Kalshi is now under a two-week restraining order barring bets in Nevada while a legal debate proceeds over the longer-term status of prediction markets there.

The First Judicial District Court of Nevada issued a 14-day order on Friday, directing the platform to cease offering event contracts in that state. A federal appeals court cleared the way on Thursday for state regulators to seek the order, which the Nevada Gaming Control Board first sought in 2025, when it told Kalshi to cease its sports contracts.

Kalshi had argued that the case should be moved to federal court, but the appeals court sent it back to Nevada, despite the company’s claim that it “faces imminent harm” from the state’s actions.

On Friday, the state court halted Kalshi’s sports, entertainment and election bets as the parties continue to argue over the relative authority of the state regulators to govern event-contract businesses.

The Nevada judge determined that the gaming board can’t properly function under these circumstances, and “an unlicensed participant beyond the Board’s control, such as Kalshi, obstructs the Board’s ability to fulfill its statutory functions.” The court is following up with an April 3 hearing.

A spokesman for Kalshi declined to comment on the Nevada development. Kalshi is being sued or prosecuted in several states on similar grounds. Earlier this week, Arizona’s attorney general charged Kalshi with running an unlicensed gambling business and offering illegal election wagering.

Meanwhile, Chairman Mike Selig of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is insisting that his federal agency actually has proper authority over the markets, not the states. He filed a court brief stating that argument and has repeated it in a number of recent public appearances, promising he’ll fight the states on that point. He’s also begun moving on establishing CFTC policies in prediction markets.

Federal regulation generally supersedes state regulation, but the courts may need to weigh in on who is properly entitled to the jurisdiction. Major League Baseball, for one, has thrown in with the CFTC, signing a memorandum of understanding this week on oversight of prediction markets and also inking a partnership with Polymarket.

Read More: CFTC’s Selig opens legal dispute against states getting in way of prediction markets

An ongoing bear market combined with wider global economic struggles has hit crypto firms hard, causing delays, staff layoffs, and AI pivots. 

This week, crypto protocol Algorand announced it was reluctantly reducing its workforce by 25%. 

Algorand claimed the “tough” layoff was in response to “the uncertain global macro environment as well as the broader downturn in crypto markets.”

Indeed, as the year continues, bitcoin’s price is struggling to gain upward momentum after dropping to $63,000 in late February.

The escalating war between the US, Irael and Iran is also causing the price of oil to rocket, and threatens deeper economic turmoil across the globe.

Crypto layoffs, cuts, and delays

Firms including Gemini, Messari, Crypto.com, OP Labs, OpenSea, and Kraken, have announced various cuts to their operations, be it through trimming staff or delaying planned operations.

Meanwhile, Crypto.com announced a 12% staff layoff yesterday while citing an AI pivot. The firm’s CEO, Kris Marszalek, claimed the roles of the fired staff “do not adapt in our new world.”

Read more: Mass crypto layoffs are a short-term solution with long-term consequences

Gemini similarly let 25% of its staff go in February, claiming AI has allowed its workforce to operate more efficiently with fewer staff. 

Gemini also let three of its execs go, including Chief Operating Officer Marshall Beard, Chief Financial Officer Dan Chen, and Chief Legal Officer Tyler Meade.

On Monday, crypto analytics firm Messari announced that it’s “doubling down” on becoming an “AI-first company,” and announced that it had let various team members go as new CEO, Diran Li, took the reins. 

Protocol contributor OP Labs fired 20 of its staff last week in a memo that also alluded to the possibility of an AI pivot. CEO Jing Wang said, “This is about doing fewer things well, making decisions faster, and reducing coordination overhead.”

These all follow what was one of the more dramatic AI pivots from Jack Dorsey’s Block, which fired 50% of its staff (around 4,000 people) while citing the advancements AI offers to workplace efficiency.  

Read more: How bombing Iran shifted oil and bitcoin prices

This week, the NFT platform OpenSea announced that it was delaying the launch of its $SEA token because of “challenging” market conditions across crypto that may affect its launch. 

Another delay was announced yesterday to Kraken’s initial public offering (IPO). According to sources familiar with the matter, Kraken’s parent company, Payward, is pausing the IPO plans until “market conditions improve.”

Layoffs often come with reputational costs and further long-term consequences down the line, as staff are left burdened with the workloads of their departed teammates.

However, with more companies citing AI as a reason for workforce reduction, it’s hard to ignore its ability to mitigate the burden of cutting staff.

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Bitcoin is holding just below $70k after a hawkish FOMC, ETF outflows, and a shift to Fear, with weak long conviction but easing miner selling and difficulty.

The sell-off dragged the broader crypto market with it. Ethereum and Solana each fell 5–6% in tandem, confirming that Bitcoin’s near-term correlation with risk assets remains elevated. With BTC’s 30-day correlation to the S&P 500 sitting at 0.74 — the highest of 2026 — the asset is currently trading less like a macro hedge and more like a high-beta tech proxy, a dynamic that leaves it exposed to any further deterioration in equity markets.

Despite the fear reading, there are structural factors that have prevented a more severe breakdown. Open interest data tracked by CoinGlass shows that during yesterday’s dip to $68,750, shorts were actively adding positions — forming what the firm described as a “clean short position buildup.” The price has since rebounded, though OI has not increased meaningfully, suggesting range-bound rather than trending conditions. The lack of new long entry confirms that conviction on the buy side remains cautious, but the shorts have also not fully pressed their advantage.

On the supply side, the picture is more constructive. Miner selling pressure — a persistent headwind throughout the first quarter — is showing signs of fading, with net miner outflows down 82% from their February peak. A significant difficulty adjustment tonight, expected to drop ~7.5%, will further ease cost pressure on the mining industry and reduce near-term forced selling from that cohort.

For now, Bitcoin finds itself in a holding pattern: above the critical $66,827 level where over $1.87 billion in leveraged longs sit exposed, but well below the $73,757 resistance that would trigger a short squeeze. With macro uncertainty elevated, geopolitical tensions unresolved, and sentiment firmly in fear, the burden of proof lies with the bulls to demonstrate fresh conviction before the market can credibly call the bottom in.

Bhutan has sold over $110m in Bitcoin in 2026, cutting sovereign holdings by about 65% from their peak as Druk Holding shifts from mining-led accumulation to steady liquidation.

The Kingdom of Bhutan has quietly become one of the most closely watched sovereign Bitcoin sellers of 2026, with its state investment arm offloading more than $110 million worth of BTC since the start of the year — a systematic drawdown that has cut its holdings by 65% from their peak and raised questions about the future of one of crypto’s most unlikely national success stories.

The latest and largest transaction occurred on March 17 and 18, when Druk Holding & Investments — the sovereign wealth fund that manages Bhutan’s digital asset reserves — transferred 973 BTC worth approximately $72.3 million across multiple addresses. Among the recipients was QCP Capital, a Singapore-based institutional trading firm, indicating structured OTC selling designed to minimize market impact rather than distressed dumping onto open exchanges. A portion was also directed toward Binance hot wallets.

Bhutan’s Bitcoin journey began in 2019, when the country began quietly mining BTC using surplus hydroelectric power from its Himalayan rivers — a near-zero marginal cost energy source that made mining highly profitable even at modest price levels. At its peak, Bhutan held approximately 13,000 BTC, valued at over $1.4 billion — a sum representing more than 40% of the country’s entire gross domestic product at the time. Those holdings have since contracted to roughly 5,400 BTC, worth around $374 million at current prices.

A critical detail flagged by on-chain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence adds a new dimension to the story: Bhutan has not recorded a Bitcoin inflow of over $100,000 in more than a year. This strongly suggests the country has halted or severely curtailed its mining operations, shifting from an accumulation-and-hold strategy to a pure liquidation mode. The reasons remain officially unconfirmed, but analysts have pointed to declining mining profitability following the April 2024 halving, rising operational costs, and competing demands on the country’s hydropower infrastructure.​

The selling pattern has been methodical rather than reactive. Bhutan typically transacts in $5–10 million clips, with occasional larger tranches when market conditions are favorable. The $72.3 million move this week is an outlier in size, suggesting either an acceleration of the drawdown timeline or an opportunistic decision to lock in prices near the $71,000 level before further deterioration.​

For the broader market, the sustained presence of sovereign-scale selling at these volumes is a non-trivial headwind. Unlike retail or even institutional fund selling, sovereign liquidations tend to be price-insensitive and recurring — features that can create persistent ceiling pressure on any attempted recovery. As Bitcoin navigates a fragile macro environment with fear sentiment elevated and ETF flows recently reversing, Bhutan’s quiet but relentless selling is one more structural force the bulls must absorb on the path back to new highs.

Morgan Stanley filed a second amended S-1 for its proposed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), detailing seed capital, trading partners and listing plans as the Wall Street bank moves closer to launching the product under the ticker MSBT.

The amended filing says the trust expects to raise $1 million through the sale of 50,000 initial seed shares to its delegated sponsor ahead of listing on NYSE Arca, then use the proceeds to buy Bitcoin (BTC) for the fund. Morgan Stanley said the fund remains subject to regulatory approval before it can begin trading.

The filing lists Jane Street, Virtu Americas and Macquarie Capital as authorized participants, allowing them to create or redeem large blocks of shares and profit from the arbitrage between Bitcoin’s price and the ETF’s share price. This keeps the ETF’s price close to the value of Bitcoin.

Morgan Stanley recommended a 2% to 4% allocation to crypto portfolios for investors and financial advisers in October 2025 and allowed its financial advisors to recommend crypto funds to clients with individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401(k)s.

“Morgan Stanley is moving from distributing BlackRock’s IBIT to issuing its own product, capturing management fees directly rather than earning distribution commissions,” Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder of RedStone, told Cointelegraph, adding that the bank’s 15,000 financial advisors will introduce a real “distribution muscle” for the ETF.

Related: Morgan Stanley, other top holders add Bitmine exposure amid sell-off

Wall Street moves closer to crypto funds

The move adds to a broader push by large US financial institutions to expand access to crypto-related products.

On Jan. 5, 2026, the second-largest US bank, Bank of America, began allowing advisers in its wealth management businesses to recommend exposure to four Bitcoin ETFs, which were previously only available upon request, Cointelegraph reported. 

A day earlier, Vanguard, the world’s second-largest asset manager, enabled crypto ETF trading for its clients, reversing its previous stance on digital asset ETFs.

Related: Wells Fargo sees ‘YOLO’ trade driving $150B into Bitcoin and risk assets

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, recommended an up to 2% Bitcoin allocation to its clients in December 2024.

Magazine: Bitcoin’s ‘biggest bull catalyst’ would be Saylor’s liquidation — Santiment founder