Crypto World
Polymarket Adds Equities, Commodities via Pyth Price Feeds
Polymarket is expanding its predictive markets beyond purely cryptocurrency-related events, adding contracts tied to traditional assets. The new offerings rely on price data from the Pyth Network to determine outcomes for daily contracts, including up/down bets and closing price contracts for major equity indices, commodities such as gold and oil, and a range of US-listed stocks. Settlements are automated, with contracts resetting at the end of each trading session.
In its announcement, Polymarket notes that the expanded lineup includes more than a dozen US-listed stocks, featuring blue-chips such as Tesla, Nvidia and Apple, alongside commodity and index-based markets. By adopting Pyth as the resolution layer, Polymarket is moving away from manual or exchange-specific references toward a standardized data feed that aggregates prices from multiple market participants.
Key takeaways
- Polymarket launches traditional-asset markets (stocks, indices, commodities) using Pyth Network for automatic, real-time settlement.
- The new markets include daily up/down and closing price contracts for major US-listed stocks (e.g., Tesla, Nvidia, Apple), plus gold and oil, settled via Pyth feeds with daily resets.
- Polymarket also introduced Pyth Terminal, a live data interface showing the reference values used to settle contracts and a continuously updating price-to-beat tracker for traders.
- ICE’s investment signals strategic backing: ICE completed a $600 million cash investment in Polymarket last week and may acquire up to $40 million more in shares as part of a broader commitment to the platform.
- Oracle networks are expanding beyond crypto, with government and traditional finance applications increasingly relying on on-chain price and economic data.
Polymarket’s bridge to traditional markets
The rollout marks a notable shift for Polymarket, which has historically focused on event-driven markets—ranging from elections and sports to financial and weather outcomes. By anchoring settlement to Pyth’s real-time price feeds, the platform can offer automated outcomes for assets that trade outside the typical crypto-native hours, broadening the potential audience of traders who want to speculate on or hedge exposure to conventional markets.
The inclusion of US-listed equities, including Tesla, Nvidia and Apple, alongside commodity and index contracts, positions Polymarket at the intersection of prediction markets and traditional financial markets. The Reuters-style mechanics of “daily up/down” and “closing price” contracts enable end-of-day settlement that mirrors conventional price discovery, while still leveraging the transparency and programmability of blockchain-backed markets. The Business Wire release emphasizes that Pyth’s data is the reference used to resolve these bets, replacing ad hoc or venue-specific price references.
Pyth Terminal and the changing face of on-chain data
Concurrently, Pyth Network introduced Pyth Terminal, a data interface designed to give users a transparent view of live price feeds and the reference values underpinning Polymarket settlements. The terminal provides a continuously updating price-to-beat line, allowing traders to monitor how shifts in real-time data could affect contract outcomes. This level of visibility is meant to enhance trust and operational clarity for users participating in cross-asset markets on the platform.
Pyth’s broader push into traditional finance data aligns with a growing trend among oracle networks to serve not just crypto protocols but also financial infrastructure and prediction markets. The same trend is evident in other collaborations—Chainlink, RedStone and Kalshi integrations, and shifts toward 24/5 pricing data for tokenized assets—reflecting a broader push to tether decentralized markets to official or widely accepted data feeds.
Oracles, finance, and the regulatory backdrop
The expansion of oracle networks into real-world data has taken on additional significance as governments and financial firms increasingly rely on on-chain information. Notably, Chainlink and Pyth have been cited by US government agencies as sources for publishing on-chain economic data, including GDP and inflation metrics. The market response to these developments has been tangible: the PYTH token surged more than 70% on the day of the announcement, lifting its market capitalization above $1 billion.
These developments sit within a broader ecosystem where oracles are being integrated into both traditional finance and regulatory-compliant data pipelines. For example, Kalshi’s integration via RedStone across multiple blockchains demonstrates how regulated, exchange-traded event contracts can leverage cross-chain data feeds. Meanwhile, data providers continue to compete for share in a market that DeFiLlama currently indicates remains highly concentrated, with Chainlink accounting for roughly two-thirds of total value secured, and RedStone and Pyth each representing a smaller slice.
Strategic backing from ICE and implications for users
Intercontinental Exchange, Polymarket’s backer, disclosed last week a $600 million cash investment in Polymarket and an option to acquire up to $40 million more in shares as part of a broader multibillion-dollar commitment to the platform. ICE’s involvement underscores a deepening convergence between traditional exchange operators and crypto-based prediction markets. For Polymarket, the arrangement could unlock new liquidity channels and potential product expansions, while ICE gains exposure to a novel form of event-based market activity that sits at the convergence of data, finance and user-generated insights.
From an investor and trader perspective, the move expands the set of tools available to hedge or speculate on real-world events. The use of a single, standardized data source like Pyth to settle a wide array of assets could simplify risk management for participants and may encourage more institutional participation that relies on consistent, auditable price feeds. For developers and platform builders, the integration demonstrates a viable pathway for connecting traditional assets to decentralized marketplaces without sacrificing transparency or speed of settlement.
As the ecosystem evolves, readers should watch how these traditional-asset markets perform in terms of liquidity, user adoption and regulatory compliance. The synergy between Polymarket’s user-driven contracts and ICE’s financial infrastructure could shape how predictive platforms scale beyond niche audiences, potentially influencing how everyday investors interact with real-world assets on-chain.
Overall, the fusion of Polymarket’s prediction market model with Pyth’s enterprise-grade price data signals a meaningful step toward broader applicability of oracle-powered settlement. The coming months will reveal how well these traditional-asset markets attract liquidity, how robust the data feeds prove under volatile conditions, and what regulatory and market structure developments might accompany this cross-asset expansion.
What remains unclear is how this model will fare across different asset classes during periods of stress, and whether further collaborations between traditional exchanges and on-chain data providers will accelerate the adoption of tokenized or blockchain-anchored versions of equities and commodities. Traders and builders alike should keep an eye on the next wave of product updates, market depth, and any regulatory clarifications that could affect the trajectory of cross-asset prediction markets.
Big Tech names have joined the Linux Foundation’s newly formed x402 Foundation to govern and standardize the x402 protocol for agentic AI payments that bridge crypto rails with fiat. The Linux Foundation announced the formation of the x402 Foundation on Thursday with Coinbase as a contributor, positioning the open standard as a neutral, nonprofit home for the evolving payments layer that AI agents could use to autonomously pay for API access, data, and digital services.
Among the founding members are Google, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services, alongside traditional payments and tech players such as American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Cloudflare, Shopify, Stripe, Circle, Base, Polygon Labs, the Solana Foundation, Thirdweb, and KakaoPay. The coalition signals broad industry appetite for a unified approach to AI-enabled payments that can operate across both crypto and traditional financial rails.
Linux Foundation CEO Jim Zemlin framed the move around open protocols, saying that “the internet was built on open protocols” and arguing for an open-source governance approach to x402. Coinbase emphasized that situating the protocol under the Linux Foundation lends a neutral, nonprofit ecosystem that could attract more widespread support from tech firms and developers than a corporate-branded launch would.
Beyond the structural shift, the effort taps into a longer-running market thesis: AI agents could become some of the dominant users of blockchain payments. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong echoed a view shared by Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire that AI-driven on-chain activity could reach scale fast, with Allaire predicting billions of AI agents transacting on-chain within a few years. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao has also suggested crypto could serve as the “native currency for AI agents,” handling tasks from ticket purchases to bill payments without credit cards.
x402 is described as an open payment standard designed to enable AI agents and web services to autonomously pay for API access, data, and digital services. The protocol’s goal is to create a seamless, programmable payment layer that can operate across both blockchain networks and fiat rails, enabling new automated service models at scale.
Key takeaways
- Founding coalition includes Google, Microsoft, AWS, AmEx, Mastercard, Visa, Cloudflare, Shopify, Stripe, Circle, Base, Polygon Labs, Solana Foundation, Thirdweb, KakaoPay, and Coinbase, with Linux Foundation hosting the initiative.
- The Linux Foundation’s stewardship aims to lend legitimacy and openness to x402, potentially broadening developer and enterprise participation beyond corporate sponsorships.
- Industry leaders frame AI agents as major future users of on-chain payments, with optimistic projections about billions of autonomous transactions in coming years.
- On-chain activity data shows a dramatic surge in x402 transactions last November, followed by a sharp drop through 2026, suggesting early enthusiasm outpaced durable, broad-based adoption.
Founding members and the mission behind x402
The launch of the x402 Foundation marks a concerted effort to govern an open standard that could standardize how AI agents access paid services, from APIs to data feeds. By bringing together technology giants and payments specialists, the project aims to reduce fragmentation and foster interoperable payment flows across multiple rails. The Linux Foundation’s role as a trusted steward is central to this strategy, offering governance, governance processes, and an established ecosystem for collaboration among developers, researchers, and enterprises.
Jim Zemlin, the Linux Foundation’s chief, underscored the rationale for openness: the internet’s early growth relied on shared protocols that anyone could build upon. His framing points to a broader industry belief that AI agents will require a universal, permissionable, and auditable payment layer to function across devices, platforms, and geographies. Coinbase’s stance reinforces the value of a neutral venue that can welcome a broader constituency of participants, from tech platforms to merchant networks and fintech providers.
The Linux Foundation as a neutral hub for open protocols
The decision to anchor x402 within the Linux Foundation reflects a longstanding industry preference for governance through an impartial organization rather than a single corporate entity. Such positioning could be critical as regulators, enterprises, and developers weigh the regulatory and operational implications of autonomous payments that operate at the intersection of crypto rails and fiat systems. Coinbase noted that a nonprofit home could improve collaboration, reduce friction for newcomers, and help scale adoption beyond a handful of early pilots.
AI agents and the future of on-chain commerce
At the heart of the x402 push is a belief that AI agents will soon be one of the principal drivers of on-chain payment activity. Armstrong’s comment—“There will be more AI agents transacting online than humans very soon”—aligns with a broader industry forecast, including Allaire’s earlier observation that billions of AI agents could transact on-chain in three to five years. Zhao’s remark about crypto as the “native currency for AI agents” suggests a future where autonomous software agents handle routine financial tasks—ranging from ticketing to bill payment—without human intervention or traditional card rails.
In practice, x402 would enable autonomous agents and web services to procure API access, data streams, and digital services via programmable payments. If widely adopted, this could accelerate the automation of many online workflows and introduce new monetization models for AI-enabled tools. Yet the path to broad adoption will depend on ecosystem incentives, proven security and reliability, and the ability to demonstrate cost efficiency at scale.
As AI agents move from concept to deployment, the question for investors and builders is where true value will accrue. Will open, interoperable payment standards like x402 unlock durable business models for AI-driven services, or will fragmentation persist as competing standards and gatekeepers emerge? The answer will hinge on concrete pilots, measurable ROI, and regulators’ evolving stance on programmable payments and data access across borders.
Signals from on-chain activity: a tale of initial hype and later cooling
For a sense of traction, data from Dune Analytics tracks weekly activity on the x402 protocol. After peaking in November with a weekly total around 13.7 million transactions, followed by 13.66 million in the next week, activity has since cooled significantly. Current weekly totals have fluctuated between roughly 29,000 and 1.1 million transactions, illustrating a stark drop from the early frenzy. The chart labeled “Weekly transactions via the x402 protocol since May 2025” shows the post-peak erosion in use, raising questions about what it will take to sustain momentum in the near term.
The numbers reflect a broader challenge facing new open standards: translating theoretical potential into durable, real-world usage. While the coalition’s membership signals strong strategic interest, the actual adoption curve for x402 will likely hinge on successful pilots, clear return on investment, and the establishment of practical payment flows for AI-enabled services at scale.
What to watch next
Observers should monitor how the x402 Foundation evolves its governance, onboarding of additional partners, and real-world pilots that demonstrate repeatable, scalable use cases. Key uncertainties include whether large enterprises will embed x402 into mission-critical AI workflows, how regulators will treat autonomous payments across crypto and fiat rails, and whether the ecosystem can sustain higher-frequency, low-latency transactions that AI agents require. As AI agents become more prevalent in API access and digital service consumption, the coming quarters will reveal whether x402 can translate early interest into durable, long-term adoption.
Bitcoin is trading choppily around $66,600, as the extended holiday weekend sidelines potential buyers and gives bears greater control over price action.
With CME futures and ETF flows set to pause over Good Friday, the market is heading into a liquidity gap just as its most reliable source of support is already weakening.
Bitcoin’s $65,000 support is starting to look fragile as the market’s most active buyers turn out to be its most macro-dependent. In a recent report, CryptoQuant data show 30-day apparent demand at about -63,000 BTC, even as ETF and corporate purchases climb to multi-month highs, while Singapore-based market maker Enflux told CoinDesk in a note that the price floor is “partly underwritten by rate-cut expectations.”
ETF purchases rose to roughly 50,000 BTC over the past 30 days, the highest since October 2025, while Strategy accumulated about 44,000 BTC over the same period. Yet overall demand remained negative, with selling from other participants overwhelming those inflows.
The pressure is most visible among large holders, CryptoQuant wrote in a recent report. Wallets holding 1,000 to 10,000 BTC have flipped to net distribution, with their one-year balance change dropping to about negative 188,000 BTC from a positive 200,000 BTC at the 2024 cycle peak. Mid-sized holders have also slowed accumulation sharply, while the Coinbase Premium has remained negative, signaling weak U.S. spot demand.
The result is a market where rising institutional activity does not translate into stronger price support. As more capital shifts toward ETF wrappers and regulated futures markets, bitcoin is increasingly priced through macro-sensitive positioning such as hedging and allocation shifts rather than broad-based spot accumulation.
That positioning is now being tested by inflation data, Enflux wrote. The ISM prices-paid index jumped to 78.3 in March, its highest since June 2022, undermining expectations for near-term rate cuts. Enflux said the repricing has already begun to show up in flows, with $296 million in net ETF outflows during the week of March 24 and muted inflows in early April.
The long weekend removes a key stabilizer. With CME closed and ETF creation and redemption paused, the institutional bid that has increasingly anchored bitcoin’s price will be largely absent, leaving trading to spot markets where selling pressure has been most persistent.
CryptoQuant said any relief rally could face resistance between roughly $71,500 and $81,200, levels that have capped prior rebounds in the current bear-market structure.
The broader test comes with U.S. inflation data on April 9. If March core PCE exceeds February’s 3.1%, rate-cut expectations could fade further, strengthening bearish case in bitcoin.
Opinion by: Sebastián Serrano, founder and CEO of Ripio.
For much of the past decade, the crypto industry has tried to tokenize niche assets in an attempt to reinvent finance. While creative, this approach has largely missed the core economic truth about where tokenization actually creates value.
In these early stages of blockchain adoption, tokenization works best not at the fringes of the economy, but at its center. The industry’s first instinct — to tokenize illiquid assets — was a miscalculation. The most successful tokenization effort involved the most liquid asset in the world (the US dollar) in the form of USD-backed stablecoins.
Today, companies are piloting tokenized versions of other highly liquid assets like Treasury bills, smaller currencies and increasingly, stocks. This is not accidental. Tokenization is most powerful when applied to assets that already have massive demand and standardized legal and financial frameworks. Liquidity is the precondition that allows tokenization to move from novelty to infrastructure.
Tokenize what people want
Tokenization should start with assets that are already in high demand. Money, sovereign debt and major financial instruments are the base layer of the global economy. They are used daily by governments, corporations and individuals. When you tokenize these assets, you are not trying to create demand from scratch. You are upgrading the rails on which trillions of dollars already move.
If we look into our recent history, we find that electricity obviously wasn’t first used to power fancy art installations, but factories. Blockchains are no different. They reach their potential when they tokenize money and core financial primitives, not edge-case assets.
Stablecoins succeeded. They mapped directly onto an existing, massive use case. Stablecoins move dollars globally, quickly and cheaply. Tokenized treasuries are gaining traction for the same reason. They represent a real, high-demand asset that institutions already hold at scale.
Tokenization adds the most value where frictions are large and expensive. Bonds move trillions of dollars, but they do so inefficiently. Tokenization compresses settlement from days to minutes. Tokenization allows assets and cash to move together, in real time, without relying on intermediaries. That changes the cost structure and risk profile of financial operations.
Network effects only emerge around assets in very high demand, like money and sovereign debt. When you tokenize them, you create immediate interoperability. Everyone can build around the same unit of account. This is why stablecoins became the backbone of on-chain finance.
Related: Australia’s central bank backs tokenization as pilot finds $16.7B upside
NFTs and highly bespoke RWAs are the opposite. They are fragmented by design. Each asset is unique, legally ambiguous and difficult to standardize. That makes them incapable of becoming a shared economic layer. They may have cultural or speculative value, but they cannot anchor broad financial network effects.
Market effects of tokenizing liquid assets
Adding programmability to illiquid assets, you can fractionalize ownership or automate certain workflows. You do not, however, unlock new forms of economic coordination. The asset still does not trade frequently. It still lacks deep markets.
With liquid assets, however, tokenization unlocks entirely new financial behaviors. Continuous settlement, streaming payments, automated collateral management. These are just some of the novelties that tokenization can bring.
There are other considerations. Can you use a given tokenized asset as collateral? This is an important question, and the answer is that it mostly depends on liquidity. After all, liquid assets can be safely integrated as collateral into automated systems. Their valuations are transparent and updated in real time.
Illiquid assets, however, have sporadic trades, subjective valuations and wide bid-ask spreads. Their nature makes them very difficult to use as collateral. Tokenization doesn’t solve that problem. This reduces demand for the asset.
Capital efficiency also improves significantly for liquid assets. Tokenized liquid instruments can potentially be rehypothecated, fractionally deployed and programmatically allocated in real time. Capital moves faster across the system. But tokenization doesn’t produce continuous markets for illiquid assets.
Reducing risk through clarity
Dollars, government bonds and large corporate debt have well-established legal status, issuer accountability and regulatory frameworks. Tokenization can fit within existing financial law, making institutional adoption far more straightforward.
It’s harder for NFTs. Questions about ownership, custody, enforceability and investor protection can outweigh technical benefits. In practice, these uncertainties raise risk rather than reduce it. It’s natural for large, institutional tokenization endeavours to focus on liquid assets first.
The future of tokenization will be defined by assets that are economically central. Obviously, the crypto sector’s early experiments with NFTs were necessary and understandable. It was difficult for NFTs to succeed in the long term. They were focused on the wrong type of asset.
Stablecoins proved this by upgrading the most liquid asset in the world. Tokenized government bonds and equities are the logical next step. This is how blockchains move from experimental technology to foundational financial infrastructure.
Opinion by: Sebastián Serrano, founder and CEO of Ripio.
This opinion article presents the author’s expert view, and it may not reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. This content has undergone editorial review to ensure clarity and relevance. Cointelegraph remains committed to transparent reporting and upholding the highest standards of journalism. Readers are encouraged to conduct their own research before taking any actions related to the company.
A new bill in Canada, if passed, would ban political parties and other third parties in elections from accepting cryptocurrency donations in a bid to prevent election interference.
The Strong and Free Elections Act would also ban contributions made by money orders and prepaid cards, citing these methods as difficult to track.
The bill notes the potential for foreign actors to influence elections through difficult-to-trace digital payment methods, ensuring Canadian elections “remain free, fair and secure at all times,” according to Government House Leader Steven MacKinnon.
Moreover, as the office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections told Cointelegraph, “The rapid and ongoing change in digital payments creates significant challenges and risks for law enforcement, including for our office.”
Crypto creates problems for election transparency, gov’t officials say
The rules for political financing in Canada are complex. Two offices, the Commissioner of Canada Elections and Elections Canada, play “distinct but complementary” roles under the Canada Elections Act’s (CEA). The bill banning crypto political donations would make changes to this Act.
Elections Canada, led by Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault, is responsible for conducting federal elections and administering the political financing regime.
The Commissioner of Canada Elections, currently Caroline J. Simard, “is responsible for ensuring that the rules under the Act are complied with and enforced,” a commissioner spokesperson said.
For both agencies, cryptocurrencies present challenges to maintaining free and transparent elections. For the commissioner’s office these include “potential difficulties associated with tracing the source of funding.”
Perrault shared a similar sentiment at an October appearance at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee.
“The problem with those instruments is that they do not provide transparency as to the original source of the contributor.”
He said that “a key principle of our system is that we know where the money comes from. There’s no, in my view, valid reason to use a prepaid instrument, a prepaid credit card, to provide money to a candidate or to a political party.”
Perrault acknowledged that they have legitimate uses elsewhere in the economy, “but in terms of financing parties and candidates, I do not believe they are appropriate.”
Crypto’s ‘non-moneyness’ creates an opening for foreign influence
Under current Canadian law, cryptocurrency qualifies as a legal, “non-monetary” contribution for political parties. Elections Canada told Cointelegraph they therefore must abide by certain reporting requirements.
“For contributions over $200, the political entity must report the contributor’s name and address in its financial return.”
However, contributions up to $200, if the donor is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident not in the crypto business, are deemed “nil.”
According to Perrault, the rules for non-monetary donations up to $200 were initially included in the CEA “to allow small-value gifts of goods and services—those valued under $200 and made by a person not in the business of providing such a good or service.” He gave an example of cooking food for campaign staff or lending the use of a personal vehicle.
This becomes more problematic when applied to crypto. Perrault said, “Although contributions of cryptocurrencies are non-monetary contributions under the CEA, the reality of cryptocurrency is that it functions increasingly like money.”
“If a contribution were made in cryptocurrency, it could be seen as a means by which unregulated resources could enter the federal political financing regime.”
He officially recommended that parliament “prohibit making contributions in cryptocurrency and untraceable instruments.”
While the potential for abuse is there, Elections Canada noted that “generally speaking, cryptocurrencies are not widely used to raise funds at the federal level in Canada.”
However, “the reporting framework for contributions does not currently require entities to disclose when a contribution was made via cryptocurrency, so Elections Canada does not have official figures on this.”
Crypto in Canadian politics: From convoys to Carney
Canada has displayed a relatively open, if cautious stance toward crypto. It became the first country to approve a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in February 2021.
Crypto has appeared in the political discourse before as well. In 2022, a series of blockades and protests against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for truck drivers quickly ballooned into nationwide demonstrations. On Jan. 22 that year, the first convoy of over 1,000 vehicles departed for Ottawa. Over the next few weeks, crowds occupied the streets of downtown Ottawa to protest then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government.
When the government used the Emergencies Act to freeze convoy organizers’ bank accounts, they took donations in crypto. According to CBC, the convoy raised over $20 million in crypto donations, $8 million of which was still unaccounted for by April 2022.
Cryptocurrencies were hailed as a means to circumvent government control and take control over critical funding for the anti-vaccine protest movement.
Mathew Burgoyne, a digital currency lawyer based in Calgary, told the CBC, “There’s a huge limitation, as we’ve seen, with freeze orders when they relate to cryptocurrency wallets.”
Crypto entered the political arena again during the 2025 federal elections when Conservative candidate Pierre Poilievre made a number of statements and appearances promoting crypto and blockchain tech.
Related: Why Pierre Poilievre may not be Canada’s crypto savior
In one campaign lunch stop, he bought shawarma using the Bitcoin Lightning Network at Canadian chain Tahini’s, and he talked about Bitcoin while smoking hookah with the company’s vice president.
Under current Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Canadian crypto industry is growing, but with a “regulate first” attitude from policymakers. In November, Parliament introduced the Canada Stablecoin Act as part of the budget, giving the Bank of Canada the power to regulate stablecoins in the country.
As it concerns political donations, some in the industry believe there are higher priorities right now. One industry source at a Canadian crypto firm told Cointelegraph that issues like stablecoin regulation, tokenization and payments modernization take precedence over political donations, which are still quite marginal, in their estimation.
They said that the industry doesn’t support a ban, but there are other policy decisions that present clearer opportunities for the industry to make a difference.
Altura, a decentralized finance protocol founded by former Fidelity and PwC staff is launching an onchain gold arbitrage strategy aimed at retail investors, targeting 20% annualized returns, according to a Thursday release shared with Cointelegraph.
According to Altura, the product pools user deposits into a vault that recycles capital through short-duration physical gold trades. Unlike platforms like Robinhood or Revolut that offer passive gold price exposure, Altura claims to be tokenizing the underlying arbitrage process itself.
The company says it has raised $4 million in funding and has already facilitated the movement of about 185 kilograms of gold, representing roughly $28.5 million in cumulative transaction volume, per the release.
Matthew Pinnock, co-founder and chief operating officer of Altura, told Cointelegraph the goal is to “bring an institutional-style gold strategy onchain in a way that retail investors can actually access.”
The launch comes as spot gold trades near record levels after surging to an all-time high above $5,300 an ounce in January, though it has since pulled back sharply. Altura’s launch points to a new phase in tokenized real-world assets, where projects are no longer just offering passive exposure to commodities but are trying to package institutional trading strategies as onchain DeFi yield products for retail users.
A strategy typically reserved for institutional traders
Pinnock said Altura’s “revenue-generating trading strategy” was historically used by institutional commodities desks, and that high capital requirements, legal complexity and counterparty risk in traditional bullion arbitrage have effectively kept smaller investors out of this type of trade.
Gold purchased on behalf of Altura by its trading partner Inessa is tokenized at acquisition, Pinnock said, with those tokens escrowed through each trade and custody transitions recorded via dual cryptographic signatures. Depositors do not hold direct title to bullion but gain exposure to returns generated by the trade flow, he added.
Altura’s setup depends on a network of offchain actors. The company says it is working with Aurellion Labs and Inessa, which in turn partners with air-cargo specialist Zeal Global, to execute and verify trades.
Related: Gold hits record high over $5K, further diverging from Bitcoin
On the targeted 20% yields, Pinnock said the strategy is structured to be “close to delta-neutral,” with trade terms agreed before logistics execution begins so that returns come from price discrepancies between counterparties rather than directional bets on the gold price.
Each arbitrage cycle typically completes within one to two days, allowing capital to be recycled multiple times and limiting exposure to spot moves, he said, while acknowledging that yields would compress if pricing inefficiencies narrow.
Related: Tokenized gold drives weekend price signals while CME futures are closed
Rising interest in real-world yields
The launch comes amid rising interest in “real-world” DeFi yields, as tokenized asset and RWA protocols grew to roughly $17 billion in total value locked in December 2025, according to DefiLlama data.
However, a joint report by RWA.io and Veritas Protocol in that same month found that losses from onchain operational failures in tokenized RWA markets rose to $14.6 million in the first half of 2025, a 143% increase from the previous year, highlighting how complex offchain structures can still translate into user losses.
Magazine: Bitcoin’s ‘biggest bull catalyst’ would be Saylor’s liquidation — Santiment founder
Murad Mahmudov, a crypto trader also known as the “Memecoin messiah,” has lost nearly $60 million across his bets in the past nine months. Still, he expects a bullish reversal.
Key takeaways:
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Mahmudov thinks SPX6900, which is 96% of his memecoin portfolio, will rise 400,000%.
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SPX6900 chart technicals signal another 20% decline in the coming weeks.
SPX6900 will reach $1 trillion market cap, claims Mahmudov
On Wednesday, Mahmudov said the market capitalization of SPX6900 (SPX), a memecoin on a mission to overtake the US benchmark S&P 500 index, will grow to $1 trillion from its current valuation of around $250 million, a nearly 400,000% increase.
For context, Bitcoin (BTC) is the only cryptocurrency that has been able to hit a $1 trillion mark so far, led by growing institutional demand.
Mahmudov’s publicly labeled wallets, tracked under the entity “Muststopmurad” by Arkham Intelligence, currently hold approximately 29.964 million SPX, valued at roughly $7.79 million.
This single position accounts for about 96% of his total tracked portfolio, currently valued at around $8.1 million.
At its peak in July last year, the same portfolio was worth around $67 million.
The drop since then amounts to an unrealized loss of roughly $60 million, as the broader memecoin sector, including SPX, corrected by more than 80% from its highs.
Mahmudov still holds SPX6900 and other memecoins
Mahmudov does not appear to be locking in the memecoin losses.
Portfolio tracker DropsTab shows no meaningful sales of SPX6900 or his other major positions, with realized profits and losses on the tracked holdings still at zero.
Importantly, the trader appears to be holding more than $6.22 million in unrealized gains instead of taking a profit.
Mahmudov’s refusal to sell also stands out because the broader memecoin market has been brutal toward its dedicated holders.
In a January report, CoinGecko said that 53.2% of all cryptocurrencies tracked since 2021 were inactive, with 11.6 million token failures recorded in 2025 alone that particularly “affected the memecoin sector.”
Related: Memecoins and art market share similar economics — Ki Young Ju
Mahmudov’s smaller wallet holdings also reveal the limits of memecoin conviction.
Public DEX data for ticker-level matches, including RETARDMAXX, HONK and CHAD, shows that some of these names are barely functional.
One RETARDMAXX pair had roughly $44,000 in liquidity but just six transactions and $89 in daily volume, while CHAD showed $842 in liquidity with zero trades and zero makers.
One HONK pair, meanwhile, had just $1 in liquidity and no recorded activity. Those tokens may still print a price on screen, but in a selloff, they offer little evidence of dependable exit liquidity.
SPX900 breakdown hints at more losses ahead
On the three-day chart, SPX6900 appears to be breaking down from a rising wedge, a bearish pattern that typically resolves lower after price slips below support.
SPX has already started losing the wedge’s lower trendline near $0.26 and remains below its 20-, 50- and 100-period exponential moving averages, underscoring weak momentum.
If the breakdown confirms, the measured move points to $0.205, about 20% below current levels.
A 20% drop in SPX would cut roughly $1.56 million from Mahmudov’s memecoin portfolio.
This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research before making any decisions. Cointelegraph makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information presented, including forward-looking statements, and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from reliance on this content.
French blockchain-based stock exchange Lightning Stock Exchange (Lise) is preparing to host what it describes as a fully onchain initial public offering (IPO), listing aerospace and defense SME ST Group as its inaugural company.
The company called the deal the first IPO on a natively tokenized exchange, where shares are issued and traded as digital tokens rather than recorded through traditional market infrastructure, according to a Thursday announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
CEO Mark Kepeneghian said it could fundamentally change “how markets are built, how companies raise capital, and how investors connect to the real economy.”
The IPO is scheduled for April 9 and is being structured with support from Allinvest Group, acting as both financial adviser and bookrunner. The platform introduces a first-come, first-served allocation for IPO orders and removes subscription and custody fees.
The IPO will test whether tokenized issuance can solve real capital market problems for smaller companies, rather than simply showcase blockchain-based market plumbing. Tokenized securities have long struggled with liquidity, investor access and regulatory friction, and it remains unclear whether a new venue can attract meaningful trading activity or operate smoothly at scale.
Related: NYSE taps Securitize for 24/7 tokenized securities platform
Lise secures license from French regulators
Lise said it holds multiple regulatory approvals, including an investment firm license from the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority and a DLT Pilot Regime authorization from the European Securities and Markets Authority, allowing it to run trading and settlement on blockchain infrastructure, a company spokesperson told Cointelegraph.
Cointelegraph previously reported that the European Commission had proposed extending the DLT Pilot Regime as part of broader efforts to support tokenized financial markets in Europe.
“Lise operates both a Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) and a Central Securities Depository (CSD) within a single unified platform, built natively on Hyperledger Besu (a private, permissioned blockchain),” the spokesperson said, adding that shares issued on Lise are born as security tokens on the DLT. “The DLT is the golden source for the securities registry,” they said.
Related: Franklin Templeton, Ondo to launch tokenized ETFs with 24/7 trading via crypto wallets
Tokenized stocks near $1 billion
Investor demand for blockchain-based tokenized stocks is picking up, with total market value nearing the $1 billion mark. Tokenized equities reached about $941 million in total value, up 2.4% over the past 30 days, according to data from RWA.xyz.
Activity has grown sharply in some areas. Monthly transfer volume jumped 85% to $2.94 billion, while the number of holders climbed 17% to more than 201,000.
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms sold 3,778 Bitcoin in the first quarter, adding to a recent wave of sales by crypto firms amid tough market conditions.
The Bitcoin (BTC) was sold at an average price of $76,626, netting Riot $289.5 million, according to the miner’s operational update released on Thursday. Bitcoin was trading at $66,867 as of Friday.
The miner produced 1,473 Bitcoin for the quarter and had 15,680 coins on its books at the end of Q1. Blockchain intelligence platform Arkham also flagged a 500 Bitcoin outflow from a wallet it attributed to Riot Platforms on Thursday.
It adds to a number of crypto miners and firms that have sold Bitcoin in recent months. In the last week, companies including MARA Holdings, Genius Group and Nakamoto Holdings revealed they had sold a combined 15,501 Bitcoin, with the lion’s share coming from MARA.
Kadan Stadelmann, a blockchain developer, investor and co-founder of AI company Compance, said miners are selling due to rising energy costs, which have worsened because of the war in the Middle East.
“Miners are selling off Bitcoin due to increasing energy costs, highlighted by the ongoing oil price shock, which represents one of the main costs of mining Bitcoin. As energy costs rise, the miners are forced to sell off their Bitcoin in an attempt to cover their operational costs.”
The Middle East conflict, which escalated in February, has driven oil prices higher while pushing cryptocurrencies and broader markets lower.
Less efficient miners are turning off rigs
Stadelmann said that less efficient miners are going offline because of mounting costs and predicted further capitulation, leaving larger operators to pick up the slack.
“This leads to a fall in hashrate and difficulty in Bitcoin mining. This makes it easier and more profitable to mine Bitcoins for those miners who remain online,” he told Cointelegraph.
The Bitcoin mining difficulty dropped on March 20 from around 145 trillion to 133 trillion, while the hash rate has also dropped since the start of the month from 1.16 zettahash to around 990 exahash as of Friday, according to CoinWarz.
Related: Bitfarms loss widened to $285M as Bitcoin fell, but shares jump anyway
However, Stadelmann also said a potential drop in energy prices and an increase in Bitcoin’s price could see less efficient miners return.
“Hashrate and difficulty could increase if efficient miners expand their operations as a result of the friendlier mining environment, possibly through investments in hardware or acquisitions of other miners. Alternatively, energy prices could decline, leading to the return of less efficient miners,” he added.
Magazine: Bitcoin may take 7 years to upgrade to post-quantum — BIP-360 co-author
Bitcoin slipped sharply Wednesday as President Trump addressed the nation on the US-Iran conflict, dragging BTC price down by 3% to $66,600 during the speech amid bearish prediction. The asset now seems to stabilize, but BTC is still down 4.9% over seven days.
Trump told the nation last night that Operation Epic Fury has effectively dismantled Iran’s nuclear and naval capabilities while crippling its drone and missile infrastructure, and claimed the US military is “very close” to finishing the job, but still need more weeks, with more fire power.
Markets moved instantly. Crude oil spiked back above $100 per barrel to $108 as traders repriced geopolitical risk upward. Trump simultaneously signaled openness to a deal, describing Iran’s new leadership as “less radical and much more reasonable,” a note of optimism buried inside an otherwise hawkish speech. This ambiguity is precisely the macro fog that keeps risk assets pinned.
Equities, crypto, and commodities have all traded in lockstep with Middle East headlines for months. Until the Iran situation resolves cleanly in either direction, Bitcoin is unlikely to decouple.
Discover: The best crypto to diversify your portfolio with
Bitcoin Price Prediction: Reclaim $71,500 or Another Pain Coming?
Bitcoin closed Q1 2026 near $68,000, a weak finish that confirmed sustained selling pressure. The current structure shows no major structural levels reclaimed, with downward-sloping moving averages pressuring price from above.
Support still sits at $66,000 and $63,000, below that zone would mark a deep retest of prior cycle structure. Resistance clusters at $69,000 and $72,000, where moving average resistance and prior breakdown levels converge.
Can Bitcoin force a leg up? Only if Iran deal confirmed, oil retreats below $90, and risk-on flows return, which then BTC reclaims $68,000 with volume. In that scenario it can target $72.000.
However, with dragging conflict, BTC will likely oscillate between $66,000 and $68,000, frustrating both sides. Or, peace talks collapse, oil accelerates, inflation expectations spike. BTC loses $66,000 support and tests $63,000, a level that has not been tested since the Q4 2025 breakdown.
Long-term holders are reportedly increasing demand despite the volatility, but analyst consensus is clear: without a $72,000 reclaim, the path of least resistance remains down.
Discover: The best pre-launch token sales
Early Mover Potential as Bitcoin Tests Key Levels
For now, spot BTC at this market cap needs enormous capital inflows to move meaningfully. Early-stage infrastructure plays within the Bitcoin ecosystem carry a different risk profile entirely, and a different upside math.
Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER) is positioning itself as exactly that: the first-ever Bitcoin Layer 2 with Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) integration, claiming faster transaction performance than Solana itself via extremely low-latency processing. The project targets Bitcoin’s three core structural weaknesses, slow transactions, high fees, and zero programmability, while preserving Bitcoin’s underlying security.
The presale has now raised $32 million mark at a current token price of low $0.0136, with a 36% bonus in staking rewards active for early participants. A Decentralized Canonical Bridge handles BTC transfers natively.
Traders looking to rotate while Bitcoin consolidates can research Bitcoin Hyper here.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments are highly volatile. Always conduct your own research before investing.
The post Bitcoin Price Prediction: Bitcoin Drops, Oil Rises, Trump Positive on Iran appeared first on Cryptonews.
SOL USD is bleeding. Solana price is at $78, down almost 6% in the day, extending a brutal 11% weekly decline that marks the steepest drop among major crypto coins, after an ugly prediction popped post Trump’s comment on Iran war.
Drift Protocol, one of Solana’s premier perpetual trading platforms, confirmed a devastating exploit today. A malicious actor gained unauthorized access through a novel attack involving durable nonces, executing a rapid takeover of Drift’s Security Council administrative powers.
— MSB Intel (@MSBIntel) April 1, 2026
JUST IN: Drift Protocol on Solana suffers suspected $200M+ exploit, with nearly 980,000 SOL drained from the protocol according to on-chain monitoring.
Estimated losses sit at above $200 million, making this one of the largest hacks in Solana’s ecosystem since 2022. The platform confirmed the breach directly, and on-chain data has since shown accelerating outflows across the network.
Discover: The best crypto to diversify your portfolio with
Can Solana Price Recover Above $85 Despite the Bearish Prediction?
SOL is in breakdown mode. The $78 support zone is a level that has historically attracted accumulation but now risks becoming a ceiling if bulls fail to reclaim it quickly. Resistance clusters at $85, the prior week’s high, with the all-time high of $293 now a distant 73% above current levels.
Volume is elevated, with 24-hour trading volume hitting $5.2 billion, signaling panic selling. High-volume drops of this magnitude often produce violent bounces, but only after capitulation completes. Total value locked on Solana fell to $6.544 billion, with major protocols Jito (-4.3%), Raydium (-4.33%), and Sanctum (-3.83%) all posting outflows. DEX volumes have declined 40% since January. It’s just not good for Solana at the moment.
For Solana holders, the best scenario is for Bitcoin to stabilize above $65,000, Drift Protocol publishes a credible recovery plan, and SOL reclaims $85, opening a path toward $95–$100 within two weeks. But if $78 support fails on sustained volume. Next meaningful floor sits near $65, a level that would push SOL’s year-to-date loss beyond 50%.
Discover: The best pre-launch token sales
Maxi Doge Targets Early Mover Upside as Solana Tests Key Levels
When a top-10 asset drops 13% in a week, and a major DeFi platform loses $200 million overnight, the question isn’t whether confidence is shaken; it’s where rotational capital goes next. Some traders have been answering that question with early-stage presales, where entry prices sit far below any meaningful market cap pressure.
Maxi Doge ($MAXI) is one presale absorbing that interest. Built on Ethereum as an ERC-20 meme token, the project leans hard into a 240-lb canine juggernaut persona, think gym-bro culture applied to leverage trading, with the tagline “Never skip leg-day, never skip a pump.”
The mechanics underneath the meme are structured: holder-only trading competitions with leaderboard rewards, a Maxi Fund treasury allocated to liquidity and partnerships, and a dynamic staking with 66% APY bonus for committed holders.
Current presale price stands at $0.0002811, with more thasn $4,7 million raised to date.
For those prepared to research the position, the details are available at the official Maxi Doge presale page.
This article is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before making any investment decision.
The post Solana Price Prediction: $200M Exploit and 5.5% Drop appeared first on Cryptonews.
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