Bitcoin | Crypto

Bitcoin attempts to punish shorters with relentless higher highs on low timeframes, trading places with gold, which follows commodities downhill. Bitcoin (BTC) gained 3% on May 1 as a new month saw shorts struggle to keep price pinned. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $96,955 on Bitstamp, its highest since Feb. 22. Increasingly close to six figures, Bitcoin rose with US stocks at the Wall Street open as Microsoft gained 10% to become the world’s highest-valued public company. Read more

Bitcoin’s “base case” for the end of 2025 is $200,000 without further government adoption, Bitwise’s head of research told Cointelegraph. Bitcoin’s expanding institutional adoption may provide the “structural” inflows necessary to surpass gold’s market capitalization and push its price beyond $1 million by 2029, according to Bitwise’s head of European research, André Dragosch. “Our in-house prediction is $1 million by 2029. So that Bitcoin will match gold's market cap and total addressable market by 2029,” he told Cointelegraph during the Chain Reaction daily X spaces show on April 30. The Bitcoin cycle may also be prolonged when US wirehouses start gaining exposure to Bitcoin and ETFs. Read more

Bitcoin is becoming a yield-generating asset class for institutions using DeFi strategies like staking, lending and Sharia-compliant tools. The demand for yield-generating strategies around Bitcoin (BTC) is surging, especially from firms seeking liquidity without liquidating their BTC, according to Ryan Chow, co-founder and CEO of Solv Protocol. During a fireside chat at the Token2049 conference in Dubai on May 1, Chow said institutional interest in Bitcoin yield products has grown exponentially over the past few years. Initially, generating Bitcoin yield was nearly impossible. However, recent innovations like staking via proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols and delta-neutral trading strategies have made this possible. Read more

Bitcoin entered 2025 with momentum but faced a correction in Q1, driven by broader macro headwinds and risk-off sentiment. Despite reaching a new all-time high in January, BTC closed the quarter down 12% as geopolitical developments, including new U.S. tariffs, impacted risk assets across the board. Yet, structural support for Bitcoin remains strong. ETF inflows persisted, institutional holdings grew, and the U.S. government’s launch of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve marked a notable shift in Bitcoin’s role as a sovereign asset.

BitcoinOS and Starknet are on the verge of adding smart contract functionality to Bitcoin — with, or without, the controversial OP_CAT fork. BitcoinOS and Starknet arent waiting around for the controversial OP_CAT hard fork to add new functionality to Bitcoin, with both projects devising innovative ways to scale Bitcoin using zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs right now. The projects have both demonstrated it’s possible to verify ZK-proofs on Bitcoins existing mainnet even if Bitcoins ultra-simple scripting language makes it difficult and expensive. This could create genuine Bitcoin L2s that inherit much of its security, and unlock the intriguing possibility of creating programmable tokens on Bitcoin itself. Best known as an Ethereum L2, Starknet wants to use the tech to scale Bitcoin to thousands of transactions per second, up from just 7 TPS today. “The ecosystem in Starknet is very, very enthusiastic about also expanding to Bitcoin,” co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson tells Magazine.  BitcoinOS, meanwhile, claims it will s...

Crypto analysts are casting doubt over Bitcoin’s return to $100,000, Sam Bankman-Fried moves prison: Hodler’s Digest Michael Saylor, the CEO of top corporate Bitcoin holder Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), expressed support for new US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Paul Atkins. In an April 23 X post, Saylor wrote that SEC Chairman Paul Atkins will be good for Bitcoin. The statement follows Atkins swearing-in as the 34th chairman of the SEC on April 21. Blue Macellari, head of digital assets at investment firm T. Rowe Price, also commented on Atkins in a recent Bloomberg interview. She seemed hopeful and recognized a change in how the SEC has acted under the new administration, particularly with crypto-related information, including close to six or seven roundtables with industry professionals. Read more

This report argues that the United States is undergoing a structural shift away from the neoliberal international order and toward a strategy of neo-isolationism, driven by the need to preserve relative power in the face of China’s rise. Drawing from realist theory and the historical precedent of the Nixon administration, the report outlines how the U.S. is prioritizing containment over global growth. This reversion includes reshoring manufacturing, accelerating the clean energy transition, and restricting technological flows, particularly in AI, to prevent espionage and maintain strategic advantage. In this environment, crypto emerges not as a tool of global integration but as a beneficiary of fragmentation. The report concludes that we are entering an era where power, not efficiency, will define economic policy, and in this new industrial paradigm, Bitcoin, DePIN, and DePAI are uniquely positioned to thrive.

UNDER EXPOSED EP 22: Macro Latest, Gold & Bitcoin, and Crypto Banks UNDER EXPOSED brings you coverage of the biggest macro news of the week impacting crypto and broader markets, with a focus on the newest trends, trades and narratives. Join hosts TylerD, Deeze, Geebz and Peter Jennings as they have longer conversations on the hottest sectors in crypto and NFTs, what is moving markets and what they’re buying and selling. Streaming live every Tuesday from 12:00 PM EST to 1:00 PM EST on YouTube and X. LIVE AUDIO SPACE - https://x.com/i/spaces/1dRKZYrVNXVxB/peek Links: https://www.rug.fm/ https://x.com/rugradio https://linktr.ee/rugradio Hosts: https://twitter.com/deeze https://twitter.com/CSURAM88 https://twitter.com/artgeebz https://twitter.com/tyler_did_it Myriad: https://myriad.markets https://x.com/MyriadMarkets https://www.instagram.com/myriadmarkets #bitcoin #crypto #podcast

Shaquille O’Neal cleared to settle Astrals NFT lawsuit, Bitcoin $100K target still in play, and more: Hodler’s Digest Former NBA star Shaquille ONeal has been granted final court approval to settle a class-action lawsuit for $11 million with Astrals non-fungible token (NFT) buyers. Florida federal court judge Federico Moreno granted approval of the settlement between ONeal and the class group led by Daniel Harper in an April 1 order made available on April 8. The deal created a fund of up to $11 million for eligible class members and awarded $2.9 million in attorney fees and costs. All those who purchased Astrals NFTs from May 2022 to Jan. 15 and those who purchased the projects native GLXY tokens up until mid-January are eligible.  Read more

South Korean police bust illegal gaming arcade LARPing as a legit Bitcoin mine, fake soldiers rob women of crypto in China. Asia Express. In a scam that combined a fake relationship, fake crypto and real doorbells, a woman in Xuzhou, a city in eastern Chinas Jiangsu Province, lost over $55,000 to a man who pitched USDT investments and sent a cash collector to her home. Five suspects have been arrested and the investigation is ongoing. According to a notice published via the official WeChat account of the local police, the victim was first contacted by a man claiming to be an active-duty soldier. He gained her trust by invoking military rules that supposedly prohibited the use of WeChat, and directed her to download a separate app for private communication. As their conversations grew more frequent and familiar, the man shared a fabricated story about a friend who had joined the state-run Tobacco bureau after retiring from the military and had access to internal data. He claimed they had already earned substan...

A crypto analyst eyes Bitcoin’s potential retrace to $70K, a crypto investor funds a SpaceX flight, and more: Hodler’s Digest BitMEX co-founder and former CEO Arthur Hayes says US President Donald Trump’s tariffs may rattle the global economy in some ways, but that same disruption could be exactly what Bitcoin needs to rally. Global imbalances will be corrected, and the pain papered over with printed money, which is good for BTC, Hayes said in an April 3 X post. His comments come just a day after it was announced that the Trump administration will hit all countries with a 10% tariff starting April 5, with some countries facing even larger rates, such as China facing a 34% tariff, the European Union 20%, and Japan 24%.  Read more

9GAG founder’s new “MemeStrategy” firm will buy Bitcoin for reserves, jailed Bithumb CEO paid $3.5M in salary and bonuses. Asia Express The creator of meme culture pioneer 9GAG is diving headfirst into Bitcoin and blockchain, acquiring a publicly listed Hong Kong company with plans to turn it into a crypto and AI venture. Ray Chan, co-founder of 9GAG, has acquired a controlling stake in Howkingtech International Holdings Limited and plans to convert the company into a Web3 outfit. Chan has proposed renaming the firm to MemeStrategy, a nod to MicroStrategy (now Strategy), which popularized the corporate Bitcoin accumulation playbook. He will serve as chairman and CEO, pending shareholder approval, and several members of the 9GAG team have joined the board. Read more

A crypto analyst is eyeing off a sooner timeframe for Bitcoin all-time highs, XRP may retrace up to 40%, and more: Hodler’s Digest Bitcoin will break past its $109,000 all-time high sooner than expected despite recent volatile US macroeconomic conditions, according to a crypto analyst.  The market may be underestimating how quickly Bitcoin could surge potentially hitting new all-time highs before Q2 is out, Real Vision chief crypto analyst Jamie Coutts told Cointelegraph.  He said this forecast stands regardless of whether or not there is more clarity on US President Donald Trumps tariffs and potential recession concerns. Read more