TL;DR

• BTC briefly touched the $79k level during the late hours of Sunday.
• US-listed spot BTC ETFs recorded inflows of over $820 million last week, marking the fourth straight week of positive flows.

Bitcoin (BTC) edges slightly lower on Monday, trading around $77,873 after securing its fourth consecutive weekly gain since late March. Despite the mild pullback, the broader bullish structure remains intact, underpinned by steady institutional demand. 

However, as BTC approaches the critical $80,000 resistance zone, rising geopolitical uncertainty tied to US-Iran tensions and the Strait of Hormuz is tempering near-term risk appetite.

Institutional demand remains a key factor

Institutional flows continue to provide strong support for Bitcoin’s upward trajectory. According to SoSoValue data, spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $823.7 million in net inflows last week, following $996.38 million the week prior. 

This marks four straight weeks of positive inflows, reinforcing sustained institutional interest. If the trend persists or accelerates, it could fuel another leg higher for BTC in the near term.
While fundamentals remain supportive, macro uncertainty is capping momentum. Reports suggest Iran has submitted a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and extend the current ceasefire, aiming to move toward a longer-term resolution. However, the outcome remains uncertain. 

US President Donald Trump reportedly dismissed the proposal as insufficient, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian rejected negotiations under pressure. This backdrop has dampened risk sentiment, prompting a pause in Bitcoin’s recent rally.

Bitcoin price outlook: Bullish bias intact despite resistance

The BTC/USD 4-hour chart remains bearish and efficient. Technically, Bitcoin maintains a constructive outlook despite facing rejection near $80,000. Last week’s 6% gain pushed BTC above the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level at $78,490, a key resistance zone. 

A sustained move higher could see BTC retest $80,000, with further upside targeting the 200-week EMA at $82,488.

Momentum indicators support the bullish case. On the 4-hour chart, the RSI sits at 54, above the neutral territory, signaling weakening bearish pressure. Meanwhile, the MACD shows a bullish crossover from mid-April, with a rising histogram reinforcing upside potential.

On the upside, immediate resistance lies at $78,962 (50% retracement), followed by the psychological $80,000 level. A breakout above this zone could open the door toward $83,437 (61.8% retracement) and $84,410.

However, if the bears regain control, initial support sits near $75,680, followed closely by the 100-day EMA at $75,619 and the 38.2% retracement at $74,487. 

A deeper pullback could test the 50-day EMA at $73,363, with further support at $68,950 and the lower channel boundary near $63,033, ahead of the major structural floor at $60,000.

Whale pulls 72K HYPE off Gate.io, expanding a $168M stash as spot buyers face off against crowded leveraged shorts around the key $40 support zone.

A crypto whale controlling the address 0xEe0A18B394ecE1D7bE81Be15d6cEc3Ac7707b71C has withdrawn 72,264 HYPE from centralized exchange Gate.io, a haul worth roughly $30.6 million at recent prices, pushing its total holdings to 396,820 HYPE or about $168 million. On-chain monitors have flagged the address repeatedly over the past month as one of the most aggressive accumulators of Hyperliquid’s native token during bouts of market stress.

Earlier in March, on-chain analytics outlet PANews reported that the same wallet, labeled “0xee0,” pulled 55,000 HYPE worth approximately $2.1 million from Gate.io, taking its stash to 194,557 HYPE valued near $7.44 million at the time, signaling an early conviction bid into weakness. A separate report from Phemex noted that a newly created wallet, again tied to 0xee0, had already withdrawn 139,557 HYPE—then worth about $5.49 million—from Gate.io, underscoring how quickly the position has scaled.

Whale stacking into ETF narrative

The latest accumulation wave lands as HYPE has traded in the $40 area after rebounding from a February low near $28 where large buyers, including high-profile trader Arthur Hayes, stepped in and helped defend key support, according to a February crypto.news story on Hyperliquid price action. On April 14, exchange KuCoin reported that HYPE jumped 4.61% to $44.38 with 24‑hour volume of roughly $454 million as spot ETF filings from Bitwise, Grayscale, and 21Shares injected new speculative flow into the market.

Derivatives positioning shows whales are increasingly willing to express directional views on Hyperliquid. On April 22, a BlockBeats-linked on-chain analyst cited by Binance Square highlighted whale address 0xec8 opening a 5x leveraged HYPE short at an average entry of $40.04, size around $3.38 million and liquidation near $46.60, while another whale at 0x4a8 hovered just below its liquidation line if HYPE pushed to $41.60. Separately, trader Loracle disclosed via OnchainLens a $14 million short on HYPE with 5x leverage initiated around $41.02, illustrating a crowded battlefield between leveraged bears and spot accumulators.

Broader on-chain data suggests that, despite these sizable short positions, large holders are net adding to longs on the Hyperliquid DEX, a trend analytics firm AMBCrypto says “signals a strong bullish sentiment among whales trading on perp DEXs” as they eye a potential move toward $50 if $40 holds as support. A recent crypto.news story on Hyperliquid’s whale-led defense of $28 support also pointed to rising open interest and tightening free float as catalysts that could amplify volatility as positions reach critical liquidation thresholds.

Key Takeaways

• GEV stock has climbed 209% in the past year and recently reached fresh 52-week peaks
• First quarter earnings per share of $17.44 demolished the $1.95 forecast — an exceptional 790% outperformance
• BNP Paribas moved GEV to Hold from Buy, pointing to maxed-out turbine production capacity until decade’s end
• Analyst price targets surged 22% post-earnings, with the consensus reaching $1,179
• Buy ratings from 74% of covering analysts substantially exceed the typical S&P 500 range of 55–60%

GE Vernova’s performance has been nothing short of spectacular on the market. Leading into the current week, shares had soared 209% across the trailing twelve months — including a remarkable 76% gain in 2026 year-to-date. Fresh all-time highs followed an exceptional quarterly report, yet the company now confronts an unexpected analyst downgrade.

GE Vernova Inc., GEV

BNP Paribas downgraded GEV from Buy to Hold this week in a move that caught market attention. The rationale was direct: while current performance is strong, GE Vernova has effectively booked its turbine manufacturing capacity completely through 2030, creating a ceiling on near-term expansion potential. Despite the downgrade, BNP elevated its price objective to $1,190 from $765 — a threshold the stock traded beneath just weeks ago in February.

GEV shares declined 1.6% in Monday’s premarket session, trading near $1,131.

Quarterly Performance That Shocked the Street

The first quarter results that sparked this discussion were remarkable by any measure. GE Vernova delivered earnings per share of $17.44 versus Wall Street’s $1.95 projection — representing an approximately 790% outperformance. Revenues reached $9.34 billion, surpassing the $9.19 billion consensus and marking 17% growth year-over-year.

Management also upgraded its free cash flow outlook and highlighted data center electrification as a central catalyst for expansion. The voracious power requirements of AI infrastructure are creating electricity demand at levels unseen in decades, positioning GE Vernova directly in line with this secular trend.

Shares rallied nearly 14% following the earnings release. Analysts responded by broadly increasing their price projections — the mean target climbed from $968 to $1,179, representing a 22% weekly jump.

Robert W. Baird established a $1,400 target while maintaining an Outperform stance. Goldman Sachs confirmed its Buy rating with a $1,328 price objective. Morgan Stanley increased its target to $960 alongside an Overweight rating. Current consensus stands at Moderate Buy with a mean price target of $1,077.

Institutional Activity Signals Confidence

Institutional investor behavior tells a story of growing conviction. Capital World Investors expanded its GEV holdings by 1,907.5% during Q3. Franklin Resources increased exposure by 170%, while SG Americas grew its stake by more than 10,000%. Both Raymond James and Nordea made substantial position additions.

The notable exception was the State of Michigan Retirement System, which reduced its holdings by 3.5%, disposing of 2,600 shares to conclude the quarter holding 71,040 units valued at approximately $46.43 million.

Even with BNP’s recent downgrade included, 74% of Wall Street analysts maintain Buy ratings on GEV — significantly higher than the 55–60% Buy-rating baseline for S&P 500 constituents.

The stock’s 12-month low stands at $356.94. Last week saw a 12-month high of $1,181.95. GEV trades at a P/E ratio of 33.45 with a market capitalization approaching $308.63 billion. The company distributed a $0.50 quarterly dividend on April 14th.

• The USDPT stablecoin will run on Solana and be issued via Anchorage Digital.
• Launch is planned for May 2026 after final rollout preparations.
• Western Union links crypto wallets to its global cash network.

The Western Union CEO, during the Western Union’s first-quarter earnings discussion, announced that the company is moving closer to launching its dollar-backed stablecoin USDPT on the Solana blockchain, with a rollout targeted for May 2026.

The update comes after months of internal development around Western Union’s broader digital asset strategy, which aims to combine blockchain settlement with its long-established global cash transfer network.

USDPT moves from concept to near launch

USDPT, short for US Dollar Payment Token, is a fully dollar-backed stablecoin designed to operate on the Solana network.

The token will be issued through Anchorage Digital Bank, a federally regulated crypto institution in the United States.

This structure places regulatory oversight at the centre of the project, while still allowing blockchain-based settlement.

According to details shared by Western Union, the stablecoin will be integrated into a newly developed system known as the Digital Asset Network.

This network will connect crypto wallets, exchanges, and digital platforms directly to Western Union’s physical cash-out infrastructure, which spans more than 200 countries and hundreds of thousands of agent locations worldwide.

The system is designed to allow users to move between digital dollars and physical cash without relying on traditional banking intermediaries.

Users will be able to send USDPT on-chain and withdraw local currency at Western Union locations.

Solana chosen for speed and scale

Solana has been selected as the underlying blockchain for USDPT due to its high throughput and low transaction costs.

The network can process thousands of transactions per second, with settlement times measured in seconds.

This aligns with Western Union’s requirement for high-volume remittance flows.

Notably, Western Union processes millions of cross-border transactions annually, many of which involve small-value transfers.

The company has highlighted that traditional settlement systems often take several days and rely on multiple intermediary banks, while, in contrast, USDPT on Solana is expected to reduce settlement time to near-instant execution while lowering operational costs.

Anchorage Digital Bank will handle issuance and custody, ensuring that each USDPT token remains fully backed by US dollar reserves under regulated standards.

Launch timeline set for May 2026

While earlier guidance placed the rollout within the first half of 2026, the latest update narrows the timeline to May 2026.

The project is described as being in its final preparation phase, with technical integration and network testing underway.

For two years, Litecoin’s social media managers laughed at Solana’s blockchain outages. This weekend, they had to eat their own words as Litecoin’s blockchain suffered its own denial-of-service and double-spending attack.

Repeated Solana outages drew smug chuckles from Litecoin. Unlike Solana, according to its sustained declarations, Litecoin doesn’t have outages.

On Saturday, that talking point died. Litecoin definitely had an outage, as well as a double-spending problem.

A consensus bug in Litecoin’s privacy upgrade let an attacker mint invalid coins. Looking to double-spend as quickly as possible, the attacker rapidly traded LTC for other digital assets at crypto exchanges before honest miners could stop the sales.

Its blockchain split. Eventually, miners rolled-back transactions, creating about 32 minutes of de facto downtime.

Interestingly, due to the unusually slow mining times during the attack, it actually took over three hours in real-time for the network to produce the 13 replacement blocks that would have normally consisted of just 32 minutes worth of transactions.

Anyway, the Litecoin Foundation then explained its 13-block reorganization to its own followers.

No more 100% uptime

Just weeks earlier, Litecoin boasted of its “100% uptime,” claiming its blockchain “100% works” after being “100% battle-tested.”

Litecoin’s account spent 2024 and 2025 laughing at Solana’s problems without fixing its own.

When Solana scheduled maintenance for a weekend in June 2025, Litecoin told the Solana account, “This way you can schedule your outages for the weekends. Good call.”

It replied to another Solana status update with one word, “Downtime.” 

When the two networks signed a tongue-in-cheek ceasefire later that month, the foundation’s joke version had Litecoin promising to stop “mocking Solana for six hours and Solana will just continue to not do anything.”

Solana’s own people declined to return the favor this weekend. Vibhu Norby, Solana Foundation’s interim chief product officer posted, “I will not bring up the 1,000 times @litecoin dunked on Solana for downtime. Because we are better than this.”

Banking Circle has rolled out institutional stablecoin settlement services after securing regulatory approval in Luxembourg.

According to a Monday announcement from the Luxembourg-based bank, the expansion follows its April 15 registration as a Crypto Asset Service Provider with the country’s financial regulator, enabling regulated conversion between fiat and stablecoins for institutional clients.

Support currently includes USDC issued by Circle, USDG from Paxos, and the bank’s own euro-pegged token EURI, extending capabilities first introduced with EURI in August 2024.

Serving more than 750 payment firms, financial institutions, and marketplaces, Banking Circle said its infrastructure processes over €1.5 trillion, or about $1.7 trillion, in annual transaction volume. Chief digital asset officer Kirit Bhatia stated in the release that stablecoins are “a natural extension” of the bank’s existing systems, adding that they play a key role in lowering costs and improving settlement efficiency.

Banking Circle expands foothold as euro stablecoin race intensifies

Banking Circle’s earlier launch of EURI positioned it among the first banks to issue a euro stablecoin aligned with the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, with the CASP approval now allowing it to scale regulated services across clients.

Competition across the region has accelerated as traditional banks and crypto firms build compliant payment rails under MiCA. French lender Société Générale, through its digital asset arm SG-FORGE, introduced the euro stablecoin EURCV in April 2023 on Ethereum and later expanded to additional networks as part of its multi-chain strategy.

On April 15, SG-FORGE integrated its dollar-denominated token USDCV into MetaMask, giving users access to a regulated stablecoin issued by a European bank.

Swiss-based Sygnum added EURCV to its B2B platform in January 2025, targeting institutional clients and partner banks. In September 2025, a group of lenders, including ING, UniCredit, and CaixaBank, announced plans for Qivalis, a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin scheduled for release in the second half of 2026.

The consortium has since expanded to 12 banks, adding BBVA, BNP Paribas, and DZ Bank, and partnered with Fireblocks to support custody and tokenization ahead of launch.

Crypto-native firms continue to build competing infrastructure. In April 2025, Circle introduced the Circle Payments Network to offer managed settlement services for banks and payment providers. 

Separately, an April 21 partnership between Coinbase and global payments platform Nium enables businesses to fund cross-border transfers using USDC and settle in either fiat or stablecoins across more than 190 countries.

Institutional money is flowing back into crypto faster than retail this cycle, and the data is starting to back the rally bitcoin has been quietly running.

Digital asset investment products attracted $1.2 billion in inflows last week, a fourth consecutive weekly gain, according to CoinShares data published Monday.

Total assets under management across crypto funds rose to $155 billion, the highest level since February 1, though still well below the $263 billion peak from October 2025. Bitcoin alone took in $933 million, bringing year-to-date flows to $4 billion. Ether attracted $192 million, the third straight week above $190 million.

Meanwhile, blockchain equity ETFs are one to watch for outside of crypto-related funds. These products invest in publicly traded companies that derive revenue from crypto infrastructure, like miners, exchanges, and chip makers selling into crypto applications.

Inflows totaled $617 million over the past three weeks, including a record weekly figure, marking what CoinShares analyst James Butterfill described as an explosion in demand for indirect technology exposure to the asset class.

The pattern suggests allocators who cannot or will not hold spot bitcoin directly are rotating into the equity wrappers around the sector.

Bitcoin tagged $79,399 overnight, its highest level since January 31, before reversing to $77,705. The level matters because $80,000 is where buyers from January and February are approaching breakeven on positions held through the war-driven correction.

The week ahead is the test of whether institutional flows can absorb that selling pressure or whether a third rejection from $79,000 starts to define a range rather than precede a breakout.

Megacap tech earnings on Wednesday and Thursday from Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, followed by Apple on Thursday, represent roughly a quarter of the S&P 500’s market capitalization and will determine whether the broader risk-on bid that has been lifting bitcoin alongside equities continues.

Strong earnings would extend the four-week run of crypto inflows and bitcoin may gets the catalyst it needs to clear $80,000. Disappointing results, however, could send prices dwindling lower.