Bybit's and CME Group's new listings, DATs still accumulating cryptos, and upgrades to prediction market platforms.

 between April 1–5, 2026, deploying approximately $330M, bringing total holdings to 766,970 BTC, valued at around $53B at current prices.

The latest purchases reduced its average cost basis slightly to $75,644 per BTC (vs. $75,694 on March 31).

For Q1 2026, the firm recorded a $14.46B unrealised loss on its bitcoin position, according to its latest 8-K filing which translates into a $2.42B deferred tax asset.

CEO Simon Gerovich shared an update that in Q1 2026 the company purchased 

for $405.48M (around $79,898 per coin), delivering a 2.8% BTC yield year-to-date. 

As of March 31, 2026, the firm holds 40,177 BTC acquired for roughly $4.18B at an average price of about $104,106.

Metaplanet as the third-largest publicly traded holder of bitcoin

's 762,099 BTC but narrowing the gap with Tether-backed Twenty One, which holds 43,514 BTC.

last week, marking its fastest weekly accumulation since December 2025.

As of April 5, 2026, the firm holds 4,803,334 ETH, representing 3.98% of total supply, alongside 198 BTC, $864M in cash, and additional crypto positions.

Of this, 3,334,637 ETH (~69% of holdings) is staked, valued at $7.1B, generating approximately $196M in annualised staking revenue with a ~2.78% yield. Total crypto, cash, and other holdings stand at $11.4B. 

U.S. Clarity Act is nearing a breakthrough

, despite friction around stablecoin yield rules, as policymakers push to solidify the country’s position in global crypto markets.

He dismissed banking industry warnings about deposit flight on the back of incentivising stablecoin, as largely speculative, noting there’s still no real-world evidence to support those claims. Grewal pointed to a potential Senate committee markup within weeks, setting the stage for a broader vote.

Coinbase continues to push back against any provisions that would restrict rewards on idle stablecoin balances, framing them as a threat to innovation and user benefits.

 has announced a major upgrade to its exchange over the next 2–3 weeks which includes the introduction of a new collateral token,

The upgrade will introduce a new Conditional Token Framework Exchange V2, a simplified order structure, faster order matching, and support for EIP-1271 signatures (which allow smart contract wallets to sign and validate trades).

 at block 85,268,500 (around 2pm UTC on April 8), introducing a 2-second reduction in transaction finality through earlier block announcements and adding fee parameters to block headers.

 following Chaos Labs’ exit after three years. 

CEO Omer Goldberg cited “fundamental misalignment” on V4 scope, stating the engagement had run at a loss: “Even with an increase of $1 million, we’d still be operating AAVE’s risk with negative margins.” 

Chaos had requested $8M vs the DAO’s proposed $5M renewal. Stani Kulechov confirmed the two-layer risk model will be maintained.

, the venture firm backed by Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, has made a follow-on investment

The investment comes as Binance revealed it is testing an in-app prediction market feature in collaboration with Predict.fun, which is built on 

 and previously went through YZi Labs’ incubation program.

Predict.fun is targeting the next phase of growth by improving capital efficiency, converting idle collateral into yield-generating assets via DeFi integration and creating a liquidity flywheel to maximize capital use.

, a livestream-focused prediction markets platform, alongside Foundation Capital and angel investor RadioSolace. 

The platform allows users to instantly launch prediction markets directly within livestreams, with outcomes that can settle in seconds or minutes, enabling rapid, real-time engagement.

The launch will include AVAX futures (5,000 AVAX) and Micro AVAX futures (500 AVAX), as well as SUI futures (50,000 SUI) and Micro SUI futures (5,000 SUI).

 is the native utility token of the Based ecosystem. 

Based is a non-custodial DeFi application layer that aggregates multiple financial services into a single interface. 

Built on top of existing infrastructure such as 

, it provides access to perpetuals trading, spot trading, and prediction markets through integrations to the platform. 

Users interact through a single wallet and retain full custody of their funds while accessing these services.

Based also offers a Visa Platinum card that enables users to spend crypto and trading gains anywhere Visa is accepted which provides cashback rewards in $BASED on purchases.

$BASED has a fixed total supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens, allocated as:

Of the Genesis Distribution (360 million tokens), 24% was released at the Token Generation Event (TGE) on 30 March 2026. 

The utility of $BASED is embedded across the protocol, with holding and staking serving different roles. 

Beginner

what is bitcoin defi .png

10 April 2026: What's New in DeFi?

Liquidated: US$56m in short positions. But there's more than meets the eye.

 rallied sharply alongside broader risk-on assets following news of a conditional US–Iran ceasefire. 

The announcement came just 90 minutes before President Trump’s Tuesday 8pm ET deadline – avoiding an ultimatum for Iran that had raised the risk of further escalation if terms were not met.

The fragile agreement, which stipulated  the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, helped trigger a relief rally in crypto assets. BTC even posted a 3-week high and recovered back above $70K as the geopolitical risk premium eased.

, alongside rising open interest, suggests that market participants are actively adding risk as macro conditions improve.

Crypto led the move overnight, outperforming traditional assets as markets repriced lower near-term tail risks. 

While liquidations did contribute (with data showing that ~$56M cleared on Bybit BTC perpetuals), derivatives data suggests the rally was not driven purely by forced closure of bearish positions. 

Open interest increased alongside the price move, indicating fresh positioning rather than a purely mechanical unwind of shorts positions.

Funding rates also remained relatively contained, lacking the sharp spikes typically associated with aggressive positioning shifts.

Block Scholes’ Risk Appetite Index measures the level of euphoria (above 1) or panic (below -1) in the spot market. Momentum in this index shows a strong relationship to spot returns.

As President Trump’s Tuesday 8pm ET deadline quickly approached, the President 

 at 6.32pm ET that Iran had agreed to a “double sided CEASEFIRE" of two weeks, a period in which the two states could reach terms for a lasting peace deal and end the war in the Middle East.

Crucially for US and western interests, one of the conditions of the ceasefire was “the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz” to international commercial traffic. 

The prospects of ending Iran’s chokehold of a vitally important shipping lane for oil exports from the Gulf region were broadly celebrated by markets.

The move across assets actually preceded the post by some minutes as:

Shorts liquidated: not just forced closures

However, while Coinglass sources indicate that up to $56M of short positions were liquidated on Bybit's BTC perps, the sharp repricing of risk higher was not driven solely by the forced closure of short positions. 

Open interest (while strongly depressed from its October 2025 highs of ~$18B) actually appears to have increased since the move, rather than fall dramatically in the way we saw in historically significant liquidation events such as Oct 10, 2025. 

We see this in the chart above, which displays the open interest levels of the perpetual swaps with the largest OI levels on the Bybit exchange. 

This suggests that there was not the same magnitude of build up of highly-levered short positioning in these perps.

Funding rates of those same perpetual swap contracts paint a similar picture. 

While average funding rates have indeed been depressed since the initial strikes on Iran on Feb 28, 2026 (and for some tokens more than others), there was not a sharp spike higher  that we would expect from the liquidation of short positions.

Option markets have also priced out much of the case for a drawn-out war.

As shown in the chart above, which shows that the premium assigned to puts (i.e. a negative 25-delta skew) has narrowed notably since the news broke. Not only is that move at short tenors in reaction to the immediate spot rally – puts at tenors up to 3 months are all trading with less of a relative premium. 

However, no tenor has flipped to bullish, suggesting a see-it-to-believe-it approach to promises of lasting peace and conditions sustainably favourable to a broader risk-on rally.

Advanced

Bybit - Middle East watch.jpeg

“Fragile” US-Iran Ceasefire Moderates Bearish Crypto Sentiment

War or peace? All eyes on 8PM ET tonight.

Q2's first week delivered no directional clarity — BTC oscillated in a narrow band, macro headlines continued to dominate, and sentiment hit fresh cycle lows before a tentative technical bounce into the weekend.

Weekly Expiry (4/4) — Low-Impact Reset:

BTC range-lock continues. $71,500 is the directional gatekeeper.

⚠️ BTC must hold $66K on any retest. ETH needs a daily close above $2,200 to confirm breakout. Current market structure favors range-trading over directional bets.

✅ Strategy 1 — Short Strangle (4/10 expiry)

✅ Strategy 2 — Put Diagonal (Continuing Framework)

The diagonal provides downside protection against a $55k tail event while collecting near-term premium on the short leg — well-suited for the current high-DVOL, directionally uncertain environment where Polymarket prices a 74% chance of touching $55k.

btc price movement.png

Bybit Options Weekly Review: April 1–7

and Bybit's latest listing surged as much 547% since its March 31st debut.

Here are some major developments across the crypto and DeFi space this week:

 as its primary network for processing and settling stablecoin transactions.

B2C2, which provides liquidity to major firms and has partnerships with companies like Standard Chartered and Anchorage Digital, will route large-scale flows through Solana, for institutional stablecoin activity.

 has announced a new Series C funding round at a $1.1B valuation, underscoring continued investor support for established digital asset infrastructure firms despite a weak broader venture backdrop.

The round is being led by SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered, with additional participation from Ripple, an existing backer

While the company did not disclose the amount raised so far, management indicated the round remains open and could ultimately reach $100M.

 have backed the launch of the Blockchain Leadership Fund, a new crypto-focused political action committee aimed at supporting candidates advancing digital asset and blockchain policy ahead of the US midterm elections.

For Anchorage, the move marks its first direct involvement in funding a PAC, while for the industry more broadly it underscores a continued effort to shape the regulatory environment through more coordinated political advocacy.

 has completed the design of its blockchain-based shared ledger and is now building the first version to enable continuous cross-border payments using tokenised bank deposits, with live transactions expected to begin this year. It is working with banks globally to expand functionality and support the transition to digital finance.

Swift will operate and coordinate the ledger, while banks retain control over their assets and settlement processes. The initiative sits alongside broader efforts to improve payment speed, transparency, and reliability for consumers and businesses.

The system builds on existing Swift infrastructure, adding a shared layer that records and validates payment commitments while supporting compliance processes and multiple settlement methods. Developed using open-source, EVM-compatible technology, it is designed to integrate with the broader digital asset ecosystem and scale over time.

at Google Research has published a new whitepaper warning that future quantum computers could break the elliptic curve cryptography used by most cryptocurrencies, including 

, which is used in digital signatures to secure transactions and wallets.

The research estimates this could be achieved using under 1,200–1,450 logical qubits and ~70–90M Toffoli gates, implying roughly a 20× reduction in the number of physical qubits required compared to prior estimates.

The paper calls on the crypto industry to begin transitioning to post-quantum cryptography, new cryptographic schemes designed to remain secure against quantum attacks, to ensure long-term security and stability. While still beyond current hardware capabilities, Google emphasizes the threat is becoming more feasible.

is considering a one-off $20M LDO buyback as the token trades close to record lows, framing the move as an opportunistic use of treasury capital rather than a routine intervention.

The proposal, published on Friday, would allow the DAO to deploy up to 10,000 

 to repurchase LDO, potentially absorbing a meaningful share of the circulating supply at current prices.

 for approximately $20M in March, at a price materially below its average holding cost.

Based on the company’s filing, the sale was executed at roughly $70,400 per BTC, representing around a 40% discount to its reported average purchase price.

is expanding its exchange offering by introducing 6 crypto-asset exchange traded notes (ETNs) indexed to 

, to its French retail investment offering, enabling clients to gain exposure without directly holding the assets.

These ETNs are available from March 30, 2026, for retail, entrepreneurial, private banking, and Hello bank! clients in France, with plans to extend access to wealth management clients internationally.

 disclosed that it did not sell the 4,709 

 position worth roughly $324M as of 31 January.

Instead, the company pledged the bitcoin as collateral with 

 Credit and used part of the position in a covered-call strategy with strikes set at $105,000-$110,000.

 have charged 10 foreign nationals linked to firms including 

 for allegedly running coordinated crypto “pump-and-dump” schemes. Prosecutors say the group artificially boosted token prices and trading volumes through structured trading, then sold at inflated levels, leaving investors with losses.

The FBI uncovered the scheme through “Operation Token Mirrors” by creating its own token, NexFundAI, and presenting it as a legitimate project to engage market-making firms.

has launched MAVAN (Made In America Validator Network), its proprietary staking platform initially built to support its 

As of March 24, 2026, the company has staked 3,142,643 ETH (worth $6.8B at $2,148 per ETH via 

), with expected annual staking rewards of $300M once fully deployed at a 2.83% 7-day yield.

EDGE is the native token of the decentralized derivatives protocol, edgeX. 

Total supply is set at 1 billion EDGE. Of this, 30% is allocated to early users, split between:

In the future, it may also have a role in supporting the network’s infrastructure and security.

The release schedule differs by category: 

Another important feature of the token is the 30% future reserve. 

For token holders, that reserve is therefore both a source of strategic optionality and a potential source of dilution risk.

3 April 2026: What's New in DeFi?

Options markets suggest Iran war could de-escalate by mid-2026; expect volatility in the interim.

On Wednesday morning, Bitcoin had staged a small recovery to $69K alongside other risk-on assets, retracing part of the drawdown seen through March as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East showed tentative signs of easing. 

However, Thursday morning saw BTC fall 3% to give up those gains and return towards the $66K level as Trump promised to strike Iran ‘extremely hard’. 

Both the relief rally and subsequent crash occurred in tandem with other risk-on assets as crypto price action continues in large part to suffer from geopolitical uncertainty.

While short tenor options show a preference for puts, longer tenors show less bearish positioning than they did one week ago

In contrast to short tenor skews, green shoots of a recovery in sentiment are indicated in Block Scholes’ Risk Appetite Index, which has begun to recover from extreme bearish levels and now trends higher in both BTC and ETH. The -0.5 level has historically marked a transition away from panic-driven positioning and has acted as an indicator of the beginning of bullish momentum. 

While the move higher aligns with the recent recovery in spot, the signal is more notable than what is currently being expressed in options markets, where positioning remains bearish.

Despite indicating that US military objectives may be nearing completion and suggesting a potential withdrawal from Iran within “two or three weeks”, President Trump delivered a strong reminder of his resolve for continued military strikes against Iran in a primetime speech delivered on Wednesday night. 

Such promises included strikes on key energy infrastructure, offsetting earlier hopes of de-escalation and leaving volatility elevated.

In contrast to the whipsaw in spot prices over the last three days, implied volatility levels had remained elevated throughout. 

Short-dated tenors continue to trade at elevated levels as options markets remain incredibly cautious and unwilling to price-in an immediate end to the war in the middle east (and, most importantly for markets, a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz).

While spot markets have reacted immediately to both positive and negative news for risk-on assets, crypto options markets have so far been a consistent barometer for how much faith markets place in discussions. We see that in the 

persistently elevated implied volatility levels

 for longer dated tenors over the last week, despite Trump’s delivery of a 15 point plan for peace and President Masoud Pezeshkian’s statement that Iran has the “necessary will” to end hostilities.

In contrast to the consistently elevated level of implied volatility, the directional sentiment expressed by options markets has repriced strongly several times in the last week in response to developments surrounding the Middle East conflict.

First, overtures from both sides earlier this week saw short tenor volatility smiles move from a 13 point premium in favour of puts to a far less bearish (but still far from bullish) 6.5 point premium.

Trump’s reiteration overnight of possible strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure and massing of troops in the Middle East has since returned those short tenor puts to a 10 point premium – not as bearish as positioning at the start of the week, but certainly not positioning for a rally. 

Options at tenors of 90 days or longer, however, have not been ...

Is that a small sign that markets are beginning to price for an end in sight?

US-Iran Mixed Signals Leave Options Markets Uncertain

Watch $60k for crucial support, BTC options still seized by Middle East conflict.

 and a dramatic escalation-then-partial-relief cycle in the Iran conflict, culminating in a major market selloff and a cautious recovery into Q2.

Q1 Quarterly Expiry Settlement (3/27) — The Week's Centerpiece:

BTC options accounted for approximately $10.2 billion of the total notional value, with ETH making up the remaining $3.3 billion. The put/call ratio across the combined open interest sat near 0.85, meaning there were slightly more calls than puts — but the spread was narrow enough that neither side had a commanding advantage.

IV. Outlook for Next Week (April 1–7, Q2 Opens)

Q1 settlement is complete. Options open interest has fully reset. Q2 begins with pure directional flow dominating price action.

⚠️ Bitcoin's $66,000 support is the key level to watch. A daily close below it could trigger a move toward $50,000, while stablecoin supply near a record $316 billion suggests capital is parked and ready to flow back once conditions improve.

Current Recommendation: Cautious Short Strangle (4/3 or 4/10 expiry)

 collecting full premium on both sides as long as BTC stays within $58k–$74k

Bybit Options Weekly Review: March 25–31

What you need to know about crypto's latest regulatory win

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 

have jointly issued an interpretation clarifying how federal securities laws apply to certain crypto assets.

While the Trump administration signaled a shift toward a more crypto-friendly regulatory stance, the landscape has remained clouded by uncertainty around how these rules are interpreted and enforced in practice. 

, where charges were initially brought and later partially dropped, have created sharp swings in token prices and reinforced perceptions of inconsistency. 

This ambiguity has, in turn, contributed to continued hesitation among institutions who remain cautious about entering the space both as investors and as issuers of crypto-related products.

This joint crypto interpretation release landed just a week after the SEC and CFTC formalized closer coordination through a

 aimed at tightening oversight across both crypto and traditional financial markets. 

As digital assets increasingly sit across securities and derivatives regimes, the agreement sets out a clearer framework for how the two regulators will work together. 

It also tackles one of the biggest friction points in crypto regulation: overlapping oversight. 

Instead of both agencies supervising the same activity, the framework assigns responsibility based on the function and risk profile of each activity. 

At the same time, the SEC and CFTC will expand data-sharing and jointly monitor firms operating across both jurisdictions, with more coordinated surveillance and risk assessment to better capture cross-market exposures and systemic links within crypto markets.

The agreement still preserves each regulator’s statutory authority, but enables more practical coordination in supervision and enforcement. 

Alongside this, “Project Crypto” has been introduced as a joint initiative to align federal oversight of digital assets and clarify how different asset types are treated. 

The CFTC’s guidance is also being developed in parallel with the SEC’s approach, reinforcing consistency across the regulators.

In particular, the SEC and CFTC have moved toward a more structured approach by classifying crypto assets into five categories based on their characteristics, uses, and functions:

The interpretation seeks to define which asset types fall under the SEC’s jurisdiction, meaning they will be classified as a security. Importantly, for these tokens not to be considered securities, they must not grant rights to profits or income.

The SEC has also highlighted five services in particular:

SEC and CFTC logos - Bitcoin and other crypto elements - Chatgpt.png

Cryptos Defined: CFTC and SEC clarify crypto assets and services

Major moves by (Micro)Strategy, Morgan Stanley, Grayscale, Kalshi, Polymarket, and even the CFTC and SEC.

Here are some major developments across the crypto and DeFi space of late:

 for roughly $1.1B between 4 March and 25 March and used the proceeds to fund a $1B buyback of its 0% convertible senior notes due 2030 and 2031.

The company agreed to repurchase around $367.5M of its 2030 notes for $322.9M and $633.4M of its 2031 notes for $589.9M, effectively retiring debt at a discount.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman, Michael S. Selig, 

 to provide clearer regulatory direction for emerging technologies in U.S. derivatives markets, as activity grows in areas like crypto and AI.

The initiative will initially focus on crypto assets, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and prediction markets to support responsible innovation while maintaining U.S. competitiveness.

Led by Michael J. Passalacqua, the task force will also coordinate with agencies, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its Crypto Task Force, to align oversight alongside the Innovation Advisory Committee.

, expected to be executed over the next three years, with flexibility to adjust based on market conditions.

This builds on its previous programs announced in 2024 and 2025, where Robinhood have repurchased more than 25M shares at an average price of around $45, totalling over $1.1B.

According to Bloomberg, the New York-based firm is focusing the new capital on areas such as stablecoins, tokenisation and institutional onchain finance.

Outside the new fund, ParaFi has also raised a further $325M for its broader digital asset strategies since the start of 2025, bringing total assets under management to around $2B.

 on March 20th, offering public market exposure to 

The proposed fund, which would trade on Nasdaq under the ticker GHYP if approved, would track HYPE using CoinDesk benchmark data and custody assets with Coinbase Custody.

have become the final major U.S. exchanges to 

and ETH ETF options, bringing crypto ETF options into line with the treatment of other commodity-based ETF options across all major U.S. exchanges.

With the SEC waiving the standard waiting period, the changes took effect immediately and also allowed these products to trade as FLEX options (Flexible Exchange Options).

Separately, Nasdaq ISE is still seeking approval to raise IBIT-specific position limits to 1M contracts.

as Senate scrutiny of prediction markets intensifies.

 stated in its official press release that it is 

 with new at-the-market programmes for up to $21B of STRC preferred stock and $21B of 

The filing also adds new sales agents, keeps prior MSTR and STRC issuance programmes in place, and replaces the prior STRK programme with a new $2.1B STRK facility.

 with a second amended S-1 filing, adding key operational details including the ticker, MSBT, proposed NYSE Arca listing, and seed basket structure.

, Europe’s largest asset manager, has launched the 

Spiko Amundi Overnight Swap Fund (SAFO), 

a tokenized fund debuting with $100M in committed AUM across 

Designed for treasury and collateral management, the fund offers near-instant settlement, multi-currency subscriptions and redemptions, and 24/7 transferability, with 

 in a new funding round at a $22B valuation, marking a sharp step-up from its previous $11B valuation following its late-2025 Series E raise.

 announced the launch of its new network-agnostic 

, where Moody’s is also operating a node, embedding credit insight directly into blockchain-based financial workflows rather than leaving it as a separate off-chain input.

Altcoins

Blockchain

Crypto

DeFi

GameFi

Indicators

Investing

Artificial Intelligence

Metaverse

Memes

Options

Stablecoin

Staking

Strategies

Trading

Web 3.0

Web3 Experts

Live ICYMI

Fiat Money

Crypto Insights

Crypto Insights

10 April 2026: What's New in DeFi?

Crypto Insights

“Fragile” US-Iran Ceasefire Moderates Bearish Crypto Sentiment

Crypto Insights

Bybit Options Weekly Review: April 1–7

Crypto Insights

3 April 2026: What's New in DeFi?

Crypto Insights

US-Iran Mixed Signals Leave Options Markets Uncertain

Crypto Insights

Bybit Options Weekly Review: March 25–31

Crypto Insights

Cryptos Defined: CFTC and SEC clarify crypto assets and services

Crypto Insights

27 March 2026: What's New in DeFi?

Crypto Insights

Cryptos buoyed by regulatory win, withstand mixed signals on Middle East conflict

Crypto Insights

Bybit Options Weekly Review: March 17-24

Crypto Insights

18 March 2026: What's New in DeFi?

Crypto Insights

Bitcoin Regains Institutional Support as Spot ETF Inflows Return