Bitcoin price crossed the $80,000 threshold late Sunday and into today, posting a brief 2% gain over 24 hours to reach a high of $80,750 — a level analysts describe as a major psychological resistance zone that has flipped to potential support.
The move caps a recovery of 15-20% from February lows, placing the bitcoin price inside what chart watchers call a critical magnet zone: a price band where long-term trendlines converge and carry a history of triggering sharp directional moves. The central question is whether Bitcoin can hold above $80,000 and extend gains toward $86,000, or whether resistance reasserts and pulls the price back into the $70,000s.
April’s recovery carried institutional fingerprints. Bitcoin ETF products logged $1.97 billion in net inflows during the month, reversing a prior two-week outflow trend and confirming that institutional capital is returning with conviction.
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a fifth straight week of net inflows, totaling $153.87 million last week, per SoSoValue data.
The bitcoin price Golden Cross setup amid a geopolitical backdrop
The technical backdrop adds weight to the bullish case. A Golden Cross is forming on the daily chart — a pattern that occurs when the 50-day moving average crosses above the 200-day moving average, signaling that near-term momentum is outpacing the broader trend. The pattern has a history of preceding sustained bull markets in bitcoin price
The cross has not been confirmed, but shorter moving averages are rising toward longer ones, with confirmation possible within days if BTC holds its current range. The roadmap points to either a rejection at the $80,000 range or a continuation toward $86,000. Whale accumulation data adds weight: $500 million in BTC was absorbed between a bitcoin price of $75,000 and $78,000 over 48 hours, coinciding with a 12% volume spike.
The rally unfolded against renewed geopolitical tension. President Trump announced “Project Freedom” on Truth Social on Sunday — an initiative to guide cargo ships stranded by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, with operations set to begin Monday.
Senior Iranian official Ebrahim Azizi warned that U.S. interference in the strait would be treated as a ceasefire violation, while Trump said his representatives were in “very positive discussions” with Iran.
As the US-Israel-Iran military engagement — initiated with “Operation Epic Fury” in February 2026 — continues past its projected four-to-five-week timeline, Bitcoin has shown a negative correlation with traditional equities and gold. Institutional investors are treating the asset as a flight to digital safety amid geopolitical risk, a dynamic that has gained traction as Brent crude climbed to roughly $108 per barrel.
The bitcoin price is up roughly 20% since the onset of the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict, as easing geopolitical fears and renewed optimism around U.S. stablecoin legislation lifted the price. Prediction markets are pricing BTC at a 99.8% probability of remaining above $66,000 on May 6 and 7, a figure that reflects the structural conviction behind Bitcoin’s latest move — even as the $79,537-to-$80,000 zone remains the line analysts are watching.
Strategy pauses bitcoin purchases
In other news, Strategy (MSTR) paused its regular bitcoin purchases ahead of its upcoming earnings report, signaling a shift in focus toward capital markets activity.
The company, which holds roughly 818,334 BTC, remains the largest public bitcoin treasury, with recent buying fueled by stock issuance and its high-yield STRC preferred shares. Investors are increasingly focused on Strategy’s financing model and expected losses tied to bitcoin accounting, even as revenue is projected to grow year over year.
Meanwhile, the stock has climbed more than 10% over two days, boosted by rising bitcoin prices and renewed enthusiasm following Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin 2026 keynote.
At the time of writing, the bitcoin price is right above $80,000.
GameStop (GME) is aiming for a major expansion with a proposed $55.5 billion acquisition of online marketplace eBay (EBAY), raising fresh questions about whether its bitcoin BTC$80,322.05 holdings could help fund the deal.
The video game retailer, which holds about $368 million worth of BTC, submitted a non-binding offer Sunday to buy eBay for $125 per share in cash and stock. The bid represents a 46% premium to eBay’s share price in early February, when GameStop began building a position. The company said it now holds a 5% economic stake through shares and derivatives.
A deal of this size would likely require significant cash. GameStop said it expects to fund the offer using its $9.4 billion of “cash and liquid investments” on its balance sheet and up to $20 billion in financing, backed by a letter from TD Securities.
Will GameStop sell BTC?
That raises fresh questions about whether GameStop will sell its BTC to help pay for the deal.
The acquisition plan follows earlier remarks from CEO Ryan Cohen, who said in February he was pursuing a “very, very, very big” acquisition of a public consumer firm. He described the plan as “way more compelling than bitcoin” and left open the option of selling the company’s crypto holdings to fund a deal.
GameStop disclosed last month that it shifted about 4,709 BTC to Coinbase Prime, crypto exchange Coinbase’s prime brokerage platform for institutions, as part of a covered-call options strategy, keeping exposure to bitcoin while generating income.
The company held little over $9 billion in cash and accounted for its $368 million bitcoin stash as “receivables” after the Coinbase Prime maneuver. Those items add up to the $9.4 billion balance sheet power that could be used to fund the acquisition.
In an interview with CNBC, Cohen also said the firm has the “ability to issue stock in order to get the deal done.”
GameStop did not respond to a request for comment on its plans for its bitcoin holdings by press time.
The proposed eBay deal would turn GameStop into a broader e-commerce player. It will also determine whether the firm’s bitcoin remains a long-term holding or becomes a funding source for the expansion.
Bitcoin (BTC) reached a new three-month high of $80,500 on Monday, testing the level for the first time since Jan. 31. The rally above $80,000 puts the price just below short-term holders’ cost basis of $81,486, the next dynamic resistance level. For the rally to continue, a daily close above this level is key to securing $80,000 as support.
A rally to $81,500 may lock in the trend
Bitcoin’s rally to $80,000 places the price directly under the short-term holder’s realized price of $81,486. This metric reflects the average cost of coins moved over the last 155 days and indicates where recent buyers have flipped from loss to profit.
A daily close above $81,500 would return these holders to profit and reduce sell-side pressure. According to crypto analyst Crazyyblockk, the short-term holder losses have narrowed to about -2.17%, showing that the overhead supply band is thinning. The long-term holders (LTHs) hold near +27% profit and are not distributing aggressively.
Bitcoin LTH/STH SOPR ratio. Source: CryptoQuant
The spent-output profit ratio (SOPR), which tracks whether coins are spent at a profit or a loss, has climbed to 1.097 from 0.99. This indicates the coins are being spent in profit again, led by long-term holders.
The exchange inflow data aligns with that shift. Around 97.2% of recent deposits came from short-term holders, with wallets holding 1 to 1,000 BTC contributing roughly 58%.
BTC inflows peaked at 35,649 BTC on April 24 and dropped to 3,895 BTC by May 3. That compression reduces immediate sell pressure and supports the case for holding at $80,000 once the cost basis flips.
Related: Bitcoin in ‘disbelief rally’ as traders spot $84K BTC price target
BTC exchange supply builds below $80,000
BTC exchange flow data tracked by Bitcoin researcher Axel Adler Jr shows 8,512 BTC in net inflows over recent days, with spikes on April 27 and April 30. The price absorbed that supply without a sharp downside, signaling an active BTC demand.
Bitcoin exchange netflows for all exchanges. Source: CryptoQuant
The BTC flows have since cooled to near-neutral at 269 BTC between May 1 and May 3. The short-term averages stay positive, while the longer-term averages sit near zero, keeping the move contained to a short impulse.
BTC exchange reserves increased by 5,773 BTC week over week to 2,685,541 BTC, before easing slightly after April 30. Adler Jr explained that the coins are currently sitting on exchanges without aggressive selling, forming a supply overhang that could turn into pressure if demand slows.
Meanwhile, crypto trader Ardi highlighted that BTC is retesting breakout liquidity near $79,600. The trader said that holding this level keeps the move intact toward the next supply zone near $84,000.
BTC/USDT analysis by Ardi. Source: X
A breakdown below $80,000 shifts focus to the new-money cost basis near $76,500 and increases the likelihood of a failed breakout setup.
Related: BTC price can ‘easily’ hit $95K: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week
This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.
Bitcoin’s rally through $79,500 opens the door to a move toward $84,000.
Ether, Dogecoin and Hyperliquid are showing strength, but the other major altcoins are yet to pick up momentum.
Bitcoin (BTC) opened the new week with a rally above $80,500, suggesting the bulls are attempting to take charge. Analysts are closely watching the $80,000 level, as some believe a failure to close above it could trigger a move toward $60,000.
However, crypto analyst Matthew Hyland said in a post on X that traders calling BTC’s fall to $60,000 and lower ‘will be the ones flipping bullish late above $90K.”
BTC’s 30-day liquidation map shows that a rally above $84,000 would trigger $2.85 billion worth of short liquidations across all exchanges.
Crypto market data daily view. Source: TradingView
A positive sign for the bulls is that BTC’s rise continues to be supported by institutional investors. Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards said in a post on X that institutions have been “slurping up 500%+ of Bitcoin’s daily mined supply.” Such instances in the past have boosted prices by more than 24% in the following month. If history repeats, BTC may surge to around $96,000.
Could BTC and the major altcoins sustain the breakout? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.
S&P 500 Index price prediction
The S&P 500 Index (SPX) remains in a strong uptrend, rising to a new all-time high of 7,272 on Friday.
The upsloping 20-day exponential moving average (7,043) indicates an advantage to buyers, but the relative strength index (RSI) near the overbought zone signals that a minor consolidation or correction is possible in the near term.
The 7,000 level is the crucial support to watch out for on the downside. A solid bounce off the 7,000 level suggests that the bulls have flipped it into support. That improves the prospects of a rally to 7,500.
On the contrary, a close below the 7,000 support may sink the index to the 50-day simple moving average (6,827).
US Dollar Index price prediction
The US Dollar Index (DXY) has been stuck between the 50-day SMA (98.97) and the 97.74 support.
The downsloping 20-day EMA (98.61) and the RSI in the negative territory indicate that the bears are at a slight advantage. If the price breaks below the 97.74 support, the index may tumble toward the 96.21 level.
Conversely, a close above the 50-day SMA suggests that the bulls are on a comeback. The index may rally to the 100.54 resistance level, where buyers are expected to encounter solid selling pressure from bears.
Bitcoin price prediction
BTC has broken above the $79,500 resistance, signaling the resumption of the uptrend toward $84,000.
The uptrend is expected to face solid selling pressure at $84,000, but if the bulls prevent the BTC price from dipping below the 20-day EMA ($76,634), the possibility of a breakout increases. If the $84,000 level is broken, the BTC/USDT pair may surge toward the pattern target of $92,000.
Time is running out for the bears. They will have to swiftly yank the price below $76,000 to weaken bullish momentum. The pair may then tumble to the 50-day SMA ($72,798).
Ether price prediction
Ether (ETH) rose above the 20-day EMA ($2,298) on Friday and is marching toward the $2,465 overhead resistance.
Sellers will attempt to stall the rally at the $2,465 level, but if the bulls prevail, the ETH/USDT pair may jump to the resistance line. If the ETH price turns down sharply from the resistance line and breaks below the 20-day EMA, it suggests the pair may remain within the channel for some time.
On the other hand, a break and close above the resistance line signals that the bulls are back in control. The pair may then surge toward the $3,050 level.
XRP price prediction
Buyers have pushed XRP (XRP) above the moving averages, opening the door to a rally toward the downtrend line.
The flattish moving averages and the RSI just above the midpoint do not give either bulls or bears a clear advantage. Buyers will gain the upper hand on a close above the $1.61 level. The XRP/USDT pair may then rally to $2, then to $2.40.
Contrary to this assumption, if the XRP price turns down from the $1.61 level, it would suggest that bears are active at higher levels. That may extend the pair’s stay inside the $1.27 to $1.61 range for a while.
BNB price prediction
BNB (BNB) has been trading near its moving averages over the past few days, indicating indecision between bulls and bears.
The flattish moving averages and the RSI just above the midpoint suggest that the BNB/USDT pair may remain inside the $570 to $687 range for a few more days.
The next trending move is expected to begin on a close above $687 or below $570. If bulls push the BNB price above the $687 resistance, the pair is expected to gain momentum and surge to $790. Alternatively, a close below $570 signals the resumption of the downtrend toward $500.
Solana price prediction
Solana (SOL) is attempting to rise above the moving averages, indicating demand at lower levels.
A close above the moving averages may push the SOL price to the $90.73 resistance. Sellers will attempt to defend the $90.73 level, but if the bulls prevail, the SOL/USDT pair may surge to $98.
On the downside, the bears will need to push the price below $82.65 to gain the upper hand. If they do that, the pair may descend to the solid support at $76. The next trending move is expected to begin on a close above $98 or below $76.
Related: BTC price can ‘easily’ hit $95K: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week
Dogecoin price prediction
Dogecoin (DOGE) has broken above the $0.11 resistance level, clearing the path for a rally toward $0.12.
The 20-day EMA ($0.10) has started to turn up, and the RSI is in the overbought zone, indicating that the buyers have the edge. Sellers are expected to mount a strong defense at the $0.12 level, but if buyers bulldoze through, the rally may reach $0.14 and eventually $0.16.
Instead, if the DOGE price turns down sharply from $0.12 and breaks below the moving averages, it suggests that the bears remain sellers on rallies. That may keep the DOGE/USDT pair within the $0.09-$0.12 range for a few more days.
Hyperliquid price prediction
Hyperliquid (HYPE) is maintaining above the 20-day EMA ($41.04), but the long wick on the candlestick shows selling at higher levels.
The uptrend is expected to face selling pressure in the $43.76 to $45.77 resistance zone. If the HYPE price turns down from the current level or the overhead zone and breaks below the 50-day SMA ($40.11), the advantage will tilt toward the bears. The HYPE/USDT pair may then tumble to $38.70.
Contrarily, a break and close above the overhead zone signals the resumption of the uptrend. The pair may surge to $50 and then to $51.43.
Cardano price prediction
Cardano (ADA) has risen above the downtrend line, but the bulls are facing stiff resistance at the 50-day SMA ($0.25).
The RSI has risen just above the midpoint, signaling a slight advantage to the bulls. If buyers push the price above the 50-day SMA, the ADA/USDT pair may rally to $0.29, then to $0.31. Sellers are again expected to pose a strong challenge at the $0.31 level, as a close above it suggests that the pair may have bottomed out in the short term.
The $0.22 level is the critical support to watch out for on the downside. If the ADA price turns down and breaks below the $0.22 support level, it signals a resumption of the downtrend.
Bitcoin dropped to $79,074 in late Asian hours Monday, reversing nearly $1,500 from a $80,594 intraday high that had marked the highest print since January 31.
The pullback came as Iran’s Fars news agency claimed two missiles hit a U.S. patrol boat near Jask Island after the vessel allegedly ignored Iranian warnings to leave its territorial waters. Brent crude jumped more than 5% to trade above $113 a barrel before paring the gain.
The U.S. denied the report shortly after and said no American ship had been struck. Oil and equity futures pared their initial moves on the denial, but bitcoin held its decline as traders priced in the fragility of the ceasefire that has held since early April.
Other majors followed bitcoin lower from intraday highs but stayed positive on the day.
Ether traded at $2,341, up 1.2% over 24 hours after touching $2,368 earlier. Solana sat at $84.08, up just 0.2% on the day after starting Monday at $85.14. XRP slipped to $1.40 and BNB to $623. Dogecoin held its gains better than most, up 2.3% on the day to $0.1102 with the weekly print still at 12.1%.
The escalation arrived hours after President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that the U.S. would begin escorting ships stranded in the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz starting Monday, an operation dubbed Project Freedom that involves guided-missile destroyers, aircraft, and drones.
Iran responded by announcing it had “redefined the control zone” in Hormuz, extending its claimed maritime borders to Fujairah and signaling that Tehran would regulate shipping traffic in the area regardless of U.S. operations.
Bitcoin had broken $80,000 for the first time since January, with $301 million in shorts liquidated as the move unfolded earlier Monday. The Senate’s Clarity Act compromise on stablecoin yield, released Friday, had been adding to the risk-on tone heading into the week.
Whether the U.S. denial holds or fresh confirmations emerge from either side will likely set the tape for the rest of the U.S. session.
Arbitrum delegates are in the process of weighing whether to release 30,765 ETH frozen after last month’s rsETH exploit into a coordinated recovery effort. But a lawyer for victims of North Korean terrorism showed up in the forum and told them they couldn’t.
The ether was drained from restaked ETH holders (a representative token of ETH that is locked on another platform for fixed yields) during the April 19 Kelp DAO bridge exploit, which CoinDesk previously reported as the largest DeFi hack of 2026.
The governance post, authored by attorney Charles Gerstein, serves as a restraining notice under New York law on behalf of three sets of judgment creditors holding roughly $877 million in claims against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The claims behind the filing stretch back decades. One stems from the 1972 Lod Airport massacre in Israel, where gunmen killed 26 people, including 17 Puerto Rican pilgrims, in an attack later found by a U.S. court to have been supported by North Korea.
Another involves Reverend Kim Dong Shik, a U.S. permanent resident abducted near the China border in 2000 and later killed in DPRK custody. A third ties to the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, where a federal judge found Pyongyang had supplied weapons and training used in rocket attacks.
The plaintiffs won their cases but North Korea has never paid. With sovereign assets effectively impossible to seize, the families have spent years searching for any North Korean property they can legally collect against to satisfy their judgments.
Gerstein’s filing argues that because U.S. authorities have linked the Lazarus Group, the hacking unit responsible for the exploit, to the North Korean state, the 30,765 ETH frozen by Arbitrum’s Security Council qualifies as North Korean property under U.S. enforcement law.
If the court accepts that framing, the families with unpaid judgments would have a senior legal claim on those funds, ahead of the rsETH depositors who originally held them.
The reason Arbitrum is involved is straightforward: after the rsETH exploit, its Security Council froze 30,765 ETH at a specific address on its network, effectively placing the funds under its control. Gerstein’s filing points to three underlying cases, Calderon-Cardona, Kim, and Kaplan, with writs of execution totaling roughly $877 Million.
The legal tool being used is CPLR §5222(b), a New York enforcement mechanism that allows creditors to freeze assets simply by serving a restraining notice, without first getting a new court order, though the target can challenge it afterward.
Once served, the recipient is barred from moving the assets for up to a year or until the judgment is resolved. Ignoring it can lead to contempt of court, the same category of offense used when someone defies a judge’s order.
The complication here is that Arbitrum DAO is not a company with clear legal status. That means the risk doesn’t neatly attach to “the DAO,” but to whoever a court ultimately decides has control over the frozen ETH.
The filing and legal theory presented drew pushback inside the same forum thread. Delegate Zeptimus argued the legal premise is backwards, writing that the ETH “is not property in which the DPRK has an ‘interest’… It’s stolen property,” and adding that under basic property law “a thief acquires no title.”
In that view, the funds belong to the original rsETH depositors, and the proposed recovery effort is not a redistribution but a return of assets to their rightful owners. Blocking that process, Zeptimus wrote, “shifts the cost of the DPRK’s debt onto a different set of victims who were themselves robbed.”
Delegates had been working through a different set of trade-offs. Entropy Advisors urged a FOR vote, citing the daily interest cost to Aave users with stuck positions. Axia flagged questions about whether the Arbitrum Captive Insurance Product would cover delegates if something went wrong.
Gerstein’s filing sharpens that question considerably, where coverage for ordinary delegate liability is one thing but exposure tied to a live enforcement action is another.
What’s left is a choice between victims. On one side, Aave depositors with positions they can’t close. On the other, families behind decades-old judgments against North Korea, still seeking to collect.
Are stablecoins stable? Come on, it’s in the name!
Of course, the crypto industry has certainly seen categories misnamed. Anyone remember NuBits? Surely you lost money in Terra? Just last year, DeFi stables, including Synthetix and Ethena, lost their peg. And even robust stablecoins like Circle’s USDC and Tether have seen temporary depegging over the years.
It appears basic questions about stablecoins might actually uncover important lines of inquiry, especially as they relate to the structural risks of a nascent technology. As industries look to adopt stablecoins — sometimes even bypassing the much more battle-tested traditional financial system — it’s probably worth revisiting the answers to these basic questions.
During CoinDesk University’s School of Stablecoins, happening at Consensus 2026, May 5-7 in Miami, we’ll dig under the surface of these questions to give you a strong understanding of why stablecoins are the future and how to implement them into your business to reap benefits.
What is a stablecoin, and how is it different from Bitcoin?
Sam Broner, Founder of the Better Money Company, told CoinDesk he still gets these questions regularly. Bottom line, then: we’re still so early in this technology’s lifecycle. Whereas a stablecoin is a cryptocurrency that keeps a consistent price by being pegged to an asset, like the U.S. dollar, bitcoin’s price moves up and down depending on supply and demand.
Why can’t I just use fiat?
This is a deceptively important question. The idea behind stablecoins, and cryptocurrency broadly, is that it was built for this internet age we now live in. Money should be like the internet — global, real-time, programmable and composable. This innovates on the often clunky architecture of the traditional financial system, where decades of band-aids on an archaic core infrastructure have led to high fees, slow settlement, and inflexible services. So you can use fiat, but during our sessions, we think you’ll be persuaded that stablecoins are the future.
What keeps a stablecoin’s price at $1?
Just like fiat (and crypto), there are different types of stablecoins.
Some keep their peg by having the same amount of collateral in dollars (or euros or whatever fiat they choose) in their coffers. This mechanism design is called fiat collateralized, and it’s how stablecoins like USDC work — they’re backed 100% by cash or cash equivalent assets and are actually redeemable 1:1 with those.
Other stablecoins have what is known as overcollateralization, like DAI. MakerDAO’s stablecoin DAI is backed by overcollateralized loans: it keeps its dollar peg by locking other assets in contracts as collateral for DAI creation.
The last, and slightly controversial, type of stablecoins rely on algorithmic stabilization — that is, computer algorithms are built to manage the supply and demand so that a coin stays pegged to $1. While this is certainly an interesting tech that will continue to be innovated upon, it’s also led to huge failures, subsequently wiping out millions of dollars from the ecosystem.
Still confused? Join any of our CoinDesk University’s School of Stablecoins sessions to talk to the people actually building the stablecoin technology for consumers and businesses.
Who actually holds the money?
With fully backed stablecoins, the issuer holds the money. However, that doesn’t mean that a stablecoin issuer has a bank account and deposits $1 at a time when a new stablecoin is minted.
Instead, fiat-backed stablecoin reserves are usually held by custodians like BlackRock or BNY Mellon. And since each stablecoin issuer decides what their collateral looks like — whether it’s cash or other highly liquid assets — the type of custodian they use will vary based on what actually makes up the reserve.
For overcollateralized stables or coins with algorithmic backing, the issuers usually hold their version of reserves in smart contracts or blockchain-based wallets.
How do I get a stablecoin?
“Even established banks, fintechs, and payment companies that move millions of dollars in transactions every day ask this,” says Better Money Company’s Broner. “And it’s a fair question, because the on-ramps aren’t always obvious.”
So don’t feel embarrassed if you have to ask again. In the cryptocurrency industry, there are exchanges, wallet providers, custodians, payment platforms, plus decentralized and centralized versions of all those. The answer depends on what you’re trying to do with the cryptocurrency after acquiring it.
During CoinDesk University’s School of Stablecoins, you’ll hear from experts in the field about the digital storefronts you can patronize to get your hands on stables and what you can do with them afterward.
What happens if everyone redeems their stablecoins at once?
The U.S. dollar was on the gold standard until 1971 — that meant that you could walk into your bank and demand an equal amount of gold in exchange for dollars at any time. If you did that now, you’d be laughed out of the bank. But fiat-based stablecoins actually still work this way.
If you own a USD-backed stable that’s 100% collateralized, you can redeem it for dollars at any time. If every single person that owned that USD-backed stable went to the issuer to get their dollars at the exact same time (a probabilistic nightmare), hypothetically, everyone would get their money back — it just might not be instantaneous.
As the stablecoin market has grown, issuers have moved away from full cash reserves and instead are filling their reserves with Treasury notes and bonds, all of which should be highly liquid. But as the Silicon Valley Bank collapse showed, when people “run on a bank” that holds stablecoins, the dollar peg can get a little shaky.
What if the government bans stablecoins?
This isn’t as far-fetched as it might sound. In the U.S., the long-awaited CLARITY Act has been held up by unresolved issues, such as banning stablecoin yield (a rightfully tetchy issue). Businesses using stablecoins have been wary of keeping on the right side of regulation, even while getting mixed signals from Washington.
Whether CLARITY ends up passing or not, there’s still a lot to be aware of when using stablecoins in the U.S.. It’s why we invited the Blockchain Association and some of its partners to break down exactly what your business needs to know about policy and compliance.
Are stablecoins safe?
You’ve read the headlines of people losing millions of dollars of cryptocurrency, whether by losing their private keys, having invested in a scam or a project that gets hacked. As we mentioned above, depending on what type of stablecoin you’re investing in, there may be more or less risks associated.
According to Broner, though, that’s rapidly changing as legislation, such as the GENIUS Act, is passed, mandating that stablecoin issuers hold safe collateral as reserves and introducing federal oversight and transparency requirements.
“For an industry trying to earn mainstream confidence, that’s exactly the foundation you need,” Broner says.
Join us live at Consensus 2026 for our School of Stablecoins workshop series to learn more about how you can implement this new payment method for faster, cheaper, more programmable transactions in this new era of business.
Hut 8 (HUT), a bitcoin miner turned energy and AI compute company, has refinanced its bitcoin-backed credit facility, replacing its existing Coinbase Credit arrangement with a new $200 million facility with FalconX.
With the new deal, Hut 8 cut its fixed interest rate to 7% from 9%, a 200-basis-point improvement, according to a press release. The move is part of the firm’s focus on lowering its cost of debt on bitcoin-backed credit and broader cost of capital, the company said. The deal also frees up approximately 3,300 bitcoin that were previously pledged as collateral, worth roughly $260 million as of May 1, giving Hut 8 greater flexibility to deploy that capital.
“This refinancing strengthens our balance sheet by decreasing our cost of debt while simultaneously increasing Bitcoin held outside collateral covenants, resulting in additional liquidity to deploy into the growth of our business,” said Sean Glennan, CFO of Hut 8.
“It advances our broader objective of optimizing the role of bitcoin on our balance sheet and lowering our cost of capital,” he added.
The trend of refinancing for better terms continues among mining firms, as they seek to improve their credit terms and free up more capital for their pivot to AI and move away from volatile bitcoin revenues in favor of long-term leases.
Last week, Hut 8 priced $3.25 billion of senior secured notes to fund construction of a 245-megawatt data center at its River Bend campus in St. Francisville, Louisiana, according to an April 28 SEC filing. The project, first announced in December, has a 15-year, $7 billion lease with AI infrastructure firm Fluidstack, backed by Google, with a total potential value of up to $17.7 billion if all renewal options are exercised.
Another miner, Riot, also recently secured improved terms on its $200 million bitcoin-backed credit facility with Coinbase, lowering the rate to a fixed 6.15% from 8.3% and releasing 1,544 of pledged collateral bitcoin, signaling growing lender confidence in its expanding data center business.
Hut 8 shares rose about 1.5% on Monday as bitcoin rallied above $80,000.
Read More: Riot extends $200 million Coinbase credit facility, and bitcoin weakness could mean more sales
ePBS, Block-Level Access Lists, and EIP-8037 repricings combine to unlock a 200M gas limit floor, a throughput jump that could keep network fees pinned for years.
Ethereum core contributors gathered above the Arctic Circle in Longyearbyen, Svalbard last week for the Soldøgn Interop, where they aligned on a post-Glamsterdam gas limit floor of 200M, according to a recap published Saturday by Ethereum Foundation protocol support lead Tim Beiko.
That target represents roughly a 3.3x jump from the network’s current 60M gas limit, unlocked by three Glamsterdam workstreams that converged during the week.
The first is enshrined Proposer-Builder Separation (ePBS), which restructures slot timing with explicit deadlines for block construction, payload reveal, and attestations, giving execution more headroom.
The second is Block-Level Access Lists, specified in EIP-7928, which let clients pre-fetch a block’s read/write set, enabling parallel execution, batched I/O, and parallel state-root computation. The third is EIP-8037, which raises the cost of writing new state, so the higher gas limit doesn’t translate into runaway state growth. Teams dropped an earlier dynamic per-state-byte model in favor of a fixed cost during the week, simplifying both testing and benchmarking.
Smaller Glamsterdam EIPs were also closed out at the interop. EIP-8061 (exit/consolidation churn increase) is in, EIP-8080 (exits via the consolidation queue) was declined, and EIP-8045 was scoped down to proposer duties within the look-ahead window only.
Implications For Fees
A threefold increase in L1 execution capacity, without a matching surge in demand, is likely to keep base fees suppressed. That directly throttles the EIP-1559 burn that has anchored ETH’s “ultrasound money” thesis since the Merge. DeFiLlama data shows that Ethereum’s network fees have been trending lower over the past few years, and Beiko flagged that a further doubling of the gas limit is expected “soon after” Glamsterdam.
Ethereum Monthly Fees
The bull case is that a cheaper, faster L1 pulls back activity that has migrated to L2s, including DeFi flows, tokenized RWAs, and the institutional ETH treasury strategies increasingly leaning on credible scaling. The bear case is that fees stay pinned, ETH issuance turns more inflationary, and the monetary premium on the asset compresses further.
Beiko noted that the 200M target and final repricing numbers will be confirmed on upcoming AllCoreDevs calls. Glamsterdam is expected to ship in the coming months, with the Hegotá fork queued up next.
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