ini

The UK-listed company Quantum Blockchain announced a placement of 142,857,142 new shares at a price of 0.35 pence per share to raise £500,000. In addition, the company announced the establishment of a new Bitcoin mining subsidiary, BlocKeeper, and the new funds will be used to accelerate its AI-driven Bitcoin mining research and development.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that a cryptocurrency company linked to "Russian gangs and intelligence agencies" is funding political opponents and influencing domestic cryptocurrency regulatory legislation.During a parliamentary vote on Friday, Tusk pointed out that some Polish politicians obstructing cryptocurrency regulatory legislation are serving the interests of a company named Zondacrypto, which is accused of providing "financial support" to political figures and has ties to Russia. Tusk further claimed that the company sponsored the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) event held in Poland last year, during which former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem publicly supported President Karol Nawrocki's campaign. Tusk bluntly stated that the company's funding sources involve not only "money related to the Russian mafia (Bratva)" but may also be connected to Russian intelligence agencies.Meanwhile, President Nawrocki won the election in June last year, with support from former U.S. President Donald Trump. The president's office responded that it does not oppose cryptocurrency regulation itself but opposes the "flawed regulatory model" proposed by the government. This controversy arises amid the political tug-of-war in Poland over the cryptocurrency regulatory bill. The bill aims to align with the EU's MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) framework, but the president previously vetoed the related bill and blocked parliament from overturning the veto in December, hindering the regulatory process.

According to Jinshi reports, CME's "Fed Watch" shows that the probability of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates by 25 basis points in April is 0.5%, while the probability of keeping rates unchanged is 99.5%. By June, the cumulative probability of a 25 basis point rate cut rises to 7.1%, with the probability of keeping rates unchanged at 92.4%. By July, the cumulative probability of a 25 basis point rate cut is 18.1%, and the probability of keeping rates unchanged is 80.6%.

French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stated that Europe needs more euro-denominated stablecoins and encouraged EU banks to explore tokenized deposits, a statement seen as a potential shift in the position of the French government and central bank.Lescure publicly supports the Qivalis alliance, composed of 12 European banks including BBVA, ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, which plans to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026 to address the dominance of the dollar in the digital payments space. He pointed out that the current scale of euro stablecoins is far lower than that of dollar stablecoins, which is "unsatisfactory," and emphasized that promoting relevant developments is "exactly what we need." In contrast, former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had a strong opposition to privately issued stablecoins, believing they threaten monetary sovereignty; recently, French central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau also warned that stablecoins and tokenized currencies could pose risks of "monetary privatization." Analysts believe that France's latest statement may signal a more pragmatic approach in Europe regarding stablecoin and digital currency policies, attempting to seek a balance between regulation and innovation.

The Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company TeraWulf announced that it has completed the previously announced public offering of 54,510,000 shares of common stock, with an offering price of $19 per share, raising a total of $1,035,690,000. Morgan Stanley acted as the lead underwriter for this offering, while Bank of America Securities, Citigroup, TD Cowen, and Wells Fargo Securities served as co-managers.Citizens Capital Markets and Santander Bank acted as sub-underwriters, and Cantor Fitzgerald served as the equity capital markets advisor. TeraWulf plans to use the net proceeds from this offering to pay for a portion of the construction costs of its planned data center campus in Horse Cave, Kentucky, including the full repayment of outstanding amounts under its transitional credit facility, as well as for future site acquisitions and general corporate purposes.

According to the official announcement, Binance will adjust the minimum price movement unit (TickSize) for multiple U-based perpetual contracts on April 21 and 22, 2026. The contracts involved include LABUSDT, RAVEUSDT, ESPORTSUSDT, SNXUSDT, C98USDT, ONEUSDT, CELRUSDT, and XTZUSDT. Among them, trading for SNXUSDT, C98USDT, ONEUSDT, CELRUSDT, and XTZUSDT contracts will be suspended during the adjustment period.

As the first centralized exchange (CEX) to connect with Polymarket, Gate's data shows that in the prediction event "How will the Federal Reserve's April interest rate decision change?", the market estimates the probability of interest rates remaining unchanged at a high of 99%. Currently, the overall sentiment in the macro market is cautious, with most participants expecting to maintain a wait-and-see stance in this month's meeting, awaiting more economic data guidance. Keeping interest rates unchanged helps stabilize market liquidity and risk appetite, and various assets, including stock indices and commodities, are expected to attract investor interest. Gate has a comprehensive layout of traditional asset categories, covering the widest range in the network.In addition, users can directly access the prediction market through the Gate App, entering the Polymarket page from the platform's homepage Alpha and using USDT in their exchange account to participate in event predictions. This integration marks a key step for Gate in the fusion of the crypto trading ecosystem and prediction markets, also bringing users a more open and diverse market participation experience.

The native companion asset of Bitcoin, DMT-NAT (abbreviated as NAT), has now landed on the Spider Mining Pool. Miners can simultaneously receive NAT rewards while mining BTC in the same block, achieving dual earnings and ushering in an era of dual-layer rewards in the industry.It is reported that NAT shares computing power, blocks, and addresses with BTC, allowing for simultaneous production without additional operations. This asset is produced every 10 minutes in sync with Bitcoin blocks, with approximately 386 million NAT (currently valued at about 38 USD) produced per block, corresponding to a total market value of about 38 million USD. The output will gradually decrease with block height and mining difficulty, and the code is fully open source.When the single block reward reaches 50,000 USD (market value of 50 billion USD), it can cover part of the miners' costs, thereby enhancing the overall network's computing power. Against the backdrop of Bitcoin halving, it injects new momentum for Bitcoin miners.

According to data from TheMinerMag, in the first quarter of 2026, publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies including MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, Cango, Core Scientific, and Bitdeer collectively sold over 32,000 BTC, surpassing the total amount sold throughout last year and even exceeding the sell-off levels triggered by the Terra-Luna collapse in Q2 2022, setting a "new record for a single quarter."The backdrop of this sell-off is the key metric for measuring miner profitability, "hashprice," which has fallen to a historical low of below $35 per PH/s per day, with about 20% of miners already in the red. Asset management firm CoinShares stated in its report: "Unless the BTC price rebounds significantly, high-cost miners will further capitulate in the first half of 2026."

According to Globenewswire, the American law firm Bernstein Liebhard has announced that it has filed a securities fraud class action lawsuit on behalf of investors against the Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Space Station, alleging that Gemini made false statements regarding its business operations and prospects in its prospectus and related disclosures, particularly accused of exaggerating the viability of its core cryptocurrency platform business. Investors wishing to serve as lead plaintiffs must submit their applications by May 18, 2026.It is reported that Bernstein Liebhard is a well-known investor relations law firm that has previously filed class action lawsuits against companies such as Ruhnn, Apple, and AsiaInfo-Linkage.

According to Jinshi reports, the number of initial jobless claims in the United States for the week ending April 11 was 207,000, lower than the market expectation of 215,000, and the previous value was revised from 219,000 to 218,000.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK is seeking feedback on specific regulatory activities for digital assets under its cryptocurrency roadmap.This consultation covers how activities such as stablecoin issuance, trading platforms, custody, and staking will fall under regulatory oversight. The consultation will close on June 3, 2026, and cryptocurrency businesses can apply for FCA authorization starting September 30, 2026. The FCA stated that the consultation on the rules for the future cryptocurrency asset regime is largely complete, and a policy statement will be released this summer. Before the new legislative regime is implemented in 2027, cryptocurrency assets remain largely unregulated in the UK, except for financial promotions and financial crime purposes.

French Interior Minister representative Jean-Didier Berger stated at the Paris Blockchain Week that France is preparing to introduce new measures to protect cryptocurrency holders. He revealed that authorities have launched a prevention platform and attracted thousands of registrations, while working with Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez to develop a more stringent response plan, expected to be implemented in the coming weeks.In this context, there have been 41 cryptocurrency-related kidnapping cases in France in 2026, averaging one every 2.5 days; in 2025, global incidents of such "ransom attacks" increased by 75% year-on-year, with France being the most severely affected country in the world, accounting for about 40% of the total incidents in Europe.

According to analyst Alicharts, Bitcoin is at a critical turning point. Bitcoin is testing the 100-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) resistance level, marking its third test in six months. The previous two tests ended in failure: in October last year, Bitcoin faced rejection, leading to a 30% drop from $116,000 to $80,000. In January, Bitcoin similarly faced rejection, resulting in a 39% drop from $97,000 to $59,800.Alicharts warns that a third rejection here would represent a significant structural failure. It could trigger a triple top effect, potentially pushing Bitcoin's price back to the annual low of $59,800. If BTC can ultimately break through this barrier and close above the 100-day SMA, then the upper limit will be breached. A breakout here would open a direct path to $80,000 - $84,000, confirming that the macro adjustment may have ended.

According to official news, the scalable blockchain network AO based on Arweave has announced the launch of the "Network Availability Staking Alpha (NASA)" testing program, which is a key step in its AO ecosystem aimed at enhancing the availability and reliability of decentralized data networks through a staking mechanism. The program is currently in the Alpha stage, and users can participate in network availability verification and earn rewards by providing data services for Arweave gateways and staking AO tokens.In the first pilot phase, AO introduces the "availability staking" mechanism, requiring node operators to stake 25 AO to participate in the network and compete for the speed and stability of responding to user requests. The system will allocate rewards from a monthly reward pool of 1000 AO based on the performance of nodes in data services. This mechanism relies on the next-generation HyperBEAM architecture, enabling higher levels of verifiability and trustlessness for gateway and routing services while significantly reducing operational costs.The project team stated that NASA aims to establish a stronger decentralized economic model for the entire permanent network infrastructure, paving the way for future expansion into areas such as computing scheduling, data indexing, and network services. Although the current reward scale is small and still in the testing phase, the program is seen as an important starting point for the AO-Core economic system and will gradually expand to more network infrastructure services in the future.

According to Xinhua News Agency, the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the United States proposed a package plan to Iran and hoped that Iran would "accept it in full." The U.S. knows very well that "this is impossible," and it does not conform to the logic of negotiation and dialogue. The spokesperson stated that Iran had previously submitted 10 ceasefire terms to the U.S. through Pakistan in response to the so-called U.S. ceasefire "15-point plan."The spokesperson said that with the participation of countries along the Persian Gulf, Iran is fully capable of ensuring the security of the Middle East, provided that the U.S. stops military intervention and war provocations. Any intervention from outside the region will only complicate the issues further. Many European countries are wise to "avoid falling into the U.S. military trap."

According to Cointelegraph, Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee stated at the Paris Blockchain Week 2026 conference that the current decline in the crypto market resembles a "mini crypto winter," which may be nearing its end, and believes that risk assets have bottomed out amid "bad news" such as geopolitical conflicts.He pointed out that Ethereum is expected to emerge from a long-term consolidation and will benefit from the trend of tokenization and the development of on-chain AI (agentic AI) applications in the future. If his market assumptions hold, the price of ETH could reach $60,000, with a long-term fair value potentially reaching around $62,000 (based on its estimate that Ethereum will achieve about 1/4 of Bitcoin's market value).Lee emphasized that the U.S. stock market has already seen a bottom and is driving the recovery of risk assets, while this round of crypto correction is a rare "non-stock market synchronized bear cycle." He also mentioned that the market often forms a bottom after significant negative events such as wars. As of now, ETH has dropped about 43% from its peak in October 2025, and the market remains in a clearly volatile range.