Crypto exchange Bitget rolled out a new platform offering tokenized exposure to private companies, starting with an asset linked to SpaceX, as firms push to bring early-stage investing onto blockchain rails.
The platform, called IPO Prime, allows users to subscribe to tokens that track the economic performance of companies before they go public. Its first listing, preSPAX, is tied to Elon Musk’s space and artificial intelligence firm and is issued through Republic, an investment platform specializing in private markets, with tokens minted on the Solana blockchain.
Trading began after a short subscription window, giving users near-immediate liquidity. That marks a break from traditional pre-IPO investing, where stakes in private firms are often locked up for years with limited options to exit.
Instead of fixed allocations, users commit stablecoins into a pool and receive tokens based on total demand. Once distributed, those tokens can be traded on a spot market, allowing investors to adjust positions as expectations around a future listing shift.
Tokenization has gained traction across traditional finance, from bonds to money market funds to equities. Extending the model to pre-IPO markets could widen access to a segment long dominated by venture capital and private equity, while testing how far crypto infrastructure can reshape capital formation.
The pre-IPO tokens do not represent equity ownership. They are derivatives structured to mirror financial outcomes tied to a company’s valuation after a public debut.
SpaceX is preparing for one of the most widely expected stock market debuts this year, after the firm reportedly confidentially filed for an IPO.
Coinbase is moving to strengthen its derivatives offering around $XRP, introducing a new trading mechanism that could make the asset more attractive to large institutional players.
Key Points
Coinbase will launch a Trade at Settlement (TAS) feature for $XRP derivatives starting May 1, 2026.
TAS lets traders execute $XRP futures at official settlement prices, reducing exposure to intraday volatility.
The feature targets institutional players using block trades, offering more controlled and risk-managed execution.
$XRP ETFs saw $1.28B in inflows, marking eight straight days of positive momentum despite minor outflows.
$XRP Included in New Trade at Settlement (TAS) Feature
In a fresh filing with the CFTC, Coinbase revealed plans to roll out Trade at Settlement (TAS) functionality starting May 1, 2026.
TAS allows traders to execute orders at a contract’s official settlement price rather than trading directly in live, fluctuating markets. The feature will apply to block trades, which are typically used by large participants handling significant volume.
Notably, both nano $XRP and full-sized $XRP futures contracts were listed among the products eligible for TAS. The listing also included major assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and commodities like gold and crude oil.
What TAS Means for $XRP
TAS gives institutional traders a simpler, more controlled way to trade $XRP. Instead of worrying about price swings during the day, they can base trades on a set closing price. This is useful for managing risk in large portfolios.
Overall, it shows $XRP is increasingly fitting into traditional financial systems, where stable pricing and lower risk matter most.
Regulatory Framing and Market Oversight
Coinbase said the new feature follows key rules under the Commodity Exchange Act, including maintaining fair, transparent, and manipulation-free markets.
All TAS trades will still be monitored under its existing rules, with its Market Regulation team overseeing activity to ensure fair trading. The exchange also added that there are no known objections to launching this feature.
Adding tools like TAS for $XRP shows it is becoming more integrated into mainstream financial markets.
By using the same trading methods as traditional assets and major cryptocurrencies, Coinbase is likely making $XRP more attractive to institutional investors, something many see as important for the next stage of growth in digital assets.
Beyond the derivatives market, institutions are also participating in the $XRP ecosystem via ETFs.
Major Inflows into $XRP ETFs
According to SoSoValue data, $XRP ETFs have recorded cumulative inflows of $1.28 billion after attracting a fresh $3 million investment on Monday.
This marks the eighth consecutive trading day of positive flows into the $XRP ETF market. Major contributors include Bitwise, with $416 million in inflows since 2025; Canary Capital, with $421 million in inflows; Franklin, with $345 million; and Grayscale, with $120.93 million.
However, 21Shares has seen cumulative outflows of $20.70 million, although it still holds $154 million in total assets in its XTRP ETF.
Maryland woman wins $50,000 lottery prize on her birthday
March 25 (UPI) — A Maryland woman celebrated her birthday by purchasing a Fast Play High Roller Jackpot lottery ticket that earned her a $50,000 prize.
Michaelmoonwalked into Hollywood on Monday night, as the story of Michael Jackson‘s early career premiered with the support of the film’s cast and the superstar’s family members.
Siblings La Toya, Marlon, Jermaine and Jackie Jackson were all in attendance not only for the movie itself but also for Jaafar Jackson, Michael Jackson’s nephew (and Jermaine Jackson’s son) who transforms into his uncle in the biopic. “I was flabbergasted. I have to tell you that you think it’s Mike,” La Toya Jackson told The Hollywood Reporter of the portrayal. “You forget it’s Jaafar, you think it’s Michael.”
The Jackson family, and Michael Jackson’s estate, was heavily involved in the making of the film, with producer Graham King revealing that in addition to frequent talks with the siblings, Michael Jackson’s son Prince Jackson “was on set every day” during shooting and was also around during the film’s development.
Prince and brother Bigi Jackson have taken part in the film’s promotion — walking the carpet together at the Berlin premiere, while Prince Jackson was solo at the L.A. event — but sister Paris Jacksonhas spoken out against the movie, saying she wasn’t involved at all after she “read one of the first drafts of the script and gave my notes about what was dishonest/didn’t sit right with me and when they didn’t address it I moved on with my life.”
Paris Jackson added on social media in September, “They’re going to make whatever they’re going to make. A big reason why I haven’t said anything up until this point is because I know a lot of you guys are gonna be happy with it. A big section, the film panders to a very specific section of my dad’s fandom that still lives in the fantasy, and they’re gonna be happy with it.”
King acknowledged he hadn’t spoken to Paris Jackson recently and writer John Logan said he didn’t talk to her during his research. “Certain people in the family weren’t interested in talking and that was fine; they didn’t want to be represented in the movie or dramatized in the movie, that’s totally fine,” Logan said. He continued, “And look, Michael is a complicated person, people have complicated opinions, and that’s fine. We chose to tell the uplifting story of his triumph in the movie, and that’s what we did.”
From left: Kendrick Sampson, Adam Fogelson (chairman, Lionsgate Motion Picture Group), Deon Cole, Colman Domingo, Juliano Valdi, Antoine Fuqua, Mike Myers, Jaafar Jackson, Larenz Tate, Laura Harrier, Nia Long, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Graham King, Miles Teller, Jon Feltheimer (CEO, Lionsgate Entertainment) and Lydia Silverman at the premiere.
Savion Washington/Getty Images for Lionsgate
Michael has faced a number of challenges on its way to the big screen. Reportedly, the film’s third act originally included some of the child sex abuse allegations against the superstar, but it was later discovered that Jordan Chandler, who alleged that Jackson sexually abused him in 1993, had reached an agreement to not be depicted in any dramatization of Jackson’s life. The movie then had to push its release date and do reshoots to rejigger the story.
“I think it’s very important that everybody in the family was involved and took part in this to make sure you get it right. A lot of times people think they know the story and they read about things, but when the family’s involved, the family can say yay or nay,” La Toya Jackson noted, dodging a question on Paris Jackson’s comments but saying that “everybody has their opinion and their choice.”
And as for Jaafar Jackson’s transformation, co-star Mike Myers admitted he was “starstruck” because the young actor seemed so much like the pop icon.
That came from “many, many months, a couple years of preparation just allowing myself to understand everything behind the music, everything behind the moves, what was behind all of that, which was his heart,” Jaafar Jackson said. “Of course I wanted to pay attention to the little details and nuances of the performances but most important was his essence in his heart of how he truly treated people, how he was with everyone. And that was the most incredible experience I could ask for.”
US president says Iran has ‘no choice’ but to show up to the negotiations in Pakistan and accept a ‘great’ deal.
Published On 21 Apr 202621 Apr 2026
United States President Donald Trump says he opposes extending a ceasefire with Iran that will expire by the end of Wednesday to allow more time for negotiations.
Trump’s comment on Tuesday during an interview with CNBC raised the stakes for the round of talks set to take place this week in Pakistan, suggesting that the war could reignite if the parties fail to reach a deal.
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Iran has not publicly committed to attending the negotiations as tensions over Tehran’s closure of the Hormuz Strait and the US blockade on Iranian ports intensify.
Asked by CNBC whether he would back prolonging the truce to buy more time for the talks to take place, Trump said, “Well, I don’t want to do that.”
The president said Iranian representatives will attend the talks, emphasising that the negotiators don’t have much time to reach an agreement.
“Iran can get themselves on a very good footing if they make a deal. They can make themselves into a strong nation again,” Trump said.
Despite the uncertainty over the talks, Trump predicted that Washington and Tehran would reach a “great deal”.
“I think they have no choice,” he said of the Iranians. “We’ve taken out their navy. We’ve taken out their air force. We’ve taken out their leaders.”
Trump, who has threatened to bomb Iran’s bridges and power and water stations, said the US military is “totally loaded up” to resume the war.
“It’s not my choice, but it would also hurt them. It would hurt them militarily,” he said of his threat to target civilian infrastructure in Iran. “They use the bridges for their weapons, for their missile movements.”
Iran has continued to voice defiance against Trump’s rhetoric, saying it will not negotiate under threat.
While the two-week ceasefire has succeeded in halting the fighting, it has been rocked by Israel’s assault on Lebanon and disagreements over the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran has insisted that Lebanon was part of the truce and kept the strait closed to pressure an end to the Israeli bombardment of the country.
Trump, in turn, ordered his own blockade of the waterway with the US military laying a naval siege on ships linked to Iran.
When a ceasefire was announced in Lebanon, Iran announced a reopening of the strait, but Trump said the US blockade would persist. So less than 24 hours later, Tehran said it was closing the strait again.
US forces have seized at least one Iranian-flagged vessel as part of the blockade in what Tehran decried as an act of piracy.
“The United States will bear full responsibility for the consequences of the dangerous escalation, and Iran will use all available means to defend its sovereignty and protect the rights of its citizens,” Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent oil prices around the world soaring. The cost of petrol for US consumers has risen by more than 25 percent since the start of the war.
Trump stressed in his interview with CNBC that the US is “totally” in control of the strategic waterway.
A crew member on Universal‘s live-action sequel “How to Train Your Dragon 2″ has suffered a severe injury following an accident that occurred off-set in the U.K. earlier this month, Variety understands.
The individual, understood to be working as a special effects technician, severed multiple fingers on one hand during an incident involving a saw in a workshop at Sky Studios Elstree, where the film is currently in production. Despite extensive surgery, the severed digits were not able to be reattached.
Variety has reached out to Universal for comment.
“How to Train Your Dragon 2,” being directed by Dean Deblois — who helmed all the franchise’s animated features and 2025’s first live-action remake — began shooting in Sky Studios Elstree in February, marking a change from the first which was filmed at Belfast’s Titanic Studios.
The film is once again led by Mason Thames, with Nico Parker Gabriel Howell, Julian Dennison, Bronwyn James, Harry Trevaldwyn, Nick Frost and Gerard Butler also reprising their roles from the first film and Cate Blanchett playing Valka, who she voiced in the animated features. Ólafur Darri Ólafsson and Phil Dunster are among the new casting additions.
Produced by Universal-based Marc Platt Productions, it’s currently scheduled for a June 11, 2027 release date.
While the circumstances around the “How to Train Your Dragon 2” accident are unclear, last year the U.K.’s crew member union Bectu issued a joint statement with the producer’s union Pact about health and safety concerns on film and TV productions. According to the two entities, their research linked many safety risks to workers being asked to work beyond contractually negotiated rest periods, known as “broken turnaround.”
“Breaking turnaround impacts workers’ ability to do their job safely and effectively,” said Bectu National Secretary Spencer Macdonald. “Reports to Bectu indicate that exhaustion, accidents and near-misses are all too common, as well as poor mental health for many film and TV workers.”
Premiering in the international competition at Visions du Réel, “Saudades Eternas” is the feature debut of visual artist and director Emma Boccanfuso, drawn from years spent filming inside Rio de Janeiro’s Chapéu Mangueira favela.
The film centers on Sueli, a formidable matriarch presiding over a busy, multi-generational household. Within the walls of her home, daily life unfolds – arguments, laughter, children growing up – while outside, gang shootings and deaths continue at a steady pace.
“Saudades Eternas”
Courtesy of VdR
The film never leaves the house, which is both refuge and witness to the cycles of life and loss beyond its walls. The most you see of the outside world is the beach of Copacabana from the terrace, just a few hundred meters away.
Boccanfuso’s starting point was the cultural shock she experienced when she first arrived in the favela.
“What really hit me was their relationship to death. There were a multitude of deaths and shootings that broke out while I was there,” she tells Variety. Coming from what she describes as a contained experience of death – “the hospital, the cemetery” – she was struck by the contrast. “I felt that the boundaries between the dead and the living were completely dissolved… and that they had an ease in accepting death.”
That tension became the core of the project. “I needed to live there to try to understand how it could be possible to live in such violence and at the same time to live life at 300%, to be the most smiling people I have ever met.”
Originally conceived as an installation piece during her studies at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, the film grew organically into a feature.
“I was really just filming with my smartphone – I filmed static shots, like paintings that I projected onto the wall,” she says. “To try to recreate this house and invite the viewer to feel this experience of violence that takes place outside, from within the house.”
Over time, Boccanfuso – who moved into a house next door – became part of the family, and they grew accustomed to being filmed. Her stripped-down approach ultimately defines the film’s aesthetic.
Sound plays a central role in conveying what the camera doesn’t show: Boccanfuso reconstructs the violence through what is heard, incorporating additional recordings – gunfire, fragments of conversations between gang members captured on walkie-talkies – which were recorded separately and integrated into the sound edit.
It never occurred to her to film the violence itself, she says, or even the family’s reactions to the deaths. In a context where shootings are frequently filmed and routinely circulated, often in real time via local messaging groups, she was unsettled by what she saw as a normalization of such images, particularly among children.
This absence created a structural challenge in the edit. “You want to talk about all these deaths, but we don’t have the images,” she recalls of conversations with her editor.
The solution was to build a narrative system around absence. Voice messages announcing deaths are layered over static shots of an empty home, echoing her own experience of events unfolding.
“We decided to represent the violence in the film exactly as I experienced it with my camera: off-screen, inside the house, confined with the characters, waiting for information on the phone,” piecing events together “by word of mouth, from one window to another,” she explains.
The film does not attempt to map each death into a clear narrative. What emerges is less a catalogue of tragedy than a portrait of resilience.
“We approached death more as a multitude accumulating around Sueli – and more broadly within the favela – rather than trying to make the viewers understand who is who.”
For Boccanfuso, whose previous work was rooted in the contemporary art world, the film’s selection at Visions du Réel is an opportunity to reach a wider audience and shed light on a community living within conditions shaped by systemic injustice.
She is now considering a follow-up set on Copacabana beach, where she would reconnect with the same characters, now working as surf instructors and street vendors, to portray the legendary beach from their point of view, away from its postcard image.
Produced by Close Up Films and Macalube Films, with co-production support from Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS), “Saudades Eternas” will world premiere in the main competition at Visions du Réel on April 21.
A new report commissioned by Coinbase sounds a cautious, but urgent, alarm: Quantum computing won’t break crypto tomorrow, but the industry can’t afford to wait.
The 50-page paper, authored by an independent advisory board that includes prominent cryptographers and academics like Dan Boneh of Stanford University, Justin Drake of the Ethereum Foundation and Sreeram Kannan of Eigen Labs, concludes that while today’s blockchains remain secure, a future “fault-tolerant quantum computer” capable of breaking widely used encryption is increasingly plausible, and preparation must begin now.
In recent months, concerns around quantum risk have moved further into the mainstream. Google researchers have published estimates suggesting that a sufficiently advanced quantum computer could one day break Bitcoin’s cryptography.
Major crypto ecosystems have already started mapping out their responses. The Ethereum Foundation has proposed new types of digital signatures that are designed to be safe against quantum computers, while Solana and others are experimenting with quantum-resistant wallet designs.
The report stresses that current quantum machines are far from powerful enough to crack the cryptography underpinning Bitcoin, Ethereum and other networks. Breaking standard encryption would require vast computational overhead, a milestone still considered a major engineering challenge.
Still, the authors caution against complacency.
“We have high confidence that a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer will eventually be built,” the report states, adding that the timeline is uncertain but “clearly on the horizon.”
That uncertainty is exactly the problem, with estimates ranging from “a few years to a decade or more” and no reliable way to predict breakthroughs.
The urgency is reflected in guidance from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which recommends migrating to quantum-resistant cryptography by 2035, a timeline the report suggests may even prove optimistic.
“Waiting for it to be urgent is not a good idea,” the Coinbase paper says, emphasizing that transitions across blockchains, wallets and exchanges could take years to execute safely.
Some assets may be more vulnerable than others. For example, Bitcoin wallets that have already revealed their public keys could be targeted, while those still protected behind hash functions may be safer in the short term.
The good news: Quantum-resistant cryptography (PQC) already exists and is being standardized by NIST.
The bad news: It’s not an easy swap.
Post-quantum digital signatures can be tens to hundreds of times larger than current ones, which could dramatically increase blockchain data costs and reduce throughput. One estimate in the report suggests that replacing today’s signatures with quantum-proof alternatives could expand block sizes by up to 38 times.
There are also usability challenges, from migrating millions of wallets to deciding what to do with “lost” or inactive funds that never upgrade.
Rather than a single solution, the report outlines multiple transition strategies, including hybrid systems that combine existing cryptography with post-quantum updates or allow a gradual switch when needed.
For now, the authors recommend flexible approaches that avoid sacrificing current security or performance while enabling a rapid upgrade later.
“The time to begin preparing for it is now,” the report concludes.
Economic development officials with links to the U.K. government invited Bybit leadership to London this week in what appears to be a bid to emulate the momentum of Dubai, where the cryptocurrency exchange is based, and the rest of the United Arab Emirates.
CEO Ben Zhou said the message from the U.K. is “they are very eager to invite big business to establish bases and create jobs,” and discuss forthcoming pro-crypto regulation.
Bybit was founded by Zhou in 2018, and four years later moved its headquarters to Dubai from his native Singapore. It is ranked the second-largest crypto exchange by CoinGecko, trailing only Binance, which set up in the UAE in 2025.
The arrival of crypto giants like Bybit and Binance acted as a magnet to attract smaller crypto companies to the region, something the U.K. would like to emulate, Zhou said.
“One interesting thing is there hasn’t been any momentum built in the U.K.,” Zhou said in an interview at Paris Blockchain Week. “If you look at UAE, where there are big exchanges like Bybit or Binance, once we announced we’re going to be there, smaller players followed, and that created this momentum.”
Zhou’s invitation includes meetings with the Financial Conduct Authority and representatives of the House of Lords, and coincides with UK Fintech Week and a Treasury plan to revamp payment systems with stablecoins and the spread of tokenization.
“I have meetings with FCA. I have meetings with the House of Lords just to discuss what do you want to do with crypto,” Zhou said, without naming the U.K. government department that extended the invitation.
“We were invited specifically by some economic development board who said ‘We can get a direct line to the prime minister.’ There is an agenda to push for innovation, especially in crypto,” Zhou said.
Neither the Treasury nor Lucy Rigby, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, responded to requests for comment. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology also did not respond to requests for comment. The FCA had not replied by press time.
The invitation’s timing is interesting as the UAE has suffered direct attacks from Iran during the U.S.-Israel war that started Feb. 28, prompting tens of thousands of residents and tourists to leave the country. One in eight British residents has left, the Financial Times reported earlier this month.
The U.K. government has seen “the outflow of money and companies going to the UAE. They want to win it back. Precisely, now is good timing,” Zhou said.
The 2026 Tribeca Festival has revealed its TV and podcast lineup.
Among the TV highlights are the world premieres of season two of FX’s Adults, season two of X-Men ’97 and the third and final season of Survival of the Thickest and a Survivor 50th season panel with fan-favorite players Cirie Fields, Rob Cesternino, Kyle Fraser, Kamilla Karthigesu, Teeny Chirichillo and Jonathan Penner, also a Tribeca programmer.
The festival will also debut the Ronan Farrow-led HBO docuseries Not A Very Good Murderer and The Palladino Files, both created with Emmy winners Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, as well as Hulu’s Every Year After adaptation, starring Elisha Cuthbert, and the third-episode premiere of Alice and Steve, starring Jemaine Clement and Nicola Walker.
Additional screenings include the BBC’s Dear England, starring Joseph Fiennes, and the docuseries Alejandro Sanz: When No One Sees Me, about the music icon; 9/11: Reunited, about the bonds formed in the aftermath of the tragedy; The Man Will Burn, about the evolution of Burning Man; and Grandmasters, about the modernization of global chess.
“At Tribeca, we’ve always believed in showcasing great storytelling no matter where we find it, Tribeca Festival Director and senior vp, programming Cara Cusumano said in a statement. “This year’s TV and podcast lineup reflects a creative landscape where stories move fluidly across formats and expands the Festival beyond the screen into shared, live moments of discovery. Together, they embody Tribeca’s commitment to interdisciplinary storytelling and to championing the voices shaping culture today, wherever and however those stories are told.”
Festival senior programmer Liza Domnitz adds, “This year’s TV lineup blends dynamic documentary storytelling with contemporary dramas and provocative comedy, capturing the cultural pulse across generations and genres. From the intimacy of personal rediscovery to the shifting landscapes of art, sports, and sex, all our TV selections come anchored in brilliant post-screening conversations with creative teams, subjects, or cast.”
The podcast lineup includes live tapings of On with Kara Swisher, featuring Marc Maron; The New Yorker Radio Hour with David Remnick; The New York Times’ Cannonball with Wesley Morris; and Slate’s Death, Sex & Money, with host Anna Sale joined by Peter Dinklage and Erica Schmidt.
“This year marks our most expansive program yet, deepening our focus on independent podcast discoverability and creating even more opportunities to celebrate exceptional new work,” Tribeca podcasts and audio head Davy Gardner said in a statement. “Meanwhile, the Tribeca podcast stage has evolved into something larger than live recordings or performances. It’s a place where the defining voices of the medium come to create something new: one-night-only experiences that, together, feel like a live expression of where podcasting is today.”
More information about this year’s TV and podcast lineup is available here.
The 2026 Tribeca Festival is set to run from June 3-14 in New York.
