Kraken’s Chief Security Officer Nick Percoco has revealed that the crypto exchange is being extorted by criminals who are threatening to leak videos of client data. 

Percoco shared the news on X today, detailing how it identified two instances of its staff accessing its client systems and leaking them online. 

He claims that in 2025, the exchange discovered one of its support staff had leaked client data after somebody tipped the firm off about footage circulating on criminal forums. 

Read more: Hyperbridge exploited less than two weeks after April Fools’ day hack prank

In this instance, Percoco says the firm was able to revoke the staff member’s access and enact additional security controls. 

Percoco says the firm has since learned of another more “recent” breach, and as before, it terminated the individual’s access to company systems. 

He claims that Kraken then received extortion demands.

“The criminals threatened to distribute materials from both the February 2025 incident and the recent incident to media outlets and on social media if we did not comply. We will not pay these criminals,” he said.

Clients included in the leaks were informed, and Percoco said it only affected “approximately 2,000 in total (0.02% of clients).”

Tom Duff Gordon, the vice president of international policy at U.S.-listed cryptocurrency platform Coinbase (COIN), has left the firm for pastures green.

Duff Gordon, who had been with Coinbase for close to 4 years, left the exchange to join OpenAI as head of EMEA Policy, a Coinbase spokesperson said via email.

Duff Gordon had previously spent 8.5 years working as a banker at Credit Suisse. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An expert on crypto regulations, Duff Gordon recently pointed out that U.K. banks are blocking millions of customers from accessing legal and compliant services, by failing to distinguish between Financial Conduct Authority-registered firms with low fraud rates and higher-risk operators.

The White House’s main crypto adviser, Patrick Witt, said that work is still being done to lock in the compromise that he thinks will move the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act forward in the U.S. Senate, though he said several other points are also being worked out behind the scenes.

In an interview on CoinDesk TV Monday, the executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets suggested Monday that the common ground that key senators from both parties said they’d secured on stablecoin yield seems to be intact.”We’re hopeful that the compromise that has been reached will be durable and will hold,” Witt said. “Solving that was a must-have before we could get onto the other outstanding issues,” which he said he’s now pivoted to, though some of the issues have already been resolved.

Apart from the question of yield on stablecoins, over which bankers had successfully convinced some in the Senate that their deposit base could be in peril, the Clarity Act had a number of other potential hangups. Among those have been the illicit financial protections in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, and a request from Democrats that senior government officials (most pointedly, President Donald Trump) be barred from profiting off of the crypto sector.

Though Witt wouldn’t identify the topics that have been settled in the ongoing talks, he said that the negotiations “made considerable progress in the background” while the yield argument between banks and crypto firms got most of the attention.

“We’re very close to closing them out,” he said. “All of these issues felt intractable and unsolvable at one point in time. So the fact that we’ve been able to close out a lot of them gives me confidence that we can close out these other ones, too.”

The Clarity Act would need a markup hearing in the Senate Banking Committee before it can be advanced toward a final Senate vote. It had been close to such a hearing at the beginning of the year, but the bank lobbyists raised objections to stablecoin yield that delayed the process.

Last week, White House economists issued a report that downplayed the threats the banking sector contended are posed by giving stablecoin holders a return that resembles interest from a bank account. On Monday, the American Bankers Association answered back, saying the White House argument was flawed. Witt said the view of bankers is wide-ranging, depending on how close they are to the technology.

“They’re grappling with it,” he said. “These are all important issues to their members.

And, you know, some of them are going to view stablecoins more positively. Some are going to be a little bit more threatened by them.”

Read More: Trump’s crypto adviser rejects Jamie Dimon on treating yield-bearing stablecoins like banks

The bitcoin price prediction just hit a turning point. BTC posted back to back quarterly losses for the first time since 2022, dropping 23% from its January price of $87,500, but April has closed green 9 out of 13 times since 2013 with a 69% win rate per 24/7 Wall St.

The pattern is clear: BTC falls hard then bounces harder. While that recovery builds over months from a $1.3 trillion cap, the wallets chasing the biggest return are not waiting on BTC.

They are filling Pepeto because a working exchange, a confirmed Binance listing, and $8.9 million in committed capital tell them the setup is already in place.

Bitcoin Price Prediction Shifts as April Win Rate Meets Quarterly Reset

BTC lost 23% in Q1 after falling from $87,500, and Q4 2025 also closed red, marking the first back to back quarterly losses since 2022 per 24/7 Wall St.

But April’s 69% win rate is one of BTC’s strongest months on record, and CME FedWatch shows 98% expect the Fed to hold at the April 28 meeting per 24/7 Wall St.

When BTC falls to levels that historically trigger rebounds and the Fed removes the threat of more rate hikes, the bitcoin price prediction shifts from fear to timing.

BTC at $71,140 and Pepeto at $8.9M: Where the Pattern Repeats

Pepeto: The Same Pattern That Made Every Early Crypto Fortune

What if you could go back and buy BTC at $100? Or catch BNB at $0.15? Or enter Pepe before $11 billion? Every one of those followed the same pattern: a real product, early fear, and a crowd that showed up late. Pepeto is following that exact pattern right now, except this time you are not late.

The exchange is already live. PepetoSwap handles every trade at zero cost so your gains stay whole, the bridge sends your assets between ETH, BNB, and Solana chains for free, and the scanner catches dangerous contracts before your money goes anywhere near them.

The mind behind the original Pepe, the meme token that hit $11 billion on nothing but hype and 420 trillion supply, built Pepeto with real tools and a Binance listing already confirmed. SolidProof audited every contract with results on chain for anyone to check. More than $8.9 million flowed in while the market sat in fear, and that is the tell. The people inside are not waiting and hoping. They already see where this goes. Staking pays 185% APY, growing your position every day before listing day arrives.

At $0.0000001862 per token, analysts project 100x to 300x once the Binance listing opens trading. Let those numbers sink in. $750 at 100x becomes $75,000. At 300x that same $750 becomes $225,000. How often does a setup like this land in front of you with a working exchange, a clean audit, and a confirmed listing all at less than a penny? The presale is filling fast and the listing will end this price for good.

Bitcoin Price Prediction: Levels, Targets, and What the Quarterly Reset Means

BTC trades near $71,140 with a $1.42 trillion cap, down 43% from its October 2025 all time high near $126,000 per CoinMarketCap.

The $75,000 level is the key resistance, and a clean break with volume opens the path toward $85,000 by summer.

Standard Chartered targets $120,000 by year end, and the CLARITY Act markup in late April is the next catalyst. Even the bull case at $120,000 delivers 67% from current levels, strong for a $1.3 trillion asset but taking the rest of the year to play out.

Conclusion

BTC carries the store of value story and April’s 69% win rate says the bounce is likely coming. But here is what it comes down to. Do you want 67% over the rest of the year from a $1.3 trillion token? Or do you want to be the person who put $750 into a presale and watched it become $75,000 to $225,000 from one listing?

Every fortune built in crypto started with one moment where someone moved while everyone else was still reading about it. BTC at $100. BNB at $0.15. Pepe at zero. The same creator who built that last one is behind Pepeto, and the Binance listing is the event that turns this presale price into history. The wallets already inside are the ones who will tell this story next year. The only question left is whether your wallet is one of them.

Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale

FAQs

How do back to back quarterly losses change the bitcoin price prediction?

BTC’s first back to back quarterly losses since 2022 pushed prices lower, but April’s 69% win rate signals a bounce, while Pepeto at presale pricing delivers returns one listing can produce.

Can a presale outperform the bitcoin price prediction this cycle?

BTC at $71,140 targeting $120,000 delivers 67% over months, but $750 inside Pepeto at 100x becomes $75,000 from one Binance listing, making the presale at the Pepeto official website the faster path.

Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.

Scope of Interfaces to Be Covered

The Commission outlined covered user interfaces as websites, browser extensions, or applications associated with crypto wallets. These applications assist users to plan and start transactions on blockchain platforms or smart contracts. Also in the guidelines, there are platforms that provide routing information, pricing and cost estimates of transactions. Such interfaces provide support to users that make use of self-custodial wallets to conduct crypto asset securities trades. They might also contain aggregators and swap platforms that show execution paths. As a result, the SEC acknowledges their functions in operations but does not differentiate them from the traditional intermediaries.

The SEC, however, added that it will not object to some platforms functioning without registration of a broker-dealer in some circumstances. The platforms should enable users to customise the parameters of transactions and offer educational aids to make informed choices. In addition, they should not give instructions to the users on certain securities transactions. The Commission highlighted that platforms should be neutral when offering trading options. The interface providers can provide default execution facilities, but they are not able to rank or favor specific trades. Therefore, it requires compliance by ensuring that the user is in control and restricting access to the results of transactions.

Section 15 of the Exchange Act that regulates the registration of brokers is referred to as the guidance. Though certain interfaces might fit the definition of brokers, the SEC made it clear that there are situations in which the enforcement might not be applicable. Moreover, such a strategy is an indication of a loose reading of the law on securities. The research head of Galaxy Digital Alex Thorn claimed that the SEC is moving forward with market structure without legislation. He observed that the agency is developing rules that resemble the ones suggested in the CLARITY Act. Furthermore, he emphasised the fact that the guidance provided to the staff might change with time.

Also, the guidance can facilitate future exemption of innovation covered by the SEC leadership. This may go as far as tokenised securities trading via automated systems and decentralised applications. The agency therefore keeps on demarcating operational limits of new crypto services. The crypto regulation debate in the U.S. Senate is set to be reintroduced in the near future. The legislators can proceed with official reviews and amendments of the suggested bill. The schedule indicates that there will be ongoing liaison between regulatory and legislative action.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said that software that sets up user interfaces allowing crypto securities to be transacted through individuals’ wallets won’t need to be registered and regulated as a broker.

In the latest of the agency’s staff statements on crypto — now a wide-ranging list of views meant to allow the crypto industry to move forward in the absence of permanent rules — the SEC staff said on Monday that the websites or software used by people pursuing securities transactions with their self-hosted wallets won’t itself be considered as belonging to the broker-dealer category. That tracks with the agency’s recent stance that developers should be able to write software without triggering such regulations.

The agency provided a checklist of measures the creators of these interfaces can take to keep them out of the regulatory box, including that it “does not solicit investors to engage in any specific crypto asset securities transactions” and “does not provide commentary on any potential execution route(s) displayed to a user.”

If the interface offers financing, provides investment recommendations, handles user assets, takes orders or executes transactions, it’s no longer outside the agency’s regulatory reach.

“The staff is providing its views as an interim step while the commission continues to consider various regulatory issues relating to crypto asset securities activities and the feedback it has received,” the document said.

Under the administration of President Donald Trump, who has demanded that his executive branch clear an easier path for the rise of friendly crypto regulation, the leadership of the SEC has reversed previous resistance and embraced the technology. Even before the arrival of SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, a series of pro-crypto statements began emerging, clarifying the regulator’s new view that various assets wouldn’t be considered securities or wouldn’t trigger oversight requirements. But these statements don’t carry the weight and greater permanence of full-fledged rules.

In the meantime, Atkins’ agency is working on such rules. Wide-ranging SEC rules are close to the proposal stage at the agency, he’s said. Even as the Senate continues to work on the Clarity Act that would cement crypto regulations into law, the agency is working on interim measures to give the agency great certainty.

Read More: SEC makes quiet shift to brokers’ stablecoin holdings that may pack big results

Fellowship, a super political action committee (PAC) that claims to have $100 million in its war chest from crypto-aligned parties ahead of the 2026 US midterms, has begun reporting spending and endorsements for the next election.

According to a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Fellowship PAC reported spending $300,000 on advertising for Clay Fuller, a Republican who won a special election for Georgia’s 14th Congressional District to replace resigning congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The spending, reported disbursed on Tuesday, comes about a month before Georgia’s Republican primary on May 19.

Fellowship is just one of several crypto-backed or aligned PACs expected to pour money to support or oppose candidates in another critical US election season. In 2024, the Fairshake PAC spent more than $130 million in media buys in congressional races, possibly influencing the outcomes in key battlegrounds like the US Senate seat for Ohio.

According to the FEC, super PACs may “receive unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labor unions and other PACs for the purpose of financing independent expenditures and other independent political activity.”

In addition to its only reported expenditure since the Fellowship PAC’s statement of organization filed in 2025, Fellowship posted endorsements for candidates to its X account on Thursday, signaling support for Republicans in races across five states. The candidates included Alan Wilson for South Carolina governor, Blake Miguez for Louisiana’s 5th Congressional District, Mike Collins for the US Senate in Georgia, Julia Letlow for the US Senate in Louisiana, Pete Ricketts for the US Senate in Nebraska and Nate Morris for the US Senate in Kentucky.

Related: Chainlink and Anchorage Digital back launch of crypto-aligned PAC

Fellowship announced its launch in September, claiming to have “over $100 million” from undisclosed backers aligned with the crypto industry. On April 1, it said that Tether’s head of government affairs, Jesse Spiro, would chair the PAC, signaling support for candidates with pro-crypto views.

US lawmakers are still stalled on crypto market structure bill as midterms approach

The CLARITY Act, legislation passed by the US House of Representatives in July, has faced several delays in the Senate with no clear path forward on passing the legislation as of Monday.

Reports over the weekend signaled that the Senate Banking Committee, one of the two bodies needed to approve the bill in the chamber before a vote, was planning to hold a markup on the legislation, but the event was not on the committee’s calendar at the time of publication.

The bill, expected to be one of the most comprehensive pieces of legislation affecting the crypto and banking industries, has faced pushback from lawmakers to address ethics, stablecoin yield, tokenized equities and other potential issues.

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