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Intel (INTC) Shares Slide 3% Following Foundry Leader’s Move to Qualcomm

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INTC Stock Card

TLDR

  • Intel (INTC) declined approximately 3% on Thursday, closing at $45.46 with volume 41% below average
  • Kevin O’Buckley, the SVP and general manager of Intel Foundry Services, departed to join Qualcomm as VP of global operations and supply chain
  • The company revealed a partnership with AI chip startup SambaNova focused on the SN50 inference chip
  • Wall Street consensus remains at “Hold/Reduce” with price targets ranging from $45.74 to $48.21
  • Q4 earnings showed EPS of $0.15, surpassing expectations, though margins remain negative with cautious forward outlook

Shares of Intel (INTC) slipped nearly 3% during Thursday’s session, settling at $45.46 compared to the prior close of $46.88. Volume registered approximately 71 million shares, representing a 41% decline from typical daily levels.


INTC Stock Card
Intel Corporation, INTC

The decline was primarily attributed to a significant personnel change: Kevin O’Buckley, who served as senior vice president and general manager of Intel Foundry Services, has exited the company.

O’Buckley is transitioning to Qualcomm, where he’ll assume the position of vice president of global operations and supply chain. The lateral move between two semiconductor powerhouses triggered immediate market reaction.

Intel acted swiftly to calm investor concerns. The chipmaker emphasized that Intel Foundry continues to be “one of Intel’s highest strategic priorities” and will operate under Naga Chandrasekaran’s leadership, who assumed the top foundry position last year.

The company publicly acknowledged O’Buckley’s contributions and extended best wishes. Official reasons behind his departure remain undisclosed.

Speculation suggests O’Buckley may have previously held a direct reporting relationship with CEO Lip-Bu Tan. Following Intel Foundry’s reorganization, his reporting structure shifted to Chandrasekaran. Whether this organizational change influenced his decision remains unclear.

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Intel’s AI Inference Push

The week brought positive developments as well. Intel unveiled a partnership with AI chip startup SambaNova centered on the company’s latest SN50 inference chip. Intel is also contributing to SambaNova’s current funding round.

This collaboration positions Intel more competitively in the AI inference space, which industry analysts identify as a rapidly expanding, higher-margin segment. The partnership demonstrates Intel’s strategic efforts to establish stronger positioning in AI hardware beyond its core CPU operations.

Regarding financial performance, Intel delivered Q4 EPS of $0.15, exceeding the consensus forecast of $0.08. Revenue reached $13.67 billion, topping analyst projections of $13.37 billion. However, revenue declined 4.2% compared to the previous year.

The forward outlook presents challenges. Intel projected Q1 2026 EPS at zero, while analysts anticipate -$0.11 EPS for the complete fiscal year. The company continues facing negative net margins and negative return on equity.

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Nvidia Eyes Intel’s Turf

Additional competitive dynamics are emerging. Nvidia, following its $5 billion Intel investment in December, is now advancing into the CPU sector — territory Intel has traditionally dominated.

As artificial intelligence firms transition from model training to deployment phases, CPU requirements are increasing. Nvidia aims to capture market share in this segment.

Analyst opinions show divergence. Tigress Financial maintains a Buy rating with a $66 price objective. Conversely, Wedbush holds a Neutral stance with a $30 target. UBS established a $51 target. MarketBeat’s consensus stands at “Reduce” with a $45.74 price target, while TipRanks reports an average of $48.21 based on recent analyst coverage.

Insider transactions show mixed signals. EVP David Zinsner acquired approximately $250,000 in stock during late January. EVP April Miller disposed of $981,000 worth of shares in early February.

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Institutional ownership accounts for 64.53% of INTC shares. The stock’s 50-day moving average stands at $44.26, while the 200-day moving average registers at $37.07.

The consensus analyst price target of $48.21 suggests approximately 6.67% potential upside from current trading levels.

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Can Bitcoin ETF Inflows Sustain Momentum as Institutional Buying Builds?

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Brian Armstrong's Bold Prediction: AI Agents Will Soon Dominate Global Financial

TLDR:

  • Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net inflow of 3,350 BTC, worth roughly $240M, in a single trading day.
  • BlackRock led all issuers with 3,741 BTC in daily inflows, driving the bulk of the day’s net positive result.
  • Grayscale posted another 162 BTC outflow, continuing a months-long pattern of legacy holder redemptions.
  • The 7-day cumulative inflow reached 7,358 BTC, confirming a broader and sustained accumulation wave forming.

Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows recorded 3,350 BTC, worth approximately $240 million, in a single trading day. BlackRock led all issuers while Grayscale continued its steady outflow trend. 

ETFs now collectively hold 721,090 BTC valued at roughly $56.75 billion, reflecting a sustained shift in Bitcoin ownership from active market circulation into long-term institutional balance sheets.

BlackRock Leads a Two-Speed ETF Market

Bitcoin ETF inflows continue to reflect a clear divide among issuers. BlackRock recorded a single-day inflow of 3,741 BTC, accounting for the bulk of the day’s net positive figure. 

That one entry essentially drove the entire day’s result across all spot ETF products. Grayscale posted another outflow of 162 BTC, extending a pattern that has held for months. 

Legacy holders are exiting while new institutional capital enters through lower-fee, more efficient vehicles. Fidelity, Bitwise, and ARK Invest contributed steady secondary demand but remain well behind BlackRock in volume.

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The contrast between issuers reflects a broader rotation in how institutions access Bitcoin. Newer, cost-efficient products are attracting the larger flows. 

Older structures continue to see gradual redemptions as capital migrates toward better-structured options. This two-speed dynamic shows no sign of reversing in the near term.

721,000 BTC Absorbed as Supply Squeeze Builds

ETFs collectively hold 721,090 BTC, valued at approximately $56.75 billion, marking a structural shift in Bitcoin ownership. Coins entering ETF products tend to remain there, reducing the amount of Bitcoin available for active trading. 

Each inflow day quietly removes more supply from the liquid market. The 7-day cumulative inflow total reached 7,358 BTC, confirming that the single-day figure was not an isolated event. 

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Despite periodic outflow days visible in the daily flow data, the cumulative trend line has continued moving upward. That resilience points to consistent absorption, where selling pressure is steadily met by fresh institutional demand.

Meanwhile, Ethereum products showed mixed flows, and Solana-linked products recorded net outflows over the same period. That divergence reinforces Bitcoin’s position as the primary institutional entry point among digital assets. 

In transitional market phases, capital tends to consolidate into the most established asset, and Bitcoin continues to fill that role.

With sell-side liquidity thinning, marginal buyers are increasingly required to bid higher to acquire meaningful size. The accumulation slope accelerated in late 2024 and again in mid-2025, both phases aligning with rising price momentum. 

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Yesterday’s inflow pattern suggests a similar setup may be forming if consecutive positive days follow.

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WLFI Token Hits All-Time Low Amid World Liberty’s DeFi Lending Controversy

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WLFI Token Hits All-Time Low Amid World Liberty’s DeFi Lending Controversy

World Liberty Financial has scrambled to pay down $25 million of its highly scrutinized loan on the DeFi lending protocol Dolomite.

The immediate repayments comprise $15 million on April 7 and an additional $10 million on April 10. These payments arrive amid mounting industry backlash over the project’s use of its own token as collateral.

WLFI’s Repayment Follows Intense Community Pressure

Data from BeInCrypto showed that the ongoing controversy dragged the WLFI token down to an all-time low of $0.07967. This is its weakest performance since the project’s highly publicized rollout in 2025.

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The market rout follows revelations that World Liberty essentially used its own governance tokens as collateral to extract massive quantities of stablecoins.

According to Arkham Intelligence, the Trump-affiliated venture pledged roughly $406 million worth of WLFI across two digital wallets to borrow $150 million in USDC.

This maneuver rapidly depleted Dolomite’s USD1 lending pool, pushing utilization rates above 93%. Consequently, retail depositors faced a severe liquidity crunch, making it difficult to withdraw their funds.

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Meanwhile, the optics of the transaction were further complicated by intertwined leadership. Dolomite co-founder Corey Caplan currently serves as an official advisor to World Liberty Financial.

As the digital asset’s price cratered, DeFi analysts raised alarms regarding the systemic risk of bad debt. WLFI’s collateral now accounts for approximately 55% of Dolomite’s $835.7 million in total value locked, heavily concentrating risk in a single, depreciating asset.

World Liberty Financial Dismisses ‘FUD’

However, World Liberty executives have aggressively pushed back against the market anxiety, dismissing insolvency fears as “FUD.”

In a series of social media statements, the developers argued that their massive borrowing benefits the broader ecosystem. They claimed that acting as an “anchor borrower” generates outsized yield for other participants.

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However, critics warned that a sharper decline could raise the risk of bad debt for lenders if collateral values fall faster than the position can be adjusted. World Liberty rejected that scenario, saying it could post more collateral if needed.

“We are one of the largest suppliers and borrowers on WLFI Markets. Yes, we supplied WLFI as collateral and borrowed stablecoins. No, we are nowhere near liquidation — and frankly, even if markets moved dramatically against us, we’d simply supply more collateral. That’s not a risk. That’s how this works,” the team added.

In a simultaneous bid to appease early backers facing steep paper losses, World Liberty announced an upcoming governance proposal to unlock restricted tokens.

According to the team, the proposed framework will feature a structured, long-term vesting schedule specifically targeted at early retail buyers.

The post WLFI Token Hits All-Time Low Amid World Liberty’s DeFi Lending Controversy appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Epic Market Flash Crash Killed Bull Market: Is Crypto Healthier Now?

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Epic Market Flash Crash Killed Bull Market: Is Crypto Healthier Now?

Key takeaways:

  • Bitcoin orderbook depth has plummeted by 50% since September 2025, signaling a substantial decline in overall market liquidity.

  • Indicators suggest that the current market fragility stems more from recent 2026 trends than from the 2025 flash crash itself.

Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto markets took a massive hit on Oct. 10, 2025, precisely 6 months ago. That devastating flash crash wiped out a record-breaking $19 billion in leveraged positions while some altcoins collapsed 40% to 80%. Many traders speculated that multiple market makers had been wiped out, while others accused the Binance exchange of blatant manipulation.

Was the crypto market structure actually altered after the October 2025 crash, and what has changed in liquidity, derivatives markets, and institutional metrics?

Aggregate Bitcoin spot +1% to -1% orderbook depth, USD. Source: CoinAnk

Bitcoin’s aggregate orderbook depth, ranging from +1% to -1%, typically oscillated between $180 million and $260 million in September 2025. On most days, there would be a healthy $90 million in bids, but that was not the case on Oct. 10, 2025. A mix of technical issues at Binance and auto-deleveraging on decentralized exchanges caused a temporary liquidity lapse.

During the flash crash, Bitcoin’s orderbook depth entered a downward spiral, stabilizing near $150 million by mid-November 2025. Currently, Bitcoin’s order book depth seldom exceeds $130 million, down 50% from levels seen in September 2025.

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The already fragile market conditions deteriorated further in February 2026. Bitcoin’s orderbook depth plunged below $60 million for nearly 10 days as the price struggled to hold the $65,000 level. Cryptocurrency market volumes declined considerably, especially in the derivatives markets.

Total crypto trading volume, USD. Source: TokenInsight

Cryptocurrency derivatives volumes oscillated between $40 billion and $130 billion over the past 30 days, falling short of the $200 billion mark commonly seen in September 2025. Still, the reduced appetite for futures contracts is not necessarily a bearish indicator as longs (buyers) and shorts (sellers) are evenly matched at all times.

Demand for bullish leverage remains weak, ETF volumes lag

The Bitcoin perpetual futures funding rate can be used to assess traders’ risk appetite.

Bitcoin perpetual futures annualized funding rate. Source: Laevitas

Under normal conditions, the indicator should range between 6% to 12% to compensate for the cost of capital. Excessive demand for bearish leverage can push the indicator below 0%, meaning shorts are the ones paying to keep their positions open. Data indicate stable conditions throughout November 2025, followed by a sharp decline in February 2026.

Curiously, volumes of US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were not impacted by the Oct. 10, 2025 flash crash. In fact, by late November, activity in those instruments jumped to their highest levels in 20 months at $11.5 billion per day. 

Related: Binance adds spot trading guardrails to limit abnormal executions

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US-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs daily trading volume, USD. Source: Coinglass

Bitcoin ETFs regularly traded at volumes above $4 billion per day between January and March 2026, but eventually fell below $3.3 billion by the first week of April. Similarly, US-listed Ether (ETH) ETFs average daily volume dropped to $1 billion, down from $2 billion in September 2025. 

Orderbook depth, funding rate, derivatives and ETF volumes all point to a much less healthy cryptocurrency market in April 2026 relative to 6 months prior. However, given that the market structure held relatively firm through February 2026, the relevance of the Oct. 10, 2025 flash crash seems much less than previously imagined.