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Bitcoin ETFs Add $471M in Biggest One-Day Haul Since February

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In brief

  • Bitcoin ETFs recorded $471 million in inflows Monday, the largest since February.
  • Iran responded to America’s 15-point plan with its own 10-point plan including reopening the Strait of Hormuz with a $2 million per ship fee.
  • Prediction market users on Myriad have optimistically repriced a spike in traffic through the Strait before May, from 43% on April 3 to 68% today.

Bitcoin ETFs posted their largest single-day inflow since late February as investors positioned ahead of President Trump’s Tuesday-night deadline on Iran.

The funds added $471.3 million on Monday, led by BlackRock’s IBIT with $181.9 million, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC at $147.3 million and ARKB at $118.8 million, according to SoSoValue data. Every ETF recorded net inflows or held flat, with none seeing outflows.

The inflows come as Bitcoin trades at around $69,200, down 1% over the past 24 hours and up 3.7% on the week, according to CoinGecko data.

“Institutional positioning right now looks more like measured accumulation than a binary bet on geopolitics,” Wenny Cai, Founder and CEO of decentralized derivatives exchange SynFutures, told Decrypt.

This move from institutional investors shows that they’re stepping back in, but through “structured allocation rather than chasing a near-term resolution of the Middle East conflict,” Cai explained.

The flows follow a flurry of diplomatic activity in the U.S.-Iran conflict.

Iran delivered a “10-point” response to the U.S. “15-point peace plan,” demanding a permanent end to the war, the lifting of all sanctions, and an end to Israeli strikes in Lebanon. In return, Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz but impose a $2 million fee per ship, splitting proceeds with Oman.

However, negotiators are “pessimistic” Iran will bend to meet Trump’s demand to reopen the strait before his Tuesday-night deadline, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A strategic adviser to Iran’s parliament speaker struck a defiant tone: “It is Trump who has about 20 hours to either surrender to Iran or his allies will return to the Stone Age,” according to The Kobeissi Letter’s post Tuesday.

As a result, oil prices have extended gains to $115.50 per barrel, up 110% since December 2025 lows as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz—a key variable—remains shrouded in uncertainty.

Users on prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan, see a 68% chance that average ships transiting the strait will rise above 15 before May—up from 43% on April 3, reflecting growing but cautious optimism. Nevertheless, Myriad users put an 84% chance on crude oil’s next move taking it to $120.

For Bitcoin, the path forward hinges on whether diplomatic efforts succeed, Decrypt previously reported, with analysts suggesting a potential retest of $80,000 was possible if the ceasefire talks yield an end to hostilities.

“If tensions ease, Bitcoin could be one of the first assets to reprice higher, but a sustained bull run will still depend more on global liquidity than geopolitics alone,” Cai said.

However, Bitcoin’s resilience since the war began on February 29 underscores a shift in its narrative. That, combined with steady ETF demand and macro hedging, could keep Bitcoin supported near current levels, with $70,000 acting more as a test zone than a firm floor, Cai said, tempering optimistic expectations.

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Chaos Labs Leaves Aave Due to Budget, Risk Disagreements

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Chaos Labs has parted ways with the Aave ecosystem after serving as the crypto lending protocol’s main risk service provider for three years, citing a budget dispute and disagreements over how Aave should manage risk.

“This decision was not made in haste,” Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg said in a post to X on Monday. “We worked in good faith with DAO contributors. Aave Labs was professional and supported increasing our budget to $5m to retain us. However, we are leaving because the engagement no longer reflects how we believe risk should be managed.”

Source: Omer Goldberg

Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov said that Chaos didn’t depart on bad terms, but claimed that Chaos pitched a proposal seeking to become the sole risk provider and thus force out other partners — a compromise Aave wasn’t willing to accept.

Chaos played a key role in Aave’s back-end infrastructure, from pricing loans and managing risk in the Aave V2 and V3 markets since November 2022, during which Aave’s total value locked rose fivefold to $26 billion.

Risk has been a major talking point in the Aave community after a user lost $50 million in a trade while interacting with Aave’s interface on March 12. The following week, Aave said it would introduce an “Aave Shield” protection feature to deter users from high-risk trades.

As for Chaos’ departure, Goldberg said there became an increasing misalignment over how the parties thought risk should be managed. He noted that some Aave contributors had left, raising its workload, while also arguing that Aave V4’s expanded functionality introduced additional operational and legal risks that fell on Chaos’ shoulders.

“While Aave Labs is optimistic about a swift migration to V4, history suggests these transitions take months and even years,” Goldberg said. “Until V4 fully absorbs V3’s markets and liquidity, both systems need to be operated and managed simultaneously. The workload during the transition doesn’t halve. It doubles.”

Weighing the risk of a protocol failure, Goldberg said, “There is no regulatory framework, no safe harbor, and no settled law that answers the question of what a risk manager or curator owes when a protocol fails. If things work, the work is invisible. If things break, the blame is not.”

As such, “We are walking away from a $5 million engagement,” Goldberg said.

Chaos wanted Aave to boot LlamaRisk, Chainlink: Kulechov

Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov told a slightly different story, stating that Chaos wanted to be the sole risk manager and use its price oracles instead of Chainlink’s.

Following that request would have forced Aave to push out its other risk protocol partner, LlamaRisk, and thus abandon its two-layer economic risk model.

Related: DeFi lender Aave launches on OKX’s Ethereum L2, X Layer

Kulechov added Aave was unwilling to integrate Chaos-built price oracles, citing Aave’s “track record” with Chainlink’s services, which its “users are currently more comfortable with at scale.”

He also said Chaos was already “exploring winding down its risk consultancy services,” and that Aave had offered to double its payment to $5 million to retain them.

Cointelegraph reached out to Chaos Labs for comment.

Kulechov noted that Chaos’ departure hasn’t disrupted the Aave protocol, its smart contracts, token listings or network integrations.

Moving forward, Aave said it “will work closely with LlamaRisk to ensure a smooth transition” and maintain its two-layer economic risk model. 

Source: LlamaRisk

Chaos’ departure comes amid a protocol-wide feud over how much funding and revenue control Aave Labs should receive versus Aave’s decentralized autonomous organization.

Despite the internal issues, Aave crossed the $1 trillion mark in cumulative lending volume in late February, marking a first in the DeFi industry.

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