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According to a report by The Block, Mizuho Bank research analysts released a report on Thursday stating that the financial feature X Money launched by Elon Musk's X platform has the potential to disrupt the U.S. payment industry, but the cryptocurrency integration plan may face regulatory obstacles.Mizuho analysts Dan Dolev and Andrew Jenkins wrote in a client report that X Money is positioned as the financial infrastructure layer of the X platform, aiming to integrate instant messaging, bank deposits, and commercial transaction functions, similar to the "super app" model of WeChat Pay or Alipay. With 500 to 600 million monthly active users on the X platform and Musk's background as a co-founder of PayPal in the payment industry, X Money has the potential to disrupt the U.S. payment industry.On the regulatory front, the analysts pointed out two major potential obstacles: first, the recent "CRYPTO Act" proposed in New York aims to criminalize unlicensed virtual currency operations in the state, which will raise the compliance threshold for X's future cryptocurrency integration plans; second, the "Clarity Act" may restrict non-bank financial platforms from offering yields to users, potentially hindering X Money's plan to provide users with an annualized yield of 6% on cash balances, with analysts stating that the timing for the launch of this yield product is "particularly sensitive."Mizuho also downgraded PayPal (PYPL) stock rating to "neutral," noting that PayPal and its Venmo app face the most direct substitution risk, as X is targeting the same peer-to-peer transfer and digital wallet entry points.This week, the X platform also launched a new feature called "Cashtags," allowing users to view financial data for stocks and cryptocurrencies directly in their timeline.

According to Jinshi reports, the European Central Bank's meeting minutes show that all members believe the risks to the inflation outlook are tilted to the upside.

Web3 wallet infrastructure Claw Wallet announced a strategic partnership with GoPlus. Claw Wallet has integrated GoPlus's SafuSkill Launchpad, supporting the assetization and tokenization of AI skills, empowering developers to obtain continuous on-chain revenue through GitHub verification.At the same time, Claw Wallet introduces GoPlus AgentGuard security scanning technology, which conducts real-time monitoring and risk visualization of AI Agent's code, sensitive data, and operating environment through a multi-dimensional scoring system. This collaboration aims to enhance the security of AI Agent wallets and improve their ecological incentive mechanisms.

Bitcoin rose to about $74,935 during the Asian session, up 0.7% in the last 24 hours and 5.4% for the week. However, the derivatives market is sending mixed signals. Institutional firm QCP Capital pointed out that this round of increase is mainly driven by spot trading, rather than a broad recovery in risk appetite.Currently, the funding rate for Bitcoin perpetual contracts remains negative, and open interest has decreased, indicating that short sellers are still increasing hedges rather than passively closing positions. The options market is also leaning towards caution: short-term implied volatility is sluggish, with one-month volatility lower than three-month volatility, and the risk reversal indicator shows that the market's demand for downside protection is higher than for upside bets, indicating that traders are more inclined to pay for potential declines rather than chase upward movements. QCP believes this is more of a "bounce" rather than a trend reversal.On a macro level, long-term U.S. Treasury yields and gold prices have not confirmed a recovery in risk appetite, with gold still near high levels, indicating that safe-haven demand remains. Institutions point out that the current market is more driven by expectations of a ceasefire and "emotional repair," rather than a core risk being alleviated. Additionally, Ethereum has shown relatively strong performance, with the ETH/BTC ratio rising to about 0.0315, combined with on-chain transaction volumes and stablecoin supply reaching all-time highs, indicating signs of capital rotating towards high β assets. However, the market still needs to observe the evolution of subsequent risk events to confirm the sustainability of this round of increase.

According to the official announcement, in order to meet the market demand for trading in the AI-related sector of US stocks, Bitget stock contracts have now launched six popular underlying assets: AMD, AMAT, SNDK, STX, LITE, and FLY, covering areas such as chips, semiconductor equipment, and storage. The aforementioned contracts support a maximum leverage of 20 times. For more details, please refer to the Bitget official platform.

According to The Block, CryptoQuant's research director Julio Moreno stated on Wednesday that Bitcoin's recent rally is facing an increasing risk of profit-taking, with multiple on-chain indicators showing that selling pressure is strengthening. Currently, the price of Bitcoin has slightly retreated but is testing the on-chain "realized price" of $76,800 for traders. This level is seen as a significant bearish resistance, historically often limiting the rebound space, as holders close to breaking even are more inclined to sell for profit, thereby suppressing further increases.Moreno pointed out, "This price range precisely capped the price increase during the bear market rebound in January 2026 and reversed downward after reaching that level. If the current selling pressure continues to strengthen, a similar trend may occur again." He added that if the resistance level holds, approximately $67,600 below will become the main short-term support. The report also noted that the proportion of large trades has rapidly increased from less than 10% to over 40%, and historically, this level usually corresponds to strong short-term selling pressure. Profit-taking has not yet peaked. Currently, the daily realized profit is about $500 million, below the $1 billion threshold that historically marks significant sell-off peaks.Finally, Moreno stated that if Bitcoin remains above $76,000, or even approaches the realized price level of $76,800, the daily realized profit could accelerate to over $1 billion, thereby increasing selling pressure and raising the likelihood of a temporary top or correction in the market.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve's Musalem stated that supply shocks pose risks to the Fed's inflation and employment targets, and the current interest rate range "may be appropriate for some time."

According to Jinshi reports, the S&P 500 index reached a record high during Wednesday's trading session, marking the first new high since the outbreak of the Iran war. The market's expectations for a de-escalation of the war situation and strong earnings forecasts have attracted investors back to risk assets. Despite the ongoing geopolitical crisis, there has been a shift in market risk pricing, with traders more willing to factor in lower escalation risks in the short term. Since the conflict erupted on February 28, the S&P 500 index had fallen as much as 9%, but did not meet the criteria for confirming a "technical adjustment."

According to QCP Group analysis, BTC followed the overnight rebound of risk assets, rising to the mid-range of $74,000, triggered by the news of a preliminary framework agreement between the U.S. and Iran. However, long-term yields remained almost unchanged, gold maintained high levels, and the bond market did not follow suit, indicating that this rebound is merely a relief from headline risks rather than a substantive geopolitical resolution.The core contradiction lies in the uranium enrichment issue—Iran is currently enriching at 60%, while the U.S. demands a reduction to below 20%. Iran has yet to signal any compromise, and this issue has been unresolved since 2015. In terms of market structure, BTC spot is slowly rising against a backdrop of negative funding rates and low open interest, showing that shorts are still resisting and pushing for a short squeeze, but the options market has failed to confirm a breakout—short-term ATM volatility remains around 40, and one-month volatility is still lower than three-month volatility, with demand for downside protection still stronger than the willingness to chase upside.On the macro level, the Federal Reserve's net rate cut space for this year is close to zero, and liquidity conditions remain tight. QCP believes that this round of market activity is essentially a geopolitical-driven relief rebound rather than a fundamental shift in the macro landscape, and the market needs to be wary of the risk of a pullback after the rebound.

One of the Bitcoin contributors, Jameson Loop, along with other cryptographers, has proposed an initiative that may force Bitcoin holders to migrate their tokens to new quantum-resistant addresses, or else their tokens will be permanently frozen by the network itself. In this scenario, holders technically still own these coins but will lose the ability to transfer them. This is known as Bitcoin Improvement Proposal BIP-361, which was updated on Tuesday in Bitcoin's official proposal repository, titled "Post-Quantum Migration and Old Signature Retirement."BIP-361 builds on the BIP-360 proposal introduced in February. BIP-360 introduced a soft fork (a type of network upgrade) aimed at enabling a new transaction type called "Pay to Merkle Root" (P2MR). This approach draws on Bitcoin's Taproot (P2TR) framework but removes key-based spending paths, thereby eliminating an element widely considered to pose risks in the quantum era.The BIP-361 proposal divides the migration into three phases. Phase A starts three years after activation and prohibits anyone from sending new bitcoins to old, quantum-vulnerable addresses. You can still spend from these addresses, but you cannot receive any coins. Phase B starts five years after activation and will render old signatures (ECDSA and Schnorr) completely ineffective, with the network rejecting any attempts to spend coins from quantum-vulnerable wallets.Essentially, your coins will be frozen. Finally, there is Phase C, which is a rescue plan still under research: holders of frozen wallets may potentially prove ownership through zero-knowledge proofs (a method of proving knowledge of a secret without revealing the secret itself). If successful, the coins frozen in Phase B can be recovered.

The People's Bank of China Shaoguan Branch, in conjunction with the Shaoguan Municipal Government Office, issued a virtual currency risk warning on the occasion of "4·15" National Security Education Day, and announced four typical cases: "High Salary for U Part-time" money laundering, "Guaranteed Principal High Interest Cryptocurrency Trading" illegal fundraising, "RWA Digital Cultural Tourism Fund" pyramid scheme fraud, and offline "Coin Exchange" disguised foreign exchange trading.Regulators have made it clear that virtual currency exchange, trading, and RWA tokenization activities are illegal financial behaviors. Projects claiming "high returns, low risk, guaranteed profits" are mostly scams. The public should abandon the fantasy of getting rich quickly, stay away from virtual currency-related investments, choose legal financial channels, and report any abnormalities to the police in a timely manner to reduce losses.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, Bitcoin briefly broke through the $76,000 mark. On-chain data shows that a whale that previously "sold 255 BTC short" currently holds about 1,031 BTC (approximately $78 million) in short positions, with a liquidation price of $76,420.83, which is approaching the risk zone. This address currently has an accumulated unrealized loss of about $42.39 million on Hyperliquid. If Bitcoin rises further, it may trigger forced liquidations, amplifying market volatility.

Liquid Capital (formerly LD Capital) founder Yi Lihua tweeted that there is no 100% correct investment and trading; otherwise, one would quickly become the richest person in the world. Over the past year, starting from calling the bottom of ETH at $1450, holding on through the black swan to over $2000, then escaping the top at $4500 before 1011, failing to buy the bottom at $3000, and now insisting on buying the bottom below $2000, even if one is right 4 times, being wrong once can lead to problems. The core of trading is not about being right every time, but rather being prepared for risk control and having strategies to respond to various possible situations.

Investment bank William Blair stated that after a decline of about 26% from its peak in the first quarter, Coinbase has basically completed its de-risking, and the market's expectations for its weak trading volume and revenue have been fully reflected in its stock price.Analysts pointed out that although the trading data in the first quarter was weak, it had limited impact on market sentiment, and the company is enhancing its competitiveness through a "full-service trading platform" that includes derivatives, staking, stock trading, and prediction markets. The report emphasized that the continued growth of the stablecoin USDC is a core positive, with its market share rising to about 27%, a significant increase from around 21% in 2024, and it continues to capture market share from USDT.William Blair believes that the expansion of USDC brings synergistic benefits to Coinbase and its issuer Circle, and is optimistic about the latter's long-term value in stablecoin payment and trading scenarios. At the same time, institutions believe that the probability of a long-term downturn in the cryptocurrency market is low, and Coinbase has "asymmetric upside potential" in the market recovery.

According to Cointelegraph, Bernstein stated that the previous pullback of Bitcoin has to some extent reflected the market's concerns about the risks of quantum computing, believing that this threat is "real but manageable," and is not yet an imminent systemic risk.Although research, including that from Google, suggests that future quantum computers could potentially crack commonly used blockchain encryption algorithms quickly under extreme conditions, advancements in zero-knowledge proofs and post-quantum cryptography have formed a hedge to some extent.Bernstein believes that Bitcoin developers still have about 3 to 5 years to advance the post-quantum upgrade path and mentioned the current BIP-360 proposal, which could reduce some quantum exposure risks through a soft fork. Additionally, institutional investors (including ETF issuers and corporate holders) are expected to play an active role in promoting consensus for the upgrade.However, industry opinions point out that the main challenge of the post-quantum upgrade lies in user migration and consensus formation, rather than the technical implementation itself.

According to The Block, after the rebound driven by the ceasefire in the Middle East faded, Bitcoin hovered around $71,000, while Ethereum was around $2,190, and the overall cryptocurrency market weakened simultaneously. Analysts pointed out that the breakdown of US-Iran negotiations and the escalation of tensions around the Strait of Hormuz have caused the market to revert to the macro trading logic of "rising oil prices - increasing inflation expectations - declining risk appetite."Institutions believe that Bitcoin faces significant resistance around $74,000, compounded by crude oil returning above $100, putting pressure on capital risk appetite. However, most opinions suggest that the current pullback has not yet evolved into panic selling. Data shows that last week, the spot Bitcoin ETF still recorded nearly $1 billion in net inflows, and the scale of forced liquidations was significantly lower than the levels in the first quarter, indicating that the market's ability to absorb shocks has improved.Structurally, there is still strong selling pressure in the $70,000 to $80,000 range, with about 13.5 million addresses in a state of unrealized losses, limiting upside potential. At the same time, the scale of open futures contracts has decreased by more than 50% from the peak in 2025, showing that the previous excessive leverage has been somewhat cleared, and the market structure is becoming healthier. Bitcoin currently resembles a macro asset rather than an independent market, with its movements still highly dependent on inflation and liquidity conditions. In the context of rising inflation in the US and cautious monetary policy, Bitcoin may maintain a volatile pattern in the short term.

Agent Garrett Jin from "1011 Insider Whale" pointed out in an analysis that the U.S. announcement to implement a maritime blockade in the Strait of Hormuz is one of the "most tactically wise" moves in the current conflict, but it is unlikely to achieve the goal of ending the war. This strategy has two short-term advantages: first, it directly weakens Iran's crude oil export revenue by about 1.7 million barrels per day; second, compared to occupying key facilities (such as Khark Island), the cost of a maritime blockade is lower and the risks are more controllable.However, the effectiveness of this strategy faces multiple challenges. For example, the current blockade mainly targets Iranian ports rather than completely closing the strait, and third-party transshipment routes still exist. Additionally, it undermines the U.S.'s long-term international image of maintaining "freedom of navigation," which could have far-reaching effects on global maritime order.Garrett Jin concluded that while the blockade measures may reshape the initiative in the short term, they are unlikely to force Iran to make concessions and may instead compress diplomatic space and prolong the conflict cycle. The market has accounted for the impact of the blockade itself, but has not fully priced in the potential paths for escalation that may follow.

According to Jinshi reports, due to Trump's order to impose a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, crude oil prices have surged, U.S. stock index futures have fallen, and the dollar has strengthened. This escalation of the situation occurred after the U.S. and Iran failed to reach an agreement in negotiations in Pakistan, which may leave investors feeling disappointed. Elias Haddad, the global market strategy director at Brown Brothers Harriman, stated that this move is bound to rekindle risk aversion this week. Investors are focused on the upcoming first-quarter earnings season, anticipating insights from corporate leadership on the increasing risks.