Top Stories of The Week
Tether freezes over $500M of USDT in 30 days, BlockSec data shows
Tether has frozen more than $514 million in USDT across Ethereum and Tron over the past 30 days, according to onchain data from BlockSec’s USDT Freeze Tracker, highlighting the stablecoin issuer’s growing role in crypto-related enforcement actions.
As of Friday, the tool shows 370 addresses blacklisted in that period, including 328 on Tron and 42 on Ethereum, with about $505.9 million frozen on Tron and $8.73 million on Ethereum.
The figures indicate that most recent enforcement activity is concentrated on Tron and highlight how often the world’s largest stablecoin issuer is intervening onchain to immobilize funds flagged as high-risk or linked to investigations.
Strategy CEO Phong Le says company will sell BTC only in specific cases
Phong Le, the CEO of Bitcoin treasury company Strategy, outlined conditions in a Friday interview under which the company would sell some of its Bitcoin holdings.
The company will sell Bitcoin to pay the dividend on its Series A Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock (STRC), a corporate credit instrument that pays an 11.5% dividend to holders, and to defer or offset taxes, Le told CNBC. He added:
“I believe in math over ideology, and at the point where selling Bitcoin versus selling equity to pay a dividend is better for our Bitcoin per share, and for our common shareholders, we will do it.”
Trump Media posts $406M quarterly loss as crypto bets turn sour
Trump Media & Technology Group posted a $405.9 million net loss in the first quarter of 2026, up from $31.7 million a year earlier, amid growing unrealized losses on its crypto holdings.
The parent company of Truth Social booked $244 million in unrealized losses on its Bitcoin position and a further $108.2 million in investment losses tied mostly to equity securities, with nearly $370 million of the quarter’s total losses stemming from digital asset and equity markdowns, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
The losses mostly trace back to Bitcoin purchases made at last summer’s market peak. Trump Media bought roughly 9,500 Bitcoin at an average cost of around $108,519 per coin. By March 31, the company held 9,542 Bitcoin with a cost basis of $1.13 billion but a fair value of just $647 million, a gap of nearly $500 million. The position has since recovered somewhat, now worth around $770 million with Bitcoin trading above $80,000.
Kelp DAO exploit prompts DeFi protocols to rethink oracle providers
Decentralized finance protocols are reevaluating their blockchain oracle providers’ security after the fallout from the $293 million Kelp DAO exploit last month. Several protocols have announced migrations to Chainlink infrastructure in recent days, citing security concerns around third-party oracle and bridge providers.
On Thursday, Bitcoin DeFi platform Solv Protocol announced it would migrate to Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) and replace LayerZero bridges, citing an “extensive security review” concluding that CCIP provided the “strongest security assurances.”
A day earlier, liquidity protocol Tydro also said it was moving to Chainlink after its previous oracle provider, Chaos Labs, suffered an incident that prompted Tydro to pause markets over concerns about inaccurate price feeds.
Coinbase restores trading after AWS outage disrupts markets
Crypto exchange Coinbase has restored trading across its exchange, website and mobile apps after an Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage forced the crypto platform to limit markets before reopening them in stages.
The service disruption began around 8:00 pm ET on Thursday, when Coinbase systems flagged high error rates across multiple services. AWS said increased temperatures in a Northern Virginia data center impaired some infrastructure and forced it to shift traffic away from the affected Availability Zone.
The exchange placed markets in cancel-only mode during the disruption, then moved through auction mode before re-enabling trading, according to Coinbase public updates. Cancel-only mode allows users to cancel existing orders but prevents new trades from being executed. After that, Coinbase Support said all Coinbase Exchange markets were re-enabled for trading at 7:48 am UTC, followed by coinbase.com and its iOS and Android apps at 9:25 am UTC.
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $80,912, Ether (ETH) at $2,327 and XRP (XRP) at $1.43. The total market cap is at $2.69 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are Toncoin (TON) at 80.69%, siren (SIREN) at 66.34% and Venice Token (VVV) at 64.19%. The top three altcoin losers of the week are Sky (SKY) at 2.14%, Pi (PI) at 1.50% and UNUS SED LEO (LEO) at 1.04%.
Top Prediction of The Week
Bitcoin profit-taking may ‘accelerate’ as price hits 3-month high: Analyst
Bitcoin profit-taking could accelerate as BTC prices climb to three-month highs and investors begin locking in gains, according to Julio Moreno, head of research at onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant.
Holders realized 14,600 BTC in profits on Monday, or $1.1 billion, following Bitcoin’s April rally, Moreno said, adding that this is the “highest” single day of profit-taking since Dec. 10, when BTC was trading above $90,000.
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Wall Street disaster expert Bill Noble: Crypto spring is inevitable
The Short-Term Holder Spent Output Profit Ratio (STH-SOPR), an onchain metric that gauges profit-taking by wallets that have held BTC for less than 155 days, also rose above 1, a level that indicates “clear profit-taking territory,” he added. He said:
“Bitcoin holders are realizing more than 20,000 BTC in net profits on a 30-day rolling basis, the first positive reading since December 22, 2025, following a period of heavy net losses in February and March that reached as deep as 398,000 BTC.”
Top FUD of The Week
US Treasury ‘privately demanded’ Binance comply with monitoring deal: Report
The US Department of the Treasury reportedly demanded that Binance follow a monitoring program put in place by a 2023 deal between authorities and the cryptocurrency exchange, following reports that the company facilitated $1 billion to entities tied to Iran.
According to a Thursday report by The Information, the Treasury Department “privately demanded” that Binance be in compliance with a monitoring program to which it had agreed after reaching a deal with US authorities in 2023. The deal, which included a $4.3 billion settlement with Treasury and the US Department of Justice, required Binance to comply with a three-year monitoring program overseen by government officials.
The reported letter from Treasury followed reports that Binance fired individuals responsible for telling the exchange’s executives that $1 billion flowed through the platform to entities tied to Iran.
Germany weighs 2027 crypto tax overhaul as one-year holding rule under threat
Germany is preparing to change how it taxes Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from 2027, potentially ending one of Europe’s most generous long-term holding exemptions as it seeks to raise additional revenue and tighten tax compliance.
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Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil said at an April 29 press conference on the 2027 federal budget that the government wants to “tax cryptocurrencies differently,” and key points include an extra 2 billion euros (about $2.3 billion) in revenue from crypto taxation and measures against financial and tax crime.
Under current rules, private crypto gains in Germany are taxable if the assets are sold within one year of acquisition, but are generally tax-free after that period. The exemption has made Germany one of the more favorable European jurisdictions for long-term Bitcoin and crypto holders.
Top Magazine Stories of The Week
XRP ‘probably going to $12,’ Bitcoin ETFs add $1B: Market Moves
Bitcoin dominance climbs to 61% as the US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs haul in almost $1B across just two days this week, and other markets news.
Guide to the top and emerging global crypto hubs: Mid-2026
From Dubai to Singapore, Hong Kong to Lithuania, these are the top destinations from crypto firms and digital nomads.
North Korea denies crypto hacks, Upbit’s bank tests Ripple: Asia Express
North Korea accuses US of spreading false narratives about its involvement in hacks, Upbit’s banking partner tests remittances with Ripple, and more.
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