Ether looks poised to gain a price advantage over BTC as the ETH/BTC ratio soars to a 10-week high.
The ETH/BTC ratio has climbed to a 10-week high, suggesting that Ether (ETH) is gaining momentum against Bitcoin (BTC) in the charts.
Ether’s footing has improved as clearer DeFi regulations from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were applauded by the crypto community. At the same time, Bitmine has added 71,524 ETH to its Ether treasury on April 13.
The ETH/BTC ratio broke through a descending trendline resistance that had been in place since August 2025. A daily close above this trend line marks the first breakout in months.
The pair trades above the 50-day and 100-day exponential moving averages at 0.0310, both of which are now acting as dynamic support. The compression between these averages points to a possible bullish crossover if the trend continues.
ETH/BTC on the one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
XWIN Research noted that a stronger underlying shift in Ether is driven by an April 13 SEC staff statement that explained how DeFi front-ends and wallet interfaces can operate without broker-dealer registration under defined conditions, such as no custody and neutral fee structures. XWIN Research added,
“On-chain data supports this shift. Active addresses are trending upward, indicating renewed network usage. Meanwhile, the Coinbase Premium Gap is improving, suggesting a recovery in U.S.-driven demand, often linked to institutional flows.”
As the ETH/BTC pair shows strength, corporate-level accumulation continues to accelerate. Bitmine now holds 4.87 million ETH, accounting for over 4% of the circulating supply, after adding 279,296 ETH over the past 30-days.
Related: Tom Lee says ‘mini crypto winter’ is over, sees Ether above $60K
Will an Ether bull market resume?
Crypto analyst GugaOnChain noted a sharp divide in ETH futures positioning. The global open interest reached $16.37 billion on April 14, sitting well above its 14-day average. Funding rates across exchanges remain negative at -0.0013%, indicating a short positioning against the rally.
However, open interest climbed to $6.04 billion, a 10.47% daily increase on Binance. Funding rates on the exchange turned positive at 0.015%, signaling rising long positioning.
This creates a split between global shorts and Binance-based longs. The analyst added,
“We face an extreme imbalance. With 40% of global ETH Open Interest on Binance, the fuel for a violent move is ready.”
Ether: open interest on all exchanges. Source: CryptQuant
Related: Ether holders back in profit as ETH price aims for rally to $3K
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 before making any decisions. Cointelegraph makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information presented, including forward-looking statements, and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from reliance on this content.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies chairman Tom Lee said Wednesday that the recent crypto slump was a “mini crypto winter” that may already be ending, in comments that came shortly after the company disclosed a multibillion-dollar quarterly loss tied largely to unrealized markdowns on the company’s Ether holdings.
During a keynote speech at Paris Blockchain Week 2026, Lee said that equity markets have bottomed due to the US-Israel war with Iran, and that Ether (ETH) will emerge from its “massive consolidation,” driven by tokenization and agentic artificial intelligence initiatives tied to the smart contract network.
Lee argued that equities have reached their bottom, leading to a recovery from what he called an “unusual” crypto market downturn, which didn’t coincide with a wider bear market in stocks for the first time. “Equity markets bottom on bad news. And we’ve had a lot of bad news,” said Lee, citing historical examples of stock markets bottoming out after the outbreak of wars.
Lee also said ETH is “probably on its way to 60,000” if his market thesis is correct and later described $62,000 as a fair-value scenario over the next few years, based on Ethereum reaching roughly one-quarter of Bitcoin’s (BTC) long-term value.
His comments come amid a wider crypto market downturn that has seen Ether’s price fall 43% since October 2025 to trade around $2,327 at the time of writing, significantly below Bitmine’s average cost basis of $3,660, according to data from Bitminetracker.
Thomas Lee, the co-founder, keynote speech at Paris Blockchain Week 2026. Source: Cointelegraph
Bitmine posts $3.8 billion quarterly loss on Ether holdings
Lee’s comments also follow Bitmine’s posting of a $3.82 billion loss on its Ether holdings during the first quarter of the year, according to a Tuesday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Bitmine form 10-q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Source: sec.gov
The figure was mainly driven by the company’s over $3.78 billion in unrealized losses on its crypto holdings. Bitmine also reported $11 million in revenue, including $10.2 million from ETH staking.
Related: Ether treasuries need liquid staking edge to beat ETFs, says Lido exec
Despite the mounting losses, Bitmine announced a purchase of 71,524 Ether on Monday, with the company now holding roughly 4.04% of the total Ether supply. The latest acquisitions came shortly after Bitmine debuted on the New York Stock Exchange on April 9, uplisting from NYSE American.
Bitmine and Exodus Movement are the only two Ether treasury companies to publicly disclose Ether investments over the past 30 days.
The top 10 largest corporate Ether holders. Source: StrategicEthReserve
Bitmine is the largest corporate Ether holder with 4.6 million ETH currently valued at over $10 billion, while SharpLink Gaming is second, with 863,000 Ether worth $1.89 billion, data from StrategicEthReserve shows.
Magazine: Sharplink exec shocked by level of BTC and ETH ETF hodling — Joseph Chalom
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy
Tristan Prince from NOTO and Robert Brooker of Opus Advisory Group recently sat down to discuss the growing complexities of fraud prevention in today’s financial landscape. Over the years, many firms have layered on various point solutions for application fraud, behavioural biometrics, and email risk, with each bringing its own costs and operational burdens. Eventually, managing these siloed systems becomes a full-time job in itself, making it nearly impossible to focus on the actual goal of stopping criminals.
The struggle is real and the data backs it up, as Prince notes that while over half of UK businesses plan to increase their fraud prevention spending, most also admit that risk levels are still climbing.
Interestingly, there seems to be a “bell curve” effect; once spending exceeds 10% of an IT budget, the effectiveness of identifying fraud actually starts to drop. Prince suggests that rather than adding another single-point solution, organisations should look toward enterprise fraud management platforms. By using a single API, companies can migrate their entire estate to a real-time rules engine and a unified case management view, finally getting all their customer data in one place.
Brooker brings the conversation toward the insider threat and the classic fraud triangle: motivation, rationalisation, and opportunity. When systems like accounts payable (AP) and supply chain management are siloed and don’t “talk” to each other, which creates gaps that people might exploit. Brooker shared a striking example of a contractor who managed to siphon off £250,000 in just 17 months simply because he could both create and approve his own invoices.
The organisation was completely in the dark until the banks flagged suspicious activity.
Ultimately, NOTO argues that the true cost of fraud isn’t just the immediate financial hit; it’s the damage to customer trust. If a good customer gets caught up in clunky, outdated controls, they might just take their business elsewhere. With technology moving as fast as it is, and criminals using AI to lower their own cost of doing business, Prince and Brooker agree that the time to move away from 30-year-old legacy systems is now.
A new proposal circulating among Bitcoin developers is forcing the network to confront a long-standing theoretical risk: the impact of quantum computing on its cryptographic foundations.
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 361 (BIP-361), introduced by a group of researchers including Jameson Lopp, outlines a structured plan to migrate the network away from legacy signature schemes and toward quantum-resistant alternatives. If adopted, the proposal would impose a phased deadline that could ultimately render unmigrated coins permanently unspendable.
The proposal aims to reduce Bitcoin’s exposure to a future scenario in which sufficiently advanced quantum computers can break the elliptic curve cryptography that underpins its current system.
“Even if Bitcoin is not a primary initial target of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer, widespread knowledge that such a computer exists and is capable of breaking Bitcoin’s cryptography will damage faith in the network,” the BIP authors wrote.
Today, Bitcoin relies on ECDSA and Schnorr signatures to secure transactions. Both remain robust against classical computing but are theoretically vulnerable to Shor’s algorithm, which could allow an attacker to derive private keys from exposed public keys. This risk is not evenly distributed across the network. Older address types, particularly pay-to-public-key outputs and reused addresses, reveal public keys onchain and are considered the most vulnerable.
Estimates cited by the proposal suggest that more than one-third of all bitcoin in circulation falls into this category, including early holdings attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. In a quantum attack scenario, those funds could be compromised, potentially destabilizing the network and redistributing wealth to technologically advanced actors.
The proposal’s transition phases
BIP-361 introduces a three-phase transition designed to preempt that outcome. Phase A, expected roughly three years after activation, would prohibit new transactions from sending funds to legacy address types. While users could still move funds out of vulnerable addresses, the restriction would push wallets and services toward adopting quantum-resistant formats.
Phase B, beginning about two years later, would escalate the transition by invalidating all legacy signatures at the consensus level. At that point, any bitcoin that has not been migrated would become effectively frozen, unable to be spent under network rules.
A proposed Phase C, still under research, would offer a limited recovery mechanism. This would rely on zero-knowledge proofs tied to seed phrases, allowing users to demonstrate ownership of frozen funds without exposing private keys. The feasibility and timeline of this phase remain uncertain.
The proposal frames the forced migration as a defensive measure rather than a punitive one. By freezing coins that fail to upgrade, the authors argue the network can eliminate a major attack surface before quantum capabilities emerge.
They also note that permanently inaccessible coins would reduce effective supply, a dynamic long discussed within Bitcoin’s economic model.
No activation timeline has been set, and BIP-361 remains in draft form.
Bitcoin (BTC) circled $74,000 at Wednesday’s Wall Street open as US stocks edged higher on news that the US and Iran may be open to another round of ceasefire negotiations.
Key points:
Bitcoin consolidates as analysts warn that stocks may be too optimistic over geopolitical relief.
The S&P 500 approaches new all-time highs despite questions over Iran’s uranium enrichment.
Bitcoin traders note missing components to support a true trend change.
Iran conflict lacks “genuine resolution”
Data from TradingView showed declining BTC price volatility after a trip to two-month highs the day prior.
Stocks continued a recovery on the day as US President Donald Trump said that China had opted not to send weapons to Iran.
“China is very happy that I am permanently opening the Strait of Hormuz. I am doing it for them, also – And the World,” he wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“This situation will never happen again. They have agreed not to send weapons to Iran.”
Source: Truth Social
President Trump referenced the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil gateway, as WTI crude dropped below $90 to a new April low on the day.
Commenting, trading company QCP Capital was cautious about discounting the ongoing impact of the US-Iran war.
“Equities recovered, oil sold off, and crypto caught a bid. But the more important signal was what failed to confirm the move,” it wrote in its latest “Market Color” update.
“Long-end yields barely budged, gold held its levels, and the bond market, which should be front-running an inflation relief trade more aggressively, did not follow through. When oil drops and the 10-year barely twitches, rates are telling you this is a reduction in headline risk, not a genuine resolution.”
CFDs on WTI crude oil one-day chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
QCP pointed to Iran’s uranium enrichment as a sticking point in the process of diffusing geopolitical tensions.
“The reason is enrichment. Iran is at 60% enriched uranium, while the US wants levels below 20%. That gap does not close with a framework headline. It closes with a concession Tehran has not signalled it is prepared to make,” it continued.
“Previous ceasefires have lasted weeks, while the enrichment issue has remained unresolved since 2015. Markets are trading the former, but the latter still sits at the core of the risk.”
On Monday, the S&P 500 reclaimed its yearly open level, going on to hit local highs of 6,988 on the day, coming within 15 points of new all-time highs.
BTC price “decision time” due
Bitcoin traders preserved earlier skepticism over market strength.
Related: Oil price surges 8% on Iran tensions: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week
Trader Jelle described the latest trip to $76,000 as an “equal high” that “barely went above” February’s peak.
Liquidity games still in play.$BTC technically tagged those previous highs – but I’m viewing this as an equal high rather than a sweep, barely went above it.
Keep an eye out for a real sweep above there; that’ll likely catch a lot of traders off guard. pic.twitter.com/dxO9cgDRY3
“Bias remains down, but doubt shorts get a free ride from here,” he added in another of his latest posts on X.
Daan Crypto Trades, meanwhile, predicted that BTC/USD would soon face “decision time.”
“Price tapped the $76K high from March and is consolidating in this area currently. Low timeframe grind higher since the start of April which has been making some marginally higher highs and lows,” he summarized to X followers.
QCP also noted price action “grinding higher,” while warning that options markets were “not confirming a clean breakout.”
“The broader regime has not changed. The Fed is still boxed in, sitting near zero net cuts for the year after the oil shock repriced the easing path, while liquidity conditions remain tight,” it concluded.
“This is a geopolitical relief rally, not a macro regime shift. Last week’s trade was to fade the blockade. This week’s question is whether investors should fade the relief.”
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 before making any decisions. Cointelegraph makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information presented, including forward-looking statements, and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from reliance on this content.
Decentralized finance (DeFi) platform World Liberty Financial on Wednesday posted a governance proposal that would place 62.28 billion locked WLFI tokens under new multiyear vesting schedules and introduce a potential burn for founder, team, adviser and partner allocations.
Under the proposal, early supporters’ locked tokens would face a two-year cliff followed by a two-year linear vest. Founder, team, adviser and partner allocations would face a two-year cliff followed by a three-year linear vest if those holders opt in to the new terms.
The plan also provides for a burn of up to 4.52 billion WLFI tokens, or 10% of the founder, team, adviser and partner allocation. Holders who do not accept the new vesting terms would remain locked indefinitely.
The move formalizes a phased unlock approach previously signaled by the project, offering a structured release of tokens while avoiding a near-term increase in supply. It comes as the Trump-linked platform faces growing pressure from holders and broader scrutiny of its governance.
The proposal follows mounting criticism from early WLFI buyers over prolonged lockups and limited liquidity. On April 10, the project said it would introduce the proposal after some holders threatened legal action.
Additional scrutiny emerged around the platform’s governance structure and decision-making process.
On Monday, Tron founder Justin Sun, who previously invested $30 million in WLFI, criticized the platform over transparency concerns, alleging that prior governance votes were dominated by a small number of wallets and lacked meaningful participation. In response, WLFI threatened to file a lawsuit against Sun.
Related: Trump faces renewed backlash as Trump-linked crypto tokens hit lows
On the same day, Sun urged WLFI to disclose who controls key wallets tied to its smart contracts, warning that the setup could allow significant control, including the ability to freeze tokens.
The proposal also follows recent concerns around WLFI’s treasury activity and market performance. On Saturday, WLFI fell to a new all-time low, just days after wallets linked to the project used billions of tokens as collateral to borrow about $75 million in stablecoins.
Magazine: Singapore isn’t a ‘crypto hub’ — it’s something better: StraitsX CEO
Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy
A leading core Bitcoin developer said he would rather see the estimated 5.6 million bitcoin BTC$74,075.74 he believes to be lost frozen by the network than risk them falling into the hands of future quantum hackers.
Jameson Lopp told CoinDesk that while he does not want to freeze anyone’s bitcoin, removing dormant tokens from potential circulation may be safer for the network.
“At the moment, I don’t believe any of this is necessary,” Lopp said in an interview, emphasizing that he is thinking “adversarially about a potential future threat.” Still, he would “rather for lost or dormant coins to be taken out of reach from an attacker rather than have them flow into the hands of an entity that likely doesn’t care much about the ecosystem.”
His comments follow the Tuesday release of BIP-361, a proposal from Lopp and others that explores phasing out bitcoin’s current cryptographic signatures and, over time, invalidating transactions from quantum-vulnerable wallets, potentially freezing assets that fail to migrate. At current prices, the dormant tokens Lopp referenced are worth roughly $420 billion.
In a subsequent post on X, Lopp said he “doesn’t like” the proposal and hopes it never needs to be adopted, describing it as a “rough idea for a contingency plan” rather than a finalized specification. “I wrote it because I like the alternative even less,” he wrote, adding that in the face of an existential threat, “individual economic incentives outweigh philosophical principles.”
It’s not the first time Lopp has expressed his feelings about quantum recovery, which he said amounts to rewarding technological supremacy rather than productive participation in the network. “Quantum miners don’t trade anything,” Lopp wrote. “They are vampires feeding upon the system.”
Millions of bitcoin likely lost forever
Roughly 28% of all bitcoin, or about 5.6 million tokens, has not moved in over a decade, Lopp said, adding that he and other analysts consider it likely lost. If ever recovered through advances in quantum computing, that amount could introduce significant volatility and undermine confidence in the original crypto network, Lopp added.
While the proposal remains in early stages with no set timeline for adoption, it has already sparked fierce debate within the community.
Lopp framed the idea as a way to encourage or even push others to upgrade their wallets before any real threat emerges.
“It’s not that I want to freeze anyone’s bitcoin,” he said. “We believe it will be necessary to incentivize the ecosystem to upgrade because humans tend to be procrastinators.”
Any change would require consensus across the decentralized network. While no formal vote takes place on the matter, similar upgrades have in the past required overwhelming support from miners to activate.
Read more: To freeze or not to freeze: Satoshi and the $440 billion in bitcoin threatened by quantum computing
Massive market panic risk
More significant risks include the loss of trust in the largest cryptocurrency itself, Lopp said. While a sudden dump of millions of bitcoin onto the market could trigger sharp price swings, he said the bigger danger lies in perception.
“It doesn’t even require a massive market dump,” Lopp said. “If there is any credible evidence that anyone has the capability to recover lost or vulnerable coins with a quantum computer, you should expect a massive market panic immediately.”
In that scenario, he said, rational holders would probably exit the system until there is confidence the blockchain has been secured against such threats.
The result is a growing divide within the community, one that pits Bitcoin’s long-standing promise of immutable, censorship-resistant ownership against the need to defend the network from a potential future shock.
Departure from Bitcoin’s principles
Market analyst Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics, said the debate is more philosophical than technological.
“The path to quantum resistance is relatively clear,” he said. “The real question is how the Bitcoin community chooses to handle vulnerable coins along the way.”
In his opinion, freezing dormant bitcoin accounts would mark a significant departure from Bitcoin’s core principles.
“On one hand, freezing dormant or exposed coins could remove a major tail-risk and protect market confidence,” Greenspan said. “On the other, it introduces a precedent of intervention that many would argue is more dangerous than the threat itself.”
Greenspan explained that even without a large-scale sell-off, visible quantum attacks on dormant wallets could trigger panic across the market.
“Ownership becomes conditional. Having keys no longer guarantees you can spend,” said Leo Fan, founder of Cysic and former lead on quantum resilience at Algorand. “That weakens Bitcoin’s ‘unstoppable money’ promise.”
And while he does not agree with freezing the accounts, Fan noted that removing millions of bitcoin from circulation could tighten supply, potentially boosting its value.
The Fear and Greed Index has stayed below 15 for 46 consecutive days, the longest extreme fear streak ever, and yet 73% of institutional investors plan to increase crypto holdings in 2026. That gap between panic and planning is where the next crypto to explode always forms, because wallets buying during fear collect the returns when the market turns.
Pepeto has attracted more than $8 million during this window, with exchange tools live and a confirmed Binance listing ahead that positions it as the entry ETH and XRP holders wish they found earlier.
Next Crypto to Explode as Fear Hits Record Levels and Institutions Keep Loading
The crypto Fear and Greed Index has sat below 15 for 46 straight days, the longest stretch in history and worse than the FTX collapse aftermath (CoinDesk).
Meanwhile, 73% of institutional investors told surveys they plan to increase digital asset allocations in 2026 (SpotedCrypto). That collision between retail fear and institutional conviction is where the next crypto to explode will come from, and the capital is already flowing into positions most wallets have not noticed yet.
Tokens Positioned for the Biggest Moves When the Fear Streak Breaks
Pepeto
While the market sits in record fear and institutions quietly load positions, the next crypto to explode could be the one that already built its product and confirmed its listing before the crowd arrived. Pepeto has collected past $8 million from wallets that found a token marketplace created by the person who built the original Pepe coin to an $11 billion market cap with zero exchange products behind it.
PepetoSwap gives holders zero fee trading, which means each dollar entering a position stays whole instead of losing value to gas and platform charges, and that matters when smaller entries need every cent working. The risk scorer reviews each contract before money enters, flagging issues that would take hours to uncover, so positions begin with verified protection instead of hope. Every contract cleared a SolidProof security review, and the confirmed Binance listing turns this presale into a countdown that gets shorter daily. The entry sits at $0.000000186, and with past $8 million arriving while extreme fear gripped the market, the wallets inside are making a conviction bet, not a speculative gamble.
The 183% APY staking reward locks tokens away from the open supply while the listing gets closer, and because 420 trillion tokens match the supply Pepe used on its run to $11 billion, analysts project that the exchange tools behind Pepeto should carry returns past what zero products delivered. Early ETH holders turned a few thousand dollars into generational wealth and now wish they committed more at those prices, and the next crypto to explode is offering the same second chance before the same kind of move.
ETH
ETH trades near $2,330 after gaining 7% over the past week, with the ETH to BTC ratio bouncing from 2026 lows as the network added 284,000 users in Q1 (CoinDesk). From $2,330, a return to $4,000 gives roughly 80%, a solid recovery, but for anyone searching for the next crypto to explode, the distance between a presale entry and a Binance listing is where the returns that reshape a portfolio actually live.
XRP
XRP sits near $1.37 after weekly ETP inflows hit $120 million, the largest since December 2025, driven by institutional buyers (CoinGecko). From $1.37, even an optimistic target of $8 gives around 480%, but that depends on regulatory clarity and broad market cooperation. For the kind of returns that change everything, the gap between a presale price and a listing event is where the math favors the early wallet.
Conclusion
The wallets buying Pepeto right now are the ones positioned to collect the biggest returns when the Binance listing arrives, and the 46 day fear streak is exactly the kind of environment where the next crypto to explode gets built in silence.
ETH early holders turned small entries into generational wealth and wish they committed more, and the same setup is forming around Pepeto before the same kind of move begins. This second chance sits at the Pepeto official website, and entering the presale during fear while the listing approaches is the difference between being inside when returns arrive and watching from the outside while others celebrate.
Click To Visit Pepeto official Website To Enter The Presale
FAQs
What is the next crypto to explode in 2026?
Pepeto stands out with a live token marketplace, SolidProof audit, and confirmed Binance listing backed by the person who built Pepe, with entry details at the Pepeto official website.
Why is extreme fear a buying signal for the next crypto to explode?
The 46 day fear streak matches the FTX aftermath pattern, and historically readings below 15 have preceded positive returns 78% of the time.
How does the next crypto to explode compare to ETH and XRP?
ETH and XRP offer large cap recovery plays, but a presale priced below a cent with a Binance listing confirmed gives a gap between entry and outcome that established coins cannot deliver.
Welcome to our institutional newsletter, Crypto Long & Short. This week:
Tricia Gallagher on how the fix for broken digital identity systems will need to be state-led and user-controlled.
Top headlines institutions should pay attention to by Francisco Rodrigues.
Crypto TCG gacha volumes hit all-time high as CARDS token surges 52% in Chart of the Week.
Thanks for joining us!
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You’re reading Crypto Long & Short, our weekly newsletter featuring insights, news and analysis for the professional investor. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.
Expert Insights
Fighting fraud in the digital age: why state-led identity is the future
By Tricia Gallagher, founder and principal, Treasury Solutions Info Tech (TSIT)
The United States has lost an estimated $5 trillion to fraud and improper payments across government programs.
That number should stop us in our tracks.
Yet most policy responses still focus on detection, recovery and enforcement. They miss the underlying issue. Fraud at this scale is not a compliance failure — it is an infrastructure failure and at its center is identity. Addressing it requires a shift away from band-aid solutions toward a re-architecture of our digital identity framework.
There is a growing movement around the idea that identity — and control over access to personal data — belongs to the individual, not to banks, technology platforms or even the government. Even within the financial system, where data use is more tightly regulated, individuals often lack meaningful visibility or control. Data sharing operates through broad, one-time consent frameworks that enable ongoing access and reuse of financial data with limited transparency. More importantly, when consumers cannot actively direct how their data is shared and used, they are limited in their ability to access new and tailored financial services — constraining innovation, reducing competition and slowing economic growth.
This dynamic is even more pronounced in the technology sector, where personal data is routinely collected, aggregated and monetized at scale. Across both domains, individuals have limited awareness of who has access to their data and how it is used.
At its core, this model requires individuals to surrender control of their identity and personal data to participate. These systems are not only inefficient, they expand the surface area for misuse and security breaches. More fundamentally, they erode individual agency and undermine the very notion of inalienable rights in the digital age.
Two major policy debates in Washington reflect this tension: one focuses on reducing fraud and improper payments; the other centers on control of consumer financial data. They are treated as separate issues, but in reality reflect the same structural gap.
Policymakers are responding, but largely within the constraints of the current system. Congressional efforts to update the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act focus on consumer data control through opt-in and opt-out regimes. At the same time, the Trump Administration has elevated fraud prevention through expanded oversight and increased data sharing across agencies. Since January 2025, more than a dozen federal initiatives — including an interagency fraud task force — have been launched.
On one side, policymakers are pursuing incremental privacy improvements. On the other, they are expanding access to sensitive government data to combat fraud. The result is continued reliance on centralized data pools, combined with limited individual control over how personally identifiable information (PII) is accessed and used. These architectures increase exposure, create attractive targets for bad actors and remain difficult to secure at scale.
The core challenge is not simply data protection. It is how to enable trusted verification and privacy while preserving individual control over access to personal data. Without that control, individuals are required to relinquish how their data is accessed and used, undermining a core inalienable right in the digital economy. This is where states have a critical role to play.
States have long served as the primary issuers of identity through birth records, driver’s licenses and other foundational credentials. This positions them to lead the next phase of digital identity infrastructure. The future of digital identity will require states to become the anchor of trust — not by expanding data collection, but by re-architecting how that trust is expressed: shifting from centralized data silos to privacy-preserving, user-controlled credentials.
Utah provides a clear example. Through legislation taking effect in May 2026, the state has introduced a Digital Identity Bill of Rights that places individuals at the center of how their identity is used and shared. It establishes clear principles to enable user control, data minimization, restricted surveillance and verification based only on what is necessary. At its core is a simple reality: trust in financial systems requires authoritative identity. Access to public funds and services depends on verified eligibility, and states already fulfill this role.
The goal is not to remove the state, but to modernize how trust is expressed. By shifting to privacy-preserving, user-controlled credentials, states can reduce fraud, improve transparency and strengthen accountability.
As federal debates continue to focus on managing data within legacy systems, states have an opportunity to lead in a fundamentally different direction — one that reduces reliance on centralized data and restores individual control over identity and personal information. The future of digital finance will not be defined by speed alone, but by whether systems uphold both trust and rights.
Identity is the bridge between the two.
Headlines of the Week
ByFrancisco Rodrigues
This week delivered a blend of significant developments across geopolitics, global regulation, and decentralized finance.
Stablecoins were a key focus globally, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. formally proposing its approach to U.S. federal rules and a group led by HSBC and Standard Chartered receiving Hong Kong’s first stablecoin licenses.
Meanwhile, crypto entered geopolitical tensions as Iran explored collecting transit fees in cryptocurrency for oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait has since been blockaded by the U.S. navy.
Chart of the Week
Crypto TCG gacha volumes hit all-time high as CARDS token surges 52%
The crypto Trading Card Game (TCG) gacha market — where players spend crypto to open randomised digital card packs — hit a record $36 million+ in weekly volume on April 13th, 2026, continuing the uptrend post the range-bound move in February. CARDS/USD, the largest tokenised trading card index, appears to be responding, surging 52% in the last 24 hours as on-chain card collecting sentiment recovers.
Bitcoin’s addressable market has the potential to surpass the $34 trillion gold market if it is eventually widely used as both a currency and a store of value, according to Bitwise’s chief investment officer Matt Hougan.
Hougan said on Tuesday that while Bitcoin (BTC) has been seen as a contender to gold, the war in Iran has shown that Bitcoin can also serve in a “currency-like manner,” referring to Iran’s proposed plan to charge a toll that can be paid in crypto for ships to navigate the Strait of Hormuz.
“In a world where countries have weaponized their financial rails, Bitcoin is emerging as an apolitical alternative,” Hougan said.
“It tells you that Bitcoin’s total addressable market is probably a lot bigger than the… gold market alone.”
Hougan previously predicted that if Bitcoin captures even 17% of the store-of-value market over the next decade, it could reach $1 million a coin. Taking a role as an international currency would likely see it go much higher.
Source: Matt Hougan
“If Bitcoin starts to take on a dual role as both a store of value, like gold, and an actual currency, like the dollar, we may need to revise our targets higher.”
Bitcoin is trading around $74,500 with a market capitalization of roughly $1.4 trillion, according to CoinGecko. Gold is trading for $4,854 an ounce, and its market cap is estimated to be more than $33.7 trillion as of Wednesday.
Related: Bitcoin bounces to $72.5K as markets react to US Strait of Hormuz blockade
Bitcoin is already functioning as a store of value for people in high-inflation economies.
Citizens of Argentina, Turkey, and Venezuela have experienced persistent inflation and currency collapses, prompting many to switch to Bitcoin and protect their wealth.
A January Coinbase survey found that 87% of Argentinians flagged crypto and blockchain technology as a way to enhance their financial independence, while nearly three in four respondents saw crypto as a solution to challenges like inflation.
Bitcoin has also seen adoption by corporates looking to bolster their balance sheets.
Private and public companies tracked by BitBo collectively hold more than 1.5 million Bitcoin valued at more than $116 billion.
Private and public companies collectively hold more than 1.5 million Bitcoin. Source: Bitbo
However, Bitcoin has also grown as a payment method, with academic publishing company Springer Nature identifying about 11,000 merchants globally using BTC Map data that currently accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.
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