The crypto regulation standoff over the CLARITY Act shifted Monday when White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt told an interviewer that negotiations have cleared most remaining obstacles and that he is confident the final issues can be resolved, saying “we’re very close to closing them out.”

The Witt interview aired Monday on CoinDesk TV as the Senate returned from Easter recess and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse publicly projected the bill would pass by end of May. Witt acknowledged that the common ground secured by Senators Tillis and Alsobrooks on stablecoin yield “seems to be intact,” a notable signal given that Coinbase reversed its opposition to the bill earlier this month. The CLARITY Act cleared the House in July 2025 by a 294 to 134 vote and the Senate Agriculture Committee in January 2026, leaving only the Senate Banking Committee markup as the final major procedural step before the Senate floor.

The White House adviser’s language was deliberate. He said the negotiations made “considerable progress in the background” while the public focus was on the stablecoin yield fight, suggesting that DeFi rules and Democratic ethics demands are closer to resolution than the public record indicates. He also said that “all of these issues felt intractable and unsolvable at one point in time,” using past tense, which implies most of those previously intractable issues are now resolved.

What Still Needs to Happen Before a Vote

The Banking Committee needs a markup date from Chairman Tim Scott, who has not announced one. After the committee vote, the Banking and Agriculture Committee versions must be reconciled, then the combined Senate text must be reconciled with the House version, and then the bill requires a presidential signature. That is four sequential steps after the markup, each of which is a potential delay point.

Why the White House Is Pushing Now

The Iran war, the midterm calendar, and the TRUMP memecoin investigation are all converging in the same April window. The White House needs a crypto legislative win before the midterms arrive and Democratic incentives to cooperate disappear. As the markup window opens this week, the White House position is that the deal is done enough to vote. Whether Banking Committee members agree is the question that will define the next two weeks.

Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi confirmed on Tuesday that the cryptocurrency exchange has moved forward with a confidential filing for an initial public offering in the United States.

Semafor reported from the World Economy 2026 conference that Sethi verified the filing during a discussion with reporter Rohan Goswami. 

When asked if the news was significant, Sethi remarked, “I believe that’s news,” marking the first official confirmation of the move following unconfirmed reports in March that suggested the listing had been paused due to market volatility.

The disclosure coincided with a strategic $200 million investment from Deutsche Börse Group into Kraken’s parent company, Payward. 

This deal gives the German market operator a 1.5% fully diluted stake and establishes a valuation of $13.3 billion for the exchange. This figure represents a decline from the $20 billion valuation the company held in November.

Kraken told crypto media that the partnership with Deutsche Börse is intended to merge digital assets with traditional finance. The goal is to create a single, cohesive infrastructure for institutional clients rather than maintaining parallel systems for different asset classes.

Addressing the timing of the IPO, Sethi noted that the decision is not a reaction to the current political climate in Washington. He suggested that while policy shifts might seem significant on a quarterly basis, they carry less weight for a firm looking at a multi-decade horizon. 

“If you’re thinking about your company three, five, 10 or 20 years out, none of this is meaningful,” Sethi said. “It just doesn’t matter.”

The executive further clarified that the drive to go public is not solely about raising capital. Instead, the move hinges on specific market conditions and the level of established trust with regulatory bodies.

Federal Reserve nominee Kevin Warsh disclosed a diverse portfolio of private technology investments, including stakes in artificial intelligence and digital assets, as he prepares for a high-stakes Senate confirmation hearing.

According to a filing with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, the former Fed governor holds interests in crypto-focused firms Compound and Dapper Labs, alongside AI startups such as Factory and Glue. 

While the disclosure values his total assets at more than $100 million, specific valuation ranges for these individual technology holdings were notably absent.

Reuters reports that federal ethics guidelines exempt officials from reporting the value of assets worth less than $1,000, though the filing did detail substantial positions elsewhere, including over $50 million in the Juggernaut Fund and $10 million in consulting income from Stanley Druckenmiller’s Duquesne Family Office.

President Trump formally submitted Warsh’s name to the Senate in March, following a January announcement that signaled an end to Jerome Powell’s leadership. 

The move comes as the administration faces a ticking clock; Powell’s second term as chair concludes on May 15. 

The Senate Banking Committee has now scheduled Warsh’s appearance for April 21, positioning him to take over the central bank’s influence over interest rates and broader financial policy just weeks before the vacancy opens.

Despite the movement on the Fed’s leadership, the administration has yet to fill critical vacancies at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). 

The SEC is currently operating with only three of its five commissioner seats filled, while the CFTC is down to a single commissioner, Michael Selig. 

These gaps persist as a stalled crypto market structure bill remains in the Senate, leaving both agencies shorthanded at a time when they are expected to define the future of digital asset regulation.

Bitcoin researchers led by cypherpunk Jameson Lopp, along with five co-authors focused on quantum security, have put forward a controversial plan to shield the network from a future quantum-enabled theft. The proposal, labeled BIP-361 and titled “Post Quantum Migration and Legacy Signature Sunset,” would be implemented in three stages to migrate coins away from quantum-vulnerable output types — including Satoshi’s widely discussed stash — and to harden the network before quantum computers become practical threats. The draft was posted to GitHub this week as the second installment in the broader plan.

The impetus for the proposal is clear: researchers warn that roughly 1.7 million BTC stored in early P2PK addresses could be at risk if a quantum adversary gains access to powerful quantum hardware. Among these coins is the so‑called Satoshi stash, which some estimate could be valued in today’s dollars at around $74 billion. The aim, the authors argue, is to prevent a scenario in which quantum-enabled theft undermines trust in the Bitcoin network. The plan is framed as a defensive mechanism—a private incentive to upgrade—rather than an offensive maneuver to seize control of others’ funds.

Key takeaways

• BIP-361 is a three-phase plan that follows BIP-360’s soft-fork approach and aims to migrate vulnerable coins to quantum-resistant paths, addressing about 34% of Bitcoin’s supply that remains at risk unless moved.
• The phases are timed: Phase A begins three years after activation and would stop new BTC from being sent to old-style addresses, requiring users to migrate to quantum-resistant types.
• Phase B arrives five years after activation, invalidating old-style signatures and effectively freezing any funds remaining in vulnerable addresses.
• Phase C provides a zero-knowledge proof-based recovery mechanism for those who missed the deadline but can still demonstrate ownership via seed recovery, offering a potential rescue path.
• The proposal has drawn swift pushback from parts of the Bitcoin community, with critics calling it heavy-handed or confiscatory, arguing it undermines Bitcoin’s ethos of opt-in upgrades.

Context and the technical what-ifs

In February, developers released BIP-360, which proposed a soft fork introducing a new output type known as pay-to-Merkle-root (P2MR). The idea mirrors Bitcoin’s existing Taproot (P2TR) structure but removes the quantum-vulnerable key path from legacy addresses. While BIP-360 would protect funds moving forward, it does not automatically safeguard the substantial portion of the supply that remains vulnerable in old addresses unless owners proactively move funds to quantum-resistant forms.

BIP-361 extends this concept into a staged migration. Three years after activation, Phase A would bar transfers to old-style addresses, forcing users to adopt quantum-secure address formats. Then, five years after activation, Phase B would invalidate old-style signatures altogether, rendering coins in vulnerable addresses effectively unspendable unless they have already migrated. Phase C offers a potential rescue mechanism using zero-knowledge proofs to allow recovery for users who still possess their seed phrases but failed to upgrade in time.

Related: Bitcoin Magazine has noted the debate’s potential hard-fork implications, underscoring that the policy could center the fate of historical coins and alter the network’s long-term security model.

“This is not an offensive attack, rather, it is defensive: our thesis is that the Bitcoin ecosystem wishes to defend itself and its interests against those who would prefer to do nothing and allow a malicious actor to destroy both value and trust.”

Community reaction and the philosophical divide

The plan has ignited a robust discussion about Bitcoin’s core principles and the trade-offs of upgrading a global, permissionless system. Critics argue that forcing upgrades or rendering unupgraded UTXOs unspendable would mark a significant departure from Bitcoin’s ethos of non-coercive change and could set a dangerous precedent for future interventions.

Bitcoin protocol developer and researcher Mark Erhardt, who circulated BIP-361 on social media, faced immediate critique. Responders described the proposal as “authoritarian and confiscatory,” questioning the rationale for mandating upgrades and the legitimacy of rendering old spends invalid.

Other voices weighed in with skepticism as well. Bitcoin Magazine’s editors and contributors have been vocal in challenging the premise, while TFTC founder Marty Bent characterized aspects of the approach as inconsistent with the community’s expectations. Phil Geiger, head of business development at Metaplanet, offered a provocative take on the tension between protection and coercion. The broader sentiment remains unsettled: the consensus on whether a crypto-legalistic safeguard should override voluntary evolution is far from settled.

Cointelegraph reached out to Lopp for comment on the proposal; there was no immediate response at the time of publication. The GitHub draft, however, provides a concrete framework for discussion and potential future forks, even as many stakeholders call for a cautious, community-driven examination of the implications.

For readers tracking the evolution of quantum resilience in Bitcoin, the conversation now shifts from theoretical risk to concrete, staged mitigation. The three-phase design is designed to minimize disruption by letting the ecosystem migrate over time, but it also raises fundamental questions about asset-holding rights, upgrade incentives, and the governance of a decentralized network.

Implications for holders, users, and builders

From a practical standpoint, BIP-361 highlights two enduring tensions in Bitcoin’s path to quantum readiness. First, there is the temptation to act decisively to protect value, especially when the stakes include a multi-trillion-dollar network and the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Second, there is the risk that coercive upgrades or automatic penalties could fragment the ecosystem or erode trust among users who prefer to manage their own keys and seeds at their own pace.

For investors and developers, the proposal underscores the importance of forward-looking security models. If the plan progresses, the market could see increased demand for quantum-resistant wallets and services, as well as migrations that push older holders toward newer output types. The timeline—three years to Phase A and five to Phase B—provides a window for infrastructure teams to test compatibility, wallets to implement support for P2MR-like paths, and communities to debate the ethics and practicality of forced upgrades.

As the discussion unfolds, observers will be watching how this approach interacts with existing upgrade narratives, such as soft forks and user-initiated migrations. The zero-knowledge recovery proposed in Phase C is a particularly notable element: it aims to offer a path back to funds for those who missed the deadline, but the feasibility and privacy implications of such a mechanism will require rigorous scrutiny before any real-world deployment.

What to watch next

The BIP-361 draft opens a testing ground for how the Bitcoin community might address quantum threats without waiting for a single, sweeping upgrade. The next steps will likely involve broader discussions on GitHub, more technical vetting of the P2MR architecture, and public comment on the ethical and philosophical implications of effectively freezing or confiscating old UTXOs. Investors and builders should monitor how proponents respond to pushback from core developers and community voices, and whether practical consensus emerges around the timing and scope of any future activation.

As the conversation evolves, the central question remains: can a planned, staged migration deliver robust quantum protection without compromising Bitcoin’s foundational principles? The answer will shape not just security strategies, but the culture of upgrade, trust, and governance in the years ahead.

Key Highlights

• Bitcoin maintained its position above the $74,000 threshold as investor confidence returned to global markets
• Major Asian stock indices, notably China’s CSI 300, completely recovered from earlier geopolitical setbacks
• Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States recorded $471 million in net inflows during a single trading session, bringing total cumulative flows above $56 billion
• The S&P 500 advanced 1.2% while the Nasdaq jumped 2%, marking the Nasdaq’s tenth consecutive daily gain
• Crude oil prices held beneath the $100 per barrel mark amid speculation of potential diplomatic engagement between Washington and Tehran, reducing inflation concerns

Bitcoin successfully maintained its position above the $74,000 mark on Wednesday as market participants demonstrated renewed appetite for riskier asset classes. Financial markets worldwide extended their rally, recovering ground lost during the U.S.-Iran tensions that emerged in late February.

Equity markets across Asia spearheaded the recovery movement. China’s CSI 300 index emerged as the most recent benchmark to completely reverse its conflict-driven losses, following similar recoveries in Taiwanese and Singaporean markets that had already returned to levels seen before the crisis began.

U.S. equity markets demonstrated strong momentum. The S&P 500 climbed 1.2% while the Nasdaq Composite soared 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average contributed with a 317-point increase. The S&P 500 has now delivered positive returns in nine out of the last ten trading sessions and remains just shy of the record peak it established in late January.

The Nasdaq pushed its consecutive winning session streak to an impressive ten days. Year-to-date losses attributed to the Iran conflict have been virtually eliminated.

Diplomatic developments contributed significantly to market sentiment. President Trump revealed earlier in the week that communication channels between Washington and Tehran have been established. Oil prices retreated following this announcement and continue trading below the $100 per barrel threshold, alleviating the inflationary pressures that had challenged markets throughout March.

Institutional Bitcoin ETF Activity Reflects Strong Conviction

Within cryptocurrency markets, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs registered $471 million in net positive flows on April 6, representing their most robust single-session performance since February. Total cumulative inflows have now surpassed the $56 billion milestone since these investment vehicles debuted in January 2024.

Bitcoin’s current trading price hovers near the calculated average cost basis for ETF investors. Market analysts suggest this level may serve as support, given that investors who maintained positions during the decline below $60,000 have limited incentive to exit at or near their entry point.

“Institutions pouring in $471 million in a single day and pushing past $56 billion cumulative means Bitcoin is getting a whole new class of long-term holders,” said Vikrant Sharma, founder of CakeWallet.

Alternative Cryptocurrencies Show Divergent Performance

Ether posted a 4% weekly advance, reaching approximately $2,325, surpassing Bitcoin’s 3.9% weekly increase. However, performance across alternative cryptocurrencies remained inconsistent. Solana declined 1.5% to $83, Cardano retreated 1%, and Dogecoin decreased 1.3% to settle at $0.093.

Tron distinguished itself with a 3% weekly appreciation.

Market observers are also incorporating expectations for potential Federal Reserve interest rate reductions later in the year. Such monetary policy adjustments typically inject liquidity into risk-oriented assets, a dynamic that has historically benefited both equities and digital currencies.

Corporate earnings announcements are commanding attention as well. Bank of America and Morgan Stanley are both scheduled to release quarterly results before Wednesday’s market opening.

U.S. stock index futures maintained relatively stable positioning Tuesday evening following the robust trading session, with contracts linked to the S&P 500, Nasdaq 100, and Dow Jones all trading near unchanged levels.

Key Takeaways

• Venture capitalist Tim Draper has renewed his $250,000 Bitcoin price forecast, setting an 18-month timeline for the target
• In 2014, Draper purchased 30,000 BTC for $632 per coin at a U.S. Marshals auction following the Mt. Gox incident
• Bitcoin reached a peak of $126,080 in October 2025 and currently trades near $74,271
• Draper points to increased adoption and deteriorating fiat currencies as primary drivers for his optimistic projection
• His 2014 forecast of $10,000 BTC proved correct, while more recent predictions have not met their timelines

Tim Draper’s journey with Bitcoin stretches back to its earliest days. The prominent venture capitalist first acquired Bitcoin when it traded at just $4, attempting to mine cryptocurrency with a business partner using specialized chips from Butterfly Labs. According to Draper, those chips never materialized as promised — he alleges the company used them for their own mining operations instead.

When the equipment eventually showed up, Bitcoin’s price had already surged past $30. Draper proceeded to build a substantial position, which he ultimately lost completely in the infamous Mt. Gox exchange failure.

Undeterred, Draper made a bold move in 2014, investing $19 million at a U.S. Marshals Service auction to acquire 30,000 BTC confiscated from the Silk Road operation, at a price of $632 each.

Immediately following that acquisition, he made a public forecast that Bitcoin would climb to $10,000 within three years. The prediction drew widespread skepticism. History proved him correct.

An Evolving Timeline for a Bold Forecast

On April 14, Draper shared an extensive post on X detailing his Bitcoin experience and future price expectations. He acknowledged that his latest targets “have not been so prescient” — his previous forecast called for BTC to touch $250,000 by the close of 2025.

That timeframe has been adjusted. Draper now projects Bitcoin will achieve $250,000 within the next 18 months.

He identifies two primary catalysts behind this projection: expanding acceptance of Bitcoin for everyday transactions and the ongoing devaluation of conventional fiat currencies through inflationary pressures.

Draper has consistently advocated for Bitcoin’s potential to displace traditional money. He’s stated in the past that failing to hold Bitcoin is “irresponsible” and predicted that merchants will eventually accept only BTC for transactions.

Current Bitcoin Market Position

Bitcoin touched its record high of $126,080 on October 6, 2025. Since that peak, the cryptocurrency has declined approximately 40%, trading around $74,271 as of this writing.

Beyond Bitcoin itself, Draper maintains investments in prominent cryptocurrency platforms such as Coinbase and Robinhood Markets. He was also an early Tesla backer before that company considered accepting Bitcoin payments.

Additionally, Draper has introduced DraperTV on Pump.fun, a platform built on Solana, where he showcases content with fellow entrepreneurs.

Blockaid flags CoW Swap’s cow.fi frontend as malicious, urging users to revoke token approvals and avoid the dApp amid a broader wave of DeFi interface attacks.

Blockchain security firm Blockaid has warned that CoW Swap’s primary website COW.FI has been compromised in a suspected frontend attack, marking the latest high‑profile exploit attempt against a major DeFi trading interface.

In an alert shared on X, Blockaid said its system “has detected a front-end attack targeting Cowswap” and confirmed that the cow.fi domain has been flagged as malicious inside Blockaid‑integrated wallets, advising users “to refrain from signing transactions and avoid interactions with the dApp until the issue is resolved.”

Following the warning, CoW Swap community channels and independent security commentators urged traders who had connected wallets to CoW Swap to immediately revoke any outstanding token approvals and to stop interacting with the platform’s frontend until further notice, even though underlying smart contracts have not been reported as compromised.

Blockaid’s latest alert comes amid a surge in so‑called frontend hijacks, where attackers compromise a project’s website or DNS rather than its on‑chain contracts, silently swapping legitimate transaction prompts for malicious ones that drain user wallets.linkedin+1

In February, Blockaid reported a similar frontend attack on tokenization platform OpenEden, warning users to “refrain from signing transactions and avoid interactions with the dApp until the issue is resolved,” while separate incidents have recently hit lending protocol Curvance and asset manager Maple Finance.

As highlighted in CoW Swap’s own DeFi security guides, these attacks target “people, devices, and transaction behavior instead of only attacking code,” making basic hygiene like checking URLs, using browser bookmarks and monitoring token approvals critical for retail and professional users alike.

Security platforms such as Kerberus and Revoke‑style tools recommend users regularly audit and revoke token approvals after any suspected incident, noting that revocation “only removes future permission for that contract to move your tokens” and cannot recover funds already drained.

For DeFi traders, the CoW Swap incident underscores a lesson that keeps recurring in crypto.news coverage of exchange exploits, bridge hacks and protocol drains: even when audited smart contracts remain intact, a single compromised frontend can still turn a routine swap into a total wallet loss if users sign blind.

Tether today unveiled its self-custodial crypto wallet using the open-source Wallet Development Kit (WDK) developed by the firm. According to an announcement from the firm, tether.wallet supports USDT, USAT, Bitcoin and XAUT, what the firm says represent “the only assets that truly matter for most of the people.”

Tether says the initiative, which it’s dubbing “the People’s Wallet” aligns with its mission to promote financial inclusion globally, particularly in developing countries and regions with high inflation.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino was quoted in the announcement on the firm’s aim of preserving self-custody, without compromising on user experience:

“The objective is to remove the complexity that has prevented broader adoption while preserving the properties that make the digital assets technology valuable. Users should be able to send value as easily as sending a message, without relying on intermediaries and without giving up control of their assets.”

As an example, the firm’s announcement notes that the wallet lets users pay fees in the asset being transferred, instead of needing to acquire or hold separate tokens for gas. The wallet also supports easily readable addresses for sending and receiving that look more like an email address, instead of the typical alphanumeric string.

Tether says at launch, the wallet supports USDT and XAUT on Ethereum, Polygon, Plasma, and Arbitrum, and USAT on Ethereum. It also supports Bitcoin both natively and via the Lightning Network. The firm plans to add support for “several other blockchains” in the future.

Last month, Tether announced that it had engaged a Big Four firm to conduct its first ever “full independent financial statement audit.”

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

Crypto wallet Zerion revealed that North Korean-affiliated hackers used AI in a long-term social engineering attack to steal about $100,000 from the company’s hot wallets last week. 

The Zerion team released a post-mortem on Wednesday, where it confirmed that no user funds, Zerion apps or infrastructure were affected and that it had proactively disabled the web app as a precaution. 

While the amount was relatively small in crypto hacking terms, it is another incident of a crypto worker being targeted for an “AI-enabled social engineering attack linked to a DPRK threat actor,” Zerion said.

It is the second attack of this nature this month, following the $280 million exploit of the Drift Protocol, which was the victim of a “structured intelligence operation” by DPRK-affiliated hackers. The human layer, not smart contract bugs, has now become North Korea’s primary point of entry into crypto firms.  

AI is changing the way cyber threats work

Zerion said the attacker gained access to some team members’ logged-in sessions and credentials, as well as private keys to company hot wallets. 

“This incident showed that AI is changing the way cyber threats work,” the company said. 

It confirmed that the attack was similar to those that had been investigated by the Security Alliance (SEAL) last week.

Related: Researchers discover malicious AI agent routers that can steal crypto

SEAL reported that it had tracked and blocked 164 domains linked to the DPRK group UNC1069 in a two-month window from February to April.

It stated that the group operates “multiweek, low-pressure social engineering campaigns” across Telegram, LinkedIn and Slack. Malicious actors impersonate known contacts or credible brands or leverage access to previously compromised company and individual accounts.

“UNC1069’s social engineering methodology is defined by patience, precision, and the deliberate weaponization of existing trust relationships.”

Google’s cybersecurity unit Mandiant detailed in February the group’s use of fake Zoom meetings and a “known use of AI tools by the threat actor for editing images or videos during the social engineering stage.”

DPRK’s social engineering is evolving

Earlier this month, MetaMask developer and security researcher Taylor Monahan said North Korean IT workers have been embedding themselves in crypto companies and decentralized finance projects for at least seven years.

“The evolution of the DPRK’s social engineering techniques, combined with the increasing availability of AI to refine and perfect these methods, means the threat extends well beyond exchanges,” blockchain security firm Elliptic said in a blog post earlier this year. 

“Individual developers, project contributors, and anyone with access to cryptoasset infrastructure is a potential target.”

Magazine: How AI just dramatically sped up the quantum risk for Bitcoin