Author: Tristan Lodenberg

Trump Claims Iran Economy Hit Hard by Ongoing Naval Blockade US President Donald Trump said during an Oval Office address that Iran is conducting “absolutely no business” under the current US naval blockade, while confirming that no active fighting is taking place. He stated that the blockade remains fully enforced, targeting maritime activity linked to Iranian ports. Trump also claimed that Iran’s navy, air force, radar systems and air defenses had been eliminated, though independent confirmation of those claims has not been provided. The blockade was introduced after recent diplomatic efforts failed to produce an agreement. Iran Contacted US Seeking…

Stack BTC, the Aquis Exchange listed Bitcoin treasury firm chaired by former UK Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, purchased 37 Bitcoin worth 2 million British pounds (about $2.7 million) on April 13. The filing showed the purchase was made at an average price of about $72,385 per coin, bringing total holdings to 68.1898 BTC. The company said the acquisition marks the start of a longer-term Bitcoin treasury strategy. The move deepens ties with Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, who previously invested about $286,000 in Stack BTC and acquired a minority 6.31% stake in March alongside Kwarteng. The company described his involvement…

Jeremy Allaire, chief executive of Circle, said the company freezes USDC wallets only when directed by courts or law enforcement, rejecting calls for immediate intervention during hacking incidents. Speaking at a press conference in Seoul, Allaire emphasized that USDC operates as a regulated financial product and must follow legal procedures rather than discretionary decisions during active exploits. Allaire stated that wallet blacklisting or freezing actions require a formal legal basis, positioning the policy as part of Circle’s strategy to align closely with regulatory frameworks. He argued that acting without official directives could undermine the rule-of-law foundation that governs regulated digital…

Foundry Digital has launched a new Zcash mining pool that quickly captured about 30% of total network hashrate, according to company data and its new block explorer. The pool was first announced in March, with multiple institutional miners joining before its public release. Zcashinfo.com Brings Real-Time Network Transparency Alongside the mining pool, Foundry introduced Zcashinfo.com, a block explorer that tracks real-time mining data including hashrate distribution, pool rankings, block production, and difficulty levels. The platform is designed to improve transparency for institutional participants monitoring network performance. Zcash, launched in 2016, uses zero-knowledge proofs known as zk-SNARKs to validate transactions without…

Iran is reportedly reviewing a proposal to abandon uranium enrichment as part of conditions to end the ongoing conflict with the United States, according to reports citing unnamed officials. US asked Iran to freeze uranium enrichment for 20 years according to Axios.The issue of uranium enrichment remains central to Washington’s negotiating demands, and any acceptance by Tehran could ease military tensions and open a new phase of diplomatic talks. The proposal follows recent discussions linked to the Islamabad Talks 2026, described as the first direct engagement between the two countries in more than a decade and the highest-level contact since…

WLFI Freeze Authority Dispute Raises Transparency Questions Justin Sun urged the Trump linked World Liberty Financial to disclose who controls the guardian externally owned account (EOA) and multisignature wallets governing its smart contracts. In a recent statement shared on X, Sun alleged that a single guardian EOA tied to WLFI’s multisig appeared to be the sole owner of a second guardian safe, potentially granting one individual unilateral authority to freeze token holders. WLFI has not publicly responded to the technical details of these claims. The dispute follows the September 2025 blacklisting of Sun’s WLFI wallet address after blockchain monitoring platforms…

Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence may be heading in opposite directions when it comes to decentralization, according to Galaxy Research head Alex Thorn. He noted that Bitcoin mining, which initially began as a highly decentralized activity using personal computers, has gradually shifted toward industrial-scale operations dominated by ASIC hardware and large mining farms, increasing centralization pressure over time. Thorn argued that AI is evolving differently. He said AI systems started out centralized in large cloud-based data centers, but are now being pushed toward decentralization as open-source models improve. Factors such as data scarcity, context limitations, and memory constraints are encouraging…

Bitmine Immersion Technologies has accumulated 4.87 million Ethereum, valued at about $10.7 billion, making it the largest corporate ether treasury globally. The company is now roughly 81% of the way toward its stated goal of controlling 5% of total ETH supply, according to its latest update. Chairman Tom Lee described ether as a “wartime store of value,” pointing to its relative strength during recent geopolitical tensions. He noted that ETH has risen about 17.4% since the Iran conflict began, outperforming both equities and gold by wide margins. Bitmine has staked 3.33 million ETH, representing about 68% of its holdings, generating…

South Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has reportedly fined crypto exchange Coinone 5.2 billion won (about $3.5 million) and imposed a three month partial business suspension over anti money laundering (AML) violations, according to local media reports. The FIU operates under the Financial Services Commission and is responsible for enforcing compliance standards across virtual asset service providers. The suspension is set to run from April 29 to July 28. During this period, Coinone will be prohibited from allowing new customers to deposit or withdraw funds for crypto trading, while existing users will still be able to trade normally, according to…

The price of RaveDAO has surged an extraordinary 3,765% over the past seven days, attracting intense attention from traders and market analysts. A large share of the trading activity was concentrated on derivatives markets at Binance and OKX Futures, where combined trading volume reportedly exceeded $13 billion. Such unusually high derivatives volume relative to circulating supply has raised concerns about whether the move reflects genuine demand or coordinated speculative activity. Analysts Warn of Possible Market Manipulation Tactics Several market observers have described the trading pattern as a potential deception tactic commonly associated with pump-and-dump structures. According to this view, large…