A $20 million funding round led by Mike Novogratz’s Galaxy Digital (GLXY) is backing a push to use blockchain behind the scenes to overhaul the $6 trillion asset-backed finance market, where many deals still rely on manual workflows.

The round, which included Parafi Capital and Crane Ventures, went to Fence, a startup building software to handle the operational layer of structured credit deals.

That layer — from tracking loan pools to verifying collateral and moving cash — is often fragmented across multiple firms and still runs on spreadsheets, PDFs and email. The setup can slow transactions and leave investors with limited visibility into the assets backing their investments.

Fence aims to replace those processes with a single system that updates data in real time, Juan Montero, co-founder and CEO of Fence, told CoinDesk in an interview. Lenders can monitor loan performance and cash flows continuously, rather than relying on periodic reports, he explained.

The company says that approach can cut costs for big asset managers. In deals with BBVA, one of Spain’s largest banks overseeing $800 billion in assets, Fence reported lower funding costs for borrowers and reduced operational work, while tracking large volumes of loans on an ongoing basis.

Blockchain in the background

Fence is using blockchain less as a front-end product than as back-end plumbing. The company does not pitch banks and asset managers on tokens or crypto wallets. Instead, it uses smart contracts behind the scenes to manage cash, collateral and the rules that govern these deals.

In a typical facility, lenders may wait days for loan data to be checked, reports to be sent and payments to clear, Montero said. Fence pulls that information through APIs, runs checks in software and uses smart contracts to release cash when deal terms are met, he said.

The company can also tokenize lender positions in financing vehicles and, in some cases, the underlying loans or invoices. That can allow investors to transfer positions, borrow against them or receive payments automatically if ownership changes. Still, Montero said tokenization is only used where it adds value.

“We don’t want to be seen as a blockchain company. We’re building the infrastructure for the capital markets,” Montero said. “Others digitize the paperwork. Fence rebuilt the plumbing.”

The company says it now oversees about $1.5 billion in assets across its platform, working with firms including BlackRock and Fortress. It can onboard new deals in weeks, compared with months under standard processes.

The funding will help the company expand in the U.S. and build out its product, Montero said, betting that faster data and fewer manual steps can reshape how credit markets operate behind the scenes.

XRP price has formed a decisive symmetrical triangle pattern on charts as bulls and bears battle for dominance. Will it stage a bullish breakout from its current range as it continues to grow into a leading RWA powerhouse?

After hitting the $1.50 mark on April 17, XRP (XRP) price has been in a steady decline, dropping by 9% to $1.37 on Tuesday before stabilizing around $1.39 at press time.

While bulls tried pushing the asset back above recent highs, they failed as a sell-off ensued over investors’ concerns surrounding a delayed peace agreement between the U.S. and Iran, which has injected fresh volatility into the global markets.

Despite the XRP token’s downtrend, there remain two positive catalysts that could spark a recovery in the coming weeks.

First, the XRP Ledger is evolving rapidly to become a distribution layer for real-world financial assets, not just payments.

According to an April 28 X post by treasury-focused firm Evernorth, tokenized U.S. Treasuries on the XRPL network have ballooned to $418 million today, which is nearly 8 times the roughly $50 million seen 12 months ago.

The network has also registered strong growth in the transfer of this liquidity. As the firm noted, transfer volume of tokenized US Treasuries on XRP grew nearly 5 times to $352 million in just the past 4 months in comparison to $70 million seen throughout 2025.

The increase in tokenized Treasury issuance on XRPL indicates that more financial institutions are using the network to move and manage Treasury-backed digital assets. Such growth could significantly attract investor demand, especially if the trend of traditional finance moving on-chain continues to accelerate.

Second, institutional investors have also shown consistent demand for its ETFs. Per data from SoSoValue, the 5 spot XRP ETFs have drawn in nearly $83 million in net inflows during April, a major reversal from the $31 million in withdrawals seen in the past month.

XRP price analysis

On the daily chart, XRP price has formed a symmetrical triangle pattern consisting of two converging support and resistance lines. Typically, a breakout from the upper trendline confirms a bullish breakout from the pattern, which results in a massive price spike, while a move below the lower trendline suggests further downside.

In the case of XRP, technical indicators present a bias tilted towards a potential bullish breakout from the pattern, thus rewarding patient buyers. The Supertrend has flipped green for the first time in weeks, while the 50-day SMA is close to forming a mini golden cross with the 100-day SMA, suggesting that the long-term trend is turning positive.

For now, $1.39, which aligns with the 78.6% Fibonacci retracement level, lies as the key resistance level to watch in the immediate term. A breakout from this barrier could trigger a rally towards $1.50 and beyond to challenge the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level at $1.61.

On the contrary, a failure to hold the lower boundary of the triangle near $1.32 could lead to a deeper correction toward the psychological support at $1.20.

The Canadian government has proposed banning Bitcoin and other crypto ATMs, arguing the machines have become a primary on-ramp for fraudsters and money launderers rather than a convenient access point for everyday users.

The government’s Spring Economic Update 2026, published on April 28, says crypto ATMs are a “primary method for scammers to defraud victims and for criminals to place their cash proceeds of crime,” and explicitly states that the government “proposes to ban crypto ATMs.”

The proposal states that Canadians will still be able to buy virtual currencies from brick-and-mortar money services businesses, but the standalone kiosks that have proliferated in malls, gas stations and corner stores would be phased out.

The move adds to a broader push by Ottawa to clamp down on what it frames as retail-facing crypto risks as fraud cases surge, while bringing more of the digital asset sector under tighter federal oversight. Authorities say the move is aimed at cutting off one of the most common channels used in scams that have increasingly targeted Canadians.

The policy is of particular note given Canada’s early role in the sector. The world’s first publicly available Bitcoin ATM went live in a Vancouver coffee shop in 2013, making Canada the birthplace of the Bitcoin ATM.

Spring Economic Update 2026. Source: Government of Canada

Since then, the country has grown into one of the most crypto-ATM-dense markets globally, a status regulators say has given it disproportionate exposure to fraud. Coin ATM Radar data estimates that Canada accounts for 10.1% of global crypto ATMs, second only to the United States.

A months-long CBC investigation and internal Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) analysis posted April 28 found that crypto ATMs have become the principal method used by domestic and foreign criminal fraudsters to extract money from Canadian scam victims and push those funds into the crypto ecosystem.

Law enforcement agencies told CBC they have seen a clear uptick in cases where victims are instructed to feed cash into these machines under the guise of paying tax debts, securing romance relationships or recovering hacked accounts.

Related: Canada revokes 47 crypto money licenses, vows to continue

Ban forms part of broader crypto regulatory push

The proposed ATM ban sits within a broader effort to tighten controls around high-risk corners of Canada’s crypto market while drawing core infrastructure more firmly into the regulatory perimeter.

Crypto ATM distribution by continents and countries. Source: Coin ATM Radar

The same Spring Economic Update bolsters a new Financial Crimes Agency and gives FINTRAC more tools to refuse or revoke registrations for non-compliant money services businesses, including crypto companies.

In parallel, Ottawa has enacted a federal stablecoin framework in Bill C-15 that makes the Bank of Canada the supervisor and requires fiat-referenced issuers to register, fully back reserves and redeem at par, with most rules kicking in after regulations are finalized ahead of an expected 2027 start date.

Lawmakers are also advancing Bill C-25 to bar cryptocurrency donations in federal politics over concerns about traceability and foreign interference, as the country adopts a regulation-first approach to target retail-facing abuse risks and pull core digital asset rails under federal oversight.

Magazine: Bitcoin will not hit $1M by 2030, says veteran trader Peter Brandt

Bullish, the publicly listed digital asset exchange and parent company of CoinDesk, has invested 250 BTC — roughly $19 million — into Mezo, a Bitcoin DeFi-focused protocol, per a press release shared with The Defiant. The investment coincides with the launch of Mezo Prime, a new institutional yield product built in partnership with Anchorage Digital Bank.

Bullish will become the first company to use Mezo Prime with Anchorage, deploying a portion of its corporate Bitcoin treasury into the product. Anchorage is the custody provider for the vaults, per the release, and Mezo Prime is now available to Anchorage Digital Bank clients.
Mezo Prime centers on “Enclaves” — segregated Bitcoin vaults designed for institutional depositors. Bitcoin deposited into an Enclave can be locked as veBTC to earn protocol fees or used as collateral to borrow MUSD, Mezo’s Bitcoin-backed stablecoin, the release notes.

“Over a million Bitcoin sits on corporate balance sheets today, and almost none of it is working,” said Matt Luongo, co-founder of Mezo.

The launch comes as the broader BTCFi space continues to expand. Institutions in particular have faced a gap between wanting to earn yield on BTC holdings, and meeting their risk and compliance requirements. Late last year, The Defiant reported that Threshold Network had updated its tBTC bridge to make it easier for institutional Bitcoin holders to deploy their funds in DeFi.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

Celsius founder Alexander Mashinsky agreed to a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) settlement that permanently bars him from promoting asset-related products and requires a $10 million payment tied to a broader, mostly suspended $4.72 billion judgment. 

The stipulated order, entered by Judge Denise Cote in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, said Mashinsky is “permanently restrained and enjoined” from advertising, marketing, promoting, offering or distributing any product or service that can be used to “deposit, exchange, invest, or withdraw assets.”

The order entered a $4.72 billion monetary judgment in favor of the FTC against Mashinsky, but most of it was suspended. Mashinsky must now pay $10 million to the FTC. However, the order said this obligation can also be satisfied if he pays at least $10 million to the US Department of Justice under the forfeiture order in his criminal case.

The settlement adds to the legal fallout from Celsius’s 2022 collapse, while preserving the FTC’s ability to pursue the larger judgment if Mashinsky is found to have misstated or omitted assets in financial disclosures. 

In May 2025, Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to commodities fraud and securities fraud, with prosecutors saying he misled Celsius customers about the company’s profitability, investment risks and the safety of customer funds.

Excerpt from the court filing. Source Court Listener

Suspended judgment can be revived 

According to the order, the remainder of the judgment beyond the $10 million payment obligation is suspended, but the suspension is conditional. 

It can be lifted if the FTC asks the court to do so and the court finds that Mashinsky failed to disclose a material asset, misstated the value of an asset or made another material misstatement or omission in his financial disclosures. 

Related: Judge rejects new trial for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried

If the suspension is lifted, the order said the $4.72 billion judgment would become immediately due against Mashinsky. 

That amount would be reduced by any payments already made under the FTC order, any amount paid to consumers through the DOJ forfeiture order in his criminal case or any amounts Mashinsky can show were paid to consumers by other defendants, including through the Celsius bankruptcy case. 

The structure allows the FTC to preserve a larger consumer-redress claim while limiting Mashinsky’s immediate payment obligation. 

Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?

Polymarket is seeking regulatory approval to reopen its main prediction markets platform to US users, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to Bloomberg, Polymarket has been engaging with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to lift the prohibition on US-based customers.

The move would mark a broader US return for the company, which re-entered the market in a limited form last year through its regulated QCEX-based setup but still keeps Americans off its main international exchange.

Any broader relaunch would reverse a restriction dating back to Polymarket’s 2022 settlement with the CFTC, which required the platform to block US users and pay a $1.4 million civil penalty over unregistered event contracts.

Removing the prohibition would require a formal CFTC commission vote, a process that could be easier given that four commissioner seats are vacant, leaving fewer members needed to reach a decision, according to the report.

A full US return would add to competition in the country’s fast-growing prediction markets sector, where rivals such as Kalshi have built a stronger foothold even as the industry faces mounting legal and regulatory scrutiny at both state and federal levels.

Polymarket declined to comment to Cointelegraph about the report.

Polymarket made US comeback with sports event contracts in late 2025

Polymarket has so far made limited progress in resuming US operations. In December 2025, Polymarket announced that its US app was rolling out with waitlist-only access. The app initially focused exclusively on sports contracts, with Polymarket saying it would be “followed by markets on everything.”

Source: Polymarket

Some prediction platforms have had more success operating in the US than Polymarket. Kalshi, one of Polymarket’s biggest rivals, has emerged as a leading local prediction platform and an official market provider for major US crypto exchange Coinbase.

Polymarket losing volume share to Kalshi as both platforms face legal pressure in the US

Polymarket was once a leading prediction market platform, accounting for more than 90% of total monthly notional volume in November 2024, according to a Dune dashboard compiled by Datadashboards.

The platform’s volume reporting has been questioned by firms such as Paradigm, and Polymarket has been steadily losing share to Kalshi since September 2025.

Source: Datadashboards (Dune)

Despite Kalshi outstripping Polymarket in volumes, both platforms have faced legal scrutiny in the US.

Related: Kalshi, Polymarket among 27 prediction platforms banned in Brazil

In the latest US state action, Wisconsin’s top law enforcement official on April 23 filed a lawsuit against Kalshi and Polymarket, alongside companies including Coinbase, Robinhood and Crypto.com, alleging that the firms facilitate illegal sports betting through “event contracts.”

Additionally, the CFTC and Justice Department last week accused a US soldier of using classified information to make more than $400,000 on Polymarket’s international exchange, which authorities said he accessed via a VPN, in violation of US restrictions.

Magazine: How to fix suspected insider trading on Polymarket and Kalshi

Even as calls for bitcoin BTC$77,562.43 to rally further are growing, participation in the spot market is cooling, leaving the door open for erratic price action.

Trading volume, the dollar value of BTC changing hands in a day, has recently dropped to less than $8 billion, according to Glassnode. That’s the lowest since October 2023, when bitcoin was less than $40,000. Volume has been declining since hitting highs above $25 billion in early February.

“Such low volume environments often coincide with reduced market depth and heightened sensitivity to flow shifts,” Glassnode said.

Market depth, typically measured by looking at buy and sell orders within 2% of the current price, is widely used to assess liquidity, or the ability of the market to absorb large orders at stable prices.

When market depth shrinks, it means a few large orders can move prices significantly. In other words, the declining volume might end up boosting market volatility, though options traders do not seem to be considering that scenario for now.

Volmex’s BVIV index, which measures BTC’s expected 30-day price swings, has dropped to three-month lows below an annualized 42%. Clearly, traders are positioned for calm, not turmoil.

It’s notable, especially because the Fed sets interest rates later today. Nobody expects a change; attention will focus on what the policy statement has to say about energy-market disruptions and rising prices at gas stations. A hawkish statement, expressing alarm over growth and inflation risks, could mean a prolonged pause in rate reductions, and even possible rate increases, capping gains in risk assets.

This is an excerpt from CoinDesk newsletter ‘Daybook.’ Sign up here, if you haven’t already.

“Bitcoin is sitting around 77k and trading like a market that does not want to commit ahead of the Fed. The tape is calm on the surface, but it is not relaxed. Positioning is cautious, liquidity is thinner, and the next impulse is more likely to come from macro than anything crypto-native,” Marex analysts said in a morning note.

“The big macro curveball is energy politics. If energy becomes less predictable, risk assets stay headline-sensitive,” they said, noting the UAE’s Tuesday decision to leave OPEC and OPEC+.

BTC recently changed hands near $77,800, up over 1% in 24 hours, with ether (ETH), solana (SOL), and XRP adding similar amounts. The CoinDesk Memecoin Index is leading the market higher, with 3% gains, followed by the Computing Select Index, which is up 2.7%.

In traditional markets, the Dollar Index, which is inversely related to bitcoin’s price, continues to stay below 100, lacking bullish momentum. However, yields on the 10- and two-year U.S. Treasury notes continue to rise, albeit slowly. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”

What’s trending

Today’s signal

Analysts aren’t wrong in saying that oil price volatility holds the key to all assets. As the chart shows, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note is closely tracking swings in WTI crude prices.

The 10-year yield is considered the risk-free rate in traditional finance, and lending across the broader economy and markets happens at a premium to this rate. So when it rises, interest rates across financial markets also increase, tightening financial conditions.

So, if crude rises further, the 10-year yield could follow suit, potentially destabilizing financial markets, including cryptocurrencies.