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Mastercard says it’s acquiring stablecoin startup BVNK in $1.8B crypto bet

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Mastercard says it's acquiring stablecoin startup BVNK in $1.8B crypto bet

A view of the Mastercard company logo on its stand during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on March 1, 2017.

Joan Cros Garcia – Corbis | Corbis News | Getty Images

Mastercard on Tuesday said it agreed to acquire BVNK, a London-based stablecoin infrastructure firm, for up to $1.8 billion. It’s the payment network’s biggest bet yet on the mainstreaming of digital currencies.

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The deal includes $300 million in payments that are contingent on BVNK hitting certain performance metrics and is expected to close this year, Mastercard said in a statement.

The acquisition gives Mastercard, the world’s second-largest payment network after Visa, the ability to connect traditional payment rails with emerging blockchain-based systems. That will allow Mastercard to enmesh itself in payments systems involving stablecoins and tokenized deposits as they gain adoption in coming years.

“We expect that most financial institutions and fintechs will in time provide digital currency services,” Mastercard Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert said in his firm’s release.

BVNK, which was founded in 2021 and told CNBC last year that its valuation was above $750 million, says its platform currently supports transactions on all major blockchain networks in more than 130 countries.

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Stablecoin startups have been a hot commodity since the reelection of President Donald Trump in late 2024 ushered in a new era of crypto-friendly regulation.

BVNK reportedly entertained takeover interest from Coinbase as well as Mastercard, and Mastercard had been interested in acquiring a different crypto company, Zerohash, earlier this year.

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China Orders Apple to Remove Dorsey’s Bitchat,

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China Orders Apple to Remove Dorsey's Bitchat,

China’s Cyberspace Administration has ordered Apple to pull Jack Dorsey’s Bitchat from its China App Store, citing regulations that require apps with “social mobilization” capabilities to pass a government security assessment before launch.

Summary

  • The Cyberspace Administration of China told Apple to remove Bitchat from its China App Store and TestFlight beta, effective February 2026, a ban Dorsey disclosed publicly on April 5
  • The CAC cited Article 3 of its regulations governing apps with “public opinion or social mobilization capabilities,” which require a mandatory security review before deployment
  • Bitchat, which runs entirely over Bluetooth mesh networks with no internet required, has surpassed three million downloads globally and was widely used by protesters in Iran, Uganda, Nepal, and Indonesia to bypass government shutdowns

Block CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed on X that his decentralized messaging app, Bitchat, was pulled from China’s App Store in February 2026 at the direct request of the Cyberspace Administration of China. As crypto.news reported, the CAC cited Article 3 of its regulations covering online services with “public opinion or social mobilization capabilities,” a provision that has been in force since 2018 and requires a state security assessment before any such platform can launch. Both the App Store listing and the TestFlight beta version are now unavailable in China, though the app remains accessible in all other markets.

Bitchat’s core design is what put it on Beijing’s radar. The app operates entirely over Bluetooth and mesh networks, requiring no internet connection. That architecture makes it functionally immune to conventional government filtering and firewall blocking — the same tools China relies on to manage digital communication.

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That design has given Bitchat an outsized role during political unrest. Protesters in Iran used it to communicate as authorities attempted to restrict connectivity during the ongoing conflict. As crypto.news documented, Bitchat also surged in Uganda ahead of the 2026 general elections, where opposition leader Bobi Wine actively urged supporters to download it in preparation for expected internet blackouts. Authorities in Nepal, Madagascar, and Indonesia have also seen surges in Bitchat adoption during periods of restricted connectivity.

Apple’s review team delivered a pointed message to Dorsey alongside the removal notice: “We know this stuff is complicated, but it is your responsibility to understand and make sure your app conforms with all local laws.”

Three Million Downloads and Still Climbing

Despite the ban, Bitchat’s global reach continues to expand. Chrome download statistics show the app has surpassed three million total downloads, with over 92,000 recorded in the past week alone. The Google Play Store reports more than one million installs. Regional breakdowns are not publicly available.

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Dorsey first launched Bitchat in beta via Apple’s TestFlight in July 2025, framing it as a weekend experiment in Bluetooth mesh networking. The app encrypts messages using AES-256, stores all data only in device memory rather than on central servers, and supports Bitcoin transactions natively. Billionaire fund manager Bill Ackman publicly called it a practical tool for censored environments like Iran.

The App Store as the Only Lever

What makes China’s move notable is the mechanism chosen. Bitchat has no central servers to pressure, no user accounts to surveil, and no phone number requirement. Its decentralized design gives regulators virtually no conventional chokepoint to target. Forcing an App Store removal is one of the few available tools — and it does not affect the app’s operation for users who already have it installed or access it through other means.

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Circle Is Building Its New Blockchain to stop Quantum Attack

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How Circle settled $68M in minutes using its own USDC rails

Circle’s Layer-1 blockchain Arc will launch at mainnet with an opt-in post-quantum signature scheme protecting users’ wallets from day one, as the USDC issuer warns that Q-Day could arrive by 2030 or sooner.

Summary

  • Arc will debut with a post-quantum signature scheme at mainnet launch, giving users the option to create quantum-resistant wallets without a forced network-wide migration
  • Circle warned that adversaries may already be stockpiling encrypted data to decrypt later, and that Q-Day could arrive by 2030 or sooner, citing recent research from Google and Caltech
  • The blockchain has been running on public testnet since October 2025, with USDC serving as the native gas currency; the quantum roadmap covers wallets, private state, validators, and infrastructure

Circle’s Layer-1 blockchain Arc will debut at mainnet with an opt-in post-quantum signature scheme, making it one of the first blockchains designed from the ground up to withstand quantum computing threats. The announcement accompanied a detailed security roadmap published to the Arc blog this week.

Arc has been live on public testnet since October 2025, with Circle’s USDC as the native gas currency. USDC carries a market cap of roughly $77.5 billion, second only to Tether among stablecoins, and is the asset at the center of Arc’s institutional positioning.

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At mainnet, users will be able to choose a signing method that future quantum computers cannot break, according to the Arc roadmap. The approach is deliberately opt-in, meaning no forced migration, no network-wide reset, and no assumption that every wallet or software stack will need to adapt immediately. Circle framed this as a practical path for institutions to begin protecting assets now, without disrupting existing developer tooling.

“Quantum resilience cannot live only in research papers, exploratory pilots, or distant roadmap slides. It has to show up in the infrastructure,” Circle said in its announcement.

Arc’s sub-second block finality also limits the attack window. In a so-called short attack, a quantum computer would need to derive a private key during the brief period between when a public key is exposed during a transaction broadcast and when the transaction is finalized. At under one second per block, that window is narrow.

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A Three-Phase Plan Covering the Entire Stack

Circle’s post-quantum plan covers more than wallet-level protections. The near-term phase introduces quantum-resistant signatures at mainnet launch. The mid-term phase extends those protections to private balances, confidential payments, and recipient data, ensuring institutional financial activity stays shielded as quantum capabilities advance. The long-term phase targets validator authentication and off-chain infrastructure, including cloud servers, hardware security modules, and encrypted connections between nodes.

As crypto.news reported, Google recently moved its own post-quantum encryption deadline forward to 2029, citing faster hardware progress and improved error correction. Researchers from Google and the California Institute of Technology have warned that functional quantum computers capable of breaking existing cryptographic standards may arrive sooner than previous estimates suggested.

The Risk Is Already Partially Here

Circle pointed to two converging threats driving the urgency. The first is the eventual ability of quantum systems to forge transaction signatures directly. The second is already active: NIST has flagged “harvest now, decrypt later” tactics, where adversaries collect and store encrypted data today, intending to crack it once sufficient quantum capability exists.

“Long-term cryptographic durability is a baseline requirement that must be accounted for in infrastructure decisions being made today,” Circle said, directing its message explicitly at banks, fintechs, and enterprise platforms building on stablecoin infrastructure.

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Algorand Surges 50% in a Month After Google’s Quantum Flag

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Algorand Surges 50% in a Month After Google's Quantum Flag

Algorand’s ALGO token has gained roughly 50% this month, climbing from $0.079 to $0.126, after Google’s Quantum AI team cited the blockchain 32 times in a landmark paper on quantum threats to cryptocurrency.

Summary

  • ALGO has risen about 50% in April, pushing its market cap above $1 billion, after Google’s quantum AI research paper repeatedly referenced Algorand as the live benchmark for post-quantum blockchain security
  • Google’s paper highlighted Algorand’s FALCON signature scheme and State Proofs as practical examples of working post-quantum infrastructure, a stark contrast to Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are still debating migration paths
  • Additional tailwinds include the SEC and CFTC classifying ALGO as a digital commodity, Revolut launching ALGO staking, and derivatives open interest surging from $38 million to $81 million

As crypto.news reported, Algorand (ALGO) rallied to an 11-week high of $0.126 on April 6, bringing its market cap near $1.1 billion. The primary catalyst was Google’s quantum AI research paper, “Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities,” published on April 1, which cited Algorand 32 times as a real-world case study for post-quantum blockchain security. ALGO is up more than 7% on April 6 alone, as broader crypto markets rallied on ceasefire headlines.

The Google paper, co-authored with researchers from UC Berkeley, Stanford, and the Ethereum Foundation, focused on how future quantum computers could break the elliptic curve cryptography securing most blockchains. In that context, Algorand stood out as a network that has already deployed practical defenses.

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Google highlighted three features: Algorand’s use of FALCON digital signatures, a lattice-based scheme selected by NIST for post-quantum standardization; its State Proofs, which generate post-quantum secure certificates every 256 rounds to attest to ledger integrity; and its native rekeying function, which allows users to rotate private keys without changing a public address. Algorand executed its first post-quantum secured transaction in 2025, a milestone that most larger networks have yet to reach.

Not Just Quantum: Three Tailwinds at Once

The quantum narrative did not act alone. US regulators, the SEC and CFTC, jointly classified ALGO as a digital commodity in March and early April 2026. Algorand Foundation CEO Staci Warden called it “bedrock regulatory clarity” that aligns ALGO with traditional asset classes and reduces the compliance barriers that have kept institutional capital cautious.

Revolut, with more than 70 million users, launched ALGO staking during the same period, reducing circulating supply and expanding retail access. Swiss bank PostFinance separately enabled ALGO trading and custody, opening a regulated entry point for European institutional investors. Algorand also commands an estimated $425 million in tokenized real-world assets on-chain.

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Derivatives Market Reflects the Shift

ALGO derivatives open interest surged from $38 million at the end of March to $81 million by April 4, more than doubling in under a week. As crypto.news noted, the quantum-resistant blockchain narrative has been gaining commercial traction industry-wide, with developers and institutions increasingly treating post-quantum readiness as a baseline requirement rather than a roadmap aspiration.

ALGO remains heavily discounted from its all-time highs, and technicals show overbought conditions in the short term. Whether the rally holds depends on whether the quantum security narrative sustains its momentum or gets overtaken by near-term macro developments.

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Oklo (OKLO) Stock: Top Execs Dump $21M in Shares Amid Cramer Criticism and Earnings Disappointment

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OKLO Stock Card

Key Takeaways

  • On April 1, Oklo’s leadership team—including CEO Jacob DeWitte and COO Caroline Cochran—liquidated more than $21M in company shares through pre-scheduled trading arrangements.
  • DeWitte’s selling spree dates back to January, with transactions executed at prices ranging from approximately $50 to $100 per share.
  • CNBC’s Jim Cramer expressed skepticism about Oklo’s commercial viability, stating the company has minimal near-term revenue potential.
  • The nuclear energy startup disappointed investors with a quarterly loss of $0.27 per share, significantly worse than Wall Street’s -$0.17 forecast.
  • Despite remaining nominally bullish, Wall Street analysts have trimmed their price objectives, with the current consensus target at $84.30.

Oklo’s executive leadership executed substantial stock sales totaling north of $21 million on April 1, 2026, all conducted through previously established Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangements.


OKLO Stock Card
Oklo Inc., OKLO

Chief Executive Jacob DeWitte liquidated shares at average prices spanning $48.41 to $51.20, generating proceeds of $10,069,852. Following these transactions, DeWitte maintains direct ownership of 691,533 Class A shares while controlling over 20 million additional shares through indirect holdings.

Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Caroline Cochran executed similar transactions, also totaling $10,069,852, with sale prices fluctuating between approximately $47.99 and $51.79 per share. Her remaining direct stake stands at 658,039 shares.

Chief Financial Officer Richard Bealmear participated as well, selling 16,342 shares at $51.08 each for total proceeds of $834,749. His current direct holdings amount to 386,008 Class A shares.

While all three executives utilized 10b5-1 trading plans—designed to demonstrate predetermined selling schedules rather than opportunistic timing—the transactions raise eyebrows given their magnitude and timing.

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DeWitte’s selling activity extends well beyond the April 1 transactions. Since January, the CEO has consistently offloaded shares at various price points, including sales near $112, $75, and $63. These cumulative transactions have generated tens of millions in personal proceeds during recent months.

The April 1 sale specifically involved 200,000 shares executed across two separate transactions, shrinking DeWitte’s direct ownership stake by 17.58%.

Cramer Questions Commercial Prospects

The executive stock sales coincide with harsh criticism from CNBC’s Jim Cramer. During a recent broadcast, Cramer delivered a blunt assessment: “Oklo, while not a science project, has very little prospects for making any money any time in the future that we think is important for a stock.”

This wasn’t Cramer’s first critique of the nuclear startup. Back in January, he characterized Oklo as lacking true commercial operations, suggesting that established players like GE Vernova represent superior investment opportunities in the nuclear sector despite Oklo’s technological promise.

Financial Performance Falls Short

The company’s operational results haven’t helped its case. Oklo disclosed a quarterly loss of $0.27 per share in its latest earnings report, substantially missing analyst expectations of a -$0.17 loss—a negative variance of $0.10 per share.

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Despite this disappointment, Wall Street analysts haven’t abandoned the stock entirely, though enthusiasm has clearly cooled. UBS slashed its price target from $95 down to $60 while adopting a neutral stance. Needham made an even steeper cut from $135 to $73, and Canaccord reduced its target from $175 to $125. Cantor Fitzgerald maintained an overweight recommendation with a $122 price objective.

The analyst community’s average price target currently registers at $84.30, accompanied by a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating. The breakdown includes two Strong Buy recommendations, nine Buy ratings, six Hold positions, and two Sell ratings.

Oklo’s shares have experienced significant volatility over the past year, trading within a 12-month range of $17.42 to $193.84. The stock’s 50-day moving average currently sits at $64.62, well below its 200-day moving average of $93.16.

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JPMorgan CEO Embeds Blockchain in Core Strategy

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

TLDR

  • JPMorgan placed blockchain inside its core competitive and operational strategy in the April 6 shareholder letter.
  • Jamie Dimon grouped blockchain-based firms with fintech competitors such as Block, Revolut, and Stripe.
  • The letter described stablecoins, smart contracts, and tokenization as emerging competitive categories.
  • Dimon stated that JPMorgan must roll out its own blockchain technology to stay competitive.
  • The bank continues to operate its Kinexys platform for blockchain-based payment settlements.

JPMorgan released its annual shareholder letter on April 6 and outlined blockchain within its core strategy. CEO Jamie Dimon placed digital assets inside competitive planning and growth priorities. The document shows integration of blockchain across operations, payments, and investment banking.

JPMorgan Integrates Blockchain Into Competitive Planning

Dimon referenced blockchain competitors within the bank’s competitive threat framework. He wrote that “a whole new set of competitors is emerging based on blockchain.” He grouped stablecoins, smart contracts, and tokenization alongside Block, Revolut, and Stripe.

He placed these firms next to fintech companies JPMorgan has tracked for years. That grouping signals direct competition within payments and financial services. The letter avoids a standalone crypto section and embeds blockchain across strategy discussions.

Dimon stated that JPMorgan must “roll out its own blockchain technology” to remain competitive. He framed blockchain as a requirement rather than an experiment. The language reflects operational execution rather than research.

The bank already operates its Kinexys platform for blockchain-based settlements. It also developed JPMD, a tokenized deposit for institutional transactions. Both systems support faster settlement for large clients and operate at scale.

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Digital Assets Named as Growth Priority in CIB

Dimon addressed blockchain again within the Commercial & Investment Bank section. He listed digital assets alongside global payments and private markets as growth areas. That placement ties blockchain to the bank’s institutional revenue engine.

The Commercial & Investment Bank handles global mandates and capital markets services. By naming digital assets there, Dimon linked blockchain to core institutional services. The letter connects custody, settlement, and tokenized instruments to expansion plans.

Dimon also addressed his personal stance on crypto assets. He stated in late 2025 that “blockchain is real, stablecoins are real, and tokenization is real.” However, he maintained reservations about Bitcoin as a speculative asset.

The letter reflects the separation between infrastructure and public cryptocurrencies. JPMorgan builds permissioned networks and tokenized deposits for institutional clients. It does not position Bitcoin within its operational strategy.

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JPMorgan reported a drop in Q1 inflows while issuing the letter. The document still positioned blockchain within competitive and operational planning. It embedded digital assets across threat analysis, execution plans, and growth targets.

The shareholder letter represents the bank’s formal communication to investors. It presents blockchain as part of core business activity. The April 6 publication outlines blockchain across multiple divisions within JPMorgan.

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TradFi LARP or Institutional Blockchain Pivot?

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TradFi LARP or Institutional Blockchain Pivot?

Canton Network’s rise as a permissioned, institution-first blockchain is forcing crypto to decide whether the future of tokenized finance belongs to open rails like Ethereum or fenced-off, privacy-gated stacks for banks and asset managers.

Canton Network, the enterprise blockchain built by Digital Asset and backed by major TradFi players, is once again in the crosshairs after The Chopping Block devoted its latest episode to the question: is Canton a real blockchain or just TradFi LARPing in crypto clothes. The debate has sharpened as Canton processes tokenized repo and bond flows for large financial institutions and pushes daily volumes into the hundreds of billions of dollars, with one French‑language industry deep dive estimating over $350 billion in tokenized value moving across the network per day in 2026. In parallel, the Canton (CC) token is trading near $0.14, with a market capitalization around $5.3 billion, placing it firmly in the upper tier of real‑world‑asset layer‑1s by size.

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On the show, panelists ask bluntly whether Canton “counts as a real blockchain” or is effectively “just a ledger with marketing,” pointing to its permissioned validator set, privacy‑gated subnets, and institutional compliance tooling. That architecture is precisely what has attracted banks: Digital Asset’s own releases describe live cross‑border intraday repo flows on Canton using tokenized gilts, executed with a consortium of global institutions. As crypto.news has reported in a recent story, Visa has even stepped in as a Canton “super validator,” underscoring how deeply the network is embedding itself into regulated payment and settlement rails. In a separate crypto.news story, S&P Dow Jones Indices and Kaiko are also bringing the iBoxx U.S. Treasuries index on‑chain via Canton, alongside DTCC’s tokenized Treasuries, to support new index‑linked products.

That brings to its tension with Ethereum, which observers say is no longer theoretical. A recent Fortune piece asks whether Ethereum is “good enough for Wall Street,” noting that firms such as JPMorgan and Visa are experimenting with Canton for privacy‑preserving workflows, while the crypto community champions ZKsync, an Ethereum‑based privacy and scaling layer, as the purer alternative. On The Chopping Block, this plays out as a philosophical split: one segment, labeled “Ethereum’s Cypherpunk Crossroads,” frames the choice as open, credibly neutral rails like Ethereum and its rollups versus fenced‑off institutional stacks such as Canton. Canton backers argue that permissioning and fine‑grained privacy are features, not bugs; critics counter that if only a handful of regulated entities can validate, the system looks more like a consortium database than a blockchain.

Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute and a recurring voice in this debate, embodies the ambivalence. In March, he warned that neither Ethereum nor Solana has a “sticky moat” against new competitors, even as Ethereum still dominates DeFi with roughly $56 billion in total value locked. Yet in other comments flagged by Binance’s news desk, Gaevoy stressed that the Ethereum Foundation remains “essential” to preserving what he calls the “cyberpunk dream” and said he continues to hold ETH, even as more market participants adopt a wait‑and‑see stance. That paradox—cheering Ethereum’s ideals while questioning its defensibility—is exactly what The Chopping Block leans into when it jokes that Gaevoy is “absolutely cheering Ethereum on” amid yet another existential crisis.

Underneath the memes, real capital is choosing sides. Crypto.news has chronicled Canton’s institutional march in multiple stories, from a $135 million funding round led by Goldman Sachs and Citadel to YZi Labs backing Temple Digital to build the network’s first native trading platform. At the same time, Ethereum‑aligned infrastructure like ZKsync keeps scaling open networks, with ZKsync Era alone previously crossing $500 million in total value locked on Ethereum. Whether Canton ultimately looks more like a transitional bridge for TradFi or a durable parallel stack, the argument no longer turns on definitions; it turns on where trillions of tokenized dollars, euros, and Treasuries actually settle—and at what price in terms of openness, verifiability, and control.

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Binance crime monitoring staff exit as CCO reviews role

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

TLDR

  • Several staff members overseeing financial crime monitoring and sanctions checks have left Binance, according to Bloomberg.
  • Chief Compliance Officer Noah Perlman is discussing a possible departure and may leave this year or next.
  • Binance said it has no set timeline for Perlman’s exit and has not selected a successor.
  • The company agreed to a $4.3 billion US settlement over Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions violations.
  • Binance reported a 96% reduction in illicit exposure between January 2023 and June 2025.

Binance faces renewed compliance questions as senior staff leave key monitoring teams. Chief Compliance Officer Noah Perlman is discussing a possible departure. The developments follow the company’s $4.3 billion US guilty plea.

Bloomberg reported that several employees overseeing financial crime surveillance and sanctions checks have exited Binance. The report said Perlman is weighing his own departure and may leave this year or next. Binance said it has no set timeline and has not chosen a successor.

Binance Compliance Team Changes Draw Scrutiny

Perlman joined Binance in January 2023 to lead a global compliance overhaul. He took the role after Binance admitted US law violations. The company agreed to pay $4.3 billion to resolve charges.

US authorities said Binance breached the Bank Secrecy Act and sanctions rules. The settlement included $2.5 billion in forfeiture and a $1.8 billion criminal fine. Then Attorney General Merrick Garland said the penalty “sends an unmistakable message” to the crypto industry.

Bloomberg reported that staff turnover has affected financial crime monitoring and sanctions compliance units. The report said Perlman is discussing “future departure matters” with management. It added that he may leave as soon as this year or next.

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Binance responded that Perlman “remains focused on his current work” overseeing compliance. The company said it “currently has no departure timeline and has not determined a successor.” However, the report has intensified attention on its compliance framework.

Post-plea Oversight and Internal Metrics Under Focus

Binance has sought to ease US oversight tied to its plea agreement. The Wall Street Journal reported that executives have lobbied to remove an independent US monitor. Authorities installed that monitor to supervise anti-money-laundering controls.

The company has highlighted increased compliance investment since 2023. Binance said it expanded compliance staff by more than 30%. It also said it reduced direct exposure to illicit activity by 96% between January 2023 and June 2025.

In March, Perlman said a 96% reduction shows progress. He stated that “a 96% reduction in illicit exposure is a testament” to compliance systems. He added that the system “doesn’t just react to threats, it anticipates them.”

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Binance reported that sanctions-related exposure fell from 0.284% in January 2024 to 0.009% in July 2025. The company described this as a 96.8% decline. It also said it processed over 71,000 law enforcement requests.

The company said it helped facilitate about $131 million in confiscations linked to illicit activity. However, a Financial Times investigation challenged these claims. The FT reported that suspicious accounts tied to terror financing remained active after the plea.

The investigation said hundreds of millions of dollars in suspect flows moved through the platform. It stated that those flows occurred despite promised monitoring upgrades. Binance has not publicly detailed specific responses to the FT findings.

US regulators have collected over $32 billion from crypto firms in recent years. Binance’s $4.3 billion settlement represents one of the largest single components. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen previously accused the exchange of allowing funds to reach terrorists and cybercriminals while it “turned a blind eye” to basic AML duties.

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XRP price hinges on Senate CLARITY Act in April

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130k jobs in January, but there were massive revisions

The XRP price CLARITY Act connection has never been tighter: with the Senate Banking Committee targeting a late April markup and Senator Bernie Moreno warning that failure to pass by May effectively kills the bill for 2026, the next three weeks in Washington are the most consequential period XRP has faced this year.

Summary

  • The Senate returns from Easter recess on April 13 with a CLARITY Act Banking Committee markup targeted for the second half of the month; if the bill does not reach the Senate floor by May, Senator Moreno warns it will not move again before the 2026 midterms
  • If the CLARITY Act advances through committee, analysts project $4 to $8 billion in additional XRP ETF inflows, which could push XRP above $1.60 and toward its prior highs; if the bill stalls, XRP risks falling below $1.20 and potentially toward $0.82 if Bitcoin simultaneously breaks $60,000
  • XRP posted its worst quarter in eight years in Q1 2026, falling 27% despite a string of regulatory wins including SEC/CFTC commodity classification and $1.44 billion in ETF inflows since last year’s launches

The XRP (XRP) price CLARITY Act deadline is now a matter of weeks, not months. XRP is trading around $1.34 on April 6, up 2.2% on ceasefire-related risk-on sentiment, but still down more than 63% from its July 2025 peak of $3.65. According to 24/7 Wall St., Q1 2026 was XRP’s worst quarter in eight years, with its market cap shrinking by nearly $29 billion despite the SEC and CFTC jointly classifying XRP as a digital commodity on March 17.

The problem, analysts argue, is that regulatory clarity alone is not enough. Banks and large asset managers need the CLARITY Act to become federal law before they will commit capital at scale, because the current commodity classification is an interpretive release rather than legislation, and a future administration could reverse it.

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The Senate returns from Easter recess on April 13. The Banking Committee markup is targeted for the second half of April. That is the window. As crypto.news reported, the long-running stablecoin yield dispute between banks and crypto firms appears to be entering its endgame, with Senators Tillis and Alsobrooks having reached a compromise in principle on March 20 that bans passive yield on stablecoin balances but permits activity-based rewards tied to payments and platform use.

Polymarket currently gives the CLARITY Act roughly a 63 to 66% probability of being signed into law in 2026. But Senator Moreno has stated publicly that if the bill does not reach the full Senate floor by May, midterm election dynamics will push it off the calendar for the rest of the year. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has already pushed his own expected passage timeline from end of April to end of May.

The Bullish Scenario: $1.60 and Beyond

If the Senate Banking Committee advances the bill in late April, analysts project the development would unlock $4 to $8 billion in additional XRP ETF inflows, according to Standard Chartered’s Geoffrey Kendrick. Seven US spot XRP ETFs already pulled in $1.44 billion since launching between September and December 2025 without the CLARITY Act as law. With it, the institutional capital currently on the sidelines would have permanent legal cover. That scale of inflows would lock hundreds of millions of XRP tokens in custody, tightening circulating supply and, according to the 24/7 Wall St. analysis, providing the momentum needed to push XRP above $1.60 and potentially toward its prior cycle high.

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The Bearish Scenario: Below $1.20

As crypto.news noted, the CLARITY Act enters the Senate Banking Committee with broad support but a narrowing clock and almost no room for further substantive revision. If the bill stalls past May, Standard Chartered’s 2026 XRP price target falls to $2.80 at best, the forecast already cut from $8 when delays first materialized. Without the bill, XRP would likely follow Bitcoin’s direction in a market where BTC is currently range-bound between $65,000 and $73,000 with the Fed holding rates through at least December. A stall combined with Bitcoin breaking below $60,000 could see XRP drop toward $0.82, according to the 24/7 Wall St. analysis.

“April is the narrowest window XRP has had for that to change,” 24/7 Wall St. wrote. “If the CLARITY Act advances through the Banking Committee before May, Q2 starts with something Q1 never had.”

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Cardano News: Can a New Crypto Beat What ADA’s Rally Signal Will Take Months to Deliver

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Cardano News: Can a New Crypto Beat What ADA's Rally Signal Will Take Months to Deliver

The cardano news today starts with a breakout. ADA just pushed above $0.25 on April 6 for the first time in weeks, and the first exchange inflow week since November 2025 just flashed, a signal that has come before every major Cardano rally in the past year according to CryptoNews.

ADA still sits 92% below its all-time high despite real progress on Protocol 11 and the Midnight sidechain. That gap between what Cardano builds and what holders actually see in their wallets is pushing money toward entries that combine real tools with a single listing that turns months of waiting into one day.

ADA crossed $0.25 on April 6 with RSI at 69.64 on the 2-hour chart, the highest momentum reading in weeks according to CryptoNews.

The first exchange inflow week since November 2025 appeared at the same time, a pattern that showed up before every major ADA bounce in the past year.

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The Van Rossem hard fork to Protocol Version 11 is close, bringing new Plutus smart contract tools and on-chain governance that lets token holders cast votes on treasury spending according to CoinMarketCap. The Midnight privacy sidechain went live March 29 with Google Cloud and Worldpay as early validators.

The cardano news confirms the upgrades are real, but the spread between 680 commits a week from developers and a 92% drop from the peak keeps getting wider.

Top Plays While ADA’s Governance Upgrades Land

Pepeto: Can This Presale Give You Better Returns Than Cardano This Year?

The biggest story this week is the rally signal, but for wallets looking for the fastest path to gains, Pepeto is where capital flows when the cycle turns. PepetoSwap handles every swap at zero fees. The built-in scanner reads contracts and spots wallets holding too much supply before your money goes in. The bridge sends your portfolio across chains at no cost. The platform solves a real issue that gets worse every time new tokens fight for the same buyers.

Over $8.78M raised during Fear and Greed at 13 at $0.0000001862. Each round fills quicker as the confirmed Binance listing draws near. SolidProof audited every contract running on the platform. An ex-Binance dev lead who handled token launches built the listing roadmap. Staking at 187% APY adds to your position while the exchange grows.

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Meme hype and real exchange tools landing together shows up once per cycle. The Binance listing is the one event that produces the return. The wallets already inside can see what listing day brings, and the entry is still live for anyone who sees how strong this window is.

Cardano News: ADA Price Tests $0.25 as Protocol 11 and Rally Signal Target Recovery

ADA trades at $0.2519 according to CoinMarketCap, with Protocol 11 approaching and the first exchange inflow signal since November pointing toward a move. CoinCodex projects $0.38 by mid-2026 while Changelly sees $0.307 to $0.412 for April.

Support holds at $0.236 with $0.26 as the first wall and $0.28 above that. The SEC gave ADA a digital commodity tag, clearing the legal path. The cardano news shows strong technical progress, but the token has to push from $0.25 all the way to $0.34 just to reach first real resistance, and that takes time while a presale listing squeezes the same kind of move into a single day.

Conclusion

The cardano news is turning positive with ADA breaking $0.25 and the first rally signal since November flashing at the same time. But ADA still needs months to reach targets that matter from a $9.09 billion cap.

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Pepeto through the Pepeto official website is where meme hype, working exchange tools, and a confirmed Binance listing all land in one token, a setup crypto has not built before. The cycle is turning, and in past runs both meme coins and early exchange tokens handed out the kind of gains every trader talks about for years. Having both inside one project makes Pepeto the entry you do not want to skip, and the cardano news rally signal says the window is shrinking. The project launches soon, and once it does, this early price is gone.

Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale

FAQs

What does the cardano news rally signal mean for ADA holders?

ADA broke above $0.25 with the first exchange inflow week since November, a pattern that came before every major ADA rally in the past year. The outlook is bullish, but Pepeto’s listing compresses what ADA takes months to deliver into one event.

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How does the cardano news compare to what Pepeto offers right now?

The cardano news shows ADA needs to reach $0.34 just to hit first resistance from $0.25. Pepeto at $0.0000001862 with 187% APY staking and a Binance listing ahead reaches its return from one listing day through the Pepeto official website.


Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.

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Crypto World

Prediction markets sprint from crypto niche to mainstream finance

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Crypto VC Funding Reaches $244M as Mesh Leads

Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi now clear nearly $24b a month as AI bots, Wall Street capital and new CFTC rules drag the sector into mainstream finance.

Summary

  • Prediction markets led by Polymarket and Kalshi have exploded from a niche crypto product into one of finance’s hottest sectors in under a year.
  • Platforms now span DeFi-native venues, fully regulated exchanges, AI-powered tools and sports-focused apps, with cumulative monthly volumes in the tens of billions of dollars.
  • Regulators and Wall Street players are circling the space, with the White House reviewing new CFTC rules as investors treat prediction odds as a new kind of market data.

Prediction markets are moving from the fringes of crypto into the core of global finance, with X account Top 7 Crypto | Analytics & Alpha arguing they have become “one of the hottest sectors in finance in under 12 months” thanks to platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi. In a post that has drawn nearly 50,000 views, the account describes an expanding “Prediction Markets Landscape” that now includes “DeFi natives, regulated exchanges, AI-powered and sports-focused platforms,” and urges followers to “Save the list before your feed buries it,” underscoring how fast new venues are appearing. 

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That momentum reflects a sector-wide surge: industry research cited by Hashgraph Ventures notes that prediction market volumes nearly quintupled from early 2025, while a16z has flagged the space as a breakout category after the 2024 U.S. election cycle.

A detailed report from TRM Labs found that prediction market transactions hit 191 million in March, with trading volume reaching about $23.9 billion, a 2,800% jump from the prior year as geopolitical and macroeconomic bets dominated flows. Crypto.news has separately reported that, for the week ending March 9, nominal volume on Polymarket hit $2.49 billion, while CFTC-regulated Kalshi posted $2.85 billion, pushing total sector volume to $14.5 billion and lifting unique users to 2.8 million. Phemex analysis suggests that for full-year 2025, combined volumes on Polymarket and Kalshi approached $40 billion, helping turn both into multibillion‑dollar companies. On both platforms, ultra‑short‑term contracts now drive activity: according to a recent crypto.news story, five‑ to 15‑minute “up‑down” contracts on BTC, ETH and other coins already account for more than half of their crypto trading, with combined daily volume around $70 million.

Top 7 Crypto’s thread, based on a landscape graphic from analytics firm @surgence_io, highlights how broad the category has become, drawing in replies from projects spanning on-chain metrics, AI assistants and sports betting. Hedgehog, a data platform that focuses on gas fees and funding rates, wrote that “the prediction market landscape is expanding fast” and said it is “focused on the layer underneath everything else: on-chain metrics… The costs that power every transaction on every chain.” Other builders chimed in to stress the AI and tooling angle: “We are also AI powered tools for prediction market,” wrote @Bobbxu, pointing to @questflow as a way to automate analysis and execution around event contracts. Sports-focused accounts including Trajan Capital and Overtime.io protested being left off the initial list, with Trajan saying that excluding @BetOpenly, @4CxSweeps and @PlayProphetX was “like listing car makes and skipping BMW, Mercedes and Porsche.”

Behind that noisy expansion sits a clearer split between permissionless and regulated rails. Polymarket, built on crypto infrastructure, has leaned into global access while facing mounting pressure from regulators, including a recent crypto.news story on its ban in Argentina after a gambling probe and an earlier lawsuit against Massachusetts over state-level restrictions. Kalshi, by contrast, stresses its status as a CFTC‑regulated Designated Contract Market, explaining in its Market Integrity Hub that all of its event contracts are subject to the Commodity Exchange Act and “23 Core Principles” that govern futures exchanges. That regulatory positioning has attracted both enforcement attention and institutional interest: a crypto.news report noted that ARK Invest is now using Kalshi data “to track market expectations” and integrate market‑implied probabilities into research and risk management.

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The capital entering the space looks increasingly like traditional finance. According to Bloomberg, Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, plans to invest up to $2 billion in Polymarket, valuing the platform at roughly $8 billion and signalling that big exchanges see event contracts as a strategic product line. A separate Bloomberg report on a 2025 fintech funding rebound noted that Polymarket and Kalshi together raised about $3.71 billion in fresh capital that year, helping push global fintech funding to $55.94 billion, up 25% from 2024. A follow‑up piece cited by crypto outlets added that Polymarket is negotiating new funding at a valuation between $12 billion and $15 billion, while Kalshi’s valuation has climbed above $10 billion, underlining how quickly markets now value their flows.

Policymakers are responding. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently issued new guidance and enforcement advisories on prediction markets, reminding platforms that it retains “full authority to police illegal trading practices” on Designated Contract Markets. The White House is currently reviewing a fresh set of CFTC measures that would clarify the status of event-linked derivatives, a step crypto.news says could shape how platforms structure contracts on elections, macro data and geopolitics far beyond the crypto niche. In parallel, a Financial Times feature titled “Prediction markets: the hunt for the new ‘dumb money’” chronicles how retail traders are flocking into markets where odds on politicians, central banks and even pop culture become tradable data points, and notes one user who migrated from regulated Kalshi to offshore Polymarket to chase higher leverage.

Crypto-native firms are now treating this data as a new market primitive. A recent crypto.news story on Coinbase’s “everything exchange” strategy described how the company wants regulated prediction markets to sit alongside spot crypto and tokenized assets, with executives arguing that odds from venues such as Polymarket and Kalshi can compete with polling, sell‑side research and even traditional media feeds. Another crypto.news story on “Prediction market activity jumps 2800%” tied the recent spike to geopolitical contracts, pointing out that broadcasters including CNBC and Dow Jones have begun integrating live odds into their coverage. With Top 7 Crypto promising an updated “Prediction Markets Landscape” to reflect the dozens of teams now vying for attention, the sector’s next phase will likely hinge on whether this flow of dollars, regulatory clarity and media exposure can turn what was once a degen side hobby into a durable piece of financial infrastructure.

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