Cryptocurrency exchange OKX is accelerating its push into the United States by rolling out off-exchange settlement for its US institutional clients.

OKX has integrated the Off-Exchange Settlement (OES) platform by publicly listed digital asset custodian BitGo, the company said Thursday in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

The integration enables institutional clients to trade on OKX while keeping assets secured in BitGo’s cold custody, aiming to eliminate pre-funding requirements and improve capital efficiency.

“Institutional capital entering crypto requires capital to be protected and to be put to work,” OKX US CEO Roshan Robert told Cointelegraph. “Our proprietary custody infrastructure has been proven at scale, and our partnership with BitGo gives clients flexibility in how they protect assets while freeing capital to work harder,” he said.

The development marks a broader industry push to improve security and liquidity access by raising custody standards and securing partnerships with major custodians.

OKX’s first US steps after ICE took stake in the exchange

The integration with BitGo is among OKX’s first US institutional infrastructure steps since Intercontinental Exchange invested in the company at a $25 billion valuation in early March, with ICE executives taking a board seat at the exchange.

OKX Global CEO Star Xu then said the partnership would shape the platform’s approach to the US, adding that the company viewed its local presence as a “blank sheet of paper.”

The investment came about a year after OKX officially reentered the US in April 2025, alongside the appointment of former Barclays director Roshan Robert as its US CEO.

Related: BitMEX taps Zodia custody as exchanges tighten post-FTX safeguards

Addressing the BitGo integration, Xu emphasized that safeguarding customer assets has always been a foundation to OKX. “At the same time, we’ve expanded our custody partnerships with trusted leaders like BitGo to give clients greater flexibility and choice in how they secure their assets,” he added.

BitGo has disclosed risks tied to its off-exchange settlement platform

BitGo has operated its off-exchange settlement platform for at least a couple of years, acting as custodian and settlement facilitator for digital asset transactions executed on third-party exchanges.

Despite the operational efficiencies provided by its OES platform, BitGo said it still faces multiple categories of risk, including operational, regulatory and counterparty risks.

“Operational risks associated with our OES services include potential errors in processing trade data, delays or failures in asset transfers, employee or insider misconduct, cybersecurity incidents, technological disruptions and reconciliation errors,” the company said in its IPO filing in January.

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MoonPay has launched fiat-to-stablecoin virtual accounts in New York, allowing businesses to convert incoming funds from bank rails such as ACH and SWIFT into stablecoins and settle them directly to non-custodial wallets through a single API.

The product is underpinned by technology provider Iron and allows platforms to issue named, dedicated accounts that receive fiat and automatically convert it into stablecoins, enabling payment, trading and treasury flows without relying on prefunded balances or multiple intermediaries.

The rollout in New York follows MoonPay’s acquisition of Iron in 2025 and builds on integrations with platforms including Deel and Paysafe, extending its stablecoin infrastructure across payroll and payments networks, according to Thursday’s announcement.

MoonPay said it obtained a BitLicense, money transmitter licenses and a New York limited purpose trust charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services in 2025, allowing it to offer the service in one of the most tightly regulated crypto markets.

Source: MoonPay

The company said the accounts enable faster settlement and programmable payments by linking traditional banking rails with blockchain-based infrastructure through a single integration.

Max von Wallenberg, CEO of Iron, told Cointelegraph that launching in New York allows the company to target institutional clients operating in one of the most tightly regulated financial hubs. He said:

New York is the center of global finance — where the largest banks, asset managers and enterprises operate… Being able to operate here signals we meet the highest regulatory and operational standards.

He added that demand for the product in other jurisdictions has been driven by enterprise use cases including payroll, treasury management and cross-border payments, as well as tokenized real-world asset issuers that require fiat-to-stablecoin settlement flows.

Related: Stablecoins not a threat to banks in near term: Moody’s analyst

Stablecoins reduce reliance on prefunded accounts

Major payment companies and fintechs are increasingly integrating stablecoins into payment infrastructure to streamline cross-border transactions and reduce reliance on prefunded accounts.

On Tuesday, Singapore fintech Nium integrated USDC payments through Coinbase, allowing businesses to send, receive and convert stablecoins to fiat across more than 190 countries through a single platform.

The setup enables companies to fund cross-border payouts on demand using stablecoins and settle in either digital assets or local currencies, reducing the need to prefund accounts across multiple jurisdictions and streamlining global payment flows.

Card networks are also expanding stablecoin-linked payment infrastructure. In March, Visa and Stripe-owned Bridge rolled out stablecoin-linked cards across more than 100 countries and are testing onchain settlement that would allow transactions to be settled in digital assets rather than fiat. As of December 2025, Visa’s annualized stablecoin settlement run rate reached $4.6 billion, according to a company spokesperson.

Mastercard has also moved to expand its stablecoin capabilities, agreeing to acquire BVNK in a deal valued at up to $1.8 billion. The acquisition is aimed at strengthening its ability to connect traditional payment rails with blockchain-based transactions, supporting use cases including cross-border payments and business payouts.

The total stablecoin market capitalization stands at about $320 billion, according to DefiLlama data.

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Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Galaxy Digital head of firmwide research Alex Thorn has assessed the CLARITY Act’s chances of being signed into law in 2026 at roughly 50-50, and possibly lower, in a research note being published this week, warning that the bill faces more unresolved questions than most of Washington appreciates and that time pressure is now its biggest enemy.

Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, warned in a note shared with DL News that “if the markup slips past mid-May, the probability of enactment in 2026 will drop sharply.” The firm’s overall assessment is blunt: “In our view, the odds of CLARITY being signed into law in 2026 are roughly 50-50, and possibly lower. The uncertainty stems not from any single issue but from the sheer number of unresolved questions that must be settled in sequence under severe time pressure.”

CLARITY Act Galaxy Research Note Highlights Sequential Risk as the Core Threat

Thorn’s analysis identifies several individual flashpoints that each carry veto power over the bill’s progress. Beyond the stablecoin yield dispute that has dominated coverage, the note flags the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act provision embedded in the Senate draft, which clarifies that non-custodial software developers who write code but do not control user funds are not money transmitters. Crypto advocates view this as essential to keeping open-source development onshore, but it has drawn pushback from some regulatory quarters. Polymarket traders, whose prediction market on the CLARITY Act has generated over $557,000 in trading volume since January, currently price the bill’s passage at approximately 43%, down sharply from 82% earlier in the year. As crypto.news has tracked, the bill faces a four-way standoff among crypto firms, banks, the SEC, and structural critics, with each faction holding effective veto power over a different provision.

What Would Need to Go Right for the Bill to Pass

For the CLARITY Act to become law in 2026, five sequential steps must succeed in rapid succession: a Senate Banking Committee markup, a 60-vote Senate floor threshold, reconciliation of the Banking and Agriculture Committee versions, reconciliation with the House-passed text from July 2025, and a presidential signature. Each of those steps is a potential point of failure. As crypto.news reported, the White House has described the stablecoin yield compromise as holding firm, and White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt said the deal is a “must-have” for unlocking the remaining issues. If that compromise breaks down again, it would trigger another delay that Galaxy’s timeline math suggests the bill cannot survive.

What Passage Would Mean for Crypto Markets

JPMorgan analysts have publicly described CLARITY Act passage by midyear as a positive catalyst for digital assets, a view that reflects how much institutional deployment in crypto is currently gated behind regulatory clarity. As crypto.news documented, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong reversed his company’s earlier opposition and backed the current bill version in April, and approximately 65% of institutional investors surveyed by Coinbase and EY-Parthenon have cited regulatory clarity as the condition holding them back from serious XRP and broader digital asset deployment. Galaxy’s 50-50 assessment is not a call to give up on the bill but a warning that the path is narrower than the most optimistic forecasters in Washington and the crypto industry have been projecting.

A lame duck session of Congress following the November midterms has been mentioned as a last-resort option by some insiders, though Galaxy describes that scenario as low probability given the compressed legislative dynamics.

TLDR:

• SHIB added over 10,000 new holder addresses on Ethereum between April 19 and April 22, 2026.
  
• Around 505 billion SHIB moved off centralized exchanges, pointing to rising self-custody behavior.
  
• Shibarium crossed 1 billion total transactions, strengthening the burn mechanism tied to SHIB supply.
  
• A Q2 2026 privacy upgrade using Fully Homomorphic Encryption is underway with cryptography firm Zama.

---

SHIB holder addresses on Ethereum recorded a sharp rise between April 19 and April 22. More than 10,000 new wallets joined the network during that period, pushing the total above 1.573 million.

Etherscan data captured the move, which ranks as one of the fastest short-term expansions in the holder base this year.

The surge aligns with fresh activity on the Shibarium Layer 2 network and renewed technical interest in the token’s price chart.

What Drove the Wave of New SHIB Wallets

The single largest daily addition came on April 21, when 4,958 new wallets entered the SHIB network. That figure marks the highest one-day gain recorded in 2026 so far.

The cleanest seven-day net gain, however, sits closer to 5,653 wallets on Etherscan. For context, the holder base only crossed 1.55 million in late March.

Price movement played a role in drawing fresh buyers into the token. SHIB climbed more than 7% in the week leading into April 22.

The token also broke through a multi-year descending triangle pattern on its daily chart. Retail wallets tend to respond quickly when a memecoin clears a long-standing technical level.

On-chain data added another layer to the story. Around 505 billion SHIB moved off centralized exchanges over the past week.

That kind of outflow typically points to holders transferring tokens into self-custody. When exchange balances fall at that scale, available supply can tighten over time.

Long-term conviction also appears to be growing within the holder base. Data shows long-term holders have grown roughly 78% over the past year.

Meanwhile, the Shibarium Layer 2 has been generating fresh ecosystem headlines. That type of news often pulls speculative capital back into the parent token.

Shibarium Milestones Shape SHIB’s Broader Narrative

Shibarium crossed 1 billion total transactions, a target the project had been tracking for months. The Layer 2 network generates automatic burns of BONE and, indirectly, affects SHIB supply through fee activity.

Each transaction feeds into the broader burn mechanism over time. That makes sustained network usage relevant to SHIB’s long-term supply picture.

The @Shibtoken team is also targeting a Q2 2026 privacy upgrade built on Fully Homomorphic Encryption. The integration is being developed alongside cryptography firm Zama.

It aims to enable encrypted transactions and data processing directly on Shibarium. The upgrade opens pathways for privacy-preserving DeFi and gaming use cases.

At the time of writing, SHIB trades near $0.0000061 with a market cap of roughly $3.59 billion. That places the token at rank 27 on CoinMarketCap.

Twenty-four-hour volume sits around $91 million, down about 13.5% from the prior day. The week is largely flat at negative 0.3%, after earlier highs near $0.0000064 faded.

The LEASH v2 migration continues in phases following its completed security audit. Other roadmap items include Layer 3 expansion and AI-related tooling.

Traders watching SHIB will want to track Etherscan holder data alongside Shibarium’s daily transaction figures. Whether the holder growth converts into price strength depends on how SHIB handles its current breakout retest.

Pi Network has set a hard deadline of April 27 for all Mainnet node operators to upgrade to Protocol 22, warning that any node still running version 21.2 after the cutoff will be automatically disconnected from the network.

Pi Network’s Core Team posted on X that all Mainnet nodes must complete the upgrade to Protocol 22 before April 27 to remain connected to the network. Nodes that fail to make the transition will fall out of consensus and be disconnected automatically, as the upgrade requires strict version alignment across Pi’s infrastructure to maintain network synchronization and stability.

Pi Network Protocol 22 Upgrade Deadline Puts Node Operators on Notice

Protocol 22 introduces a dual-interface setup allowing node operators to use both a node screen and a desktop Pi application simultaneously, enabling balance checks and network feature access from a computer rather than only a phone. Node operators must update their software to version 0.5.4, and the Pi Core Team says the upgrade takes under 15 minutes if operators follow the correct traffic redirection protocols to avoid resyncing issues. As crypto.news reported, Pi Network also expanded smart contract tools on Testnet on April 17, introducing subscription smart contract capability designed to support recurring blockchain-based services and business models, with PiRC2, the second Pi Request for Comment, opening the design to technical review and community feedback before any Mainnet rollout.

Why the Protocol 22 Deadline Matters for What Comes Next

Protocol 22 is not the destination but the foundation. The upgrade is explicitly positioned as the prerequisite for Protocol 23, which is expected to introduce full smart contract functionality in May 2026. Smart contracts would allow developers to build automated, condition-based transactions and more complex decentralized applications directly on Pi’s blockchain, transforming the network from a transactional system into a programmable platform. Pi Network’s 18 million KYC-verified users give it a structurally different developer environment from most other Layer-1 networks, where identity verification is not built into the architecture. As crypto.news tracked, PI surged more than 30% on its March Kraken listing as the market responded to the expanding exchange access and roadmap milestones, though the rally faded quickly, reflecting the market’s consistent pattern of treating each technical development as a sell-the-news event rather than a re-rating trigger.

PI Price Has Not Responded to the Technical Progress

Despite a busy stretch of protocol upgrades, PiRC1 launch, and the approaching Protocol 22 deadline, PI has remained largely unmoved. As crypto.news documented, CoinGecko showed PI at $0.1687 on April 23, with a 24-hour trading volume of approximately $11.17 million and a market cap of $1.73 billion, ranking it 49th. Co-founders Nicolas Kokkalis and Chengdiao Fan are both scheduled to speak at Consensus 2026 in Miami in early May, with sessions framed around utility, identity, and trusted participation, the same themes underpinning the Protocol 22 and PiRC1 rollouts. Traders appear to be watching whether the combination of the April 27 deadline, Testnet smart contract progress, and the Consensus 2026 appearance can give the project a fresh catalyst for price action heading into the Protocol 23 launch.

Pi Network has not confirmed whether the Protocol 23 smart contract rollout will be preceded by an additional community feedback period similar to the PiRC1 and PiRC2 processes, or whether it will move directly to Mainnet deployment upon readiness.

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Ethereum opened at $2,375.12 on Thursday April 23, 2026, rising 2% from Wednesday’s open as Bitcoin led a broad morning rally past $78,000, though ETH pulled back to $2,316.88 by 7:10 a.m. ET as traders remained cautious over the lack of progress in Iran peace talks and continued US naval activity near the Strait of Hormuz.

Ethereum opened at $2,375.12 on Thursday and quickly retraced, settling near $2,316.88 by early morning as Bitcoin’s own rally above $78,000 proved difficult to sustain. Yahoo Finance confirmed ETH was up 2% from Wednesday’s opening price, though the reversal pattern was consistent with the cautious risk environment that has defined markets since the Iran ceasefire extended without progress toward a formal peace agreement.

Ethereum Price April 2026 Rally Tracks Bitcoin but Traders Hold Back

Thursday’s morning move followed Bitcoin’s strongest open since early February, with BTC briefly clearing $78,000 before giving back gains as rising oil prices introduced fresh inflation concerns. As crypto.news reported, ETH rose nearly 5% on Wednesday to $2,402, with spot Ethereum ETFs recording a ninth consecutive day of net inflows totaling over $530 million, the open interest in ETH futures climbing to $32.7 billion, and a bullish crossover forming between the 20-day and 50-day exponential moving averages on the daily chart. Thursday’s price action is being watched closely for whether that institutional inflow momentum can hold the $2,300 level as a support floor, with $2,574 identified as the next meaningful resistance aligned with the 50% Fibonacci retracement level.

The Geopolitical Ceiling Keeping ETH Range-Bound

The broader pattern for Ethereum in April 2026 has been one of sharp macro-driven rallies followed by partial retracements, all within a narrowing range anchored by the Iran conflict. As crypto.news documented, ETH surged more than 9% on April 14 to a 10-week high of $2,393 as ceasefire diplomacy briefly lifted risk sentiment, with $123.5 million in short liquidations accelerating the move. That rally also stalled near the same $2,400 zone ETH is testing again this week, reinforcing it as a key resistance ceiling the asset has not been able to close above convincingly since the war with Iran began in February. Iran fired on three ships near the Strait of Hormuz on April 22, and while the US extended the ceasefire indefinitely, the naval blockade remains in place, sustaining the geopolitical risk premium that has kept crypto and risk assets broadly range-bound.

What Would Change the Ethereum Outlook

A sustained close above $2,500 would be the first meaningful structural signal that Ethereum’s rally has shifted from macro relief trading to a genuine trend. As crypto.news tracked, ETH has held its multi-year ascending support trendline that connects bear market lows going back to 2019, with the April monthly low of $2,017 testing and holding that level. The monthly MACD histogram has turned positive at 129.89, the first constructive macro momentum signal since the late 2025 decline from the $4,800 peak. Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade, expected in the first half of 2026, targets significant gas limit increases, parallel transaction execution, and lower Layer-2 transaction costs, providing a fundamental catalyst that could eventually support price independent of the macro environment.

ETH remains approximately 53% below its August 2025 all-time high of $4,953.73, and traders are watching whether the combination of institutional ETF inflows, smart contract network growth, and improving technical structure can produce a sustainable recovery above the $2,500 resistance zone.

Global crypto adoption declined in the first quarter as retail activity weakened under mounting macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures, underscoring the sector’s continued sensitivity to broader market conditions.

TRM Labs’ Q1 Global Crypto Adoption Index showed an 11% year-over-year drop in retail crypto volumes, to $979 billion. The decline marked a second consecutive quarterly contraction and the sharpest pullback since the 2022 bear market.

The downturn was largely driven by a stronger US dollar, higher interest rates and a broader risk-off environment, all of which weighed on retail participation, TRM said. The softer demand coincided with a 22% drop in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) during the quarter.

Bitcoin’s correction followed a late-2025 peak above $126,000, with prices trending lower through the first quarter alongside a broader decline in digital asset markets.

Bitcoin’s quarterly returns between Q4 2022 and Q1 2026. Source: TRM Labs

Related: Crypto Biz: Will Bitcoin secure safe passage through the Hormuz Strait?

Emerging markets diverge from advanced economies

The report highlighted a growing regional divide in crypto adoption, with advanced economies such as the United States, South Korea, the United Kingdom and Germany posting the steepest declines in trading volume. In these markets, where crypto is largely used as a speculative asset, higher opportunity costs and weaker risk appetite pushed investors elsewhere. 

Part of that shift was tied to the outbreak of the Iran war in late February, which disrupted energy flows and heightened sensitivity to geopolitical developments across global markets.

By contrast, markets where crypto serves a more functional role, including payments and savings, showed greater resilience. Turkey stood out, with volumes rising 7% year over year, while activity across Latin America and South Asia remained broadly stable.

The study also flagged Venezuela as a major growth market for crypto adoption amid ongoing sanctions. Source: TRM Labs

“This divergence reflects a fundamental difference in demand: where domestic monetary policy is constrained or capital controls limit alternatives, crypto functions as a store of value and shadow dollar system,” TRM said.

Related: Stablecoin supply reaches $315B in Q1 as USDC rises, USDT declines

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.