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According to local sources cited by Axios, Iranian and U.S. officials held separate, parallel talks with Qatari mediators in Doha over the past two days. The Qatari side reportedly attempted to arrange a three-way meeting to directly discuss remaining differences, but the Iranian side refused.

The U.S. spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF market is being reshaped around industry giants BlackRock and Fidelity, according to a report from CoinDesk. The outlet noted that BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC have absorbed the majority of new institutional funds this year. For example, on Jan. 14, spot BTC ETFs saw total net inflows of $840.6 million, with IBIT and FBTC accounting for over 90% of that sum at $648.4 million and $125.4 million, respectively. On April 17, the two funds captured roughly two-thirds of the total $663.9 million in inflows, recording $284 million and $163.4 million. CoinDesk explained that the market is shifting from a competitive landscape with numerous managers to a winner-take-all structure where a few operators with scale, liquidity, and distribution networks attract most of the capital. In a related comment, Diana Pires, Chief Business Officer at sFOX, stated that while some buying pressure has emerged following the recent drop in BTC's price, a significant recovery in spot demand has not yet materialized. She added that institutional investors are maintaining a cautious stance amid continued outflows from spot BTC ETFs.

Solana-based DeFi protocol Raydium (RAY) has issued an official statement confirming a recent hack. Via X, Raydium announced that a hack worth approximately $1.34 million occurred in its old legacy AMM V3 program. The protocol explained that the attacker exploited a vulnerability in the liquidity token issuance validation process, allowing them to bypass liquidity ratio checks and withdraw funds. Raydium assured users that its current mainnet program, SDK, and dApp were not affected. The team pledged to fully compensate for all losses and is conducting additional security audits on all mainnet programs. This follows an earlier report from CoinNess that a potential hack had been detected in Raydium's older liquidity pools.

Stand with Crypto UK, a British cryptocurrency advocacy group, has launched a campaign against banks restricting transfers to crypto exchanges, Cointelegraph reported. The group claims that UK banks are imposing blanket restrictions on transfers to regulated crypto exchanges, thereby hindering access to digital assets. Citing a report from the UK Cryptoasset Business Council (UKCBC), the campaign highlighted that approximately 40% of crypto transactions in the UK are blocked or limited by banks. The report also found that some exchanges have seen around £1 billion in transactions fail over a single year due to bank rejections.

Prediction market platform Kalshi has introduced a new policy requiring some users to disclose their workplace information to prevent insider trading and market manipulation, CoinDesk reported. Kalshi explained that the measure applies to specific markets deemed to have a high risk of insider trading and market abuse. Participants in these markets must submit information, including their employer, to allow the platform to check for potential conflicts of interest and fraudulent trading.

Tether, the issuer of the stablecoin USDT, announced it has led a Series C funding round of up to $1.4 billion for German robotics firm Neura Robotics. According to The Block, Neura develops humanoid robots, autonomous mobile robots, and service robots. Tether added that beyond the investment, it plans to integrate its wallet development kit into Neura's robotic systems.

Bitcoin could form a market bottom in October if it follows historical patterns, according to an analysis by crypto influencer Ash Crypto. Posting on X, he explained that in previous cycles, BTC has typically bottomed out approximately 11 months after its monthly MACD confirmed a dead cross. The current cycle is seven months past this signal. If this pattern holds, BTC could reach its low around October of this year, a timing that would align with the four-year cycle preceding the next bull market. However, he cautioned that this analysis is based on past cycles and that actual market movements could vary depending on macroeconomic conditions and shifts in supply and demand.

Puneet Mehta, founder and CEO of AI customer experience (CX) platform Netomi, predicts that the growth of the AI industry will significantly boost demand for stablecoins and blockchain payment infrastructure. In an interview with CoinDesk, Mehta stated that the customer experience market, currently valued at around $500 billion, could expand to $5 trillion by 2030, driven by AI advancements. He described AI and crypto as complementary rather than competitive, emphasizing that autonomous AI agents will need 24/7 stablecoins and blockchain payment rails to process real-time transactions—a capability traditional financial systems lack.

The three major U.S. stock indices closed lower today. - S&P 500: -0.94% - Nasdaq: -1.5% - Dow Jones: -1.2% President Donald Trump announced he would resume military strikes against Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States will launch a powerful strike against Iran. He emphasized that the U.S. has the authority to resume attacks.

Mastercard has unveiled a new infrastructure called Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M) to support autonomous payments between AI agents. According to The Block, the infrastructure is designed to support high-speed micropayments and always-on transactions between AI agents and devices using cards, bank accounts, and stablecoins. Over 30 companies have joined the project as initial partners, including Coinbase, OKX, Ripple, Solana, Polygon, and Aave.

A wallet believed to belong to Bitmine withdrew 25,000 ETH ($40.93 million) from BitGo, according to Onchain Lens.

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Joseph Lubin predicted that the network could evolve into a fully Zero-Knowledge (ZK) based protocol within the next three to five years. According to Unfolded, Lubin stated that ongoing innovation in ZK technology will enhance the security and efficiency of the Ethereum L1. He added that this would also enable synchronous composability with L2s, providing atomic execution and an integrated user experience. Lubin emphasized that ZK technology will play a key role in Ethereum's scalability and network integration.

MNX, an AI-focused decentralized futures exchange built on the Ethereum Layer 2 solution MegaETH, has raised $6.4 million in a pre-seed funding round, The Block reported. The round was led by Village Global, with participation from Cambrian, North Island Ventures, and Finality Capital. The company was valued at $40 million at the time of the investment. MNX plans to offer futures on AI company valuations, perpetual futures on AI-related stocks and computing power, and prediction markets.

Lawrence Zlatkin, Coinbase's vice president of tax, has proposed that the U.S. Congress introduce a capital gains tax exemption for small Bitcoin (BTC) payments. He argued that Americans should not have to hire an accountant simply to buy a pair of jeans with BTC. Under current U.S. tax law, purchasing goods or services with BTC is considered a disposal of an asset, which requires the calculation and reporting of capital gains tax.

Mentions of stablecoins in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings and corporate investor presentations reached an all-time high of approximately 1,000 in the first quarter of this year, Unfolded reported.

According to Arkham data, Grayscale deposited 19,548 ETH ($32 million) into Coinbase Prime over the past hour.

Anthony Pompliano, founder of Pomp Investments, believes that BTC is approaching the bottom of the current bear market. In an interview with CNBC, he noted that while past bear markets often saw BTC fall more than 80% from its peak, the decline in this cycle has been limited to around 50%. Pompliano attributed this to increased institutional investor inflow, which has eased volatility and contained the drop. He also observed that the proportion of BTC supply held at a loss now exceeds the supply in profit, a phenomenon that has historically occurred near the end of bear markets. Pompliano concluded that this presents an attractive opportunity for long-term investors to accumulate positions.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz has expressed optimism about the passage of the CLARITY Act. In a post on X, he said that members of the House and Senate have invested an enormous amount of time into the bill. Novogratz described it as a highly complex piece of legislation but noted that only two or three contentious issues remain. He added that the proposed solutions seem fair and beneficial for the U.S. "The next four weeks are effectively the last chance," he explained, noting that reaching an agreement will become more difficult once the summer recess and election season begin.

Crypto investment firm Paradigm and the Hyperliquid Policy Center have voiced concerns over the anti-money laundering (AML) provisions for stablecoins in the proposed GENIUS Act. In a letter to the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the two organizations argued that holding issuers responsible for secondary market transactions beyond their control could lead U.S.-regulated stablecoins to abandon the permissionless DeFi ecosystem. They stressed the need to differentiate between the issuance stage and secondary market distribution through wallets, DeFi protocols, and validators. The letter added that issuer-level regulatory obligations should not be imposed on simple holding and transfer addresses, developers, protocol operators, or validators.

According to data from Arkham, an address believed to be controlled by the U.S. government has transferred approximately 98,589 LINK, worth around $770,000, to Coinbase Prime. The funds originated from an address holding assets seized in connection with FTX and Alameda Research.

On-chain analyst Specter has reported a suspected hack targeting older liquidity pools on the Solana-based DeFi protocol Raydium (RAY). According to the analyst, a hacker stole approximately $1.34 million in assets, including USDC, RAY, and wSOL. The stolen funds were subsequently bridged to the Ethereum network and deposited into Tornado Cash.

Crypto analyst KillaXBT, who is credited with accurately predicting Bitcoin's peak last year, has suggested that BTC is nearing a short-term bottom, The Daily Hodl reported. He believes the most likely scenario is not a V-shaped rebound but rather several months of sideways, range-bound trading. KillaXBT pointed out that previous bear markets also experienced significant periods of consolidation before a full trend reversal, forecasting that Bitcoin could test the $52,000 level before transitioning back to a bullish trend.

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's Mad Money, has claimed that investors are selling off what he calls "bad money," such as Bitcoin and gold, to raise capital ahead of the SpaceX initial public offering (IPO), Watcher.Guru reported. Cramer is widely mocked in the stock and cryptocurrency communities as an inverse indicator due to his track record of making inaccurate market predictions.

The on-chain gambling market is continuing to show strong growth despite the broader crypto market downturn, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs. The report found that on-chain gambling transaction volume reached $51 billion last year. In the first quarter of this year, the volume was $14 billion, nearly matching the all-time high of $15 billion set in the previous quarter. However, prediction market volume surpassed on-chain gambling for the first time during the same period, reaching $36.6 billion.