Crypto World
Pumpfun Announces 50% Revenue Buyback-and-Burn Model
PUMP briefly rallied today on news that the platform has burned ~36% of the token’s circulating supply from previous buybacks.
Solana memecoin launchpad pumpfun announced Monday evening on X that it has burned approximately $370 million worth of previously bought-back PUMP tokens — roughly 36% of the circulating supply — and is pivoting to a programmatic buyback-and-burn policy funded by 50% of all future revenue for one year.
PUMP briefly rallied 5% on the news today, before retracing and is now flat over the past 24 hours.
The move marks a significant structural shift for the platform. Since launching, pumpfun had been directing 100% of revenue toward PUMP buybacks, but the approach drew persistent community criticism over a lack of transparency — specifically around what would happen to repurchased tokens and whether buybacks would continue long-term.
Now, rather than accumulating bought-back tokens in a treasury, pumpfun will burn 100% of all future buyback purchases immediately upon acquisition, the company explained. The 50% buyback allocation covers net revenue from its Bonding Curve, PumpSwap, and Terminal products. The remaining 50% will fund operations, hiring, and strategic investments, pumpfun said in the X post.
In a separate post on X, co-founder Alon framed the change as essential for long-term sustainability, explaining the need to cut the buyback rate in half to 50% to leave revenue for the project to invest in growth, stating: “I am extremely confident that 50% of the business we’re building toward will dwarf 100% of the business we have today.”
Pumpfun has generated over $1 billion in gross protocol revenue since launching in early 2024 and remains one of DeFi’s top fee-generating protocols.
The platform raised $500 million in its July ICO in just 12 minutes, and another $400 million in private token sales.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
Crypto World
Miko Matsumura: No More Crypto Wild West, This Cycle Will Reward Different Behavior
Crypto’s wild west era is over, according to Miko Matsumura, managing partner at Gumi Cryptos Capital. The industry has won its core battles as institutional rails fall into place.
Matsumura welcomed the current bear market but warned that it would reward different behavior than previous cycles. Builders who repeat the meme coin playbook will be left behind as fresh capital and tougher regulation arrive.
The Industry Has Won, Miko Matsumura Argues
In an interview with BeInCrypto at the NBX Warsaw conference, Matsumura argued that crypto has already secured its structural wins.
“I think we’ve basically won. We’ve basically gotten everything that we wanted.”
He broke that victory into three pieces, mapping crypto sectors onto traditional finance roles.
“I think the reserve bank is solved which is Bitcoin. I think the investment bank is solved which is Ethereum. I think the retail bank is solved.”
Multiple chains will likely share retail banking duties, with Base and Solana competing for that layer.
Regulation arriving is, in his view, further proof that the industry has crossed the finish line. The next chapter is about scaling crypto a thousand times bigger, not redefining it.
This Bear Market Is Not Like the Last One
Miko Matsumura describes himself as a net accumulator and welcomes lower prices. However, he cautioned that the next leg up will not reward yesterday’s tactics.
“I don’t think this is like any other previous bear market because of the change of the phase from the frontier phase into the traditional phase. People won’t be rewarded for doing exactly the same thing they did last time.”
He was blunt about meme coin speculation as a path to riches.
“I don’t think it’s going to be like, oh, just go and build another meme coin and then, you know, you’ll be rich. Like, it’s not going to be like that.”
He emphasized that the deepest stretches of a bear market typically reward the highest-conviction builders. New entrants and tighter rules will reshape what counts as a winning strategy this cycle.
Where the Opportunity Goes Next
Meanwhile, Miko Matsumura pointed to high-growth economies in Latin America and Nigeria as the new frontier for crypto. Solo founders using AI tools to keep burn rates low also stand out, he added.
“You need to continue building in the bear market, but you really need to change things up… build different things and build real practical solutions that solve problems.”
Matsumura listed courage, curiosity, and conviction as the traits he wants in founders this cycle. Building at the application layer should outweigh rebuilding foundations, he added.
The post Miko Matsumura: No More Crypto Wild West, This Cycle Will Reward Different Behavior appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Changelly turns 11, reaches 12 million users, and expands global partner network
April 29, 2026 – Changelly, a leading instant cryptocurrency exchange and trusted blockchain API provider, is marking its 11th anniversary with a new company milestone. More than 12 million users worldwide now rely on the platform’s web and app alone for seamless digital asset swaps, purchases, and cash-outs—with API integrations driving an even greater volume of users beyond that count. After more than a decade on the market, the platform has grown to support 1,200 cryptocurrencies across 200 blockchains for instant crypto swaps.
To celebrate, the company is launching Changelly’s 11th Birthday Mystery Boxes—a limited-time in-app game available starting April 28, 2026, featuring prizes from Changelly and its partners, including Topper by Uphold, SafePal, OneKey, SecuX, and MyTonWallet.
“Congratulations to Changelly on 11 years of making crypto accessible to millions worldwide. At SecuX, we believe great security starts with great partners, and Changelly has always stood for ease, trust, and innovation. Here’s to many more years of building a more secure and open financial future together!” — Wendy Chen, Head of PR at SecuX.
1,200 coins, 1b+ assets on DeFi, 840 integrations, scaling user and business demand
Asset availability on Changelly has continued to expand. The platform now supports 1,200 cryptocurrencies, with 200 new coins added over the past year—a selection built around users’ preferences and market demand. Include Changelly DeFi, a recently launched cross-chain swap product accessible directly on the web platform and as a standalone app, and that figure grows to over 1 billion supported assets.
Meanwhile, Changelly significantly broadened its business collaborations and blockchain API reach. Its partner network has grown to 840 Web3 companies, with 240 new partnerships signed over the last 12 months. Through embedded instant exchange and fiat on/off-ramp APIs, Changelly’s infrastructure now powers a growing share of crypto purchase and swap flows across wallets, apps, and digital finance products. Additionally, Changelly expanded its blockchain API offering for crypto businesses with the launch of Changelly DeFi, which brings decentralized trading infrastructure to business partners.
“We’re proud of our long-term partnership with Changelly—a progressive team that shares our vision of making crypto simple, easy, and more accessible to people around the world. On behalf of MyTonWallet, we warmly congratulate Changelly on its 11th anniversary. This is an impressive milestone for the entire industry, and we’re excited to support this campaign together. Here’s to many more years of growth, innovation, and shared success.” — Irina Arons, CMO at MyTonWallet.
Where first-time users became long-term traders
Besides bringing in new users, Changelly has remained the preferred platform for its user base for years—and the anniversary data suggests the platform has managed to do both. Users who joined Changelly five or more years ago have returned to use the platform again and again, making thousands of crypto swaps and purchases. One customer alone completed more than 16,000 transactions across eight years—the kind of number that speaks volumes about habits, trust, and routine use.
“Reaching 12 million users is a milestone we’re proud of, but it’s the depth of engagement that tells the real story,” said John Adam Khandjian, Chief Growth Officer at Changelly. “Our longest-standing users have made millions of secure and fast crypto transactions. That’s a real relationship built over the years. It reflects what we’ve tried to build from the start: a service people can rely on regardless of what the market is doing.”
The 2 million new users added over the past year have largely followed market movements, with registration spikes consistent within weeks of significant price action. On the platform, the most-traded assets included BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and TRON, alongside altcoins like VIRTUAL, AIXBT, PENGU, GRASS, HYPE, and CC, indicating growing user interest in AI-adjacent and community-driven assets.
Security is another reason why users remain loyal to the veteran crypto platform:
“At OneKey, our mission is to make advanced security feel effortless, pairing certified hardware with an app anyone can use. Partnering with Changelly helps us share that mission and remind users that strong security doesn’t have to be scary.” — The OneKey Team.
The anniversary celebration moves in-app
Starting April 28, 2026, Changelly is bringing its 11th birthday celebration directly into the app—and users get to unwrap gifts from Changelly and ecosystem partners.
Prizes include a Crypto Terminal (Mac Mini & espressoDisplay Pro), SafePal x Changelly limited edition hardware wallets, Topper-branded exclusive hardware wallets, OneKey Classic 1S Pure BTC-only hardware wallets, OneKey Keytags, SecuX Neo wallets, MyTonWallet NFT cards, USDT prizes of up to 200 USDT, VIP status, 0% fees, and exclusive crypto guides.
“Changelly sets the bar for what a crypto partnership should look like—collaborative, high-performing, and always thinking about the user. Proud to be part of this campaign.” — Robin O’Connell, CEO Enterprise, Uphold.
How to get your birthday surprise
- Download the Changelly app or log in if you already have an account
- Navigate to the in-app stories to play the game
- Open your Mystery Box and discover your reward
- To unlock more boxes and more chances to win, complete any transaction and get one more try
The two-week anniversary campaign will run through May 11, with the final results and prize announcements scheduled for May 12. Read the Terms & Conditions and enter the game.
About Changelly
Changelly is an instant crypto exchange trusted by over 12 million users worldwide. Founded in 2015, the platform offers secure and fast crypto-to-crypto swaps for over 1,200 cryptocurrencies and 24/7 live customer support. Changelly also features a built-in smart fiat on-ramp aggregator, giving users access to 220+ competitive offers from verified providers, enabling seamless purchases of 350+ cryptocurrencies using 20+ global payment methods.
Changelly is available on desktop (website), iOS (App Store), and Android (Google Play).
Crypto World
MoonPay Establishes Institutional Arm Following Sodot Acquisition
MoonPay is establishing a dedicated institutional unit by acquiring Sodot, an Israeli provider of crypto security infrastructure, and plans to use Sodot’s key-management technology as the backbone for services tailored to banks, asset managers, trading firms, and exchanges entering digital asset markets.
In a press release, MoonPay said the move will extend its network beyond consumer crypto payments into enterprise-grade infrastructure. Bloomberg reported that the deal closed in April in an all-stock transaction valued at around $100 million, though MoonPay did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph for comment on the specifics.
“We built MoonPay to be the world’s leading crypto payments network,” MoonPay co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright said in a press release, adding that its institutional arm is the next stage for the company.
Key takeaways
- MoonPay is launching an institutional division by acquiring Sodot, leveraging its key-management technology to serve traditional finance players entering crypto markets.
- The deal, disclosed as an all-stock transaction valued at about $100 million, reportedly closed in April, according to Bloomberg.
- Caroline D. Pham will lead the new unit, bringing regulatory and capital markets acumen to shepherd institutional adoption.
- The move underscores a broader trend of custody and wallet infrastructure becoming central to crypto adoption by institutions.
MoonPay’s institutional push takes shape
The newly formed MoonPay Institutional unit is designed to cater to major traditional financial firms across several domains, including trading, tokenized securities, payments, wallet management, and stablecoin issuance. The strategy signals a shift from MoonPay’s established retail-payments footprint toward essential infrastructure that incumbents require to operate in digital asset markets at scale.
Caroline Pham will helm the division, having joined MoonPay as chief legal officer and chief administrative officer in December after serving as acting chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. MoonPay’s leadership highlighted her regulatory experience and capital markets background as a critical asset for navigating complex crypto markets at an institutional level. “There is no one better suited to lead this business than Caroline, who brings decades of experience at the highest levels of financial regulation and capital markets,” Soto-Wright said.
Pham’s leadership appointment and the strategic focus on institutional clients come as the industry sees a growing appetite among banks, asset managers, and trading desks for robust custody, secure wallet technology, and compliant on-ramps into digital asset markets. The new unit will pursue relationships that require high assurance around key management, secure settlement rails, and scalable custody solutions—areas that have historically been the preserve of specialized custody providers, but are increasingly embedded in mainstream financial workflows.
Key technology: MPC and Sodot’s security framework
Sodot, founded in 2023, specializes in crypto key management infrastructure and is known for its self-hosted multi-party computation (MPC) approach. MPC is a cryptographic method that splits a private key into multiple shares distributed across independent parties, enabling signatures and access controls without exposing a single point of failure. This architecture is particularly attractive to institutions that demand stringent controls and resilience for large digital asset holdings.
By integrating Sodot’s MPC-based framework, MoonPay aims to offer enterprise-grade custody and wallet-management capabilities that can be deployed within traditional financial environments. The emphasis on secure key management aligns with a broader market push toward formalizing crypto custody as a core service for institutions, rather than a niche feature for crypto-native players.
Industry context and implications for institutional crypto adoption
The MoonPay-Sodot move sits within a broader industry trajectory in which custody and security infrastructure are increasingly essential to institutional participation. In recent weeks, major exchanges have accelerated their own institutional onboarding through partnerships and off-exchange settlement arrangements with custody providers. For example, OKX recently integrated off-exchange settlement via BitGo, a publicly traded digital asset custodian, underscoring demand for regulated, secure settlement rails as institutions enter crypto markets.
Cross-industry collaborations between trading venues and custody specialists have become a recurring theme. Earlier, BitMEX announced a partnership with Zodia Custody to enable institutional crypto derivatives trading with collateral held in segregated custody off-exchange. These developments illustrate how the market is maturing from consumer-focused payments to a suite of reliability-focused services that institutions require to operate confidently in digital assets.
The MoonPay–Sodot announcement also highlights the ongoing competition to deliver secure, scalable infrastructure that can support not just custody, but also tokenized securities, regulated wallet services, and compliant stablecoin ecosystems. As traditional finance players seek to extend their footprint in digital assets, the emphasis on robust key management, governance, and regulatory alignment will be a key differentiator among service providers.
Looking ahead, investors and market participants will want to watch several dimensions: how MoonPay’s institutional unit signs its first major clients and which product lines prove most compelling for different segments (trading desks vs. asset managers), how smoothly Carline Pham’s regulatory expertise translates into practical governance and compliance outcomes, and how the partnership with Sodot scales in real-world deployments across jurisdictions with varying regulatory regimes.
MoonPay’s latest move reflects a broader shift in the crypto ecosystem—from retail-focused payments to institutional-grade infrastructure that enables secure, regulated participation. As the market continues to evolve, the integration of advanced key-management tech and formalized custody offerings will likely become a baseline expectation for any platform seeking to attract and retain institutional users.
Readers should stay tuned for updates on client onboarding milestones, product rollouts, and any financial or strategic details the company elects to disclose as the institutional arm begins its first full operating cycle.
Crypto World
Ondo Finance and Broadridge Unite to Bring Proxy Voting to Tokenized Stocks
TLDR:
-
- Ondo Finance holds roughly 70% of the tokenized stock market share, with over $825M in total value locked.
- Holders of 250+ tokenized stocks and ETFs can now participate in proxy voting through Broadridge’s network.
- Voting recommendations are weighted proportionately based on each token holder’s onchain ownership stake.
- Ondo tokenized stocks are live on Solana, Ethereum, and BNB Chain, backed by Binance, MetaMask, and Ledger.
- Ondo Finance holds roughly 70% of the tokenized stock market share, with over $825M in total value locked.
Ondo Finance has announced a partnership with Broadridge to bring proxy voting to holders of tokenized stocks and ETFs.
Through this integration, holders of over 250 tokenized products can now access corporate governance tools. Broadridge serves more than 10,000 public companies and connects issuers with investors globally.
The collaboration adds a meaningful layer of functionality to Ondo’s growing platform for onchain securities. This development comes as tokenized asset markets continue to expand.
Connecting Onchain Holders to Corporate Governance
Ondo Finance will allow token holders to participate in proxy voting for underlying securities. Holders can also access prospectuses, regulatory filings, and issuer communications through Broadridge’s established infrastructure.
Voting recommendations will be weighted proportionately based on each holder’s token ownership. This structure ensures governance participation reflects actual onchain holdings accurately.
Broadridge will aggregate token holder preferences alongside votes from traditional market participants. This aggregation requires consent from Ondo Global Markets before any votes are consolidated.
As a result, onchain investors gain access to governance tools previously available only to conventional shareholders. The integration also preserves blockchain benefits such as 24/7 trading and free token transferability.
Ondo Finance announced the development through its official channels, writing: “Ondo is partnering with Broadridge to enable holders of tokenized stocks and ETFs to participate in proxy voting and access regulatory filings and issuer communications for underlying securities.”
Matthieu de Vergnes, MD and Global Head of Institutional at Ondo Finance, addressed the announcement directly.
He stated that the partnership enables onchain tokenized stock holders to access governance and voting capabilities.
He added that corporate governance participation is another step toward delivering institutional-quality products onchain. The firm views this as a natural extension of its core design goals.
Doug DeSchutter, President of Investor Communication Solutions at Broadridge, also commented on the collaboration.
He said the partnership helps define the next generation of market infrastructure. He described it as a bridge between investor protections in traditional finance and the programmability of public blockchains. Both parties anticipate further developments as the integration progresses.
Ondo’s Position in the Tokenized Stock Market
Ondo Finance currently holds roughly 70% of total tokenized stock market share. At its peak, the platform recorded over $825 million in total value locked.
This spans more than 250 tokenized stocks and ETFs across the platform. Tens of thousands of asset holders use Ondo’s onchain securities products today.
The platform operates across Solana, Ethereum, and BNB Chain. It is supported by leading wallets, exchanges, custodians, and protocols.
Binance, Bitget, MetaMask, Ledger, and Blockchain.com are among the key supporting partners. This broad ecosystem support reflects the platform’s reach across the broader crypto market.
The Broadridge partnership builds directly on this existing infrastructure. It adds governance access that was previously unavailable to onchain investors.
As tokenized assets gain wider adoption, proxy voting becomes an increasingly relevant feature. This collaboration reinforces Ondo’s ongoing goal of matching traditional market standards on the blockchain.
Crypto World
BeInCrypto Institutional Research: 15 Growing Prediction Market Platforms
Best Market Predictions Solution is an award category within The BeInCrypto Institutional 100, an annual research-driven program recognising institutional digital asset excellence across 26 categories and six pillars.
This category sits in Pillar 1: Retail to Crypto Bridge. The 15 firms below are its longlist, drawn from venues, broker-and-wallet integrations, decentralised protocols, and specialist liquidity infrastructure that powered institutional and retail participation in event-contract and prediction markets between April 2025 and March 2026.
During this period, the prediction market sector grew from roughly $1.2 billion in monthly notional volume to over $25 billion. A shortlist will be named in May 2026, and the winner will be announced at Proof of Talk in Paris on June 2–3, 2026.
- Longlist: 15 firms, covering CFTC-regulated DCM exchanges, broker and wallet-distributed event contract platforms, on-chain crypto-native prediction markets, DEX-integrated prediction protocols, sports-and-reputation specialists, and specialist prediction-market liquidity infrastructure
- Candidates screened: Starting pool of 34 prediction-market platforms and infrastructure providers across the institutional event-contract stack; 15 advanced to this longlist, with 5 additional firms held in the outreach pool.
- Scoring (Track B): Editorial quantitative 30% | Expert Council 50% | Disclosed 20%
- Criteria assessed: Market depth, liquidity, resolution quality, user base, regulatory standing, institutional relevance, technical infrastructure
- Sources: Regulator filings (CFTC Designated Contract Market and Derivatives Clearing Organization registers, CFTC Futures Commission Merchant and Introducing Broker rolls, ESMA event-contract guidance, FCA temporary registrations), on-chain volume data via Dune Analytics and DefiLlama, firm-published transparency reports, exchange listing disclosures, audited financial filings of public-listed parent companies, and private-market data platforms including PitchBook, Tracxn, and Crunchbase, supplemented by mainstream financial press.
| # | Firm | Sub-Segment | HQ | Scale Signal | Core Product | Representative Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Polymarket | On-chain venue | New York, USA | $10B+ monthly volume $1.6B ICE commitment |
On-chain event contracts | ICE data distribution agreement Largest on-chain prediction market |
| 2 | Kalshi | CFTC-regulated DCM | New York, USA | $22B valuation $10B+ monthly volume |
Event contract exchange | First regulated US prediction market Launched crypto perpetuals (2026) |
| 3 | Robinhood Predictions | Broker distribution | Menlo Park, USA | 12B+ contracts traded 26.8M funded accounts |
In-app prediction hub | Largest retail distribution layer MIAXdx acquisition (2026) |
| 4 | Coinbase Predict | Broker distribution | United States | 100M+ users Nationwide rollout (2026) |
App-based event contracts | Integrated with Kalshi backend Regulatory litigation strategy |
| 5 | Backpack Predictions | Exchange integration | United States | $363B lifetime exchange volume Unified portfolio launched |
Cross-margined predictions | One-account system across spot and perps MiFID II access via FTX EU |
| 6 | Crypto.com Derivatives | CFTC-regulated DCM | Singapore / USA | 100M+ users 40x prediction growth |
Event contract exchange | White-label backend for multiple platforms Sports and finance markets |
| 7 | Limitless | On-chain venue | Cayman Islands | $1B+ monthly volume $2B+ cumulative |
CLOB prediction markets | Fastest growth among on-chain platforms BNB Chain expansion |
| 8 | Opinion | On-chain venue | BNB ecosystem | $158M TVL $14M+ fees generated |
Decentralized predictions | Second-largest DeFi prediction market AI-generated market rules |
| 9 | Fanatics Markets | Sports specialist | United States | 200M+ users (parent) Live in 24 states |
Sports prediction markets | Crypto.com backend integration Multi-category expansion planned |
| 10 | Manifold Markets | Reputation-based | United States | Thousands of markets Strong calibration metrics |
Play-money predictions | Widely used in research communities Open API forecasting |
| 11 | Metaculus | Reputation-based | United States | 3.5M+ predictions 20K+ active questions |
Scientific forecasting | Used by research institutions High calibration accuracy |
| 12 | Azuro | DEX infrastructure | Decentralized | 30+ frontend platforms Multi-chain deployment |
Liquidity infrastructure | Liquidity Tree model Protocol-as-infrastructure design |
| 13 | Thales Markets | DEX protocol | Decentralized | Multi-chain deployment Synthetix integration |
Binary options + sports | Longest-running Optimism protocol Overtime sports vertical |
| 14 | DraftKings Predictions | Sports specialist | United States | $14B market cap (parent) 38-state launch |
Event contract platform | CME settlement infrastructure Railbird acquisition |
| 15 | Raven Trading | Liquidity infrastructure | Bulgaria | Backed by Wintermute, Coinbase Ventures $2.7M seed round |
Market making, liquidity | Provides institutional liquidity layer Supports multi-venue depth |
About This List
The BeInCrypto Institutional 100 — Prediction Markets (2026 Long List) identifies the platforms and infrastructure enabling institutional and retail participation in event-contract markets. This includes regulated exchanges, broker integrations, on-chain venues, and supporting liquidity providers.
Methodology
This category is evaluated under Track B of the BIC 100 methodology: 30% quantitative metrics, 50% Expert Council scoring, and 20% disclosed data.
Assessment spans seven criteria: market depth, liquidity, resolution quality, user base, regulatory standing, institutional relevance, and technical infrastructure.
Data was verified using regulatory filings, on-chain analytics platforms, and private-market sources, including PitchBook and Tracxn. Figures reflect the most recent available data at publication.
The post BeInCrypto Institutional Research: 15 Growing Prediction Market Platforms appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Crypto World
Bitcoin Developers Are Not DOJ Targets, Blanche Says
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel told the Bitcoin 2026 Conference in Las Vegas on April 27 that Bitcoin developers who write code without knowingly helping third parties commit crimes will not be investigated or charged, marking the clearest public statement on developer liability from the nation’s top law enforcement officials since the Tornado Cash prosecutions began.
Summary
- Blanche said the DOJ has “fundamentally changed the game” and that developers who are not knowingly helping users commit crimes are not going to be investigated or charged, while noting that laundering money or violating sanctions remains criminal regardless of whether the actor is a coder.
- Patel told the audience that the FBI’s focus has shifted toward crypto fraud networks including pig-butchering scam centers tied to foreign adversaries, with plans to travel to Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand this summer to conduct related enforcement work.
- Both Blanche and Patel appeared via videoconference rather than in person because they were needed in Washington DC after an assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night.
Bitcoin developers received the clearest federal reassurance in years when Acting AG Blanche and FBI Director Patel addressed the Bitcoin 2026 Conference on April 27 via videoconference, moderated by Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal. Bitcoin Magazine reported that Blanche told the audience: “If you are developing software, if you are a coder, if you are part of that process and you are not the third-party user and you are not helping and knowing the third party is using what you develop to commit crimes, you are not going to be investigated and not going to be charged.” Patel said Bitcoin “isn’t going anywhere” and framed it as economic infrastructure alongside other assets that power everyday life.
Bitcoin Developers Get a Federal Assurance Built on a Specific April 2025 Memo
The policy Blanche described at the conference is grounded in a memo he issued in April 2025 as Deputy Attorney General, which directed the DOJ to end “regulation by prosecution” in crypto cases and disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team. As crypto.news reported, that memo explicitly directed prosecutors away from cases targeting developers who create neutral tools later used by third parties, and the DOJ cited it when narrowing the charges against Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm ahead of his trial. Blanche was careful to draw the line precisely: writing code is protected, but knowingly facilitating money laundering or sanctions violations is not. “The mere fact that you happen to be a coder doesn’t excuse you from criminal liability,” he said. He added that developers who receive subpoenas should feel comfortable having their lawyers communicate directly with prosecutors and with him personally if they believe the case is inconsistent with his memo.
What the Blanche Remarks Mean for the Samourai Wallet and Roman Storm Cases
The clearest test of whether Blanche’s statement translates into changed outcomes will be the Roman Storm retrial. As crypto.news documented, Storm was convicted in August 2025 of operating an unlicensed money transmitter but the jury deadlocked on the two more serious charges of money laundering and sanctions violations, which carry up to 40 years in federal prison. SDNY prosecutors subsequently filed for an October retrial on those two unresolved counts. Blanche acknowledged “lingering” and “procedurally complicated” cases at the conference without naming them specifically, saying “we’re continuing to deal with” such cases while emphasizing the policy shift is real. As crypto.news tracked, the trial demonstrated that even within the existing prosecution framework, jurors struggled with the technical distinction between writing code and criminally conspiring to facilitate its misuse.
What Patel’s Enforcement Redirect Means for Crypto Fraud Victims
Patel’s message was distinct from Blanche’s developer-focused framing. Patel described pig-butchering scam networks operated out of Southeast Asia as the FBI’s primary crypto enforcement priority, saying he plans to travel to Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand this summer to coordinate enforcement with local authorities. As crypto.news noted, the DeFi Education Fund sent a letter to White House crypto czar David Sacks on April 28, 2025, asking Trump to discontinue what it called the “Biden-era DOJ’s lawless campaign to criminalize open-source software development,” and the industry has been watching whether Blanche’s April 2025 memo would actually change outcomes rather than just rhetoric. Grewal summarized the combined message from both officials as “crime is criminal; code alone shouldn’t be,” a framing the industry has sought from federal law enforcement for three years.
Peter Van Valkenburgh of Coin Center said the message is a step forward but that the key question remains unanswered: exactly how the DOJ draws the line between publishing open-source code and actionable knowledge of wrongdoing. The Roman Storm retrial in October will be the first real test of whether the policy shift Blanche described changes the outcome of a case already in the system.
Crypto World
More Than 70% Of Crypto Investors Think Bitcoin Is Undervalued
More than 70% of crypto investors believe that Bitcoin (BTC) is undervalued, according to a recent Global Investor Survey conducted by Coinbase and Glassnode.
The survey found that 82% of institutions and 70% of non-institutions classify the market as a late bear cycle markdown phase, while onchain indicators suggest BTC is entering a “value-accumulation zone.”
Bitcoin is in a late bear phase as undervaluation persists
Coinbase Institutional Research surveyed 91 global investors between March 16 and April 7, including 29 institutions and 62 non-institutions. The responses show a sharp shift in perceptions for the current BTC market.
Around 82% of institutions and 70% of non-institutions now classify the market as a late bear or a markdown phase, up from roughly one-third in December.

Bitcoin investor survey data. Source: Coinbase
At the same time, the valuation views held steady. About 75% of institutions and 61% of non-institutions consider Bitcoin undervalued. Only a small share flagged it as overpriced.
The survey also noted a shift in expectations for Bitcoin dominance. The share of institutions expecting dominance to rise dropped to 25% from 40%. About 54% now expect it to remain near the current level of 58.1%, while 21% expect a decline.
Related: Bitcoin, stocks risk ‘months’ of losses as Kevin Warsh Becomes Fed chair
Onchain signals flag value zone for Bitcoin
Onchain data echo the valuation stance for Bitcoin. Crypto analyst Woominkyu’s Bitcoin Combined Market Index (BCMI) aggregates MVRV, NUPL, SOPR, and investor sentiment into a single reading. The index recently jumped to 0.37 from 0.26, a level historically linked with deep undervaluation phases.

Bitcoin Combined Market Index. Source: CryptoQuant
The MVRV compares market value to realized value, while NUPL tracks net unrealized profit and loss across holders. The SOPR measures whether coins are sold at a profit or a loss. Combined, the indicators frame both the pricing and investor behavior from a single viewpoint.
The BCMI’s 90-day average continues to trend downward, suggesting ongoing selling pressure. However, earlier this month, Woominkyu said,
“We are entering a “Value-Accumulation Zone.” The data suggests the downside is becoming limited compared to the long-term upside.”
The short-term holder activity adds context. The realized cap UTXO age bands for one-week to one-month holders fell to 3.91%, matching October 2023 levels when BTC traded near $27,000. This metric tracks the share of recently moved coins, acting as a proxy for short-term liquidity and price speculation.
Historically, Bitcoin has formed cycle lows within three to six months of similar readings since 2021. Market analyst Crypto Dan noted in March that the indicator has dropped significantly, placing the BTC market near undervalued territory without confirming a final bottom.

Bitcoin realized cap: UTXO age bands (1 week to 1 month). Source: CryptoQuant
Related: Bitcoin’s recent rally is largely fueled by Strategy purchases: Bitwise’s Hougan
Crypto World
Standard Chartered Calls Kelp Aftermath DeFi’s ‘Antifragile Moment’
The bank’s digital assets team argues the post-Kelp coalition response and structural fixes around bridges leave DeFi stronger, not weaker, ahead of the Ethereum Economic Zone going live this summer.
Standard Chartered’s digital assets research team says the DeFi industry’s response to the April 18 Kelp DAO bridge exploit could prove to be an “antifragile moment” for the sector, arguing the crisis has accelerated structural fixes that will leave decentralized lending more resilient over the medium term.
In a note published Wednesday titled “DeFi: Bent, not broken,” Global Head of Digital Assets Research Geoff Kendrick wrote that the $292 million theft and its knock-on effects on Aave have not derailed the bank’s longer-term thesis on DeFi growth. Standard Chartered is maintaining its projection that tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) will reach a $2 trillion market cap by the end of 2028, up from roughly $35 billion in October 2025.
‘Bank Run’ Contained
Kendrick laid out the mechanics in familiar terms. Once the market realized that stolen rsETH had been supplied as collateral on Aave (76% of the stolen assets ended up on the protocol, per the report), the lender lost $17 billion in deposits, equivalent to 38% of its total, and $5.5 billion in active loans, or 31%. Yields spiked and net deposits in several stablecoin markets fell to zero in what Standard Chartered described as a classic bank run.
The response was the DeFi United coalition, which has now committed more than $300 million to restore rsETH’s backing ratio and execute controlled liquidations of the exploiter’s remaining positions. Yields on Aave have since started to come back down, and net deposits are rising again.
“This could be DeFi’s ‘antifragile moment,’” Kendrick wrote. “The more pressure that is applied to something, the stronger it gets.”
Risk Mismatch
The note flagged a structural vulnerability that amplified the damage. An analysis after the theft found that 98% of Kelp DAO’s rsETH collateral on Aave was concentrated in a single looping trade, where participants deposit an asset, borrow against it at maximum loan-to-value, and recycle the proceeds into more complex tokens to maximize yield.
Standard Chartered’s broader concern is the asset-liability mismatch on lending protocols: deposits skew more heavily toward complex tokens (wrapped, bridged, liquid-staked, liquid-restaked) than the active loan book does, and complexity tends to introduce bridge dependencies. Bridges, the report noted, have been the attack vector in most of the largest crypto hacks, including the Kelp incident.
Structural Fixes
Kendrick pointed to two specific developments that should reduce reliance on bridges. The first is Aave V4, which launched in late March with a hub-and-spoke architecture designed to share liquidity across participating Layer 2s rather than siloing it on individual chains. The second is the Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ), unveiled at the Ethereum Community Conference in Cannes earlier this year and scheduled to go live on mainnet this summer.
The EEZ aims to make assets composable and synchronous across the Ethereum ecosystem within a single block, enabled by recent advances in real-time zero-knowledge proof technology. Once both are operational, Standard Chartered argues, Aave will be able to bypass the bridges that have historically been DeFi’s softest target.
“Despite the concerns raised by the recent cyberattack, we think the recent DeFi coalition and longer-term structural solutions both point to greater DeFi resilience going forward,” Kendrick concluded.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
Crypto World
Litecoin (LTC) gains 2.4%, leading index higher
CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2093.01, up 0.7% (+15.25) since 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Fourteen of 20 assets are trading higher.

Leaders: LTC (+2.4%) and APT (+1.7%).
Laggards: AAVE (-1.1%) and SUI (-0.4%).
The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.
Crypto World
Stable Sea Taps WisdomTree to Bring Tokenized Treasury Yield to Business Operating Cash
The collaboration lets non-crypto-native finance teams sweep idle dollars into WisdomTree’s WTGXX alongside their stablecoin payments, with daily dividend accrual and 24/7 liquidity.
Stable Sea on Wednesday announced a strategic partnership with WisdomTree to embed access to the asset manager’s tokenized funds inside its business treasury platform, opening a new distribution channel for onchain dollar yield beyond crypto-native users.
The integration begins with the WisdomTree Treasury Money Market Digital Fund (WTGXX), which currently holds about $855 million in tokenized U.S. Treasuries and ranks as the sixth-largest tokenized money market fund tracked by RWAxyz. Eligible Stable Sea Terminal users can establish a limited-scope broker-dealer relationship with WisdomTree Securities to route orders into select WisdomTree tokenized funds directly from the Stable Sea interface.
For users, that means daily dividend accrual, continuous yield allocation based on intra-day holdings, and daily liquidity through WTGXX, plus the option to set rules that automatically sweep idle balances into the fund and unwind back to stablecoins when liquidity is needed.
“US businesses collectively hold more than $5 trillion in cash and cash equivalent accounts that earn minimal to no interest,” said Tanner Taddeo, CEO and co-founder of Stable Sea. “This collaboration with WisdomTree brings institutional-grade cash management and 24/7/365 yield exposure into a technology product built for modern operators.”
From Stablecoin Off-Ramps to Treasury Stack
Founded in 2024, San Francisco-based Stable Sea originally pitched itself as a fix for the “final mile” of stablecoin utility, building enterprise-grade off-ramps that let fintechs, payment service providers, and global businesses convert stablecoins into local fiat in single trades of up to $50 million, replacing the patchwork of OTC desks and Telegram-based dealer relationships that businesses had been stitching together.
Stable Sea Terminal launched in May 2025 as the productized version of that workflow, combining stablecoin purchasing, conversion, and global payouts in a single API and dashboard. The WisdomTree deal extends the platform further, layering tokenized money market exposure on top of payments and custody.
Tokenized MMFs Push Beyond DeFi
The deal also extends WisdomTree’s recent run of WTGXX integrations into a different distribution lane: business treasury workflows rather than DeFi protocols.
Last week, pre-launch lender Lotus tapped WTGXX for its LotusUSD vault reserves, and in March, Plume launched a payroll pilot routing employee salaries into the fund. Last November, Plume also integrated WisdomTree tokenized funds via OpenTrade into its Nest staking vaults.
“Treasury management use cases have been a leading driver of the adoption we have seen of our tokenized money market fund WTGXX in the past year,” said Will Peck, Head of Digital Assets at WisdomTree.
Tokenized U.S. Treasury and money market funds have grown from under $1 billion in early 2024 to roughly $15 billion across 76 assets today, per RWAxyz, led by Circle’s USYC, BlackRock’s BUIDL, and Ondo’s U.S. Dollar Yield funds. WTGXX itself surged more than 700% between May and August last year. WisdomTree manages approximately $160 billion across its businesses.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
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