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Bitcoin Faces Selling Above $70K, Wall Street Looks Bullish

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Bitcoin Faces Selling Above $70K, Wall Street Looks Bullish

The S&P 500’s latest rebound has drawn a cautiously bullish response from major Wall Street firms, with Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase both signaling confidence that the recent correction may be nearing its end.

Morgan Stanley strategist Michael Wilson said the market’s recovery from its recent lows — about 7% off the trough — was holding at critical technical support levels, suggesting downside momentum may have run its course.

Wilson pointed to stronger-than-expected earnings growth, now tracking at roughly 15% on current reports and projected to climb more than 20% on a forward basis, as proof that equities still rest on a sound fundamental base. His team advises clients to buy market dips, focusing on cyclical sectors and quality growth stocks while reducing exposure to energy, which he said may have peaked following its early-year rally.

JPMorgan also urged investors to treat pullbacks as buying opportunities. Strategist Mislav Matejka said conditions favor another V-shaped recovery over the next three to twelve months. 

Though volatility remains likely amid geopolitical uncertainty, Matejka sees investor sentiment and market positioning as overly bearish and expects fresh inflows to stabilize risk assets. JPMorgan projects stronger performance in international markets, emerging economies, small-cap equities, and value sectors as global growth stabilizes.

Bitcoin continues to stall out above $72,000

While equity analysts find renewed optimism, Bitcoin continues to stall near its upper range. Data from Glassnode shows heavy profit-taking each time prices approach $70,000 to $80,000, with more than $20 million in BTC sold every hour during recent rallies.

Bitcoin briefly climbed near $74,000 over the weekend before slipping back below $71,000 as tensions between the U.S. and Iran pushed oil higher and weighed on U.S. futures. 

Over the weekend, U.S. and Iranian negotiations in Islamabad collapsed without a deal, leading the Trump administration to escalate tensions by announcing a Strait of Hormuz blockade and other maritime enforcement measures amid rising regional conflict and warnings of broader military and economic fallout.

Investor behavior, not chart resistance, has capped upside momentum as holders use strength to exit positions. Until that supply pressure eases, Bitcoin’s ceiling will remain firm within its current distribution band.

Earlier today, Strategy purchased 13,927 BTC for about $1 billion, lifting its total holdings to 780,897 BTC, with the buy fully funded through proceeds from its STRC at-the-market program.

The company’s continued accumulation contrasts with broader corporate trends, as most firms scaled back Bitcoin exposure while Strategy remains the dominant institutional buyer.

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Tom Lee’s BitMine Makes Biggest Ethereum Buy Since December

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Tom Lee’s BitMine Makes Biggest Ethereum Buy Since December

In brief

  • BitMine Immersion Technologies bought 71,524 ETH last week, valued around $157 million.
  • The firm now holds more than 4% of the entire circulating ETH supply, as its treasury stretched to nearly 4.88 million ETH.
  • Shares of BMNR are up around 1.7% on Monday, close to ETH’s own 24-hour gains.

Publicly traded Ethereum treasury BitMine Immersion Technologies last week made its largest weekly purchase of ETH since December, adding 71,524 ETH valued around $157 million. 

The firm now holds 4,874,858 ETH worth more than $10.7 billion as Ethereum changes hands around $2,208 on Monday. The firm holds the largest stockpile of the cryptocurrency.

“BitMine has maintained the increased pace of ETH buys in each of the past four weeks, as our base case ETH is in the final stages of the ‘mini-crypto winter,” BitMine chairman Tom Lee said in a statement. 

Lee’s firm has consistently been adding around $150 million in ETH per week over the last few weeks, boosting the firm’s total holdings to more than 4% of the entire circulating supply of Ethereum. At that mark, it is now more than 80% of the way to its stated goal of holding 5% of the second largest crypto asset’s circulating tokens—something it refers to as the “alchemy of 5%.” 

From its massive tranche of Ethereum, the firm is currently staking 3,334,637 ETH or around $7.3 billion worth. Last month, BitMine launched its Made in America Validator Network (MAVAN), its own staking network designed to provide institutional-grade infrastructure to ETH staking for itself and other firms seeking ETH rewards. 

When the firm has fully staked all of its Ethereum—or the act of supplying and locking up ETH to help secure the network—it anticipates earning more than $300 million annually in ETH rewards, according to Lee. 

Shares in the firm (BMNR) are up around 1.7% on Monday, recently changing hands around $21.64. Last week, shares in the company were uplisted to the NYSE from the smaller NYSE American exchange. 

Alongside the uplisting, the firm approved a 300% boost to its share buyback program, which now has $4 billion in funds authorized for the repurchase of BMNR shares. Last July, the firm approved a $1 billion program, though it remains unclear if any of the funds have been used to repurchase shares of BMNR to date. 

BitMine shares are down around 63% in the last six months as Ethereum has fallen more than 55% from its August all-time high of $4,946.

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index falls 2.9% as all constituents trade lower

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index falls 2.9% as all constituents trade lower

CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.

The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 1974.81, down 2.9% (-59.17) since 4 p.m. ET on Friday.

All 20 assets are trading lower.

Leaders: NEAR (+0.0%) and AAVE (-0.1%).

Laggards: DOT (-11.5%) and ADA (-6.8%).

The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.

Bitmine’s Tom Lee calls ether ‘the wartime store of value’ as holdings hit 4.87 million ETH

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Bitmine’s Tom Lee calls ether ‘the wartime store of value’ as holdings hit 4.87 million ETH

Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) now holds 4.87 million ether worth $10.7 billion and is 81% of the way to its target of owning 5% of the entire ETH supply, according to a Monday release that also included chairman Tom Lee calling ether “the wartime store of value.”

BMNR shares are lower by 2.25% premarket alongside ether’s weekend decline to $2,199. The stock is lower by 32% year-to-date.

Lee pointed to ETH’s 17.4% gain since the Iran war began seven weeks ago, outperforming the S&P 500 by 1,830 basis points and gold by 2,743 basis points.

“We believe ETH beating gold by 2,743 basis points demonstrates ETH is the wartime store of value,” Lee said.

The company bought 71,524 ETH last week, maintaining its elevated purchase pace for the fourth consecutive week and matching the highest rate of accumulation since late December 2025. Lee said Bitmine’s “base case is ETH is in the final stages of the mini-crypto winter.”

Staking has become a significant revenue line. Bitmine has 3,334,637 ETH staked, representing 68% of its holdings and $7.4 billion in value, generating $212 million in annualized staking revenue at a 7-day yield of 2.89%.

Total holdings, including cash and what the company calls “moonshots” stand at $11.8 billion. That includes $719 million in cash, a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, and an $85 million position in Eightco Holdings, which Bitmine described as “one of the only publicly listed equities in the world to give investors direct exposure to OpenAI.”

The company uplisted to the New York Stock Exchange from NYSE American on April 9, trading under BMNR with an average daily dollar volume of $747 million, ranking it 117th among all U.S.-listed stocks. The institutional investor base includes ARK’s Cathie Wood, Founders Fund, Pantera, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, and Lee personally.

Lee cited “Wall Street tokenizing on the blockchain” and “agentic AI systems increasingly needing public and neutral blockchains” as dual tailwinds for Ethereum, framing the asset as a play on both institutional adoption and AI infrastructure rather than purely a DeFi token.

Bitmine ranks as the largest corporate ether treasury in the world and the second-largest crypto treasury overall behind Strategy’s 766,970 BTC.

Exploring the reality of AI in payments testing

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Exploring the reality of AI in payments testing

 

  • What are the key considerations for AI in payments testing? Where does it excel, and where are its limitations? 

  • How can financial institutions use AI to create efficient, usable, and scalable testing setups without compromising the reliability and accountability required in regulated environments? 

  • How can financial institutions leverage AI to test in ISO 20022-based environments? What are the opportunities for AI testing as we move towards the next ISO 20022 milestones? 

  • What governance, controls, and auditability frameworks are required when integrating AI into payments testing within regulated financial environments? 

  • How can financial institutions balance AI-driven test generation and optimisation with the need for explainability, reproducibility, and regulatory transparency? 

     

Payments testing has historically been a complex challenge for financial institutions. Strict validation, reliable regression testing, full traceability, and intricate regulatory requirements leave little room for error, especially as payment methods continue to diversify. 

AI can be a key enabler in streamlining testing, improving automation, usability, and contextualisation — but only if set up appropriately. Particularly in ISO 20022-based environments, the probabilistic nature of AI systems can clash with deterministic nature of regulated testing where validation rules need to be continuously applied. 

So, how can financial institutions create payments testing setups that leverage the best that AI has to offer without adding risk or friction? Creating hybrid testing models enables organisations to use AI complement analysis, insight generation, and efficiency gains, while deterministic systems remain responsible for execution and validation under human oversight. Especially as the ISO 20022 era has begun, AI-augmented payments testing can become a key differentiator for financial institutions. 

Register for this Finextra webinar, hosted in association with Unifits, to join our panel of industry experts who will discuss the key considerations of AI in payments testing, its opportunities and limitations, and how financial institutions can develop effective hybrid models. 

ClearBank says it’s first Dutch bank with MiCA approval, rolls out EURC, USDC

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ClearBank says it’s first Dutch bank with MiCA approval, rolls out EURC, USDC

ClearBank Europe plans to start offering euro- and U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins after saying it’s the first Dutch credit institution cleared to provide crypto services under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation.

The bank, which has more than 270 institutional clients, 1.7 million individual customers and more than $13 billion in assets under management, received confirmation from the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) after notifying the regulator of its plans, allowing it to operate as a crypto asset service provider (CASP).

That approval allows ClearBank to begin rolling out digital asset services without applying for a new license. Clients will be able to convert between fiat currencies and stablecoins within a regulated banking environment. The setup links traditional clearing systems with blockchain networks, which can reduce settlement times and improve cross-border transfers.

ClearBank will connect to Circle Internet’s (CRCL) Mint platform to give its institutional clients access to EURC and USDC, which track the euro and U.S. dollar, respectively.

“Becoming a crypto-asset service provider under MiCAR, enables us to bring digital asset capabilities into a regulated clearing environment for the first time, putting us at the forefront of this new era of digital clearing,” said Tristan Kirchner, CEO of ClearBank Europe.

The rollout marks the bank’s first step into digital clearing in Europe, the bank said. ClearBank also said the move forms part of a broader strategy to connect banking infrastructure with digital asset markets, including separate efforts in the U.K. through a partnership with Coinbase (COIN).

In January, ClearBank chose digital asset infrastructure provider Taurus to support its push into stablecoin-related services, as the clearing bank prepared to expand its payments and digital asset offerings for clients across the U.K. and Europe. That move followed its previous announcement that it would join the Circle Payment Network, which seeks to allow for near-instant global value transfers using blockchain-based rails.

Ripple CEO’s Comments Stir Up A Wave, Here’s What He Said

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Ripple CEO’s Comments Stir Up A Wave, Here’s What He Said

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XRP pundits have drawn attention to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s comments in which he made a Bitcoin prediction of $200,000. The Ripple CEO alluded to the current regulatory landscape and how it could drive BTC to this psychological level. 

Ripple CEO’s Comments About Bitcoin Resurface

XRP pundits COACHTY and XRP Queen drew attention to a FOX interview by the Ripple CEO, in which he predicted last year that Bitcoin could reach $200,000. He noted that this was an upgrade from his earlier prediction of $175,000. Garlinghouse explained that he believed a BTC rally to $200,000 was not ‘unreasonable’ given the current regulatory landscape. 

The Ripple CEO stated that people underestimate how the United States, the world’s largest economy, has gone from a headwind to a tailwind. It is worth noting that Garlinghouse was responding to a question highlighting that Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson had predicted Bitcoin could reach $250,000 by year-end 2025. 

However, the Ripple CEO didn’t provide a timeline for when Bitcoin could reach $200,000, which means his prediction remains valid. The focus is currently on the CLARITY Act, which pundits have predicted could spark the next bull run for Bitcoin and the broader crypto market when it passes. 

One of these pundits includes Fergani, who recently predicted that Bitcoin could rally to $200,000, in line with the CEO’s prediction, partly thanks to the CLARITY Act. The pundit also noted that institutional interest in crypto is increasing, which will also contribute to this rally to a new all-time high (ATH) for the leading crypto. The CLARITY Act is also expected to boost crypto adoption by providing regulatory certainty for institutional investors, who remain on the sidelines. 

Garlinghouse Fails To Give XRP Prediction

The Ripple CEO said that he could not give an XRP prediction because the altcoin is too “close to home,” alluding to his company’s massive XRP holdings. Ripple also notably uses XRP for the majority of its operations, including its payment services, as a bridge currency. However, it is worth noting that Garlinghouse has become more vocal about XRP since the settlement of the SEC lawsuit last year. 

On several occasions this year, the CEO has described XRP as their “North Star,” highlighting how important the token is to their operations. At the start of the year, he also reiterated that XRP has always and will remain the heartbeat of their vision. As part of this vision, it is worth noting that Ripple recently integrated XRP and RLUSD into Ripple Treasury, marking the first native on-chain enterprise treasury.

At the time of writing, the XRP price is trading at around $1.32, down in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

XRP
XRP trading at $1.32 on the 1D chart | Source: XRPUSDT on Tradingview.com

Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview.com

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Just shy of 90 million XPR tokens were just moved to crypto exchange Coinbase

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Just shy of 90 million XPR tokens were just moved to crypto exchange Coinbase

A major XRP transfer to Coinbase occurred today, potentially signaling that an investor is preparing to sell.

The movement involved roughly 89,828,700 XRP, valued at about $119 million, and began from wallet address “rMWqYat3nJXSLoyqB5tUsfYp6KLgoMHXTN,” according to data source Whalealert.io. The funds were first sent to an intermediate wallet, “rwnYLUsoBQX3ECa1A5bSKLdbPoHKnqf63J,” before being forwarded to a Coinbase-associated address, rRmgo6NW1W7GHjC5qEpcpQnq8NE74ZS1P.

Such large-scale movements, often referred to as “whale transactions,” are closely monitored in crypto markets because they can hint at institutional or high-net-worth investor intentions. In many cases, inflows of this magnitude to centralized exchanges are interpreted as a potential signal that holders may be preparing to sell or rebalance their positions. This is because assets sent to exchanges are typically made more liquid and readily tradable than those held in direct custody in personal wallets.

That said, transfers to exchanges could also mean repositioning assets, engaging in over-the-counter settlement processes, or moving funds for custody-related purposes.

Still, the timing and size of the transfer is noteworthy for those trading the payments-focused cryptocurrency. As always in crypto markets, large movements can influence perception, even when their ultimate intent remains uncertain.

XRP is trading at about $1.33, flat over the past 24 hours, but down more than 60% since peaking in the summer of 2025.

Polkadot Confirms Exploit on Hyperbridge’s Ethereum Gateway Contract

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Polkadot Confirms Exploit on Hyperbridge’s Ethereum Gateway Contract

The attacker exploited a vulnerability in Polkadot interoperability protocol Hyperbridge, minting over ~$2 billion in DOT and other tokens, but was only successfully able to cash out about $237K.

Polkadot confirmed on Monday, April 13, that an exploit occurred on Hyperbridge’s Ethereum gateway contract. The Polkadot team stated that native DOT and the broader Polkadot ecosystem remain fully secure and unaffected by the incident.

Hyperbridge also confirmed the exploit in an X post this morning and said that it has paused bridging “while the team contains the issue.”

CertiK first flagged the exploit, reporting that the attacker had minted 1 billion DOT, worth about $1.17 billion at current prices, but only successfully cashed out about $237K.

Hyperbridgeis a cross-chain interoperability protocol built on Polkadot. The exploit was isolated to the Ethereum-side gateway contract and did not compromise the integrity of the Polkadot network itself, its parachains, and native DOT on Polkadot, per Polkadot’s X post.

According to a detailed report from on-chain analyst Verso, the attacker didn’t only target DOT, but was able to mint multiple other wrapped assets on Hyperbridge, including another approximately $1 billion in ARGN, as well as MANTA and CERE.

The incident comes just two weeks after Hyperbridge posted an April Fool’s joke announcement that it had been hacked ”We’ve been breached We’re working hard to fix this!’“ Today’s announcement of the actual protocol breach opened cheerily with “Bridge update!” prompting numerous comments calling out the project for irresponsible comms.

Hyperbridge April Fool’s post on April 1

Sources: Polkadot, Hyperbridge

This article was generated automatically by The Defiant’s AI news system from publicly available sources.

Why AI Is Accelerating Bank Modernisation

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Why AI Is Accelerating Bank Modernisation

For banks, modernisation has long been a priority — but often a slow-moving one.

In this conversation, Radha Suvarna, Chief Product Officer for Payments at Finastra, explains why that is beginning to change. The catalyst is not just new infrastructure or changing customer expectations, but the growing impact of artificial intelligence.

According to Finastra’s latest findings, 96% of institutions are already using or planning to use AI, reinforcing just how central it has become to banking strategy. But what stands out is not simply adoption — it is how AI is interacting with existing transformation agendas.

Modernisation and AI are no longer separate initiatives.

Traditionally, banks have focused on modernising their technology stack through cloud-native, microservices-based, and API-enabled platforms. These investments are designed to make systems more flexible and future-ready. At the same time, AI has been explored as a way to enhance data analysis, improve decision-making, and personalise customer experiences.

What is different now is the way these two trends are converging.

AI is accelerating modernisation by enabling faster experimentation. With the help of AI-driven coding tools and testing agents, banks can develop and iterate on new solutions more quickly than before. This reduces the time and cost associated with innovation, allowing institutions to test ideas, learn from failures, and refine approaches at speed.

At the same time, modern platforms are what make AI experimentation possible in the first place.

Without flexible, scalable infrastructure, deploying and scaling AI use cases becomes significantly more difficult. Cloud-native architectures and API-driven systems provide the foundation needed to integrate AI into core operations and customer-facing services.

The result is a reinforcing cycle.

AI drives faster modernisation. Modernisation enables more effective use of AI. Together, they create a multiplying effect that enhances both internal efficiency and customer experience.

This shift is also changing how banks approach innovation.

Experimentation is becoming a central theme. Institutions are recognising that not every AI use case will succeed, but the ability to test, fail, and iterate quickly is itself a competitive advantage. The organisations that can do this effectively — supported by modern infrastructure — are better positioned to capture the value of emerging technologies.

In that sense, the story is not just about AI adoption. It is about how banks are reshaping their entire approach to technology transformation.

The convergence of AI and modernisation is no longer theoretical. It is already underway — and it is redefining how banks build for the future.

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