Lawmakers in the lower house of the Polish parliament, the Sejm, have passed a bill implementing the European Union Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), amid a probe into the collapse of Zondacrypto, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

 

The passage of the bill marks a third attempt after the president vetoed earlier versions proposed by lawmakers. Following the latest parliamentary approval, the bill now awaits the president’s decision before it can become law.

 

The Polish government has until July 1, 2026, the end of the transitional period, to implement the MiCA framework. If the deadline is missed, virtual asset service providers risk having their licenses expire. Without valid authorization, crypto firms in Poland would no longer be permitted to provide crypto asset services to clients in Poland or across the European Union.

 

As a result, affected companies may be forced to shut down their operations in Poland or relocate to another EU member state in order to obtain a crypto asset service provider license, which is generally more costly and time-consuming. This requirement applies primarily to domestic crypto entities, while foreign crypto companies operating in Poland are expected to remain unaffected by this policy.

 

Zondacrypto Collapse

The passage of the bill adopting MiCA comes as Polish prosecutors have launched an investigation into the collapse of Zondacrypto, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

 

Zondacrypto has halted withdrawals for thousands of users since December 2025, leaving many unable to access their funds. According to Polish authorities, about 30,000 users have been affected, with estimated losses exceeding 350 million zlotys ($95.93 million).

 

Amid Zondacrypto’s financial struggles and its admission that it lost access to a cold wallet holding about 4,500 BTC, allegedly linked to its former CEO, who has been missing since 2022, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has alleged that the exchange’s collapse is linked to fraud and its existing ties with Russian mafia groups.

 

According to Tusk, Zondacrypto’s success comes from “Russian money linked to the so-called Bratva Mafia group and Russian intelligence agencies.” Describing its roots as sinister, Tusk accused Zondacrypto of sponsoring right-wing opposition politicians. By advancing the bill supporting MiCA, Tusk aims to reduce the ease with which cryptocurrencies are used to finance sabotage activities in the country.

 

 

Strategy Inc. dropped a notable filing on Friday, announcing it has agreed to repurchase approximately $1.5 billion of its 0% Convertible Senior Notes due 2029 in a series of privately negotiated transactions with select noteholders. The buyback price comes in at roughly $1.38 billion in cash, meaning the company is retiring the debt at around 92 cents on the dollar. It is a discount, and that matters.

 

The notes in question were originally issued back in November 2024 with a $3 billion notional size and a 0% coupon rate. They carry a conversion price of $672.40 per share and mature December 2, 2029. With MSTR shares currently sitting around $183, that conversion price is a long way off. The decision to buy these back now, below face value, reflects what appears to be an active effort to tighten up the balance sheet while the opportunity exists.

 

Bitcoin Sales Back on the Table

Here is where it gets interesting. Strategy listed three possible funding sources for the repurchase: available cash reserves, proceeds from its at-the-market equity offering programs, and potentially the sale of bitcoin. That last part is drawing attention.

 

Executive Chairman Michael Saylor has long positioned the firm as a relentless accumulator of BTC, not a seller. At the Bitcoin 2026 conference, he stated that even if Strategy were to sell one bitcoin, it would be buying 10 to 20 more. That framing is still technically intact, but the formal inclusion of bitcoin sales as a stated funding mechanism in an SEC filing is a different kind of signal than a conference soundbite.

 

Strategy currently holds 818,869 BTC, acquired at a total cost of roughly $61.81 billion, or an average price around $75,537 per coin. At current prices near $80,400, the company is sitting on unrealized gains. Whether it actually taps those holdings remains to be seen, but the option is now formally on the table in a public document.

 

STRC Momentum and JPMorgan Projections Add Context

The announcement comes just one day after Strategy's Variable Rate Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock, known as STRC, hit a record single-day trading volume of $1.53 billion on Thursday. That beat the prior record of $1.1 billion set on April 13. Saylor flagged the milestone on X, calling it a sign of growing institutional confidence in the instrument.

 

The STRC instrument has become a key capital-raising tool for Strategy, helping fund a significant portion of its bitcoin accumulation over recent months. The company has added more than 101,000 BTC since March alone, with over 56,770 of those purchases occurring after April. JPMorgan analysts have projected Strategy's total bitcoin purchases for 2026 could reach $30 billion, citing the capital efficiency of its preferred equity programs.

 

Settlement Expected Around May 19

The final repurchase price is still subject to adjustment based on the volume-weighted average price of Strategy's Class A common stock over a designated measurement period, so the $1.38 billion figure could shift modestly before everything closes. Once settlement occurs, expected on or around May 19, the repurchased notes will be cancelled. That leaves approximately $1.5 billion of the 2029 notes still outstanding, implying the company held close to $3 billion in the instrument before this transaction.

 

MSTR shares were down roughly 2% in pre-market trading Friday, moving in line with a broader overnight dip in bitcoin. Analysts note that retiring the notes at a discount reduces future dilution risk, given the gap between the conversion price and current share levels, while also signaling that management is actively managing liabilities rather than simply letting them ride to maturity.

 

For a company that has built its entire identity around bitcoin accumulation, even the possibility of selling BTC to service debt is a nuance worth watching. Whether it stays hypothetical or not will likely depend on how bitcoin trades in the weeks ahead.

 

Charles Schwab, the United States based brokerage and banking firm, has launched Schwab Crypto, a spot crypto trading platform that provides direct access to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) trading, along with educational content and support from experienced professionals for users.

 

 

“We know our clients want to conduct more of their financial lives at Schwab. With Schwab Crypto, clients who want direct access to the asset class can trade it alongside their other investments, while benefiting from the service, education, and research they expect from us,” said Jonathan Craig, Head of Retail Investing at Charles Schwab.

 

The spot trading platform will provide direct trading in BTC and ETH, with more cryptocurrencies to be added in the future as the platform expands. Traders will also be able to view and trade both crypto and non crypto products across all of Schwab’s platforms, including its website, Schwab Mobile, its mobile app, and thinkorswim, its advanced trading platform, with 24/7 professional support available to traders.

 

Through Schwab Coaching, its educational program, Charles Schwab will provide in depth digital assets education and resources, including insights and commentary from the Schwab Center for Financial Research and crypto focused content, all aimed at helping investors understand the digital assets market and how digital assets fit into a broader investing strategy.

 

How Schwab Crypto Works 

Through Charles Schwab Premier Bank (CSPB), Schwab clients will be given a separate crypto account for the purpose of trading on Schwab Crypto, the retail trading platform. However, this account will remain linked to the clients main brokerage accounts, with CSPB serving as the primary custodian of all client digital assets.

 

Paxos, a leading blockchain infrastructure company regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, will be responsible for handling all trade execution and subcustody services.

 

Regarding Paxos’s role, Joe Vietri, Managing Director and Head of Digital Assets at Charles Schwab, said, “Paxos is a strong partner for blockchain infrastructure. Their regulatory standing and digital asset expertise will help us deliver the seamless, integrated experience our clients expect from Schwab.”

 

 

After months of gridlock and four hours of pointed debate, the Senate Banking Committee voted 15-9 to advance the Clarity Act, sending one of the most consequential pieces of financial legislation in recent memory toward a full Senate floor vote. Two Democrats joined all Republicans on the panel in support, a small but symbolically meaningful show of bipartisan backing that industry advocates say could prove decisive when the bill eventually needs 60 votes to pass the full chamber.

 

For the digital asset industry, the vote felt like a long time coming. The bill, formally titled the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, has been kicking around Capitol Hill for well over a year. The fact that it cleared committee at all, given the partisan atmosphere that dominated much of Thursday's hearing, was seen by many in the space as a genuine win.

 

Rules of the Road, Finally

At its core, the Clarity Act tries to solve a problem that has dogged the crypto industry since its earliest days: nobody could quite agree on who was in charge. The SEC and the CFTC have spent years in an uneasy standoff over which agency has jurisdiction over which digital assets, leaving companies in legal limbo and pushing some development offshore. The bill would draw a cleaner line, classifying digital assets as either securities or commodities and assigning oversight accordingly.

 

The market responded before the committee even finished voting. Coinbase surged more than 8% on the session, as investors bet that regulatory clarity could finally unlock the broader institutional participation that has been sitting on the sidelines. Galaxy Digital climbed over 6%. Strategy, the largest corporate bitcoin holder, was up 7%. Bitcoin itself ground higher, hitting session highs near $81,500.

 

"For too long, regulatory uncertainty has sent talent, investment, and innovation overseas, strengthening foreign competitors while leaving American builders without the certainty they need to compete," said Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger, who called the committee vote a "defining moment." Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse was blunter: "If the largest economy in the world is going to lead on crypto, and it must, this is the moment."

 

Still Some Runway Ahead

Thursday's vote was a milestone, but it is not the finish line. The bill still needs to be reconciled with a separate version approved by the Senate Agriculture Committee, and the full Senate will require 60 votes to pass it, meaning a significant number of Democrats will have to come on board. The House passed its own version of the legislation last year, so the two chambers will also need to hammer out a unified text before anything heads to President Trump's desk.

 

The largest outstanding issue is an ethics provision intended to limit government officials, including the president, from profiting off crypto. Democrats have made clear they will not move forward without some version of it, while White House crypto adviser Patrick Witt has said the administration will not tolerate language targeting a specific officeholder. Both sides appeared at least open to finding common ground, with Cody Carbone of the Digital Chamber telling reporters that a deal on the ethics provision is likely a prerequisite for getting the bill to a floor vote at all. The window, several lawmakers noted, is probably August.

 

A Framework Built to Last

What makes the Clarity Act different from the patchwork of guidance and enforcement actions that have defined crypto policy for the past decade is its ambition. It does not try to pigeonhole digital assets into frameworks designed for equities or futures contracts decades ago. It builds something new, with defined registration pathways for digital commodity exchanges, brokers, and dealers, as well as clear definitions covering blockchain applications, protocols, and smart contracts.

 

Ji Hun Kim, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, put it plainly after the vote: "Clear durable rules will help drive greater institutional and retail adoption, support innovation, create more high quality jobs in the U.S., protect Americans, and ensure that our country leads when it comes to digital assets policy and innovation."

 

The GENIUS Act, which passed the full Senate 68-30 last year, showed that comprehensive crypto legislation can attract broad support once the details are sorted. The Clarity Act is a harder lift, covering more ground and touching more competing interests. But Thursday's committee vote suggests the political will is there, and the industry is watching closely.

 

"Durable, lasting digital asset policy must be built on a bipartisan foundation," Mersinger added. By that measure, the Clarity Act is not finished yet. But for the first time in a long while, it looks like it might actually get there.

 

Why This Matters for the Future of Digital Assets

Let's be clear about all of this: Thursday was a great day for anyone who believes that digital assets have a meaningful role to play in the future of finance. I am certainly one of those. Not because the Clarity Act is perfect, and not because it's done, but because it signals something important that has been missing for years: the U.S. government is starting to treat this industry like it's here to stay.

 

The case for optimism goes beyond this single vote. The GENIUS Act passing 68-30 last year proved that stablecoin legislation could attract real bipartisan support. Institutional investment in Bitcoin ETFs has steadily matured. Major financial players who once dismissed crypto as a fringe asset are now building infrastructure around it. The underlying technology, particularly in DeFi and tokenization, keeps advancing regardless of what Washington does. What regulation does is create the conditions for all of that to compound. It clears the path for pension funds, endowments, and large asset managers who have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for legal certainty before committing serious capital.

 

That said, the Senate still has to close the deal, and that is not a given. The remaining sticking points on the ethics provision and law enforcement concerns are real, not just noise. Lawmakers like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand have been consistent that they will not deliver Democratic votes without meaningful conflict-of-interest guardrails, and that is a fair position. The 60-vote threshold means the bill needs to be genuinely bipartisan, not just technically so.

 

On timing, the realistic window is narrower than it might appear. Industry insiders, including Cody Carbone of the Digital Chamber, have pointed to August as a likely deadline if the bill is to move this year. Congress typically slows through the fall ahead of elections, and the legislative calendar fills up fast. That gives negotiators roughly ten to twelve weeks to reconcile the two committee versions, finalize the ethics language, and lock down the 60 votes needed for a floor vote. It is achievable, but it requires both parties to decide they want a deal more than they want a talking point.

 

If it does pass, the long-term impact will be substantial. Clear rules attract capital. Capital attracts builders. Builders create products that bring in users. That cycle, running inside a legitimate regulatory framework and anchored in the world's largest economy, is how digital assets stop being a niche and become infrastructure. You know...that "mass adoption" that people have been talking about for years? Well, this could be it. It might not look like how we all imagined, but what ever really does? Thursday was one huge step in that direction. The Senate now needs to finish what it started and we need to come together to make sure they all know that they need to do just that. Let's get it done.

 

The U.S. Senate confirmed Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, handing President Donald Trump a long-sought win and putting one of the most crypto-sympathetic figures in recent memory at the helm of the world's most powerful central bank.

 

The final tally was 54-45, and it wa a bit too close for comfort. In fact, it was the most partisan confirmation vote for a Fed chair in modern history, with only Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman crossing the aisle to support Warsh's nomination. The near party-line split underscores just how politically charged the Federal Reserve has become under Trump, who spent much of the past year publicly haranguing outgoing Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting rates fast enough.

 

A Confirmation That Almost Wasn't

Getting Warsh to this point was a rocky path. The nomination process stretched over months, at one point stalling entirely when Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) refused to let the confirmation advance until the Justice Department dropped a criminal investigation into Powell. That probe, led by DC U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, centered on alleged cost overruns at the Fed's Washington headquarters. A federal judge had ruled the investigation was essentially a pretext to pressure Powell into cutting rates or resigning.

 

The DOJ eventually closed the probe, clearing the path for Warsh. Though Pirro left the door open to reopening the case if the Fed's inspector general turns up evidence of wrongdoing. For now, the drama is over, and Warsh has his confirmation.

 

What Warsh Means for Crypto

Warsh isn't exactly a crypto maximalist. He has, at times, referred to certain digital asset projects as fraudulent or worthless. But his disclosed investments tell a deeper story. Earlier this year it emerged he holds positions in Polymarket, the decentralized prediction market, and Solana. He has also stated that Bitcoin "does not make me nervous," a phrase that might seem understated but represents a meaningful shift from the posture of most previous Fed leadership.

 

During his Senate confirmation hearing in April, Warsh told Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) that digital assets are "already part of the fabric of our financial services industry" and affirmed he believes they should be incorporated into America's broader financial ecosystem. That was enough for Lummis, one of the most vocal pro-crypto voices in Congress, who said after the vote that digital asset holders "finally have a leader at the Fed who is ready to deliver."

 

The CFTC's chairman Mike Selig, who has defended prediction markets against a string of state-level lawsuits this year, also welcomed the Warsh confirmation, saying he looked forward to working together. That kind of interagency alignment on digital assets would represent a notable departure from the fragmented, sometimes hostile regulatory environment crypto has dealt with in recent years.

 

Juan Leon, a senior investment strategist at Bitwise, put the significance plainly: "Kevin Warsh is the first Fed Chair to endorse Bitcoin and describe it as a useful signal for policymakers, reflecting a shift in institutional legitimacy for crypto. While he's known as an inflation hawk, his stated belief that rates can move lower as a result of AI-driven productivity gains provides a plausible path to more accommodative liquidity conditions for crypto assets."

 

Rate Cuts: Don't Hold Your Breath

Here's where things get complicated. Trump has made no secret of what he expects from Warsh, having reportedly joked earlier this year that he'd sue him if rates don't come down. But market expectations have shifted sharply, and not in the president's favor.

 

Fresh inflation data released Tuesday showed consumer prices rose 3.85% in the 12 months through April, the highest reading since May 2023 and well above the Fed's 2% target. Traders are pricing in essentially no rate cuts for the rest of the year; some are even calling for a hike, largely because energy prices have climbed sharply following escalating tensions in the Middle East that have snarled tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

 

Warsh himself has signaled some openness to easing, particularly if AI-driven productivity gains help cool inflation over time. But he's also a known inflation hawk from his first stint at the Fed between 2006 and 2011, when he was among those who felt post-crisis quantitative easing had gone too far. It's not entirely clear which Warsh shows up to that first FOMC meeting on June 16-17.

 

And it's worth noting: Warsh is just one of 12 votes on the Federal Open Market Committee. Even as chair, he doesn't have unilateral authority over rate decisions. Powell, for his part, will remain on the Fed's Board of Governors after Friday, when his term as chair expires, retaining his FOMC vote. It's an unusual arrangement, last seen nearly 80 years ago, and Powell has been explicit about his motivations: he wants to protect the institution from what he has described as "unprecedented" legal and political pressure.

 

A New Era, With a Lot of Asterisks

Warsh also takes the helm at a Fed dealing with serious internal turbulence. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook is locked in a legal fight with the president, who is trying to remove her on allegations of mortgage fraud, a case now making its way toward the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Warsh will have to divest significant holdings, as he's set to become the wealthiest Fed chair on record, with a portfolio well north of $100 million.

 

Bitcoin barely reacted to the confirmation news, trading around $79,500 in the hours following the Senate vote, according to CoinGecko. But the longer-term implications could be meaningful. Whether or not rate cuts materialize, Warsh's ascent signals a growing institutional acceptance of digital assets at the highest levels of American financial policy. For a sector that has spent years fighting for legitimacy, that's not nothing.

 

Nakamoto, a Bitcoin treasury company listed on the Nasdaq, recently announced the details of its Bitcoin derivatives program, a program designed to generate recurring volatility income from a defined portion of Nakamoto’s Bitcoin holdings while hedging some portion of the company’s downside exposure to Bitcoin price risk.

 

While the Bitcoin derivatives program had already begun in the first quarter of the year, Nakamoto will be partnering with Bitwise Asset Management and the crypto exchange Kraken, with Bitwise running the derivatives strategy and Kraken offering its custody solution that will hold a portion of Nakamoto’s Bitcoin holdings that will be used for the derivatives program.

 

The derivatives program, according to Nakamoto, is aimed at achieving two main objectives: (1) monetizing Bitcoin volatility and (2) mitigating downside risk.

 

By systematically writing covered calls and call spreads against a portion of its Bitcoin holdings, Nakamoto’s Bitcoin derivatives program aims to convert the volatility in the Bitcoin options market into recurring income, which the company says can be reinvested into its Bitcoin treasury or used for its everyday operational costs.

 

The program also aims to mitigate downside risk due to a decline in the Bitcoin price by maintaining a defined allocation of Nakamoto’s Bitcoin holdings to protective puts and put spreads, supporting the stability of Nakamoto’s net asset value and reducing the risk of forced deleveraging, especially during stressed market conditions.

 

"Bitcoin's implied volatility is one of the most persistently mispriced assets in capital markets," said Tyler Evans, chief investment officer of Nakamoto and UTXO Management.

 

"Working with institutional grade partners like Bitwise and Kraken, we have built a disciplined framework to harvest that premium systematically, at scale, and convert that opportunity into long term value for shareholders. This program is just one component of a broader effort to identify and execute on opportunities to generate yield on our Bitcoin holdings."

 

Nakamoto as a Bitcoin Treasury Company

Nakamoto Inc is a publicly traded company that operates a Bitcoin treasury strategy as its core business. The company currently holds approximately 5,342 BTC on its balance sheet, valued at roughly $467.5 million.

 

It made its first major Bitcoin purchase in August 2025 when it purchased 5,743.91 BTC worth approximately $679 million through its subsidiary Nakamoto Holdings. However, it recently sold 284 BTC for $20 million last month, with the proceeds used to support its working capital and fund its business operations.

 

 

Something may have shifted in the Bitcoin market. After months of grinding sideways action and periodic dips that had retail investors questioning their convictions, a handful of closely watched indicators are quietly aligning in the same direction, and it's not bearish.

 

Glassnode's proprietary Risk Index, which quantifies systemic market risk on a scale of 0 to 100, has dropped to zero. That's the floor. The firm's Moderate Strategy tracker has simultaneously flipped from "Moderate" to "High Confidence" for the first time since October 10, a combination analysts at the on-chain data firm are calling a "cleared risk landscape." The last time these two signals aligned, Bitcoin was on the cusp of a significant leg higher.

 

"This is an excellent window for strategic accumulation rather than chasing deeper dips," said Lacie Zhang, research analyst at Bitget Wallet. Zhang added the firm holds "a strong conviction for a positive close to 2026," pointing to improving market structure and mounting institutional confidence as the two pillars that could drive Bitcoin to a fresh all-time high before year-end.

 

 

 

Institutions Are Loading Up, Quietly

While retail sentiment has been mixed at best, institutional players appear to have decided the discount is too good to ignore. Strategy, Michael Saylor's Bitcoin-focused firm, made its largest BTC purchase since late 2024 in April, acquiring 34,164 coins for roughly $2.54 billion at an average price near $74,395. That brings the firm's total stash to over 815,000 BTC, a figure that continues to tighten long-term supply in ways that matter.

 

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs have also recorded five consecutive days of net inflows, with BlackRock's IBIT leading the charge at $256 million in a single session. Cumulative net inflows have now eclipsed $57.98 billion. For a market that spent much of Q1 2026 dealing with outflows and persistent selling pressure, that's a meaningful reversal. Exchange balances are declining, on-chain data shows addresses holding more than 1,000 BTC have grown by roughly 3.2% month-over-month, and stablecoin supply sitting on the sidelines has been creeping higher. The classic setup, in other words.

 

Sentiment Thaws as Geopolitical Clouds Part

It's not just the on-chain picture that's improving. The macro backdrop has started to cooperate too, at least at the margins. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has climbed from "extreme fear" at the start of April to simply "fear," which doesn't sound like much but actually represents a significant thaw in how traders are feeling. Bitcoin briefly touched $79,388 on Wednesday, its highest print in over three months. It is currently sitting just below that around $78,300 at time of writing.

 

Separately, CryptoQuant's Bull Score Index, which blends ten different on-chain metrics, has climbed to a neutral reading of 50 for the first time since Bitcoin was trading above $126,000. Reaching neutral from a structurally bearish position is, in CryptoQuant's framework, confirmation that the bear market may have ended. The bounce from near $60,000 to current levels is, by that measure, something more than a dead-cat rally.

 

Easing tensions in the Middle East are helping too. "As the US-Iran conflict subsides, bullish bets will continue to propel the market upward in the near term," said Jeff Mei, COO at crypto exchange BTSE. Prediction markets appear to agree, with users on one popular platform assigning a 74% probability that Bitcoin extends its rally to $84,000 in the near term.

 

The Path to $80K and Beyond

Analysts are cautiously optimistic about what comes next. A clean break and hold above $80,000 would serve as both a technical and psychological trigger, opening up the road toward $90,000 and ultimately a retest of all-time highs. The technical structure supports it, with Bitcoin forming higher lows through the April consolidation and the MACD histogram beginning to flatten from negative territory.

 

Longer-term forecasts remain ambitious. Standard Chartered carries a $100,000 year-end target, while Bernstein has maintained $150,000, arguing that spot ETFs, corporate treasury adoption, and structured capital products have changed the underlying market structure in ways that make cycle drawdowns shallower and recoveries faster. JPMorgan's volatility-adjusted Bitcoin-to-gold framework puts implied fair value even higher, somewhere north of $170,000.

 

Momentum from Bitcoin’s recent rally could spill into the altcoin market, which could see gains of as much as 60% if Bitcoin continues to rise, according to a crypto analyst.

 

“I think this leg has enough room to continue to $86K, and altcoins to run 30-60% from here,” MN Trading Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said on Thursday. A move to that $86K price would only be a 9% increase.

 

The Risks Haven't Gone Away

That said, nobody credible is calling this a certainty, certainly not this guy...who has been in the space long enough to know that NO ONE has a crystal ball. Glassnode's own data shows 54% of recent buyers are currently sitting in profit, and short-term holders' realized profit has spiked to $4.4 million, three times the $1.5 million level that marked every local top so far in 2026. Those numbers suggest the market is not without vulnerability, particularly in the absence of a fresh demand catalyst.

 

A flare-up in Middle East hostilities, any disruption to oil flows that sparks renewed inflation, and the broader uncertainty around Federal Reserve policy. The potential CLARITY Act, Fed rate cuts, and a lasting geopolitical resolution remain the three catalysts most often cited by analysts as what the market needs to convincingly clear $80,000 and hold.

 

For now, the risk landscape has cleared at the indicator level. Whether the price follows is the only question that matters.

 

Crypto platform Blockchain.com has rolled out a new perpetual futures trading feature within its non-custodial DeFi wallet, allowing traders to open leveraged positions directly from the wallet.

 

The new feature, according to Blockchain.com, allows traders to trade perpetual futures directly where their assets are held, eliminating the need to continuously move or convert funds between exchanges and platforms. Traders on Blockchain.com can now access more than 190 crypto markets with leverage of up to 40x, without futures contracts expiring.

 

 

The newly launched feature is powered by the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid and is aimed at removing friction associated with derivatives and futures trading.

 

"We have spent the last decade focused on making crypto easy and borderless for everyone," said Nic Cary, co-founder and vice chairman of Blockchain.com. "We want to make the jump from holding your crypto to actually using it feel instant," he added. "By letting you fund your account with your own Bitcoin while keeping full control of your keys, we are proving that managing your own money can actually be the easiest way to trade."

 

Some of the features of this new perpetual futures trading offering include real-time pricing, flexible leverage options, and intuitive risk management tools, all designed to operate seamlessly within the wallet interface. Users can open, manage, and close positions while maintaining full control of their private keys.

 

The Perps Space is Extremely Active

Perpetual futures, which involve speculating on the price of an asset using leverage without directly owning that asset, have grown in recent times.

 

According to a report from CryptoQuant, perpetual futures trading volume reached $61.7 trillion in 2025, a 29% increase from the previous year and a 232% increase compared to the $18.6 trillion spot crypto trading volume for that year. There has also been an increase in institutions offering perpetual futures trading.

 

Just this week, prediction market platform Polymarket announced its expansion into perpetual futures trading. Meanwhile, last week, Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, announced it would acquire crypto derivatives platform Bitnomial for up to $550 million, as part of Kraken’s broader strategy to expand into perpetual futures trading.

 

 

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has rolled out crypto-backed loans for users in the United Kingdom, allowing users to borrow USDC against Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Coinbase Wrapped Staked Ether (cbETH) holdings.

 

The launch, announced this Monday, is part of Coinbase’s overall efforts to build a leading financial app in the UK that allows users to invest, manage, and grow their money.

 

 

The loans will be issued through Morpho, a decentralized finance lending protocol on Base, and according to Coinbase, users will be able to borrow up to $5 million in USDC, depending on the amount of Bitcoin and other eligible assets they hold as collateral. Coinbase says the interest rates will vary, depending on market conditions on Base, and that these rates will be set by Morpho.

 

It is also important to note that while there is no fixed repayment schedule for the borrowed loans, borrowers face liquidation risk if the loan-to-value ratio exceeds specific thresholds that will be set by Coinbase.

 

The crypto-backed loans can be accessed through the Coinbase app, where users can choose the amount of USDC they want to borrow and their preferred collateral asset. Once this is done, the pledged collateral will be transferred on-chain to a Morpho smart contract, and the USDC loans will be automatically disbursed to the user’s Coinbase account, which can then be converted to British pounds (GBP).

 

Coinbase Expands Its Crypto Efforts

Coinbase is one of the cryptocurrency exchanges leading development at the intersection of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence (AI).

 

In an X post last weekend, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced that the exchange was testing and integrating two AI agents into Slack and email. These AI agents will serve as virtual workers, able to perform on-chain actions such as holding funds, spending and sending money, trading, and earning yield.

 

This recent development comes shortly after Coinbase launched the x402 Foundation, designed to enhance the use of its x402 protocol as a standard payment protocol for internet native payments.

 

To achieve its “Everything Exchange” goal, Coinbase made a number of significant acquisitions last year, including the acquisition of the Deribit exchange and Echo. The exchange has also rolled out stock and ETF trading in-app for all eligible users, with its most recent rollout in Canada.

 

 

For more than two decades, the $25,000 minimum equity requirement loomed over retail like a barrier to the VIP section of the presitgious Day Traders Club. You either had the cash or you didn't get in. On April, 2026, the SEC quietly pulled that barrier down. The club is now open to all, but with some risks to entry.

 

The commission approved FINRA's sweeping overhaul of Rule 4210, formally eliminating the Pattern Day Trader (PDT) designation that has governed margin accounts since 2001. Under the old framework, any trader who executed four or more same-day round-trips within a rolling five-business-day window got slapped with the PDT label, and with it, a mandatory $25,000 account minimum. Miss that threshold and your broker locked you out until your balance recovered. It was deeply unpopular among smaller retail participants.

 

A Relic From the Dot-Com Era

The rule traces its origins to the wreckage of the dot-com bust. In 2001, regulators watched retail traders pile into overvalued tech stocks on margin, and when the bubble popped, the losses were severe. The $25,000 requirement was meant as a capital buffer, a way of ensuring that anyone placing rapid, leveraged bets had enough cushion to absorb the blowback. And the logic made some sense.

 

What it didn't account for was what markets would look like 25 years later. Commission-free trading arrived. Fractional shares went mainstream. Zero-day-to-expiration options exploded in popularity. According to Cboe Global Markets, 0DTE SPX options averaged 2.3 million contracts daily in 2025 and accounted for 59% of total S&P 500 index options volume, a fivefold jump in three years. Retail traders now represent roughly 50 to 60% of that activity. The old PDT rule wasn't built for any of this. The market has evolved and the rules need to evolve with it.

 

What Replaces It

The new framework ditches the trade-counting approach entirely and moves to a risk-based intraday margin model. Rather than flagging accounts based on how many trades they execute, brokers will now be required to maintain real-time margin calculations tied to a trader's actual position exposure. The SEC has essentially acknowledged what critics argued for years: a trader with $5,000 taking modest, well-hedged positions isn't necessarily more dangerous than one with $50,000 swinging leveraged concentrated bets.

 

FINRA's updated standards mandate that member firms implement algorithmic circuit breakers capable of blocking or liquidating trades the moment an account's margin deficit exceeds its available collateral. It's a more sophisticated system, arguably better calibrated to modern risk than a fixed dollar threshold written when broadband internet was still a luxury.

 

Full rollout across all brokerage platforms is expected to take time, with industry observers projecting implementation timelines stretching from mid-2026 into 2028 for some firms. That said, several retail-focused platforms have already signaled plans to debut PDT-free account structures as early as May 2026. Robinhood shares jumped roughly 7.8% and Webull climbed around 8.9% in the immediate aftermath of the SEC's announcement.

 

The Bitcoin Angle

The PDT rule never technically applied to crypto markets. Bitcoin trades 24/7 on venues that operate outside the traditional brokerage framework, which is why many retail crypto traders have never encountered it. But the practical implications of this regulatory shift for digital assets are hard to ignore.

 

The same retail cohort that speculates in 0DTE options and meme stocks is also the crowd most active in Bitcoin. With the $25,000 barrier removed from traditional markets, that capital doesn't necessarily stay put. Traders newly freed to day trade equities aggressively might also rotate liquidity into crypto, particularly during periods when Bitcoin's intraday swings regularly exceed 3 to 5%. The asset currently trades around $74,500 and commands roughly 59% dominance across a $2.54 trillion crypto market cap.

 

There's also a broader structural point. The PDT elimination signals a new regulatory positioning that favors market access over capital gatekeeping. That's a big shift that is worth watching, particularly as the SEC and other agencies continue to shape how crypto products, broker-dealers, and retail custody arrangements get regulated in the years ahead.

 

Risks Haven't Gone Away

Critics of the rule change aren't hard to find. Consumer protection advocates point out that the $25,000 threshold, whatever its flaws, did filter out inexperienced traders who might otherwise blow up small accounts on leveraged intraday positions. The dynamic margining model is more nuanced, but it also places more responsibility on brokers to enforce risk controls in real time, and on traders to understand what they're actually doing.

 

For firms with institutional-grade margin infrastructure already in place, this is a competitive advantage. For consumer apps that bolted on trading features as an afterthought, meeting the new real-time risk monitoring requirements is going to require meaningful investment. Not every platform is going to get this right immediately.

 

But for retail traders themselves, the opportunity is real, but so is the downside. The PDT rule never stopped people from losing money. It just slowed down how fast some of them could do it. The new framework removes a structural barrier, not the underlying risk of trading frequently in volatile markets with leverage.

 

Bitcoin has always operated on a simple, almost sacred premise: if you hold the private key, you own the coins. No government, no bank, no developer team can touch them. That promise is now being questioned from within, and the debate it has triggered cuts straight to the heart of what Bitcoin actually is.

 

Casa CTO Jameson Lopp and five co-authors formally published BIP-361 to Bitcoin's official GitHub repository on Tuesday. The proposal, titled "Post Quantum Migration and Legacy Signature Sunset," outlines a three-phase plan to migrate coins off quantum-vulnerable addresses. Wallets that do not migrate within the designated window would have their funds frozen at the consensus layer, meaning the network itself would prevent any movement of those coins. A bit frightening and something this author never thought he would be writing about. Bitcoin freezing coins. A very slippery slope.

 

What Is Actually at Risk

Roughly 34% of all Bitcoin in circulation sits in early Pay-to-Public-Key addresses where the public key is fully exposed on-chain. That includes what most analysts believe to be Satoshi Nakamoto's estimated 1.1 million BTC, worth around $74 billion at current prices. Zoom out further and Lopp estimates that approximately 5.6 million Bitcoin, worth somewhere in the range of $420 billion, has not moved in over a decade and is likely lost.

 

The cryptographic concern here is real, even if the timeline is still fuzzy. Bitcoin's current security relies on elliptic curve math. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer running Shor's algorithm could theoretically work backward from an exposed public key to derive the private key, handing an attacker complete control of the wallet. Google flagged 2029 as a plausible threat horizon in a recent report, warning that quantum progress may be "closer than may appear."

 

The more immediate concern Lopp is raising is not technical, it is psychological. "If there is any credible evidence that anyone has the capability to recover lost or vulnerable coins with a quantum computer, you should expect a massive market panic immediately," he told CoinDesk. "It doesn't even require a massive market dump." Rational holders, he argued, would exit the system before confidence in the blockchain can be restored.

 

How BIP-361 Would Actually Work

The proposal is structured in three phases that only kick off after a companion proposal, BIP-360, is activated. BIP-360, which introduces quantum-resistant address types via a new pay-to-Merkle-root transaction format, entered testnet implementation through BTQ Technologies in early 2026.

 

Phase A would arrive roughly three years after BIP-360 activation. At that point, wallets would be blocked from sending new funds to legacy address types. Users could still move coins out of vulnerable addresses, but nothing could flow in. Phase B arrives two years after that, invalidating all legacy signatures at the consensus level. Any Bitcoin still sitting in unmigrated addresses at that point becomes effectively frozen and unspendable under network rules.

 

Phase C, still under research, would offer a last-resort recovery mechanism. Using zero-knowledge proofs tied to a BIP-39 seed phrase, holders who missed the deadline could potentially prove ownership of frozen funds without ever exposing a private key. That said, no activation timeline has been set, and the proposal remains in draft status.

 

Even the Author Says He Does Not Want This to Happen

Lopp has been unusually candid about his own ambivalence. In a post to X after the proposal dropped, he wrote: "I know folks don't like BIP-361. I don't like it myself. I wrote it because I like the alternative even less." He told Cointelegraph separately that the proposal is "a rough sketch" and is "not currently in a position to be adopted." He is, in his own framing, thinking adversarially about a potential future threat rather than lobbying for immediate change.

 

He has used stronger language in the past. In a blog post from early 2025, Lopp described quantum computer operators recovering dormant coins as "vampires feeding upon the system," arguing they trade nothing of value and simply extract from an ecosystem they did not build.

 

The Community Is Pushing Back Hard

The response from the Bitcoin community has been swift and, in many corners, hostile. Bitcoin Magazine editor Brian Trollz rejected the proposal outright. TFTC founder Marty Bent called it "laughable." Phil Geiger of Metaplanet put it bluntly: "We have to steal people's money to prevent their money from being stolen."

 

Frederic Fosco, co-founder of Bitcoin metaprotocol OP_NET, told Decrypt the proposal turns Bitcoin's founding promise on its head. A protocol-enforced freeze "is confiscation, full stop," Fosco said. "The second you cross that line, you've built a system that can freeze any coins for any reason deemed important enough by whoever controls the next soft fork."

 

Blockstream CEO Adam Back, speaking at Paris Blockchain Week on Wednesday, staked out a different path. He argued that Bitcoin should start adding optional quantum-resistant features now, while leaving any forced migration decisions to the future. Back suggested Bitcoin's rough-consensus governance has historically been capable of rapid emergency coordination, pointing out that critical bugs have been patched within hours when the threat was real and visible.

 

The divide is real and it is not going away. On one side sits a developer community that wants to get ahead of a threat that could, if realized, crater confidence in the largest cryptocurrency on earth. On the other side are holders and advocates who see any network-enforced freeze, however well-intentioned, as a precedent that fundamentally rewrites what Bitcoin is. BIP-361 has no activation timeline and depends on a separate proposal that has not yet been adopted. But the conversation it has forced is one Bitcoin will eventually have to finish.

 

Most Fed chair nominations generate debate about interest rate philosophy, inflation targets, and balance sheet management. Kevin Warsh's confirmation is going to involve a lot of that, sure, but it is also going to involve a fairly lengthy conversation about DeFi lending protocols, Ethereum Layer 2 networks, and a Bitcoin Lightning Network startup.

 

Warsh, President Trump's nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, cleared the last bureaucratic hurdle before his Senate confirmation hearing when he submitted his required financial disclosure to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. The filing reveals combined assets with his wife of at least $192 million. But it's the crypto positions scattered throughout the document, held through a web of venture fund structures, that are drawing the most attention from the digital asset industry right now.

 

Not Just A Casual Holder

Warsh did not just pick up some bitcoin through a Coinbase account during the 2021 bull run and forget about it. Through two fund structures, DCM Investments 10 LLC (via a vehicle called Abstract Holdings) and a series of funds labeled AVF I, AVF II, AVF III, and AVGF I and II, he holds equity positions in more than two dozen blockchain and digital asset companies. The breadth is notable: DeFi lending, decentralized derivatives, Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks, prediction markets, crypto neobanks, and Bitcoin payments infrastructure.

 

On the DeFi and trading side, the portfolio includes Compound, one of the foundational algorithmic crypto lending protocols, alongside dYdX, a decentralized derivatives exchange, and Lighter, a decentralized exchange protocol. On the infrastructure side, he has exposure to Solana, the high-throughput Layer 1 blockchain, Optimism and Blast, two Ethereum scaling networks, and Zero Gravity, a Layer 2 AI blockchain platform. Bitcoin-specific holdings include Flashnet, a Lightning Network trading platform, and a direct position in the Lightning Network itself.

 

There are also positions in Polychain and Scalar Capital, two prominent crypto investment firms, plus Polymarket, the prediction market platform, and several crypto-enabled neobanks including OnJuno and Lemon Cash. Rounding it out: Dapper Labs (best known for NBA Top Shot), Friends With Benefits, a Web3 community platform, and Crossmint, an NFT developer tools company. Warsh also previously held a stake in Bitwise Asset Management, the issuer of one of the spot Bitcoin ETFs, though that position does not appear in the current filing.

 

Selling liquid token positions is straightforward. Unwinding LP stakes in Polychain or venture fund structures is not, and federal ethics rules generally impose a one-year cooling-off period on matters directly affecting recently divested financial interests. That creates a potentially awkward situation given what the Fed has on its plate.

 

Congress is actively working through stablecoin legislation that would define which institutions can issue and custody stablecoins, directly affecting DeFi protocols and crypto neobanks of the type in Warsh's portfolio. The Fed's supervisory stance on whether banks can custody digital assets remains one of the most contested open questions in the industry. And while political appetite for a U.S. CBDC has cooled considerably, the Fed's ongoing research in that area intersects with the payment network infrastructure Warsh holds exposure to through Lightning Network and Solana.

 

Could Be Some Complications

The broader financial profile adds another layer. Warsh earned $10.2 million in consulting fees from Duquesne Family Office, the investment arm of Stanley Druckenmiller, one of the more prominent macro investors in the crypto space. Additional consulting income came from GoldenTree Asset Management ($1.55 million), Cerberus Capital Management ($750,000), and Brevan Howard ($750,000), all firms with meaningful digital asset trading operations. His speaking fee circuit in just the first half of 2025 alone topped $780,000 from firms including TPG, State Street, and Warburg Pincus. Combined with spouse Jane Lauder's estimated $1.9 billion net worth, Warsh would enter the Fed as one of the wealthiest chairs in the institution's modern history.

 

Senate Banking Committee chair Tim Scott said Tuesday that a confirmation hearing is scheduled for next week. However, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina is blocking any final vote until the Justice Department drops its criminal investigation of current Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term expires May 15. The crypto portfolio will almost certainly come up in questioning.

 

On one hand, a Fed chair who has personally sought out exposure to DeFi protocols and blockchain infrastructure is unlikely to approach crypto with the indifference or hostility that has characterized past leadership. On the other, the mandatory divestiture and recusal obligations could actively limit his ability to influence policy in the industry's favor during his first year in office, precisely when some of the most consequential regulatory decisions are expected to land. It is a double-edged sword, and the confirmation hearing will be the first real test of how Warsh plans to navigate it.