Crypto World
Pearl, prediction markets and the long tail of AI liquidity
Pearl is Olas’s consumer gateway to a future where narrow AI agents quietly trade, curate and create prediction markets at a scale humans will never touch, says co‑founder David Minarsch.
Summary
- Olas co‑founder David Minarsch traces Pearl back to early agent work at Fetch.ai and Valory, then pivots from B2B DAO tools to a consumer app for owning AI agents.
- Pearl backs tightly scoped, long‑running agents like Polystrat, which filters Polymarket markets, applies prediction tools and has at times outperformed human traders by 2–3x.
- Minarsch sees prediction markets as economic training grounds for AI, with agents already a large share of activity and the long tail of markets increasingly served by machines, under real regulation.
David Minarsch sat down with crypto.news on March 31 on the sidelines of ETHCC to explain why Pearl’s narrow, long‑running AI agents are remaking prediction markets from the inside out.
From Fetch.ai to Pearl
Minarsch’s route into autonomous agents is textbook crypto‑AI convergence. “I got drawn into the space by my background in economics and game theory,” he told crypto.news, recalling his move into crypto after several years working on machine learning applications.
At Fetch.ai, where he spent two years, his team built one of the first agent frameworks in crypto, anchored on a simple but loaded idea: wallets controlled by machines, not humans.
“We actually wrote a detailed paper on this, which was way ahead of its time,” he adds. In 2021, he spun those lessons out into Valory, the core lab behind Olas, which has since experimented with a range of applications and go‑to‑market strategies.
The first bet was B2B: autonomous agents sold to DAOs such as CowSwap, Balancer and Ceramic. “That went okay but never sort of really took off,” Minarsch concedes. The real pivot came in 2023, when “general purpose usable large language models like ChatGPT” landed and Olas “switched more to B2C.” Pearl is the result: “a B2C application which has different agents in it,” built for users, not governance forums.
By the time Pearl launched in February 2025, the rest of the industry had caught up to Olas’s early agent thesis. “The crypto space and the AI space had moved towards agents, now everyone is building agents or using agents or both,” Minarsch says. But he argues most people’s idea of an agent is still shaped by chat interfaces like ChatGPT: “a co‑pilot synchronous experience” where you prompt and it replies, in front of you, in real time.
Olas is explicitly betting against that dominant pattern. “When you have long long‑running agents with like autonomy but tightly scoped so they can’t just do anything but they can do interesting things within a certain scope. That’s where it becomes very interesting,” he says. Pearl is designed around those tightly scoped, background processes rather than generalist assistants, Minarsch points out.
“With Pearl we intentionally go very narrow in terms of the capabilities of an agent,” he explains. He points to new tools like OpenClaw—as both validation and warning. “OpenClaw validated a lot of our core assumptions that people do want llocal first experiences with AI agents,” he says, but “the product can do too much, which causes a bunch of problems, including secruity, but also just a problem for the user.”
In his view, that kind of system is built for tinkerers “who just sort of want to mold this thing into something that’s useful to them.” The “low friction user” wants to “just press a button” and get a consistent result. “I have one and I asked it to send me daily report and half the time it’s broken,” he says of OpenClaw. “That’s not a good product experience.” Pearl’s agents, by contrast, are designed to do one thing—trading, yield seeking, market creation—reliably. Limited scope, high definition, low problem latency.
Polystrat is the cleanest demonstration of that philosophy. Polystrat is an example because here’s just the idea: provide some capital, have it trade in prediction markets,” Minarsch says. Instead of facing Polymarket’s UX—wallet setup, funding, market selection, position sizing—the user delegates funds to Polystrat and lets the agent do the work.
“Polystrat is just like a user of Polymarket,” he stresses. “If you want to use Polymarket you as a human need to set up a wallet, fund it and then you’re faced with the decision of what market to trade in. Polystrat abstracts all this and the idea is for it to simply trade on your behalf.” The agent focuses on geopolitical and political news markets, “not so short‑lived” and generally closing “within the next four to five days.”
Technically, the flow is simple but ruthless. The agent filters markets using rules like liquidity and time to close, then applies “prediction tools,” which Minarsch describes as “workflows that sit on top of models and data sources.” “There’s many different prediction tools and the agent learns over time which ones to take and which ones not to take,” depending on the market. A local pricing and sizing engine converts those predictions into positions and the system trades autonomously on your behalf.
Performance wise, Polystrat ranges between 56 and 69% accuracy, Minarsch says. As a fleet, “our agents… have performed two to three times as well as human traders,” although they are “not yet at a fleet‑wide break even.” Individual Polystrat instances, however, can deliver “up to 100% ROI overall and like several 100% ROI per individual trade.” The goal is not anecdotes but a statistical edge: “to have a Polystrat fleet on average a positive ROI.”
Trading is only half the story. As more agents enter Polymarket and its predecessors, Minarsch sees prediction markets becoming “early prototypes for these market‑driven AI systems… environments that encode truth discovery at an economic scale.”
He doesn’t pretend the rails are clean. On controversial questions—or markets with contested outcomes—information lags and disputed outcomes are common. Polystrat nor other agents on Pearl attempt to solve that. “Polystrat itself is just a trading agent on top of Polymarket,” it’s neither consensus building nor a truth serum.
But AI is already reshaping participation, creation and policing. “It’s unclear exactly how many traders in prediction markets are already AI agents but it’s probably more than 30%,” Minarsch believes. “Potentially already more than half,” he adds. As such, humans have limited attention, so “the whole long tail of prediction markets will basically be served to AI agents,” he predicts.
Crucially, Minarsch breaks from crypto libertarianism on governance. “We take the view that there should be regulation of prediction markets,” he says flatly, citing markets that “effectively look like assassination markets” or “incentivizing bad behaviors.” With “a certain degree of regulation or self‑regulation,” more markets and more AI participants should “drive prices to equilibrium” and “improve the information embedded in the markets,” opening the door to derivatives, hedging and other instruments built on top.
Asked whether Olas agents could become “data liquidity providers operating autonomously across multiple networks,” Minarsch shrugs off the distinction. “Liquidity provision is effectively also trading strategy,” he says.
In that framing, Pearl is less a single app and more an operating system for narrow, long‑running agents: Polystrat for prediction markets, Optimus for yield, Omenstrat for market creation and whatever comes next for liquidity across venues. The consistent design choice is scope: each agent does one thing, over long horizons, with as little human intervention as possible.
“We were just very early to something that a lot of people are now doing,” Minarsch says of the agent wave. The difference now is that Pearl is pushing those agents into retail‑facing products, turning prediction markets into both a playground and a proving ground for AI‑driven liquidity and truth discovery.
Crypto World
U.S. Treasury launches public consultation on GENIUS Act stablecoin rules
The U.S. Treasury has proposed its first set of rules to implement the GENIUS Act and has opened a 60-day public comment period to define how stablecoin oversight can be handled at the state level.
Summary
- U.S. Treasury has proposed initial rules under the GENIUS Act, opening a 60-day consultation to define when state oversight of stablecoins is permitted.
- Issuers with less than $10 billion in circulation may fall under state supervision if frameworks meet federal standards, with strict reserve, disclosure, and compliance requirements in place.
Under the proposal, issuers with less than $10 billion in circulating stablecoins may operate under state supervision, provided those frameworks meet a “substantially similar” standard to federal regulations.
The proposal seeks to clarify how regulatory responsibilities will be divided as the regulation begins to take shape.
Stablecoin issuers with less than $10 billion in circulation are eligible for that route, though the flexibility comes with firm guardrails. Treasury has set out non-negotiable conditions, including full 1:1 reserve backing using cash or high-quality liquid assets, along with mandatory monthly disclosures.
Compliance with federal anti-money laundering and sanctions rules remains compulsory across all jurisdictions. The proposal also reinforces a ban on rehypothecation, preventing issuers from reusing reserves to support multiple obligations.
Meanwhile, state regulators are given room to impose stricter oversight, covering liquidity thresholds, reserve requirements, risk management standards, and enforcement mechanisms. Any framework introduced at the state level must deliver outcomes that match or exceed federal protections, rather than offering a lighter alternative.
Regulators are still working through how the GENIUS framework will align with existing money transmission laws and which agencies will oversee different parts of the market. Previous consultations have already covered areas such as digital forensic tools, tax reporting, and data collection.
Concerns remain over stablecoin yields
As previously reported by crypto.news, the legislation, signed into law by President Donald Trump in July, marked a major step in formalizing stablecoin regulation.
However, uncertainty around yield-bearing stablecoins continues to hold back progress on the broader CLARITY market structure bill.
Some industry players argue that yield-generating stablecoins could offer higher returns than traditional savings accounts, while banking groups remain concerned about potential deposit outflows.
Crypto World
Polymarket’s Fee Overhaul Pushes Daily Revenue Past $1 Million
Polymarket’s daily fee revenue crossed $1 million on April 1, just two days after the platform expanded taker fees to nearly all market categories.
The surge, up from $696,000 on March 31, followed the March 30 rollout of variable taker fees across politics, finance, economics, culture, weather, and tech markets.
From Growth Play to Revenue Machine
Polymarket previously charged fees only on crypto and sports contracts. The updated structure applies a dynamic, probability-based model in which fees peak at 50% probability of the outcome and drop near the extremes.
Crypto markets carry the steepest rate at 1.80%, while sports remain the lowest at 0.75%.
Makers pay nothing. Instead, they receive daily USDC rebates of 20% to 25% of collected fees, depending on the category. Geopolitics and world events remain entirely fee-free.
On-chain analyst DefiOasis noted that April 1 fees reached $927,000 on Dune Analytics, translating to an annualized run rate of roughly $338 million.
“The latest full single-day fee on April 1 was $927,000, and it is expected that single-day fees could exceed $1 million in the coming days. Based on the April 1 single-day fee, Polymarket’s annualized equivalent reaches $338 million,” the analyst noted.
DefiLlama data placed the figure even higher, at $1.07 million.
Competition Heats Up Across Chains
The fee shift arrives as prediction markets draw new entrants. Binance Wallet began beta-testing an in-app prediction feature through Predict Fun (Predict.fun), a BNB Smart Chain protocol that saw $7.68 million in net inflows on a single day after the integration.
Predict Fun’s open interest rebounded to $23 million, according to DefiOasis.
Monthly prediction market volume now exceeds $20 billion industrywide.
The sector’s rapid monetization, from Polymarket’s fee expansion to Kalshi’s reported $1.5 billion annualized run rate, signals a broader transition from subsidized growth to sustainable revenue.
Whether Polymarket can sustain above $1 million in daily fees will depend on trading volume resilience as takers adjust to the new cost structure.
The post Polymarket’s Fee Overhaul Pushes Daily Revenue Past $1 Million appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Bitcoin price drops towards $65k as Trump warns of continued Iran strikes
Bitcoin price drifted closer to a key support zone near $65,000 after Donald Trump signaled that military action in the Middle East is set to continue over the coming weeks.
Summary
- Bitcoin slipped toward the $65,000 support zone after Trump signaled continued military action in the Middle East.
- Oil prices climbed back above $100, adding pressure on risk assets as traders reacted to renewed geopolitical tensions.
Addressing the nation from the White House on Wednesday, Trump said U.S. forces are nearing the final stages of “Operation Epic Fury,” describing it as a campaign that has already crippled large parts of Iran’s nuclear and naval infrastructure.
Even so, the tone of the address left little room for de-escalation in the short term.
“We are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly,” he said, before adding that the U.S. would “hit them extremely hard over the next 2 to 3 weeks.”
Markets reacted quickly. Oil prices reversed earlier softness and climbed back above the $100 mark, reflecting renewed concern over supply disruptions tied to the Strait of Hormuz. The move fed into broader unease, with equities and digital assets slipping as traders reassessed geopolitical risk.
Bitcoin (BTC), which had shown signs of stabilizing earlier in the week, extended its decline, dropping over 2% since Trump took the stage. Price action hovered just above $66,500 at last check, with buyers attempting to hold the $65,000 region that has repeatedly acted as a near-term floor.
A sustained break below it would weaken the current structure and open the door toward the $60,000 range, an area that previously drew in demand during earlier pullbacks. Market participants have treated this zone as a key inflection point, where downside momentum either stalls or accelerates.
At the same time, diplomatic channels have not been fully shut. Trump has acknowledged that discussions are ongoing, even as military pressure builds.
Washington has continued to push for Iran to dismantle its nuclear program and allow greater oversight of its facilities, alongside restoring open commercial shipping routes. Tehran, on the other hand, has called for a permanent ceasefire, compensation for damages, and a complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from the region.
Looking ahead, Trump maintained that the disruption to global energy flows may not last indefinitely. He argued that Iran would eventually ease restrictions on oil movement as it looks to rebuild.
“When this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally,” he said, adding that oil would resume flowing and gas prices would fall as economic activity picks up again.
Any meaningful de-escalation could offer relief to risk assets, including Bitcoin, as lower energy costs and reduced geopolitical tension tend to support liquidity conditions. Until then, markets remain sensitive to headlines, with crypto trading closely tied to shifts in oil prices and broader macro signals.
Crypto World
XRP Price Holds $1.35 as ETF Outflows Hit $31 Million While Pepeto Presale Fills Past $8 Million Before Listing
The xrp price holds at $1.35 with seven spot ETFs but March posting first monthly outflows at $31 million. Bitcoin flushes and altcoins struggle to find real support. The market is being reminded that volatility exposes more than just weak hands. It exposes weak infrastructure.
Pepeto is a meme coin exchange aiming to bring zero fee trading to three chains, extending meme culture with real exchange tools instead of chasing short term rotations. Today is the day that matters. The entry available right now does not exist next week, and every person who entered early in crypto made one choice: they moved today.
XRP spot ETFs posted their first monthly outflows in March at $31 million despite holding $1 billion in combined assets across seven funds, according to Bankless Times. RLUSD stablecoin growth slowed after reaching $1.3 billion market cap.
CoinDesk confirmed the xrp price is also shaped by the CLARITY Act stablecoin compromise reaching the Senate Banking Committee by mid April, with commodity classification confirmed for 16 crypto assets that could accelerate institutional flows.
Where a Meme Exchange Extends Trading With Real Tools While the XRP Price Waits
Why Pepeto Brings Zero Fee Trading to Three Chains Instead of Chasing XRP Price Rotations
Pepeto is built around one reality: volatility exposes weak infrastructure, and exchange tools that work across three chains do not depend on any single asset’s price direction. Instead of chasing short term rotations, Pepeto extends meme culture with real exchange tools: PepetoSwap for zero fee trading, a contract screener for wallet protection, and a bridge connecting Ethereum, BNB Chain, and Solana at zero cost. The architect behind the original $11 billion Pepe coin partnered with a former Binance expert to build this.
Staking at 189% APY adds a yield component XRP cannot offer during periods of stress. The SolidProof audit proves the contracts are safe, and $8 million entering at $0.000000186 while the index read 8 adds a conviction signal that XRP ETF outflows cannot match. The 420 trillion supply matches what took PEPE to $11 billion.
Today is the day that matters. The entry available right now does not exist next week. Every person who entered early in crypto made one choice: they moved today instead of planning to come back tomorrow. Analysts project 100x from presale to Binance listing, and one day of hesitation means one day closer to the listing price replacing what is available.
XRP Price Prediction: Targets, Levels, and CLARITY Act Impact for 2026
XRP trades at $1.35 on April 1 according to CoinMarketCap, locked between $1.29 and $1.60 after March’s first monthly ETF outflows at $31 million. RLUSD passed $1.3 billion market cap but growth stalled.
The CLARITY Act stablecoin compromise targets a Senate markup by mid April, and passage could give XRP full commodity status alongside BTC and ETH. Support sits at $1.29, and a break below opens $1.10. Resistance at $1.60 needs to break for the rally toward $2 to begin.
Standard Chartered maintains its $8 year end target. From $1.35, reaching $5 gives 275% and reaching $8 gives 500%, both over quarters that depend on legislative timing nobody controls while the presale compresses 100x into one listing.
The XRP Price Waits for Legislation, but Today Is the Day That Matters for the Presale
Today is the day that matters. The entry available right now does not exist next week. The xrp price waits for the CLARITY Act and ETF flows to reverse, but Pepeto does not wait because exchange tools earn from every trade in every condition. The Pepeto official website shows more than $8 million with stages filling faster each round.
Entering today while the Binance listing approaches is how the one decision that separates winners gets made, and choosing to come back tomorrow could mean the stage is full, the price is higher, and the cost of one day becomes the number that echoes through the rest of this cycle.
Visit Pepeto today before this presale stage closes and the Binance listing erases the entry that only exists right now.
Click To Visit Pepeto Website To Enter The Presale
FAQs
What is the xrp price on April 1 2026?
XRP trades at $1.35 with support at $1.29 and resistance at $1.60. Standard Chartered targets $8 year end if the CLARITY Act passes mid April.
How do ETF outflows affect the xrp price?
March posted first monthly outflows at $31 million. The Pepeto official website shows capital entering during fear while XRP ETFs face redemptions.
Is Pepeto a better entry than XRP right now?
XRP targets 275% to 500% over quarters. Pepeto targets 100x from presale to listing with zero fee exchange tools and a SolidProof audit behind the same cofounder.
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.
Crypto World
Bitcoin slides to $66,600 as Trump threatens to hit Iran ‘extremely hard’
Bitcoin fell 2.2% to $66,609 on Wednesday, giving back Tuesday’s gains after Trump’s primetime address to the nation promised to hit Iran “extremely hard” over the next two to three weeks rather than offering the de-escalation markets had priced in.
Every major token in the top 10 dropped. Ether slid 2.2% to $2,056, BNB fell 3.9% to $591, XRP lost 2.5% to $1.31, and solana’s SOL led losses at 5.2%, extending its weekly decline to 13%.
The selloff reversed a sharp global rally that had built through Tuesday on Trump’s earlier comments that the war could end within weeks and that a deal with Tehran was not a prerequisite. Asian stocks had surged 4%. S&P 500 futures had jumped. The mood was the most optimistic since the conflict began five weeks ago.
Then the speech happened. In nearly 20 minutes, Trump did not outline any shift in Iran policy, did not provide specifics on how operations would proceed, and did not signal any pathway to a ceasefire.
The Strait of Hormuz, the critical oil shipping lane that has been effectively shut since mid-March, would reopen “naturally” once hostilities subside, he said, without offering a timeline.
Brent crude jumped 5% to above $106 a barrel. Asian shares fell 2.1%. U.S. and European equity futures dropped more than 1.2%. The dollar strengthened. Treasuries dropped on inflation concerns.
The crypto-specific picture is now familiar to the point of numbness. Bitcoin has spent five weeks bouncing between roughly $60,000 and $73,000, selling on every escalation headline, rallying on every de-escalation headline, and ending up roughly where it started.
The Fear and Greed Index sits at 8, deep in extreme fear territory, where it has been stuck between 8 and 14 for the past month.
There is a seasonal argument for optimism. April has historically been one of bitcoin’s strongest months, finishing green 10 out of 15 years with an average gain of 20.9% versus an average decline of 8.8% in down years. Bitcoin also bounced firmly off its two-month uptrend support near $60,000 last week and is attempting to reclaim the 50-day moving average.
But seasonality doesn’t trade against a war. The pattern of the past five weeks — hope, headline, reversal — shows no sign of breaking until the conflict itself does.
Crypto World
SpaceX Files for IPO That Could Dwarf Saudi Aramco’s Record
SpaceX submitted a confidential draft Initial Public Offering (IPO) registration to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This puts the company on track for a June listing.
The filing would position SpaceX as the first of three anticipated mega-IPOs this year, ahead of OpenAI and Anthropic.
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For context, in a confidential IPO filing, a company can receive comments and feedback from the SEC and make corrections or adjustments before any information becomes public.
SpaceX could target a valuation above $1.75 trillion. The IPO could raise as much as $75 billion, according to Bloomberg. That would more than double Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion IPO in 2019, which held the record.
According to people familiar with the matter, SpaceX has enlisted Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley for senior roles on the offering.
SpaceX is also weighing a dual-class share structure. This would grant insiders like Elon Musk enhanced voting power.
Nonetheless, the path to a June listing is not without headwinds. Equity markets have been volatile due to the US-Iran conflict and elevated oil prices.
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The post SpaceX Files for IPO That Could Dwarf Saudi Aramco’s Record appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
ZachXBT Slams Circle for Letting Millions in Stolen USDC Flow Freely After Drift Hack
Onchain investigator ZachXBT accused Circle of failing to act while millions in stolen USDC moved freely through its own cross-chain bridge during the $285 million Drift Protocol exploit.
The criticism followed the April 1 attack on the Solana-based decentralized exchange, which ranks as the largest DeFi exploit of 2026 so far.
Circle Faces Backlash Over CCTP Inaction
Drift Protocol, a perpetual futures platform on Solana (SOL), suffered a massive vault drain on April 1. Security firm PeckShield and blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence flagged roughly $285 million in outflows from Drift’s main vault to attacker-controlled wallets.
The attacker moved stolen assets, heavily involving USDC, across multiple wallets before bridging them from Solana to Ethereum using Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP).
ZachXBT pointed out the transfers occurred during U.S. business hours with no intervention.
Circle was asleep while many millions of USDC were swapped via CCTP from Solana to Ethereum for hours from the 9-figure Drift hack during US hours,” the blockchain investigator stated.
Security researcher Specter echoed those concerns. He noted that the attacker held USDC across wallets for 1 to 3 hours before swapping and deliberately avoided converting to Tether (USDT) during the bridging process, suggesting confidence that Circle would not freeze the funds.
A Pattern of Contradictory Responses
The timing intensified frustration. Just days before the Drift exploit, Circle froze the USDC balances of 16 unrelated business hot wallets on March 23, as part of a sealed U.S. civil case.
That action disrupted operations for exchanges, casinos, and payment processors.
ZachXBT previously called that freeze potentially the most incompetent he had seen in over five years. He argued that, based on on-chain analysis, the wallets engaged in legitimate activity.
Circle later unfroze one wallet linked to Goated.com on March 26, but most remained locked.
The contrast is stark. Circle acted aggressively on a civil matter affecting legitimate businesses. Yet during a confirmed nine-figure exploit, it took no steps to freeze stolen funds transiting its own infrastructure.
ZachXBT also tied this behavior to Circle’s proposed optional privacy features on its upcoming Arc blockchain. He suggested those features could reduce compliance accountability further by limiting who can view transactions.
What Comes Next for Circle and Drift
On the Ethereum side, stolen assets were swapped for roughly 129,000 ETH. Drift’s total value locked collapsed from approximately $550 million to $247 million, and its native DRIFT token fell nearly 28%.
Circle has not publicly responded to the criticism. The incident has reignited debate over whether centralized stablecoin issuers can justify their freeze authority if they apply it inconsistently.
The post ZachXBT Slams Circle for Letting Millions in Stolen USDC Flow Freely After Drift Hack appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
US Labor Department Proposes Opening 401(k) Plans to Crypto
The U.S. Department of Labor released a proposed rule Monday that would open 401(k) retirement accounts to cryptocurrencies and other alternative assets – a direct implementation of President Trump’s August executive order and a structural shift that puts up to $12 trillion in retirement capital within reach of digital asset markets for the first time under a formal regulatory framework.
The proposal does not explicitly approve crypto for retirement plans. What it does is create a safe harbor for ERISA-governed plan managers who choose to include digital assets, provided they follow a defined fiduciary process – removing the single biggest legal deterrent that kept virtually every 401(k) administrator on the sidelines until now.
- Market size: Up to $12 trillion in 401(k) assets could gain access to crypto and other alternatives under the proposed rule, against a $48 trillion total U.S. retirement market.
- Safe harbor structure: Plan managers must evaluate risk/return, fees, liquidity, valuation, and complexity – but face no explicit ban or approval of specific assets.
- Timeline: A 60-day public comment period follows Federal Register publication; finalization expected within months, with Indiana’s state-level crypto mandate taking effect July 1, 2027.
- Regulatory origin: OIRA cleared the proposal March 24, 2026, marking it “economically significant” – the highest regulatory classification, signaling broad expected market impact.
Discover: Top Crypto Presales to Watch Before They Launch
How the DOL Proposal Actually Unlocks 401(k) Capital for Crypto
The mechanism is more precise than the headline suggests, and that precision matters enormously for how fast capital actually moves. Under ERISA, plan fiduciaries have always had the legal authority to consider alternative assets – the Labor Department acknowledged this directly in its statement.
The barrier was not statutory prohibition but regulatory ambiguity: a 2022 Biden-era compliance release urged plan managers to apply “extreme caution” to crypto, effectively signaling that inclusion would attract enforcement scrutiny. The DOL rescinded that guidance in May 2025, clearing the first obstacle.
The new proposal completes the regulatory architecture.
First, it defines digital assets formally as “a new form of investing that includes a wide variety of assets that can be stored and transmitted digitally, including cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and other tokens” – giving plan administrators a documented regulatory definition to anchor their fiduciary analysis.
Second, it establishes a uniform evaluation framework requiring assessment of performance history, fee structures, liquidity profiles, valuation methodologies, and complexity disclosures.
Third, it extends ERISA’s existing fiduciary standard – care, skill, prudence, and diligence – explicitly to alternative asset selection, meaning a manager who follows the process has a defensible legal position even if the asset underperforms.
Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling framed the shift directly: “Our rule clearly spells out that managers must evaluate any and all potential product offerings by following a prudent process.”
That framing matters because it removes the asymmetric risk that previously defined the decision – where inclusion created legal exposure and exclusion did not. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the proposal as “an initial step in implementing the President’s Executive Order in a safe and smart manner, broadening access to additional retirement plan options for millions of Americans.”
The most important variable now is not regulatory intent – it is whether the comment period produces material revisions that narrow the asset definition or tighten the liquidity requirements enough to functionally exclude most crypto products.
Discover: Best Crypto Exchanges for Active Traders in 2026
The post US Labor Department Proposes Opening 401(k) Plans to Crypto appeared first on Cryptonews.
Crypto World
Oil trader takes $17 million hit as tokenized crude rivals bitcoin liquidations
Crypto’s biggest liquidation event this week wasn’t about crypto.
Tokenized Brent oil futures on Hyperliquid accounted for $46.6 million of the $403 million in total liquidations over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data, making oil the third-largest liquidated asset behind ether at $104.5 million and bitcoin at $98.3 million. Solana came in fourth at roughly $24.7 million.
The single largest liquidation across all assets was a $17.17 million Brent oil position on Hyperliquid, not a bitcoin or ether trade. That is the second time in under 30 days that oil has produced the largest individual liquidation on a crypto venue.

The BRENTOIL-USDC contract on Hyperliquid traded at $107.19, up roughly 2% on the day, with $977 million in 24-hour volume and $515 million in open interest. For context, that open interest figure is larger than many mid-cap crypto tokens’ entire market capitalization.

The liquidations were triggered by Trump’s national address, which promised to hit Iran “extremely hard” rather than offering the de-escalation that had fueled a two-day rally. Brent crude jumped 5% to above $106 on traditional markets.
Traders who had positioned for a ceasefire, particularly those long crypto and short oil, got hit from both sides.
Of the $403 million in total liquidations across 137,031 traders, longs took the heavier hit at $234.6 million versus $168.7 million in shorts. That ratio reflects the broad selloff in risk assets after the speech reversed Tuesday’s optimism. The 4-hour window around the address saw $153.7 million liquidated, with $130.8 million from longs.
Hyperliquid’s tokenized commodity contracts, which give traders 24/7 access to oil, gold, and other macro assets with crypto-native leverage, are absorbing an outsized share of geopolitical volatility.
Tokenized oil has now been among the top five liquidated assets on at least three separate occasions since the war began, a dynamic that did not exist before Hyperliquid listed the contracts.
Crypto World
Ethereum price approaches $2,200 as Iran signals willingness to end war
Ethereum price rose nearly 7% on drawing closer to the $2,200 psychological resistance level after reports suggested that the U.S.-Iran war could end soon.
Summary
- Ethereum price rose nearly 7% to $2,153, rebounding from recent losses.
- Risk sentiment improved after signals of a possible ceasefire between Iran and the U.S.
- A cup and handle pattern has formed on the daily chart.
According to data from crypto.news, Ethereum (ETH) price rose to a six-day high of $2,153 on Wednesday, April 1.
The recovery followed after the leading altcoin fell nearly 16% from its monthly high of $2,360 to $1,972 earlier on Monday. The drop occurred amid growing uneasiness in the market due to the back-and-forth attacks between the U.S. and Iran. A ripple effect of it was the blockade at the Strait of Hormuz, a key maritime corridor that has pushed oil prices to record highs.
Ethereum price rebounded following reports that Iran’s president is willing to end the war with the U.S. and Israel if certain conditions are met.
While details of the demands are still not clear at the time of writing, they have previously called for more control in the Strait of Hormuz region, compensation for wartime damages on the nation, allowing it to continue its nuclear energy program, and a guarantee that the U.S. will not launch another attack on the country.
The U.S., for its part, has also signaled a potential ceasefire with Iran, even if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, although Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE have urged the U.S. to continue the war until the blockade is cleared.
Later today, U.S. President Donald Trump is set to give a speech where he will share major updates on Iran relations.
Notably, the impact of a potential resolution was already felt on energy markets as WTI oil prices dropped nearly 5% shortly following the report. Simultaneously, the crypto market surged along with U.S. equities such as the S&P 500.
Signs of de-escalation have offered Ethereum traders some short-term relief, easing the bearish pressure that emerged after Google’s quantum computing research raised concerns that Ethereum’s encryption could eventually be compromised.
On the daily chart, Ethereum price has formed a cup and handle pattern, a popular bullish continuation pattern in technical analysis. ETH price has recently broken out of the handle pattern, a sign that the upward trend is resuming.

Technical indicators suggest bulls have the upper hand at the moment. Notably, the 20-day SMA has crossed above the 50-day SMA, with Ethereum price eyeing the 50-day EMA next at $2,160. Additionally, the supertrend has flashed green, indicating a buy signal.
Hence, the next immediate resistance level that traders would be keeping an eye on lies at $2,200, a level where previous selling pressure has historically intensified.
A break above this level could spur Ethereum towards the neckline of the cup and handle pattern at $2,384, with the next major target at $2,450, which coincides with the 100-day SMA.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
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