Category: Business

Crypto’s next major inflection point is coming from artificial intelligence (AI).

That’s according to Consensys CEO and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin. He told CoinDesk that autonomous or semi-autonomous agents can transact, coordinate and verify one another on decentralized networks, using crypto rails as a foundation for machine-driven activity.

Lubin, who will be speaking at Consensus Miami 2026 next month, said he is “sympathetic to the idea that blockchain is for machine intelligences,” but does not see humans being displaced. Instead, increasingly intelligent interfaces will abstract away complexity, allowing users to interact with crypto systems through intent rather than manual inputs. In that model, AI becomes the intermediary layer between people and protocols.

That vision comes with risks. If AI infrastructure remains concentrated among large technology firms, “we could be in trouble,” Lubin warned. He argued that decentralized systems and cryptography will be essential in ensuring accountability, enabling machines to “check on one another” in transparent, verifiable environments.

Within that broader shift, products like MetaMask — a Consensys product — are evolving to reflect the change. Lubin said the wallet is being rebuilt as “a new kind of neobank that you own and control,” part of a transition toward what he described as a “personal money operating system.” AI-powered agents could act on behalf of users, managing assets, executing transactions and navigating a growing decentralized economy. “You can walk around with your personal financial system in your pocket,” he said.

The rise of corporate chains on Ethereum

Beyond interfaces, Lubin pointed to structural changes across the Ethereum ecosystem. The architecture of the blockchain is also shaping how institutions approach adoption. Lubin expects “corporate chains” to become more common as companies seek higher throughput and greater control over their infrastructure. Still, he argued that assets are best issued on Ethereum’s base layer, saying “the best way to ensure that an asset is durable… is to mint it on Ethereum layer one,” even if the asset is later used across other networks.

Stablecoins, one of crypto’s fastest-growing sectors, are part of that transition, but not the endpoint. Lubin described them as a “stepping stone” toward more fully decentralized financial systems, noting that current models remain heavily reliant on centralized issuers. Over time, he expects growth in decentralized collateral to enable more robust, crypto-native forms of money.

On tokenization more broadly, Lubin suggested that traditional finance and decentralized finance are entering a period of convergence, combining centuries of financial innovation with newer blockchain-based systems. The result, he said, will be a more granular and programmable global economy.

Even as these shifts accelerate, Lubin struck a measured tone on longer-term technical risks like quantum computing. While not an immediate concern, he said Ethereum developers have been preparing for years.

“A lot of us just see it as being folded into the natural evolution of Ethereum,” Lubin said.

Read more: Joe Lubin claims DeFi is as safe as traditional finance, adding that bitcoin is in crisis

Wrapped $XRP went live on Solana on Friday, issued by custodian Hex Trust and bridged through LayerZero, making the token available inside Solana’s DeFi apps for the first time.

$XRP holders can now use the wrapped asset on Jupiter, Phantom, Titan Exchange, and Meteora without selling their underlying position.

Each wXRP is backed 1:1 by native $XRP held in segregated custody accounts and is redeemable at any time, according to Hex Trust.

The Solana launch is one leg of a broader rollout Hex Trust disclosed in December 2025, which also targets Ethereum, Optimism, and HyperEVM. The move fits a pattern that has accelerated through 2025 and 2026, where tokens that started their life on one chain are being bridged to others to capture yield and liquidity that did not exist at launch.

$XRP has historically functioned as a payment-rail token settled directly on the $XRP Ledger. Solana has built the opposite use case, a throughput-optimized smart contract platform where the DeFi and memecoin activity actually lives.

The piece of infrastructure underneath this deal is LayerZero, the cross-chain messaging protocol that has quietly won most of the bridge volume that used to flow through Wormhole, Nomad, and Ronin before those protocols were exploited for more than $1 billion combined between 2022 and 2024.

Whether $XRP generates meaningful DeFi volume on Solana is a separate question. The wrapped asset is live, but the test is whether holders actually use it.

The Hyperbridge exploit caused Polkadot [$DOT] to lose a significant portion of its market cap, but it has since fully recovered.

The altcoin’s price crashed after a hacker minted 1 billion $DOT tokens on Ethereum [$ETH] but only sold them for $237K due to lack of liquidity. The team clarified that the actual loss had ballooned to $2.5 million as the team made efforts to recover the funds.

However, the assurance that Polkadot’s core network security remained intact fueled a 17% price recovery.

What drove $DOT’s price recovery?

A statement released by the team after the exploit assured users of security, as the core network had not been affected. It’s the bridged $DOT tokens on Ethereum.

As a result, the community sentiment returned to 82% bullish from 954.1K voters, as per CoinMarketCap. Consequently, the price of the altcoin rallied from $1.146 to $1.354.

The relief brought about a rebound in network activity. As per Artemis data, the number of transactions increased by 1,400, from 10.5K to 11.9K, in just a day.

Additionally, daily active users (DAU) increased by 1.67x even though the figures remained relatively low. DAU rose from 3,000 to 5,000, indicating users were gradually returning to the network.

The Total Value Locked (TVL) also experienced a surge of about 11.29% in a day, while the stablecoin market cap grew to $77.83 million after the massive drop.

Moreover, the altcoin commanded a significant amount of daily trading volume of about $403 million. However, the revenue of the network remained low as it attempted to get back on its feet.

Can Polkadot break past key resistance levels?

On the charts, Polkadot price action had invalidated the breakdown below the sideways consolidation. Initially, before the exploit, $DOT had been bouncing between $1.20 and $1.35 levels since late March.

While the altcoin fully recovered and even surged to the range’s high, it failed to surpass the $1.35 zone. It briefly broke above the resistance due to a cool-off in buying activity after the price failed to stay above the sideways channel.

Surpassing this resistance level would put $DOT on course to $1.50, while failure may take the altcoin back to $1.20 or lower.

The Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD) confirmed this as it declined from a daily peak of 1.60 million $DOT tokens to 60K when writing.

Notably, the security compromise on bridged $DOT on the $ETH network made the altcoin lose its correlation to Ethereum. In fact, their correlation coefficient (CC) fell from a peak value of 0.86 to negative 0.55.

---

Final Summary

• Polkadot fully recovers after the Hyperbridge exploit, with network activity rebounding.
• $DOT is facing resistance at $1.35, which suggests the price may fall back to $1.20 or head to $1.50 if the level is breached.

Liz Truss, the U.K.’s shortest-serving prime minister, said the country’s economy has been stagnating for decades and many of the problems result from a lack of sound money and the debasement of the currency, an erosion in the value of sterling caused by inflation and the printing of new banknotes.

Truss, who led a Conservative government for 45 days in 2022, said the financial situation strengthened her interest in bitcoin , which some observers see as a tool against debasement. She said she’s “very interested” in the cryptocurrency, which she first encountered when working at the Treasury and mentioned it there “to shake things up.” Truss was Chief Secretary to the Treasury for about two years until July 2019.

“A lot of the problems we have are due to debasement of our currency and lack of sound money,” Truss said in an interview with CoinDesk. The absence of serious debate around money in academia and government had become “quite sinister,” and discussions about monetary policy had become “a taboo” within government, despite its central role in driving economic outcomes.

For Truss, bitcoin sits alongside a wider concern about centralization and control. She warned the current system is geared toward increasing “centralized control” and limiting financial independence, particularly through regulation and taxation, and positioned bitcoin as part of a pushback against that trend.

The economy is on a “very negative trajectory,” she said, warning the country faces long-term decline driven by weak growth, rising state control and what she sees as a failure of monetary policy.

“We are getting relatively poorer, very quickly,” she said, pointing to high taxes, regulation and energy costs that make “the risk often not worth the reward” for entrepreneurs. “There’s a massive disincentive to work in this country.”

Reflecting on the fallout from Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s 2022 mini-budget that characterized her premiership, she maintained the resulting market turmoil exposed hidden fragilities rather than caused them. “There was a tinderbox in the system that people didn’t know about,” she said, pointing to leveraged pension strategies.

CPAC UK

Now outside government, Truss is focused on building a political movement, including CPAC UK, a three-day conference aimed at bringing together activists, entrepreneurs and voices from across the “sovereignty and liberty” movement. “We need a movement of people who understand what the problem is,” she said.

Framing the stakes bluntly, she added: “There are two choices, either we’re finished or we change it.”

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson contrasts Midnight ($NIGHT) with Ripple and $XRP, arguing that the two models differ fundamentally in how value is created and distributed.

Hoskinson made this known during a recent interview with Wendy O on “The O Show.” His commentary centers on ownership, token utility, and whether network growth directly benefits token holders.

Key Points

• Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson argues that Midnight ($NIGHT) and $XRP differ fundamentally in value creation and distribution.
• He argues Ripple uses $XRP sales to generate capital for external investments and acquisitions, but $XRP holders never benefit from this model.
• Hoskinson compares Ripple’s model to Tether’s, where value accrues mainly to a central entity.
• His comments have reignited tensions with the $XRP community, raising the prospect of renewed disputes with figures like Brad Garlinghouse.

$XRP Holders Don’t Benefit From Ripple’s Value Creation Model

Speaking in response to questions about $XRP’s recent momentum, Hoskinson acknowledged the token’s visibility but challenged the underlying structure supporting its growth.

He claimed that Ripple retains significant control over $XRP supply and uses the token as a mechanism to generate capital, which it then deploys into external ventures such as acquisitions and new business lines.

According to him, this model creates a disconnect between $XRP holders and Ripple’s broader financial success. While the company expands its footprint through moves like acquiring firms such as Hidden Road or launching new products, he argues that $XRP holders do not gain ownership rights or direct financial exposure to those developments.

He further pointed to the absence of staking or yield mechanisms as evidence that $XRP’s value proposition is not designed to redistribute returns to holders. Instead, he likened the structure to Tether, in which a centralized entity captures most of the economic upside while users primarily benefit from access to the network.

WATCH: Charles Hoskinson explains how Midnight and $NIGHT are “radically different” from Ripple and $XRP pic.twitter.com/i5H1Z8xDbF

— Wendy O (@CryptoWendyO) April 17, 2026

Midnight Is Radically Different

In contrast, Hoskinson described Midnight and its $NIGHT token as “radically different,” suggesting a model where tokenomics are more closely aligned with user participation.

For context, the Midnight Foundation allocated the total supply to users across eight blockchains, including Cardano and $XRP. However, only a few of these tokens were claimed by eligible beneficiaries who held at least $100 of the supported tokens on the snapshot date.

This differs from $XRP, where around 80% of the pre-mined 100 billion supply was distributed to Ripple.

Fresh Hostility Between Hoskinson and $XRP Community Looms

His recent commentary has reignited criticisms from some $XRP proponents who suggest that Hoskinson is merely obsessed with Ripple and $XRP. Both have been at loggerheads for several years, particularly during the peak of the Ripple lawsuit, but only resolved the differences after Donald Trump’s re-election.

Following the reconciliation, Hoskinson suggested several initiatives to mend fences, including supporting $XRP on the Lace wallet and $XRP DeFi.

However, the relationship between him and $XRP proponents began to deteriorate again after he accused Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse of supporting the Clarity bill that makes $XRP and other established tokens winners, while newer projects are automatically classed as securities.

His recent commentary about how $NIGHT differs from $XRP has reignited discussions that another lengthy dispute might be around the corner.

One of the biggest short squeezes of 2026 came and went in a single session.

Bitcoin climbed to $78,000 late Friday, triggering $762 million in liquidations across 168,336 traders with $593 million of that on the short side, per CoinGlass.

By Saturday evening hours in Asia, bitcoin had pulled back to $76,091, up just 0.8% on the day, as Iran broadcast that the Strait of Hormuz was closed to maritime traffic again less than 24 hours after its foreign minister declared it fully open.

Two tanker owners told Bloomberg their vessels received Iranian radio transmissions shutting the waterway, with one supertanker reporting gunfire and aborting transit.

State news agency Nour said Hormuz had returned to “strict management and control by the armed forces” in response to a U.S. blockade of Iranian shipping. Several oil tankers that had raced toward the strait Friday on the initial reopening news turned back.

Friday’s breakout rally ended up in a $590 million shorts rout, with bets on bitcoin accounting for $381 million in liquidations, the largest share, followed by ether shorts at $167. Shorts outweighed longs by nearly four to one, the cleanest short-heavy breakdown in a liquidation event since February.

The setup had been building for weeks. Funding rates on bitcoin perpetuals were pinned negative, meaning shorts were paying longs a premium to hold their positions.

Friday’s Hormuz reopening was the catalyst that flipped it. Crude oil dropped nearly 10% to $85.90 per barrel on the initial headline, and bitcoin broke above the $76,000-$78,000 zone that has capped every rally attempt since the February 5 crash.

President Donald Trump then told reporters Friday night that Iran had agreed to an “unlimited” suspension of its nuclear program, though Tehran never confirmed the claim.

None of that survived into Saturday intact.

The market pattern is now familiar, where ceasefire headlines drives a rally but a reversal headline arrives before the breakout can consolidate. The forced unwind gets another setup to work against.

Ether held up better than bitcoin on the retreat, down just 0.2% over 24 hours while solana dropped 1.3% and dogecoin fell 2.1%. On a weekly basis, ether is still up 5.2%, XRP leads at 6.4%, BNB added 4.6%, and bitcoin sits at 4.5%.

Whether the $76,000 zone holds into Monday’s open is now the question. A clean weekly close above $76K would preserve the structural break even if the peace trade keeps whipsawing.

A loss of the level and bitcoin is back in the same range it has been trapped in since March, only this time with the short base that just got wiped looking to rebuild.

In his latest video, Benjamin Cowen, a leading analyst in the cryptocurrency market, evaluated Bitcoin’s current price movements using historical data and “seasonality.”

Analyzing Bitcoin’s return to the $77,000 level, Cowen warned investors about potential weakness in the coming weeks.

Cowen noted that Bitcoin’s current trajectory bears striking similarities to the “US midterm election years” cycles of 2018 and 2022. According to the analyst, Bitcoin hit a low of $60,000 in February, followed by a higher low in late March and early April.

However, Cowen argued that this was not an absolute bullish signal, but rather that “time-based capitulation” within a bear market was more significant than price-based decline.

One of the most striking points in the analysis was the risks projected for late April and early May. Cowen predicts that Bitcoin could reach a local peak at the end of April, similar to 2018, and then decline again at the beginning of May after sweeping that high.

The Fed meeting on April 29th stands out as one of the biggest risk factors for the markets. Bitcoin is currently facing resistance at the 100-day moving average. If this level is breached, the next major resistance point is expected to be the 200-day moving average.

Cowen stated that tracking USDT and USDC dominance is critical for understanding market direction, and noted that stablecoin dominance finds support at the 100-day moving average.

This suggests that the tendency for investors to move risky assets (like Bitcoin) to cash remains strong, and Bitcoin could retest the $60,000 level later this year.

Benjamin Cowen says Bitcoin is highly likely to be rejected from the bear market resistance band, and a true bottom can only be confirmed after these levels are tested repeatedly throughout the year.

According to the analyst, May and June historically remain “weakness windows” for crypto markets.

*This is not investment advice.

In a significant legal decision, a California judge has determined that the $JENNER memecoin, introduced by former Olympic gold medalist and television personality Caitlyn Jenner, does not meet the criteria to be classified as a security. This conclusion comes after a class action lawsuit filed in late 2024 by Lee Greenfield, who reported losses surpassing $40,000 from his investment in the token.

What Allegations Faced Caitlyn Jenner?

Greenfield, who acquired the $JENNER token through the Solana and Ethereum blockchains in May 2024, alleged that Jenner leveraged her fame to promote the token. It led investors to anticipate substantial profits. Jenner’s social media posts featured AI-crafted images displaying “JENNER ETH” shirts, accompanied by American flags, and conveyed hopeful messages such as “Let’s make everyone rich!”

Jenner is a household name in the United States, known for her athletic achievements and reality show appearances. By venturing into the cryptocurrency space with her token initiative, she attracted significant attention from both crypto enthusiasts and the general public.

How Did Key Legal Arguments Shape the Outcome?

The lawsuit also involved Jenner’s manager, Sophia Hutchins, who passed away in July 2025. The defense argued against the classification of the $JENNER token as a security and stated that Hutchins could not be deemed a vendor in this context.

Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr. invoked the pivotal 1946 Howey case from the US Supreme Court to determine if the investment qualified as a security. This test examines if investments are combined in a unified endeavor, with profits deriving from the efforts of others. Despite Greenfield’s investment, the judge concluded it didn’t involve a common enterprise, crucial for the security classification.

“Considering the claims as a whole, it is not reasonable to assert that investors pooled funds to share profits or losses, raise capital, or finance any project beyond the coin itself. Thus, there is no common enterprise on the basis of horizontal commonality,” Judge Blumenfeld articulated in his decision.

Judge Blumenfeld further stated there was an absence of both horizontal and vertical commonality among the investors, failing to meet the “common enterprise” component of the Howey test. Consequently, he did not address whether profit expectations hinged on Jenner’s activities.

What Lies Ahead for State-Level Proceedings?

Following the dismissal of the federal securities claim, the ruling clarified that any unresolved state-level charges could proceed in California’s jurisdiction. Greenfield retains the option to pursue his allegations locally under state laws.

“Given the absence of a common enterprise, further review is unnecessary,” the judge explained in his ruling on the matter.

This court decision contributes to the diverse perspectives within American judiciary systems regarding how some cryptocurrencies, like meme tokens, should be interpreted under securities law. The California ruling might inform future legal proceedings concerning similar digital assets.