Из жизни альткоинов

Ethereum processed more transactions in the first three months of 2026 than in any quarter in its history — 200 million in total, a 43% jump from the previous quarter.

That milestone came alongside a sharp rise in new users, with 284,000 first-time participants joining the network between January and March, according to on-chain analytics provider Artemis.

New User Growth Accelerates Across The Board

Active addresses climbed to 12.6 million during the quarter, based on data from DeFiLlama. The 82% quarter-over-quarter increase in new accounts drew attention across the industry, with analysts pointing to cheaper transactions made possible by Layer-2 scaling networks as a key factor drawing people in.

DeFi applications, token activity, and NFTs were all cited as areas where new participants have been showing up.

In Q1, new users on @ethereum surged 82% QoQ to 284k pic.twitter.com/jVYtR4Zwd5

— Artemis (@artemis) April 10, 2026

Capital has also been moving into the network. Ethereum recorded net inflows of more than $2 billion among leading blockchains in early 2026, Artemis data shows. That kind of money flow suggests institutional and retail interest has not dried up, even as the token price has stayed mostly flat.

Price Stays Stuck While On-Chain Numbers Climb

ETH traded in a narrow band around $2,105 to $2,200 through much of the quarter — far below the highs the asset hit in prior cycles. The gap between record-breaking network usage and a stagnant price has puzzled market watchers.

Reports indicate that capital flows and exchange deposit activity have become stronger indicators of price movement than on-chain usage figures, a shift from patterns seen during earlier market cycles.

Exchange reserves have also been falling. One analyst noted that holders appear to be pulling ETH off platforms and keeping it, a sign that selling pressure may be limited at current price levels.

Layer-2 Networks Draw Credit For Lower Barriers

Much of the growth in new users has been attributed to the continued build-out of Layer-2 infrastructure, which has cut the cost and time required to complete transactions on the network.

Reports say entry barriers have dropped significantly as these systems have matured, opening the door to users who might have avoided the network when fees were higher.

Analysts who track new address creation consider the numbers a marker of real adoption rather than short-term speculation. Whether the price eventually reflects that activity remains an open question.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

The number of Bitcoin millionaires has significantly dropped amid the BTC downtrend since the start of the year. This comes as long-term holders (LTHs) remain underwater, with BTC well below its current all-time high (ATH) of $126,000. 

Number of Bitcoin Millionaires Crashes 14%

A Finbold research has revealed a 14% decline in the number of Bitcoin wallets holding at least $1 million in the first quarter of this year. This notably came as the Bitcoin price crashed from a yearly high above $97,000 to as low as $60,000 on February 6, pushing many wallets below the $1 million threshold. 

The research noted that the total number of Bitcoin addresses holding at least $1 million fell from 148,084 to 127,494 between January 1 and March 31, 2026. This represents a loss of almost 14% in the first quarter of this year. The report noted that this significant crash in the number of Bitcoin millionaires is likely due to the BTC crash in the first quarter rather than widespread selling activity. 

It is worth noting that the number of BTC millionaires has continued to decline since the end of the first quarter, with the figure currently standing at 119,878, according to BitInfoCharts. This comes despite Bitcoin’s recovery since its February 6 low, suggesting that some of these wallets have offloaded holdings as the price has recovered.  

However, it is worth noting that the number of BTC addresses holding $10 million or more has rebounded from the lows at the end of the first quarter. The Finbold research revealed that there were 14,261 addresses in this category at the end of the first quarter. At the time of writing, the number of addresses stands at 15,036, according to BitInfoCharts. 

LTHs Still Well Underwater

In an X post, on-chain analytics platform Glassnode revealed that the 30-day SMA of the LTH Relative Unrealized Loss currently sits at 14% of Bitcoin’s market cap. They noted that this figure remains substantially below the levels at which BTC formed bottoms in previous bear markets, with the average at around 70% of market cap. 

This metric captures the total unrealized loss held by LTHs normalized by market cap, reflecting the huge losses that Bitcoin’s most convicted holders are sitting on. Based on historical cycles, the current figure suggests that BTC isn’t yet close to a bottom despite its recent recovery. Glassnode warned that there is still weak spot demand despite the recent recovery, with the softer futures activity suggesting that the recovery still lacks strong conviction. 

Related Reading: Higher Before Lower: How Bitcoin Price Will Get To $240,000

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price is trading at around $72,800, up in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

The Bitcoin market could be facing another crucial event that would bolster its long-term integrity. This is highlighted in a recent evaluation of Japan’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA) reforms, which suggests a major impact on Bitcoin may come not from an increase in investor count, but from how its participant base evolves.

Regulatory Shift May Determine Who Bitcoin Market Participants Are

In a QuickTake post on CryptoQuant, the education group XWIN Research Japan explains why Japan’s FIEA reforms could push Bitcoin towards a more mature, stable market environment. The market experts begin by highlighting Japan’s significant presence in the crypto world, with about 13 million extant accounts holding assets worth ¥5 trillion ($34.4 billion). 

However, Japan’s total digital asset portfolio is considered relatively small compared to even the Bitcoin market cap of $1.3-$1.4 trillion. Hence, the education group notes that the most important variable in this dynamic is not the number of participants, but the amount of money they bring into the market. In this case, the institute highlights that as Japan’s regulations improve, institutions, corporations, and other high-net-worth investors may increasingly enter, in turn increasing each account’s allocation. 

Interestingly, a key part of this reform involves classifying cryptocurrencies more like traditional financial products. This would introduce stricter standards around transparency, disclosure, and intermediary responsibilities. While this might sound restrictive, it actually also lowers barriers for large institutions that require regulatory clarity before entering new markets.

Capital Inflows Could Be The Real Catalyst 

XWIN Research Japan points out that the bigger opportunity lies in the potential inflow of external capital. According to the group, Japan’s total financial assets are estimated at around ¥2,100 trillion. Hence, if just 0.1% of that capital were reallocated into Bitcoin, it could result in inflows of roughly ¥2 trillion (about $13 billion). In comparison, a 0.5% allocation would push that figure to around $65 billion – comparable to the scale of inflows seen during the first year of US spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Historically, inflows of this magnitude have been strong drivers of the flagship cryptocurrency, often leading to price gains of 10–30%. Thus, it becomes apparent that Bitcoin’s price action is becoming less about speculation and more about sustained capital flows. An example of this shift is seen in the aftermath of ETF adoption.

For Japan, the impact of this reform will ultimately depend on whether similar investment channels – such as ETFs and regulated funds – are introduced. As of this writing, Bitcoin is trading at about $72,861, up 1.36% from yesterday.

A patch has been available for nearly a year, but millions of Android users may still be running vulnerable crypto wallet apps — leaving their funds and private keys exposed to a known security flaw.

Microsoft’s Defender Security Research Team went public last week with details of a vulnerability it first caught in April 2025. The flaw lived inside a widely used software component called the EngageLab SDK, version 4.5.4.

Because that SDK is baked into thousands of Android apps, a single malicious app could trigger a chain reaction that reached far beyond itself.

How The Attack Works

The method is called “intent redirection.” An attacker’s app sends a specially crafted message to any app running the flawed SDK version. Once that message lands, the targeted app is tricked into handing over read and write access to its own data — including stored seed phrases and wallet addresses.

Android’s built-in sandbox system, which normally keeps apps from seeing each other’s data, was bypassed entirely. According to Microsoft, the attack affected more than 50 million apps across the Android ecosystem, with roughly 30 million of those being crypto wallets.

The vulnerability did not require the user to do anything wrong. No suspicious links. No phishing pages. Just having the wrong apps installed at the same time was enough.

Response From Microsoft And Google

Microsoft moved quickly after its discovery. By May 2025, the company had brought Google and the Android Security Team into the response. EngageLab released a fixed version — SDK 5.2.1 — shortly after.

Reports indicate that both Microsoft and Google have since directed users on how to verify whether their wallet apps have been updated through Google Play Protect.

Officials also pointed to a broader concern: apps installed as APK files from outside the Play Store are at higher risk, since they bypass the security checks that Google applies to apps listed in its official marketplace.

What Users Should Do Now

For most users who update their apps regularly, the risk has likely passed. But for anyone who has not updated since mid-2025, the recommended action goes beyond a simple app refresh.

Security teams are advising those users to move their funds into entirely new wallets, generated with fresh seed phrases. Any wallet that was active and unpatched during the exposure window should be treated as potentially compromised.

The disclosure comes alongside a separate Android chip vulnerability flagged the previous month and a new US Treasury initiative that pairs government agencies with crypto firms to share cybersecurity threat information — a sign that mobile security in the crypto space is drawing attention at the highest levels.

Featured image from Bleeping Computer, chart from TradingView

The bullishness surrounding the Ethereum price has not waned despite its disappointing performance over the last few years. Investors and analysts alike continue to skew heavily toward the expectation that the altcoin’s price will rise. Crypto analyst Leshka.eth shared their own prediction recently, forecasting that the Ethereum price is destined to hit new all-time highs in 2026.

Why The Ethereum Price Could Rally 400%

In the analysis, Leshka.eth points out a pattern that had previously appeared on the Ethereum price and led to an explosive rally. The pattern, which the analyst points out on the ETH/BTC chart, first began back in 2016, beginning with a long consolidation of the Ethereum price at lower levels.

Once the Ethereum price had broken out of the consolidation trend, it entered into what ended up being an accumulation trend. This accumulation saw the price ping-pong up and down over time, before it eventually hit a low. This then led to the last part of the pattern, which is the rally stage. By the time the Ethereum price was done rallying in the 2017 bull market, the price had risen by more than 1,500%. This pushed it up from $56 for it to peak at $1,151.

Now, this same pattern has been flagged by the crypto analyst, but on a much larger scale. Where the last consolidation trend had lasted for months, this one has lasted for years, starting in 2018 and then ending in 2021. Then the next stage of accumulation has lasted for years, from 2021 to 2026.

Given the longer timeframe that each portion of the pattern has taken this time around, the crypto analyst believes that this would lead to a more explosive run. In addition to this, there is also the fact that institutions are buying more ETH than they were in the past, with supply on exchanges dwindling by the day.

Taking all of these into account, Leshka says this is setting the stage for the next Ethereum price rally. The target rally at this time is a 3-4X from here, which would put the Ethereum price at a minimum of $6,000 and a high above $8,000. Either way, this would mean a new all-time high for the cryptocurrency. As for when this could play out, the crypto analyst expects this to happen in the next six months, so the ETH price could hit new peaks this year if it plays out.

Сооснователь криптобиржи BitMEX и инвестиционный директор фонда Maelstrom Артур Хейс (Arthur Hayes) заявил, что главное препятствие для роста биткоина — нехватка ликвидности на рынках.

Требование Ирана оплачивать проход судов через Ормузский пролив в биткоинах вряд ли сможет реализоваться через легальные каналы, заявили эксперты, опрошенные изданием Bloomberg.

В Беларуси планируют допустить на рынок около 25 криптовалют, включая биткоин и эфир. Об этом сообщил первый зампредседателя правления Национального банка Александр Егоров.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has reportedly endorsed the European Union’s (EU) plan to shift oversight of key financial markets, including crypto, from national authorities to a centralized supervisory authority.

ECB Greenlights Crypto Oversight Centralization

On Friday, the European Central Bank backed the EU’s proposal to integrate the bloc’s capital market through a centralized entity, seeking to boost the region’s competitiveness and harmonize regulation, Reuters reported.

The financial regulator expressed its full support for enhanced EU-level oversight of systemically important, cross-border financial market participants, including major trading platforms, central counterparties, central securities depositories, and crypto asset service providers (CASPs).

“The ECB fully supports the ‌Commission ⁠proposals, which constitute an ambitious step towards deeper integration of capital markets and financial market supervision within the Union,” it said in an opinion. It’s worth noting that the opinion is required by the Commission’s legislative process, but is not binding for lawmakers.

The plan, led by France and Germany, was initially suggested during the development of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). It proposes transferring the power to authorize new businesses and supervise all crypto asset service providers to the bloc’s market watchdog, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).

In October, ESMA’s Chair, Verena Ross, disclosed that the EU’s executive branch was in the process of formulating regulations to grant enhanced authority to the regional regulatory authority and push for a “more integrated and globally competitive” capital market within Europe.

She argued that nation-level regulation takes significant effort to build up specific new resources and expertise 27 times in different national supervisors, which “could have been done more efficiently once at a European level.”

The ⁠ECB’s Friday opinion noted that ESMA will need adequate resources and staffing to handle the increased responsibilities. Furthermore, it suggested a gradual transition from national to EU-level supervision to minimize disruption.

Now, the Commission’s proposal will be negotiated between EU governments and the European Parliament, with discussions expected to last several months before the law is finalized.

EU’s Proposal Could Undermine MiCA’s Credibility

Despite the ECB’s support, some EU countries and crypto industry participants have opposed the EU’s proposal, arguing that it could undermine the efforts of national watchdogs and businesses over the past few years to regulate the industry and implement the bloc’s comprehensive framework for crypto assets.

Smaller EU nations, including Luxembourg, Ireland, and Malta, have expressed concerns about the proposal and ESMA’s ability to oversee the crypto market, arguing it could weaken their financial sectors.

Notably, ESMA questioned Malta’s process for approving pan-EU licenses for crypto companies last year, finding the national regulator only “partially met expectations,” despite having adequate staffing and technical infrastructure.

As reported by Bitcoinist, Robert Kopitsch, secretary general of Blockchain for Europe, said in November that reopening MiCA at this stage could introduce legal uncertainties, potentially delaying the authorization process and diverting attention and resources from the practical task of consistent implementation.

Kopitsch believed that a shift towards a more centralized supervisory model should occur based on “concrete experience and evidence gathered from MiCA’s initial years of implementation.” He also pointed out that local regulators have had more direct and frequent interactions with firms.

Andrew Whitworth, the founder of Global Policy Ltd., confirmed that transferring oversight would require additional resources to manage the current workload handled by local regulators. He acknowledged that this change could be challenging at the moment, considering the current implementation status and the need to adjust the goalposts

Judith Arnal, associate senior research fellow at the Centre for European Credit Research Institute (ECRI) and board member at the Bank of Spain, has also said that the recent attempts to amend the bloc’s crypto rules, particularly in the stablecoins sector, risk “undermining MiCA’s credibility as a coherent and globally influential regulatory framework.”

Инвестор потерял 386 300 стейблкоинов USDT, отправив средства на адрес, визуально почти не отличающийся от оригинального. Об этом сообщили аналитики работающей в области кибербезопасности компании Web3 Antivirus.

Circle (CRCL) has responded publicly to mounting criticism tied to the exploit of Solana’s Drift Protocol, an attack that reports say siphoned roughly $270–$285 million from the decentralized venue. 

Amid backlash circulating on social media, critics allege that the USDC issuer failed to stop the stolen funds, even though the stablecoin has mechanisms—such as freezing and blacklisting—that can be used to disrupt illicit transfers.

Circle Explains USDC Freezing Process   

The timeline behind the accusations centers on April 1, 2026, when Drift Protocol was drained of about $285 million, with the exploit reportedly representing more than half of the protocol’s total value locked (TVL). 

A substantial portion of the stolen assets, according to reporting surrounding the incident, was converted and routed through USDC via Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP).

Circle did not immediately respond to the online criticism. After weeks of silence, the company published an official blog post authored by Chief Strategy Officer Dante Disparte, addressing the dispute over freezing and compliance actions. 

Disparte said Circle’s ability to freeze USDC is not discretionary in the way critics sometimes frame it, arguing instead that freezing is something Circle does only when the law compels action.

The firm’s executive wrote that “when Circle freezes USDC,” it is not because the company has decided unilaterally to remove assets from a specific party. Rather, he said the firm freezes because “the law requires us to act.” 

Disparte further linked the freezing debate to a broader regulatory goal, saying Circle is working with policymakers in the US and internationally to develop “safe harbor” frameworks and to modernize regulations. 

The aim, he wrote, is to create legal structures that allow issuers, exchanges, and other ecosystem participants to respond more decisively to illicit activity—faster, but without opening new pathways for abuse that could undermine open financial systems. 

ZachXBT Calls Out Freezing Explanation

Despite the firm’s defense, critics have continued to challenge the company’s position. One of the responses came from on-chain sleuth ZachXBT, who posted “The Circle USDC Files” last week. 

In that report, ZachXBT alleged more than $420 million in compliance failures. He now addressed the blog statement, claiming Circle’s actions resulted in 240 million directly funding North Korea across multiple hacks—while arguing that Circle had hours to act in clear-cut cases involving illicit transfers.

ZachXBT’s criticism attacked the apparent mismatch between the firm’s stated freeze framework and what he described as operational delays or choices not to use available tools quickly enough. He questioned Circle’s compliance record explicitly, asking, “How is that compliance for USDC?” 

Finally, ZachXBT argued that Circle’s blog post “contradicts itself” and attributed the controversy to a leadership problem, rather than a purely legal or procedural constraint.

As of this writing, the firm’s stock (CRCL) was trading at $88.78, up 4% in Friday’s trading session.

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Житель Печоры в Республике Коми потерял более 3,5 млн рублей, пытаясь заработать на инвестициях в криптовалюту, сообщили в региональном управлении МВД России.

В Ачинском округе Красноярского края на территории сельхозпредприятия выявили нелегальную майнинговую ферму, сообщили в региональном управлении МВД.

Ethereum is trading above $2,200 and pushing against key resistance levels. The price is at a decision point. And across four of the world’s largest exchanges simultaneously, the supply of ETH available to be sold has been quietly, persistently disappearing.

A CryptoQuant analysis tracking Ethereum’s exchange reserve structure has identified a development that directly changes the conditions under which the current resistance test is occurring. ETH reserves are declining not on one platform, not on two, but across Coinbase, Binance, Gemini, and OKX — the four major venues that collectively represent the deepest and most liquid ETH trading infrastructure available.

That multi-venue confirmation is the analytical distinction the report draws most sharply. A reserve decline on a single exchange can reflect any number of platform-specific explanations — custody transfers, institutional migration, exchange-internal movements. When the same directional decline appears simultaneously across four separate venues with different user bases and ownership structures, the platform-specific explanations lose their credibility. What remains is the structural one: ETH is leaving the sell side of the market on a broad, coordinated basis.

Ethereum testing resistance above $2,200 in a market where the available supply of ETH ready to be sold is shrinking across every major venue is a structurally different test than the ones that failed before it. The overhead has not disappeared. It has thinned, and thinned overhead responds differently to buying pressure than deep overhead does.

The Numbers Behind the Drain Are Not Small.

The CryptoQuant data gives the multi-venue supply contraction its precise dimensions. On Coinbase, Ethereum reserves fell from 5.6 million to 3.2 million between early August 2025 and April 9, 2026 — a reduction of 2.4 million ETH removed from America’s largest institutional trading venue over eight months. On Binance, reserves dropped from 4.75 million to 3.3 million ETH over the same period — 1.45 million ETH withdrawn from the exchange, processing the largest share of global ETH derivatives volume.

Those two figures alone describe a sustained, eight-month supply drain of nearly 4 million ETH across the market’s two most systemically important venues. Then the other exchanges add their own data.

Gemini recorded a single-day reserve drop of approximately 74,000 ETH on February 19 — an institutional-scale withdrawal concentrated into a single session. OKX produced the most dramatic reading of all: reserves fell from approximately 990,000 ETH on March 20 to just 167,000 ETH by April 9 — an 83% collapse in under three weeks.

Taken together across all four venues, the scale of the withdrawal is not ambiguous. Millions of ETH have left the immediately available sell-side pool over the past eight months, and the pace has not slowed. The market pushing against resistance above $2,200 is doing so with a fraction of the sell-side depth that existed when the current cycle began. That is not a minor structural detail. It is the context in which every buyer and seller is currently operating.

Ethereum Holds Key Weekly Level as Structure Compresses

On the weekly timeframe, Ethereum is holding near the $2,200 level, a zone that is increasingly defining the market’s structural pivot. This level has acted as both support and resistance across multiple cycles, and the current interaction suggests a market in transition rather than trend continuation.

The broader structure shows that Ethereum remains below its prior cycle highs, with the recent rejection from the $4,000–$4,500 region confirming a lower high. However, the decline that followed found support above the rising 200-week moving average (red), which continues to act as a long-term structural floor. This is a critical detail: despite volatility, the macro trend has not fully broken down.

The 50-week (blue) and 100-week (green) moving averages are converging near current price levels, reflecting compression. Price is now trading around these averages, indicating equilibrium between buyers and sellers rather than directional control.

Volume patterns reinforce this interpretation. The spikes during sell-offs point to liquidation-driven moves, while the recent normalization suggests reduced stress but also limited conviction.

Structurally, Ethereum is coiling within a broad range. A sustained move above $2,500–$2,800 would signal renewed strength, while a loss of $2,000 would expose the 200-week support. For now, the market remains balanced, awaiting resolution.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has handed out its first stablecoin licenses, and the winners are Standard Chartered’s JV and HSBC.

HKMA Has Released First Stablecoin Licenses After A Delay

According to HKMA’s website, two entities have now become registered stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong: Anchorpoint Financial Limited and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.

Hong Kong launched its stablecoin bill called the Stablecoins Ordinance back in August 2025, establishing a licensing regime for stablecoin issuers. Under this law, parties interested in issuing fiat-tied cryptocurrencies in the Chinese city have to first obtain a license from the HKMA.

Major names quickly lined up to apply for a license. This included HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial Limited. The latter is a joint venture (JV) created by Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands, and Hong Kong Telecom. In total, the HKMA ended up receiving applications from 36 entities. Despite the high interest, though, Eddie Yue, the financial regulator’s chief executive, said in February that a “very small number” of licenses would be granted in the first wave.

Yue also said that these licenses would arrive in March, but in the end, no licenses were issued during that month, suggesting a delay from the HKMA. However, today, on April 10th, the first batch has finally gone out.

With just two licenses being handed out, Yue indeed set up the correct expectations. As mentioned earlier, Standard Chartered’s JV and HSBC are the applicants who have received the first approval. Thus, these banks have a head start over the rest when it comes to stablecoins in the region.

Hong Kong’s stablecoins advance is just one example of positive regulation that these fiat-tied tokens have seen the world over in the past year. One of the most important wins for the sector has been the GENIUS Act signed into law by United States President Donald Trump last year.

Because of all the regulatory momentum and adoption, the stablecoins sector has performed relatively well amid the wider downturn in the digital assets market. As data from DefiLlama shows, stablecoins have seen their combined market cap move sideways at all-time highs (ATHs) since Q4 2025. In the same period as this flat phase in these fiat-tied tokens, Bitcoin has gone down by more than 42%.

While the stablecoin market cap is significant in size, the vast majority of it is covered by just two assets pegged to the US Dollar: USDT and USDC. Moves like the euro-pegged token from a consortium of major European banks could shake up this dominance, but it only remains to be seen how the landscape will evolve.

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $72,200, up more than 8% in the last seven days.

XRP is holding above $1.30. The market is consolidating. And the data behind that consolidation describes a market that has not been this inactive since 2021, which changes what the stillness means.

An Arab Chain report tracking XRP activity on Binance has identified a bilateral decline that goes beyond simple price consolidation. Both 30-day accumulation and 30-day distribution have fallen to their lowest levels since 2021 — not just one side pulling back, but both simultaneously.

The 30-day accumulation has stabilized at approximately 2.06 billion XRP, while distribution sits at approximately 2.09 billion XRP. The difference between them — a net negative of approximately -36 million XRP — reflects a slight but persistent tilt toward selling in a market where overall activity has nearly disappeared.

That combination — minimal buying, minimal selling, with selling marginally in front — describes a market in suspension rather than recovery. Investors are neither adding to their positions nor aggressively reducing them. The $1.30 level is holding not because buyers are defending it with conviction, but because sellers have not yet pushed hard enough to break it.

The silence is four years old. In markets, that kind of silence rarely persists indefinitely — and when it ends, the direction it breaks tends to move fast.

Both Sides Have Pulled Back

The report places the current activity levels in a historical context that sharpens their significance. The last time XRP accumulation and distribution on Binance were both this low simultaneously was 2021 — a year that preceded one of the most dramatic price movements in XRP’s history. The bilateral nature of the decline is what makes the current reading structurally meaningful rather than simply quiet. When only sellers step back, it is a supply story. When both sides step back together, it is a market holding its breath.

The interpretation the report assigns to this condition is precise and consistent with the historical record. Periods of declining bilateral activity — where buying decreases alongside selling rather than in isolation — typically signal a transitional phase rather than a permanent state. The market is not breaking down. It is reorganizing. Participation is contracting toward the participants with the highest conviction in either direction, clearing out the noise before the next directional move establishes itself.

The net negative accumulation of -36 million XRP adds the directional tilt that prevents this from being a purely neutral reading. The silence is not perfectly symmetrical. Selling is marginally ahead of buying — not enough to drive price lower on its own, but enough to confirm that the slight pressure present in the market is pointed in one direction.

Bilateral lows at four-year extremes. A net negative tilt. A transitional phase that the historical record suggests resolves into movement rather than continued stagnation. The question the data cannot yet answer is which direction that movement takes — and that answer belongs to whatever catalyst arrives first.

XRP Compresses Near Support as Momentum Fades

XRP continues to trade in a tight range just above $1.30, reflecting a market that has shifted from trend to compression. After the sharp February breakdown, which was marked by a high-volume capitulation wick, price has stabilized but failed to generate meaningful upside continuation. The current structure is defined by low volatility and narrow price movement, indicating indecision rather than strength.

Technically, XRP remains in a bearish alignment. Price is trading below the 50-day (blue), 100-day (green), and 200-day (red) moving averages, all of which are sloping downward. This confirms that the broader trend has not reversed. Attempts to push higher have consistently stalled below the 50-day average, suggesting persistent overhead supply.

Volume dynamics reinforce this interpretation. The February spike reflects forced selling and liquidation, while the subsequent decline in volume signals reduced participation. There is no clear evidence of aggressive accumulation entering the market.

The key level remains $1.30. It is holding, but not with conviction. Structurally, this is a market in suspension, not recovery. A break below $1.25 would likely accelerate downside, while a move above $1.50 is required to signal a shift in momentum. Until then, XRP remains compressed within a weakening trend.

Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com 

More than $12 million in suspected criminal proceeds has been frozen after a joint US, UK and Canadian crackdown targeted crypto approval phishing scams that affected more than 20,000 people, according to the UK’s National Crime Agency.

The operation also identified more than $45 million in cryptocurrency fraud tied to the same network of scams.

A Cross-Border Sweep Vs. Phishing

Operation Atlantic was run in March and brought together the NCA, the US Secret Service, the Ontario Provincial Police and the Ontario Securities Commission.

The NCA said the effort focused on people who had already lost crypto, or were at risk of losing it, through approval phishing, a scheme that tricks users into handing over wallet access without meaning to.

That method has made scams harder to spot because the victim is often the one who authorizes the dangerous action. Instead of sending coins directly to a thief, users are pushed into signing a malicious approval that gives scammers permission to move assets out of the wallet later. Binance described that kind of fraud as one of the most damaging scams aimed at crypto users.

The NCA said the operation identified victims across the UK, the US and Canada, and one UK victim was thought to have lost more than £52,000.

Officials said the public-private effort helped law enforcement act while some funds were still traceable, with private firms helping identify victims in real time and trace suspicious transactions.

What Binance Said It Did

Binance said its Special Investigations team supported the operation on site in London, where staff helped with live account screening and scam intelligence. The company also said it identified scam websites that were still active during the operation and passed along information that could help with asset seizure efforts.

The exchange said no funds were frozen on Binance accounts. That point matters because it suggests the criminal proceeds were being held elsewhere when the sweep took place, even though Binance still played a role in tracing the wider scam network.

Phishing: A Warning For Crypto Users

Officials from the NCA said the operation is now being followed by further analysis of the intelligence gathered during the crackdown. The agency also told victims to watch out for recovery scams, warning that criminals often return under a new name and promise to get stolen crypto back for a fee.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView

Bitcoin (BTC) has continued to climb in the wake of the ceasefire between Iran and the US, and it has now reclaimed the $73,000 level as geopolitical tensions cool and oil prices drop. 

The move has kept momentum building after the initial surge following the truce, with some analysts arguing that the market is approaching a point where short positions could be forced to unwind rapidly.

Bitcoin Nears Key Liquidity Zone 

In a Friday assessment, market analyst Ali Martinez said attention is shifting to a large liquidity pool sitting just above the current price region. His view is that shorts are increasingly “trapped,” and that the window for exits is tightening. 

Martinez suggested that a push toward $75,300 could wipe out roughly $80 million worth of short positions. He warned that this could set off a cascading effect—an initial wave of liquidations that then accelerates into a sharper, faster move as the broader market reacts.

The mechanism Martinez described is familiar in crypto markets: when liquidity sits in a concentrated area, price can be driven into it in order to force traders to cover. 

In his framing, market makers and large holders often move prices toward high-liquidity zones to “flush” speculators, using the buyback pressure that results from liquidations as fuel for an upward drive. 

Support Levels Tied To Concentrated Supply Areas

Martinez also tied this near-term setup to an earlier analysis about where Bitcoin’s supply is concentrated. He previously argued that BTC sits above a broad supply cluster spanning roughly $73,200 down to $63,100, describing it as a region where a large number of holders have “voted” through their cost basis. 

In his interpretation, as long as Bitcoin trades inside that band, those investors are psychologically incentivized to defend their entries, which can help stabilize the price.

However, he cautioned that if $63,100 fails to hold, Bitcoin may move into what he called a “liquidity vacuum.” In that scenario, Martinez said the next meaningful support level would be significantly lower, leaving fewer buyers willing—or able—to absorb selling pressure.

Critical Levels And CVDD Indicator 

Beyond the immediate liquidation narrative, Martinez also pointed to what he described as a long-standing technical “Decade Trendline,” which he characterized as one of Bitcoin’s most respected technical reference points. 

For nearly ten years, he said the ascending trendline has historically acted as a “Parabolic Guard,” with prior touches preceding major expansions. 

According to Martinez, Bitcoin is approaching this line now, between roughly $56,000 and $60,000, and that historically this is where “smart money” tends to complete accumulation before the next leg upward.

However, Bitcoin would need to decline by a further 23% and 17%, respectively, from its current trading price of over $73,000 to reach the range indicated by the expert. 

To identify what he referred to as the “Line in the Sand,” Martinez said he looks to CVDD, or Cumulative Value Days Destroyed. 

In his view, the current CVDD value is around $47,960. He described it as the “ultimate structural foundation,” and added that if the broader macro environment deteriorates, this is the level where he expects a violent reversal to the upside.

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com

Analysts at investment research firm Bernstein are pushing back against growing fears that quantum computing poses an existential danger to Bitcoin. 

Concerns about quantum computing breaking Bitcoin’s cryptography have grown following recent findings from Google researchers. Bernstein analysts, however, say the quantum threat is only a technical challenge that the network can adapt to over time.

Bernstein Analysts Dispel The Bitcoin Quantum Threat

Google’s research team recently established that breaking the elliptic curve cryptography protecting Bitcoin and other crypto transactions could be achieved with far fewer resources than estimated. 

According to research findings by Google published in a recent whitepaper, a quantum machine running fewer than 500,000 physical qubits could be able to break Bitcoin’s cryptography in the near future, down from earlier estimates of around 10 million. 

Google also warned of on-spend attacks, where a sufficiently fast quantum computer could derive a private key from an exposed public key within Bitcoin’s average 10-minute block confirmation window, giving an attacker a roughly 41% chance of redirecting funds before a transaction settles. 

However, analysts at Bernstein are taking a more measured view by describing quantum computing as a manageable upgrade cycle for Bitcoin. In a recent note to clients, Bernstein analysts led by Gautam Chhugani said that the network has enough time to respond before the threat becomes practical, while also providing estimates that point to a multi-year window for preparation.

The firm estimates Bitcoin and the broader crypto industry have a three- to five-year runway before quantum computers reach the scale required to mount real attacks. 

Interestingly, this timeline aligns with Google’s own 2029 migration benchmark, cited in the same whitepaper. Google had acknowledged in its paper that the time remaining before cryptographically relevant quantum computers arrive still exceeds the time needed to complete a migration to post-quantum cryptography capable of protecting against these threats.

“We think that the quantum should be seen as a medium to long term system upgrade cycle rather than a risk,” the note said.

Vulnerability Is Narrower Than It Appears

The paper by Google’s research team took the crypto industry by surprise, and rightly so. The entire Bitcoin network and crypto industry by extension is built on the premise of blockchain security. Therefore, the possibility that computers that can threaten this security can be built by the end of the decade is a threat to the future of the entire industry.

Interestingly, the Bernstein note also pointed out that the risk is not evenly distributed across the Bitcoin network. The primary exposure lies in wallet-level cryptography, particularly in older Satoshi-era legacy wallet addresses that have revealed their public keys or reused them multiple times. 

Bitcoin’s mining process, which relies on SHA-256 hashing, is not considered meaningfully threatened by quantum advances in the same way.

The cryptocurrency industry is also now in a place where many institutional players like Circle, Strategy, BlackRock, and Fidelity are likely to play a constructive role in mitigating any quantum computing threat.

Since falling from its all-time high in 2025, the Bitcoin price has failed to initiate another major upward move, reinforcing the bear market narrative. After this sharp downward action over the past few months, the amount of BTC supply in loss is spiking hard, reaching levels not seen in years.

Profit Supply On Bitcoin Contracts To Multi-Year Lows

Bitcoin’s price may have witnessed a brief upswing, reclaiming the $72,000 mark, but the underlying structure remains highly bearish. The prolonged negative price performance has started to influence BTC’s market dynamics, with supply in the loss territory rising at a fast rate.

With the price of Bitcoin falling sharply, Darkfost, a market expert and CryptoQuant’s verified author, revealed that profit supply has collapsed, nearing levels last seen in the last bear market phase. This decline, which reflects the strain of recent market activity, indicates that an increasing percentage of holders are either at breakeven or sitting on unrealized losses.

Darkfost stated that nearly 1 BTC out of 2 is held at a loss as of Thursday. To be precise, the share of Bitcoin supply still in profit is estimated at around 59%, a level that almost aligns with what was observed during the last bear market. According to historical data, the average level sits closer to about 75% of supply in profit. Therefore, the current market cycle is now below typical levels. 

These levels can trigger periods of capitulation or consolidation, but they also frequently indicate a decline in market confidence and a diminished motivation to sell. While it may seem counterintuitive to some crypto players, the expert claims that the market clearly needs investors to make profits in order to maintain a positive momentum. 

However, the key level to watch out for is 50%, which could completely flip the market structure, as bear markets have often bottomed around this area. Given the market state, this metric should be closely watched since it helps assess when losses or profits become significant across the market, allowing for a relatively straightforward strategy.

Specifically, this strategy involves accumulating when losses hit extreme levels, putting some investors ahead of a majority of players. It also helps to manage exposure when profits approach 100%. As profit margins shrink across the network, the current environment seems more of an accumulation phase than selling at this stage.

BTC Bear Market Is Still Active

As the debate regarding a bear market bottom heats up, a crypto analyst has offered insights on the matter, noting that Bitcoin has yet to hit a bottom. The expert’s analysis is backed by signals from the BTC Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) Z-Score. While some considered the $60,000 level as the bear market bottom for BTC, the expert has dismissed this narrative. 

According to the expert, the MVRV has not yet fallen into the green bottoming zone, which means the bear market is still active. In terms of timing, the analyst has predicted an additional 6 months into the bear market. As a result, another major drop for BTC is inevitable.