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Brock Pierce’s dark and disturbing friendship with Jeffrey Epstein

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Brock Pierce’s dark and disturbing friendship with Jeffrey Epstein

It’s 2010 and Jeffrey Epstein is having a crash out.

His reputation, already in tatters after his 2008 conviction for procuring minors for prostitution, is spiralling further out of control as outlets and reporters, including The Huffington Post, Julie K. Brown, and Wired, uncover more and more juicy details about his salacious lifestyle.

In an effort to halt the decline, Epstein seeks out help from Alfred Seckel, aka Al Seckel, a serial scammer and illusionist who’s been dating Ghislaine Maxwell’s sister, Isabel, for years.

Epstein tasks Seckel with what he presumes to be a relatively cheap and easy job: wipe the internet of his sins.

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This proves to be a pipe dream. Whether due to Seckel’s own incompetence and greed or due to Epstein’s unrepairable reputation, a $25,000 job becomes a $45,000 job, with an added luxury conference — called The Mindshift Conference — hosted on Little Saint John’s and to be paid for by the Epstein Foundation.

And so begins the blossoming of a fruitful eight-year long friendship for Brock Pierce and Jeffrey Epstein.

Warning: this article contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault. We have also provided a zipped folder containing the majority of the files we found useful for this article out of the 1,816 results that appear for “Brock Pierce” in the newly released Epstein Files.

The Mindshift Conference

The Mindshift Conference, which featured Murray Gell-Mann, Frances Arnold, Reichart Von Wolfshield, Brock Pierce, and many others, came with a hefty $55,000 hotel expense bill, as well as costs for flying out speakers, and preparing Little Saint John’s.

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It proved to be a spectacular failure for Epstein.

Indeed, an event Epstein initially hoped would rival TEDTalks was, according to Epstein himself, “the worst meeting (the Epstein Foundation) has ever had.”

Epstein, who was growing increasingly wary of Seckel’s motives, hated the conference so much that he sent an email from “Susan” to Seckel to complain — the email was filled with all of Epstein’s usual spelling and grammatical errors.

An email from January 2011, in which Epstein pretends to be a woman named “Susan.”

However, there was one important detail that would have far-reaching consequences buried in the details of this fake complaint. Epstein (as Susan) wrote, “reichart was interesting as was brock.”

After this, Epstein found himself interested in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency-at-large, concepts he previously suggested were only for criminals.

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This heel-turn is namely due to a presentation by, and the oozing charisma of, Brock Pierce.

Seckel and Epstein soon had a total falling out, with Epstein telling Ghislaine Maxwell by late 2012 that Seckel is “a bad guy.”

It didn’t help that Seckel was involved with deceit involving an Isaac Newton portrait or that he attempted to sell Epstein a collection of falsified antiquarian books.

But the failed conference got Pierce’s foot in the door with a potential investor, and he didn’t let the opportunity pass. Pierce and Epstein met several times over the course of 2011 and by April, only three months after the conference, Pierce was asking Epstein for financial advice:

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An email from Pierce to Epstein in 2011 asking for feedback about a new online gaming fund he’s creating with Clearstone.

The pair continued to get closer and closer and by 2012, their relationship had evolved into something entirely different.

A chart illustrating the links between the saga’s major players.

Read more: New Epstein files reveal contact with Bitcoin dev Andresen before CIA briefing

Girls (Russian and Ukrainian, to be exact)

A year after Pierce and Epstein met and four years since Epstein’s procurement of a minor for prostitution guilty plea, a distinct change occurs in the discussions between the two financiers: women came up a lot, often in disparaging or objectifying terms.

The first time Epstein sent women to Pierce, it included someone who Epstein referred to in later emails as “my little susie” or “sue” and takes place in March 2012, in Los Angeles.

Sue would play a major role in the relationship between Epstein and Pierce later.

The first record that Epstein sends women to Pierce.

In the first record that showed Epstein sending women to Pierce, he told Pierce to “leave your girlfriend home.” Pierce replied, “Will do. Broke up with GF last night so that won’t be a problem.”

A month later, in April 2012, Epstein told Pierce that “my new russian, is in la working she knows no one, if you could help her see some of I.a. .. I would appreicate it.”

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In an email from 2012 Epstein describes his “new Russian” who is “working in LA.”

Pierce failed. The Russian doesn’t meet with him, but after a strange back and forth, he had a concession: “I know a girl in NY you may like. How should I introduce you?”

Epstein responded, “details. ? she can come to meet when others are there.”

An email exchange where Pierce shares the name of a “girl in NY” with Epstein. Epstein replies “Cute”.

Only one month after sharing the information of the girl in New York, Pierce was given a new mission from Epstein when he told the financier and pedophile that he was visiting Moscow, Kiev, and Odessa: “Take photos and find me a present.”

Pierce responded with “Will do. :-).”

An email where Epstein asks Pierce to “take photos and find me a present.”

Only three days later, Pierce shared with Epstein dozens of images of a woman named Anastasia. He added at the bottom of the email, “Ukraine is now my favorite country.”

An email from Brock Pierce to Epstein with the subject line “Anastasia.”

Read more: Former DCG advisor Larry Summers on list of Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘Harvard friends’

Business begins

Beginning in 2013, Pierce and Epstein often sought one another out for advice and also started to do business together.

In May of 2013, less than a year before its inevitable collapse, Pierce shared with Epstein that he was planning on purchasing the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world, MtGox.

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Epstein sends Pierce an article about the indictment of Liberty Reserve’s owners.

Epstein, who was unfamiliar with the exchange, asked if it had been seized by the US government (it hadn’t). The purchase never occured, and in April of 2014, it was revealed that MtGox had lost the majority of its users’ money.

Pierce didn’t give up on acquiring MtGox, trying again after its collapse with an initiative he named Gox Rising.

Also in May of 2013, Epstein spoke to Bill Gross — the co-founder of the Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), the world’s current largest ETF manager with $2 trillion AUM — about a Brock Pierce-related cryptocurrency concept.

Most likely, this was an early reference to Tether, which was only a year from its launch.

An email exchange between Bill Gross of PIMCO and Epstein.

By 2014, Epstein was partnering with Pierce on investments and assisting him with his business affairs.

For example, Epstein looked over a Noble Bank/Markets Nasdaq agreement — the Puerto Rico-based international financial entity started by Pierce and John Betts that briefly served as the main “bank” for the stablecoin tether.

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Pierce forwarding the Noble Markets-Nasdaq agreement to Epstein.

The most important partnership between the two came shortly thereafter: a $3 million investment in Coinbase through a fund started by Bradford and Bart Stephens.

An email from Bart and Brad Stephens that includes a Limited Partnership Agreement for Crypto Currency Partners II, LP.

Perhaps most embarrassing about the Epstein Coinbase investment is that they knew who had put in the money to purchase shares.

As Pierce rushed to get the deal closed, he shared one awkward, hurried email: “I need permission to let the founder know who you are.”

An email from 2014 where Pierce tells Epstein “We have been actively discussing participating in Coinbases next round with the founders.

The email seemed to be an assurance that no one outside of Pierce, Epstein, and the founders of Coinbase would ever be aware that Epstein had personally been involved, his identity hidden behind a faceless fund.

Likely with this in mind, Coinbase accepted the $3 million investment from Epstein.

It was clear by 2014 that Pierce and Epstein had become far more than simple business partners and acquaintances.

They shared women and investments, and spent time together in Los Angeles, New York, and Little Saint James.

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Their back-and-forths were filled with nonchalant references to questionable and seemingly nefarious behavior.

In June of 2014, Epstein innocuously asked Pierce “do you know the Winklevoss’s?”

Pierce responded he does, to which, out of nowhere, Epstein responded that he was going to “send Svetlana to them to get a download of the space, I prefer not to go through the Silicon Valley gossip mafia.”

An email exchange between Pierce and Epstein in which Epstein asks about the Winklevoss twins.

For what it’s worth, the Svetlana that Epstein is sending to the Winklevoss twins was most likely Svetlana Pozhidaeva, a Russian national who refused to speak about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

According to the New Zealand Herald, Pozhidaeva is the daughter of a prestigious Russian family that lived in an apartment block associated with the KGB.

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Meanwhile, strange continuations of unrecorded conversations were splattered throughout their emails. In 2015, Pierce asked Epstein if he was familiar with Jeff Herman — a lawyer who represented several victims of Epstein.

Epstein said, “Very bad guy, was suspended from practice.”

“Do a Google search on me,” Pierce insisted. “He’s suing four of my friends… Any dirt you have could prove helpful.”

A few months later, in a cryptic, short email from Epstein to Pierce, he simply said, “What was the name of your favorite investigator? I forgot.”

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Pierce didn’t reply through email.

Lastly, and years later, Pierce let Epstein know that he failed to pay his taxes for five years and requested legal help.

Epstein fell over himself to assist Pierce, advising him to reach out to Alan Dlugash and insisted that Pierce not speak to any accountants and let his lawyers take care of the problems for him.

The tax problems appear to quickly disappear.

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Alan Dlugash asking Epstein who Brock Pierce is.

Read more: Tether founder Brock Pierce defaults, loses hotel, sues partner

My Little Susie and polygamy

One of the strangest episodes dotting the Pierce-related Epstein Files was the multi-year love story between Pierce and a woman who worked for Epstein named Sue.

As pointed out earlier, the first recorded example of Pierce and Sue spending time together is in Los Angeles in 2012. But Sue continued to come up, all the way through 2018.

In 2015, Epstein described Pierce to Joi Ito as “little Sue’s boyfriend.”

An email exchange in which Joi Ito asks who Pierce is. Epstein describes Pierce as “little sue’s boyfriend.”

In fact, it appears that, for some reason, Epstein has a distinct interest in Pierce’s relationship with Sue. He repeatedly asks Pierce if he’s faithful to or cheating on Sue and sends him reminders about important dates related to her.

An email exchange in which Epstein tells Pierce it’s Sue’s birthday and Pierce thanks him for reminding him.

While they stopped mentioning her for several years, she popped up one final time, in what was arguably the most obvious example of law breaking, deception, and odious intentions: Pierce wanted to marry Sue while already being married, he wanted to be a polygamist.

An email from Pierce in which he says “I’m ready to marry Sue though I’ll have two wives.”

Introducing Epstein to Steve Bannon

What perhaps had the clearest real world consequences in regard to the Pierce-Epstein friendship was that Pierce introduced Epstein to political strategist and chaos agent Steve Bannon in 2016/2017.

Epstein asks if Pierce met with Steve Bannon, Pierce responds, “Yes. Very productive.”

While both Pierce and Epstein almost always referred to Bannon as “Steve,” the timeline that Pierce stated lined up thoroughly with his relationship to Bannon.

When Bannon worked at Goldman Sachs they took a majority share in Pierce’s company called IGE and installed Bannon as the new head of the company (the business model they incorporated was basically paying Chinese gamers less-than-living wages to find loot in World of Warcraft and upsell it to Westerners).

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Within the short amount of time that Bannon and Epstein were friends, they spent a lot of time together and plotted all kinds of fantastical ploys and plots, from new cryptocurrencies to disrupting the dollar hegemony.

It’s unclear who influenced who more.

Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein taking a selfie together.

Coinbase cashout

Just over a year before Epstein’s final arrest, in 2018, Bradford Stephens reached out to Epstein’s lawyer, Darren Indyke, in an attempt to purchase back the Coinbase shares that Epstein still controlled.

The transaction didn’t go as smoothly as Stephens hoped, as he started his offer at only $15 million — a $12 million profit on Epstein’s initial investment.

An email from Bradford Stephens to Darren Indyke offering $15 million for Epstein’s Coinbase position.

Epstein refused. He asked for $11 million for half his position. And then more. And more. Eventually, Stephens handed over $15 million for half of Epstein’s position, the other half Epstein held on to, planning to let it ride until an eventual IPO.

If the Epstein estate did hold its Coinbase position through until the IPO, it’s possible that his initial $3 million investment, thanks to Brock Pierce, netted his estate over $100 million.

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An email from Pierce to Epstein that says, “Brad Stephens says they wired $15m for half your Coinbase position yesterday.”

A known pedophile’s great friend

Pierce, unlike many other financiers, cultural elites, and venture capitalists, met Epstein after his first conviction and remained a close confidant up to the second arrest.

Pierce both profited off his friendship with Epstein and, essentially, made Epstein tens of millions of dollars.

They sent emails often, cared about one another, worried about each other, and shared legal, accounting, and financial advice regularly.

There are several emails in which Pierce wishes Epstein a happy birthday, a happy new year, and even one where he tells him “love you” (while inviting him to a “boat in Antigua… full of Ukraine’s finest”).

A series of emails circa 2018 from Pierce inviting Epstein to Puerto Rico.

Pierce has done his best to distance himself from his past, from working at Digital Entertainment Network in the early aughts, to moving to Spain with infamous pedophile Marc Collins-Rector, to cozying up to chaos agent Steve Bannon.

But it’s impossible for him to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein. Brock Pierce and Jeffrey Epstein’s legacies will be tied together forever.

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We reached out to Brock Pierce for comment and will update this piece should we hear back.

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news, follow us on XBluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

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Bitcoin nears breakout above $75,000 with short squeeze risk building

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Bitcoin nears breakout above $75,000 with short squeeze risk building

Bitcoin is pressing up against $75,000, a price it has repeatedly failed to surpass since early February, putting the broader crypto market on breakout watch after more than two months of range-bound trading.

Traders have been building short positions around that level, betting on another rejection. Data from CoinGlass shows roughly $200 million in shorts would be liquidated if BTC pushes above $75,500 — a dynamic that could accelerate any upside move.

At the same time, macroeconomic sentiment is improving. U.S. equities rallied Monday, with the S&P 500 index posting its highest close since before the Iran conflict escalated, after President Donald Trump signaled willingness to strike a deal with Tehran.

Precious metals also made a comeback on Tuesday with silver rallying by 2.9% since midnight UTC while gold added 0.7% to $4,775 per ounce.

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Derivatives positioning

  • Notional open interest (OI) in crypto futures rose to $126 billion, the most since Jan. 31, according to Coinglass.
  • Ether’s OI surged to 14.99 million ETH ($35.79 billion), the highest since July. The growth likely stems from increased demand for bullish bets because the 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) is positive, indicating that aggressive buying is dominating the flow. Positive funding rates also suggest the same.
  • Bitcoin OI has surged to a record high of 767,000 BTC, while positive CVD and funding rates also signal bullish positioning.
  • ZEC, SOL and HYPE are other notable coins displaying bullish patterns.
  • It’s worth noting that while funding rates are positive for most tokens, they are not unusually high. This is a sweet spot for a grind higher, and indicates that the market is not overheated.
  • However, the 30-day implied volatility (IV) indexes for bitcoin and ether, BVIV and EVIV, have stopped declining over the past two days. Until recently, the spot-price rally was accompanied by falling IV, a dynamic that has now shifted, with IV stabilizing even as prices continue to rise. If this divergence persists or widens, it could raise questions about the sustainability of the price gains.
  • Data from Deribit shows that dealer gamma positioning is deeply negative at $75,000. So, if BTC rises past this level, dealers could buy into the rising market to hedge their exposure back to neutral. This could accelerate the uptrend. Similarly, if prices turn lower from $75,000, dealers could sell into a falling market, accelerating the decline.
  • Bitcoin puts remain pricier than calls across all time frames, risk reversals show. In ether’s case, the sentiment has flipped bullish in favor of calls in short-term expiries. The long-end continues to show a bias for puts.

Token talk

  • The altcoin market is taking a back seat for Tuesday’s breakout attempt, with the bitcoin-dominant CoinDesk 5 (CD5) and CoinDesk 20 (CD20) indexes posting gains of 0.5%-0.7% since midnight, beating the benchmarks weighted toward altcoins.
  • Ether (ETH) is up by 0.7% since midnight, beating majors XRP and SOL, which are down by 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively. ADA lost 2.2% overnight.
  • Memecoins BONK, FLOKI and WIF have cooled after a sector-wide rally on Monday, each losing between 2.4% and 3% since midnight as traders focus on the potential bitcoin breakout.
  • Ethena (ENA) gained 5.6% over the past 24 hours, before giving back 4% during Asian and European hours.
  • The altcoin market is delicately poised. If bitcoin breaks above $75,000 and consolidates, fresh capital will rotate into more speculative bets. For now the focus is on BTC.

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Natural Gas: key support amid renewed escalation

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Natural Gas: key support amid renewed escalation

A key development on 13 April was the start of a naval blockade of Iranian ports, a direct consequence of the collapse of negotiations in Islamabad on 12 April. The blockade covers all vessels entering and leaving Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Around 20% of global natural gas trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz, and the renewed escalation has once again heightened risks to global LNG supplies. European TTF has previously reacted with sharp widening spreads during earlier flare-ups, while the Asian JKM benchmark also remains sensitive to regional disruptions.

Against this backdrop, natural gas as an asset class is caught between two opposing forces: a geopolitical risk premium is providing price support at the global level, while a structural supply surplus — record production, accelerated injections into storage, and an unusually warm spring in the Northern Hemisphere — is weighing on prices from a fundamental perspective.

Technical picture

On the daily chart of XNGUSD, the move from the December 2025 high near 5.200 remains downward but structurally uneven: the sequence of interim highs and lows does not form a classic trending impulse. Volatility is compressing, and each rebound is shorter than the previous one, indicating a gradual loss of selling momentum as price approaches a key support level. Quotes are now trading close to the psychological 2.600 level, which has acted as an important reference point since late 2024.

The volume profile shows a Point of Control (POC) in the 3.150–3.200 range, where the bulk of trading activity is concentrated. This zone acts as the first major barrier to any recovery. The 3.400 level remains the next significant resistance above.

The RSI with Moving Averages reads 34 / 40 / 42, with all three metrics remaining below the neutral 50 level and the moving averages pointing lower, signalling continued downside pressure.

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Summary

Natural gas prices are approaching the key psychological level of 2.600, the lower boundary of a consolidation range that has been in place since late 2024, while the blockade of Iranian ports keeps global energy markets in a state of heightened uncertainty. The RSI with Moving Averages remains below the neutral threshold across all three readings.

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This article represents the opinion of the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand only. It is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation with respect to products and services provided by the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand, nor is it to be considered financial advice.

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The Hidden War for Speed in DeFi

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The Hidden War for Speed in DeFi

In decentralized finance, everyone talks about yield, liquidity, and tokenomics—but almost no one talks about time. Yet beneath the surface, a silent battle is unfolding. Not for users. Not for tokens.
But for milliseconds.

Welcome to the latency wars—where speed isn’t just an advantage… It’s alpha.

Speed Is No Longer a Feature—It’s a Weapon

In traditional finance, high-frequency trading firms spend millions shaving microseconds off execution time. DeFi is now heading down the same path—just dressed in smart contracts and liquidity pools.

Here’s the brutal reality:

  • The faster your transaction executes, the better your price
  • The earlier you interact with liquidity, the higher your yield
  • The quicker you react to market signals, the more edge you capture

In a permissionless system, speed becomes the closest thing to an unfair advantage.

Faster Execution = Better Yield

Yield in DeFi isn’t static—it’s constantly shifting.

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Opportunities like:

  • Liquidations
  • Arbitrage gaps
  • Yield farming rewards

…are often claimed in seconds.

If your transaction arrives late:

  • The liquidation has already taken place
  • The arbitrage is already closed
  • The yield is already diluted

Speed determines who gets paid—and who gets leftovers.

This is why advanced players invest in:

  • Private RPC endpoints
  • Optimized gas strategies
  • Transaction bundling
  • MEV-aware routing

Because in DeFi, being right isn’t enough—you have to be first.

Cross-Chain Latency Arbitrage

As DeFi expands across multiple chains, a new frontier has emerged: cross-chain latency arbitrage.

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Prices don’t update instantly across ecosystems. That delay—sometimes just seconds—creates exploitable gaps.

Example:

  • Asset price updates on Chain A
  • Chain B lags behind
  • Arbitrage bots exploit the difference before equilibrium returns

The profit window is tiny. The competition is brutal.

This has led to:

  • Cross-chain bots operating 24/7
  • Ultra-fast bridge monitoring systems
  • Predictive routing based on latency patterns

It’s not just about where liquidity is anymore.
It’s about who reaches it first across chains.

The Infrastructure Arms Race

Behind every fast trade is a stack of invisible infrastructure.

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We’re seeing an arms race across:

1. RPC Optimization

Custom nodes reduce lag and improve transaction broadcast speed.

2. Block Builders & MEV Relays

Specialized actors reorder transactions for optimal execution—sometimes capturing value before it even reaches the public mempool.

3. Geographic Advantage

Physical proximity to validators can shave off critical milliseconds.

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4. Parallel Execution Chains

New blockchains are being designed specifically for speed—processing transactions simultaneously instead of sequentially.

Who Wins the Latency Wars?

Not necessarily the smartest.

Not even the most capitalized.

The winners are:

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  • The fastest infrastructure
  • The best-connected systems
  • The most optimized execution pipelines

This creates a subtle shift in DeFi’s philosophy.

What started as a level playing field is evolving into a system where:

  • Technical edge = financial edge
  • Infrastructure = strategy
  • Speed = profit

The Trade-Off: Speed vs Fairness

There’s a growing tension at the heart of DeFi:

  • Faster systems improve efficiency
  • But they also centralize advantage

If only a handful of players can afford ultra-low latency infrastructure, the ecosystem risks drifting toward the same inequalities seen in traditional finance.

This raises big questions:

  • Should DeFi optimize for fairness or efficiency?
  • Can protocols be designed around latency advantages?
  • Will new mechanisms (like fair ordering or batch auctions) rebalance the game?

Final Thought

DeFi isn’t just becoming a financial system.

It’s becoming a real-time competitive network—where capital moves like data, and milliseconds decide outcomes.

The next wave of innovation won’t just be about new protocols.

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It will be about who can move fastest inside them.

Because in the hidden war for speed…

Time is the ultimate currency.

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Phishing Drives Majority of Web3 Losses to $464M in Q1, Hacken

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Crypto Breaking News

Hacken’s Q1 2026 security snapshot tallies $464.5 million in losses across 43 Web3 incidents, underscoring a shift in where attackers hit and how damage accumulates. The report highlights phishing and social-engineering campaigns as the dominant threat, totaling $306 million in losses for the quarter. A separate, highly disruptive incident—a $282 million hardware-wallet scam in January—was responsible for 81% of the quarter’s damage, according to Hacken. Smart-contract exploits reached $86.2 million, while access-control failures, including compromised keys and cloud-service breaches, accounted for $71.9 million. The quarter stands as the second-lowest first quarter since 2023, helped by the absence of a Bybit-scale mega hack that drove much of the year-ago decline.

Hacken’s chief executive and co-founder, Yev Broshevan, emphasized a notable trend: the costliest failures increasingly occur outside the code itself. “The most expensive failures happen outside the code layer entirely,” he told Cointelegraph, pointing to real-world weaknesses in operational and infrastructure layers that traditional code audits often miss.

For context, Hacken’s review arrives as regulators and institutional players sharpen expectations around security. The report notes that regulatory regimes such as the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) are moving from framework to enforcement, while regulators in the UAE, Singapore, and Dubai’s regulator, among others, tighten oversight and incident-response requirements. These shifts are shaping what Hacken calls “regulator-ready” security stacks that demand continuous monitoring and rapid containment measures.

Key takeaways

  • $464.5 million in losses across 43 incidents in Q1 2026, with phishing/social engineering driving $306 million of that total. A single January incident of $282 million hardware-wallet theft accounted for a large share of the quarter’s damage.
  • Smart-contract exploits totaled $86.2 million, while $71.9 million stemmed from access-control and compromised-key or cloud-service failures.
  • The quarter marks the second-lowest first quarter since 2023, aided by the absence of a mega hack on the scale of Bybit’s 2025 incident.
  • Attack patterns are shifting toward operational and infrastructure risk, reinforcing the view that audits of on-chain code alone are insufficient to measure a protocol’s security posture.
  • Regulators are tightening expectations. MiCA, DORA, Dubai’s VARA, Singapore’s Basel-aligned requirements, and the UAE’s Capital Market Authority push for stronger incident reporting, continuous monitoring, and defined response timelines.

Operational risk dominates the early 2026 landscape

The Hacken analysis stresses a transition in the vulnerability ledger from purely on-chain code issues to failures rooted in operations and infrastructure. The most expensive losses, the report suggests, arise from misconfigurations, compromised credentials, and weak third-party integrations rather than only from bugged smart contracts. This is consistent with a broader industry message: a robust security program must cover people, processes, and technology in parallel with code audits.

Hacken’s interview with Broshevan reinforces this view: the most consequential incidents tend to emerge from non-contract layers, such as identity and access management, cloud configurations, and supply-chain dependencies. The result is a security problem that requires defense-in-depth measures that extend beyond formal audits of deployed code.

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Legacy code and multi-year vulnerabilities persist

Even as the industry grapples with modern attack vectors, the report highlights several high-cost incidents rooted in legacy deployments or well-known vulnerability patterns. Notably, a $26.4 million loss at Truebit stemmed from a Solidity contract bug deployed roughly five years ago. Venus Protocol faced a donation-style attack that exploited long-standing patterns around contract governance. In another example, a $40 million loss occurred via a North Korea-linked fake venture-capital outreach targeting Step Finance, illustrating how social-engineering campaigns still deliver significant damage.

In parallel, Resolv Labs experienced a compromise of its AWS key-management service, illustrating how access-control failures can underpin large losses even when the code itself isn’t the root cause. Hacken’s incident mapping also flags the broader “playbook” that attackers used in 2025—fake VC outreach, malicious video-call tooling, and endpoint compromises—that reportedly contributed to roughly $2.04 billion in sector-wide losses that year.

Beyond these marquee cases, six audited projects—among them Resolv (18 audits) and Venus (five auditing firms)—accounted for $37.7 million in losses. The data hints at a nuanced relationship between audit activity and loss exposure: higher-value protocols with more assets at stake may attract more sophisticated attackers, even if audited.

Audits, TVL, and the resilience gap

The finding that six audited projects were responsible for millions in losses despite having undergone multiple audits raises a practical question for builders: does audit severity or frequency translate into real-world risk reduction? Hacken notes that these audited protocols typically carry higher total value locked (TVL), which equates to bigger prize pools for attackers. In other words, audits alone may not solve the complex, multi-layer risk profile faced by high-TVL projects, underscoring the need for continuous security monitoring and layered defenses.

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Regulatory tightening and the move toward “regulator-ready” security

The quarter’s regulatory backdrop reinforces the story that security is becoming a market and a compliance issue. MiCA and DORA are moving deeper into enforcement, with regional regulators increasing expectations for ongoing security practices. In Dubai, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority tightened its Technology and Information Rulebook, while Singapore has enforced Basel-aligned capital and rapid incident-notification timelines. The UAE’s new Capital Market Authority has assumed broader digital-asset oversight with stiffer penalties. Hacken frames these developments as a call to operators to demonstrate constant security readiness, not just to pass a one-off audit.

As part of this shift, Hacken advocates a concrete framework for “regulator-ready” security architectures. The blueprint includes:

  • Proof-of-reserves attestations backed by daily internal reconciliation;
  • 24/7 on-chain monitoring across treasury wallets and privileged roles;
  • Automated circuit-breakers for minting and governance actions;
  • Incident notification clocks calibrated to the strictest applicable standard.

Hacken also references a spectrum of response-time targets, distinguishing between “realistic” and “aspirational” goals. Realistic aims include awareness within 24 hours, labeling within four hours, and blocking within 30 seconds. Aspirational targets envision detection within 10 minutes and a 1-second block, drawing on data from Global Ledger’s 2025 Laundering Race. While ambitious, these benchmarks outline concrete steps for projects seeking to align with regulator expectations and institutional counterparties.

Threat actors, playbooks, and the evolving risk landscape

The report keeps returning to the human factor: North Korean actor clusters are identified as the most consistent operational threat in Q1 2026. The combination of social-engineering campaigns, fake professional outreach, and compromised employee endpoints continues to provide a reliable pathway to large losses. The Step Finance case and the Bitrefill-related infrastructure breach illustrate a broader pattern where attackers blend social manipulation with technical exploitation to extract value, often targeting high-value protocols with sophisticated tooling.

For investors, developers, and operators, the takeaway is clear: a successful‑looking deployment with strong smart contracts can still be undermined by weak operational practices, poor key management, or insufficient incident response readiness. The evolving threat landscape demands a multi-layered security approach, ongoing monitoring, and a clear plan for rapid containment—precisely what regulators are now pushing as non-negotiable standards. For builders, this means integrating security into product design from day one and maintaining a culture of continuous testing, diligence, and resilience.

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Further reading and related reporting reinforce the broader context: industry-wide security incidents in early 2026 came with a cautionary reminder that DeFi risk resides not just in code but in how projects operate, govern, and respond under pressure. As enforcement tightens and security expectations rise, market participants will be watched not just for audits and audits’ results, but for visible, verifiable resilience across people, processes, and technologies.

Looking ahead, observers will be watching whether Q2 2026 echoes the Q1 trend toward infrastructure and operational risks or whether new defenses and policy measures begin to close the gap. The balance between code quality, operational hygiene, and regulatory compliance will determine how quickly the ecosystem can move toward a posture that can withstand both sophisticated attacks and tougher supervisory regimes.

Risk & affiliate notice: Crypto assets are volatile and capital is at risk. This article may contain affiliate links. Read full disclosure

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Senhwa Biosciences inks up to $16M funding deal with GEM to boost AI drug discovery

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Senhwa Biosciences, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Taiwan, has entered a partnership with a global investment group to accelerate its artificial intelligence-related drug development.

Summary

  • Senhwa Biosciences secured up to $16 million from Global Emerging Markets affiliate GEM to advance its clinical pipeline and AI-driven drug discovery platform.
  • The firm is expanding oncology programs and leveraging C2S “cell-to-sentence” technology with CellType to accelerate identification of combination cancer therapies.
  • Early AI validation supports its “cold-to-hot tumor” strategy, positioning Senhwa within the emerging immuno-oncology 2.0 space.

According to an April 14 report, Senhwa Biosciences has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with GEM Yield Bahamas Limited, an affiliate of Global Emerging Markets, where the latter will provide up to $16 million in capital to support Senhwa’s strategic growth.

These include the advancement of its clinical pipeline, the expansion of its oncology programs, and the scaling of its machine learning discovery platform.

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Besides focusing on cancer research, the firm has been looking into innovative ways to interpret complex biological datasets. After leveraging its connections with Y Combinator, it collaborated with the biotech firm CellType to implement next-generation cell-to-sentence technology.

This system has led researchers to identify actionable insights more quickly, allowing for a more structured approach to finding combination treatments for various malignancies.

The AI-enabled validation process has shown that Senhwa’s lead compounds can effectively modulate immune responses within the tumor microenvironment.

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It reinforces its cold-to-hot tumor strategy and thus enables Senhwa to stand out as a leader in the immuno-oncology 2.0 field. This comes as AI-assisted drug discovery becomes a standard for modern medicine. For instance, the ability to predict how a drug interacts with a resistant tumor can significantly shorten the time required for clinical trials.

As per Senhwa, the strategic funding will enable it to move its clinical trials forward alongside its technological expansion. This would significantly strengthen the company’s position in the global biopharmaceutical market.

At the same time, the partnership will likely open new doors for international collaborations and future commercialization.

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Oklo (OKLO) Stock Climbs 7.2% Despite $50M Insider Share Dump

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OKLO Stock Card

Key Takeaways

  • Oklo (OKLO) shares advanced 7.2% Monday, finishing at $53.85 with approximately 8.29 million shares changing hands
  • Wall Street maintains a “Moderate Buy” consensus with an $84.30 average price target, despite recent downgrades from UBS, Citi, and B. Riley
  • The company’s Q4 earnings per share came in at −$0.27, falling short of analyst expectations of −$0.17
  • Company insiders offloaded more than 818,000 shares valued at approximately $50.9 million during the past quarter
  • The company plans to bring its inaugural Aurora reactor online in Idaho by 2027, projecting revenues of $36 million by 2028

Shares of Oklo (OKLO) surged 7.2% during Monday’s trading session, settling at $53.85. The stock peaked at $53.96 intraday, representing a solid gain from Friday’s closing price of $50.25. Approximately 8.29 million shares traded hands, falling roughly 17% short of the stock’s typical daily volume of 10 million.


OKLO Stock Card
Oklo Inc., OKLO

The upward movement occurs as nuclear energy equities maintain investor attention, fueled by escalating electricity demands from artificial intelligence operations and data center expansion.

Oklo’s current valuation stands at approximately $9.35 billion. The stock trades significantly below its 50-day moving average of $60.16 and its 200-day moving average of $89.90.

Wall Street Analysts Lower Price Expectations

Analyst sentiment toward Oklo has moderated somewhat over recent weeks. UBS slashed its price objective from $95 down to $60 while maintaining a “neutral” stance. Citi reduced its target from $95 to $73.50, also with a “neutral” rating. B. Riley lowered expectations from $129 to $92 while retaining a “buy” recommendation.

Cantor Fitzgerald maintained its “overweight” position with a $122 price objective. Wedbush similarly preserved its “outperform” assessment.

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The overall Wall Street consensus stands at “Moderate Buy” with an $84.30 average price target. While this remains substantially above current trading levels, analyst expectations have been trending downward.

Among 19 analysts tracking the stock, two assign a Strong Buy rating, nine recommend Buy, six suggest Hold, and two advise Sell.

Regarding financial performance, Oklo posted a quarterly loss of $0.27 per share, underperforming analyst projections of −$0.17 by $0.10. Wall Street forecasts a full-year loss of −$8.20 per share for the current fiscal year.

Company Executives Unload Significant Stock Holdings

Insider transactions have increased notably. CFO Richard Craig Bealmear divested 16,342 shares on April 1st at $51.08 per share, generating proceeds of approximately $834,749. This transaction decreased his holdings by about 4%.

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William Carroll Murphy Goodwin, another insider, sold 2,820 shares in March at $56.69 each, reducing his position by approximately 15%.

Collectively, company insiders have sold 818,766 shares valued at roughly $50.9 million throughout the previous quarter. Despite these sales, insiders maintain 18.9% ownership, while institutional investors control 85.03%.

Oklo’s Aurora microreactor technology delivers 1.5 MW of power independently and can expand to 75 MW per installation. The platform is designed for remote and off-grid applications, utilizing metallic uranium fuel capable of operating approximately ten years between refuelings.

The company currently generates minimal revenue. Its inaugural 75 MW Aurora Powerhouse reactor deployment in Idaho is scheduled for 2027. Additionally, Oklo secured a U.S. Department of Defense agreement to construct a reactor at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.

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Revenue projections show growth from less than $1 million in 2026 to $36 million by 2028.

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Why is Crypto Up? Ether, HYPE, and Solana Lead Following US Grand Deal

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🇮🇷

Why is crypto going up? Ethereum is about to tap $2,400, while Solana mirrors Bitcoin’s gain as it pushes toward $75,000 on the back of what analysts are calling the “US grand deal.” It’s a macro catalyst that may have more runway than most expect.

The rally is broad-based; Aave, HYPE, Ethereum, and Solana are all leading gains as risk appetite floods back into digital assets. Positive regulatory sentiment under the current US administration, combined with accelerating institutional inflows into ETH products, appears to be driving the move. Citi’s 12-month ETH target of $5,440 is suddenly getting attention again.

The question now is not why crypto is up, but how far it can run, and which assets offer the most asymmetric upside from here.

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Why? Why is Crypto Going Up Today?

The Grand Deal. It is the macro layer that changes institutional math. It is maybe covering the peace deal on the US-Iran war, but it could also change the tailwinds on structured DeFi access, custody frameworks, and tokenized asset classification, and removing the compliance ambiguity that has been keeping institutional crypto allocations capped at exploratory positions.

The Grand Deal can also, in the end game passes key legislative hurdles, compliance teams greenlight expanded exposure, Bitcoin $75K becomes a structural target rather than a speculative one, and ETF inflow data confirms the repositioning over the following two to three weeks. Yes, when politicians stop thinking about war, they can start thinking about the Clarity Act more.

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For Altcoins like Solana, the picture is similarly constructive, SOL is tracking ETH’s momentum with the broader risk-on move, though specific technical levels remain in flux.

The macro tailwind, driven by the same geopolitical and trade deal sentiment that has lifted Bitcoin toward $75,000, provides a supportive floor for both assets.

Discover: The best crypto to diversify your portfolio with

LiquidChain Targets Early Mover Upside as Altcoins Test Key Levels

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Altcoins at the current price are already priced in a significant recovery. To 4x from here, big coins like Ether and SOL need to reach something beyond a multi-year horizon, but hardly the asymmetric bet it was in 2022. Early-stage infrastructure projects launching into a bull market tend to offer a different risk/reward profile entirely.

LiquidChain is a Layer 3 infrastructure project positioning itself as the cross-chain liquidity layer — fusing Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana liquidity into a single execution environment. The core architecture includes a Unified Liquidity Layer, Single-Step Execution, Verifiable Settlement, and a Deploy-Once framework that lets developers reach all three ecosystems simultaneously without rebuilding protocol stacks.

The presale is currently priced at $0.01449, with more than $660K raised to date. The coin also offers 1600% APY staking bonus for new buyers.

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Research LiquidChain’s presale terms before the next pricing tier closes is worth the 10 minutes.

The post Why is Crypto Up? Ether, HYPE, and Solana Lead Following US Grand Deal appeared first on Cryptonews.

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Bitcoin holds steady above $74K as US blocks hormuz amid Iran talks

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BTC/USD 4H Chart

Key takeaways

  • BTC is approaching $75,000 after adding nearly 5% to its value since Monday.
  • The rally comes despite the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.

Bitcoin (BTC) has stabilized above $74,000 as of Tuesday’s press time, following a 5% rally the previous day. This price surge comes as the US enforces a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz during ongoing peace talks with Iran. US Vice President JD Vance hints at a grand deal in the works, demanding an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Market sentiment recovers with $500M in liquidations

The broader cryptocurrency market is seeing a recovery, with over $500 million in liquidations across the last 24 hours, primarily driven by short squeezes. Aave (AAVE), Algorand (ALGO), and Ethereum (ETH) are leading the charge in the market’s upward momentum.

As negotiations between the US and Iran progress, the US military has started blocking the Strait of Hormuz, halting the movement of transiting ships. Vice President JD Vance emphasized that the situation is now in Iran’s hands, with the primary focus of US talks being Iran’s nuclear material exit and halting uranium enrichment. Former President Donald Trump also commented that “the other side” has approached him for a deal.

The peace talks appear to be fueling a “risk-on” sentiment, especially in the cryptocurrency market. According to CoinGlass data, the last 24 hours saw $531 million in liquidations, with $426 million attributed to short liquidations. This massive short squeeze indicates a major bearish wipeout.

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Bitcoin is approaching key resistance levels

The BTC/USD 4-hour chart remains bearish and efficient despite the recent rally. Bitcoin remains in a neutral-to-bullish trend, holding above its 50-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $71,019. However, it is still capped below the 100-day EMA at $75,309.

Immediate resistance lies near the 100-day EMA and the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level at $75,623, from a previous downtrend spanning $126,199 to $60,000. A daily close above this range would signal potential upward movement, with the next target being the 200-day EMA at $82,936, followed by the 50% Fibonacci retracement at $93,099.

BTC/USD 4H Chart

Market momentum is favoring the bulls, with the Relative Strength Index (RSI) at around 62 and the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) in positive territory, both suggesting upward pressure is gaining traction.

On the downside, Bitcoin’s initial support is found at the 50-day EMA around $71,019. A break below this support could weaken the current bullish momentum and push the price lower, potentially testing the Fibonacci support level near $60,000.

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STRC trading surge drives record volume and signals largest bitcoin purchase since launch

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Strategy’s STRC maintains dividend at 11.5% after steady increases

Stretch (STRC), the perpetual preferred security sold by Strategy (MSTR) to fund its bitcoin purchases, posted record trading volume on Monday, funding the biggest single-day buying splurge through the company’s at-the-market (ATM) program.

The world’s largest publicly traded bitcoin holder is estimated to have added 7,800 BTC, according STRC.live, as STRC volume surged to $1.16 billion, more than four times the 30-day average of $278 million.

This comes after Strategy purchased $1 billion worth of bitcoin last week, funded entirely by STRC, which offers an 11.5% annual dividend, paid monthly in cash. The stock maintained its $100 par value throughout the entire trading session.

Historically, the trading day preceding the ex-dividend date, the cutoff date after which new buyers are no longer entitled to the next dividend payment, tends to see the highest trading volume. That’s Wednesday, so it’s possible trading on Tuesday may be even higher than Monday’s record.

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STRC now has a market capitalization of $6.4 billion, exceeding the combined market cap of the company’s other preferred securities, including STRD at $1.1 billion, STRK at $1 billion, and STRF at $1.2 billion, according to the MSTR dashboard.

The common stock rose 2.9% on Monday and was 3.7% higher in pre-market trading.

Read More: The one metric investors are overlooking in Michael Saylor’s Strategy

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Hyperliquid (HYPE) price continues to surge, targeting $50 Mark

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Key takeaways

  • Hyperliquid is up 8% in the last 24 hours, maintaining its position in the top 10.
  • The coin could rally towards the $50 psychological level if the bullish sentiment persists.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) continues its upward momentum, trading above $44 as of Tuesday after an 8% surge on the previous day. With strengthening on-chain data, favorable derivatives metrics, and technical analysis pointing to further gains, the outlook for HYPE remains bullish, with a target of $50 in sight.

Bullish Sentiment Backed by On-Chain and Derivatives Metrics

On-chain data from CryptoQuant suggests a strong buy-side dominance in both Hyperliquid’s spot and futures markets, with cooling conditions indicating a favorable environment for a potential price rise. The market shows mostly neutral conditions across other metrics, reinforcing the possibility of an upside move.

On the derivatives front, CoinGlass data reveals that HYPE’s futures Open Interest (OI) has surged to $1.96 billion on Tuesday, up from $1.5 billion on April 3. This steady rise in OI points to new capital entering the market, which could propel HYPE’s price higher. This is the highest level of futures OI seen since early November.

Moreover, CoinGlass’ long-to-short ratio for HYPE stands at 1.04, signaling a predominantly bullish sentiment in the market, as more traders expect the price to rally.

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Price Forecast: HYPE bulls target $50

The HYPE/USD 4-hour chart is extremely bullish and efficient. HYPE’s price has extended its gains, surpassing the March high of $43.75 and reaching above $44 on Tuesday. If the upward trend continues, HYPE could target the October 30 high of $50.15.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) on the daily chart is currently at 69, indicating strong bullish momentum as it moves toward overbought territory. Additionally, the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator recently showed a bullish crossover on April 10, further supporting a positive outlook for HYPE.

Should HYPE experience a pullback, it could find support near the psychological $40 level. However, the prevailing market conditions suggest a strong potential for further upside, with $50 being the next major resistance.

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