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Bitcoin Miner Cango Sells $143 Million in BTC, Slashes Production Costs
In brief

Cango reduced its cost to mine Bitcoin to $68,216 per coin in March 2026, down from $84,552 in Q4 2025.

The firm said it decommissioned inefficient miners and migrated operations to lower-cost power regions.

Cango also sold 2,000 BTC to reduce Bitcoin-backed loans to $30.6 million.
Publicly traded Bitcoin miner Cango Inc. cut its average production cost by 19.3% to $68,216 per BTC in March—down from $84,552 in Q4 last year—achieving the reduction through strategic fleet optimization rather than expansion.

The company decommissioned older mining hardware and relocated operations to regions with cheaper power, while selling 2,000 Bitcoin during the month to retire crypto-backed debt. That tally of Bitcoin is currently valued around $143 million, and the firm used the proceeds to trim its outstanding loan balances to $30.6 million.

Cango still held 1,025.69 BTC in its treasury as of the end of March 31, valued over $73 million as of this writing. The firm’s total hash rate stood at 37.01 EH/s as of the end of March, split between 27.98 EH/s from self-mining and 9.02 EH/s from leasing arrangements.

The operational restructuring involved more than simple downsizing. In high-cost hosting locations, Cango deployed hash rate leasing models to maintain revenue without bearing full operational expenses, according to the company’s announcement.

Cango plans to redirect capital from its deleveraging efforts toward AI computing infrastructure, positioning the cost reductions as preparation for business model expansion. The same filing indicated the company views AI infrastructure as a natural extension of its existing power and facility investments.

The efficiency focus reflects shifting priorities among public Bitcoin miners facing compressed margins and market volatility. Rather than competing solely on hash rate growth, companies are examining unit economics and alternative revenue streams. Several Bitcoin mining firms have made moves into powering AI computing needs, even abandoning their original business focuses in an effort to chase larger profits amid the AI boom.

Cango’s operational restructuring follows similar moves across the public mining sector. MARA recently sold $1.1 billion in Bitcoin to buy back convertible debt while cutting 15% of its workforce. Core Scientific has explored plans to sell all of its Bitcoin holdings to finance its own AI transition, while Cipher Digital shifted focus to data center operations with a 15-year infrastructure deal, highlighting the industry’s evolution beyond traditional mining models.

Cango shares (CANG) finished the trading day up 3.3% on Wednesday at a price of $0.4291 on a broadly green day for stocks, following a conditional ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran. Despite the daily uptick, however, CANG shares have fallen nearly 39% in the last month.

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April 9, 2026
Cannes Chief Thierry Frémaux Confirms He’s Still Chasing James Gray’s ‘Paper Tiger,’ Starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, for This Year’s Fest: It’s a ‘Wonderful Film’ and ‘Very Indie’

Minutes after unveiling a lineup dominated by European auteurs for Cannes’ 79th edition, festival chief Thierry Frémaux was hit with a barrage of questions about Hollywood’s absence. This year’s roster features a nearly unprecedented number of French-language films and, for now, one single American filmmaker — Ira Sachs — in competition. That could still evolve, however, as Frémaux confirmed to Variety he is hoping to add James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” at a later stage.

“We saw James Gray’s film, which is a wonderful film — a very James Gray film, very indie. It’s the James Gray of ‘Little Odessa,’ it’s the James Gray who has never stopped being himself,” Frémaux said, noting the project was “complicated to put together” and that “there are still some contractual issues to resolve.” He added, “I hope they’ll be settled very soon and that we’ll be able to announce the film.”

But the European flavor of this year’s competition is no coincidence, he stressed — it reflects a broader industry shift. “It’s true that there’s been a bit of a geographical realignment. Europe is strong, perhaps because the United States is a bit weaker, since studio films are less prevalent. Studios are less prominent,” he said.

The momentum, he said, reflects the strength of the European film ecosystem and France’s growing role within it. Many of the foreign language films that were nominated at the Oscars and premiered at Cannes last year, notably Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident” and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent,” were either produced or financed with French players.

“France has a stable film industry, a strong film industry, one that supports foreign cinema … The French ecosystem is a fairly strong ecosystem,” he said, noting that producers, buyers and distributors are actively working across borders, helping to position the country as a creative and financial hub.

The trend will be visible on the Croisette, as three of the French-language films premiering in competition are directed by foreign directors: Asghar Farhadi with “Parallel Tales,” starring Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve; Ryusuke Hamaguchi with “All of a Sudden,” starring Virginie Efira and Mari Morisaki; and Laszlo Nemes with “Moulin,” starring Gilles Lellouche as French Resistance hero Jean Moulin.

“Artists — and this year it’s particularly impressive — have come to shoot in Paris … They found a home here, they found a refuge through very friendly professional relationships,” Frémaux said. “Perhaps in their eyes, France continues to be a country of cinema, and they want, in a way, to be part of that cinematic landscape.”

Even as Hollywood studios scale back, Frémaux argued that American independent cinema remains vibrant. As such, a number of American filmmakers will present their latest works, notably Jane Schoenbrun with “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” and Jordan Firstman’s directorial debut “Club Kid” in Un Certain Regard; while Steven Soderbergh and Ron Howard will also each show new documentaries in the Special Screenings section on John Lennon and photographer Richard Avedon, respectively.

“There are people in America who want to continue making films their own way, independently… without necessarily working with the studios, without necessarily working with streaming platforms, or by doing both,” he said.

Still, the absence of major studio titles also comes down to the cost of attending Cannes, Frémaux argued. “They need to relearn how to travel light. What we want to show are films. A film, a director — that’s enough,” Frémaux said, adding that studios are now more focused on domestic release strategies and U.S. theatrical constraints.

Below, Frémaux speaks more with Variety and unpacks this year’s lineup.

There are a huge number of French-language films in the official selection this year, especially in competition. What does it say about the creative landscape today and the evolution of the industry?

It’s true that there’s been a bit of a geographical realignment. Europe is strong, perhaps because the United States is a bit weaker, since studio films are less prevalent. Studios are less prominent, and at the same time, there is still a significant independent American film scene. But there are also new countries carving out a small niche for themselves, not just in the official selection we just announced, but even in the selection process itself. Films from 142 countries were represented in the selection we’ve seen. I believe this opens up opportunities for these countries to make their mark. There’s a bit of a geographical redefining of the world.

And France — which has a stable film industry, a strong film industry, one that supports foreign cinema — is a country that, as a result, may be gaining more importance. It has nothing to do with Cannes. It has to do with French professionals who are on the lookout, who support cinema elsewhere, who have buyers and sellers who go abroad.

The competition will also showcase foreign filmmakers like Laszlo Nemes, Asghar Farhadi and Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who made their films in France and with French talent.

Yes. There’s the fact that artists — and this year it’s particularly impressive — have come to shoot in Paris. It remains the work of the Japanese filmmaker Hamaguchi and the Iranian filmmaker Farhadi, but they found a home here, they found a refuge through very friendly professional relationships with their co-producers or distributors. Alexandre Mallet-Guy [founder of the distribution company Memento], for example, plays a key role in the relationship between Asghar Farhadi and France. It’s the same with Hamaguchi. Something began with “Drive My Car,” which he made when he was young, and so on. And now, they’re settling in. And perhaps in their eyes, France continues to be a country of cinema, and they want, in a way, to be part of that cinematic landscape. And we’re proud of that. This is how the year has shaped up. We’ll also have French-language films from Belgium. A lot of these films revolve around France, around Europe. And let’s not forget that while Italy isn’t here, Spain is very strong. So, maybe next year, Italy will be here and Spain won’t. Europe continues to have a very strong film industry.

And America — we’ve talked about the studios scaling down, but what about independent films? Do you think the U.S. indie industry is in good shape based on what you’ve seen?

Yes, we work a lot with creators, agents and directors, of course. There are people in America who want to continue making films their own way, independently, without necessarily working with the studios, without necessarily working with streaming platforms, or by doing both. One doesn’t exclude the other. But I find that there’s still a renewed emphasis on the idea of creating a cinematic work as a prototype. A cinematic work is a singular film that isn’t a series, as the name implies. A feature film is a single film. And an artist might feel more like they’re truly creating, inventing stories and characters, with a feature film. And you get the sense that, in any case, it remains the dream.

Could James Gray come to Cannes with “Paper Tiger”? What message would you like to send to him today?

We saw James Gray’s film, which is a wonderful film — a very James Gray film, very indie. It’s the James Gray of “Little Odessa,” it’s the James Gray who has never stopped being himself. And it’s a film that was complicated to put together because, for him, to do his work as a filmmaker, he doesn’t just snap his fingers — films have to be put together. So there are still some contractual issues to resolve. I hope they’ll be settled very soon and that we’ll be able to announce the film.

There are a lot of studios and directors who are hesitant to go to a festival now. Why are they so afraid of criticism?

No, I don’t think so. Criticism was perhaps much more intense in the past, and filmmakers used to come. No, something has changed a bit, perhaps, in the attitude of Americans — because the rest of the world comes willingly to Cannes. Americans in the industry all come to Cannes — the artists — but the studios, there’s perhaps also a certain reluctance to … They need to relearn how to travel light. What we want to show are films. A film, a director — that’s enough.

But today, the world has changed; the media world has changed. Coming to present a film at a major festival like Cannes requires you to prepare in a certain way. And then, I think — and I can understand this very well — that the studios also want to prioritize the domestic market. They want to take into account, above all, the scheduling constraints tied to the U.S. territory and to U.S. theaters. And I can’t blame them for that. First and foremost, we have to protect cinema in theaters and cultivate new generations of audiences.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

April 9, 2026
Crypto exchanges chase TradFi commodities market as pricing gaps persist

Cryptocurrency exchanges are taking a growing market share from traditional finance (TradFi) trading venues through tokenized commodities products, but the mainstream adoption of tokenized precious metals remains limited by pricing and liquidity issues.

Silver perpetuals have reached about 40% of the equivalent volume of the Comex Silver (SI) Contract at their peak, the world’s largest silver futures market, which accounts for over 70% of global exchange-traded silver futures volume, according to a Thursday report from Binance Research.

During March and April, tokenized silver accounted for 14.90% and 14.98% of the Comex’s volume, respectively, up from just 1.37% in January.

The growth suggests crypto exchanges are capturing more demand for round-the-clock exposure to traditional assets, particularly in metals-linked perpetuals, but analysts at Kaiko said liquidity depth and price formation still pose major obstacles to wider adoption among traditional investors.

Average Aggregated TradFi-Perps Volume to The Primary Futures Equivalents on Traditional Exchanges. Source: Binance Research

Crypto TradFi perps need reliable pricing, strong liquidity

Tokenized commodities offer 24/7 trading, which can create vulnerabilities compared to TradFi gold and silver futures, where the holiday and weekend close create “natural circuit breakers that actually protect market quality,” Kaiko research analyst Laurens Fraussen told Cointelegraph.

This exposes tokenized commodities to degraded order book debt, widened spreads and less reference pricing from closed traditional venues.

Legacy commodities offerings avoid these issues through centralized clearing, consolidated liquidity, standardized contracts and “coordinated operating hours that prevent liquidity deserts,” Fraussen said, adding that crypto needs “better chain abstraction and unified liquidity aggregation” to compete with TradFi.

Related: NYSE taps Securitize for 24/7 tokenized securities platform

Despite the infrastructure concerns, tokenized gold perps have surpassed the gold futures trading volumes of several regional commodity exchanges, a trend seeing monthly acceleration, according to Binance Research.

Figure 3: Average Aggregated Volume of Gold-Perps to Gold Futures in Regional Exchanges, in March

Binance Research also said gold perpetuals outpaced several regional commodity exchanges in March, reaching 401% compared to gold futures trading on the Japanese energy commodities futures exchange TOCOM, 228% of India’s Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) and 216% of the Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX).

Binance attributed part of this growth to “market-moving events” that routinely occur on weekends, which would leave investors exposed to gap risks through traditional venues operating under regular trading hours.

Magazine: Can Robinhood or Kraken’s tokenized stocks ever be truly decentralized?

April 9, 2026
Mike Novogratz spotlights Helios as $15 billion powerhouse in Galaxy Digital annual report

Galaxy Digital (GLXY) founder and CEO Mike Novogratz highlighted the firm’s key milestones in its 2025 annual report, marking its first 10-K filing as a Nasdaq-listed company.

Novogratz described the listing as more than a milestone, calling it “a declaration that the digital economy is real, and that Galaxy is built to lead it.”

Over the years, Galaxy has evolved from a pure-play digital asset firm into a diversified platform that includes asset management, institutional trading and AI-driven high-performance computing data centers.

Novogratz noted that the digital asset economy has evolved from a speculative, niche market into a mainstream industry, with even the United States now holding bitcoin on its balance sheet, something that would have been inconceivable a decade ago.

The company’s biggest growth tailwind is its artificial intelligence and high-performance computing strategy and Helios, its AI data center campus in West Texas. The site has secured more than 1.6 gigawatts of approved power capacity through ERCOT.

The initial 800 megawatts is already leased to AI cloud provider CoreWeave (CRWV), representing over $7.5 billion in capital investment. With an additional 830 megawatts approved for expansion, Helios is now valued at well above $15 billion, according to the report.

Novogratz’s longer-term goal is to build a multi-billion-dollar portfolio of digital infrastructure assets diversified across regions, tenants, and technologies. “Demand for compute is not a cycle, it is a structural condition that will define the next decade.”

On the digital assets side, Galaxy manages roughly $12.3 billion in platform assets as of December 31, 2025. Its offerings include over-the-counter spot and derivatives trading, lending, staking across 11 blockchains, including Ethereum and Solana, ETFs, and institutional-grade custody.

In October 2025, the firm expanded into retail with GalaxyOne, a fintech platform offering FDIC-insured high-yield accounts, commission-free trading in equities and crypto, and the option to automatically reinvest interest into bitcoin.

Despite the industry downturn in the fourth quarter of 2025, the company saw a net loss of $241 million. Novogratz remains optimistic, saying the firm is “more clear-eyed about our opportunity than we have ever been.”

April 9, 2026
Indiana man holds world record for 73 years of grave digging

Odd News // 3 weeks ago

Prosthetic leg, surfboard among Los Angeles Metro’s Lost & Found

March 13 (UPI) — The Los Angeles Metro revealed some of the most unusual items in its Lost & Found, including a surfboard, a prosthetic leg and a 55-inch TV.

April 9, 2026
Will the Real Megyn Kelly Please Stand Up?

If there were any lingering doubts about the widening fractures between President Trump and the MAGA media ecosystem that helped return him to power, Megyn Kelly all but erased them in March.

The former Trump critic turned second-term ally used her platform to accuse the administration of misleading the public about the death toll from the U.S.-Israeli military operation in Iran — a striking rupture for a figure who, in recent years, has largely moved in lockstep with the president.

“I don’t think those service members died for the United States,” the ex-Fox News anchor said of the 13 Americans killed so far, many in an Iranian strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. “I think they died for Iran or Israel.”

Kelly has been openly critical of the Iran operation, but the bluntness of her remarks marked a clear escalation — fusing moral outrage with biting derision — as she mocked Trump’s framing of the conflict as a “fun little excursion into Iran” while invoking the “lost limbs” and “severe head wounds” of more than 300 injured.

She went further still, venturing into suggestions of a potential cover-up — rhetoric that would until recently have been almost unthinkable from a former network news anchor, but now feels entirely at home in the conspiratorial grammar of the online MAGA sphere.

“We don’t believe we know the full extent of the deaths either,” Kelly said on her daily web show, the centerpiece of her expanding media operation. “And we don’t believe we know the full extent of exactly how all these planes have come down — that we’re getting the full story.”

In many ways, Kelly’s trajectory is less an outlier than a case study: What happens when a traditional television career collides with the influencer economy, falters, then reconstitutes itself around a very different set of incentives.

Kelly, 55, is no stranger to reinvention. “I don’t think she has fixed political principles,” says one longtime colleague. “But she has an uncanny ability to adjust herself to the prevailing political winds.” She first gained national prominence as a Fox News anchor who, during the network’s first Republican primary debate in 2015, pressed Trump on his treatment of women — a confrontation that triggered a very public feud and helped precipitate her exit from Fox in 2017. That departure was bound up in something larger: Alongside Gretchen Carlson and others, she accused then-Fox News CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment — a reckoning later dramatized in the 2019 film Bombshell, which cast her as a complicated but ultimately sympathetic figure of institutional defiance.

Megyn Kelly on the set of her hit Fox News program The Kelly File in December 2013. She left Fox in 2017 amid a public feud with President Trump.

Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post/Getty Images

But not long after achieving mainstream respectability, Kelly’s career unraveled abruptly. Her much-hyped NBC morning show, Megyn Kelly Today, was canceled after less than a year following widely condemned remarks defending blackface Halloween costumes — a public rupture that not only sidelined her from traditional media, but also appears to have reshaped her relationship to it.

Her makeover has been swift and, by most metrics, successful. In 2020, she launched The Megyn Kelly Show as an independent podcast. By March 2025, she had expanded into MK Media, a growing podcast network under her Devil May Care Media banner, with ambitions to rival established conservative outlets. Her YouTube channel now exceeds 4 million subscribers and drew 138 million views in February.

But scale, in this ecosystem, is not neutral — it exerts pressure. And increasingly, that pressure runs toward provocation. As she works to expand her empire, Kelly has found herself navigating a shifting political and media landscape. Her proximity to political commentator and conspiracy peddler Candace Owens, and her reluctance to distance herself from Owens’ escalating claims, has become a defining — and increasingly uncomfortable — feature of her brand.

In the arms race for attention that defines political podcasting, few figures have expanded their reach as rapidly as Owens. Since January 2025, she has added an estimated 10.9 million followers across all platforms while generating roughly 805 million YouTube views and more than 81 million TikTok likes, according to Media Matters.

As her audience has grown, so too have the controversies that fuel it. Over the past year, Owens has promoted a series of extreme and often unsubstantiated claims — including repeated assertions that French first lady Brigitte Macron was “born a man,” at one point declaring on Piers Morgan Uncensored that it was “beyond obvious” Macron “has a penis.” The remarks prompted a defamation lawsuit from the Macrons in July.

Owens also has advanced a series of increasingly baroque narratives surrounding the September killing of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, alleging — without evidence — the involvement of multiple governments and intelligence agencies and suggesting the killing was tied to a broader “deep state” agenda. Among her claims: that Kirk was a literal time traveler and that he had been monitored by CIA-linked operatives since childhood.

Her rhetoric around Jews and Israel has grown even more incendiary. Owens has promoted Der Talmudjude, a 19th century antisemitic tract, and suggested it exposes what Jewish public figures “really think.” She has also repeated long-debunked claims about Jewish involvement in the slave trade and cast Holocaust education as a form of “indoctrination.”

Since January 2025, Candace Owens has added about 10.9 million followers across platforms while generating roughly 805 million YouTube views.

Screenshot/YouTube

Critics, including her fellow conspiracist Alex Jones, have raised alarms about her rhetoric. But the backlash has done little to slow her rise.

What matters here is not just what Owens says, but how many people are listening — roughly 24 million across platforms — and what that scale demands of everyone else in the right wing conversation. Her ascent is not pulling conservative media in a single direction so much as forcing a sorting mechanism. On one side is a personality-driven ecosystem — Owens, Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon and, increasingly, Kelly — where provocation, institutional distrust and conspiracy-adjacent rhetoric are not bugs but features. On the other is a more traditional faction — Ben Shapiro, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and the Turning Point USA orbit — that, while firmly right wing, has drawn clearer lines around overt conspiracy and antisemitism.

The divide is less about ideology than structure: a collision between legacy conservatism and an influencer economy in which attention — not credibility — is the primary currency.

That tension has left Kelly in a narrowing lane. To break with Owens is to risk audience erosion; to embrace her is to risk becoming indistinguishable from her. For now, Kelly appears to be choosing a third path: saying just enough to signal independence while stopping short of a full rupture — a balancing act that grows harder to sustain as the incentives of the system keep pulling to the extremes.

This story appeared in the April 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.

April 9, 2026
David Zaslav’s $886 Million Warner Sale Pay Day Under Fire From Proxy Advisor Suggesting Shareholders Vote “No”

The influential shareholder proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders reject the golden parachute pay packages for CEO David Zaslav and other top executives at the company, noting the “extraordinary” nature of the agreements.

But ISS also urged shareholders to approve WBD’s sale to Paramount Skydance, writing that “the proposed transaction is the result of a competitive sales process and public bidding war between NFLX and PSKY, which provides shareholders comfort that the proposed deal is the best available.”

With regard to the golden parachutes, shareholders have an advisory vote, meaning that even if they reject it, the payments may still go through. That said, companies are often responsive to shareholder concerns around pay.

ISS notes that the cash severance for top executives other than Zaslav are “reasonable,” in both their size and in the fact that they are “double trigger,” meaning that two things have to happen in order for them to receive the payments: A sale triggering a change in control, and the executive leaving for “good reason” or terminated without cause.

Instead, ISS focuses on Zaslav’s potential $886 million payout, a big chunk of which is comprised of what ISS calls a “problematic” excise tax gross-up approved by the board last month.

“Excise tax gross-ups represent an extraordinary cost that are inconsistent with common market practice, and most companies have eliminated such entitlements as a matter of good governance,” ISS writes in its recommendation. “The value disclosed in the golden parachute table for CEO Zaslav at over $886 million represents one of the highest golden parachute estimates ever observed,” though the proxy notes that this value may decline depending on merger timing.

The advisor firm also notes that the vast majority of Zaslav’s equity is also single trigger, meaning that he will be paid as soon as a change in control occurs.

“The auto-acceleration of unvested equity is not a best practice, and the full vesting acceleration of very recently-granted equity intended to cover multiple years represents a windfall,” it adds.

ISS is among the most influential proxy advisory firms, with many institutional shareholders following its recommendations, though in high-profile deals like the Paramount deal, those investors may often make their own calls on the things being voted on.

April 9, 2026
Starting 5: OKC clinches No. 1 seed, Denver wins 10th straight, Cade returns
For the third straight season, the Western Conference Playoffs run through OKC.

With their seventh straight win, the Thunder secured the West’s No. 1 seed – again.

5 STORIES IN TODAY’S EDITION 🏀

April 9, 2026

West Streaks: A first for Denver in the Jokić era, a third straight No. 1 seed for the defending champs

More Heat: Cade’s return sparks Pistons, Spida lifts Cavs over Hawks, Spurs win shorthanded

Roundup: Magic make it four straight, Book boosts Suns to secure No. 7 seed

Tonight On Prime: Tatum makes MSG return as C’s visit Knicks, LeBron & Steph square off

League Pass Spotlight: The offensive evolution fueling Houston’s 7-game heater

BUT FIRST … ⏰

A Prime Thursday…

Six games tip off tonight, headlined by a monster doubleheader on Prime as the Knicks host the Celtics (7:30 ET | Tap to Watch), before the Lakers visit the Warriors (10 ET | Tap to Watch).

Postseason Countdown: With five days until the SoFi Play-In Tournament, see the current Playoff Picture.

Chasing History Returns: “Chasing History,” the all-access series documenting the NBA Playoffs presented by Google and NBA Finals, is back for another season on the NBA App.

1. WEST STREAKS: NUGGETS MAKE IT 10, THUNDER CLINCH TOP SEED

Denver’s longest win streak of the Nikola Jokić era has come at the perfect time.

Twenty-two days ago, the Nuggets were 6th in the West. Ten straight wins later, they’ve emerged with a 1.5-game lead for 3rd.

Nuggets 136, Grizzlies 119: Down four at the half, Jokić (14 pts, 16 reb, 10 ast) and Jamal Murray (26 pts, 7 reb, 5 ast) ignited a 39-22 3rd quarter for Denver, which took a double-digit lead and never looked back for its 10th straight win. | Recap
- Golden Stretch: It’s the Nuggets’ longest win streak since 2013. During the run, Jokić (25.2 pts, 12.7 ast) and Murray (27.6 pts, 7.1 ast) have combined for 52.8 pts and 19.8 ast per game
- Constant Creator: That includes seven triple-doubles from Jokić amid the streak, orchestrating the offense to the tune of 130.6 ppg
- Offensive Barrage: That’s the highest-scoring 10-game stretch of any team this season and Denver’s highest-scoring 10-game stretch since 1990
- “Doing everything in our power to catch this wave,” said Murray postgame. “Catch this rhythm, and be ready for Playoffs.”
- Final Stretch: With two games left on their schedule, the Nuggets (52-28) now hold a 1.5-game lead for 3rd over the Lakers and Rockets (both 50-29)
Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images

Three straight seasons. Three straight No. 1 seeds – and another win streak to go with it.

Thunder 128, Clippers 110: Chet Holmgren was a monster on both ends (30 pts, 14 reb, 5 ast, 2 stl, 4 blk), while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (20 pts, 11 ast) extended his record 20-point streak to 140 consecutive games as the Thunder never trailed after the opening minute for a seventh straight dub. | Recap
- 🔒Top Dogs: With the win, the Thunder secure the West’s top seed and the league’s best record, a feat they’ve now pulled off in back-to-back seasons
- “It’s extremely important,” said Holmgren on securing the No. 1 seed. “Just knowing that in the event of a Game 7, it’s always gonna be at home. You can’t underestimate how valuable that is … now, we got more to do.”
- Seeking 65: At 64-16, OKC is one win shy of the franchise’s first-ever back-to-back 65+ win seasons
- Clips Stay Put: Kawhi Leonard (20 pts, 8 reb) led LA, which remains one game up on Portland for 8th
2. MORE HEAT: CADE RETURNS, CAVS EXTEND STREAK, SPURS STAY ROLLING

The East’s No. 1 seed got its All-Star guard back Wednesday, and its offense felt the boost.

Pistons 137, Bucks 111: In his first action in 11 games, Cade Cunningham (13 pts, 5 reb) dished 10 assists to help get six other Pistons into double figures, while Jalen Duren (21 pts, 9 reb) and Duncan Robinson (20 pts) pushed Detroit to its 4th-highest scoring game of the season. | Recap
- On The Gas: Detroit dropped a 75-point 1st half and won the 2nd and 3rd quarters 78-52, building to a 31-point 4th quarter lead
- “I think I learned a lot, watching the team grow the way they did,” Cunningham said of his recovery time. “But I’m glad I’m back.”
- Bucks’ Best: Jericho Sims (11 pts, 11 reb, 10 ast) logged a triple-double for Milwaukee, while Ryan Rollins (23 pts, 6 ast) led all scorers
- Twenty Years Later: The Pistons can reach 60 wins for the first time since 2005-06 if they win out against the Hornets (Friday) and Pacers (Sunday)
In a top-5 East duel, the league’s top 2nd-half scorer did what he does best.

Cavaliers 122, Hawks 116: After not taking a shot for the first eight minutes, Donovan Mitchell took over, turning in 31 points, 7 boards and 4 dimes, while Evan Mobley dominated inside (22 pts, 19 reb, 3 blk), rallying the Cavs past Nickeil Alexander-Walker (25 pts) and the Hawks. | Recap
- Spida Swing: With Cleveland down seven at the half, Mitchell scored 13 in the 3rd as the Cavs went on a 44-20 run to seize control
- Clutch Close: Cleveland never trailed again, with Mitchell scoring the game’s final four points to stave off a late Atlanta push – securing the Cavs’ fourth straight win
- “It’s very tough to beat a team like this,” said Mitchell of Atlanta, which had won 18 of its last 21 games entering Wednesday. “This was a Playoff-like atmosphere in a Playoff-like game.”
- East Race: Cleveland moves just a half-game back of 3rd-place New York, while Atlanta – which has now dropped two straight – sits a half-game up on Toronto for 5th
Ronald Cortes/NBAE via Getty Images

San Antonio’s pursuit of the West’s No. 1 seed may have ended, but its scorching play continued, even without Victor Wembanyama (rib) and Stephon Castle (knee).

Spurs 112, Blazers 101: De’Aaron Fox (25 pts, 5 reb, 7 ast) scored 10 points in the opening 5:13, and just over 4 minutes later, San Antonio took the lead for good, getting past Portland despite Deni Avdija’s game-high 29 points. | Recap
- Separate Strengths: Keldon Johnson’s 20 points off the bench helped the Spurs win the reserves battle 48-10, as the Blazers got 91 of 101 points from five starters in double figures
- Silver Spurs: Now 29-3 since Feb. 1, San Antonio is locked into the No. 2 seed in the West in its first Playoff appearance since 2019
- 8th On The Line: The Blazers (9th) remain one game back of the 8th-place Clippers, who they meet on Friday in Portland (10 ET, League Pass)
3. ROUNDUP: MAGIC MAKING THEIR MOVE, SUNS LOCK IN 7-SEED

Rich Storry + Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images

In a four-team race for the East’s final Playoff spot, Orlando is clicking at the right time.

Magic 132, Wolves 120: After seven 1st-half lead changes, Orlando took control from half to horn, with Paolo Banchero (20 pts, 8 reb, 6 ast) leading seven Magic players in double figures in a fourth straight win. | Recap
- Terrence Tunes Up: Terrence Shannon Jr. (5 reb, 5 3s, 1 poster) led all scorers with a career-high 33 points for a shorthanded Wolves team that falls 3.5 games behind the 5th-place Rockets
- It’s Go Time: Orlando has climbed to 7th during its four-game win streak, now a half-game behind Toronto for the final guaranteed Playoff spot
Suns 112, Mavericks 107: Devin Booker was on one, dropping 37 points and 9 dimes while Dillon Brooks scored 28, as Phoenix staved off Cooper Flagg (11 pts, 11 reb, 6 ast) and Dallas to lock in the West’s No. 7 seed. | Recap
- Book Balling: It’s Booker’s third straight 30-piece and his fifth in his last six games
4. TONIGHT ON PRIME: TATUM, C’S RETURN TO MSG, STEPH & LEBRON DUEL

Madison Square Garden is a storied arena, rich with basketball history.

For Jayson Tatum, it carries another meaning.

“I knew at some point I would have to get over that hurdle and play there again,” Tatum said. “So, it’s going to have to be this Thursday.”

Tonight (7:30 ET, Prime), he returns to MSG for the first time since his season-ending Achilles injury, as the Celtics visit the Knicks. With a win, Boston can secure the East’s No. 2 seed.
- All-Star Form: The Celtics are 13-2 this season with Tatum in the lineup, and recently, he’s leveled up, averaging 25.3 pts, 10.7 reb and 7.3 ast over his last six games – all of which have resulted in wins
- All Together: As Tatum prepares to take another step – back onto the MSG floor – his longest-tenured teammate, Jaylen Brown, will be right there with him
- “That’s what teammates are there for,” said Brown on Tatum’s return to MSG. “We got his back, so we go out there and do what we got to do.”
Adam Glanzman/NBAE via Getty Images

The Test: Like Tatum and the C’s, the Knicks are heating up, too. They’ve won three in a row to maintain a one-game edge on the Cavaliers for the No. 3 seed.
- Captain Clutch, Again: Jalen Brunson, the reigning Kia Clutch Player of the Year, scored 17 of his 30 points in the 4th quarter to beat the Hawks on Monday, 108-105
- “Things aren’t going to be perfect all the time,” said Brunson after the win on his late-game heroics. “But you trust your work and find a way.”
- Another Key Duel: Now, Brunson and the Knicks – who sent Boston home last season – will aim to knock off another top-5 East squad, with the streaking Cavs on their heels
Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images

A pair of modern legends are prepared to battle out West, as the Warriors host the Lakers (10 ET, Prime) for the fourth time in 2025-26.

Because for the first time this season, LeBron James and Steph Curry are set to go head-to-head.
- Legendary History: This will be the 28th regular-season meeting between the multi-time NBA champions. James holds a slight edge, 14-13, all-time
- King vs. Chef: James has averaged 30.2 pts, 9.1 reb and 7.3 ast in those matchups, while Curry’s posted 24.9 pts, 6.5 ast and 3.7 triples per game
- “What makes Steph one of the most dangerous players of all time is the fact that you’re going to get (scored on) in so many different ways,” James said
Golden State has locked up the No. 10 seed as it prepares for the Play-In, while Los Angeles sits in 4th, looking to get back in the win column after three losses.

5. LEAGUE PASS SPOTLIGHT: ROCKETS SEEK 8TH STRAIGHT WIN VS. SIXERS

Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

Tied with the Lakers at 50-29 are the red-hot Rockets, who look to extend their season-long win streak to eight games tonight as they host the Sixers on League Pass (8 ET).

Houston’s surge isn’t just coming at a critical time – with Playoff seeding and homecourt advantage on the line – it’s a sign of something deeper: a team finding its offensive identity.

Amid their 7-0 run, the Rockets posted six straight games of 30+ assists, their longest such streak since 1986. And while that run ended in Tuesday’s win over Phoenix (26 assists), the blueprint behind it remains, writes The Athletic’s William Guillory:

The Rockets have tweaked their offense and found a spark that has them playing their best basketball.

They’re playing fast. They’re playing with physicality. They’re playing with confidence. And, most importantly, they’re playing together. | Read More

League Pass features three more games, including the Raptors and Heat meeting for the second time in three days (7 ET) after Toronto’s Tuesday win pushed it to 6th in the East.

Meanwhile, the Bulls visit the Wizards (7 ET), while the Nets host the Pacers (7:30 ET).
April 9, 2026
OpenAI Publishes Child Safety Blueprint to Address AI-Enabled Exploitation
In brief

OpenAI published its “Child Safety Blueprint” addressing AI-enabled child sexual exploitation.

The framework focuses on legal reforms, stronger reporting coordination, and guardrails built into AI systems.

The proposal was developed with input from child safety groups, attorneys general, and nonprofit organizations.
Aiming to address the rise of AI-enabled child sexual exploitation, OpenAI on Wednesday published a policy blueprint outlining new safety measures the industry can take to help curb the use of AI in creating child sexual abuse material.

In the framework, OpenAI lists legal, operational, and technical measures aimed at strengthening protections against AI-enabled abuse and improving coordination between technology companies and investigators.

“Child sexual exploitation is one of the most urgent challenges of the digital age,” the company wrote. “AI is rapidly changing both how these harms emerge across the industry and how they can be addressed at scale.”

OpenAI said the proposal incorporates feedback from organizations working in child protection and online safety, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the Attorney General Alliance and its AI task force.

“Generative AI is accelerating the crime of online child sexual exploitation in deeply troubling ways-lowering barriers, increasing scale, and enabling new forms of harm,” President & CEO, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Michelle DeLaune said in a statement. “But at the same time, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is encouraged to see companies like OpenAI reflect on how these tools can be designed more responsibly, with safeguards built in from the start.”

OpenAI said the framework combines legal standards, industry reporting systems, and technical safeguards within AI models. The company said these measures aim to help identify exploitation risks earlier and improve accountability across online platforms.

The blueprint identifies areas for action, including updating laws to address AI-generated or altered child sexual abuse material, improving how online providers report abuse signals and coordinate with investigators, and building safeguards into AI systems designed to prevent misuse.

“No single intervention can address this challenge alone,” the company wrote. “This framework brings together legal, operational, and technical approaches to better identify risks, accelerate responses, and support accountability, while ensuring that enforcement authorities remain strong as technology evolves.”

The blueprint comes as child safety advocates have raised concerns that generative AI systems capable of producing realistic images could be used to create manipulated or synthetic depictions of minors. In February, UNICEF called on world governments to pass laws criminalizing AI-generated child abuse material.

In January, the European Commission launched a formal investigation into whether X, formerly known as Twitter, violated EU digital rules by failing to prevent the platform’s native AI model, Grok, from generating illegal content, as regulators in the United Kingdom and Australia have also opened investigations.

Noting that laws alone will not stop the scourge of AI-generated abuse material, OpenAI said stronger industry standards will be necessary as AI systems become more capable.

“By interrupting exploitation attempts sooner, improving the quality of signals sent to law enforcement, and strengthening accountability across the ecosystem, this framework aims to prevent harm before it happens and help ensure faster protection for children when risks emerge,” OpenAI said.

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April 9, 2026
Bitcoin Pioneer Adam Back, Bernstein Say Quantum Threat to BTC Isn’t Existential
In brief

Bernstein says quantum computing poses a challenge to Bitcoin but represents a manageable long-term upgrade cycle.

Blockstream CEO Adam Back said current quantum hardware remains extremely limited and far from breaking Bitcoin cryptography.

Developers are already working on quantum-resistant cryptography as part of a future protocol transition.
The race between quantum computers and Bitcoin’s cryptography has become a recurring theme in the cryptocurrency industry. But even as anxieties over Bitcoin’s “Q-day” grow, a new report from investment firm Bernstein says the outcome is unlikely to be catastrophic for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

Instead, the firm argues quantum computing should be treated as a long-term upgrade cycle for Bitcoin and the broader crypto industry rather than an existential threat to the network.

“The risk is neither existential, nor novel, and also not limited to crypto,” Bernstein wrote, noting that quantum computing also posed a threat to everything from financial services, military, and healthcare.

According to Bernstein, the highest threat from quantum computing is to the 1.7 million BTC, around $116.6 billion, in legacy wallets from the days when Satoshi Nakamoto was still active online. That’s because this stash of Bitcoin was stored in early address formats that expose public keys on the blockchain and could be targeted in a “harvest now, decrypt later” attack. For newer encryption protocols, chains, and crypto-linked real-world assets, the threat is limited to some unsafe practices that can be mitigated and managed, the firm said.

Bernstein also emphasized that quantum computing won’t impact Bitcoin mining in the near future.

“Bitcoin mining has no realistic risk from [quantum computers] based on Shor’s algorithm, as SHA encryption used in mining is quantum safe—several millions of years even after recent improvements, including Grover’s algorithm.”

Blockstream CEO Adam Back, a Bitcoin pioneer, who was recently named as the likely person behind the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto according to a new report by The New York Times, expressed a similar view.

“The Google paper is talking about algorithmic improvements, and doesn’t bring with it any hardware improvements,” Back told Bloomberg on Tuesday.

Back’s comments come as concern over quantum computing intensified after new academic research suggested fewer quantum resources may be needed to break elliptic-curve cryptography, the digital signature system used by Bitcoin wallets. A March paper from Google Quantum AI also shortened estimates for when such capabilities could emerge, pointing to a possible timeline around 2032.

Current quantum computers operate with roughly a thousand physical qubits. Breaking the cryptography used by Bitcoin would require hundreds of thousands of stable, error-corrected qubits along with major advances in engineering and hardware reliability.

Back said current quantum systems remain “extremely basic” because of limitations with error correction, calling even the most advanced demonstrations trivial compared with the calculations needed to compromise Bitcoin’s cryptography.

“The biggest calculation it’s performed is that to factorize the number 21 into seven times three,” he said. “Sort of thing that primary school children can do.”

Bitcoin relies on elliptic-curve cryptography to secure transactions and SHA-256 hashing to power mining. While the Bernstein report suggests that quantum computers could eventually target the signature system, they are unlikely to threaten the mining algorithm.

The best approach, Back said, is to prepare Bitcoin users for a gradual transition to quantum-resistant security.

“The prudent thing to do is to prepare Bitcoin and give people the option to migrate their keys to a quantum-ready format,” he said. “The longer time that Bitcoin users have in order to migrate their keys for custodians and exchanges to move their coins to a quantum-ready format, the safer it will be,” he said.

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April 9, 2026