forms of trading behavior create liability.

The UK is building a similar operating layer with a longer runway. The FCA says firms that want to carry on new regulated cryptoasset activities can apply from Sept. 30, 2026 to Feb. 28, 2027.

The new regime is expected to come into force on Oct. 25, 2027. A related consultation notice shows the regulator moving through authorization, supervision, consumer-duty, custody, prudential, and market-abuse work.

Europe already has the broader framework in place. ESMA says MiCA establishes uniform rules for crypto-assets covering transparency, disclosure, authorization, supervision, consumer information, market integrity, and financial stability.

Our broader global regulatory map has already shown regulation moving as a multi-market process. The 2026 layer adds a sharper point: rulebooks are starting to decide how crypto products enter ordinary financial channels.

The UAE adds a payment-token example, but scope remains the constraint. The Central Bank's Payment Token Services Regulation provides the rulebook for payment-token activity, while a February CBUAE register provides a public check on licensed entities.

Separately, an ADX-hosted release says IHC, Sirius, and FAB received CBUAE approval to launch the dirham-backed DDSC on ADI Chain for institutional payments, settlement, treasury, and trade flows.

For now, the evidence points to a regulated payment-token framework and institutional settlement ambition; broad retail usage would need separate evidence.

South Korea adds a merchant layer. Crypto.com and KG Inicis said in March that they would integrate Crypto.com Pay across KG Inicis's merchant network for foreign travelers and K-commerce users, with merchants able to receive fiat or digital assets.

South Korea's K Bank partnership with Ripple points to another rail where bank and payments activity intersects with crypto. Both examples still need transaction data.

Their relevance is that they move the adoption debate toward checkout, settlement, remittance, and consumer-facing access.

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Usage is the harder test

The US-centered interpretation remains powerful because the numbers are large. On April 29, total crypto market capitalization stood near $2.59 trillion, with Bitcoin around $1.56 trillion.

Dollar stablecoins still dominate the working liquidity layer, with Tether‘s 24-hour volume near $111.50 billion and USDC near $47.84 billion.

Those figures explain why US policy and dollar rails keep pulling attention. The dollar stablecoin system is already large. US capital markets supply legitimacy at scale.

The CLARITY Act stablecoin fight shows that the US debate is also about who captures the economics of digital dollars. That benchmark remains essential, because global crypto infrastructure still depends heavily on dollar liquidity.

Usage data complicates that benchmark. Chainalysis said adjusted stablecoin economic volume reached $28 trillion in 2025, with a baseline projection of $719 trillion by 2035 and a catalyst scenario approaching $1.5 quadrillion.

As projections, those figures are scenario math rather than proof of future payment flows. Their direction changes the operating question: stablecoins are being evaluated as payments infrastructure, treasury infrastructure, and settlement infrastructure, alongside their role as trading collateral.

The Chainalysis adoption work shows why emerging markets sit near the center of that debate. It ranked India first, followed by the US, Pakistan, Vietnam, and Brazil, and described adoption as broad-based across income brackets.

It also tied durable adoption to on-ramps, regulatory clarity, and financial and digital infrastructure. Those are the variables being tested by Pakistan's banking circular and by local-currency stablecoin efforts such as BILS.

The IMF adds the risk side. Its March paper on stablecoin inflows and FX spillovers finds that stablecoin flows can affect parity deviations, local currency depreciation, dollar premia, and financial stability.

Put simply, stablecoins become more consequential once they start behaving like a segment of the FX market.

That creates live policy tension. Local-currency stablecoins can help keep domestic units relevant in on-chain finance. Banking access can pull VASPs into monitored channels.

Payment integrations can move crypto from portfolio exposure to checkout and settlement. Each rail also creates new supervisory demands around reserves, redemption, money laundering controls, market abuse, and currency pressure.

The evidence points to a specific split. US ETFs and Wall Street adoption have helped financialize crypto by improving access to exposure. The harder adoption test is happening where regulators decide whether crypto can touch local money, bank accounts, merchants, and FX markets.

That test is still early. BILS needs issuance and usage. Pakistan needs licensed VASPs operating through bank accounts. Hong Kong's new licensees need launches. Japan, the UK, and the EU need rules that work under market stress.

The UAE needs clean issuer and register mapping. South Korea needs merchant activity beyond announcements.

If those signals appear, the global crypto map will look less like a US-led investment-product cycle and more like a set of regional financial systems absorbing crypto under local rules. If they fail to appear, the dollar and US capital markets will keep doing most of the work.

The next test is usage, measured against attention.

The post Everyone is watching America’s crypto boom but Israel and Pakistan may be showing what comes next appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The 10 largest AI stocks now make up about 41% of the S&P 500, according to a BofA Global Research chart circulated online.

That puts the AI basket at the same concentration level that tech and telecom reached around the dot-com peak. The BofA chart put the Nifty Fifty at 40% in the 1970s and Japan at 44% in the late 1980s.

The comparison turns a stock-market concentration warning into a stress test for a corner of crypto that has spent the past year selling investors a new identity.

The market concentration is the stress trigger. Miner disclosures and mining reports supply the exposure map.

Public Bitcoin miners increasingly trade as hybrid infrastructure companies with BTC exposure. Many have signed AI or high-performance computing contracts, raised capital for denser data centers, converted premium power sites, or shifted investor attention toward long-term lease economics.

If the AI infrastructure premium fades, those companies face a different kind of pressure. The risk moves from hashprice alone into debt, contract durability, construction execution, and equity multiples.

At the same time, Bitcoin gets a second-order test. A weaker AI buildout could ease the scramble for power, rack space, interconnections, cooling equipment, and GPUs.

That would hurt miners whose new valuations depend on AI growth, while possibly helping remaining miners if scarce infrastructure becomes easier to secure.

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Miners Have Repriced Themselves Around AI

The miner pivot is now measurable in revenue forecasts. A projected revenue mix cited by S&P Global Market Intelligence showed listed miners, including IREN, Riot Platforms, Core Scientific, HIVE, Cipher, and TeraWulf, shifting into AI and HPC workloads.

The projected revenue mix is already large enough to change how these companies are assessed.

Visible Alpha expected HPC to account for 71% of 2026 revenue at IREN and Core Scientific, 70% at TeraWulf, 34% at Cipher, 15% at HIVE, and 13% at Riot.

That spread shows the sector has split into cohorts. Some miners are becoming data-center operators with Bitcoin exposure.

Others are preserving mining as the core business while keeping AI optionality at sites that have power and grid access.

The scale shows up in miner economics. Public miners have announced more than $70 billion in aggregate AI/HPC contracts, according to CoinShares.

The firm also said WULF, Core Scientific, Cipher, and Hut 8 are effectively becoming data-center operators that still mine Bitcoin.

That changes the market link from an AI stock selloff. A falling AI multiple would flow through miner equities because investors have assigned value to the HPC pipeline.

Lower AI demand would also pressure the financing case for projects built around long-duration tenants, higher-density cooling, and premium grid positions.

Mining margins would still depend on BTC price and difficulty, but the equity case would have another variable.

The leverage data points in the same direction. CoinShares said several miners had taken on large debt loads for AI buildouts, including $3.7 billion in convertible notes at IREN, $5.7 billion in total debt at WULF, and $1.7 billion in senior secured notes issued by Cipher.

CryptoSlate has separately tracked how miners have been funding the AI pivot with debt while selling BTC. Put simply, the AI pivot has added a credit cycle to a business that already lived with a Bitcoin cycle.

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The table below mixes 2026 revenue estimates, 2025 company disclosures, and contract updates, so each row signals exposure across different time horizons.

Cipher's rebrand toward HPC adds another example of the shift. TeraWulf's Fluidstack expansion shows how miners have paired large power portfolios with AI tenants and credit support.

The Risk Is In The Sites, Contracts, And Capital Stack

Core Scientific is the clearest example of the shift from mining sensitivity to infrastructure execution. In its fourth-quarter 2025 results, the company said it had energized about 350 MW under its CoreWeave contract and remained on track to deliver about 590 MW by early 2027.

It also reported that Q4 colocation revenue rose to $31.3 million from $8.5 million a year earlier, while digital asset self-mining revenue fell to $42.2 million from $79.9 million.

That is the pivot in operating form. Power and buildings once tied mainly to Bitcoin production are being monetized through colocation.

Core Scientific also said $226.2 million of its $279.2 million in fourth-quarter capital expenditures was funded by CoreWeave under existing agreements. That customer funding reduces some capital strain, but it also shows how deeply the buildout depends on an AI tenant's growth path.

The conversion also introduces accounting complexity. Core Scientific said it was restating prior financial statements after identifying improper capitalization of assets committed to demolition during facility conversion from mining to HPC colocation infrastructure.

The issue was company-specific, but it illustrates a broader point. Moving from mining halls to high-density AI infrastructure goes beyond marketing language.

Core Scientific's canceled CoreWeave merger agreement shows that AI-linked value already sits inside shareholder decisions.

CoreWeave's 2025 Form 10-K adds counterparty context, including large contracted power commitments and disclosed risks tied to AI demand.

The miner exposure is, therefore, linked to both site delivery and the financial health of the AI cloud ecosystem.

TeraWulf shows the same shift at a larger contracted scale. In its full-year 2025 results, the company reported long-term data center lease agreements totaling 522 critical IT MW, more than $12.8 billion in long-term credit-enhanced customer contracts, and $6.5 billion in long-term financings.

It said HPC hosting had become its primary growth engine while it continued to operate legacy mining infrastructure opportunistically.

CoinShares reported that WULF mined 262 BTC in Q4 alongside $9.7 million in HPC lease revenue. The same report said WULF's cost-per-BTC figures were distorted by the company's transition, including interest, SG&A, and depreciation linked to the new infrastructure base.

That distinction is crucial. Once a miner becomes an AI infrastructure company, per-BTC cost metrics can distort the business unless the balance sheet is separated from the rest of the mining fleet.

Riot's Corsicana decision shows how AI optionality can alter Bitcoin's capacity path before a final AI contract even exists. The company's Corsicana update said it was evaluating AI/HPC uses for about 600 MW of remaining power capacity, halting a previously announced 600 MW Phase II Bitcoin mining expansion, and cutting expected year-end 2025 self-mining capacity from 46.7 EH/s to 38.4 EH/s.

IREN adds a different exposure type. Its October 2025 AI cloud update targeted more than $500 million in annualized AI cloud revenue from 23,000 GPUs by the end of Q1 2026, with 11,000 GPUs contracted for about $225 million of ARR on average two-year terms.

That creates a faster repricing channel than long-term colocation. GPU cloud economics can shift as hardware supply, utilization, and customer budgets change.

Power Scarcity Sets Bitcoin's Side Of The Trade

The Bitcoin side of the trade is less direct. A weaker AI infrastructure cycle would first pressure AI-exposed miners through equity valuation, funding costs, and contract expectations.

Bitcoin's network would feel the change through the industrial base that competes for the same power and sites.

The AI-mining link is physical. Bitcoin mining remains the larger aggregate revenue pool in key BTC price scenarios, while AI has become an immediate economic risk to the network's industrial security base.

AI and mining compete for land, grid interconnections, substations, cooling design, financing, and management attention.

Energy demand from AI explains why the competition is durable. The IEA estimated that data centers consumed about 415 TWh of electricity in 2024 and projected that global data-center consumption would roughly double to 945 TWh by 2030 in its base case.

AI-driven accelerated servers account for a major share of the increase. Data centers can be built faster than power systems can add transmission, substations, and generation, which makes location and grid access valuable.

A North America data-center trends report adds the market bottleneck behind that argument. Low vacancy and high preleasing make power-ready capacity more valuable.

For miners, the scarce asset is often the energized site, with the ASIC fleet only one part of the stack.

As of press time, Bitcoin market data show BTC trading near $76,800, with a market cap of around $1.5 trillion, a current block reward of 3.125 BTC, and a network hashrate above 1.1 ZH/s.

CryptoSlate's aggregate market page shows Bitcoin's dominance at around 60% of the $2.6 trillion crypto market. Those figures put miner economics under pressure even before AI competition is considered.

BTC price, fees, difficulty, and energy costs still determine how much security Bitcoin can support.

A cooling AI cycle could ease one part of that pressure. If hyperscaler demand, GPU scarcity, or data-center preleasing weaken, miners that stayed closer to Bitcoin could find power sites and infrastructure less contested.

Difficulty could adjust if capacity exits mining, raising hashprice for remaining operators. That mechanism appears in CryptoSlate's analysis of miners as AI utilities.

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That relief has limits. The fee and cost picture keeps the upside qualified, with fees near zero and cost pressure near $80,000 per BTC.

Difficulty relief alone leaves weak miner economics unresolved. Long-term AI leases, customer-funded buildouts, interconnection agreements, equipment specialization, and site conversion costs also create lag.

An AI unwind would release capacity unevenly, and some of it may remain unusable for mining at attractive returns.

Two Outcomes Depend On AI Demand

The market risk signaled by the AI concentration chart leads to two different outcomes for miners.

In the first, AI demand holds. Public miners with high-quality power campuses keep signing HPC contracts because AI tenants can offer longer revenue visibility than Bitcoin mining.

Premium sites keep drifting toward AI, while mining concentrates around flexible power, demand response, stranded energy, and geographies where interruption is acceptable.

In that scenario, public miner equities become less reliable proxies for BTC because enterprise value comes from leases and data-center execution as much as mined Bitcoin.

In the second, AI infrastructure prices. The miners most exposed to AI growth face pressure through leverage, equity multiples, contract assumptions, and construction pipelines.

Debt raised for data-center buildouts becomes harder to carry if expected AI returns fall. GPU cloud contracts with shorter terms can reset faster.

Long-term colocation leases may offer more protection, although they also lock sites into a path that may take years to reverse.

Bitcoin's possible benefit sits downstream from that damage. The upside is a loosening of scarce inputs, lower competition for power, and a better hashprice environment for operators still focused on mining.

It is an industrial-security argument, with BTC price sitting outside the direct claim.

That is why the AI concentration chart belongs in a discussion of Bitcoin-miner balance sheets. The chart raises the possibility that the AI trade has become crowded.

The miner data shows which crypto companies have built around that trade. The unresolved test is whether those AI/HPC contracts remain durable enough to justify the shift, or whether the same infrastructure that pulled public miners away from Bitcoin becomes a source of stress.

For Bitcoin, the result would be mixed instead of clean. A repricing could weaken some of the best-capitalized public miners while making energy and data-center inputs less scarce for the miners that remain.

The next signal will come less from AI rhetoric than from financing terms, tenant delivery schedules, new power contracts, and hashprice. Those are the variables that will show whether miners bought a stronger business model or imported a second cycle into Bitcoin's security base.

The post Concentration of AI stocks inside S&P 500 hits dot-com bubble peak – and Bitcoin miners are now exposed appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Following a volatile April that saw significant institutional interest through US-based spot XRP ETFs, XRP is currently consolidating within a well-defined range.

With the regulatory "dark clouds" largely cleared in the wake of landmark 2025 rulings, the market now focuses on adoption. However, the price of XRP faces new challenges, including shifting macroeconomic sentiment as Federal Reserve leadership transitions and global liquidity cycles evolve.

XRP Price Analysis: The Technical Blueprint

The daily chart for XRP/USD reveals a complex but structured price action. After a sharp decline from the $1.90 levels earlier in the year, the XRP coin has established a series of horizontal support and resistance zones that will dictate its trajectory in May.

Key Support and Resistance Levels

Based on the current technical setup, these are the levels to watch:

• Major Resistance ($1.8000): This is the "holy grail" for bulls in May. A break above this level would signal a full trend reversal and a potential run toward the $2.00 mark.
• Intermediate Resistance ($1.4500 - $1.5000): XRP has struggled to maintain candles above the $1.45 mark. This zone acted as a rejection point in mid-April.
• Immediate Support ($1.2931): The orange line on the chart represents a "must-hold" level. It has served as a reliable floor during the recent consolidation phase.
• Critical Floor ($1.2000): If selling pressure intensifies, the $1.20 psychological level is the final line of defense before a deeper correction.

Indicators and Momentum

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently hovering around 44.30, suggesting that the XRP coin is neither overbought nor oversold. This neutral stance provides "fuel" for a move in either direction. Historically, when the RSI bounces from the 40-level while the price holds horizontal support, it often precedes a bullish relief rally.

Will XRP Price Go Up in May 2026?

While technicals provide the "where," fundamentals provide the "why." Several key events are scheduled for May that could spark volatility for the XRP coin:

1. Institutional ETF Inflows

In April 2026, XRP ETFs saw consistent net inflows, suggesting that despite the stagnant price action, institutional "smart money" is accumulating at these levels. If this trend continues into May, the reduced exchange supply could lead to a "supply shock" if demand spikes suddenly.

2. The RLUSD Stablecoin Integration

Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, is expected to see wider integration across European corridors in May. Increased utility for the XRP Ledger (XRPL) often correlates with positive sentiment for the native XRP coin, as it serves as the bridge asset for high-liquidity transactions.

3. Macroeconomic Shifts

The broader crypto market is currently influenced by Bitcoin's attempt to stabilize above previous all-time highs. As Jerome Powell’s term as Fed Chair nears its end in May 2026, uncertainty regarding future interest rate cuts may lead to increased volatility in risk assets like Bitcoin.

XRP Price Prediction May 2026: High and Low Targets

Given the current data, we can project two primary scenarios for the upcoming month:

The Bullish Case (High Target: $1.85)

If Bitcoin breaks its current resistance and the XRP ETF volumes accelerate, the XRP coin is positioned for a breakout.

• Target: A move past $1.50 would likely see a rapid squeeze toward the $1.80 - $1.85 resistance zone.
• Probability: Moderate, contingent on market-wide momentum.

The Bearish Case (Low Target: $1.15)

If macroeconomic headwinds (high inflation or hawkish Fed signals) dominate, XRP could test lower liquidity zones.

• Target: A breakdown of the $1.29 support would likely lead to a retest of the $1.15 - $1.20 area.
• Probability: Low to Moderate, as institutional buying provides a strong "floor."

How to Trade XRP Coin?

For those looking to trade the $XRP coin in May, the strategy remains "wait and see" near the $1.45 resistance. A daily close above $1.45 with high volume would be a classic entry signal for a swing trade toward $1.80. Conversely, long-term holders may view the $1.25–$1.30 range as a value accumulation zone.

As of April 30, 2026, the primary driver of market sentiment is the $2.44 billion net inflow into US spot Bitcoin ETFs. This figure nearly doubles March’s performance, suggesting that the "institutional winter" is over. Furthermore, the U.S. SEC has recently issued a statement clearing the path for decentralized user interfaces to operate without broker-dealer registration, a massive win for the DeFi sector.

Institutional Resurgence: The Bitcoin ETF Boom

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) have dominated the headlines. IBIT alone captured over 70% of the month's total inflows, bringing its total holdings to approximately 812,000 BTC.

• April Net Inflows: $2.44 Billion
• Total AUM for US Spot ETFs: ~$102 Billion
• Market Leader: BlackRock (IBIT) holding 49-62% of the ETF market share.

This structural shift indicates that large-scale capital is now absorbing supply faster than daily mining output, providing a strong floor for the Bitcoin price.

SEC Regulation: A Win for Decentralized Finance

In a surprising move this month, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets issued a "no-action" stance regarding "Covered User Interface Providers." This allows software developers to offer interfaces for trading crypto asset securities without the burden of registering as traditional brokers, provided they do not exercise discretion over transactions.

This development is a significant milestone for the DeFi ecosystem, reducing the legal risks for developers of self-custodial wallets and decentralized exchanges.

Altcoin Watch: Ethereum and Solana Market Trends

While Bitcoin leads, Ethereum is holding steady near $2,270. Despite a slight dip today, analyst sentiment remains bullish, with long-term Ethereum price predictions suggesting a climb toward $8,000–$10,000 as staking ETFs gain traction.

Meanwhile, Solana is making waves in the real-world utility space. South Korea’s Shinhan Card has begun testing stablecoin payments on the Solana network, highlighting the chain's growing dominance in the payments sector.

Comparison of Key Assets (April 30, 2026)

Global Impact: Expansion and Security

The crypto industry's reach continues to expand globally. The payments network Mesh recently announced a major expansion into the Asia-Pacific region after reaching a $1 billion unicorn valuation. On the security front, the FBI led a successful global operation, arresting 276 individuals involved in "pig butchering" scams, a move praised by the community for cleaning up the industry's reputation.

Meta Platforms Inc. is reportedly preparing to launch stablecoin payouts for content creators across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. According to recent industry reports and internal leaks surfacing in April 2026, the social media giant is targeting the second half of 2026 for a rollout that leverages third-party infrastructure rather than a proprietary token.

Meta’s New Crypto Strategy: Distribution Over Issuance

Unlike the ill-fated Libra (Diem) project, Meta’s new approach is focused on being a "distribution channel." By integrating existing, regulated stablecoins—likely USDC—Meta aims to solve the high-cost friction of international creator payments.

This "arm's length" strategy allows Meta to avoid the regulatory hurdles that crushed its previous attempts to act as a currency issuer. Instead, the company has issued Requests for Proposals (RFPs) to external infrastructure firms to handle the heavy lifting of compliance and settlement.

Will Stripe be Part of Meta Crypto Payments?

The leading candidate for this partnership is Stripe, specifically utilizing its Bridge platform. This connection is bolstered by the fact that Stripe CEO Patrick Collison joined Meta’s board in 2025. Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge for $1.1 billion and its recent OCC approval for a national trust bank charter position it as the ideal bridge between Web2 social platforms and Web3 liquidity.

Why Will Meta Use Stablecoins as Crypto Payments?

For Meta, the primary motivation is the efficiency of the engagement flywheel. Currently, creators in emerging markets receiving small payouts (around $100) lose a significant percentage to wire fees and foreign exchange margins.

• Traditional Payouts: 1–3 business days with 3%–7% fees.
• Stablecoin Payouts: Near-instant settlement with estimated fees below 1%.

By lowering these barriers, Meta ensures that creators remain on its platforms rather than migrating to rivals like Telegram or X, which have already made strides in crypto-integrated payments.

Fed Rate Decision Today

Today, Wednesday, April 29, 2026, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will release its third interest rate decision of the year. This specific meeting carries historic weight as it marks the final policy announcement and press conference for Jerome Powell before he concludes his tenure as Fed Chair.

What to Expect at 2 PM ET

Market participants are currently pricing in a near 99% certainty that the Fed will keep interest rates unchanged at the current target range of 3.50% to 3.75%. However, the "early query" for crypto investors isn't the rate itself, but the language used regarding inflation and the transition to incoming leadership.

• Announcement Time: 2:00 PM ET (Statement release)
• Press Conference: 2:30 PM ET (Jerome Powell’s final Q&A)
• Crypto Context: Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering around $77,200, showing a "wait-and-see" approach.

Why the Fed Announcement Matters for Crypto Today

Cryptocurrencies are widely categorized as "risk-on" assets. Their prices are heavily influenced by global liquidity conditions, which are directly controlled by the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.

When the Fed keeps rates high, borrowing becomes more expensive, and the US Dollar typically strengthens, which can put downward pressure on $Bitcoin and altcoins. Conversely, if Powell’s tone today leans "dovish"—suggesting that the peak of the rate cycle is behind us—it could provide the fuel needed for Bitcoin to break past the $80,000 psychological resistance level.

How does the Fed Rate Affect Crypto Prices

Historically, the minutes following a Fed announcement see "stop-hunting" behavior, where prices swing wildly in both directions before establishing a trend.

The Powell "Swan Song" Factor

Jerome Powell’s final appearance adds a layer of uncertainty. Analysts at major institutions, such as JPMorgan, suggest he may use this meeting to solidify his legacy as the Chair who tamed the 2020s inflation surge, potentially maintaining a hawkish stance to ensure price stability.

BTC and ETH Levels to Watch

• BTC Support: $74,500 remains a critical support zone.
• BTC Resistance: A move above $78,200 post-announcement could signal a new rally.
• Altcoin Impact: Ethereum and smaller caps often follow BTC's lead but with higher percentage swings.

The "Digital Gold" Divergence: Why Bitcoin Just Crashed

The relationship between Gold and Bitcoin has reached a fever pitch in 2026. Historically, these two assets have been viewed as siblings in the "store of value" category, but their recent price action tells a more complex story of liquidity rotation and market psychology.

When Gold recently peaked at an all-time high of $5,589 per ounce on January 28, 2026, the crypto market didn't celebrate. Instead, Bitcoin [BTC] experienced a sharp -33% correction, sliding toward the $81,000 mark. While this might look like a decoupling, historical cycles suggest this "shakeout" is often the precursor to an explosive bull run for digital assets.

Does Bitcoin Always Drop When Gold Peaks?

Not "always," but the correlation often turns negative at critical structural peaks. In August 2020, Gold hit what was then a record high, and Bitcoin immediately cooled off with a -21% retracement. Fast forward to January 2026, and we see a similar script: Gold reaches a parabolic peak, and Bitcoin sheds roughly a third of its value.

The pattern indicates that at the height of a Gold rally, liquidity is often "tapped out" or moving into defensive postures before rotating back into higher-risk, higher-reward assets like $Bitcoin.

Comparing the 2020 and 2026 "Gold Peaks"

To understand where we are going, we have to look at where we’ve been. The current market structure bears a striking resemblance to the 2020 cycle.

The Liquidity Rotation Theory

In finance, "Liquidity Rotation" refers to capital moving from one asset class to another. When Gold reaches a "blow-off top" (a rapid increase in price followed by a steep drop), investors often take profits. That "sideline cash" doesn't stay idle for long. In 2020, that capital flowed directly into the crypto market, fueling a 559% rally that took BTC from $11,000 to over $60,000 in less than a year.

Why the -33% Bitcoin Drop Matters Now

The 2026 drop has been more severe (-33% vs -21%) due to the increased presence of institutional leverage and Spot Bitcoin ETFs. However, the fundamental "why" remains the same:

• Profit Taking: Investors hedging with Gold and BTC simultaneously often sell the "winner" (Gold) and reduce exposure to the "volatile" (BTC) during a macro shift.
• Margin Calls: When Gold fell nearly 10% in a single day in late January, it forced liquidations across multi-asset portfolios, dragging BTC down with it.
• The "Spring" Effect: Much like a compressed spring, Bitcoin's deep corrections during a secular bull market often provide the necessary energy for the next leg up.

Strategic Positioning: Is the Bottom In?

Analysts suggest that the current Bitcoin/Gold valuation is at historic lows. This typically marks a "generational bottom" for the Bitcoin-to-Gold ratio. If the 2020 fractal repeats, the -33% drop we just witnessed is the final hurdle before Bitcoin targets the $150,000 - $200,000 range.

What to Watch Next

• The $80,000 Support: BTC must hold this level to validate the "2020-style" recovery.
• Gold Consolidation: If Gold continues to bleed toward $4,500, expect BTC to start outperforming as the "risk-on" alternative.
• ETF Inflows: Watch for a reversal in ETF outflows, which peaked at $800 million during the January crash.

Alphabet and Microsoft crushed Q1 estimates on the same day, with Google Cloud up 63% and Microsoft's AI business hitting a $37 billion run rate.

The Labor Department unveils an online hub to help workers and employers build AI skills amid a quickly changing jobs market.

The AI model analyzes subtle tissue changes on routine CT scans invisible to human specialists, detecting pancreatic cancer up to three years earlier than doctors can.

Thom Tillis, a swing GOP vote on the Senate Banking Committee, says his colleagues should take up a months-delayed vote on the crypto bill.

Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta is now offering stablecoin payouts to content creators in certain countries.

XRP ETF inflows soar 63% on Rakuten news as the greed index peaks, while a $5.5 million hack hits Wasabi and bullish Bollinger Bands point toward a $95,200 Bitcoin target.

Liquidation are piling up on the market despite the positivity that has been covering cryptocurrency industry only a few days ago.

XRP gains momentum following integration with Rakuten wallets as hype surrounding the event has pushed its social sentiment to reach the highest level in two years.

XRP "Genesis" wallets in spotlight over quantum risk but billions of tokens still deemed safe.

Cardano's volume increase might not translate into something more meaningful.

Key Highlights

• Performance-driven MEGA Token debuts with constrained initial circulation
• Major cryptocurrency exchanges simultaneously list MEGA Token with notable market interest
• Token distribution mechanism links supply unlocks to verified network performance metrics
• Rapid USDM stablecoin expansion drives ecosystem momentum during token introduction
• Novel tokenomics framework prioritizes achievement-based rewards over traditional vesting schedules

MegaETH initiated its MEGA Token generation following successful completion of its inaugural network performance benchmark. The platform verified that ten operational applications achieved required engagement levels connected to its proprietary USDM stablecoin. Following this validation, the team executed a week-long launch sequence before activating market trading.

The token architecture establishes a hard cap of 10 billion MEGA tokens. MegaETH designated more than half the total supply—53.3%—toward achievement-based incentive programs instead of conventional time-locked distribution. This framework creates direct linkage between token availability and quantifiable platform engagement metrics.

The MEGA Token serves multiple functions within the Layer 2 infrastructure, including governance participation, gas fee payments, and network staking mechanisms. Token holders gain access to accelerated decentralized trading capabilities throughout compatible protocols. The design philosophy establishes correlation between platform utilization and token utility through concrete performance indicators.

Trading Platform Debuts and Initial Market Response

Leading cryptocurrency venues such as Binance, KuCoin, and Bitget activated MEGA Token spot markets in unified timing. Market operations commenced simultaneously following the token creation event across multiple platforms. This coordinated rollout enhanced immediate liquidity availability for traders.

Market entry occurred with restricted token circulation owing to the achievement-gated release schedule. Initial assessments indicated minimal floating supply compared to maximum allocation, facilitating measured price formation. Pre-market indicators positioned valuation around $0.22 per token, with actual market capitalization dependent on accessible supply.

MegaETH documented substantial expansion in its USDM stablecoin circulation throughout the launch window. Total supply surged from approximately $62.9 million to surpass $300 million in mere weeks. This acceleration demonstrates increasing platform adoption and reinforces the token’s economic foundation.

Platform Architecture and Market Position

The MegaETH infrastructure functions as an Ethereum Layer 2 solution engineered for real-time decentralized applications. The system incorporates USDM—created in partnership with Ethena—to facilitate onchain transactions and liquidity mechanisms. This integration aligns token economics with application deployment and stablecoin circulation.

MEGA Token allocation encompasses incentives for testnet contributors, protocol developers, and engaged community members. Qualification criteria encompass application interaction, validator node participation, and wallet transaction history. The project additionally distributed tokens via public sale rounds priced at $0.09 per unit.

Competition from mature Layer 2 solutions with substantial liquidity pools and established user bases presents ongoing challenges. Current metrics reveal modest fee generation and intermediate engagement patterns. Nevertheless, the performance-linked distribution approach represents an innovative framework potentially influencing subsequent token deployment strategies.

The token activation coincides with variable sentiment across cryptocurrency markets. Previous funding rounds established project valuation estimates approaching $1.8 billion. Post-launch market dynamics will reveal alignment between trading prices and earlier valuation benchmarks.

MegaETH pursues expanded application integration through continuous incentive initiatives and ecosystem development efforts. Active yield farming programs and developer grants remain operational to boost participation rates. Sustained token performance ultimately hinges on persistent network utilization and broadening application ecosystem.

The post MEGA Token Goes Live as MegaETH Hits Performance Benchmark appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• Tesla’s first Semi truck emerged from its mass production facility on Wednesday
• The automaker aims to produce 50,000 Semi trucks annually; the combined U.S. and European market totals approximately 500,000 units
• Electric powertrains in the Semi could slash fuel expenses by 40–70% compared to diesel, with crude oil trading around $116/barrel
• TSLA shares climbed a modest 0.2% in premarket trading to $373.48 — market attention stays locked on autonomous technology and robotaxis
• The stock has declined 17% year-to-date in 2026 while posting a 28% gain over the trailing twelve months

Tesla achieved a significant manufacturing benchmark on Wednesday, yet market participants showed minimal enthusiasm.

The automaker’s first Semi truck completed its journey through the company’s mass production assembly line. This achievement represents the culmination of years of development — the electric vehicle maker originally revealed the Semi concept in 2017.

Shares registered a mere 0.2% increase during premarket sessions, touching $373.48. The tepid response reveals exactly where market focus currently lies.

Tesla, Inc., TSLA

The company acknowledged the development through a post on X, keeping the message brief: “First Semi off high volume line.” No fanfare, just facts.

The Semi represents Tesla’s entry into commercial freight transportation with a fully electric platform. The extended-range variant delivers up to 500 miles per charge, though actual performance varies based on charging station availability throughout the route.

The anticipated price point hovers around $290,000 — representing a premium over conventional diesel alternatives, though the gap narrows when operational expenses enter the calculation.

Rising Crude Prices Amplify Economic Benefits

This is precisely where Tesla’s value proposition strengthens. Traditional diesel operators typically allocate roughly $100,000 annually for fuel expenditures. Transitioning to electric power could reduce those costs by 40% to 70%, contingent on regional electricity rates.

With crude oil trading near $116 per barrel — substantially higher than the $70 range before tensions escalated in Iran — the economic argument for electrification becomes more compelling. Diesel costs continue climbing.

Bernstein’s Harry Martin observed that elevated oil prices “dramatically improves relative total cost of ownership and may drive incremental demand,” while acknowledging important qualifiers: charging network development and regional electricity pricing remain critical variables.

The company’s production objective stands at 50,000 Semi units annually. To put that in perspective, U.S. and European markets combined move roughly 500,000 semi-trucks each year, suggesting substantial growth potential — assuming infrastructure development keeps pace.

Manufacturing operations are geographically distributed: Cybercab production occurs in Texas, while Semi assembly takes place in Nevada.

Market Attention Remains on Autonomous Technology and Robotics

The stock’s subdued response to this production milestone speaks volumes. Tesla has transformed into an artificial intelligence and autonomy play in investors’ minds, and the Semi doesn’t advance that narrative.

Market participants are hungry for robotaxi developments and Optimus humanoid robot announcements. The company launched its autonomous taxi service in Austin during June, subsequently expanding operations to Dallas and Houston, with San Francisco trials currently underway.

Assembly line production of humanoid robots is scheduled to commence this summer. When that announcement arrives, it will likely generate substantially more market momentum than Semi-related news.

The electric vehicle manufacturer plans to expand capital expenditures beyond $20 billion this year, more than doubling previous levels. This investment covers manufacturing facilities for Semi trucks, Cybercab autonomous vehicles, Optimus robots, and battery production capacity.

Heading into Thursday’s session, TSLA has retreated 17% in 2026 and fallen approximately 7% since conflict began in Iran — underperforming the S&P 500 by roughly 11 percentage points during that period.

Despite escalating gasoline prices that typically enhance electric vehicle appeal among consumer car buyers, Tesla shares haven’t captured the expected upward momentum.

Over the past year, TSLA has still delivered a 28% return.

The post Tesla (TSLA) Stock Barely Budges as Semi Truck Production Milestone Reached appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Takeaways

• Cardinal Health increased fiscal-year adjusted EPS outlook to $10.70–$10.80, compared to prior guidance of $10.15–$10.35.
• Third-quarter adjusted EPS reached $3.17, surpassing the analyst consensus of $2.79.
• Total revenue climbed 11% to $60.9 billion, falling short of the $62.1 billion Wall Street forecast.
• Net profit decreased to $399 million from $506 million year-over-year, impacted by a $184 million goodwill impairment.
• CAH shares gained 1.6% during premarket trading on Thursday.

Cardinal Health delivered an upward revision to its annual profit expectations for the second consecutive time this fiscal year, capturing investor attention. Shares responded positively, advancing 1.6% in Thursday’s premarket session to reach $205.99.

Cardinal Health, Inc., CAH

The healthcare distributor now projects adjusted earnings between $10.70 and $10.80 per share for fiscal 2026. This represents a notable improvement from the February outlook range of $10.15 to $10.35. Wall Street analysts had been forecasting approximately $10.31 per share.

While the improved guidance bolstered investor sentiment, the quarterly performance itself presented a more complicated picture.

On the earnings front, adjusted EPS reached $3.17, significantly exceeding the $2.79 analyst estimate. This substantial beat provided meaningful upside to expectations.

However, the revenue performance painted a contrasting narrative. Overall sales increased 11% from the prior-year period to $60.9 billion, yet this trailed the $62.1 billion consensus estimate.

The pharmaceutical and specialty solutions division accounted for the bulk of growth, generating $56.1 billion in revenue—an 11% increase compared to the same quarter last year.

Meanwhile, the global medical products and distribution division struggled. Revenue in this segment remained essentially unchanged year-over-year, pressured by reduced distribution volumes.

Bottom Line Takes a Hit

Net earnings fell to $399 million from $506 million recorded in the comparable quarter a year earlier. The primary driver behind this decline was a $184 million pretax goodwill impairment charge.

This write-down related to Cardinal’s oncology practice alliance and its Integrated Oncology Network, a business the company acquired toward the end of 2024.

While goodwill impairments don’t represent actual cash outflows, they indicate that an acquired asset’s value has deteriorated below its initial purchase valuation. Such charges warrant investor scrutiny.

Evercore ISI analyst Elizabeth Anderson characterized the performance as “solid,” observing that the pharmaceutical revenue shortfall primarily stemmed from wholesale acquisition cost dynamics—a passthrough matter rather than an operational weakness.

Specialty Pharmaceuticals Drive Forward Outlook

Cardinal Health, alongside industry competitors Cencora and McKesson, continues benefiting from robust demand for higher-margin specialty pharmaceutical products. Medications addressing cancer treatment and autoimmune conditions represent an expanding portion of the distribution landscape.

The introduction of biosimilar alternatives for previously patented blockbuster medications is also contributing to volume expansion. These therapeutic areas enable distributors to extract greater margins compared to conventional generic medications.

Cardinal has been systematically broadening its specialty care presence through strategic acquisitions of physician practices and specialty distribution networks. The Integrated Oncology Network transaction exemplified this strategic approach.

This strategy hasn’t proceeded without obstacles—this quarter’s impairment charge demonstrates that reality. Nevertheless, management remains committed to this strategic trajectory.

The enhanced full-year guidance, marking the second upward revision in consecutive quarters, reflects management’s optimism regarding performance in the remaining fiscal period.

Cardinal Health’s fiscal third quarter concluded on March 31. At the time of reporting, the stock traded 1.6% higher in premarket activity at $205.99.

The post Cardinal Health (CAH) Stock Rises on Upgraded Full-Year Earnings Forecast Despite Revenue Shortfall appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• Pre-market trading shows GPUS climbing 8.08% following Q1 revenue announcement

• First quarter 2026 revenue reaches $44M, representing 76% year-over-year increase

• Newly integrated subsidiaries contribute significantly to quarterly performance

• Artificial intelligence infrastructure and blockchain initiatives fuel expansion

• Multi-segment business model delivers enhanced revenue stability

Shares of Hyperscale Data (GPUS) experienced an uptick during pre-market hours following the disclosure of robust preliminary revenue figures. The stock climbed to $0.1404 before regular trading commenced, representing an 8.08% increase. This upturn came after the previous session’s close at $0.1312, which had reflected a 2.09% pullback.

Hyperscale Data, Inc., GPUS

Impressive Revenue Acceleration Fuels Pre-Market Rally

Hyperscale Data disclosed preliminary first-quarter 2026 revenue totaling approximately $44 million. This marks a substantial 76% climb from the $25 million registered during the comparable quarter in 2025. The impressive expansion demonstrates enhanced performance across multiple operational divisions.

The revenue tally benefited from fresh income channels originating from recently integrated subsidiaries. Gresham Worldwide generated roughly $10 million in the period after completing its bankruptcy restructuring in the fourth quarter of 2025. This integration provided meaningful support to consolidated financial metrics.

Additionally, Ault Lending secured approximately $10 million via a litigation settlement connected to historical ownership stakes. The organization plans to book this sum as revenue during the first quarter. These exceptional items played a notable role in amplifying reported growth figures.

Broad Business Portfolio Ensures Revenue Consistency

Hyperscale Data preserved steady income generation from its established operational divisions throughout the quarter. Crane services delivered around $11 million in revenue, while cryptocurrency mining operations added approximately $5 million. These core businesses furnished reliable support complementing newer income sources.

The company also recorded roughly $4 million from hospitality and property holdings. These divisions enhanced portfolio diversification and helped mitigate earnings fluctuations associated with trading operations. This varied revenue structure promotes operational stability through different economic conditions.

Trading activities at Ault Lending continue generating earnings variability. This segment encompasses unrealized profit and loss movements related to equity security valuations. Therefore, quarterly earnings patterns may experience fluctuations despite consistent operational revenue streams.

Strategic AI Infrastructure Investments Drive Future Trajectory

Hyperscale Data maintains its commitment to expanding artificial intelligence capabilities and technological infrastructure. The organization concentrates on AI-powered data facilities, robotics platforms, blockchain networks, and integrated financial technology solutions. These strategic priorities target building a cohesive and expandable enterprise framework.

Leadership emphasized that strengthening coordination among operational divisions remains central as consolidation activities advance. The organization observes encouraging momentum throughout AI-enabled platforms and digital infrastructure offerings. This progress reinforces its extended-term expansion agenda within evolving technology sectors.

The organization had previously established full-year 2026 revenue projections ranging from $180 million to $200 million. Given first-quarter achievements, management is evaluating whether to uphold or enhance these forecasts. A comprehensive assessment is anticipated following the publication of finalized first-quarter financial statements in May 2026.

The post Hyperscale Data (GPUS) Stock Surges on 76% Revenue Jump in Q1 2026 appeared first on Blockonomi.

Key Highlights

• First-quarter revenue reached $5.74B, representing a 12% increase and surpassing the $5.42B Wall Street projection
• Earnings per share of $2.72 exceeded analyst expectations of $2.53
• Company increased full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $11.40–$11.60 range from previous $11.30–$11.50 forecast
• Mission systems and space segment revenue jumped 24%; missile division grew 18%
• Confidential IPO filing submitted for missile solutions business

L3Harris Technologies surpassed analyst projections in its first quarter of 2026 while elevating its annual earnings forecast, driven by rising demand for defense equipment and military technology.

The aerospace and defense firm reported first-quarter sales of $5.74 billion, marking a 12% year-over-year increase that significantly exceeded the analyst consensus of $5.42 billion. Per-share earnings reached $2.72, beating the Street’s $2.53 estimate.

Quarterly net income climbed to $512 million from $386 million in the corresponding period last year — representing an increase of approximately 33%.

L3Harris Technologies, Inc., LHX

Chief Executive Christopher Kubasik highlighted strengthening demand and an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape as primary growth catalysts. He emphasized that the organization is rapidly expanding manufacturing capabilities and boosting output throughout its operations.

The company revised its full-year adjusted earnings per share projection upward to $11.40–$11.60, compared with the earlier guidance of $11.30–$11.50. Annual revenue expectations remain steady at $23 billion to $23.5 billion.

FactSet consensus estimates currently show analysts anticipating adjusted EPS of $11.59 on sales of $23.44 billion.

Mission Systems and Missile Divisions Power Growth

The space and mission systems division delivered exceptional performance with $2.99 billion in revenue — a 24% surge compared to the prior-year quarter. Expansion was fueled by increased production of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms for classified government programs and international aircraft contracts.

The missile solutions business generated $990 million in sales, reflecting 18% year-over-year growth. This division manufactures propulsion technologies and hypersonic weapon systems.

The communication and spectrum-defense segment showed more moderate expansion, recording $1.86 billion in revenue, representing a 2.5% increase from last year.

Confidential IPO Filing for Missile Division

L3Harris submitted a confidential initial public offering registration late Wednesday for its missile solutions division. This filing follows through on an arrangement with the Department of Defense announced earlier this year.

According to that January agreement, the Pentagon committed $1 billion to the future standalone entity to accelerate manufacturing of solid rocket motors. These propulsion systems power various missile platforms including Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot air defense interceptors.

Ongoing international conflicts, including the U.S.-Israel military operations against Iran, have depleted Pentagon arsenals and generated substantial new procurement orders for missiles and ammunition.

L3Harris stands among the defense industry contractors directly capitalizing on this replenishment demand.

The confidential IPO submission indicates the company is progressing with plans to separate the missile business, although specific timing and valuation details remain undisclosed.

The post L3Harris (LHX) Stock Climbs After Strong Q1 Results and Raised 2026 Earnings Forecast appeared first on Blockonomi.

The cryptocurrency market, especially the meme coin sector, offers the opportunity to make solid profits if one enters (and exits) the ecosystem at the right time.

Such was the case with an anonymous trader who became a millionaire thanks to Shiba Inu (SHIB). Check out how.

The Crazy Story

Lookonchain revealed that an OG whale once spent $13,760 to purchase more than 103 trillion SHIB tokens. This substantial amount represents nearly 20% of the meme coin’s circulating supply and, at its peak, was worth almost $9 billion.

The analytics platform disclosed that the industry participant sold 4.06 trillion SHIB over the past few years, pocketing approximately $37.6 million. Most recently, they parted with an additional 800 billion tokens for nearly $5 million. The whale now holds 99.27 trillion coins, while the total profit (including unrealized gains) exceeds $660 million, meaning a 48,000x return on the initial investment.

This isn’t the only example of someone making staggering profits by dealing in Shiba Inu. Two years ago, the meme coin posted a triple-digit monthly surge, and one trader who had spent just $2,500 to buy 50 billion tokens moved most of the stash to Coinbase. At that time, selling these holdings would have netted them over $1.5 million.

Shortly after, another anonymous investor, who had acquired 48 billion SHIB for $2,700 at the beginning of 2021, parted with their entire holdings for approximately $1.24 million.

Was Selling the Right Call Now?

Shiba Inu has been on a massive downfall over the past several months, with its price tumbling by 53% on a yearly scale. Its market capitalization has fallen below $4 billion, and the token is no longer the second-largest meme coin, as MemeCore (M) has taken that position. Dogecoin (DOGE) remains the undisputed leader in the niche, with a capitalization of around $16.5 billion.

Certain elements suggest that SHIB’s pullback may intensify in the short term, making profit-taking now a rather reasonable move. The declining activity on Shibarium is one example. Daily transactions processed on the protocol have plummeted to mere hundreds, signaling weakening network usage. Recall that, prior to last year’s exploit, the figure was in the millions.

Next on the list is SHIB’s burn rate, which has dropped by 26% over the past week. The mechanism, adopted in 2022, aims to reduce the meme coin’s overall supply, potentially driving up prices due to scarcity (assuming demand remains constant or heads north).

SHIB’s rising balance stored on exchanges should serve as another warning. Over the past several days, investors have abandoned self-custody methods and moved some of their holdings to centralized platforms, thereby increasing immediate selling pressure.

The post Making 48,000x Return on Shiba Inu (SHIB) Investment: Lucky Trader’s Crazy Story appeared first on CryptoPotato.

XRP is generating some of the loudest online buzz it has seen in two years, according to on-chain analytics firm Santiment, after Japanese retail giant Rakuten launched the ability for users to convert loyalty points directly into the token.

The move gives 44 million Rakuten Pay users access to the digital asset across a loyalty network carrying more than $23 billion in points, and Santiment says the resulting social media reaction ranks as XRP’s second-highest bullish sentiment reading in the past 24 months.

What the Rakuten Deal Actually Means

Starting today, Rakuten Wallet users in Japan can convert Rakuten Group points into XRP, trade the asset in-app, and spend it at over five million merchant locations nationwide. RippleX, the developer arm behind the XRP Ledger, confirmed the launch on X, describing it as “one of the largest retail deployments of XRP as a payment method to date.”

Rakuten Wallet is running a launch campaign that rewards users who purchase 30,000 yen or more in XRP with bonus tokens, with larger prizes available through a lottery for those who invest 100,000 yen or more. An iOS version of the updated app is also planned, following the Android early release.

The scale here matters. Loyalty points are a consumer product that almost everyone already uses but rarely thinks about critically. As one observer noted on X, “points are familiar; crypto still isn’t,” and the ability to move seamlessly from a rewards balance into a digital asset that spends at real stores removes one of the bigger psychological barriers to crypto adoption.

Ripple has been building momentum around its broader ecosystem in recent weeks, with its RLUSD stablecoin getting listed for trading across more than 280 pairs on OKX, and the firm announcing a partnership with South Korean internet bank KBank to explore real-world blockchain remittances through its network.

That collaboration built on Ripple’s ongoing expansion across Asia, which also includes a deal with life insurance company Kyobo Life Insurance focused on tokenized government bond settlements.

Sentiment Is Running Hot, But Santiment Urges Patience

Despite the excitement, Santiment offered a note of caution alongside its data.

“These events don’t often instantly lead to major price outbreaks,” the analytics firm wrote. “It is usually after the initial wave of euphoria, after FOMO calms down, that the impact of this kind of news sees the bullish outcome.”

The firm added that integrations with major companies are “exactly what drives prices over the long term” and that XRP investors have been waiting through a rough stretch, with the asset down roughly 55% over the past nine months.

That context matters when you look at where XRP is trading right now. The token was sitting at around $1.37 at the time of writing, representing a drop of over 2% in 24 hours, as well as a nearly 4% dip over the past week per CoinGecko. However, it has recovered 3% in the last month, although that has done little to move it any closer to its July 2025 all-time high of $3.65.

The post The $23 Billion Catalyst: Why XRP Social Sentiment Just Hit a 2-Year High appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Although the US Federal Reserve kept the interest rates unchanged as essentially everyone expected, BTC still dipped to a multi-day low of just under $75,000 before it rebounded by a grand.

Ethereum and HYPE have lost the most value from the larger-cap alts, while RAIN has defied the trend with a notable 6% surge.

BTC Rebounds After FOMC Dip

Although the US delegation was stopped from going to Pakistan for potential peace talks with Iran over the weekend and there was an alleged attempt on Trump’s life at a White House event, BTC began the business week on the right foot. After trading sideways around $77,500 on Saturday and most of Sunday, the asset flew to $79,500 on Monday morning.

However, the bears were quick to intercept the move and pushed it south immediately to its starting point. Hours later, the cryptocurrency plunged again, this time to $76,500. The selling pressure continued on Tuesday, and BTC dipped below $76,000 before it rallied to almost $78,000 before the highly anticipated third FOMC meeting on Wednesday.

Once it concluded and it became known that the Fed won’t change the rates, as expected, bitcoin slid once again, this time to just under $75,000. It has recovered around a grand since then, but it’s still down by over 1%. Its market cap has slipped to $1.520 trillion, while its dominance over the alts remains at 58% on CG.

WLFI, PI Drop

Most larger-cap alts are in the red today, with ETH sliding by roughly 3% to $2,250. HYPE has lost the $40 support after a 2.5% decline. BNB, XRP, SOL, ADA, BCH, and LINK have posted losses of 1-2%.

WLFI has plunged the most from the top 100 alts today after recent reports about a suspicious partnership. The token is down by over 16% to $0.06. Pi Network’s native token follows suit, as a 11% drop has pushed it to $0.175. Recall that the asset challenged the $0.20 resistance yesterday, where it was violently rejected.

RAIN has defied the overall market correction with a 6% pump to almost $0.008.

The total crypto market cap is down by over $60 billion since yesterday’s high to $2.620 trillion on CG.

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[PRESS RELEASE – San Francisco, United States, April 30th, 2026]

Kite today announced the launch of its mainnet and the Kite Agent Passport, an identity and payment infrastructure built specifically for autonomous AI agents.

The launch marks Kite’s transition from testnet to production, introducing a payments and settlement layer purpose-built for agent-driven transactions. The infrastructure combines three layers into a single platform: a stable native settlement layer (Kite Chain), a core agent service (Kite Agent Passport), and the Agent Interface & Experience.

The Kite Agent Passport gives AI agents a programmable, secure wallet to hold funds and make purchases on behalf of users—while users retain full control over spending limits and authorized destinations. For example, users can purchase physical goods, have them shipped home, and let their agent handle payments, all within Claude, with spending limits enforced by the Passport. Kite Chain serves as a stable native settlement layer, processing payments in digital dollars and connecting to traditional banking systems for everyday consumers. The Agent Interface & Experience enables agents and developers to interact with the system through agent registration, agent harnesses, and service discovery.

“The launch is just the beginning,” said Chi Zhang, Co-Founder and CEO of Kite. “Our mission is to create the trusted backbone for agent-driven economies—where every autonomous agent operates with verified identity, programmable permissions, and seamless settlement. This is the infrastructure that will finally let agents do everything for you. We’re thrilled to be building it.”

Now integrated with over 90 service providers, the platform enables users to explore a wide range of agentic payment use cases—from shopping and travel planning to DIY automated agentic workflows using paid agentic services.

Kite is also positioning itself as a unified hub for major payment protocol standards, including the x402 payment standard, Google’s AP2 protocol, Stripe’s Machine Payment Protocol (MPP), and Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP). The company is also a member of the Linux Foundation’s Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF).

Kite has raised $35 million in funding led by PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst. Pilot integrations with PayPal and Shopify are underway, extending Kite’s payment infrastructure into real-world commerce.

The Kite Agent Passport is available now. Interested parties can try it today https://agentpassport.ai/or read how to get started https://agentpassport.ai/quickstart/

About Kite

Kite is building the payment infrastructure for the agent-native web — a foundational layer where autonomous AI agents can operate with verifiable identity, programmable governance, and native stablecoin settlement

Users can learn more about Kite: https://gokite.ai/

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Perhaps driven by some of the positive developments within its ecosystem, Pi Network’s native token defied the overall market sluggishness over the past several days and posted some impressive gains.

However, it all came to a screeching halt as the bears reemerged and pushed it south hard.

PI Plummets

The Core Team behind the project has announced some major protocol changes in the past few months, which upgraded it from v19.6 to v21 by mid-March. The subsequent one, version 22, is also rumored to be deployed, but there’s no official confirmation from the team yet.

In addition, they have made strides in different directions, such as AI and verifications. In fact, as reported yesterday, they managed to combine AI and human input to complete over 526 million verification tasks.

These are among the likely reasons behind the native token’s impressive performance by yesterday. Its rally began from $0.17, where it traded by April 26, before it skyrocketed to $0.20 by April 29. This became its highest price tag in over a month and prompted some analysts to speculate about an even more profound pump that could drive it north by 1,400%.

However, the $0.20 resistance was too strong, and the subsequent rejection has been quite brutal. PI first retreated to $0.19 before it nosedived again to just over $0.17. It found some support there and now trades above $0.175. Nevertheless, its daily losses are still over 10%, and its market cap has plunged to $1.830 billion.

Perfect Setup for Long Liquidations

Popular X user Dao World weighed in on PI’s latest rejection, noting that the $0.20 resistance is where the 200-day MA is located. The retracement drove it south to the 100-day MA, which serves as the first major support.

They explained that the number of high-leveraged long positions had started to build up during the rally, which “made it a perfect setup for a long liquidation.”

The other factor that could have contributed to the correction was the overall market state. As reported yesterday, bitcoin and most altcoins dumped after the FOMC meeting, in which the Federal Reserve maintained the key interest rates unchanged.

Nevertheless, Dao World reassured the PI community that the asset had not dropped below the 100-day MA, which could result in a more impressive rebound if market sentiment improves.

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