Financial educator, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and investor Robert Kiyosaki recently forecasted a $1 million Bitcoin (BTC) price by 2035 as the US dollar continues to lose value to inflationary monetary policies.
“I strongly believe, by 2035, that one Bitcoin will be over $ 1 million, Gold will be $30,000, and silver $3,000 a coin,” Kiyosaki wrote in an April 18 X post.
Kiyosaki, a self-described gold bug, has long argued that bearer assets like gold, silver, and more recently Bitcoin, are critical hedges against inflation and key to long-term generational wealth accumulation through economic cycles.
“In 2025, credit card debt is at all-time highs, US debt is at all-time highs, unemployment is rising, 401k’s are losing, and pensions are being stolen. The USA may be heading for a greater depression,” Kiyosaki warned.
Kiyosaki, like many other sound money advocates, has continually warned of an impending financial crash brought on by expansionist monetary policies and fiscal irresponsibility. Bitcoin maximalists argue that loose monetary policy will drive the price of Bitcoin to seven-figures.
Related: Bitcoin could hit $1M if US buys 1M BTC — Bitcoin Policy Institute
Analysts eye $1 million BTC in the 2030s
In May 2024, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey forecasted that the price of a single BTC would be $1 million by 2030 and could appreciate further.
Trader and investor Michaël van de Poppe told Cointelegraph, in November 2024, that Bitcoin could go to $1 million. However, the price appreciation would come with hyperinflation and a broader economic collapse, the trader said.
Blockstream CEO Adam Back said the price of Bitcoin could rise to $1 million per coin if the Trump administration established a Bitcoin strategic reserve for the United States and started buying Bitcoin on the open market.
On Dec. 10, Eric Trump delivered the keynote speech at the Bitcoin MENA event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and predicted that Bitcoin would hit $1 million due to its scarcity.
More recently, in February 2025, Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood said that Bitcoin could hit $1.5 million by 2030 if demand for the digital asset continues to grow.
Magazine: TradFi fans ignored Lyn Alden’s BTC tip — Now she says it’ll hit 7 figures: X Hall of Flame
#Rich #Dad #Poor #Dad #author #calls #million #BTC
]]>Charles Schwab Corp CEO Rick Wurster is reportedly eyeing an April 2026 launch window to provide spot Bitcoin (BTC) trading services to Schwab clients.
According to RIABiz, Wurster cited a 400% increase in traffic to Schwab’s crypto website as evidence of investor interest in digital assets. The CEO predicted:
“Our expectation is that with the changing regulatory environment, we are hopeful and likely to be able to launch direct spot crypto. Our goal is to do that in the next 12 months, and we are on a great path to be able to do that.”
The Schwab CEO’s comments reflect the growing trend of traditional financial (TradFi) institutions adopting crypto products and offering services that blur the line between the digital asset world and TradFi.
Related: Lyn Alden lowers Bitcoin forecast after ‘tariff kerfuffle,’ eyes liquidity
Schwab makes crypto moves under new CEO
Rick Wurster assumed the helm at Schwab in 2025, and in a November 2024 Yahoo Finance interview, said the company was happy to provide services to clients who want to trade digital assets.
At the time, Wurster told the financial news outlet that Schwab wanted to offer crypto directly to its clients but was waiting for a positive regulatory catalyst.
Following the re-election of Donald Trump in the United States, Wurster said the financial services company anticipated a much better regulatory environment to expand its digital asset services.
The Schwab CEO previously said he did not own any cryptocurrency, adding that he felt “silly” for not investing in the nascent asset class as it has continued to provide outsized investment gains.
In January 2025, Charles Schwab partnered with the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) to provide customized exchange-traded funds and cryptocurrency services for the upcoming “Truth.Fi” service.
Truth.Fi will encompass digital assets and traditional financial services as a proposed alternative to the legacy banking system.
TMTG CEO, and White House official, Devin Nunes said the goal of TMTG is to provide an option for individuals worried about unfair banking practices and “cancellation, censorship, debanking, and privacy violations committed by big tech and woke corporations.”
Magazine: Researchers accidentally turn ChatGPT evil, Grok ‘sexy mode’ horror: AI Eye
#Charles #Schwab #CEO #eyes #spot #Bitcoin #trading #April
]]>Brandon Ferrick, general counsel at Douro Labs, said that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) openness to public input on crypto policy and their roundtable discussions are positive signs that the crypto industry is not currently experiencing regulatory capture.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Ferrick identified signs of regulatory capture including, a public-to-private sector revolving door of employees, the same roster of attendees at regulatory events, and special treatment given to certain crypto projects. However, Ferrick added:
“The reason why I am not worried today is that a lot of what you’re seeing from the regulatory side, like the SEC, for example, is totally open, public, and there are available opportunities to have conversations with the regulators about changing or thinking about the regulatory structures.”
“[The SEC] has a public portal where you can just submit written commentary on your thoughts for the crypto regulatory environment, and you can schedule meetings with them,” the attorney continued.
As the crypto industry becomes more integrated with the traditional financial system and engages state regulators more, some analysts and executives are worried that the industry is experiencing regulatory capture that will skew incentives and politicize the burgeoning crypto sector.
Related: SEC staff gives guidance on how securities laws could apply to crypto
SEC hosts several roundtable discussions on crypto policy
The SEC has hosted several crypto roundtable discussions and panels, with more slated in the coming months — a sharp contrast from the agency’s regulation-by-enforcement approach under former SEC chairman Gary Gensler.
On March 21, the regulatory agency hosted its first crypto roundtable, which featured crypto industry executives, SEC officials, and even opponents of the crypto industry.
Former SEC official John Reed Stark was highly critical of the industry and opposed comprehensive regulatory reform, arguing that digital assets must comply with existing securities laws.
The SEC’s April 11 roundtable focused on trading rules and included a different set of panelists, including representatives from Uniswap and Coinbase.
The next SEC panel will occur on April 25 and focus on establishing guidelines for crypto custodians and other firms holding crypto on behalf of customers.
Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered
#Crypto #industry #experiencing #regulatory #capture #Attorney
]]>Earlier this month, the Department of Justice disbanded its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and said it would no longer pursue what Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche described as “regulation by prosecution.”
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The narrative
The U.S. Department of Justice “will no longer pursue litigation or enforcement actions that have the effect of superimposing regulatory frameworks on digital assets” in lieu of regulatory agencies putting together their own frameworks for overseeing the sector, a 4-page memo signed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on April 7 said. In other words, the DOJ will no longer pursue “regulation by prosecution,” the memo said.
Why it matters
The DOJ’s memo raised concerns that it may mean criminal activities in the crypto sector would not be prosecuted, or at least prosecuted as heavily as it was under the past several years — both by disbanding the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) and by shifting the entity’s priorities.
Breaking it down
At a practical level, the memo itself is internal guidance but may not be a binding document. Multiple attorneys told CoinDesk they interpreted the guidance to indicate that the DOJ would still bring fraud or other criminal cases involving crypto, but would try to avoid any cases where the DOJ itself had to determine if a digital asset was a security or a commodity.
“Fraud is still fraud,” said Josh Naftalis, a partner at Pallas Partners LLP and a former prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. “This memo does not seem to say the DOJ is not going to prosecute fraud in the crypto space.”
Still, the memo raised alarms for prominent Democrats who questioned whether the DOJ was suggesting it would let criminal conduct occur. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Mazie Hirono, Richard Durbin, Sheldon Whitehouse, Christopher Coons and Richard Blumenthal wrote a letter to Blanche, saying his “decision to give a free pass to cryptocurrency money launderers” and shut down the NCET were “grave mistakes that will support sanctions evasion, drug trafficking, scams and child sexual exploitation.”
“Specifically, the Department will no longer target virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services and offline wallets for the acts of their end users or unwitting violations of regulations — except to the extent the investigation is consistent with the priorities articulated in the following paragraphs,” the DOJ memo said, a passage the Senators’ letter referenced.
New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote an open letter to Senate leaders in the same week asking them to advance legislation to address cryptocurrency risks. She did not specifically reference Blanche’s memo but detailed possible ways to better police the sector through legislation.
Katherine Reilly, a partner at Pryor Cashman and a former prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, told CoinDesk that most of the major crypto cases brought by the DOJ in recent years would not have been affected had this guidance been in effect.
The BitMEX case in 2020, when the DOJ and Commodity Futures Trading Commission brought unregistered trading and other charges against the platform, is “probably closest to the line” of being a case that may not have been brought under this guidance, she said.
Trump pardoned BitMEX, its founders and a senior employee in late March, barely two weeks before the DOJ memo was shared.
“I think that it’s clear that the Justice Department wants to limit the DOJ’s role in regulating the crypto industry … looking beyond its role in other crimes, fraud, laundering proceeds from narcotics trafficking, things like that, and sort of take a step back from the role of trying to bring order and fairness to the crypto industry as a whole,” Reilly said.
That’s “probably the intent behind the BitMEX pardons too,” she said.
Naftalis said the DOJ will continue to pursue drug, terrorism or other illicit financing charges even under the memo.
“I think that the headline for the industry is to the extent that there are legal uses of crypto, they’re not going to set the guard rail by criminal enforcement,” he said. “That’s for Congress.”
One section of the memo tells prosecutors not to charge Bank Secrecy Act violations, unregistered securities offering violations, unregistered broker-dealer violations or other Commodity Exchange Act registration violations “unless there is evidence that the defendant knew of the licensing or registration requirement at issue and violated such a requirement willfully.”
Carla Reyes, an Associate Professor of Law at SMU Dedman School of Law, told CoinDesk that this may be referencing recent cases where developers build tools under the impression that they were not committing unlicensed money transmitting activities under existing guidance but may get charged anyway.
“Most criminal statutes require some level of knowledge to define your intention, and knowledge that you’re committing a crime when you do it,” she said. “The further away you get from that, the lesser the charge, but the more willful [and] intentional it is, the higher the charge.”
What the memo seems to want to explicitly move away from is any suggestion that federal prosecutors would interpret how securities or commodities laws might apply to digital assets.
“Prosecutors should not charge violations of the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Commodity Exchange Act, or the regulations promulgated pursuant to these Acts, in cases where (a) the charge would require the Justice Department to litigate whether a digital asset is a ‘security’ or ‘commodity,’ and (b) there is an adequate alternative criminal charge available, such as mail or wire fraud,” the memo said.
A popular critique leveled against former SEC Chair Gary Gensler by the crypto industry was that he was “regulating by enforcement,” rather than focusing on developing guidance for the industry to know what was or wasn’t acceptable. Blanche seems to be referring to a similar critique in the memo, Naftalis said, in that one-off enforcement decisions by the SEC or DOJ should not define the guardrails for the industry.
Steve Segal, a shareholder at Buchalter, said that some of the DOJ’s past cases would charge trading venues for failing to police their own customers. The memo now seems to suggest that if a crypto exchange’s executives were running a clean platform, and customers were laundering funds derived from criminal activities, the executives would not be charged. This is in contrast with, for example, FTX, where the executives were charged and convicted of (or pled guilty to) fraud charges.
“Of course, a lot of the big crypto cases we’ve seen over the last few years are sort of pure investor fraud, things like FTX. And one of the more interesting things about this memo is it talks about crypto investors and really prioritizing cases where crypto investors are being victimized,” Reilly said. “And so I don’t think we should conclude that this memo means we’re going to see a lot fewer cases in the crypto space, or that crypto companies can sort of breathe a sigh of relief that the DOJ is out of the picture for a few years.”
The DOJ’s future cases may appear a bit different in terms of the specific allegations made, but “it’s much too soon to say that everybody can assume the DOJ is out of the crypto business,” she said.
Many of the attorneys speaking to CoinDesk agreed that the memo itself did not clarify all of the different issues that may come up with a criminal case, nor was it an end-all/be-all document.
The memo announced prosecutorial discretion but it isn’t itself a law, Reyes said, adding that it may guide internal decision-making about which cases to pursue the most heavily, as well as the strategies that guide those prosecutions.
A lot of details about how this memo ties together with Trump’s executive order on the strategic bitcoin reserve still need to be spelled out, Segal said. Sections on victim compensation and how seized funds should be handled in the memo do not explain how the DOJ might handle situations where seized funds are turned over to bankruptcy estates, such as what happened with FTX or other similar scenarios.
“I think we’ll really have to see how it plays out, because this guidance, I do think, leaves prosecutors a lot of room to bring cases even of these kinds of violations that are being cast as more regulatory,” Reilly said. “So even if that’s the intent, I think the devil is in the details on what cases we see going forward.”
Monday
- The Securities and Exchange Commission and Binance were set to file a joint status report on their discussions after a judge paused the regulator’s case against the exchange and its affiliated entities and executives in February. Last Friday, the parties asked for an extension of this deadline, and the judge overseeing the case signed off on Monday, giving the parties until mid-June to file a follow-up.
- (The Wall Street Journal) Binance executives met with U.S. Treasury Department officials in March about potentially “loosening U.S. government oversight” of the exchange following Binance’s November 2023 guilty plea, the Journal reported. Binance agreed to a court-appointed monitor as part of the plea. At the same time as last month’s discussions, Binance was in talks with the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial to develop a dollar-pegged stablecoin.
- (Fortune) Fortune spoke to and profiled Bo Hines, the executive director of U.S. President Donald Trump’s digital assets advisory council.
- (CNBC) U.S. importers are seeing more “canceled sailings” due to a drop in demand as a result of tariffs, CNBC reports.
- (The Verge) ICERAID claims to be a protocol on Solana where people can crowdsource images of “criminal illegal alien activity” in exchange for tokens, but it does not appear to have any connection to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), The Verge reports.
- (NPR) The Department of Homeland Security is revoking parole for a number of migrants, telling them to self-deport from the U.S. U.S. citizens, born within the U.S., are also receiving these emails.
- (The New York Times) Acting IRS Commissioner Gary Shapley has been replaced after just three days on the job, after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly complained to President Donald Trump that he was not consulted on Shapley’s promotion, which was pushed by Elon Musk.
10′ #ManUnited 1-0 #Lyon
45′ Man United 2-0 Lyon
71′ Man United 2-1 Lyon
78′ Man United 2-2 Lyon
105′ Man United 2-3 Lyon
109′ Man United 2-4 Lyon
114′ Man United 3-4 Lyon
120′ Man United 4-4 Lyon
120′ Man United 5-4 Lyon
Absolute madness
— Premier League News (@plnews.bsky.social) April 17, 2025 at 5:40 PM
If you’ve got thoughts or questions on what I should discuss next week or any other feedback you’d like to share, feel free to email me at [email protected] or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.
You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.
See ya’ll next week!
#Unpacking #DOJs #Crypto #Enforcement #Memo
Slovenia’s finance ministry has proposed a 25% tax on capital gains from cryptocurrency starting in 2026, under a draft law aimed at closing a gap in the country’s tax system.
The tax will apply to profit made when individuals sell crypto for fiat currency or spend it on goods and services. However, swapping one cryptocurrency for another will remain tax-free, and any gains made before January 1, 2026, will not be taxed, according to the finance ministry’s proposal.
The measure is meant to treat crypto gains more like other capital investments, such as stocks or bonds, which are already taxed.
Under the law, individuals would calculate their profit as the difference between the value at acquisition and at sale, adjusted for transaction fees. Losses can be carried forward to offset future gains. Taxpayers would need to file an annual return by March 31 and make payment within 15 days.
The tax could generate between €2.5 million and €25 million annually, according to preliminary government estimates. The country’s Ministry of Finance is soliciting public feedback on the proposal, which would come into effect next year.
The proposal comes as data from the European Central Bank’s ‘Survey on Consumer Payment Attitudes in the Euro Area’ shows Slovenia has the highest share of cryptocurrency owners in the euro area, with 15% of adults holding digital currencies last year, up from 8% in 2022.
Disclaimer: Information collected for this article was translated with the use of artificial intelligence.
#Slovenia #Moves #Tax #Crypto #Profits
TRUMP, the memecoin tied to U.S. President Donald Trump, gained more than 9% in the past 24 hours following a $320 million token unlock. The price now sits around $8.40, still down more than 88% from its peak above $71 on Jan. 18.
The recent unlock may spell further trouble for investors, who are estimated to have lost a total of $2 billion after purchasing the token earlier this year.
Token unlocks typically flood the market with new supply and tend to depress prices. But in this case, the market appears to have priced in the release beforehand, potentially explaining the price uptick. Still, the $320 million unlock raises the risk of a large sell-off, especially given TRUMP’s thin liquidity.
Data from CoinMarketCap shows that just $1.3 million could move the token’s price by 2% on major exchanges. The move also comes during the Easter holiday weekend, when trading volumes are subdued and price swings can be more pronounced.
On social media, rumors are swirling about a possible event for large token holders, supposedly being organized by Trump himself. These claims remain unverified and highly speculative.
Data from Dune analytics shows there are currently 636,000 TRUMP token holders on-chain, with just 12,285 wallets having more than $1,000 worth of the cryptocurrency.
#Trumps #Official #Memecoin #Surges #Massive #Million #Unlock #Thin #Holiday #Trading
Whales and institutions are increasing their Bitcoin holdings ahead of Easter, as market analysts predict a weekend with less volatility after two weeks of heightened volatility driven by escalating global trade tensions.
A wallet linked to London-based investment firm Abraxas Capital acquired 2,949 Bitcoin (BTC) worth more than $250 million during the four days leading up to April 19.
In the latest transaction, the firm bought over $45 million worth of Bitcoin from Binance on April 18, according to crypto intelligence firm Lookonchain, citing Arkham Intelligence data.
The investment came days after Michael Saylor’s Strategy bought $285 million worth of Bitcoin at an average price of $82,618 per BTC, as the world’s largest corporate Bitcoin holders signal continued confidence in Bitcoin, amid global tariff uncertainty.
Large Bitcoin investors, or whales, continue accumulating, absorbing over 300% of Bitcoin’s yearly issuance as exchanges continue losing coins at a historic pace, Cointelegraph reported on April 18.
Related: Spar supermarket in Switzerland starts accepting Bitcoin payments
Crypto analysts eye quiet Easter weekend after weeks of turmoil
Despite continued accumulation from whales and institutions, volatility concerns were raised by significant movements from the medium-term Bitcoin cohort, which holds coins for an average of three to six months.
Over 170,000 Bitcoin entered circulation from the medium-term cohort, a development that may signal “imminent” crypto market volatility, according to pseudonymous CryptoQuant analyst Mignolet.
“The effect of this metric on LTF moves is overstated as large onchain movement of coins hardly ever affects weekend price action since it’s not on liquid markets or CEX markets,” analysts at Bitfinex exchange told Cointelegraph, adding:
“It is important to note that funding rates remain relatively flat currently. Moreover, US markets are closed as we have a long weekend for Easter, so volatility could be suppressed barring headlines from the White House.”
Related: Crypto, DeFi may widen wealth gap, destabilize finance: BIS report
Marcin Kazmierczak, chief operating officer of RedStone Oracles, added that the recent movements may be operational transfers, not necessarily signs of imminent selling pressure.
Still, concerns over weekend volatility have been amplified over the past two weeks after the Mantra (OM) token’s price collapsed by over 90% on Sunday, April 13, from roughly $6.30 to below $0.50, triggering market manipulation allegations and highlighting “critical” liquidity issues in the industry.
Two weeks ago, on April 6, Bitcoin fell below $75,000 on Sunday, as investor concerns spread from a record-breaking $5 trillion sell-off from the S&P 500, its largest on record.
The correction was caused by Bitcoin’s 24/7 trading availability, which made it the only large liquid asset available for de-risking on Sunday, Blockstream CEO Adam Back told Cointelegraph.
“On a weekend, there’s not much volume. So you have a worse risk of rapid sort of flash crashes or flash dips that get filled in again,” he said.
Magazine: Bitcoin ATH sooner than expected? XRP may drop 40%, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 23 – 29
#firm #buys #250M #Bitcoin #analysts #eye #quiet #Easter #weekend
]]>
Opinion by: Jin Kwon, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Saga
Crypto has come a long way in boosting transaction throughput. New layer 1s (L1s) and side networks offer faster, cheaper transactions than ever before. Yet, a core challenge has come into focus: liquidity fragmentation — the scattering of capital and users across an ever-growing maze of blockchains.
Vitalik Buterin, in a recent blog post, highlighted how scaling successes have led to unforeseen coordination challenges. With so many chains and so much value splintered among them, participants face a daily tangle of bridging, swapping and wallet-switching.
While these issues affect Ethereum, they also affect nearly every ecosystem. No matter how advanced, new blockchains risk becoming liquidity “islands” that struggle to connect with one another.
The real costs of fragmentation
Liquidity fragmentation means there is no single “pool” of assets for traders, investors or decentralized finance (DeFi) applications to tap into. Instead, each blockchain or side network hosts its own siloed liquidity. For a user who wants to buy a token or access a specific lending platform, this siloing introduces multiple headaches.
Switching networks, opening specialized wallets and paying multiple transaction fees are far from seamless, especially for those less tech-savvy. Liquidity is also thinner in each isolated pool, leading to price disparities and higher slippage on trades.
Many users resort to bridges to move capital across chains, yet these have been frequent targets for exploits, raising fear and mistrust. If it’s too cumbersome or risky to move liquidity around, DeFi fails to gain mainstream momentum. Meanwhile, projects scramble to deploy across multiple networks or risk being left behind.
Some observers worry that fragmentation could drive people back to a few dominant chains or centralized exchanges, undermining the decentralized ideals that fueled blockchain’s rise.
Familiar fixes, with persisting gaps
Solutions have emerged to tackle this tangle. Bridges and wrapped assets enable basic interoperability, but the user experience remains cumbersome. Crosschain aggregators can route tokens through a chain of swaps, yet they generally don’t merge the underlying liquidity. They only help users navigate it.
Meanwhile, ecosystems like Cosmos and Polkadot bring interoperability within their frameworks, though they are separate realms in the broader crypto landscape.
The problem is fundamental: Each chain views itself as distinct. Any new chain or sub-network must be “plugged in” at the ground level to truly unify liquidity. Otherwise, it adds another liquidity island that users must discover and bridge into. This challenge is compounded by chains, bridges and aggregators seeing one another as competition, leading to intentional siloing and making fragmentation even more pronounced.
Integrating liquidity at the base layer
Integration at the base layer addresses liquidity fragmentation by embedding bridging and routing functions directly into a chain’s core infrastructure. This approach appears in certain layer-1 protocols and specialized frameworks, where interoperability is treated as a foundational element rather than an optional add-on.
Recent: What are exit liquidity traps — and how to detect them before it is too late
Validator nodes automatically handle crosschain connections, so new chains or side networks can launch with immediate access to the broader ecosystem’s liquidity. This reduces reliance on third-party bridges that often introduce security risks and user friction.
Ethereum’s own challenges with heterogeneous layer-2 (L2) solutions underscore why integration is essential. Different participants — Ethereum as a settlement layer, L2s focusing on execution, and various bridging services — have their own motivations, resulting in fragmented liquidity.
Buterin’s references to this issue highlight the need for more cohesive designs. An integrated base-layer model brings these components together at launch, ensuring that capital can flow freely without forcing users to navigate multiple wallets, bridge solutions, or rollups.
An integrated routing mechanism also consolidates asset transfers, mimicking a unified liquidity pool behind the scenes. By capturing a fraction of the overall liquidity flow rather than charging users for every transaction, such protocols reduce friction and encourage capital mobility across the network. Developers deploying new blockchains gain instant access to a shared liquidity base while end-users avoid juggling multiple tools or encountering unexpected fees.
This emphasis on integration helps maintain a seamless experience, even as more networks come online.
Not just an Ethereum issue
While Buterin’s blog post focuses on Ethereum’s rollups, fragmentation is ecosystem-agnostic. Whether a project builds on an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible chain, a WebAssembly-based platform, or something else, the fragmentation trap arises if liquidity is fenced off.
As more protocols explore base-layer solutions — embedding automatic interoperability into their chain design — there’s hope that future networks won’t splinter capital further but instead help unify it.
A clear principle emerges: Throughput means little without connectivity.
Users shouldn’t need to think about L1s, L2s or sidechains. They just want seamless access to decentralized applications (DApps), games and financial services. Adopting will follow if stepping onto a new chain feels identical to operating on a familiar network.
Toward a unified and liquid future
The crypto community’s focus on transaction throughput has revealed an unexpected paradox: The more chains we create for speed, the more we fragment our ecosystem’s strength, which lies in its shared liquidity. Each new chain intended to boost capacity creates another isolated pool of capital.
Building interoperability directly into blockchain infrastructure offers a clear path through this challenge. When protocols handle crosschain connections automatically and route assets efficiently, developers can expand without splintering their user base or capital. Success in this model comes from measuring and improving how smoothly value moves throughout the ecosystem.
The technical foundations for this approach exist today. We must implement them thoughtfully, with attention to security and user experience.
Opinion by: Jin Kwon, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Saga.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
#chain #island #cryptos #liquidity #crisis
]]>XRP (XRP) has bounced nearly 30% after a four-month low of $1.61 amid rising tariff tensions. However, the rebound may be short-lived as technical patterns and on-chain signals now point to a deeper correction ahead.
XRP cup-and-handle pattern hints at 40% drop
XRP is forming a classic bearish reversal pattern that could see its price falling by at least 40% in the coming weeks.
Dubbed inverse-cup-and-handle (IC&H), the pattern forms when the price rounds off in a curved descent (cup) followed by a brief consolidation phase (handle) — all atop a common neckline support level.
The pattern is confirmed by a breakdown stage, where the price breaks decisively below support and falls by as much as the pattern’s maximum height.
As of April 19, XRP had entered the pattern’s handle-formation phase, eyeing a decisive close below the neckline support at around $2. In this case, the primary downside target will likely be around $1.24, almost 40% below current prices.
The IC&H target aligns with XRP’s 200-3D exponential moving average (200-3D EMA; the blue wave) at around $1.28 — and further coincides with a November 2024 top.
Additionally, veteran trader Peter Brandt suggests that XRP’s market cap could drop by 50% in the coming weeks.
XRP onchain fractal hints at 50% correction
XRP’s inverse cup-and-handle pattern is unfolding in line with its historical price behavior, signaling that its 2025 rally may have topped out.
For instance, the cryptocurrency saw sharp pullbacks to its aggregated realized price following major surges in previous cycles, most notably in 2018 and 2021.
For traders, the realized price serves as a psychological benchmark, representing the average price at which the XRP supply was last moved.
When the market price trades well above this level, most holders are in profit, which can encourage complacency or profit-taking. Conversely, if the price nears the realized price, fear of losses tends to rise, and selling pressure can intensify.
In 2025, XRP surged past $3.20 before losing steam, repeating patterns seen in past bull-to-bear cycles. The current realized price at around $1, a likely downside target in 2025 down about 50% from the current prices.
Interestingly, XRP’s $1 realized price target is closer to its 200-week EMA (the blue wave in the chart below) at $0.81, a bear market target discussed in Cointelegraph’s analysis in late March.
Adding to the bearish outlook, over 80% of XRP addresses are currently in profit. The metric historically reached similar levels during previous market tops, often preceding significant rounds of profit-taking and pullbacks.
Related: 81.6% of XRP supply is in profit, but traders in Korea are turning bearish — Here is why
If history repeats, such similar conditions could incentivize traders to exit positions, accelerating XRP’s retracement toward the realized price.
Odds of XRP hitting record highs are declining
Sentiment around XRP reaching a new all-time high above the $3.55 level is deteriorating, according to prediction market data from Polymarket.
As of April 19, the odds of XRP achieving this milestone before 2026 have dropped to just 35%, marking a sharp 25% decline from peak confidence levels in March, as shown below.
The upside momentum in the crypto market has faded overall in April, coinciding with a broader decline in risk appetite driven by escalating global tariff tensions under Donald Trump’s trade policies.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
#XRP #revisit #realized #price #charts #paint #bearish #picture
]]>Bitcoin (BTC) faces “unprecedented” US dollar correlation as new BTC price research gives a $75,000 floor.
In one of his latest analyses on April 18, network economist Timothy Peterson calculated that BTC/USD may rise as high as $138,000 within the next three months.
BTC price probabilities give bulls the upper hand
Bitcoin is navigating highly unusual macroeconomic conditions as a result of the ongoing US trade war, but history still offers clues as to where BTC price action may head next.
For Peterson, the US High Yield Index Effective Yield, currently at over 8%, holds the key.
“This has happened 38 times since 2010 (monthly data),” he summarized.
“3 months later: Bitcoin was up 71% of the time. The median gain was +31%. If it went lower, the worst loss was -16%.”
With BTC/USD performance thus skewed to the upside, Peterson gave hope to those waiting for a rematch of all-time highs from January.
“This likely puts Bitcoin between $75k and $138k within 90 days,” he concluded.
Bitcoin would need to deliver 62% gains within that period to achieve that maximum level.
As Cointelegraph reported, Peterson has been a frequent contributor to BTC price forecasts in 2025, with one of his proprietary tools, Lowest Price Forward, giving 95% odds of a $69,000 floor in March.
Bitcoin DXY correlation will flip negative
Turning his attention to the dramatic drop in the US dollar index (DXY) thanks to US trade tariffs, he predicted that its unusual positive correlation with BTC would ultimately end.
Related: Bitcoin price volatility ‘imminent’ as speculators move 170K BTC — CryptoQuant
“This level of BTC-USD correlation is unprecedented. The relationship is not causal, but reflective of underlying conditions affecting both,” he explained.
“Historically inverse, the relationship flipped in 2024 as both assets began responding to the same macro stressors: tightening liquidity, high real rates, and global risk aversion. BTC will decouple and rise when real yields drop + liquidity returns.”
DXY continued to stay below the key 100 mark on April 18, per data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, reflecting some of its lowest levels in the past three years.
Earlier, separate analysis nonetheless saw the potential for Bitcoin to directly benefit from dollar weakness in a manner similar to the early innings of the bull run in 2023.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
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