Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin is showing signs of maturity as a global financial asset, with price volatility dropping to its lowest level in more than 500 days, according to new research.

Volatility refers to the degree of variation of a trading price over time, which indicates the uncertainty about the size of changes in an asset’s value.

Bitcoin (BTC) weekly volatility hit a 563-day low on April 30, said Vetle Lunde, the head of research at K33 Research.

Bitcoin’s decreasing volatility suggests BTC is maturing as a global financial asset, leading to a more stable price trajectory.

Bitcoin has become the seventh-largest asset globally by market capitalization, reaching $1.87 trillion. It now ranks above Silver, Meta and Saudi Aramco, according to Companiesmarketcap.

Stablecoin issuer Circle has partnered with Onafriq, Africa’s largest payments gateway, to reduce the high cost of cross-border payments across the continent using USDC.

According to a press release shared with Cointelegraph, Circle aims to pilot USDC (USDC) settlements within Onafriq’s vast network, which connects over 500 wallets and 200 million bank accounts in more than 40 countries.

“By integrating USDC, we aim to simplify financial transactions for institutions and individuals, reduce costs and strengthen trust,” Onafriq founder and CEO Dare Okoudjou said.

He added that the integration of USDC will simplify transactions and boost trust in digital financial services.

Currently, over 80% of intra-African transactions are routed through correspondent banks outside the continent and settled in foreign currencies like the US dollar or euro. This results in approximately $5 billion in fees annually.

Key takeaways

Set up your Pi Wallet and secure it with a 24-word seed phrase before transferring your coins.

KYC is often required on both CEXs and P2P platforms to transfer and sell Pi Coins.

You can sell Pi through CEXs or P2P platforms, each offering different security, speed and control.

Always do your own research (DYOR) before selling or holding, as expert opinions on Pi’s future vary.

If you’re here, you probably already know what Pi Coin is and just want to figure out how to sell it. However, a recap awaits, in case you need one. 

Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization and son of US President Donald Trump, has delivered a warning to global banks regarding cryptocurrency adoption.

“The modern financial system is broken, it’s slow, it’s expensive,” Trump said in a CNBC interview on April 30, adding that the existing banking system “favors the ultra-wealthy.”

“It forced me into the crypto world,” he continued, adding: “And I’m telling you, if the banks don’t watch what’s coming, they’re going to be extinct in 10 years.”

SWIFT is an “absolute disaster”

While emphasizing the need for banks to closely monitor developments in the crypto industry, Trump highlighted the benefits of cryptocurrency’s underlying blockchain technology for the financial system.

He slammed the existing cross-border transaction solutions like the global international messaging network SWIFT, which has often been criticized for its slow transactions.

The Open Network (TON) ecosystem participant Broxus has unveiled TON Factory, a new platform designed to accelerate the development and scalability of high-throughput applications like decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and blockchain-based games.

In an April 30 post on Telegram, the project said TON Factory aims to help developers rapidly build and scale projects with modular components, integration tools, and hands-on expert support.

“For OGs already building on TON, TON Factory helps you scale further,” the announcement stated.

The initiative is backed by a team of over 150 engineers with experience delivering production-ready infrastructure in the TON ecosystem, per the announcement.

Related: Venture capital firms invest $400M in TON blockchain

Key takeaways

Approving staking for spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US may have a minimal impact on inflows unless Ether sees a sustained rally, says Eric Balchunas

ETH dropped significantly in price after the launch of the ETFs last year, unlike spot Bitcoin ETFs, which saw new all-time highs just two months after launching.

For inflows to increase again, Balchunas said ETH would need a multimonth run along with a strong narrative.

Spot Ethereum ETFs being able to stake a portion of the tokens under their control may not help garner inflows without a more sustained rally in the token’s price, says Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.

PayPal says the US Securities and Exchange Commission has abandoned its investigation into the payment giant’s US-dollar stablecoin.

PayPal said in an April 29 regulatory filing that the SEC concluded its investigation into PayPal USD (PYUSD) and wouldn’t be taking any action.

The company said it received a subpoena from the SEC’s Division of Enforcement over its stablecoin in November 2023. 

“The subpoena requests the production of documents. We are cooperating with the SEC in connection with this request,” PayPal stated at the time.

In its latest filing, the firm said the SEC notified it in February that the agency “was closing this inquiry without enforcement action.”

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has filed lawsuits against the non-fungible token marketplace NFT Stars and the blockchain gaming firm Kurosemi, which operates as Delysium, accusing them of withholding tokens they owed.

The lawsuits, both filed in the Delaware bankruptcy court, alleged that NFT Stars and Delysium failed to deliver all the tokens paid for by FTX despite repeated attempts to resolve the matter.

FTX claimed in an April 28 statement that it made “numerous unanswered attempts” to engage with both firms, and it would be “contacting numerous other token and coin issuers regarding FTX assets and will be filing additional suits against non-responsive parties.”

As part of the complaint against Delysium, FTX claimed its defunct trading arm, Alameda Research, paid $1 million in January 2022 for 75 million of the gaming firm’s AGI tokens.

It claimed the original token launch was in April 2023, and Alameda Research’s share of the tokens was subject to a vesting schedule that started with 20% unlocking after 12 months.

Asset manager BlackRock has filed to create digital ledger technology shares from one of the firm’s money market funds, which will leverage blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for investors.

The DLT shares will track BlackRock’s BLF Treasury Trust Fund (TTTXX), which may only be purchased from BlackRock Advisors and The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY), the firm said in its April 29 Form N-1A filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The money market fund holds over $150 million worth of assets, invested almost entirely in US Treasury bills and cash.

BlackRock said that the shares “are expected to be purchased and held through BNY, which intends to use blockchain technology to maintain a mirror record of share ownership for its customers.”

Unlike the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), DLT shares won’t be tokenized but will instead be used as a transparency tool to verify ownership.

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control can’t restore or reimpose sanctions against the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash, a US federal court has ruled.

Austin federal court judge Robert Pitman said in an April 28 judgment that OFAC’s sanctions on Tornado Cash were unlawful and that the agency was “permanently enjoined from enforcing” sanctions.

Tornado Cash users led by Joseph Van Loon had sued the Treasury, arguing that OFAC’s addition of the platform’s smart contract addresses to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) list was “not in accordance with law.” 

OFAC had sanctioned Tornado Cash in August 2022, accusing the protocol of helping launder crypto stolen by the North Korean hacking collective, the Lazarus Group.

The agency dropped the platform from the sanctions list on March 21 and argued that the matter was “moot” after a court ruled in favor of Tornado Cash in January.

Key takeaways:

Richard Byworth says Michael Saylor’s Strategy could ramp up its Bitcoin buys by acquiring cash-rich companies and converting their cash into Bitcoin.

He says that Strategy should consider accelerating purchases as the Bitcoin supply on exchanges continues to decline.

Byworth argues that aggressively increasing Bitcoin holdings would boost Strategy’s mNAV, benefiting shareholders.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy should take a more aggressive approach to buying Bitcoin by acquiring companies to use their cash holdings to fund purchases and do away with over-the-counter buys, a crypto executive says.

Australia’s financial intelligence agency has told inactive registered crypto exchanges to withdraw their registrations or risk having them canceled over fears that the dormant firms could be used for scams.

There are currently 427 crypto exchanges registered with the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), but the agency said on April 29 that it suspects a significant number are inactive and possibly vulnerable to being bought and co-opted by criminals.

The agency is contacting any so-called digital currency exchanges (DCEs) that appear to no longer be trading, and AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said they’ll be told to “use it or lose it.”

“Businesses registered with AUSTRAC are required to keep their details up to date; this includes details about services that are no longer provided,” he added.

Businesses wanting to offer Australians conversions between cash and crypto, including crypto ATM providers, must first register with AUSTRAC, which monitors for crimes including money laundering, terror financing and tax evasion.

Scammers are mailing physical letters to the owners of Ledger crypto hardware wallets asking them to validate their private seed phrases in a bid to access the wallets to clean them out.

In an April 29 X post, tech commentator Jacob Canfield shared a scam letter sent to his home via post that appeared to be from Ledger claiming he needed to immediately perform a “critical security update” on his device. 

The letter, which uses Ledger’s logo, business address, and a reference number to feign legitimacy, asks to scan a QR code and enter the wallet’s private recovery phrase under the guise of validating the device.

The letter threatens that “failure to complete this mandatory validation process may result in restricted access to your wallet and funds.”

A seed phrase, or recovery phrase, is a string of up to 24 words that unlocks access to a crypto wallet. A scammer with the phrase can access and control the associated wallet to transfer its holdings elsewhere.

Trump Media and Technology Group, the social media conglomerate backed by US President Donald Trump, is considering integrating a crypto token and wallet into its video streaming site, Truth+.

"We're exploring the introduction of a utility token within a Truth digital wallet that can initially be used to pay for Truth+ subscription costs, and later be applied to other products and services in the Truth ecosphere," Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes wrote in an April 29 letter to shareholders.

He added that the crypto token and wallet would be part of a rewards program that Trump Media is exploring across its services, which include the social media platform Truth Social and the financial services platform Truth.Fi.

Trump Media first signaled plans for a potential crypto payments venture last November when it filed a trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office for computer software designed to function as a digital wallet, enable digital asset trading and process crypto payments on Truth.Fi.

Truth+ launched in October, offering movies and shows mainly targeting a politically conservative audience.

Key points:

Weak labor and consumer data often precede Bitcoin rallies, leading some analysts to anticipate future economic stimulus programs.

Job openings fell to 7.2 million in March versus the 7.5 million forecast and consumer confidence hit its lowest level since January 2021.

If past patterns hold, Bitcoin could rally by mid-July and possibly reach $140,000 by October 2025.

Macroeconomic conditions have long been seen as a major influence on cryptocurrency prices. Generally, Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins perform poorly when investors fear that employment and consumer data are weakening. 

Bettors on prediction platforms Polymarket and Kalshi are flipping bearish on the US economy. As of April 29, both platforms are predicting that the US will log an economic contraction during the first quarter of 2025 in an upcoming economic data release.

The US has logged positive growth figures every quarter since 2022, and a reversal in that trend could mark the start of a recession.

The pessimistic outlook marks a stark sentiment shift for prediction markets, which had recently anticipated a positive US growth report. On April 29, consensus Q1 US growth estimates on Kalshi, a US derivatives exchange, plunged from around 0.5% to -0.4% in less than 24 hours.

Meanwhile, Polymarket bettors are setting the odds of a US economic contraction in Q1 at around 70%. On April 28, they still had a mostly favorable outlook.

The shift comes one day after Canada, America’s second-largest trading partner, elected Liberal Mark Carney as prime minister. Carney has vowed to take a more hawkish stance in Canada’s ongoing trade war with the US.

US Senate Majority Leader John Thune reportedly told Republican lawmakers that the chamber would address a bill on stablecoin regulation before the May 26 Memorial Day holiday.

According to an April 29 Politico report, Thune made the comments in a closed-door meeting with Republican senators, who hold a slim majority in the chamber. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, was introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty in February and passed the Senate Banking Committee in March.

Thune did not mention any crypto or blockchain-related bills in his public comments on US President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has signed several executive orders with the potential to affect US crypto policy, including one affecting stablecoins. Still, many of the actions do not carry the force of law without an act of Congress.

Related: $649B stablecoin transfers linked to illicit activity in 2024: Report

The proposed GENIUS bill could essentially restrict any entity other than a “permitted payment stablecoin issuer” from issuing a payment stablecoin in the United States. The House of Representatives, also controlled by Republicans, has proposed a companion bill to the legislation: the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act.

Key Takeaways:

Fidelity Digital Assets says Bitcoin is undervalued and the firm holds an optimistic mid-term outlook.

The JOLTS report shows a sharp drop in open US jobs, raising investors’ hope for Fed interest rate cuts.

According to Fidelity Digital Assets, Bitcoin’s (BTC) mid-term outlook dropped to an “optimism” zone, as the investment firm noted that BTC is trending toward “undervaluation.”

As proof, the firm cited the ‘Bitcoin Yardstick’ metric, which measures BTC’s market cap divided by its hashrate. A lower ratio suggests that Bitcoin is “cheaper” relative to the energy security of its network.

The Bank of Italy identified Bitcoin and other digital assets as emerging risk factors in a recent report, citing concerns for both investors and the financial system.

In its April 2025 Financial Stability Report, the Bank of Italy flags crypto volatility and rising integration with the broader economy, singling out stablecoins and non-financial firms’ crypto exposure as key concerns.

"The strong growth of Bitcoin and of other crypto-assets with high price volatility means risks not only for investors but also potentially for financial stability, given the growing interconnections between the digital asset ecosystem, the traditional financial sector and the real economy,” the report notes.

The Bank of Italy’s report also addressed the trend of non-financial corporations holding Bitcoin, stating that it exposes them to “marked price volatility” driven by “the belief that Bitcoin can support their share prices.”

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) helped popularize the corporate purchase of Bitcoin, beginning its acquisitions in August 2020. Since then, several companies have followed its lead, including Metaplanet, Semler Scientific, and GameStop.