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United States securities laws are not flexible enough to account for digital assets, as evidenced by the parade of crypto-native companies that have tried and failed to get into the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) good graces, Rodrigo Seira, special counsel to Cooley LLP, told a House Committee hearing on April 9.

The hearing, titled American Innovation and the Future of Digital Assets Aligning the U.S. Securities Laws for the Digital Age, featured Seira, WilmerHale partner Tiffany J. Smith, Polygon chief legal officer Jake Werrett and Alexandra Thorn, a senior director at the Center for American Progress.

“It is clear that the current securities regulatory framework is not a viable option to regulate crypto. It fails to achieve its stated policy goals,” Seira said in his opening remarks. “[T]he idea that crypto projects can come in and register with the SEC is demonstrably false.”

Cooley LLP special counsel Rodrigo Seira addresses the committee on April 9. Source: House Committee on Financial Services

Seira acknowledged that crypto promoters who raise capital for a new enterprise should be subject to federal securities laws. 

As markets reel from geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty, Bitcoin has shown relative resilience during events like Trump’s recent tariff bombshells, according to Blockstream CEO Adam Back.

While in the short term, Bitcoin (BTC) may move in tandem with stocks and other risk-on assets, Back sees the long-term trend telling a different story.

“Bitcoin is fully decoupled because it's gone up five or six times since the bottom of the market three years ago,” he said during an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph at Paris Blockchain Week.

Back, who is one of the original cypherpunks and a key contributor to Bitcoin’s early development, predicts strong adoption tailwinds for BTC: regulatory clarity, institutional interest, and the legitimizing force of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). He notes that while most long-term holders are already “all in” and unable to buy dips, entities like BlackRock and sovereign wealth funds are stepping in, quietly absorbing supply.

The Blockstream CEO also touches on the geopolitical dimension, discussing a scenario in which governments may begin actively acquiring Bitcoin. “If the US government doesn't go on a buying spree and buy 1 million Bitcoin over the next five years, that gives more time for the new entrants who've got access finally through brokers and through the ETFs to build up the Bitcoin position.”

Opinion by: Sergej Kunz, co-founder of 1inch

Institutional players have been closely watching decentralized finance’s growth. Creating secure and compliant DeFi platforms is the only solution to build trust and attract more institutions.

Clear waters attract big ships

Over the past four years, institutional DeFi adoption has gone from 10% of hedge funds to 47%, and is projected to rise to 65% in 2025. Goldman Sachs is reaching their arms to DeFi for bond issuance and yield farming. 

Early adopters are already positioning themselves in onchain finance, including Visa, which has processed over $1 billion in crypto transactions since 2021 and is now testing cross-border payments. In the next two years, institutional adoption will speed up. A compliant regulatory framework that maintains DeFi’s core benefits is necessary for institutional adoption to engage confidently. 

DeFi’s institutional trilemma

It is no secret that many DeFi security exploits happen every year. The recent Bybit hack reported a $1.4 billion loss. The breach occurred through a transfer process that was vulnerable to attack. Attacks like these raise concerns about multisignature wallets and blind signing. This happens when users approve transactions without full details, rendering blind signing a significant risk. This case calls for stronger security measures and improvements in user experience.

Bitcoin (BTC) price made a swift move to $78,300 at the April 9 Wall Street open as “herd-like” price action in equities markets continued to spook risk-asset traders.

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

Bitcoin gyrates as stocks make history

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD retargeting five-month lows under $75,000 before rebounding leading into the NY trading session.

A deepening US-China trade war kept stocks on their toes, having cost Bitcoin the $80,000 mark the day prior.

Highly unusual market behavior had accompanied US tariff announcements, and China’s response with reciprocal tariffs saw the S&P 500 smash records with its roundtrip from lows to highs and back.

Binance is launching a new “reward-bearing margin asset” LDUSDt, which the company says is not a stablecoin.

According to an April 9 announcement, LDUSDt can be obtained by swapping Tether’s USDt deposited in the firm’s Simple Earn yield product. Binance stated that holders of LDUSDt will continue to earn yield rewards through Simple Earn, even while using the token for margin trading.

This marks the second time Binance has launched a reward-bearing margin asset. Binance launched its first reward-bearing margin asset, BFUSD, in 2024. At the time of the launch, Binance had stepped in to clarify that “it is not a stablecoin” in response to user concerns and comparisons to the failed TerraUSD (UST) token.

In its latest announcement, Binance preemptively reiterated that LDUSDt is not a stablecoin:

“LDUSDT is not a stablecoin but a crypto asset that can be used as Futures trading margin, while allowing users to earn Simple Earn Real-Time APR rewards.“

Related: Binance to purge 14 tokens following ‘vote to delist’ process

The European Central Bank is intensifying its warnings over stablecoin adoption, with one of its top officials calling for a digital euro to curb the influence of US dollar-pegged stablecoins across the continent.

ECB executive board member Piero Cipollone has penned another article highlighting concerns over the growing popularity of US dollar stablecoins, arguing that launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could help preserve the eurozone’s monetary sovereignty.

A potential digital euro “would limit the potential for foreign currency stablecoins to become a common medium of exchange within the euro area,” Cipollone wrote in a statement published April 8 on the ECB’s official website.

The remarks follow a string of similar public statements from Cipollone, who has been a vocal advocate for a digital euro as a strategic response to the dominance of dollar-backed stablecoins in Europe.

A “public-private partnership to retain sovereignty”

In the latest piece, Cipollone reiterated that excessive reliance on foreign providers — including stablecoins as well as international card schemes — compromises the monetary sovereignty of Europe.

Core, a proof-of-stake blockchain built on Bitcoin, has surpassed $260 million in dual-staked assets as institutional interest in Bitcoin-based decentralized finance (DeFi) continues to grow.

Core’s initial contributor, Rich Rines, told Cointelegraph that as of April 7, over 44 million Core tokens have been dual-staked with 3,140 Bitcoin (BTC). At the time of writing, the assets are worth about $260 million. 

Core’s dual-staking model lets Bitcoin holders earn higher yields with CORE tokens. While users can stake BTC at a lower rate, those who stake BTC with Core tokens get an enhanced yield. 

“Dual Staking can multiply base staking rewards over 15 times, depending on how many CORE tokens are staked,” Core said in a statement. 

Core’s new milestone highlights growing demand for Bitcoin staking

The latest milestone was driven in part by institutional investors integrating Core’s staking model into their platforms.

Update April 9, 1:38 pm UTC: This article has been updated to include the latest developments on US import tariffs.

The global trade war may be a silver lining for Bitcoin’s growing recognition as a safe-haven asset next to gold, thanks to its liquidity and accessibility advantages compared with precious metals.

Financial markets have been rattled since US President Donald Trump’s April 2 reciprocal import tariffs announcement, leading to record-breaking sell-offs for traditional stock markets and a Bitcoin (BTC) correction below $75,000.

While gold remains the dominant refuge for investors during geopolitical stress, analysts say Bitcoin’s digital nature and 24/7 liquidity are helping it attract renewed interest.

“You want to store value in something other than US assets. But you don’t want to own other nations’ currencies/debt/assets because they’re even weaker and you expect they’ll debase it,” said Hunter Horsley, CEO of crypto asset manager Bitwise, in an April 9 post on X.

Blockchain may soon earn itself a role in New York State’s voting processes and procedures.

New York Assemblymember Clyde Vanel introduced Bill A07716 on April 8, directing the state Board of Elections to evaluate how blockchain could help protect voter records and election results. The legislation is currently under consideration by the Assembly Election Law Committee.

According to the bill’s summary, the goal is to “study and evaluate the use of blockchain technology to protect voter records and election results.“

The bill mandates that the Board of Elections produce a report within one year assessing the potential benefits of blockchain in securing election data. The study must include input from experts in blockchain, cybersecurity, voter fraud and election recordkeeping.

Bill text. Source: New York State Assembly

As more institutions explore blockchain-based finance, some industry leaders say tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) may surpass $30 trillion by the 2030s. Others are casting doubt on that projection.

In June 2024, Standard Chartered Bank and Synpulse predicted that RWAs may reach over $30 trillion by 2034. The narrative remained strong in the latter part of 2024, with some analysts expressing similar sentiments.

At Paris Blockchain Week 2025, a panel moderated by Cointelegraph’s managing editor, Gareth Jenkinson, brought together executives from across the tokenization ecosystem to discuss the future of RWAs. Participants included Charles Adkins of Hedera, Dotun Rominiyi from the London Stock Exchange, Shy Datika of INX, Steven Gaertner of Tiamonds and Securitize chief operating officer Michael Sonnenshein.

While the majority supported the $30 trillion estimate, Sonnenshein expressed skepticism.

The Truth Behind Tokenization and RWA panel. Source: Paris Blockchain Week

Swiss cryptocurrency fintech Taurus has launched an interbank network that is purpose-built for regulated institutions involved in digital asset operations.

On April 9, Taurus said in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph that it had launched Taurus-Network (TN), an interbank network designed to simplify and improve digital asset transactions between regulated financial institutions worldwide.

The network aims to improve collateral mobility, optimize settlement speed and reduce counterparty risk while benefiting capital and liquidity management in digital assets.

Among the key benefits of the network is the ability for participants to retain full sovereignty over assets, direct interaction with counterparties and automated compliance without third-party intervention, Taurus SA’s head of product infrastructure, Vassili Lavrov, told Cointelegraph.

Multiple banks already involved

The Taurus-Network launches with participation from several banks worldwide, including Arab Bank Switzerland, Capital Union Bank, Flowdesk, ISP Group, Misyon Bank and Swissquote.

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has partnered with Mastercard to issue crypto debit cards across the United Kingdom and Europe, the company announced on April 8.

The partnership will enable the crypto exchange to expand its payment offerings by launching physical crypto debit cards.

The partnership comes as Kraken continues to pursue a license under the European Union’s regulatory framework, the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).

The debit card will allow users to spend cryptocurrencies and stablecoins directly. Kraken said the rollout will begin in the coming weeks, with a waitlist now open to customers.

This partnership builds on Kraken Pay’s growth

Kraken said its partnership with Mastercard builds on the rapid growth of Kraken Pay, a new tool that enables customers to send money from their Kraken account.

The early days of the Trump administration saw a flurry of activity that could give the crypto industry an idea of forthcoming crypto regulations, namely that they may not be regulated as securities. 

Practitioners have decried a lack of concrete change in the form of new rules and guidance. The skeptics have their reasons. The formation of the crypto task force, President Donald Trump’s crypto executive order, crypto czar David Sacks’ lone press conference and the digital asset reserve have been criticized as mere theater.

The real work of regulating comes not in press conferences but in the guidance, enforcement and rulemaking that support the structure of rules-based systems.

A faithful account of all of the cryptocurrency decisions from the Trump administration reveals a new approach to enforcement and regulation that could meaningfully affect the rights of operators in the United States. 

Trump’s regulatory approach opens up banking to crypto

In the dog days of the Biden administration, a policy known as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0” became a major scandal in certain crypto media channels. The allegations were that, during the Obama administration, the Justice Department developed a program called Operation Choke Point that it used to surveil and curtail certain disfavored businesses like payday lenders and firearms dealers. 

Thailand is beefing up measures to combat online crimes involving digital assets by passing new amendments to several national laws.

Thailand’s cabinet on April 8 passed a resolution approving amendments to emergency decrees on digital asset businesses and on measures for cybercrime prevention, the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced.

As part of the new laws, Thai regulators aim to strengthen measures for combating digital asset mule accounts in banks, restrict foreign cryptocurrency peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms and introduce strict financial penalties of as much as $8,700 and imprisonment of up to three years.

The new laws are expected to be enforced in the near future, and will take effect after being published in the Royal Thai Government Gazette, the announcement stated.

Key measures to combat mule accounts and money laundering

The new regulations include stringent measures for crypto asset service providers (CASPs), requiring them to collect and report information on transactions linked to online scams and suspend them.

The next generation of cryptocurrency projects must embrace a more collaborative approach to compete with major centralized tech companies entering the Web3 space, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.

Speaking at Paris Blockchain Week 2025, Hoskinson said one of the main criticisms of the crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) space is its “circular economy,” which often means that the rally of a specific cryptocurrency is bolstered by funds exiting another token, limiting the growth of the industry.

Hoskinsin said that to have a chance against the centralized technology giants joining the Web3 industry, cryptocurrency projects need more collaborative tokenomics and market structure.

Charles Hoskinson. Source: Cointelegraph

“The problem right now, with the way we’ve done things in the cryptocurrency space, is the tokenomics and the market structure are intrinsically adversarial. It’s sum 0,” said Hoskinson. “Instead of picking a fight, what you have to do is you have to find tokenomics and market structure that allows you to be in a cooperative equilibrium.”

Lawmakers in Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies backed an investigation into President Javier Milei’s alleged involvement in the Libra (LIBRA) cryptocurrency scandal.

According to an April 8 report by local news outlet Buenos Aires Times, deputies in the lower house voted 128 to 93 in favor, with seven abstentions. The same proposal previously failed to move forward in the Senate.

The news follows Milei promoting the LIBRA memecoin on social media. With the Argentine president leveraging his credibility as a government official and his 3.8 million followers, the token quickly reached $5, briefly touching a market cap of $4 billion.

Milei has since faced accusations of wrongdoing, with critics claiming that LIBRA was a rug-pull scam and that he lured investors in. Lawyer Jonatan Baldiviezo, alongside Marcos Zelaya, engineer María Eva Koutsovitis and economist Claudio Lozano, a former head of Argentina’s central bank, filed a lawsuit against Milei, accusing him of fraud.

Related: KIP Protocol reveals involvement in Javier Milei-endorsed Libra rug pull

Opinion by: Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, general counsel at StarkWare

As Washington takes a softer stance on crypto, regulators are counting down to even stricter regulations in the UK. The United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is working on plans for a new "gateway" authorization regime by 2026, targeting a broader spectrum of crypto activities. 

It is easy to disregard this if you aren't in the UK, but as frameworks are formed, regulators may look to other jurisdictions for lessons and inspiration. Crypto is global, and one of the challenges and opportunities is the need to pay careful attention to many jurisdictions at once.

Bigger net than Anti-Money Laundering

For some time, the FCA's crypto focus was primarily on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks. Even that was no walk in the park — only around 14% of firms seeking mandatory registration have made the cut since 2020.

The AML register was essentially a narrow lens; it was not a licensing or supervisory regime. Now, the FCA wants to go further. According to Matthew Long, the director of payments and digital assets at the FCA, by 2026, the regulator plans to regulate a broader range of crypto activities — possibly including stablecoin issuance, payment services, lending, exchanges, and more.

As the cryptocurrency market matures, advanced trading instruments like perpetual swap contracts are increasingly influencing the value of altcoins, according to BitMEX CEO Stephan Lutz.

Perpetual swap contracts are a type of crypto trading contract that lets traders bet on the price of a coin without actually owning it. The derivatives product functions similarly to a futures contract. However, it never expires, which means that traders can hold the position as long as they want.

Lutz told Cointelegraph that perpetual swap contacts are important to track because newly launched perpetual swaps allow traders to short the underlying altcoin for the first time. Lutz said this is where “true price discovery” begins:

“Perpetual swaps play a key role in price discovery for newly launched altcoins and are a strong sign of market sentiment as they’re often the first derivatives product to be launched.”

Lutz said perpetual swaps allow for long and short positions, which helps traders hedge or speculate. “Tracking these positions can reveal directional bias,” he added. 

This means that tracking perpetual swap movements can also give traders a closer look at how the market determines an altcoin’s value. 

The evolving relationship between Bitcoin and traditional financial markets is under renewed pressure as global investors flee risk assets amid intensifying US trade tensions.

US-listed spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded their fourth consecutive day of outflows on April 8, with more than $326 million in net redemptions across products, according to data from Farside Investors.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) saw the largest sell-off of over $252 million, its biggest daily outflow since Feb. 26.

Bitcoin ETF flows, US dollars, millions. Source: Farside Investors

The selling pressure follows US President Donald Trump’s April 2 announcement of sweeping reciprocal import tariffs, which triggered a historic $5 trillion wipeout in the S&P 500 over two days.

The lingering fears triggered by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs have analysts increasingly convinced that Bitcoin is now more likely than ever to challenge the US dollar in the years ahead.

“Higher chance Bitcoin survives over the dollar in our lifetime after today,” Bitwise Invest head of alpha strategies Jeff Parks said in an April 9 X post.

Investors will be left with no other option but Bitcoin, says crypto exec

“First time the thought hit me and didn’t feel like theory but an actual truth to grapple with,” Parks added. 

Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley shared a similar view, noting that with trust in the US dollar waning and other foreign currencies seen as “even weaker,” investors are left with fewer choices. 

He argued that gold, typically seen as a safe harbor amid uncertainty, also has drawbacks around shipping and storage and implied that Bitcoin may be the only option left. “You wind up buying Bitcoin,” Horsley said.