Ripple has highlighted $XRP’s institutional growth since the spot ETFs launch in November last year. The crypto firm noted how the crypto asset has grown through regulatory clarity, which it achieved through the long-running legal battle against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
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Bitcoin mining difficulty falls, but projected to rise in next adjustment
The Bitcoin ($BTC) mining difficulty, the relative challenge of adding new blocks to the $BTC blockchain, fell on Saturday, amid public mining companies selling record amounts of $BTC to cover operating expenses.
The Bitcoin mining difficulty fell to about 135.5 T, a modest decrease of about 1.1% over the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinWarz. Mining difficulty is also projected to increase in the next adjustment period. CoinWarz said:
“The next Bitcoin difficulty adjustment is estimated to take place on May 01, 2026, 01:24:54 PM UTC, increasing the Bitcoin mining difficulty from 135.59 T to 137.43 T, which will take place in 1,865 blocks, about 12 days, 18 hours, and 41 minutes from now.”
Bitcoin mining difficulty between 2014 and 2026. Source: CoinWarz Bitcoin miners have faced mounting challenges over the past year, as reduced block rewards, rising energy prices, a crypto bear market and geopolitical shocks create economic headwinds for miners.
Related: Solo Bitcoin miner bags $210K Bitcoin block reward
Public mining companies sell record amounts of $BTC
Publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies sold more $BTC in Q1 2026 than all four quarters of 2025 combined, according to TheEnergyMag.
Mining companies MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, Cango, Core Scientific and Bitdeer, sold more than 32,000 $BTC in total during Q1 2026, TheEnergyMag said.
The combined sales surpassed the 20,000 $BTC sold in Q2 2022, the same quarter as the collapse of the Terra-Luna ecosystem, which plunged crypto into an extended bear market.
Miners periodically sell their $BTC to cover operating expenses, which are denominated in fiat currency.
However, as the cost of mining a single $BTC increases past spot market prices, many $BTC mining companies are now treading water.
Mining companies’ cost of mining a single $BTC. Source: TheEnergyMag Up to 20% of Bitcoin miners are unprofitable under current economic conditions, according to asset manager CoinShares’ Q1 2026 mining report.
“Q4 2025 marked the most challenging quarter for Bitcoin miners since the April 2024 halving,” the CoinShares report said.
The authors cited the “sharp” $BTC correction in October 2025, which slashed $BTC’s price from a high of about $125,000 to about $86,000 by December 2025, and the rising computational difficulty of adding blocks as headwinds for the mining industry.
Magazine: 7 reasons why Bitcoin mining is a terrible business idea
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Crypto Trader Turns $2,500 Into $500K on Skyrocketing Ethereum Meme Coin
In brief
THIS GUY TURNED 1 ETH INTO HALF A MILLION IN 3 HOURS
The first person to buy ASTEROID today only made $1,300, after selling for about 2x.
But trader 0x680 swapped 1 ETH to ASTEROID after seeing Elon’s tweet about it, and held – now he’s up $474,320 on the coin. pic.twitter.com/8Ubj0VS2vo
— Arkham (@arkham) April 17, 2026
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Dylan Sprouse Tackled Trespasser at His Los Angeles Home, Held Them Down Until Police Arrived
Dylan Sprouse stopped a trespasser at this Los Angeles home on Friday morning.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Sprouse tackled a man to the ground on his lawn after his wife, Victoria’s Secret model Barbara Palvin, reported a “creepy guy” on their property to the police via an emergency call at about 12:30 a.m. on Friday. TMZ reported that, according to unnamed sources, Sprouse held the suspected trespasser down at gunpoint until the police arrived.
The Times reports that the suspect was taken into custody on outstanding warrants and that no one was hurt in the altercation. The alleged trespasser did not make it inside Sprouse and Palvin’s home, only onto the property.
Reps for Sprouse did not immediately respond to Variety’s request for comment.
Sprouse is probably best known for starring alongside his twin brother, Cole, in the Disney Channel series “The Suite Life of Zach and Cody.” The sitcom spawned the spinoff series “Suite Life on Deck” as well as a 2011 made-for-TV movie. His more recent credits include films like “Surrender,” “Under Fire,” Behind the Lines,” “Aftermath,” “Beautiful Disaster,” Beautiful Wedding” and “The Duel.”
While they haven’t collaborated on screen in over a decade, Dylan said in 2019 that he and Cole would be open to acting together again, as long as the project doesn’t revolve around being twins.
“Yes, we’re totally not averse to working together again,” Sprouse said. “I don’t think we’ll be working as twins ever again, like cast in a role. But I think we both would be fine working together, whatever that means.”
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Nathalie Baye, ‘Day for Night’ and ‘Catch Me If You Can’ Actress, Dies at 77
Nathalie Baye, the acclaimed French performer who broke out in “Day for Night” and later appeared in “Catch Me If You Can” and “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” has died. She was 77.
Baye died Friday evening at her home in Paris following complications related to Lewy body dementia, her family told Agence France-Presse.
Born July 6, 1948, in Mainneville, Normandy, Baye trained at the Conservatoire national supérieur d’art dramatique in Paris and began her film career in the early 1970s. She went on to become a central figure in French cinema, earning four César Awards over a career spanning more than five decades.
Her early work included collaborations with François Truffaut in “Day for Night” and Jean-Luc Godard in “Every Man for Himself.” She also starred in notable French titles, including “The Return of Martin Guerre” and “Venus Beauty Institute.”
In the U.S., Baye appeared in the Emmy-winning television film “And the Band Played On,” which chronicled the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis. She was widely recognized by international audiences for her role in Steven Spielberg’s “Catch Me If You Can,” portraying the mother of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character opposite Christopher Walken and Tom Hanks.
More recently, she appeared in “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” sharing the screen with Maggie Smith in one of her final film roles. Baye also made a memorable appearance in the French series “Call My Agent!,” where she appeared alongside her daughter, Laura Smet, who has also gained international attention with a role in the upcoming season of “The White Lotus.”
Baye is survived by Smet and her family.
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BREAKING: Rumors Swirl That Today’s Hacking Incident Could Be Much Larger – Aave Takes Action
The security crisis in the cryptocurrency market is deepening. While earlier allegations of a potential attack exceeding $100 million on KelpDAO’s liquid staking token surfaced, recent developments suggest the attack may be on a much larger scale.
According to on-chain data, one user had over $280 million in assets stolen from various DeFi protocols operating on Ethereum and Arbitrum. The addresses used in the attack were found to have been funded through Tornado Cash, a privacy-focused transaction tool.
Related News RAVE Tokeninde Manipülasyon İddialarına Geliştiricilerden Yanıt Geldi
Following these developments, Aave, one of the leading lending protocols in the DeFi ecosystem, intervened quickly. According to on-chain sources, Aave’s multisig guardian mechanism froze the rsETH holdings in lending markets to limit the risks. This move is considered an urgent measure to prevent the spread of potential losses.
As you may recall, approximately half an hour ago, following allegations of a security breach on the KelpDAO side, signals emerged indicating a “bad debt” (uncollectible debt) on Aave V3.
*This is not investment advice.
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AI is increasingly eating into VC fundings and here is how crypto firms are adapting
Forty cents of every venture capital dollar invested in crypto companies in 2025 went to firms building products that combine artificial intelligence and crypto, more than double the 18 cents a year earlier.
“AI is increasingly entering crypto not as a parallel narrative, but as part of crypto’s own product and infrastructure stack,” Binance Research said, citing data from Silicon Valley Bank, noting that this shows “how quickly AI is becoming embedded within crypto roadmaps.”
That pressure is visible in crypto’s shift from AI “co-pilots” to “agents.” Co-pilots help users analyze information, while agents can monitor conditions and execute actions. In trading environments, where timing affects outcomes, reducing the gap between insight and execution can change behavior.
The trend is part of a wider surge in AI spending. Crunchbase data shows AI companies raised about $242 billion in the first quarter of 2026, or roughly 80% of global venture funding. Gartner estimates total AI spending will reach $2.52 trillion this year.
Crypto leading the AI push
This trend, however, isn’t surprising.
As capital concentrates in one area, it often pulls adjacent sectors along with it, pushing firms to adapt their strategies and shorten product cycles, Binance Research wrote.
While almost all sectors are trying to incorporate AI into their business models, the report says that crypto platforms have moved faster than traditional finance in deploying such systems. This is due to support from always-on markets in the digital assets sector and programmable infrastructure, whereas TradFi faces market-hour constraints and intermediary systems that agents must pass through.
For example, the research noted that on Binance’s AI Pro beta, nearly half of the activity on a recent day, 45.7%, was triggered by the system rather than users.
These interactions came from scheduled tasks and monitoring systems, pointing to growing use of AI tools that run in the background without prompts.
Adoption of AI solutions is uneven across the 17 exchanges and brokers Binance Research surveyed. Risk management, market signals, and fraud detection are standard, while user-facing tools such as copy trading, chatbots, and portfolio advisors are present in only 47% to 71% of them.
Several major platforms have shipped agentic products this year, moving AI closer to monitoring and execution within set guardrails. That compresses the value chain between identifying an opportunity and acting on it, Binance Research added.
That means the competitive landscape will shift from who’s integrating AI features to who’s owning users’ decision-making loops, the report noted.
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Trump joined by Joe Rogan as he signs order to speed up psychedelic review
The order calls on the federal government to relax restrictions on psychedelics, including ibogaine, for potential treatments.
Published On 18 Apr 2026
United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to speed up the review of a handful of psychedelic drugs, including the controversial ibogaine.
Trump was joined by podcaster Joe Rogan during Saturday’s Oval Office event.
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Rogan, considered one of the most influential podcasters in the country, has been a leading proponent of ibogaine, which is derived from a plant that grows in West Africa and has been embraced by some military veteran groups as a treatment for post-traumatic stress.
Speaking at the event, Rogan recounted how he had previously texted information to Trump about ibogaine.
He recalled that the president quickly texted back: “Sounds great. Do you want FDA [Food and Drug Administration] approval? Let’s do it.”
Advocacy groups have long pushed for more research into the possible use of psychedelics to treat an array of issues, including depression.
“Today’s order will ensure that people suffering from debilitating symptoms might finally have a chance to reclaim their lives and lead a happier life,” Trump said at the signing.
“If these turn out to be as good as people are saying, it’s going to have a tremendous impact.”
At one point, the president quipped that he would be open to taking psychedelics himself: “Can I have some, please? I’ll take some.”
But he quickly pivoted away from the joke. “I don’t have time to be depressed. You know, if you stay busy enough, maybe that works, too. That’s what I do,” he said.
Increasing research into psychedelics has proven a rare issue with bipartisan support in the US, where ibogaine and other psychedelics remain banned under the federal government’s most restrictive category for illegal drugs.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr had previously pledged to ease access to psychedelics for medical use.
Trump’s executive order calls on the Department of Health and Human Services to direct at least $50m to states that have enacted or are developing programmes to advance psychedelic drugs for serious mental illness.
It also arrives ahead of several actions from the FDA to loosen restrictions.
This week, the agency will issue so-called “national priority” vouchers for three psychedelics, which the agency’s commissioner, Marty Makary, said will allow certain drugs to be approved quickly “if they are in line with our national priorities”.
The FDA is also taking steps to clear the way for the first-ever human trials of ibogaine in the US. Previous research had been stalled by concerns over the drug potentially triggering fatal heart problems.
Ibogaine was first used by members of the Bwiti religion in African nations like Gabon for religious ceremonies.
Rogan’s endorsement helped boost Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election. He has since publicly questioned the administration’s war with Iran, saying it runs counter to Trump’s campaign pledges.
Also present on Saturday was Marcus Luttrell, a former Navy SEAL whose memoir about his time in Afghanistan, Lone Survivor, was later made into a film.
He praised ibogaine during the ceremony: “It absolutely changed my life for the better.”
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And Finally, They Dumped It: RAVE Plunged Today, Binance CEO Issues Statement
As allegations of manipulation surrounding the controversial RaveDAO ($RAVE) token in the cryptocurrency market intensify, a noteworthy statement has come from Binance, one of the sector’s largest exchanges.
Binance Co-CEO Richard Teng announced that allegations of insider trading on the $RAVE token are being taken seriously. Teng stated that the exchange has launched an investigation into the matter, adding, “We will always do our part to investigate all market abuses.”
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The statement comes after recent sharp price movements in the $RAVE token and allegations of a “pump and dump” scheme. Market participants point out that high supply controls and sudden price fluctuations pose risks for individual investors.
$RAVE, an altcoin that has been the subject of much discussion lately due to its sharp fluctuations, lost 60% of its value today. However, it is still trading at a level 255% higher than it was 255% earlier in the last week.
A graph showing the rise and fall in $RAVE’s price. *This is not investment advice.
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‘The Batman: Part II’: Charles Dance in Talks to Join as Harvey Dent’s Father in DC Sequel
The Batman: Part II is looking to add another star to its stacked cast.
Charles Dance is in talks to play Harvey Dent’s father in the upcoming sequel to 2022’s Batman, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
DC Studios had no comment.
Robert Pattinson is back to lead the film as the Dark Knight with Sebastian Stan as Harvey Dent, and Scarlett Johansson as Dent’s wife.
Matt Reeves returns to direct the movie, which is aiming to begin production next month, and co-wrote the script with Mattson Tomlin.
Dance played Tywin Lannister in four seasons of HBO’s Game of Thrones. He also has credits in Alien 3, The Imitation Game, Gosford Park, The First Omen, The Day of the Jackal and played Dr. Frankenstein’s father in last year’s Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-nominated, Frankenstein.
The Batman grossed $772 million at the worldwide box office and starred Colin Farrell as the villain, the Penguin, who got his own spinoff series on Max and is returning for the sequel. The cast rounded out with Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Jeffery Wright as Jim Gordon, Paul Dano as the Riddler, Andy Serkis as Alfred and Barry Keoghan as an Arkham Asylum inmate.
A sequel was first announced by Warner Bros. at CinemaCon in April 2022. But in early 2023, DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran said it would open in October 2025. A year later, the movie was delayed to Oct. 2, 2026. The film is now expected to be released on Oct. 1, 2027.
Dance is repped by Tavistock Wood Management.
Deadline first reported the news.
