Decentral Block Post

Google will begin enforcing stricter advertising policies for cryptocurrency services in Europe under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, the company said in a recent policy update.

The move could be a “double-edged sword” for regulation that may prevent initial coin offering (ICO) frauds, but risks further enforcement gaps, according to legal advisers.

Starting April 23, cryptocurrency exchanges and crypto wallet advertising in Europe must be licensed under Europe’s MiCA framework or under the Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) regulation.

Crypto advertisers on Google will also have to comply with “local legal requirements,” including “national-level restrictions or requirements beyond MiCA” and be “certified by Google,” according to a March 24 Google policy announcement.

The new advertising policy will apply to most European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Policy violations “won’t lead to immediate account suspensions,” as a warning will be issued at least seven days before any account suspensions, added Google’s policy update.

Mantra’s OM (OM) token staged a sharp rebound after plunging 90% over the weekend, following an active response from the project’s team addressing allegations of a rug pull scam.

OM bounces 200% as co-founder addresses concerns

As of April 14, OM was trading for as high as $1.10, almost 200% higher than its post-crash low of $0.37 a day prior.

OM/USDT daily price chart. Source: TradingView

The rebound came after Mantra addressed rug-pull allegations.

Co-founder JP Mullin reassured the community that the project remains active, pointing to the official Telegram group being “still online.”

Bitcoin (BTC) is holding down the fort as the US trade war rages on into the third week of April.

BTC price action attempts to overcome a long-term resistance trend line without success as trade war concerns dictate traders’ expectations.

Tariffs are the key macroeconomic topic of the week as risk assets brace for potential surprise headlines.

Bitcoin ETFs lost almost $800 million in a week, while Strategy indicates it has purchased the dip.

Despite tariff pressures, the weakness of the US dollar could be a blessing in disguise for Bitcoin and risky assets.

Andrew Kang, founder of the crypto venture firm Mechanism Capital, has seemingly doubled down on his bet that Bitcoin will gain in price with a $200 million long position, onchain data shows. 

“Andrew Kang just doubled his Bitcoin position,” crypto analytics firm Arkham said in an April 12 X post. It explained a crypto address tied to Kang made another $100 million long bet on Bitcoin (BTC) with an expected profit, or loss, of $6.8 million.

On April 9, Arkham noted that the Kang-tied wallet had put on a $100 million leverage-long bet on Bitcoin after US President Donald Trump posted to his Truth Social platform earlier the same day that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT.”

Source: Arkham

Just hours later, the Trump administration announced a 90-day pause on its global hiked tariff regime, which sent crypto and stocks rallying. The tariffs, first unveiled on April 2, had gone live just hours earlier and had tanked most financial markets.

The team behind real-world tokenized asset blockchain Mantra says its native token’s sudden 90% plunge was caused by exchanges forcibly closing positions without notice, with one currently unnamed exchange potentially to blame. 

On April 13, Mantra (OM) price dropped from $6.30 to below $0.50, rapidly shedding over 90% of its $6 billion market cap.

“We have determined that the OM market movements were triggered by reckless forced closures initiated by centralized exchanges on OM account holders,” Mantra co-founder John Mullin wrote in an April 13 statement on X.

“The timing and depth of the crash suggest that a very sudden closure of account positions was initiated without sufficient warning or notice,” he added. 

Source: John Mullin

Crypto markets have been fairly stable amid wider market panic caused by US President Donald Trump’s “on-again, off-again” sweeping global tariffs, according to a New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) analyst.

“Despite the carnage in traditional financial markets, the crypto markets have been relatively orderly,” NYDIG global head of research Greg Cipolaro said in an April 11 note. “Historically, in broad risk-off moves, we tend to see stresses show up in crypto markets. We have yet to see that.”

Cipolaro said crypto perpetual futures rates have “been persistently positive,” with liquidations spiking on April 6 and 7 in the days after Trump first announced the tariffs on April 2 but only to a total of $480 million, which he added “was well below other notable liquidation events.”

He noted that the price of Tether (USDT), a US dollar-tracking stablecoin widely used token in crypto trading, was below $1 but had “not experienced a sharp decline.” 

Trump unveiled a sweeping tariff regime on April 2 that lumped various levies on every country before pausing them for 90 days just hours after they came into effect on April 9 and instead charging a base tariff of 10%, besides China, which currently has tariffs of up to 145%.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin argues it’s Ethereum’s application layer, not its infrastructure layer, where Ethereum needs “good social philosophy” the most.

The app layer is where developers build decentralized applications on top of Ethereum’s base infrastructure and where they make decisions about how these programs operate. 

In an April 12 post on the social media platform Warpcast, Buterin responded to a user’s argument that Ethereum needs a new generation of developers rooted in Ethereum’s core values to renew itself. He argued that it’s the app layer that needs this more.

“Apps are 80% special purpose. What apps you build depends heavily on what ideas you have of what Ethereum apps, and Ethereum as a whole, are there to do for the world. And so having good ideas on this topic out there becomes crucially important,” Buterin said. 

Source: Vitalik Buterin

The Trump family-backed crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) has added 4.89 million SEI tokens valued at $775,000 to its portfolio, according to onchain data.

Data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence shows the purchase was made on April 12 by one of WLFI’s trading wallets using USDC transferred from the project’s main wallet. It’s the same trading wallet previously used by WLFI to accumulate other altcoins.

WLFI holds a diversified portfolio, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and a larger number of altcoins, such as Tron (TRX), Ondo Finance (ONDO), Avalanche (AVAX) and now Sei (SEI).

According to blockchain researcher Lookonchain, WLFI has spent a total of $346.8 million accumulating 11 different tokens, but as of April 12, it has yet to see a profit on any of them. The project’s Ethereum investments alone are currently down over $114 million. 

Overall, Lookonchain says WLFI’s portfolio is down $145.8 million.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick walked back the recent reciprocal tariff exemption on select electronics announced in an April 12 bulletin from the United States Customs and Border Protection.

On April 13, Lutnick told ABC News that the reciprocal tariff exemption was temporary until the administration established a sector tariff regime for semiconductor products, which includes phones, graphics processors, and computing chips in a "month or two." Lutnick added:

"President Trump has called out pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and autos. He called them sector tariffs, and those are not available for negotiation. They are just going to be part of making sure we ensure core national security items are made in this country."

"We can't be relying on China for fundamental things we need. Our medicines and our semiconductors need to be built in America," Lutnick continued. The official also said he was confident that the US and China would arrive at a trade deal through negotiations.

The emphasis on national security and onshoring critical industries could signal that the trade tariffs will be a long-term geostrategic policy and not simply a short-term negotiation tactic to make US exports more attractive, as some analysts have suggested.

The Volatility S&P Index (VIX), a measure of the S&P stock index’s volatility, remains elevated amid macroeconomic uncertainty. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin (BTC) made a brilliant comeback this week, rising more than 7%, indicating solid buying at lower levels. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said in a post on X that the US bond market crisis could be setting the stage for more policy response, and that could result in an “up only mode” for Bitcoin.

Blockchain and intelligence platform Glassnode said in a post on X that Bitcoin had built solid support at $79,000, with roughly 40,000 Bitcoin accumulated there. Bollinger Bands creator John Bollinger also echoed similar views. In a post on X, Bollinger said that Bitcoin was forming a “classic Bollinger Band W bottom,” but it needed confirmation.

Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360

Market participants will be closely watching the performance of the US dollar index (DXY), which is trading below the 100 level. Any further weakness in the US dollar could be bullish for Bitcoin. 

If Bitcoin manages to hold on to the higher levels, it is likely to boost the sentiment in the cryptocurrency sector. That could trigger a recovery in select altcoins. What are the cryptocurrencies that may benefit from Bitcoin’s strength?   

The price of the Mantra (OM) token, the native cryptocurrency of the Mantra real-world tokenized asset blockchain, has collapsed by over 90% in the last 24 hours.

On April 13, Mantra fell from a price of approximately $6.3 to below $0.50 and shed over 90% of its $6 billion market cap.

Some traders characterized the token collapse as an apparent rug pull. Market investor Gordon wrote: "[The] team needs to address this or OM looks like it could head to zero, biggest rug pull since LUNA/FTX?"

However, the exact reason for the collapse of the OM token's price is not clear at the time of this writing. Cointelegraph reached out to the Mantra team for comment on the OM token collapse but did not receive an answer by the time of publication.

The incident follows several high-profile token collapses and cybersecurity incidents, including the Libra memecoin implosion and the $1.4 billion Bybit hack, responsible for billions of dollars in investor losses during the first few months of 2025.

Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor has signaled that the company plans to acquire more Bitcoin (BTC) following a nearly two-week pause in purchases.

The company's most recent acquisition of 22,048 Bitcoin on March 31 brought its total holdings to 528,185 BTC.

According to SaylorTracker, Strategy's BTC investment is up by approximately 24%, representing over $8.6 billion in unrealized gains.

Strategy continues to accumulate BTC amid the recent market downturn that took Bitcoin's price below the $80,000 level, and the company continues to be closely monitored by BTC investors as a barometer for institutional interest in BTC.

Strategy’s Bitcoin purchase history. Source: SaylorTracker

Opinion by: Max Giammario, founder and CEO of Kindred

The interfaces and user experience in Web3 tools are terrible, even more so when compared to their Web2 counterparts. This lackluster experience for Web3 is losing the attention of as many users as desired, and with how fast the ecosystem moves, these shortcomings are rarely paid attention to.

AI agents can be an excellent tool to overcome these weaknesses. Their potential to improve development and user experience is remarkable, although it has yet to reach its real potential. Once combined with emotional AI, which will enable us to understand contexts beyond their programming, we will see a quantum leap from Web3 tools to ordinary users.

Web3’s learning curve is very steep

Consider your first interactions with a Web3 wallet — a scary, difficult experience. Many people fear that, at any moment, they could make a mistake, which could mean losing money. This situation can be less uncomfortable if we add agents with emotional AI that can guide new users and provide personalized support, keeping people at ease during their learning process.

If the first interaction with Web3 is seamless in this way, adoption could grow. A better user experience would be a win-win for the entire industry, which suffers from having few users. Reaching a level of adoption of a Web2 tool would be a win for the ecosystem.

Bitcoin (BTC) hit an eleven-day high on April 13 as the crypto market relief rally closely tracked US financial policy changes.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Bitcoin traders say brace for more volatility

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $86,000 for the first time since April 2.

The pair had reacted well to news that US President Donald Trump had decided to exclude certain key products from his ongoing trade tariffs against China.

Traditional markets are closed on weekends —creating lower-liquidity trading in crypto markets and raising the chance for price volatility— with Bitcoin subsequently dropping under $84,000.

Lomond School, a private institution in Scotland, will begin accepting Bitcoin for tuition payments and is collaborating with Bitcoin author Saifedean Ammous to introduce a new curriculum focused on Bitcoin and Austrian economics.

Ammous, author of The Bitcoin Standard, is developing an educational curriculum combining the principles of Bitcoin (BTC) and Austrian economics.

“I'm going to be working with Lomond School to develop a curriculum for bitcoin and Austrian economics,” Ammous wrote in an April 12 X post, sharing his excitement for “making the material widely available worldwide.”

Source: Saifedean Ammous

Lomond School Principal Claire Chisholm confirmed the collaboration on April 12, writing that she was “thrilled to be working with Dr. Ammous” and appreciative of the “positivity of the Bitcoin community.”

A non-fungible token (NFT) trader could face up to six years in prison after pleading guilty to underreporting nearly $13 million in profits from trading CryptoPunks, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

Waylon Wilcox, 45, admitted to filing false income tax returns for the 2021 and 2022 tax years. The former CryptoPunk investor pleaded guilty on April 9 to two counts of filing false individual income tax returns, federal prosecutors said in an April 11 press release.

Back in April 2022, Wilcox filed a false individual income tax return for the tax year 2021, which underreported his income tax by roughly $8.5 million and reduced his tax due by approximately $2.1 million.

In October 2023, Wilcox filed another false individual tax income return for the fiscal year of 2022, underreporting his income tax by an estimated $4.6 million and reducing his tax due by nearly $1.1 million.

Wilcox pleads guilty to false tax filing, press release. Source: Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania

AI is transforming how people interact with financial markets, and cryptocurrency trading is no exception. With tools like OpenAI’s Custom GPTs, it is now possible for beginners and enthusiasts to create intelligent trading bots capable of analyzing data, generating signals and even executing trades.

This guide analyzes the fundamentals of building a beginner-friendly AI crypto trading bot using Custom GPTs. It covers setup, strategy design, coding, testing and important considerations for safety and success.

What is a custom GPT?

A custom GPT (generative pretrained transformer) is a personalized version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It can be trained to follow specific instructions, work with uploaded documents and assist with niche tasks, including crypto trading bot development.

These models can help automate tedious processes, generate and troubleshoot code, analyze technical indicators and even interpret crypto news or market sentiment, making them ideal companions for building algorithmic trading bots.

What you’ll need to get started

Before creating a trading bot, the following components are necessary:

Bitcoin (BTC) holders were the first to point out flaws in the United States economic data and position themselves for the potential upside, says crypto entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano.

“Bitcoiners were the first large-scale group to recognize the economic data was wrong, and they figured out a way to financially capture upside if they were right,” Pompliano said in an April 12 X post.

Pompliano foresees more will realize data is “inaccurate”

“The unspoken secret as to why so many finance folks are wrong in their analysis of the tariffs is because the finance folks believe the government data,” he added.

Amid the widespread uncertainty and ongoing fear over US President Donald Trump’s imposed tariffs, Pompliano questioned the accuracy of US inflation figures, job numbers, and GDP statistics. He added that “eventually everyone else will realize the data is inaccurate.”

It comes after Pompliano pointed out in a March 20 LinkedIn post, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s appearance on the All-In podcast, where Bessent was asked directly if he trusted the data — and replied, “no.”

Crypto gaming and gambling campaigns are the most expensive way to acquire users with existing crypto wallets, ranking highest in cost among all sectors of the crypto industry, recent data shows.

“Gaming and gambling campaigns are the most expensive, with a median CPW of $8.74 and a lower quartile of $3.40,” Web3 marketing firm Addressable co-founder Asaf Nadler said in a recent report posted on X. CPW, or cost per wallet, is deemed a higher “quality” metric because it tracks the cost of website visitors with a crypto wallet already installed in their browser.

“Higher churn” rate may be to blame

Nadler previously told Cointelegraph that their analysis data showed that users with a wallet are more likely to convert to crypto products.

CPW across different regions during the bull markets in Q1 an Q4 of 2024. Source: Asaf Nadler

Nadler said the high cost-to-return ratio of crypto gaming and gambling might be due to “higher churn, speculative behavior, and intense competition.” He added:

Senator Tim Scott, the chairman of the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, recently said that he expects a crypto market bill to be passed into law by August 2025.

The chairman also noted the Senate Banking Committee's advancement of the GENIUS Act, a comprehensive stablecoin regulatory bill, in March 2025, as evidence that the committee prioritizes crypto policy. In a statement to Fox News, Scott said:

"We must innovate before we regulate — allowing innovation in the digital asset space to happen here at home is critical to American economic dominance across the globe."

Scott's timeline for a crypto market structure bill lines up with expectations from Kristin Smith, CEO of the crypto industry advocacy group Blockchain Association, of market structure and stablecoin legislation being passed into law by August.

The Trump administration has emphasized that comprehensive crypto regulations are central to its plans for protecting the value of the US dollar and establishing the country as a global leader in digital assets by attracting investment into US-based crypto firms.

Senator Tim Scott highlights the Senate Banking Committee’s goals and accomplishments in 2025. Source: Fox News

The US Social Security Administration (SSA) will move all public communications to the X social media platform amid sweeping workforce cuts recommended by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by X owner Elon Musk.

According to anonymous sources who spoke with WIRED, the government agency will no longer issue its customary letters and press releases to communicate changes to the public, instead relying on X as its primary form of public-facing communication.

The shift comes as the SSA downsizes its workforce from 57,000 employees to roughly 50,000 to reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. The agency issued this statement in February 2025:

“SSA has operated with a regional structure consisting of 10 offices, which is no longer sustainable. The agency will reduce the regional structure in all agency components down to four regions. The organizational structure at Headquarters also is outdated and inefficient.”

Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, has accused the Social Security system of distributing billions of dollars in wrongful payments, a claim echoed by the White House. Musk's comments sparked intense debate about the future of the retirement program and sustainable government spending.

Source: Elon Musk

United States President Donald Trump has exempted an array of tech products including, smartphones, chips, computers, and select electronics from reciprocal tariffs, giving the tech industry a much-needed respite from trade pressures.

According to the US Customs and Border Protection, storage cards, modems, diodes, semiconductors, and other electronics were also excluded from the ‘reciprocal’ trade tariffs.

"Large-cap technology companies will ultimately come out ahead when this is all said and done," The Kobeissi letter wrote in an April 12 X post.

US Customs and Border Protection announces tariff exemptions on select tech products. Source: US Customs and Border Protection

The tariff relief will take the pressure off of tech stocks, which were one of the biggest casualties of the trade war. Crypto markets are correlated with tech stocks and could also rally as risk appetite increases on positive trade war headlines.

Opinion by: Jack Lu, CEO of BounceBit

For years, crypto has promised a more open and efficient financial system. A fundamental inefficiency remains: the disconnect between US capital markets and Asia’s liquidity hubs.

The United States dominates capital formation, and its recent embrace of tokenized treasuries and real-world assets signals a significant step toward blockchain-based finance. Meanwhile, Asia has historically been a global crypto trading and liquidity hub despite evolving regulatory shifts. These two economies operate, however, in silos, limiting how capital can move seamlessly into digital assets.

This isn’t just an inconvenience — it’s a structural weakness preventing crypto from becoming a true institutional asset class. Solving it will cause a new era of structured liquidity, making digital assets more efficient and attractive to institutional investors.

The capital bottleneck holding crypto back

Inefficiency between US capital markets and Asian crypto hubs stems from regulatory fragmentation and a lack of institutional-grade financial instruments.

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, former CEO of Binance, has denied claims that he agreed to provide evidence against Tron founder Justin Sun as part of a plea deal with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ).

In an April 11 report, The Wall Street Journal cited unnamed sources alleging that CZ had agreed to testify against Sun under the terms of his settlement with US prosecutors.

“As part of Zhao’s plea deal, he agreed to give evidence on Sun to prosecutors,” an “arrangement” that “hasn’t previously been reported,” the WSJ report stated, citing sources familiar with the matter.

“WSJ is really TRYING here. They seem to have forgotten who went to prison and who didn't,” Zhao wrote in an April 12 X post. “People who become gov witnesses don’t go to prison. They are protected. I heard someone paid WSJ employees to smear me.”

Source: Changpeng Zhao

An investor has sold a CryptoPunk non-fungible token (NFT) at a nearly $10 million realized loss, reflecting the continued decline in the once-booming blue-chip NFT market.

A whale, or large cryptocurrency investor, sold a CryptoPunk NFT for 4,000 Ether (ETH) worth more than $6 million at the time of writing.

The investor originally purchased the NFT for 4,500 ETH, or roughly $15.7 million, a year ago, according to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain.

“Did he only lose 500 $ETH($774K)? No—he actually lost $9.73M!” Lookonchain wrote in an X post. “When he bought it, $ETH was trading at $3,509. By the time he sold, $ETH had dropped 57%,” the platform added.

CryptoPunk buy and sell. Source: Arkham Intelligence / Lookonchain

Bitcoin remains on track to surpass $1.8 million by 2035 despite recent price corrections and waning investor appetite caused by ongoing global trade tensions, according to Joe Burnett, director of market research at Unchained.

Speaking during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction live show on X, Burnett said that Bitcoin is still in a long-term bullish cycle and could potentially rival or surpass gold’s $21 trillion market capitalization within the next decade.

Despite tariff uncertainty limiting risk appetite among investors, research analysts remain optimistic about Bitcoin’s (BTC) long-term prospects for the next decade.

“When I think about where Bitcoin will be in 10 years, there are two models I admire,” Burnett said. “One is the parallel model, which suggests that Bitcoin will be about $1.8 million in 2035.” “The other is Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin 24 model, which suggests Bitcoin will be $2.1 million by 2035.”

Burnett emphasized that both are “good base cases,” adding that Bitcoin’s trajectory could exceed these predictions depending on broader macroeconomic factors.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and crypto exchange Binance have asked a US federal judge for an additional two-month pause in their nearly two-year legal battle.

“Since the Court stayed this case, the Parties have been in productive discussions, including discussions concerning how the efforts of the crypto task force may impact the SEC’s claims,” both parties said in an April 11 joint status report with the US District Court for the District of Columbia.

SEC requests Binance to agree to the extension

According to the filing, the SEC requested and Binance agreed to another 60-day extension as the regulator continues to seek permission to “approve any resolution or changes to the scope of this litigation.”

“The Defendants agreed that continuing the stay is appropriate and in the interest of judicial economy,” the filing said.

The request comes not long after the SEC dropped a string of crypto-related lawsuits against crypto exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini, as well as Robinhood and Consenys.

Tron founder Justin Sun says he’s unaware of the recent rumors surrounding former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, following reports alleging that Zhao provided evidence against him as part of his plea deal with the US Department of Justice (DoJ).

“I’m not aware of the circulating rumors. CZ is both my mentor and a close friend,” Sun said in an April 11 X post.

Sun brushes off CZ rumors

“He has played a crucial role in supporting me during my entrepreneurial journey,” Sun added.

Sun’s X post came just hours after speculation grew over an April 11 Wall Street Journal report, which alleged that Zhao agreed to provide evidence on Sun as part of his plea deal, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Source: db

A fast-tracked temporary crypto regulatory framework could bolster innovation within the US crypto industry while permanent regulations are still in the works, says acting US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Mark Uyeda.

“A time-limited, conditional exemptive relief framework for registrants and non-registrants could allow for greater innovation with blockchain technology within the United States in the near term,” Uyeda said at the SEC’s April 11 Crypto Task Force roundtable titled “Between a Block and a Hard Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading.”

Relief measures may address immediate challenges

Uyeda said this might be the short-term answer as the SEC works toward a “long-term solution,” at the roundtable with SEC members and crypto industry executives, including Uniswap Labs’ Katherine Minarik, Cumberland DRW’s Chelsea Pizzola, and Coinbase’s Gregory Tusar.

He flagged state-by-state regulation of crypto trading as a concern, warning it could lead to a “patchwork of state licensing regimes.”

Uyeda said that a favorable federal regulatory framework would ease the burden for market participants wishing to offer tokenized securities and non-security crypto assets, allowing them to operate under a single SEC license instead of navigating “fifty different state licenses.”