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BlackRock rips page from hedge fund playbook, applies it to ETFs

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BlackRock’s Jeffrey Rosenberg explains - what exactly defines ‘alts’ - and why they’re climbing in popularity in the ETF space
BlackRock’s Jeffrey Rosenberg explains - what exactly defines ‘alts’ - and why they’re climbing in popularity in the ETF space

BlackRock is applying hedge fund strategies to its exchange-traded fund business.

Jeffrey Rosenberg, the firm’s senior portfolio manager on the systemic fixed income team, has a leading role in the firm’s liquid alternatives ETFs — which use a long-short strategy in ETF wrappers.

He contends the strategy provides valuable diversification amid the recent breakdown in the relationship between stocks and bonds.

“The great old adage around fixed income is ‘my bonds go up when my stocks go down.’ Now, we just went through a period in March with war risk where we clearly saw again on display… that doesn’t hold. And, really saw it in 2022,” Rosenberg told CNBC’s “ETF Edge” this week. “This entire post-Covid environment has really challenged that bedrock principle of the 60-40 portfolio that bonds are diversifying.”

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According to Rosenberg, client demand for liquid alts ETFs is growing because there’s a desire to diversify your diversifiers.

“We’re bringing the techniques that we’ve developed in the hedge fund side of our business, which primarily center around market neutral, long-short investing,” he added. “That’s the key kind of ‘a-ha moment’ for ETF investors to realize most of what they have exposure to in the ETF ecosystem is some kind of beta exposure.”

Rosenberg is a portfolio manager on two BlackRock liquid alts ETFs: the iShares Systematic Alternatives Active ETF (IALT) and the iShares Managed Futures Active ETF (ISMF). As of April 8, the firm’s website shows IALT is up almost 8% so far this year while the ISMF is up nearly 5%.

“What liquid alternatives bring to the table is the ability to look at other sources of return away from just market directionality,” said Rosenberg.

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He highlighted a major challenge investors face on the stock market side.

“Our equity portfolios have been more and more dominated by the big, large cap tech winners,” said Rosenberg. “With that concentration is a loss of diversification and a loss of diversification value on the equity side. So, liquid alternatives can address both of these challenges to portfolio construction.”

‘Something that’s going to zag when the market zigs’

VettaFi’s Todd Rosenbluth still regards liquid alts ETFs as an emerging category.

“Overall, this is still relatively small compared to traditional equity [and] traditional fixed income, but we are seeing advisors looking for something that’s going to zag when the market zigs,” the firm’s head of research said in the same interview.

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Binance offers 1,000 UAE staff temporary relocation due to war, but many chose to stay

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Binance offers 1,000 UAE staff temporary relocation due to war, but many chose to stay

Binance offered its staff in the United Arab Emirates the option to temporarily relocate to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok amid regional tensions, the company told CoinDesk Friday.

“Given the recent regional tensions, we offered employees the option to temporarily relocate as a precautionary, employee-first measure to provide flexibility and support during a period of uncertainty,” a Binance spokesperson said. “As a remote-first organization, we are well set up to support this kind of flexibility without disruption to our operations.”

The spokesperson also said its operations in the UAE remain unchanged and that many employees have chosen to stay.

“Our operations in the UAE continue as normal — a large number of our team has chosen to remain in the UAE. We remain deeply committed to the UAE as a key hub for Binance and to the broader region,” the spokesperson said. “As a global company, we continue to operate seamlessly and serve our users without interruption.”

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The offer of relocation comes after a ceasefire agreement, following roughly six weeks of escalating regional conflict that has disrupted business activity in the UAE. The country has intercepted hundreds of missiles and drones since hostilities began in late February, according to the UAE Ministry of Defense, with additional interceptions reported on April 8.

The Middle East conflict has already disrupted major crypto, business and sports events across the UAE. TOKEN2049 Dubai has been postponed to 2027, while TON Gateway was canceled due to security and travel concerns. Other large events, including Middle East Energy Dubai and the Dubai International Boat Show, have also been delayed, and the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Formula 1 races, key for crypto sponsorship exposure, are set to be canceled.

In December, Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) said Binance’s global platform would operate under its regulatory framework, marking a significant step in formalizing the exchange’s structure.

Binance, which reportedly has 1,000 staff members or 20% of its total global workforce in the UAE, has also indicated that its worldwide operations are supported from Abu Dhabi, though it has not clearly defined a single global headquarters.

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Securitize Integrates with TRON Network to Expand Tokenized Asset Offerings

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Securitize Integrates with TRON Network to Expand Tokenized Asset Offerings

Securitize announced integration with TRON Network to bring tokenized assets to one of the world’s largest blockchains, expanding its multichain presence.

Securitize integrated with TRON Network on April 10, enabling tokenized assets issued by Securitize to be deployed on TRON, one of the world’s largest blockchains. The partnership expands Securitize’s multichain footprint and brings institutional-grade assets to a high-performance network designed for efficient, programmable financial systems.

The integration aligns with growing demand for tokenization infrastructure that bridges traditional finance and blockchain networks. TRON operates as a high-throughput blockchain platform, and this partnership enables Securitize’s tokenized assets—which typically include securities and institutional products—to access TRON’s user base and ecosystem.

Sources: Securitize

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This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.

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Bittensor Price Prediction: Covenant AI Exits TAO, Forcing 16% Drop

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🚨

Bittensor token price has collapsed by 17% in less than 6 hours after one of the network’s most prominent subnet developers publicly torched its relationship with the ecosystem, and the price prediction is getting bearish. The governance bombshell driving this selloff raises a harder question than most traders are asking right now.

On Thursday, Covenant AI, the team behind the Covenant-72B model, widely credited as the largest decentralized LLM pre-training run in history, announced its exit from Bittensor.

Founder Sam Dare stated that “the promise that drew builders, miners, validators, and investors into this ecosystem is a lie,” accusing co-founder Jacob Steeves of asserting centralized control over Covenant’s subnet after it grew too prominent to ignore.

Steeves has not publicly responded. The statement hit markets like a circuit breaker. TAO had surged 140% over six weeks, with 105% of those gains coming since March 8 alone, largely on the back of Covenant-72B’s success narrative and Grayscale’s filing for a TAO Trust. That entire credibility stack just developed a serious crack.

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Bittensor Price Prediction: Can TAO Recover?

At current levels near $280, TAO sits in genuinely dangerous technical territory. $300 was the immediate support level, and the price is already trading below it, which means the level has effectively been lost.

On-chain data confirms the severity of the move, with TAO’s 24-hour decline registering among the steepest in the large-cap AI token sector. The April 9 rejection at $360 resistance preceded a bearish MACD crossover, with sellers already positioning before the news dropped.

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Social dominance for TAO reached a one-year high in early April, yet retail sentiment shows only 1.5 positive comments per negative comment, suggesting conviction in the prior rally was thinner than price action implied.

Bittensor price collapsed after one of prominent developers publicly torched the ecosystem, and the price prediction is getting bearish.
TAO USD, TradingView

TAO needs to reclaim $300 within 48 hours on a credible response from Steeves or Bittensor’s governance structure for it to stage a recovery toward $320–$330. But continued silence from leadership and further subnet departures can accelerate selling pressure toward $250 or lower.

The parallel to other ecosystem selloffs triggered by major internal exits suggests recoveries can take weeks, not days. Watch the $300 level; this is the line.

Discover: The best pre-launch token sales

Bitcoin Hyper Draws Early Movers as TAO Tries to Recover

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Governance risk just repriced TAO’s entire decentralization premium, and that’s the precise vulnerability traders with longer memory have warned about. When a network’s core value proposition gets called a lie by its most successful builder, rotating capital doesn’t wait for confirmation. It moves.

One destination attracting that rotated attention is Bitcoin Hyper ($HYPER), a Bitcoin Layer 2 project positioning itself as the first-ever BTC chain with Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) integration.

The pitch is structural: Bitcoin’s security and liquidity combined with sub-Solana-speed smart contract execution, breaking through BTC’s native limitations of slow transactions, high fees, and zero programmability. No governance triumvirate. No subnet politics.

The presale has raised $32 million at a current price of $0.0136, with staking available for early participants. The project’s Decentralized Canonical Bridge handles BTC transfers natively.

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Research Bitcoin Hyper before the next price step triggers.

The post Bittensor Price Prediction: Covenant AI Exits TAO, Forcing 16% Drop appeared first on Cryptonews.

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$1B bet sends crypto rivalry nuclear

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$1B bet sends crypto rivalry nuclear

“I am happy to bet $1 billion USD,” Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) told OKX founder Star Xu, “that: I am officially divorced.”

That escalated quickly.

With one of the largest peer-to-peer bets ever publicly offered, the Binance-OKX feud went nuclear this week.

As if the bet wasn’t interesting enough on its face, according to Xu’s responses, gambling isn’t legal for United Arab Emirates residents, yet polygamy is.

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For context, CZ worked at Xu’s crypto exchange, OKCoin, but left under contested circumstances before creating Binance. The two exchanges have been fierce competitors ever since, with periodic public spats over listings and various market practices.

CZ left OKCoin in early 2015 after Xu attempted to renegotiate his equity stake. OKCoin’s 2015 Reddit statement accused CZ of contributing no code, running his own trading bots on company systems, and mounting a campaign of “lies and desperate nonsense” after his departure.

CZ’s memoir characterizes his departure more vaguely, as a clash of vision.

Anyway, what happened that escalated their disagreement to $1 billion?

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CZ’s memoir airs years of dirty laundry

When CZ published his book Freedom of Money on April 8, Xu called him a “habitual liar.” Among many accusations, Xu claimed CZ lied about his marital status.

CZ doubled-down, calling Xu’s bet and pushing in $1 billion in chips. 

Xu also claimed CZ published falsehoods about his career at OKCoin, his contract dispute with Roger Ver, his alleged manipulation of crypto markets, and whether he was a government informant against Justin Sun.

Fed up, CZ demanded of Xu, “You can apologize now.” He offered “$1 billion USD (or any number you choose),” giving Xu 24 hours to accept. 

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A refusal, according to CZ’s characterization, would “clearly show who has been mis-representing to the public.” 

Xu declined, citing not only the illegality of gambling in his country of residence, but also his professional obligations.

“As the ultimate beneficial owner of a regulated company, publicly offering a $1 billion bet is hardly professional conduct,” he said. 

Yi He backs up CZ

Xu demanded details about the largest source of CZ’s personal wealth. “Has your Binance stake been legally separated with your ex-wife or not?”

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Yi He, the mother of CZ’s children and obviously implicated in the debate, didn’t stay quiet on social media. In 2014, after meeting CZ at a blockchain event, Yi helped CZ join OKCoin as chief technology officer.

Soon, they were romantically involved.

Yesterday, she promoted a Binance on-chain prediction market asking users to wager on whether Xu would publicly apologize to CZ. 

She taunted Xu to engage.

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CZ claimed Star Xu got Leon Li arrested

The memoir’s most explosive new allegation concerns Huobi (now HTX) founder Leon Li.

In his book, CZ wrote that Xu (using Star Xu’s real name, Mingxing) reported Li to Chinese police, leading to Li’s November 2020 detention.

Xu called that claim “purely false information.” 

The disagreement is yet another example of the CZ versus Xu battle.

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Contested details of an OKCoin agreement

This week, Xu resurfaced a 2015 video showing an OKCoin accountant’s QQ account, allegedly accessed in the presence of a notary.

Within that QQ account, a video shows CZ apparently sending two versions of a Bitcoin.com domain agreement. The video shows Version 7 first, then a modified Version 8 with a six-month termination clause absent from Version 7.

CZ had previously attributed the chat records to an unauthorized account intrusion

“Do you believe such an explanation?” Xu asked rhetorically. 

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Roger Ver sued OKCoin’s Hong Kong entity for approximately $570,000 over the contract dispute. 

In other words, CZ and Xu are essentially arguing this week about that contract via a decade-old QQ video.

Read more: CZ cries FUD as anti-Binance posts flood X

More feuds

Xu had spent months previewing his arguments in public before CZ’s book arrived.

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Following the 2025 flash crash, Xu blamed Binance for the de-peg of Ethena’s USDE stablecoin.

“October 10 was caused by irresponsible marketing campaigns by certain companies,” Xu wrote. “No complexity. No accident.” 

He also accused Binance of repeatedly launching what he called Ponzi-like schemes and using influencer campaigns to suppress dissent.

CZ said he’d “try not to comment on this topic further” and retweeted rebuttals from allies.

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In 2023, CZ pleaded guilty to failing to maintain effective anti-money laundering programs, paid a $50 million criminal fine, and watched the company he founded pay over $4.3 billion in penalties.

After serving a four-month prison sentence, he received a presidential pardon from Donald Trump last year.

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World Liberty Moves Toward WLFI Unlock Vote After Complaints

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World Liberty Moves Toward WLFI Unlock Vote After Complaints

Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform World Liberty Financial said Friday it plans to put forward next week a governance proposal that would set a phased unlock schedule for WLFI tokens held by early retail purchasers.

The Trump family-linked DeFi platform said the proposal will be opened for community input before proceeding to a formal vote. According to the project, the vote will not cover a full, immediate unlock, but instead a structured, long-term vesting plan designed to release tokens in stages. 

WLFI tokens remain largely locked for early buyers, with transferability tied to governance-approved unlocks. Tokenomist data shows that about 24.67% of WLFI’s 100 billion token supply has been released, while roughly 75.33% remains locked or pending future unlock decisions.

The proposal could determine when early buyers can finally access liquidity in WLFI, whose use is largely limited to governance. It comes as some holders publicly push back against the prolonged lockups and threaten legal action.

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The concerns add to earlier governance decisions around token restrictions. On March 16, WLFI token holders approved a proposal introducing a six-month lock-up rule for certain transfers, marking one of the first formal changes to the project’s transferability framework.

Allocations for WLFI tokens. Source: Tokenomist

Retail buyers challenge prolonged WLFI lockups

World Liberty’s early sale materials said WLFI tokens were non-transferable and could remain locked indefinitely, with any future unlock subject to a governance vote no earlier than 12 months after the token sale and with no guaranteed timeline.

That 12-month threshold has already passed, with WLFI’s public sale beginning around mid-October 2024, placing the current proposal roughly 18 months after the initial sale. The company raised at least $550 million from WLFI token sales across two funding rounds.

Some self-identified WLFI presale buyers have publicly complained that most of their holdings remain locked, even as parts of the broader token supply have become transferable. 

At least one self-identified buyer said they had filed legal notices and were pursuing claims in the United States and the Netherlands against World Liberty Financial and its backers. Cointelegraph could not independently verify that any lawsuit had been filed. 

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Cointelegraph reached out to World Liberty Financial for comments, but had not received a response by publication. 

Related: WLFI proposes governance staking system and USD1 usage incentives

Onchain borrowing activity adds to holder concerns

One community member said in an X post that the project’s borrowing activity raised concerns among token holders, questioning how treasury funds were being used. Onchain data shows that World Liberty Financial’s treasury borrowed roughly $75 million in stablecoins from Dolomite using WLFI as collateral.

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