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Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted on the X platform that BlackRock has submitted an 8-A filing for its Bitcoin premium yield ETF BITA. This step usually means a formal launch within a week, and he expects the product to start trading next Thursday.

According to Mike McGlone, Chief Commodity Strategist at Bloomberg, Bitcoin has significantly led risk assets in previous upward cycles, and this leading relationship may be reversing in the current phase. In his latest comments, he stated that Bitcoin has previously "driven risk assets upward," but now "may also drive them downward," and believes that based on its comparison chart with the S&P 500 scaled up by 10 times, the overall β assets may enter a downward year in 2026.He emphasized that since 2009, the annual total return of the S&P 500 has only declined in 2018 and 2022, both of which coincided with Bitcoin's downward cycles and corresponded to the U.S. midterm election cycles. He believes the difference in the current market is that structural pressures are accumulating: inflation has re-emerged as a core political issue, while stock market volatility has remained low for an extended period, but risk indicators for commodities like gold and oil have continued to rise. This combination of "low volatility stocks + high-risk commodities" is historically rare.Additionally, McGlone stated that since 2026, both Bitcoin and gold have shown signs of "mean reversion," which may indicate that the risk asset cycle is entering a repricing phase. He pointed out that Bitcoin and gold have retraced about 50% from their 2025 peak (around $126,000), while the total return index for U.S. Treasuries may be forming a phase bottom from a low area not seen since 1983.Currently, the market still lacks key confirmation signals: specifically, the S&P 500 to GDP ratio has fallen from near its highest level since 1928. If this indicator begins to turn, it may signify that a broader risk asset cycle is entering a structural adjustment.

According to a report by Bloomberg, Meta Platforms Inc. has completed the operational separation from Manus and has stopped data sharing between the two companies. According to informed sources, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has effectively established a firewall between itself and the Chinese company Manus. The sources stated that since the beginning of this month, Meta has prohibited Manus and its employees from accessing the internal data systems of the American company. The sources also indicated that Meta's employees are therefore unable to use Manus's tools for internal projects. Due to the involvement of internal decisions, these sources requested anonymity.An internal memo seen by Bloomberg News shows that Meta is gradually winding down Manus's operations. The memo indicates that employees have been instructed to migrate existing Manus projects to Meta's systems and not to undertake new work on the artificial intelligence platform. Informed sources stated that these measures aimed at separating the operations of the two companies mark a step forward in the eventual divestiture of Manus.

According to Bloomberg, Bitcoin fell below $60,000 last week, with a market value evaporating by about $235 billion within seven days, nearly halving from last year's peak. The market value of altcoins has shrunk from a peak of $431 billion in November 2021 to about $170 billion, with less than 1,700 of the tens of millions of tokens created in recent years still having substantial trading activity. However, in stark contrast to the price trends, the most commercially valuable businesses in the crypto industry are accelerating growth.The annual trading volume of stablecoins reached about $390 billion, with total trading volume soaring 72% to $33 trillion by 2025. Over $30 billion in assets have been tokenized, and BlackRock's tokenized money market fund BUIDL has an asset size of $2.4 billion. Visa and Mastercard are expanding stablecoin settlement capabilities, and Nasdaq is collaborating with Kraken to offer tokenized stocks.Bloomberg Intelligence's Mike McGlone stated that the most important technology is stablecoins; when you have stablecoins, you don't need XRP or Bitcoin to store value. We are experiencing a cleansing, and this has only just begun. EMJ Capital founder Eric Jackson pointed out that "the Bitcoin price chart used to be the entire crypto story, but it is no longer."

According to Bloomberg, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has officially submitted a presidential pardon application through the official process. SBF is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence, and his family has been lobbying the Trump administration for months.Trump clearly stated in January this year that he had no intention of pardoning SBF, and several pro-crypto Republican lawmakers have also actively opposed it, believing that this move is politically very sensitive.

According to Bloomberg, the U.S. government is betting that stablecoins issued by private entities like Tether, pegged to the U.S. dollar, will expand to about $3 trillion in the coming years to support the international dominance of the dollar and absorb more demand for U.S. Treasury bonds.However, the article points out that the current mainstream stablecoin issuers are concentrated in Tether, which has questionable compliance and anti-money laundering practices in its registered location. In the event of a run or smart contract failure, this could impact the large amount of U.S. Treasury assets it holds and disrupt global payments and settlements. The European Central Bank is promoting the use of central bank digital currencies and "tokenized euros" to support atomic settlements, in order to avoid being locked into U.S. private dollar tokens on critical financial infrastructure.

Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas posted on the X platform that Bitcoin's volatility and correlation are increasingly approaching gold levels. This trend is significantly underestimated in the current market adjustment and may be a positive signal amid recent market turbulence.According to the 60-day historical volatility comparison data between IBIT and the Gold ETF (GLD) since its launch, it can be seen that Bitcoin's volatility structure is gradually aligning with gold, indicating that its asset characteristics may be changing.Eric Balchunas added that despite the highly volatile market environment, the BlackRock Bitcoin Spot ETF (IBIT) has continued to outperform U.S. stocks since the escalation of the Iran conflict, achieving more than double the excess returns compared to the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) since the approval of the BlackRock ETF.

Bloomberg's senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted on the X platform that the 2x leveraged SK Hynix ETF has grown its asset size by about 10 times this year, and it has now become the third largest ETF in the Hong Kong market, accounting for approximately 8.5% of total ETF assets.Eric Balchunas also pointed out that the ETF's daily trading volume exceeds the $1 billion level. When calculated in terms of the U.S. market size equivalent, this is about $150 billion in daily trading volume, which is considered extremely rare in the global ETF market. If proportionally converted, the scale of this ETF in the U.S. market would be equivalent to about $1.3 trillion level ETFs, but products of this magnitude do not currently exist globally.

Bloomberg ETF senior analyst Eric Balchunas posted on the X platform, revealing that the FTSE Russell Governance Committee has approved adjustments to the fast-entry IPO rules and the minimum entry standards for indices, receiving broad support after completing market consultations.According to the latest methodology update, the rules are effective immediately: when the investable market capitalization of an IPO exceeds the market adjustment total market capitalization threshold of the Russell Top 500 Index from the previous rebalancing, that IPO will qualify for fast-entry assessment into the index. The relevant threshold will be adjusted quarterly based on semi-annual rebalancing.This adjustment aims to enhance the index's responsiveness to large newly listed companies, allowing for quicker inclusion in major benchmark index systems, thereby improving the index's representativeness and market adaptability.

According to Bloomberg, the rulings on controversial contracts on Polymarket are being dominated by a small number of UMA holders. Bloomberg's statistics show that among over 6,400 addresses that participated in Polymarket's controversial ruling votes over the past three years, only 9 large wallets contributed about half of the UMA voting power and sided with the winning side in almost all disputes.In April 2026, about 230 contracts with a total trading volume exceeding $1 billion entered the controversial ruling process, accounting for less than 1% of all contracts on Polymarket, but the frequency of disputes increased with the trading scale. Some traders criticized that this mechanism effectively grants anonymous whales "fact-determining power" driven by economic interests, while Polymarket and Risk Labs, responsible for UMA, had originally promised to improve the relevant processes, which has now been shelved.

According to Bloomberg, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange) is collaborating with the cryptocurrency trading platform OKX to launch perpetual futures contracts linked to crude oil.According to statements from both parties, ICE's Brent crude oil and WTI crude oil futures prices will serve as the pricing basis for the related perpetual contracts. The product will be launched in regions where OKX is licensed to offer perpetual contract trading.

According to Bloomberg, Iran has begun to launch a Bitcoin-based shipping insurance arrangement for the Strait of Hormuz to address the current high-risk navigation environment in the strait.Recently, Iran has introduced a maritime insurance platform called "Hormuz Safe," which provides digital insurance services for vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz and allows payments in cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin.Against the backdrop of escalating U.S.-Iran conflicts and risks in the Strait of Hormuz, the costs of war insurance for ships have surged significantly. Bloomberg previously reported that the insurance costs for some vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz have now risen to about 5% of the vessel's value.

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart stated on the X platform that the 2x leveraged Cerebras Systems ETF (ticker: CBRG) has officially begun trading, while its underlying asset CBRS only started trading in the afternoon of the previous day, meaning that the launch of the leveraged ETF was completed just hours apart from the underlying asset. This sets a record for the rapid product launch pace. This "fast-follow" ETF issuance model is accelerating, and in the future, leveraged ETFs around non-public or high-profile assets like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI may also emerge with similar rapid replication issuance paths, reflecting a significant increase in the productization speed of the ETF market for new asset exposures.

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart stated on the X platform that the 2x leveraged Cerebras Systems ETF (ticker: CBRG) has officially begun trading, while its underlying asset CBRS only started trading the previous afternoon, meaning that the launch of the leveraged ETF was completed just hours apart, setting a record for the rapid product launch pace.This "fast-follow" ETF issuance model is accelerating, and in the future, leveraged ETFs around non-public or high-demand assets such as SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI may also emerge with similar rapid replication issuance paths, reflecting a significant increase in the productization speed of the ETF market for new asset exposures.

Bloomberg's senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted on the X platform that since March of this year, the Bitcoin spot ETF $IBIT has significantly outperformed the gold ETF $GLD, leading by 33 percentage points.In terms of capital, $IBIT saw a net inflow of $4.2 billion during this period, while $GLD experienced a net outflow of $9 billion, resulting in a total capital flow difference of up to $13 billion between the two.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas revealed in a post on X platform that the prediction market ETF has not been launched as originally planned, possibly due to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) deciding to further review the related products. Currently, the delay "is not a fatal issue," but rather seems like the regulatory agency wants to conduct additional checks on the disclosure documents.He pointed out that these products are groundbreaking, and once approved for listing, they will set an important regulatory precedent for prediction market ETFs. Therefore, it is understandable that the SEC wants to spend more time reviewing, and the market is still waiting for further developments.

According to Bloomberg, Hyperliquid is proposing to add a prediction market feature to its platform, directly competing with Kalshi and Polymarket.The proposal, numbered HIP-4, is currently in the public testing phase and will allow users to place bets on the outcomes of real-world events on the Hyperliquid platform. Hyperliquid is one of the most active trading venues in the current digital asset space, and the speed and scale of its product expansion have attracted widespread attention from Wall Street.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted on the X platform that Bitcoin ETF fund flows have turned positive across the board, stating "all rolling periods we track are positive," marking the first time in several months. Among them, BlackRock's IBIT has seen cumulative inflows of about $3 billion, placing it in the top 1% of all ETF fund flow performances. However, Eric Balchunas pointed out that there are still several billion dollars needed to return to the historical cumulative fund flow high of $62.8 billion, but at least it indicates that the sentiment around Bitcoin ETF funds has clearly improved and market demand is recovering.

Polymarket, which has long dominated the prediction market trading volume, is facing multiple challenges. According to Dune Analytics, its global trading volume has been surpassed by major competitor Kalshi. In terms of valuation, Kalshi announced a new round of financing last month, reaching a valuation of $22 billion, while Polymarket's valuation is $15 billion after receiving a $600 million investment from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).Polymarket's biggest bottleneck is the inability to officially launch in the U.S. market, as its U.S. application is still in the testing phase, with March trading volume being only one-twentieth of Kalshi's. Technical challenges brought by the blockchain architecture, repeated delays in product launches, recent fee adjustments causing user dissatisfaction, and issues such as the exchange being down for over an hour continue to plague the platform.Additionally, Polymarket has faced scrutiny for allowing users to bet on controversial topics such as war and nuclear explosions, leading Democratic lawmakers in Congress to send a letter to the CFTC requesting intervention. ICE CEO Sprecher remains optimistic but admits it could either be a total failure or a home run.

Bloomberg cited a report from Jefferies LLC stating that a hacker attack over the weekend that siphoned nearly $300 million from a small crypto project, along with the resulting $10 billion fund run at the largest decentralized lending platform, may slow Wall Street's interest in blockchain technology.Andrew Moss, an analyst at Jefferies' digital asset research team, pointed out that banks, asset management companies, and payment institutions have been developing blockchain products similar to the technology systems exploited by North Korean hackers over the past year.While the report believes this incident is unlikely to impact traditional financial markets, it warns that traditional financial institutions may pause and reassess the associated risks before further advancing their blockchain initiatives.