Crypto World
Middle East Conflict Forces F1 Race Cancellations and Crypto Conference Delays in Dubai
TLDR
- The TOKEN2049 Dubai conference has been rescheduled to April 2027, while TON Gateway Dubai was completely scrapped due to escalating Middle East tensions
- Formula 1 has officially removed both the Bahrain Grand Prix (April 12) and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (April 19) from its 2026 schedule
- The motorsport league stands to lose approximately $200 million in revenue and $80 million in EBITDA from these two canceled events
- Leading cryptocurrency platforms OKX, Crypto.com, and Bybit, all major F1 sponsors with multi-million dollar agreements, face impact from race cancellations
- Several additional business conferences and trade shows in the United Arab Emirates have been rescheduled or indefinitely postponed, including Middle East Energy Dubai
Escalating military tensions across the Middle East have compelled Formula 1 to abandon two major Grand Prix events while forcing prominent cryptocurrency conferences to relocate entirely from the region.
Formula 1 has made the official announcement canceling both the Bahrain Grand Prix, originally scheduled for April 12, and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, planned for April 19. This decision came after sustained uncertainty as restricted airspace, ongoing military operations, and travel complications rendered the venues too dangerous for international events.
Both Bahrain and Saudi Arabia experienced Iranian missile and drone strikes in response to coordinated U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran that commenced on February 28. The armed conflict has now entered its third week with no clear resolution in sight.
F1 president Stefano Domenicali stated: “While this was a difficult decision to take, it is unfortunately the right one at this stage considering the current situation in the Middle East.”
Internal conversations explored the possibility of substituting these races with alternative circuits at Imola and Portimão, but the compressed preparation window made such arrangements unfeasible. The revised 2026 racing calendar now comprises 22 events, creating a substantial five-week interval between the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29 and the Miami Grand Prix on May 3.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain rank among the highest-paying host nations in Formula 1, with combined hosting fees estimated at approximately $115 million. Financial analysts at Guggenheim Partners project that F1’s financial losses could reach $200 million in total revenue and $80 million in EBITDA from these two canceled races alone.
Crypto Sponsorships Take a Hit
These race cancellations present immediate challenges for cryptocurrency firms that have committed substantial resources to Formula 1 marketing partnerships.
OKX, currently valued at $25 billion, has maintained its position as McLaren’s primary partner since establishing the relationship in 2022. Crypto.com secured a comprehensive global F1 partnership agreement extending through 2030. Bybit previously finalized a sponsorship arrangement with Red Bull Racing valued at up to $150 million.
Kraken, Coinbase, and Binance have also established motorsport sponsorship programs that could experience ripple effects. Representatives from both OKX and Crypto.com did not provide responses to inquiries regarding the impact.
Formula 1 race broadcasts attract more than one billion viewers each year worldwide. For cryptocurrency exchanges with regional operations, the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian races represented particularly strategic opportunities for engaging with the Gulf region’s vibrant and growing crypto community.
Dubai Crypto Events Also Canceled
The disruption extended well beyond the racing circuit. TOKEN2049 Dubai, recognized as one of the planet’s premier cryptocurrency conferences typically drawing over 15,000 participants, was postponed from its late April date to April 21–22, 2027. Event organizers pointed to safety considerations, unpredictable travel conditions, and logistical complications.
TON Gateway Dubai, a conference dedicated to The Open Network blockchain platform, was canceled completely. All ticketholders have been issued full refunds.
Numerous other regional business gatherings faced similar disruptions. Middle East Energy Dubai shifted its event to September. Affiliate World Global postponed its Dubai conference to 2027. The Dubai International Boat Show delayed its upcoming edition without announcing replacement dates.
Subsequent Formula 1 events scheduled for the region, including the Qatar Grand Prix and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December, continue to appear on the official calendar at this time. Event organizers have indicated they are actively tracking the evolving situation.
Crypto World
Why Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Solana ruled weekend crypto chatter
Santiment said traders were watching a small group of digital assets as the market moved into the weekend.
Summary
- Ethereum and Bitcoin led as traders tracked quantum risks, ETF flows, staking, and price pressure.
- Solana chatter rose after exploit reports, network issues, and project losses pushed security concerns higher.
- USDC, Chainlink, and Pippin gained attention through compliance claims, token unlocks, integrations, and meme-driven activity.
The social platform placed Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Bitcoin (BTC), USDC, Pippin, and Chainlink among the coins drawing the “highest trader interest” across online discussions.
Ethereum and Bitcoin stay in focus
Ethereum drew strong attention as traders discussed security, custody, and market activity. Posts centered on a new white paper about quantum computing risks tied to ECDSA signatures, which protect Ethereum accounts, admin keys, and some on-chain data.
At the same time, traders tracked reports that the Ethereum Foundation staked “around 45,000 to 70,000 ETH.” Social activity also picked up around ETF flow data, Charles Schwab’s plan to offer spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading, and Ethereum’s price near the $2,000 level.

Bitcoin also remained active in social discussions during the same period. Much of the debate followed a Google Quantum AI white paper that raised fresh talk about how quantum systems could affect Bitcoin’s long-term security model.
Traders also linked Bitcoin’s recent move near the “$67,000 to $70,000” range to wider macro pressure. Social posts pointed to Middle East tensions, oil market fears, corporate treasury buying, and planned retail access through Charles Schwab’s crypto product.
Solana and USDC face risk-driven chatter
Solana social activity rose after reports of a major Drift Protocol exploit that “drained roughly $270 million to $286 million.” Traders also discussed losses across projects tied to the Solana ecosystem and the effect on network confidence.
Online posts also focused on outage claims, failed transactions, slow confirmations, and wallet connection issues. Validator updates and project comments added to the discussion as traders watched for signs of recovery.
USDC also moved into focus after investigator ZachXBT published a dossier about Circle’s compliance record. The report claimed Circle had seen “over $420 million in compliance lapses since 2022” tied to delayed freezes and response actions.
That report spread across X, Reddit, and Telegram. Traders also discussed USDC’s role in cross-border payments, DeFi liquidity, and multichain transfers while questioning custody and freeze controls.
Pippin and Chainlink draw attention
Pippin gained traction as traders treated it like a social-driven memecoin. Posts described it as a token powered by online hype, fast price swings, and rising community attention instead of project fundamentals.
Chainlink drew interest after reports of a quarterly unlock of about 19 million LINK. Traders focused on the share sent to Binance, the amount moved to multisig wallets, and new discussion around Chainlink integrations and oracle tools.
Crypto World
Bitcoin Whales Lost $337M Daily in Q1 2026, Signaling Market Strain
Bitcoin traders with mid- to large-sized holdings continued to lock in losses at a startling pace in Q1 2026, according to on-chain analytics from Glassnode. Data shows that wallets holding 100–10,000 BTC realized losses averaging about $337 million per day—the strongest quarterly signal of capitulation since 2022. The developing pattern combines with persistent losses among long-term holders to raise questions about how far the market may slide before a potential bottom forms.
Key takeaways
- In Q1 2026, sharks (100–1,000 BTC) realized losses around $188.5 million per day, while whales (1,000–10,000 BTC) realized roughly $147.5 million per day, totaling about $336 million daily on average and roughly $30.91 billion in realized losses for the year so far.
- These figures place Q1 2026 among the most severe periods for on-chain realized losses among large BTC holders, behind only Q2 2022’s peak daily loss rate of about $396 million.
- Long-term holders (coins held for more than six months) are also selling at a loss, with losses running near $200 million per day on a 30-day average since late 2025, signaling broader capitulation beyond the largest wallets.
- Analysts note that the current pressure mirrors some of the macro and systemic stress seen in 2022, involving inflation concerns, liquidity outflows, and investor risk-off dynamics tied to macro events and sector-wide volatility.
- Looking ahead, some market observers point to a potential bottom in the $40,000–$50,000 range, but acknowledge substantial uncertainty as macro risks persist and on-chain dynamics evolve.
Capitulation among BTC whales and sharks
Glassnode’s realized loss metric tracks the dollar value of losses locked in when BTC is sold below its purchase price. In Q1 2026, the two key cohorts—sharks (addresses holding 100–1,000 BTC) and whales (1,000–10,000 BTC)—showed pronounced downside pressure. Sharks realized losses at an average of about $188.5 million per day, while whales contributed roughly $147.5 million daily. Combined, large holders have locked in around $30.91 billion in realized losses for 2026 thus far.
These levels mark one of the harshest on-record periods for large holders and come as BTC faces a confluence of macro headwinds. In Q2 2022, Bitcoin experienced more than a 50% price drop, followed by further declines as liquidity drained during the Terra collapse, Celsius disruptions, and the broader market turmoil surrounding the collapse of major crypto ventures. The current quarter’s pace suggests a renewed wave of capitulation among mid- to large-sized investors are bracing for additional downside as macro risks intensify.
Beyond the immediate price action, the on-chain data underscore a reluctance among significant holders to endure ongoing macro stress without reinforcing downside protection. The net result is pressure on supply dynamics and potential liquidity constraints that could complicate a swift recovery if risk-off sentiment persists.
Long-term holders under pressure
Another facet of the broader drawdown in BTC comes from Long-Term Holders (LTHs). Glassnode’s Long-Term Holder Realized Loss chart indicates that losses among LTHs remain elevated, averaging approximately $200 million per day on a 30-day basis since November 2025. In the view of Glassnode analysts, a cooldown toward daily losses well below $25 million would be a meaningful signal of exhaustion in selling pressure and a prerequisite for the base formation that historically precedes a sustainable bull market transition.
“A meaningful cooldown toward levels below $25M per day would represent a more compelling signal of exhaustion in selling pressure. A prerequisite for the base formation that historically precedes a sustainable bull market transition.”
Macro headwinds and the road ahead
The Q1 2026 snapshot arrives amid a broader mix of risk factors that have historically intersected with BTC drawdowns. Analysts cite inflation dynamics tied to energy and geopolitical developments, as well as innovation-driven market turbulence—ranging from concerns around quantum-resilience to the AI-driven risk trade—as pressures that can amplify drawdowns in risk assets, including Bitcoin. These factors echo the kind of rapid-downside catalysts seen during 2022’s crypto bear market, complicating calls for a rapid turnaround.
Some market observers have floated a potential bottom in the vicinity of $40,000–$50,000, framing it as a plausible reversal zone if supply-demand dynamics align with a cooling in realized losses and a stabilizing macro backdrop. Yet others caution that until on-chain metrics show sustained improvement and macro uncertainty lightens, a definitive bottom remains elusive.
This analysis reflects advanced on-chain research and is not investment advice. Investors should monitor how realized losses trend in the coming quarters and how on-chain activity aligns with price action before drawing conclusions about a durable bottom.
As the market weighs these signals, the next steps for BTC investors may hinge on whether the current capitulation can ease and whether price formation can establish a technical base that precedes any meaningful recovery.
Crypto World
Russia’s War on Telegram Hillariously Backfired, Claims Pavel Durov
Russia’s campaign to block Telegram and restrict Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) triggered a nationwide banking outage on April 3, disrupting card payments, ATMs, and digital transfers country-wide.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov claims the app still has 65 million daily active users in Russia despite the full block.
Censorship Backfires on Russia’s Financial Infrastructure
According to The Moscow Times, Sberbank, VTB, and T-Bank all reported widespread service failures on April 3.
Payment terminals displayed errors, ATMs stopped dispensing cash, and mobile banking apps went offline for hours.
Fyodor Muzalevsky, technical director at IT security firm RTM Group, told reporters that the VPN-blocking measures likely contributed to the disruption.
Preliminary reports pointed to erroneous blocking of IP addresses tied to banking infrastructure.
The Moscow metro reportedly allowed free passage through turnstiles. Some shops and public venues, including at least one zoo, switched to cash-only payments.
Telegram Holds Ground Despite Full Block
Russia’s internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, began throttling Telegram in February 2026, with a nationwide block taking effect around April 1.
The push aimed to migrate users to MAX, a state-backed messaging app controlled by a Gazprom subsidiary.
However, Durov’s numbers suggest the strategy has failed.
“For accuracy, over 50M Russians send at least one message every day, with 65M daily active users in Russia overall despite the ban,” wrote Durov.
Before the restrictions, Telegram had roughly 96 million users in Russia, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The app serves as a primary news source, communication tool, and even a military coordination channel for Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
VPN Adoption Surges as Kremlin Doubles Down
Russia’s Digital Development Ministry ordered major online platforms to block VPN users by April 15. Proposed legislation would also impose fines of up to 30,000 rubles on individuals caught using unauthorized VPNs.
As of January 2026, Roskomnadzor had already restricted more than 400 VPN services, a 70% increase from autumn 2025.
Yet VPN usage continues to climb. Authorities in 83 Russian regions have imposed mobile internet shutdowns at least once since May 2025, typically limiting access to a government-curated whitelist of approved sites.
These measures have made VPNs a daily necessity for millions.
The April 3 banking outage illustrates the collateral risks of aggressive internet filtering.
Moscow could adjust its approach or press forward with deeper restrictions before the April 15 deadline. The move they make could determine the next phase of this digital standoff.
The post Russia’s War on Telegram Hillariously Backfired, Claims Pavel Durov appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
LayerZero, Canton, and Zero Blockchain Are Building the Rails for Institutional Cross-Chain Value
TLDR:
- LayerZero has integrated 165+ chains and processed over $200B in volume, creating deep operational lock-in for builders.
- Canton Network processes $8T in monthly RWAs and $350B daily in Treasury repo, with LayerZero as its only live interoperability rail.
- On-chain data shows coordinated ZRO accumulation between $1.30–$2.00, with sizing patterns inconsistent with typical retail behavior.
- Activating the fee switch on $150B in annualized volume would shift ZRO’s valuation from pure optionality to measurable cash flow.
LayerZero, Canton Network, and Zero Blockchain are drawing attention as a potential interoperability stack in the crypto space.
Analysts and on-chain observers are tracking how these three protocols connect crypto-native messaging, institutional liquidity, and execution infrastructure.
The arrangement positions ZRO as a central asset across gas, staking, and value capture functions. Early accumulation patterns and institutional backing are adding weight to the narrative.
Institutional Rails and Network Lock-In
LayerZero has integrated over 165 chains and processed more than $200 billion in cross-chain volume. That scale creates what researchers describe as “infra gravity.” Once an application builds on a messaging layer, migration becomes operationally expensive.
Switching providers for marginal fee savings means reworking compliance systems, risk models, and liquidity routing. That dependency is where network effects become structural rather than speculative.
Canton Network adds a different dimension to this stack. It connects over 800 institutional firms, including Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan. The network processes roughly $8 trillion in real-world assets monthly and around $350 billion in U.S.
Treasury repo volume daily. LayerZero is currently the only interoperability rail operating inside that environment. That positioning means the cross-domain liquidity rails for institutions are already in place.
Researcher Nick Research noted on X: “LayerZero is the only interoperability rail live inside that environment. It means if institutional liquidity ever needs to move cross-domain, the rails are already chosen.”
That framing points to a first-mover advantage that is operational rather than theoretical. The integration is live, not pending.
Zero Blockchain rounds out the stack as an execution layer. Its backers include Citadel Securities and the DTCC. Those are not venture bets on technology — they are strategic positions from firms that process real financial volume. The thesis is that interoperability with proper execution controls is where value capture actually concentrates.
On-Chain Signals and the Fee Switch
On-chain data has started reflecting accumulation behavior ahead of any major narrative shift. Clusters of wallets funded through Coinbase Prime accumulated tens of millions in ZRO between $1.30 and $2.00.
The buying patterns showed identical sizing and tight timing, which does not match typical retail activity. Long-duration holders including a16z and ARK have also taken multi-year positions in the asset.
The fee switch is the mechanism that would make this shift visible at the protocol level. Currently, LayerZero routes approximately $150 billion in annualized cross-chain volume with no protocol revenue.
Once fees activate, the valuation framework moves from optionality toward cash flow. That transition tends to reprice assets quickly when it happens on top of an embedded network.
Nick Research summarized the stack plainly: “LayerZero is the messaging layer → Canton is the institutional liquidity pool → Zero is where that liquidity can actually settle and scale.”
The value capture relative to how far network effects have already progressed remains the core observation driving current interest.
Crypto World
Stablecoin Crypto Supply Hits $315B in Q1 as USDC Gains, USDT Slips
Total stablecoin supply reached a record $315 billion in Q1 2026, rising roughly $8 billion quarter-over-quarter even as the broader crypto market contracted.
The headline figure masks a sharper story underneath: USDC is taking ground from USDT, and the gap is closing faster than most market participants expected.
USDC supply surged 220% since late 2023 to approximately $78 billion, driven by institutional B2B settlement, payroll infrastructure, and programmatic payment rails built by Visa and Stripe.
USDT, still the dominant issuer by raw supply, saw its share slip – a divergence CEX.IO flagged as one of the quarter’s defining market dynamics.
- Total stablecoin supply hit a record $315B in Q1 2026, up ~$8B QoQ – the slowest growth since Q4 2023, but still expansion during a market contraction.
- Stablecoins accounted for 75% of total crypto trading volume in Q1 – the highest share on record.
- Total stablecoin transaction volume topped $28 trillion, exceeding Visa and Mastercard combined.
- USDC supply surged 220% since late 2023 to ~$78B; USDT’s market share slipped amid the divergence.
- Retail-sized transfers fell 16% – the steepest drop on record – while bots drove approximately 76% of all stablecoin transaction volume.
- Yield-bearing stablecoins now represent a $3.7 billion subsector, introducing new fragmentation and regulatory risk.
Discover: The best crypto to diversify your portfolio during market turbulence
Stablecoins also captured 75% of total crypto trading volume in Q1 – the highest share on record – while total transaction volume topped $28 trillion, a figure that now regularly exceeds those of major payment networks like Visa and Mastercard combined. Growth rate slowing is real; demand evaporating is not.
USDC Gain Is a Regulatory Story, Not Just a Market Share Story
The USDC surge is not organic retail adoption. CEX.IO’s data points to institutional programmatic money – B2B corridors, payroll settlement, treasury management, as the primary driver.
USDC’s transaction velocity hit 90x with an average transfer size of $557, a profile consistent with frequent, smaller institutional transactions rather than whale moves.

Circle’s positioning ahead of potential U.S. stablecoin legislation has been deliberate. With the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act still under debate and regulatory frameworks for digital assets evolving in Washington, regulated issuers like Circle have a structural advantage in onboarding compliance-sensitive institutional capital. That distinction matters – it’s not market share gained on yield or liquidity depth alone.
Analysts reviewing the quarter described the shift bluntly: “This isn’t retail adoption; it’s institutional programmatic money.” The number that confirms it is USDC’s average transfer size of $557 – dwarfed in absolute terms by USDT’s larger individual trades, but indicative of high-frequency, automated institutional flows that mirror broader tokenization and institutional adoption trends reshaping digital asset infrastructure.
If U.S. stablecoin legislation passes with provisions favoring regulated, audited issuers, USDC’s gain becomes structural. If it stalls, the competitive edge narrows and USDT’s entrenched liquidity depth reasserts dominance.
USDT Still Leads – But the Competitive Moat Is Narrowing
USDT remains the largest stablecoin by supply and the dominant liquidity instrument across emerging market corridors and Tron-based DeFi.
Its concentration on Tron, where low fees drive retail and cross-border transfer volume, gives it a user base that USDC’s Ethereum-centric institutional footprint doesn’t directly compete with. Yet.
The Q1 slip in USDT’s market share comes alongside the steepest recorded drop in retail-sized transfers – down 16% – which cuts at one of USDT’s core use cases.
Simultaneously, bots now account for approximately 76% of all stablecoin transaction volume, meaning the organic retail demand that historically anchored USDT’s dominance in high-frequency small-value transfers is contracting.

CEX.IO flagged this as evidence of “a more sophisticated, but potentially less organic, market structure.”
Tether’s response has been limited to quarterly reserve attestations and geographic expansion rather than product-level innovation. That’s a defensible posture while it holds network effects.
It becomes a liability if institutional capital flows continue rotating into regulated instruments and USDC’s programmatic integrations deepen across Western payment infrastructure.
Watch Circle’s May attestation and Tether’s Q2 report for whether the supply divergence widens. If USDC crosses $90 billion while USDT stagnates, this quarter’s share shift stops looking like a blip and starts looking like a trend.
The $315 billion total supply figure tells you stablecoins are the market’s load-bearing layer. The USDC/USDT split tells you who’s building on top of it.
Explore: The best pre-launch token sales with asymmetric upside potential
The post Stablecoin Crypto Supply Hits $315B in Q1 as USDC Gains, USDT Slips appeared first on Cryptonews.
Crypto World
SpaceX Files Confidentially for $1.75T IPO
SpaceX has submitted a confidential draft registration to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, targeting a $1.75 trillion valuation and a raise of up to $75 billion — what would be the largest initial public offering in financial history.
Summary
- SpaceX filed confidentially with the SEC on April 1, 2026, targeting a June Nasdaq listing at up to $1.75 trillion
- The proposed $75 billion raise would more than double Saudi Aramco’s 2019 record of $29 billion and triple Alibaba’s $22 billion U.S. IPO record
- Starlink’s 9.2 million subscribers and approximately $16 billion in 2025 revenue anchor the valuation, alongside the February 2026 merger with Musk’s xAI
The filing, internally codenamed “Project Apex,” was first reported by Bloomberg and confirmed independently by CNBC and Reuters. SpaceX has not publicly commented. A confidential filing allows a company to submit its financials to the SEC for regulatory review before making them public — a standard step before a roadshow.
According to CNBC, 21 banks have been lined up to manage the offering, with Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley holding senior bookrunner roles. SpaceX is also exploring a dual-class share structure to preserve insider voting control and plans to allocate up to 30% of shares to retail investors — roughly three times the typical norm.
At $1.75 trillion, SpaceX would rank above every S&P 500 company except Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon.
The valuation rests primarily on Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet division. The service ended 2025 with 9.2 million subscribers across 150 countries, generating approximately $16 billion in annual revenue, with projections pointing toward $22 billion by year-end 2026. SpaceX merged with Musk’s AI venture xAI in February 2026, folding the Grok chatbot and social network X into a single entity that Musk valued at $1.25 trillion at the time. The company has accumulated more than $24.4 billion in federal government contracts since 2008, spanning NASA, the Air Force, and Space Force, according to FedScout.
Musk’s Path to Trillionaire Status
Musk owns approximately 44% of SpaceX. His current net worth sits at roughly $823 billion, according to Forbes. A successful listing at the target valuation would push him toward becoming the first individual in history to surpass $1 trillion — and the first person to simultaneously lead two separate trillion-dollar publicly traded companies. Tesla currently carries a market cap of approximately $1.4 trillion.
The filing positions SpaceX ahead of OpenAI and Anthropic, which are both reportedly weighing public offerings before year’s end. If all three proceed, Bloomberg has described 2026 as potentially the most consequential year for technology IPOs since the dot-com era.
The SpaceX name has long been exploited in crypto markets through impersonation scams — a pattern documented across multiple platforms and token launches — though the IPO itself represents an altogether different category of market event. It arrives at a moment of intensifying institutional appetite for new financial products, a trend visible across crypto ETF launches and alternative asset offerings that Wall Street is moving quickly to capture.
Crypto World
Bitcoin bearish chatter hits 2026 peak as price drops below $70K: More pain ahead?
Bitcoin price slipped toward its lowest levels of 2026 on April 4 as social sentiment also weakened.
Summary
- Bitcoin traded near $66,800 as Santiment showed bearish discussion reached its highest level since late February 2026.
- Retail traders turned cautious as spot demand weakened, while leverage remained elevated during Bitcoin’s latest pullback.
- Institutional buyers stayed active as ETFs, Strategy, and Metaplanet kept adding Bitcoin despite weak sentiment.
Data from Santiment showed bearish Bitcoin commentary rising across X, Reddit, and Telegram while the asset traded near $66,800.
Santiment said Bitcoin recorded its highest level of bearish discussion since February 28. The platform found that positive comments fell to 0.81 for every bearish comment, showing that negative talk now leads online discussion.
The shift came as crypto market volatility stayed high and pushed Bitcoin below the $70,000 mark. The data also showed that traders posted about five bearish comments for every four bullish ones across major social platforms.

Retail traders appeared more cautious as Bitcoin pulled back to one of its weakest levels this year. The drop in price and the rise in negative commentary pointed to growing fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the broader market.
Spot demand is weakening while leverage stays elevated. That suggests that buyers in the spot market have slowed down, even as leveraged positions remain active and add pressure during volatile trading sessions.
Institutions continue to buy
While retail sentiment weakened, institutional demand remained more stable. Bitcoin ETFs continued to attract attention, and corporate holders such as Strategy and Metaplanet kept adding exposure despite the latest market decline.
This contrast showed a clear split in market behavior. Smaller traders reacted to price weakness and online sentiment, while larger players focused on longer-term positioning during the current pullback.
As crypto.news recently reported, exchange supply keeps falling, but macro risks still cloud the setup. Lower exchange balances often suggest reduced selling supply, but broader economic pressure still affects market direction.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
Crypto World
X Platform to Auto-Lock Accounts on First Crypto Mention
Elon Musk’s X is rolling out a security feature that will automatically lock any account that mentions cryptocurrency for the first time — requiring additional verification before posting resumes — a direct response to a wave of account hijacking campaigns exploiting social trust to promote scam tokens.
Summary
- X Head of Product Nikita Bier confirmed the auto-lock feature, saying it targets the financial incentive behind crypto phishing attacks on the platform
- The measure follows a surge in account hijacking incidents, including the April 1 compromise of Predictfully founder Benjamin White’s account, which was used to push scam content and extort $4,000 from the real owner
- Bier estimates the feature should eliminate 99% of the incentive behind current phishing operations and called out Google for failing to block phishing emails at the Gmail level
The auto-lock triggers on an account’s first-ever cryptocurrency-related post. Once triggered, the account is locked, and the user must complete verification before regaining access. Bier described it as targeting the core attack vector: hackers gain account access through phishing emails, lock out the original owner, and use the account’s established follower trust to promote fraudulent tokens, fake giveaways, and memecoins.
“This should kill 99% of the incentive,” Bier wrote in response to a user’s account of how they lost control of their profile to a phishing attack disguised as a copyright violation notice. The attacker had used a pixel-perfect fake login page to harvest the user’s credentials and two-factor authentication codes before locking them out and beginning scam promotion.
What This Targets
Crypto-linked account hijacking on X has been a documented and persistent problem since the platform’s days as Twitter. The auto-lock builds on earlier platform efforts to eliminate mention-spam campaigns and coordinated account behavior used in crypto promotions. Long-term users who have never posted about cryptocurrency will face verification on their first such post, while legitimate accounts, Bier indicated, can regain access quickly through the process.
Bier also publicly criticized Google for allowing phishing emails to reach users through Gmail. “Google isn’t doing shit to stop the phishing,” he wrote — framing the auto-lock as a platform-level workaround to a vulnerability upstream that X cannot directly control.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has documented how social media crypto scams have surged into a multi-billion dollar problem, with victims often unable to recover funds given the irreversibility of on-chain transfers. This structural reality is what makes hijacked accounts with established follower trust so valuable to attackers — and what the auto-lock directly targets by severing the link between account access and immediate monetization via crypto promotion.
Limitations
Critics have flagged that the measure only intervenes after an account has already been compromised via phishing. If email providers do not better filter phishing emails upstream, the attack chain remains intact. The feature could also create friction for legitimate first-time crypto posts from established accounts, though Bier indicated the verification process will be brief for genuine users.
As broader crypto hack and phishing losses have shown improvement in recent months — with February 2026 recording the lowest monthly total since March 2025 — the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit this week is a sharp reminder that headline risk remains high. X’s new feature addresses one specific and high-volume attack vector within a much larger ecosystem of crypto-linked fraud.
Crypto World
Solana news: The network’s post-quantum push reveals harsh tradeoff: security vs speed
Crypto has spent years obsessing over speed, fees and scalability. Now it may have to confront a more existential question: what happens when its core security breaks?
That question is moving from theory to urgency. Quantum computers, machines that use the principles of quantum physics to process information in fundamentally different ways than today’s computers, could eventually solve the kinds of mathematical problems that underpin modern encryption.
Discussions around post-quantum cryptography have intensified across the industry in recent weeks, especially after new research from Google and academic collaborators suggested that such systems could one day break widely used encryption, potentially cracking systems like Bitcoin’s in minutes rather than years.
While Bitcoin developers scramble to find a solution and Ethereum prepares for the event, Solana is trying to get ahead of that scenario.
Cryptography firm Project Eleven has teamed up with the Solana Foundation to experiment with post-quantum security, technology designed to withstand quantum attacks that could render today’s cryptography obsolete. The early work is already surfacing a difficult reality: making Solana quantum-safe may come at the expense of the performance that defines it.
In practice, that effort has meant moving beyond theory and into live testing. Project Eleven has worked with the Solana ecosystem to model how the network would behave if its current cryptography were replaced, including deploying a test environment using quantum-resistant signatures — the digital keys that authorize transactions. The goal is not just to prove the technology works, but to understand what breaks when it’s pushed to scale.
The early results show a clear tradeoff.
The new, quantum-safe “signatures” that approve transactions are much larger and heavier than those used today, roughly 20 to 40 times larger, Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden, who founded the project, after years in crypto and venture capital, brings a mix of military and industry experience to the problem, told CoinDesk. That means the network can handle far fewer transactions at once. In testing, a version of Solana using this new cryptography ran about 90% slower than it does today, Pruden said.
That tradeoff cuts directly at the heart of Solana’s design. The blockchain has built its reputation on high throughput and low latency, positioning itself as one of the fastest networks in crypto. But post-quantum cryptography — while more secure against future threats — comes with heavier data and computational requirements, making it harder to maintain those speeds.
‘Pick any wallet’
Solana may also face a more immediate structural challenge than its peers.
Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum, where wallet addresses are typically derived from hashed public keys, Solana exposes public keys directly. That difference matters in a quantum scenario. “In Solana, 100% of the network is vulnerable,” Pruden said.
“A quantum computer could pick any wallet and immediately start trying to recover the private key.”
Pruden, a former Army Green Beret, first became interested in Bitcoin while deployed in the Middle East, later worked at Coinbase and joined Andreessen Horowitz’s venture team on its first fund. He then became an early leader at privacy-focused blockchain Aleo before launching Project Eleven, a firm focused on preparing digital assets for what he calls “Q-day,” the moment quantum computers can break today’s cryptography.
Some developers in the Solana ecosystem, meanwhile, are looking at simpler, more immediate fixes. One example is something called ‘Winternitz Vaults’, which uses a different kind of cryptography that’s believed to be safer against quantum attacks. Instead of changing the entire network, these tools focus on protecting individual wallets, giving users a way to secure their funds now while bigger, system-wide upgrades are still being figured out.
Despite those hurdles, Solana has moved faster than much of the industry in at least one respect: experimentation. “There’s something tangible,” Pruden said. “We actually have a testnet with post-quantum signatures.” He added that the Solana Foundation “deserves credit for at least engaging and wanting to do the work.”
Across crypto, that level of engagement remains rare. While some ecosystems, most notably Ethereum, have begun discussing long-term migration paths, concrete implementation has been limited.
The broader challenge is not just technical, but social: upgrading cryptography in decentralized systems requires coordination across developers, validators, applications and users, all of whom must move in sequence.
For Pruden, the risk is that the industry waits too long to begin that process. “This is a tomorrow problem — until it’s today’s problem,” he said. “And then it takes four years to fix.”
Read more: Here’s how bitcoin, Ethereum and other networks are preparing for the looming quantum threat
Crypto World
Bitcoin whales are selling the most aggressively on record while ETFs and Strategy keep buying
The most visible bitcoin buyers in the world are buying at near-record pace. It is not enough.
A CryptoQuant weekly report showed overall 30-day apparent demand at negative 63,000 BTC as of late March, meaning the broader market is selling far faster than institutions can absorb. ETF purchases hit approximately 50,000 BTC in the rolling 30-day window, the highest since October 2025. Strategy’s accumulation held steady at roughly 44,000 BTC. Together, the two largest institutional channels absorbed about 94,000 BTC in March.
If institutions bought 94,000 BTC and net demand is still negative 63,000, the rest of the market — such as retail, older whales, miners, funds — sold approximately 157,000 BTC in the same period.
At least four other independent indicators are pointing in the same direction.
The whale reversal
Large holders, wallets with 1,000 to 10,000 BTC, have turned from the market’s biggest buyers into its biggest sellers on a scale CryptoQuant describes as one of the most aggressive distribution cycles on record.
A year ago, these wallets were collectively adding 200,000 bitcoin to their holdings. Today they are collectively removing 188,000. That is a nearly 400,000 BTC swing from accumulation to distribution in roughly 18 months.
Mid-tier holders, wallets with 100 to 1,000 BTC, are still technically accumulating but the pace has collapsed more than 60% since October 2025, from nearly 1 million BTC in annual additions to 429,000. They haven’t stopped buying. They’ve dramatically slowed down.

The realized price compression
Bitcoin’s spot price at in the $67,000-$68000 range sits 21% above its realized price of $54,286, the average cost basis of every coin on the network weighted by its last transaction. That means the average holder is still in profit, which historically means the market has not bottomed, as CoinDesk noted earlier in the week.
In 2022, the signal that marked the actual cycle low was spot falling below realized price. Bitcoin traded under its aggregate cost basis from June through October of that year, and the deepest point, roughly 15% below realized, coincided almost exactly with the low near $15,500.
The current setup is not that. But the gap is closing fast. In late 2024, when bitcoin traded above $119,000, the premium to realized price was roughly 120%. That has compressed to 21% in about 15 months, one of the fastest approaches to the realized price line outside of outright crashes.
The sentiment disconnect
The Fear and Greed Index has been stuck between 8 and 14 for the past month, deep in extreme fear territory. Yet bitcoin ETFs drew over $1 billion in net inflows in March.
That combination of extreme fear alongside strong institutional buying is unusual. It means the flows are not translating into broader confidence, but that institutions are buying into a market that the rest of the participants do not want to be in.
The widely-followed Coinbase Premium Index reinforces this. The metric, which measures whether bitcoin trades at a premium or discount on Coinbase relative to other exchanges and serves as a proxy for U.S. institutional appetite, has been persistently negative since bitcoin’s all-time high above $126,000 in early October 2025. Even with prices in the $65,000 to $70,000 range, American buyers have not stepped back in at scale.

The war pattern
The behavioral explanation for the demand drain is visible in the price action of the past five weeks. Bitcoin has spent the entire Iran conflict grinding between $65,000 and $73,000, selling on every escalation headline, rallying on every de-escalation headline, and ending up roughly where it started. Monday’s 4% equity rally on ceasefire optimism gave back by Wednesday after Trump’s address promised to hit Iran “extremely hard.”
The pattern of hope, headline, reversal repeats with such regularity that the dominant strategy has become not to have a position at all. That shows up in the demand data as gradual withdrawal rather than panic selling.
The drawdown is compressing, not ending
The current drawdown from October’s all-time high above $126,000 is roughly 47%, significantly less severe than the 84% to 87% crashes that followed the 2013 and 2017 peaks. Fidelity Digital Assets analyst Zack Wainwright noted in late March that bitcoin’s growth is becoming “less impulsive,” with a reduced probability of extreme downside events as the asset matures.
“Bitcoin’s drawdowns compressing to about 50% is a sign of a maturing market structure,” said Jason Fernandes, co-founder and market analyst at AdLunam. “As liquidity deepens and institutional participation increases, volatility naturally compresses on both the upside and the downside.
The drawdown compression framing matters for the demand data. If bitcoin is maturing into an asset where 50% corrections replace 85% crashes, then the current contraction may not resolve with the violent capitulation flush that marked previous cycle bottoms.
What could change this
Two catalysts sit on the near-term horizon.
Morgan Stanley received approval this week for a bitcoin ETF charging just 14 basis points, 11 below the category average. The product opens access to 16,000 financial advisors managing $6.2 trillion, a channel that has not previously had direct bitcoin ETF exposure.
Strategy’s STRC preferred equity product saw hundreds of millions in inflows around its recent ex-dividend date, providing the funding mechanism for its 44,000 BTC monthly accumulation. If that repeats and accelerates each month, it adds a new source of sustained buying pressure.
However, it would remain a single company running a leveraged bitcoin strategy.
CryptoQuant’s own report identifies a potential short-term bounce toward $71,500 to $81,200 if the Iran conflict de-escalates, corresponding to the Lower Band and Trader On-chain Realized Price resistance zones.
These two metrics track the average cost basis of short-term and active traders respectively, and that have historically acted as ceilings during bear market rallies. Bitcoin currently trades below both.
The read across all five data sources is that bitcoin’s demand structure is thinning from the inside.
That does not mean the current range floor breaks, but that the floor depends entirely on whether ETFs, Strategy, and the new Morgan Stanley channel can continue absorbing what the rest of the market is trying to get rid of.
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