Gate Cryptocurrency News and Market Analysis

The NFT sector experienced notable sales this week, led by Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Arbitrum. Top sales included the $X@AI BRC-20 NFT at $8,097,669, reflecting growing investor confidence in the market. Other blockchains like Polygon and Flow also had significant sales.

Bitcoin’s fifth halving is slated for April 2028, and the mining sector is entering that cycle with far tighter margins than in 2024. A mix of higher input costs, strained energy markets and increasingly explicit regulatory expectations are reshaping how miners operate, finance, and plan for the

Bittensor co-founder Jacob Steeves accuses Covenant AI’s Simon Dare of intentionally causing damage to the agreement, leading to a sharp drop in TAO tokens. Steeves proposes a locked-staking mechanism that uses on-chain code to enforce commitments and prevent founders from making sudden, surprise exits. Even as the crisis unfolds, Bittensor’s open-source architecture can still ensure the agreement continues to operate, and it is set to hold a meeting to introduce the new mechanism.

Sun Yuchen publicly accused WLFI of hiding a freezing function in its smart contracts without disclosing it to investors, and criticized its centralized practices as deviating from the principles of decentralized finance. His wallet was added to the blacklist on suspicion of misappropriating funds, causing losses of more than 80 million dollars. Facing multiple pressures such as a sharp collapse in token prices and liquidity risk, WLFI has begun repaying its loans and has promised to roll out a governance proposal.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Qalibaf warned that the U.S. oil price would rise due to blockade measures, hinting at retaliation against the United States. At the same time, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz are escalating, and market forecasts suggest that oil prices could break above $115 per barrel. The U.S. and Britain differ on their stance toward the blockade of Hormuz, and there are also differences in statements between Trump and the Central Command, affecting the likely future direction of oil prices.

Aave DAO has passed the “Aave Will Win” framework, allocating $25 million to Aave Labs, and confirming that all brand application earnings will be fully directed into the DAO treasury. It will reform its governance structure by replacing bureaucratic procedures with a results-oriented approach. Future agreement revenue is expected to reach $140 million. Funding for each specific product still requires a separate proposal review.

The Osaka/Mendel hard fork on BSC will launch on April 28, requiring node operators to update to BSC v1.7.2. The upgrade enhances block construction, transaction handling, and introduces a gas limit cap for improved network stability.

Bitcoin has pulled back from its peak to $71,110. The chair of the U.S. CFTC said it will defend its regulatory authority over prediction markets. An FBI report shows that in 2025, losses from cryptocurrency fraud reached $11.36 billion, with seniors hit the hardest. The market is optimistic in the short term, but you should be mindful of the impact of oil prices and monetary policy.

In brief ASI Alliance and Matterhorn said they are building tools to reduce risks from AI-generated blockchain code. The platform combines automated analysis, human review, and testing tools to audit smart contracts before deployment. The partnership runs on ASI:Chain and aims to

Michael Saylor, chairman of MicroStrategy, recently revealed that the company’s bitcoin holdings only need to achieve 2.05% annualized growth to avoid issuing new shares and pay preferred stock dividends indefinitely. With its current holdings of 766,970 bitcoins, at today’s market value they can support dividend payments for about 48.7 years, demonstrating financial sustainability. The company then uses the preferred stock funds to buy more bitcoins, creating a virtuous cycle.

American musician G. Love downloaded a counterfeit Ledger Live app from the Apple Mac App Store. After entering the recovery phrase, he lost 5.92 bitcoins, worth more than $424,000. The app passed the review successfully, creating a trust crisis for users. Security experts remind hardware wallet users never to enter recovery phrases on internet-connected devices and to go directly to the official website to download the app. The source of the funds appears to be a CEX, and the likelihood of recovery is extremely low.

The U.S. imposes a naval blockade on Iran, causing the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks to fall apart. Market risk sentiment intensifies, and Bitcoin drops to $71,000, with a 24-hour decline of 3.1%. Traditional market capital flows into safe-haven assets, and analysts are divided on Bitcoin’s future trend, with $70,000 support acting as a key level.

Garrett Jin, identified as the agent of “BTC OG Insider Whale,” called the U.S.-Iran ceasefire “poison wrapped in sugar” and said it made his principal even more bearish on markets. The comment, circulated via aggregator channels on April 12, 2026, argued that a two-week truce has no historical

Shipping firms weighing cryptocurrency payments to cover potential transit fees through Iran face substantial sanctions risk, according to Kaitlin Martin, a senior intelligence analyst at Chainalysis. Under current sanctions frameworks, payments linked to the Iranian regime or other sanctioned

In brief A major multi-university study finds faster AI means fewer people working. Economists now see real job losses alongside strong economic growth. The debate has shifted to whether AI will replace the need for new jobs entirely. For years, economists were the professionals most

In brief A new proposal outlines a way to create quantum-resistant Bitcoin transactions without changing the network protocol. The design replaces elliptic-curve assumptions with hash-based puzzles