After topping $70,000 on Monday, bitcoin BTC$68,416.46 has pulled back to the $68,000 area as time draws near for President Trump’s Tuesday deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” said Trump in a Tuesday morning Truth Social Post. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” he continued. “We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world.”

Alongside declines in crypto, U.S. stock index futures are poised to open lower, led by the Nasdaq 100’s 0.65% decline. WTI crude oil is higher by 1.7% to $114.22 per barrel.

Tempering declines across markets were comments from vice president J.D. Vance, who — while reiterating the 8 pm ET deadline — said the military objectives of the Iran war have been completed.

Crypto presales gain traction as investors position early for the next market cycle.

As the crypto market gets ready to take its next big leap, presale projects are gaining significant traction from investors. This is because, at such an early stage, they tend to have the greatest growth potential, particularly when they have a strong story behind them. The 2026 crypto cycle is on the horizon, and finding growing presales early on could be the key to making the most of them.

Little Pepe (LILPEPE)

One of the most advanced projects in terms of presale is Little Pepe (LILPEPE). The project has already secured more than $28 million in funding and is currently in Stage 13, nearing completion. The current price of each token is $0.0022, and in the next stage, each token will cost $0.0023.

The project has a fixed total token supply of 100 billion tokens, out of which 26.5 billion is allocated for the presale. The project is based on a Layer 2 blockchain technology compatible with Ethereum and has zero tax trades, sniper bot protection, staking rewards, DAO governance, and a meme launchpad. The project also has some amazing giveaways and rewards that increase community engagement and participation.

ApeMars (APRZ)

ApeMax is a new presale project that stands out from the rest due to its ‘Boost to Earn’ mechanism. The presale stage is divided into different stages. The presale stage 14 has gathered more than $360,619. The APRZ token is sold for $0.00017238 per token. The project is significant due to its focus on early token use cases, allowing investors to use the tokens right away. The total token supply is also a key feature of ApeMax.

Bitcoin Hyper (HYPER)

Bitcoin Hyper is one of the largest presales in the current market. It seeks to add the much-needed scalability to the Bitcoin blockchain. So far, the project has managed to raise over $32.2 million. It is trading at the early stages of the micro-cap level, with each token costing $0.0136778. It is expected to rise with the phases. It is one of the utility-driven presales heading into 2026, considering its aim to add Bitcoin to the Defi space using smart contracts.

Maxi Doge (MAXI)

Maxi Doge is a meme-driven presale project focused on high-energy community engagement and staking rewards. The presale has already raised approximately $4.7 million, reflecting growing retail participation. The current token price is around $0.0002811, with incremental increases planned across presale phases. While exact total supply figures vary, the project includes large staking pools (over 10 billion tokens allocated) and reward mechanisms designed to incentivize early holders. 

DogeBall (DOGEBALL)

DogeBall is a new presale project, which is still in development, with a concept involving meme culture and a sports/gaming-based ecosystem. The project has a series of stages in its presale, with currently priced at $0.0004 in its presale stage 2, which will increase in later stages. The funding is still in development, but the project is getting attention due to its unique niche and community-based concept, making DogeBall a new and promising contender in the presale space for 2026.

Early presales could define the next winners

As the crypto market continues to head into a new boom in 2026, presale projects are a significant focus for high-growth opportunities. Although all these tokens have different characteristics, Little Pepe stands out due to its impressive funding milestone and presale growth. Presale projects are essential for investors who want to gain access to new and promising projects early.

For more information about Little Pepe, visit the official website, X, and Telegram.

Samsung Electronics’ shares got a nice boost on Tuesday morning after the company predicted a record-breaking quarter fueled by the massive boom in AI hardware. The stock jumped as much as 4.8% during the day before settling into a 1.76% gain by the close.

According to its early estimates, Samsung is looking at an operating profit of roughly 57.2 trillion won, which is about $37.8 billion, for the first quarter. To put that massive figure in perspective, it is more than eight times what the company made during the same time last year.

If these numbers hold, it will set a brand new quarterly record for the company. The projected profit is nearly triple their previous all-time high and easily crushed the 42.3 trillion won that analysts were originally expecting.

The revenue side looks just as impressive. Samsung expects sales to hit about 133 trillion won, which is a nearly 70% jump year over year. This would also mark the first time the company’s quarterly revenue has ever crossed the 100 trillion won threshold.

MS Hwang, a research analyst at Counterpoint Research, told CNBC that Samsung’s latest numbers are so huge that they are now rivaling the scale of global Big Tech giants.

The strong outlook is largely tied to demand for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, a critical component used in accelerators from companies like NVIDIA and AMD that power artificial intelligence workloads. Expansion of data centers and rapid growth in AI model training have significantly increased memory requirements, tightening supply and pushing prices higher.

Industry projections suggest memory prices tied to data center applications will continue rising in the coming months. Samsung’s earnings trajectory shows how deeply the AI boom has translated into financial performance, with memory chips forming the core of its profit engine.

Demand for HBM has surged over the past year, leading to supply shortages across the memory market and driving sharp increases in both pricing and shipment volumes. Hwang noted that commodity memory prices could rise by more than 50% in the second quarter, with tight supply conditions expected to persist.

Samsung is also looking to regain its footing in the high-bandwidth memory segment after ceding early leadership to domestic rival SK Hynix, which was quicker to supply advanced AI memory.

Samsung’s Device Solutions division, which houses its memory chip business, accounted for 39% of total revenue and 57% of operating profit in 2025, underlining the segment’s importance to overall earnings.

The company is set to release its full earnings report later this month. While current projections point to strong performance, external risks remain.

Geopolitical risks in focus

Rising tensions in the Middle East are starting to disrupt semiconductor supply chains, with shipments of key materials such as helium facing delays.

The U.S.–Israel conflict involving Iran has raised concerns about access to these inputs, which are essential for chip production, increasing the risk of operational challenges for major manufacturers like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

“If the Middle East conflict ends quickly, it will not significantly impact profits. However, if it persists for several months or longer, it will lead to severe consequences,” Hwang said.

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 1917.55, down 2.4% (-47.87) since yesterday’s close.

All 20 assets are trading lower.

Leaders: BCH (-1.0%) and CRO (-1.0%).

Laggards: AAVE (-8.5%) and AVAX (-7.6%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

Key Takeaways

• Biogen has entered into a multi-target partnership with Alloy Therapeutics to leverage Alloy’s AntiClastic™ ASO technology for developing antisense therapeutics.
• Financial terms include upfront compensation for Alloy, along with potential milestone-based payments and tiered royalty structures.
• The partnership builds on an existing relationship dating back to 2020, which initially centered on antibody-based therapies.
• RBC Capital reduced Biogen’s price target from $233 to $213 while maintaining its Outperform recommendation.
• Wall Street analysts have established a consensus price target of $210.30 for BIIB with an overweight rating.

Biogen has formalized a strategic partnership with Alloy Therapeutics, securing rights to utilize Alloy’s proprietary AntiClastic™ antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) technology platform for developing therapies targeting several yet-to-be-disclosed disease areas.

Biogen Inc., BIIB

Under the terms of the arrangement, Alloy Therapeutics will collect an initial payment, with opportunities to earn additional compensation through development and commercial milestones, plus royalty payments tied to any successfully marketed products.

While the two biotechnology firms have maintained a collaborative relationship since 2020, their previous work concentrated on antibody-based treatment development. This latest agreement marks a strategic shift toward genetic medicine applications.

Biogen brings substantial experience to ASO drug development. The company’s Spinraza, approved for treating spinal muscular atrophy, represents one of the commercial success stories in antisense therapy. This new collaboration aims to expand that expertise through Alloy’s technology platform.

Alloy CEO Errik Anderson characterized the partnership straightforwardly: “Biogen is a leader in the space and has made huge contributions to ASO technologies. We view this as validation and an opportunity to build on their experience.”

The collaboration will prioritize three key objectives for Alloy’s platform: increasing therapeutic potency, reducing immunogenic responses, and improving targeted tissue delivery.

Alloy’s Expanding Partnership Portfolio

Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, Alloy has established a business model centered on collaborative drug discovery and development with biopharmaceutical companies. Since launching in 2017, the company has executed approximately 200 partnership agreements, with over 100 producing licensed therapeutic candidates.

The platform has contributed to 22 drug candidates that have advanced into clinical testing. In 2024, Sanofi entered into an agreement potentially worth up to $400 million to access this same ASO technology for developing central nervous system treatments.

Christian Cobaugh, who leads Alloy’s Genetic Medicine Division as CEO, indicated the Biogen collaboration will enable the company to expand its involvement beyond initial discovery phases into later-stage development activities.

Alloy differentiates itself from typical platform biotechnology companies by focusing exclusively on partnerships rather than developing an internal proprietary pipeline.

Wall Street’s Perspective on Biogen

From an analyst perspective, RBC Capital Markets revised its price target for BIIB downward to $213 from a previous $233 on April 7, though the firm maintained its Outperform rating.

According to FactSet’s analyst consensus data, the mean price target for Biogen shares currently sits at $210.30, accompanied by an overweight rating across the Street.

BIIB shares declined 2.82% on the trading day when the partnership was publicly announced.

XRP (XRP) is staring at a potential drop toward $1.10, as a decline in profitable supply suggests growing bearish momentum and a classic setup for new lows.

Key takeaways:

• XRP supply in profit has dropped to 43%, levels last seen in November 2024.

• Investors have continued selling their XRP holdings, realizing losses at $110 million per day.

• XRP rising wedge breakdown targets $1.10. 

XRP supply in profit drops below 50%

As of Tuesday, 43% of all XRP coins were in profit, levels last seen in November 2024, according to onchain data resource Glassnode.

Historically, the metric’s drop below 50% has signaled a transition from optimism to despair characterized by panic selling and high capitulation, as seen in the last stages of previous bear markets.

Related: XRP risk-reward improves as whale accumulation rises: Will price follow?

Between January and June 2022, for instance, XRP price dropped to $0.30 from over $0.75, a decline coinciding with XRP’s profitable supply falling to as low as 20% from just under 50%. A similar scenario was seen in 2018 when XRP price dropped another 70%, with the supply in profit going as low as 15%.

In fact, investors who accumulated XRP above $2 over the last 12 months “have been realizing losses at a pace of $20M–$110M/day since November 2025,” Glassnode added. 

In a Tuesday post on X, analyst Crypto Town Hall said this “reflects widespread holder drawdowns, often seen during late-stage corrections,” leading to sharp drops as holders continue realizing losses.

Additionally, the average wallets active on the XRP Ledger over the past year are down 41% on their investments.

“This is the lowest MVRV (Mean Value to Realized Value) for XRP traders since the FTX crash in November, 2022,” onchain data resource Santiment said in a Tuesday post on X, adding:

“Significantly negative average returns imply that there is much lower risk than average in buying or adding on to your $XRP positions, due to the fact that competing traders are already in severe ‘blood in the streets’ territory.”

This means fresh selling could be coming as investors seek to cut their losses, a key ingredient in keeping the downtrend going toward the $1.10 target.

XRP rising wedge breakdown targets $1.10

XRP/USD is in the breakdown phase of a rising wedge on the daily time frame, a bearish pattern that forms when price compresses inside two upward-sloping trendlines after a sharp decline.

The price slipped below the wedge’s lower trend line at $1.37 on March 27 and is now attempting a typical post-breakdown retest near the 50-day simple moving average around $1.38. That area is acting as immediate resistance.

If XRP fails to reclaim the trendline and moving averages, the setup points to a deeper move toward the pattern’s measured target near $1.10, roughly 16% below the current levels.

This is close to predictions by Polymarket bettors who price in a 57% chance that XRP price will hit $1.20 before the end of April.

As Cointelegraph reported, if bulls fail to reclaim the moving averages and the price breaks below $1.27, the XRP price risks falling toward $1.11 and eventually to the $1 psychological level.