Decentral Block Post

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.”

Draft legislation in the US Senate threatens to hit data centers serving blockchain networks and artificial intelligence models with fees if they exceed federal emissions targets, according to an April 11 Bloomberg report. 

Led by Senate Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse and John Fetterman, the draft bill purportedly aims to address environmental impacts from rising energy demand and protect households from higher energy bills, Bloomberg said.

Dubbed the Clean Cloud Act, the legislation mandates that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set an emissions performance standard for data centers and crypto mining facilities with over 100 KW of installed IT nameplate power.

The standard would be based on regional grid emissions intensities, with an 11% annual reduction target. The legislation also includes penalties for emissions exceeding the set standard, starting at $20 per ton of CO2e, with the penalty increasing annually by inflation plus an additional $10.

“Surging power demand from cryptominers and data centers is outpacing the growth of carbon-free electricity,” notes a minority blog post on the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works website, adding that data centers’ electricity usage is projected to account for up to 12% of the US total power demand by 2028.

The Lomond School in Scotland will accept Bitcoin (BTC) tuition payments beginning in the Autumn semester of 2025, making it the first school in the United Kingdom to do so.

Accepting Bitcoin is part of the school's plan to integrate “sound money principles” from the Austrian School of Economics into the curriculum to "prepare students for the uncertain future,” the announcement reads, adding:

"Bitcoin is available to anyone willing to learn — making it more democratic and inclusive, particularly for people in developing nations who lack access to traditional banking. Lomond sees Bitcoin as a perfect real-world case study in economics, computing, ethics, and innovation."

The school has no plans to accept other cryptocurrencies, and will convert the BTC to fiat currency immediately, according to the announcement. It might establish a BTC treasury in the future, pending input from the Lomond community.

Lomond's announcement highlights the growing tide of institutions adopting Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation amid turmoil in the global financial order.

Value of the British pound (GBP) 1209-2025. Source: Statista

Ripple made headlines this week when it became the first crypto-native company to acquire a multi-asset prime broker, potentially setting the stage for wider adoption of its XRP Ledger technology. 

The acquisition of Hidden Road didn’t come cheap, either, as Ripple doled out $1.25 billion for the brokerage. It was a price Ripple CEO Brad Garlinhouse was happy to pay as the company set its sights on global expansion. 

Elsewhere, crypto exchange Binance listened to its community and moved to delist 14 tokens that no longer met its quality thresholds. Meanwhile, Binance’s former CEO, Changpeng Zhao, was appointed adviser for Pakistan’s newly formed crypto counsel. 

All this happened against a backdrop of negative headlines and plunging crypto prices stemming from the US-led trade war, which culminated in President Donald Trump’s executive order establishing a 104% tariff on Chinese imports. 

Despite the chaos, a panel of industry experts told Cointelegraph that the crypto bull market is far from over. In fact, it hasn’t even started yet. 

The US Federal Reserve is prepared to use its vast arsenal of monetary policy tools to prevent financial and economic conditions from deteriorating rapidly but will do so only if liquidity dries up or markets become disorderly, a top central banker said.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Boston Fed President Susan Collins said the central bank “would absolutely be prepared” to backstop markets if needed.

Source: Walter Bloomberg

While it is generally understood that the Fed is always prepared to act quickly to stave off market chaos, Collins’ remarks come on the heels of asset selloffs across stocks and bonds, which have raised concerns about the health of the US financial system.

Overall, however, the Fed is “not seeing liquidity concerns,” said Collins. If that were to change, policymakers would have “tools to address concerns about markets functioning or liquidity,” she said.