Markets

Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US closed April with $1.97 billion in net inflows, the strongest month of 2026, with BlackRock's IBIT contributing nearly all of it. The final four sessions, however, produced more than $400 million in outflows — a clue about who actually owns the trade.

AIMCo, the C$194.7 billion Alberta provincial pension manager, has disclosed a $219 million Strategy position — its first ever Bitcoin-linked allocation, and a return to a stock it sold in September 2020 specifically before Saylor's pivot. The fund is already up $69 million.

Tether reported $1.04 billion in net profit for the first quarter and excess reserves of $8.23 billion against $192 billion in assets — the strongest balance sheet the company has ever published, even as Senators Warren and Wyden launched a fresh investigation into its links to Cantor Fitzgerald and Howard Lutnick's family trust.

The CFTC handed Gemini's clearing affiliate a Derivatives Clearing Organization licence, giving the Winklevoss-run exchange the right to clear and settle every futures, options and prediction-market trade it routes through its US marketplace in house.

Strategy added 3,273 BTC to its treasury for $255 million on April 27, lifting total holdings to 818,334 coins as bitcoin's spot price slipped below the company's average cost basis for the first time in five months.

The U.S. 30-year Treasury yield crossed 5% for the first time since July 2025 on Thursday morning, and bitcoin is already paying for it. BTC slid back under $76,000 as institutional capital rotates into yield-bearing dollars.

Bitcoin's daily spot trading volume has fallen below $5 billion across major exchanges, the lowest reading since October 2023, with Glassnode warning that the resulting drop in market depth has historically preceded sharp directional moves rather than calm consolidation.

The Federal Reserve held its target rate at 3.5 to 3.75 per cent on Wednesday, but four members voted against the decision — the deepest split since October 1992. Bitcoin slipped from $76,200 to $75,440 in the first hour after the announcement.

Japanese Bitcoin treasury firm Metaplanet wrapped the world's most expensive billboard in a 'Secure the Future with Bitcoin' message this week. The advertising blitz coincides with a 25 per cent year-to-date drop in its share price and growing investor questions about whether the treasury model still works.

The exchange's new KuCard converts USDC to Australian dollars at the point of sale through Mastercard's global network, with support for Apple Pay and Google Pay, turning any of 37 supported trading pairs into spendable funds at 90 million merchant locations.

Spot Solana ETFs hit $1 billion in AUM after five consecutive days of inflows, with Goldman Sachs emerging as the second-largest institutional holder behind Bitwise's BSOL fund, which commands 62 per cent of the category.

IBIT options hit $27.6 billion in open interest on Friday, edging past Deribit's $26.9 billion and marking the first time a regulated US venue has led the global bitcoin derivatives market.

US spot bitcoin ETFs logged eight consecutive days of inflows pushing cumulative assets past $102 billion, but on-chain data shows earlier buyers are using the institutional bid as exit liquidity.

Robinhood added Zcash to its trading platform on Wednesday, making ZEC available in New York — where the BitLicense regime has historically shut out privacy-focused tokens — and sparking a 10 per cent price surge on volume that spiked 50 per cent.

On-chain evidence suggests RaveDAO insiders moved millions of RAVE tokens to exchanges before and during a vertical price surge that added $5.7 billion in market capitalisation in nine days, then erased it all in 48 hours.

Michael Saylor's Strategy bought 34,164 bitcoin last week for $2.54 billion, vaulting past BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust to become the largest institutional holder of the cryptocurrency.

The Strait of Hormuz opened on Friday, triggering $762 million in crypto liquidations and the cleanest short squeeze since February. Iran shut it again on Saturday, sending bitcoin back below $76,000.

A week after Iran's Strait of Hormuz reopening sent bitcoin past $75,000, the rally has run into a concentrated band of sell orders and increasingly nervous derivatives positioning.

The crypto asset manager's BAVA fund debuted on the NYSE on 15 April, staking roughly 70% of its AVAX holdings in-house while charging 0.34% — undercutting competitors in a three-way race for Avalanche exposure.

The first spot bitcoin ETF from a major US bank has drawn $103 million in net inflows within its opening week, charging 0.14 per cent — eleven basis points below BlackRock's dominant IBIT fund.