TRUMP tokenholders face 90% decline from peak as unlock begins

TRUMP tokenholders face steep losses as the first vesting unlock goes live on April 18, releasing 40 million tokens, worth roughly $309 million, into circulation at a 90% discount from its peak. The unlocked tokens account for 20% of the current circulating supply and could introduce fresh volatility as a previously illiquid portion of the supply hits the market. According to CoinGecko, the TRUMP token price has fluctuated between $7.46 and $7.83 in the past 24 hours. April 18 marks the first unlock event for the TRUMP token, with steady,…

Kraken adds forex perpetual futures contracts to its Pro platform

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken introduced foreign exchange (forex) perpetual futures contracts to its Kraken Pro platform on April 18, giving traders further exposure to global currency markets. The first two perpetual forex futures available on the platform will be the euro-US dollar (EUR-USD) and the British pound-US dollar (GBP-USD) contracts, according to a company announcement. Both contracts feature 20x leverage and no expiry date, meaning they do not have to be rolled or settled by a deadline, unlike traditional futures contracts, which have an expiry date. Kraken’s move is the latest…

Bitcoin Core Developer Antoine Poinsot: The Great Consensus Cleanup

While attending the MIT Bitcoin Expo earlier this month I was able to sit down with Bitcoin Core developer Antoine Poinsot. Currently at Chaincode Labs, Antoine was previously at Wizardsardine, a bitcoin security company behind Revault, a pre-signed transaction based vault, and Liana, a miniscript based Bitcoin wallet. Antoine’s first commit was merged to Bitcoin Core on May 16th, 2019. We discussed the Great Consensus Cleanup proposal Antoine is putting forward as a prospective soft fork of the Bitcoin protocol modeled on Matt Corallo’s original verson of the proposal from…

US prosecutors to pursue ex-SafeMoon CEO case despite DOJ memo

Federal prosecutors said they will continue pursuing their case against Braden John Karony, the former CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, despite the US Justice Department issuing a memo suggesting a policy of abandoning “regulation by prosecution” related to digital assets. In an April 18 filing in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, US Attorney for EDNY John Durham said his office had reviewed the April 7 DOJ memo issued by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and intended to proceed with a trial against Karony. The…

Spar Supermarket In Switzerland Starts Accepting Bitcoin

SPAR has begun accepting Bitcoin payments at its Zug, Switzerland location, marking another milestone in Switzerland’s progressive approach to bitcoin adoption. The implementation uses the Lightning Network through DFX Swiss’s OpenCryptoPay solution, enabling instant transactions at the point of sale. The store’s location in Zug, often called “Crypto Valley,” reflects Switzerland’s embrace of technology. The country has emerged as a global leader in bitcoin adoption, with cities like Zug and Lugano spearheading initiatives to integrate bitcoin into everyday transactions. Lugano, in particular, has made headlines with its “Plan ₿” initiative,…

Mantra exposes crypto liquidity problems, and Coinbase is bearish: Finance Redefined

Crypto investor sentiment took another significant hit this week after Mantra’s OM token collapsed by over 90% within hours on Sunday, April 13, triggering knee-jerk comparisons to previous black swan events such as the Terra-Luna collapse. Elsewhere, Coinbase’s report for institutional investors added to concerns by highlighting that cryptocurrencies may be in a bear market until a recovery occurs in the third quarter of 2025. Mantra OM token crash exposes “critical” liquidity issues in crypto Mantra’s recent token collapse highlights an issue within the crypto industry of fluctuating weekend liquidity…

Bitcoin Covenants: TXHASH And CHECKTXHASHVERIFY(BIP 346)

This is the third article in a series deep diving into individual covenant proposals that have reached a point of maturity meriting an in-depth breakdown. TXHASH and CHECKTXHASHVERIFY (TXHASH), put forward by Steven Roose and Brandon Black with a BIP number currently unassigned, is a “template based” covenant that can conceptually seen as an extension or more advanced version of CHECKTEMPLATEVERIFY (CTV).  Before getting into the nitty gritty of how TXHASH works, let’s refresh on the pieces of data in a Bitcoin transaction.  At a high level you have the…

Analysts brace for Bitcoin slide on gloomy US manufacturing data

Bitcoin’s spot price could take a hit after the US Federal Reserve reported some of the worst manufacturing data in recent history, according to several cryptocurrency analysts. On April 17, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Manufacturing Index — a monthly survey of 250 US-based manufacturers — reported the sharpest declines in overall business activity since 2020.  The data puts Bitcoin (BTC) “under short term pressure,” researchers at Bitunix, a crypto exchange, said in a post on the X platform. They added that Bitcoin could still see a “strong comeback” if its…

Bitcoin whales absorb 300% of newly mined BTC supply — Is $100K next?

Bitcoin’s (BTC) richest traders and investors are increasingly bullish on BTC despite facing downside risks from unfavorable macroeconomic factors, the latest onchain data suggests. Bitcoin whales absorbing 300% of new supply Bitcoin whales and sharks are now absorbing BTC at record rates—over 300% of yearly issuance—while exchanges are losing coins at a historic pace, according to Glassnode. Notably, Bitcoin’s yearly absorption rate by exchanges has plunged below -200% as outflows continue. This signals a growing preference for self-custody or long-term investment. Bitcoin yearly absorption rates. Source: Glassnode Meanwhile, larger holders…

Oregon targets Coinbase after SEC drops its federal lawsuit

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield is planning a lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase, alleging the company is selling unregistered securities to residents of the US state, after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) dropped its federal case against the exchange. According to Coinbase’s chief legal officer, Paul Grewal, the lawsuit is an exact “copycat case” of SEC’s 2023 lawsuit against the exchange, which the federal agency agreed to drop in February. Grewal added: “In case you think I’m jumping to conclusions, the attorney general’s office made it clear…