Tag: Business – Decrypt

Prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi are taking steps to remove insider trading from their platforms, announcing updates to rules and tooling, respectively, on Monday as scrutiny continues to build on prediction markets and their offerings. 

The strategic advancements for both firms come as Democratic lawmakers have begun targeting prediction markets and sought to outlaw particular markets, like those focused on war, entirely.  

For Polymarket, Monday’s steps included updating integrity rules and clarifying types of insider trading conduct, like trading on insider information or illegal tips, which are prohibited behaviors on the firm’s DeFi platform and its CFTC-regulated U.S. platform. 

“These rule enhancements make our expectations abundantly clear for every participant across both platforms and highlight the compliance infrastructure we have already built,” Polymarket Chief Legal Officer Neal Kumar said in a statement.

“As Polymarket continues to scale,” he added, “we will build on our foundation with clear communication to Polymarket’s users to ensure our markets do what they do best—surface truth.”

The rules, and examples of prohibited behavior—like a coach trading on a sports contract using inside knowledge about a star player’s availability, or an ensemble performer buying shares in a market about which songs will be played at an event—can be found on the site’s market integrity page, accessible via its footer.

Polymarket said it uses a “multi-layered monitoring system” to detect potential violations of its insider trading rules on its DeFi platform, or its international version. On the U.S. side, it works with partners and a real-time control desk to “identify unusual or disruptive trading activity.” 

It also recently announced that it’s working with Peter Thiel’s Palantir to create “systems for surveilling sports-focused prediction markets.”

Monday’s advances from Kalshi take a more proactive approach to squashing insider trading on the platform, like in the example of a coach trading on a sporting event they are tied to.

The firm announced it has established a new policy disallowing members connected to college or professional sports—like coaches or players—from trading markets “associated with the sports they are involved with.” A Kalshi representative confirmed to Decrypt that athletes and others in the sports industry can trade in markets related to other sports that they are not involved in.

The firm is also implementing preemptive screening for both athletic parties and politicians using screening lists it has developed, which will allow it to block trades before they even occur. 

“These efforts, which have been in the works for months, proactively address the CFTC’s guidance and Congressional bill proposals to prevent insider trading,” the firm wrote.

Insider trading allegations on prediction markets have drawn considerable attention and scrutiny this year, highlighted by anonymous traders winning major sums in markets related to subjects like government actions.

For example, one trader won more than $436,000 on the January ousting of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, leading New York representative Ritchie Torres to draft a bill that would keep federal employees from using prediction markets when they have relevant inside information.

In February, an employee working for MrBeast was fined and suspended by Kalshi for trading on markets related to what MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, would say in videos posted to YouTube. The individual, a video editor named Artem Kaptur, was later suspended, then fired from Beast Industries. 

Two weeks prior to that, two Israelis were arrested in the country and charged with using classified information to make bets about military operations on Polymarket.

Potential violations of the insider trading rules on Polymarket can be reported to the platform via Discord or email, its updated rules say. Details on how the investigations unfold from there, or how many reports are being made are not immediately clear. Kalshi has also implemented whistleblower functionality directly into its market pages, allowing individuals to flag potential insider trading behaviors. 

Representatives for Polymarket did not immediately respond to Decrypt’s request for comment.

Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to include an additional detail confirmed by Kalshi.

OpenArt and Fanvue want to find the world’s best AI personality, and they’re putting $90,000 on the table to do it.

The AI Personality of the Year 2026 is a four-week global challenge, open now through April 19, where creators design and launch original AI influencers competing across five tracks: Entertainer, Lifestyle Influencer, Comedian, Fitness, and Anime/Cartoon/Fantasy.

Weekly winners pocket $200 cash and a platform shoutout, but there’s a much bigger prize waiting for the ultimate victor. The grand prize winner takes home $6,000 in cash plus $2,000 in paid promotion, priority placement on Fanvue, and enrollment in both organizers’ affiliate programs.

Track finalists take home prizes too, ranging from $5,000 cash and $1,000 in promotional exposure for the winner down to $1,000 in cash for the third-place finalist in each category. Fan-voted prizes—Most Viral Video and Audience Choice—add $1,000 each to the pool. Add it all up and the total stretches past $90,000.

To enter, you must build your character on OpenArt, launch a public TikTok or Instagram account for it, post at least four times during the challenge window, and tag @OpenArt_AI, @Fanvue, and #AIPersonality2026. That’s simple enough on paper, but likely competitive in practice, given that ElevenLabs is the founding sponsor and the ambassador lineup includes some of the most-followed AI personalities on the internet right now.

The judging panel is 100% human—which is refreshing, for a change. When Miss AI ran its beauty pageant in 2024, two of its four judges were AI-generated influencers themselves. Here, the 11-member panel includes a 13-time Emmy-winning comedy writer, a PR industry co-founder, and a marketing agency executive.

But “all human” doesn’t mean these judges are just spectators to this world. Several of them built the virtual personalities that people are already following. Diana Núñez Morales, the architect behind Aitana—the Barcelona-based AI model who earns up to €10,000 a month in brand deals and was itself a judge in the Miss AI 2024 pagant—is on the panel.

So is Cameron Wilson, creator of Shudu, widely recognized as the world’s first digital supermodel; and Christopher “Topher” Townsend, who built Solomon Ray. The people scoring your entry created some of the most successful AI personalities in existence. They’ll know exactly what they’re looking at.

The virtual influencer market was valued at roughly $6 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit nearly $46 billion by 2030. As Decrypt reported, AI companions and personas have grown so convincing that telling them apart from real humans “often feels impossible”—and that was over a year ago. They’ve only gotten more realistic since then. Today, there are countless Instagram accounts dedicated to expose influencers that go viral without disclosing their AI nature.

OpenArt’s suite covers character creation, image generation, video, and ElevenLabs-powered audio, all in one place. Tutorials on how to build and monetize AI influencers are flooding YouTube, TikTok, and creator newsletters.

Judging criteria for the competition covers quality, inspiration, brand appeal, and social clout through a points-based system. It’s not just about how photorealistic your character looks—it’s about whether the audience actually shows up.

The challenge kicked off Monday, with final winners announced in May. The virtual influencer economy now has an official talent search. The next Aitana might already be queuing up their first post.

Federal prosecutors have cast doubt on a recent court filing purportedly sent from prison by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, telling a judge that a March 16 letter submitted in his name may not have been sent from prison but instead shipped via FedEx from the San Francisco Bay Area.

In a filing, prosecutors said the letter appeared inconsistent with Bureau of Prisons rules, which prohibit inmates from using private carriers. The envelope labeled the facility incorrectly, FedEx tracking data pointed to pickup in Palo Alto or Menlo Park, and the document bore a typed “/s/” signature rather than a handwritten one, discrepancies the government said give it “reason to doubt” the letter was actually sent by Bankman-Fried.

The letter asked for a one-month extension to April 16 to respond to a government brief. It cited an expected transfer from FCI Terminal Island and warned he could spend weeks without access to legal materials, counsel or the courts while in transit through Bureau of Prisons facilities.

The court wrangling comes as Bankman-Fried’s family ramps up a public campaign to recast his case and press for clemency. In a March 21 CNN interview, his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, argued that his prosecution was politically motivated and his 25-year sentence excessive.

“I think we have a really serious problem with prosecution being used for political ambition,” Fried said, adding that she believed the Biden administration had tried to “destroy crypto.”

Bankman rejected comparisons between his son and Bernie Madoff, saying that “Sam built billion dollar businesses in a new field and was a pioneer for doing so.”

They also challenged the core allegations, portraying FTX’s failure as a liquidity crisis rather than fraud. Fried said “all of the money was turned over” and argued customers were ultimately repaid with interest, while Bankman said transfers to Alameda Research reflected borrowing within the platform.

Bankman-Fried fired his lawyers in early February and is currently representing himself. However, separate filings from March 16 also show tensions around his family’s involvement in Bankman-Fried’s legal strategy.

A letter submitted in his name but written by his mother, a Stanford Law professor, sought an extension of time in the case. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the filing, writing that she “lacks standing” to seek relief because she is not counsel of record and has not appeared in the case, and noted the letter did not indicate it had been served on prosecutors.

Kaplan also said court staff had received a voicemail from someone identifying herself as Fried, adding that the court does not accept telephone calls from litigants or their family members. While declining her request, the judge extended the deadline on his own to March 23, allowing Bankman-Fried’s attorneys to seek relief properly if needed.

The collapse of FTX

FTX’s collapse in November 2022 remains one of the largest failures in the history of digital assets. The exchange, once valued at $32 billion, imploded after a surge in withdrawal requests exposed a shortfall tied to the use of customer funds by its affiliated trading firm, Alameda.

Prosecutors said roughly $8 billion in customer money was missing at the time of the bankruptcy, and a jury later convicted Bankman-Fried on seven counts including fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. Bankman-Fried remains in federal custody serving a 25-year sentence.

Whether customers were “made whole” has become central to Bankman-Fried’s post-conviction arguments. While the bankruptcy estate has recovered enough to repay many claims based on 2022 valuations, critics say that understates losses because crypto prices later rebounded sharply, meaning customers would have held far more valuable assets had their funds not been frozen.

In early 2024, the FTX estate sold off its 8% stake in Anthropic, which it invested $500 million in in 2021, for $1.3 billion across two sales. Today it would be worth over $30 billion.

Other cases have raised hopes of a pardon among Bankman-Fried’s supporters. President Donald Trump’s 2025 pardon of Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao signaled a more crypto-friendly posture in Washington and a willingness to revisit prior enforcement.

Since his X account became active again in September last year, Bankman-Fried has increasingly tailored his public messaging to themes aligned with Trump and his allies, criticizing Biden-era crypto policy and raising claims of prosecutorial overreach as he pursues relief.

However, Congress has not been receptive to the push. Senator Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) called Bankman-Fried a “piece of shit” earlier this month, according to Politico, adding that, “The guy shouldn’t be pardoned. The guy should go to jail for a long, long time.”

Trump indicated in February he currently has no plans to offer a pardon.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) requested information Monday regarding Beast Industries’ recent acquisition of Step, urging the company created by YouTube star MrBeast to move cautiously as it weighs crypto for the mobile banking app designed for young investors.

In a letter sent to Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold and MrBeast—whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson—the crypto critic argued that the firm’s history “raises concerns about its ability to manage a financial technology company, particularly one targeting children and teens.”

The 12-page letter focuses on Step’s previous involvement in crypto. In 2022, the app announced that it had become the first platform in the U.S. to allow teens, with the consent of a parent or legal guardian, to purchase digital assets like Bitcoin. The company later advertised that it was expanding access to more than 50 digital assets, including NFTs.

The senator argued that the Step promoted “risky investments” on social media, while providing users with resources that allegedly encouraged kids to pressure their parents into allowing crypto investments through Step, including a script that was posted to YouTube.

Although Step backed away from crypto in 2024, Warren noted that Beast Industries has signaled its acquisition of Step could unlock opportunities with crypto and decentralized finance. Not long before, Beast Industries filed a trademark for “MrBeast Financial,” with language that mentioned crypto-based services for trading and payments using DeFi.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Beast Industries said that it appreciates Warren’s outreach, and the company plans on engaging with her as Step evolved under MrBeast. Warren’s letter put forth 11 different questions for the company to answer, which include procedures for accommodating users who lose funds due to fraud, scams, and cybersecurity failures.

“Our primary motivation behind this deal is to improve the financial future of the next generation,” they added. “We’re examining all existing offerings and marketing approaches to ensure that Step’s future is developed thoughtfully and deliberately, meets our very high quality standards, and is in compliance with applicable laws and regulatory requirements.”

With over 500 million across social media, Warren wrote that MrBeast’s fans are loyal and likely to place their “funds, savings, and financial futures” in the YouTube star’s hands.

Prior to acquiring Step, Beast Industries disclosed a $200 million from Ethereum treasury firm BitMine, which is chaired by Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee. (Disclosure: Lee is an investor in DASTAN, the parent company of an editorially independent Decrypt.)

Warren’s scrutiny of Beast Industries centered on Step, but the company was also thrust into the conversation around prediction markets earlier this year after Kalshi said that it had taken an enforcement action against a video editor, who was then fired. Kalshi found that the employee in question had abused knowledge of MrBeast’s videos to conduct near-perfect trading.

An individual suspected to have participated in the kidnapping of Ledger co-founder David Balland in France last year has been arrested in Spain, according to a local news report from Le Parisien.

The apprehended individual is believed to be the final outstanding perpetrator from the January 2025 attack, according to the report. 

“The French authorities identified and arrested all members of the criminal organization, with the exception of one of them, who left the country to seek refuge in our country and avoid his arrest,” the Spanish Civil Guard said in a statement. 

The individual, who was not named, was located in Spain and eventually arrested last week in the municipality of Benalmadena. The arrest of the individual was facilitated with the use of a large police presence, the report says, “due to their dangerousness and the possibility that the criminal organization to which they belonged might try to free them.”

Balland and his wife were kidnapped from their home in Cher, France last January and held captive for around 24 hours, with ransom demands of 10 million Euros worth of crypto—about $11.6 million—according to the Spanish Civil Guard. 

One of Balland’s fingers was cut off during that time and mailed to his associates, Le Parisien reported at the time, citing unnamed sources. The pair were soon after liberated by law enforcement and the other kidnappers were arrested. 

In June, police in Morocco arrested French-Moroccan national Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou, who was alleged to be the mastermind behind Balland’s abduction and other crypto-related kidnappings in France.

Wrench attacks, or physical attacks in attempts to coerce crypto from victims, have been on the rise in the last year, jumping 75% year-over-year, according to data from security firm CertiK.

France has been particularly troubled, responsible for 16 of the 23 wrench attacks that have been publicly reported this year, according to a database compiled by crypto security researcher and Casa CTO, Jameson Lopp. 

Earlier this year, six individuals were arrested for kidnapping a magistrate and seeking a crypto ransom. Plus, the CEO of Binance France was the target of a home invasion, but was unharmed and the alleged perpetrators were arrested.

A bipartisan duo of U.S. senators plan to introduce legislation Monday that would ban American prediction markets from offering sports-related wagers.

The proposed bill, from Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT), would prohibit prediction market platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi from offering sports markets that they allege constitute unlicensed sports betting by another name. News of the impending bill was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

“Too many young people in Utah are getting exposed to addictive sports betting and casino-style gaming contracts that belong under state control, not under federal regulators,” Curtis said, in a statement.

The senators said the legislation would prohibit any CFTC registered entity from listing a contract resembling a sports bet or casino-style game, and also “reinforce Congress’ original intent that the Commodity Exchange Act does not permit sports gambling.”

“The bill will reaffirm existing tribal and state government authority to regulate sports betting, limit online gambling, or in some cases continue to prohibit all forms of gambling,” David Bean, chair of the Indian Gaming Association, said in a statement shared with Decrypt.

“We look forward to working with leaders in Congress to hold these platforms accountable to protect consumers, sports integrity, and tribal and state sovereignty,” he added.

In the last year, a growing number of states have sued the nation’s top prediction market platforms, arguing their sports-related markets should comply with state gambling laws. The platforms have pushed back, arguing that because the sports-related wagers are tied to event contracts, they should instead be regulated at the federal level by the CFTC. 

A number of judges have not been convinced by that argument. On Friday, Nevada became the first state to successfully ban a prediction market platform, Kalshi—at least temporarily—as the state’s lawsuit against the company proceeds to trial. 

Last week, Arizona filed criminal charges against Kalshi, for allegedly operating an illegal gambling service and allowing unlicensed election wagering.

A Kalshi spokesperson told Decrypt that today’s proposed bill would push activity offshore and protect the “monopoly” of U.S. casinos.

“It’s clear this bill is motivated by casino interests that are threatened by competition,” the spokesperson said. “They’re more worried about protecting their monopolies than protecting consumers.”

Over 80% of Kalshi’s lifetime trading volume comes from sports-focused markets, according to data from Dune.

The Trump CFTC has aggressively taken the side of prediction market platforms in the ongoing jurisdictional dispute over sports wagers, which is likely to ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. CFTC Chair Mike Selig has pledged to put the agency’s resources behind companies fighting against state regulators.

So far, the states that have challenged the CFTC’s legal interpretation run the political spectrum, from Democratic mainstay Massachusetts to deep-red Tennessee. Last month, Utah’s Republican Governor, Spencer Cox, condemned the Trump CFTC’s approach to prediction markets, arguing the platforms are “destroying the lives of families and countless Americans, especially young men.”

On Friday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), the prominent progressive lawmaker, added her voice to the growing chorus of prediction market skeptics.

“I know as a politician these companies are going to spend a billion dollars against me for saying it but… pervasive gambling is not good for society,” she said. “It turns life into a casino, traps people in addiction and debt, surges domestic violence, and fosters manipulation.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to include comment from the Indian Gaming Association.

Sweden’s H100 Group has signed a letter of intent to acquire two Norwegian Bitcoin treasury companies in an all-stock transaction that would more than triple its holdings to approximately 3,500 BTC—currently valued around $245 million—positioning the firm among Europe’s largest public Bitcoin treasuries.

The company announced that it signed a letter of intent to acquire Moonshot AS and Never Say Die AS through a share-based deal that would add roughly 2,450 Bitcoin to its current reserve of 1,051 BTC. The transaction involves H100 issuing new shares in exchange for all shares of the Norwegian companies, with no cash component.

The acquisition would elevate H100 to 27th globally among public Bitcoin treasury companies, as of today, based on data from Bitcoin Treasuries, making it Europe’s second-largest listed Bitcoin treasury firm. That would put it just behind Germany’s Bitcoin Group SE with 3,605 BTC.

H100 framed the consolidation as part of its strategy to enhance institutional presence, boost liquidity, and expand market relevance in the European crypto market. The all-share structure allows existing shareholders to maintain bitcoin exposure while scaling the combined entity’s holdings.

“We see strong industrial logic in this acquisition. Scale, credibility and access to capital markets are increasingly important in the Bitcoin space, and this transaction would significantly strengthen H100 in all these areas,” said Chairman Sander Andersen, in a statement. “The transaction represents a continuation of H100’s existing strategy and an execution of the company’s capital markets and M&A strategy to build scale through Bitcoin-based transactions.”

H100 and the target companies hope to sign definitive agreements before April 22, and complete the deal ahead of the company’s next annual general meeting on May 21.

H100 began its Bitcoin treasury in May 2025. A wave of Bitcoin treasury companies emerged last year as the price of the leading cryptocurrency surged to new heights, peaking in October just above $126,000. It has since fallen sharply, recently trading just above $70,000.

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), which pioneered the treasury model and began buying BTC back in 2020, remains the largest publicly traded Bitcoin holder by far, with 762,099 BTC—over $53 billion worth of the cryptocurrency. On Monday, the firm revealed plans to raise a further $44 billion to continue buying Bitcoin.

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our new daily news show covering all of the top stories in 5 minutes or less, downloadable on Apple Pod or Spotify.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors soar after Trump announces 5-day postponement of Iran strikes; BTC at $70k
• Congress to introduce bipartisan bill banning sports betting on prediction markets
• Senators reach agreement on Clarity Act yield dispute in major hurdle cleared
• Hyperliquid sees over $100M in volume on S&P 500 index
• Gemini sued by stakeholders for misleading pivot into prediction markets

📈 Bitcoin Rips as Iran Strikes Postponed

One single headline and everything has turned.

Going into this weekend, crypto was getting hammered. Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum Saturday night – reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face strikes on Iranian power plants. Bitcoin slid from $76,000 to below $68,500, longs got liquidated, and the Fear and Greed Index hit Extreme fear.

Then this morning, Trump announced he’s postponing those strikes by five days – and Bitcoin ripped.

Bitcoin immediately jumped $2,000 per token to $70,800. ETH jumped 5% to $2,170.

The Dow jumped 1000 points premarket and Oil fell off a cliff, down 8% to $90.

Of course, five days is not peace and Trump says he’s still prepared to strike. Iran hasn’t reopened the Strait. This is just a pause, not resolution and the situation remains very volatile.

But we may have just gotten a glimpse of what will happen as soon as the Iran War ends for good.

Key Details

• Trump announced he has had good discussions with Iran and is postponing strikes for 5 days
• BTC jumps 3.5% to $70,800 and ETH +4.5% to $2,170
• Oil falls 8% to $90

🏛 Senators and the White House Reach a Deal on Stablecoin Yield

On Friday, Senators Thom Tillis and Angela Alsobrooks said they had reached an agreement in principle with the White House on the stablecoin yield issue — the main fight that has stalled the Clarity Act since January.

According to the reported framework, passive yield on stablecoin balances would be banned, meaning users would not be able to hold something like USDC and earn interest in a savings-account style format. However, activity-based rewards appear likely to remain allowed.

That was enough to move prediction market odds sharply. Odds of the Clarity Act passing in 2026 jumped to about 70% on Friday.

Key Details

• Passive yield on stablecoin balances would reportedly be banned
• Activity-based rewards appear likely to survive
• The stablecoin yield fight had been the biggest obstacle holding up the Clarity Act

📈 Hyperliquid’s S&P 500 Market Hit $100M in a Single Day

Hyperliquid’s newly launched S&P 500 perpetual futures market topped $100 million in 24-hour volume by the weekend, quickly becoming one of the platform’s most actively traded markets.

The product launched last week as an official S&P 500 perp, licensed through Trade XYZ, settled in USDC, and tradable 24/7. That means users can now trade leveraged S&P 500 exposure onchain without a traditional brokerage account.

Five of Hyperliquid’s top 10 markets over the weekend were crypto with the other half represented by oil, precious metals (gold, silver) and the S&P.

Key Details

• S&P 500 perps crossed $100M in 24-hour volume
• The market was already a top-10 market on the platform by the weekend
• Oil, gold, silver, and the S&P 500 are now among the platform’s most traded products

🤖 Eightco Doubles Down on OpenAI While Its Stock Sits Down 93%

Eightco Holdings, which trades on Nasdaq under ORBS, added another $40 million to its OpenAI position, bringing its total OpenAI exposure to $90 million. That now represents about 30% of the company’s treasury.

What makes the update more notable is who just backed them. Last week, Eightco raised $125 million from BitMine, Ark Invest, and Kraken parent Payward, with Tom Lee also joining the board.

Eightco has now deployed $90 million into OpenAI and hold nearly 10% of all WLD tokens in circulation plus 11,000 ETH.

And now BitMine has exposure to OpenAI.

Key Details

• Eightco’s OpenAI position now totals $90M
• The company raised $125M last week from BitMine, Ark, and Payward
• Eightco also holds nearly 10% of all WLD in circulation plus 11,000 ETH

⚖️ Gemini Shareholders Are Suing the Winklevoss Twins

A class action lawsuit was filed Friday in the Southern District of New York accusing Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss of misleading investors ahead of Gemini’s IPO last fall.

The suit alleges Gemini overstated the durability of its core exchange business while failing to disclose plans to pivot more aggressively into prediction markets. In February, Gemini cut 30% of staff, exited Europe and Australia, and said prediction markets were now the company’s main strategic focus.

The company did report one positive development this week: Q4 services revenue overtook trading revenue for the first time. But the stock gave back most of its post-earnings bounce and closed Friday at $5.66.

Key Details

• Plaintiffs claim Gemini failed to disclose a coming shift away from its exchange business
• Gemini laid off 30% of staff and exited Europe and Australia in February
• GEMI is down about 85% since the IPO and the company posted a $582M net loss for 2025

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme majors were green in line with majors; DOGE +2%, SHIB +5%, PEPE +3%, TRUMP +2%, PENGU +3%, SPX +3%, FARTCOIN -1%
• LOL (+30%), buttcoin (+20%) and testicle (+20%) let top movers

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• Polymarket teased a major announcement coming later today
• LetsBonk has stormed back in the memecoin race, doing $50M in 24-hour volume over the weekend compared to Pump Fun’s $100M
• Resolv Labs faced an exploit on Sunday wehre $50M worth of USR was minted without collateral
• SIREN jumped 85% to $2B in a massive weekend run

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were mostly flat; Punks +3% at 29.4 ETH, Pudgy +1% at 4.12 ETH, BAYC -1% at 5.15 ETH; Hypurr’s -8% at 400 HYPE
• Normies (+20%) and Tatsu (+13%) led notable movers

Bitcoin’s drop from its peak above $75,000 last week has solidified its month-long sideways price action. While the leading cryptocurrency remains sensitive to immediate geopolitical headlines, broader market sentiment was tempered by last week’s $177 million outflows from exchange-traded funds across the crypto sector.

The weekly pullback, which saw Bitcoin dip to a low of $68,500, according to CoinGecko data, highlights the choppy nature of the current market. Over a broader time horizon, however, the asset’s resilience remains a focal point. The top crypto has significantly outperformed gold and the S&P 500 index since the onset of the U.S.-Iran war on February 28.

That divergence is due to Bitcoin’s “several rounds of deleveraging” since its October 2025 all-time high of $126,080, experts previously told Decrypt.

Bitcoin holding well despite geopolitical escalations is encouraging, Richard Usher, director of trading at financial infrastructure provider OpenPayd, told Decrypt, anticipating a bullish second quarter. “The risk is clearly a prolonged conflict which could negatively affect sentiment in all risk assets, but my base case remains that neither side wants, or frankly can tolerate, a drawn-out conflict, so I remain cautiously upbeat for Q2,” he said.

Ignacio Aguirre Franco, CMO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, echoed Usher’s outlook. “If macro conditions stabilize, even without a bullish catalyst, that could be enough to push the market into a recovery phase in Q2,” the Bitget analyst told Decrypt.

Though altcoins are at the behest of Bitcoin’s price action and volatility, a recovery in its price beyond $80,000 could be a “key inflection point” that triggers a capital rotation into Ethereum, XRP, and the broader crypto market, Ryan Lee, chief analyst at Bitget, told Decrypt.

Adding a geopolitical twist to the start of this week, Bitcoin spiked to an intraday high above $71,000 after U.S. President Donald Trump announced “productive” conversations with Iran and a five-day pause on planned strikes targeting the country’s energy infrastructure.

Leading cryptocurrencies including Ethereum and XRP jumped alongside Bitcoin, though all three remain down on the week.

The news catalyzed bullish sentiment, with users’ chances of Bitcoin reaching $84,000 before $55,000 jumping by 9% on prediction market Myriad, owned by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan. Myriad users also assign a 20.7% chance to a U.S.-Iran cease-fire, up from 12.8% earlier today.

Courts around the world are straining under growing caseloads, and a pilot program in Los Angeles is hoping to change that by testing whether AI can assist judges without offloading their judgment.

The Los Angeles Superior Court is testing an AI tool called Learned Hand that summarizes filings, organizes evidence, and generates draft rulings in civil cases.

The goal is to reduce time spent on administrative tasks so judges can focus on the parts of a case that require legal analysis and discretion, Learned Hand founder and CEO Shlomo Klapper told Decrypt.

“We’re at a place in society where courts are under tremendous strain,” Klapper said. “Their caseloads go up, but no help is coming,” he said, adding that advances in artificial intelligence are “massively dropping the cost of litigation.”

AI is increasing pressure on the courts by making it easier to produce filings, with filings rising 49% from 4,100 to 6,400 in the past year, according to a February 2026 report by national law firm Fisher Phillips.

The Los Angeles Superior Court pilot gives a small group of judicial officers access to Learned Hand’s AI system to test its performance across a case, from intake to draft rulings.

A former judicial law clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals and deployment strategist with Palantir, Klapper said Learned Hand, founded in 2024, and named after a federal judge of the same name, was designed to give overburdened courts “purpose-built” AI tools that cut down on “drudge work” by surfacing key facts and legal issues while leaving judgment and agency with the human judge.

“With this partnership, we are carefully evaluating emerging technologies to determine how they may support judicial officers in working more efficiently and effectively,” Presiding Judge Sergio C. Tapia II said in a statement. “Let me be clear—while this tool may enhance the way judicial officers review and engage with case files and information, it will not replace, or in any way compromise, the sanctity, independence, and impartiality of judicial decision-making.”

Klapper said the harder part of developing an AI for courts is not generating text but checking AI output against the underlying case materials and legal sources.

“Most of the expense of our large language model is in the verification, not the generation,” Klapper said. “Generation is easy. Anyone can generate something, but how do you make sure that it’s really reliable?”

AI hallucinations have already surfaced in high-profile court cases.

In 2023, the defense team for Prakazrel “Pras” Michel, a founding member of hip-hop group the Fugees, alleged that an AI helped write a closing argument that included frivolous claims and missed weaknesses in the government’s case against him.

That same year, a federal judge ordered lawyers representing former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to provide printed copies of cited cases after the court could not verify them.

Klapper said Learned Hand is built around a narrower pool of source material to reduce the risk of AI hallucinations. Rather than pulling from the open internet or random datasets, the system operates within a defined set of legal materials.

The reason is that large language models can reflect biases in their training data, pointing to examples of AI echoing advice from platforms like Reddit, Klapper said. Learned Hand addresses that by breaking tasks into steps and assigning each step to a model with a specific function.

Learned Hand is also designed so that judges do not need technical training to use it.

“It’s point and click,” Klapper said. “They don’t have to do any prompts.”

Klapper argued that much of a judge’s day is spent on routine tasks rather than legal reasoning, and that the AI aims to allow them to “spend more time on judge work and less time on drudge work.”

Klapper said judges should not take AI outputs at face value and that both the tools and the companies behind them need to prove their reliability.

“I like to say, don’t trust, verify,” he said. “They shouldn’t trust anything. It has to show its worth.”