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One of Arizona’s crypto reserve bills has been passed by the House and is now one successful vote away from heading to the governor’s desk for official approval.

Arizona’s Strategic Digital Assets Reserve Bill (SB 1373) was approved on April 17 by the House Committee of the Whole, which involves 60 House members weighing in on the bill before a third and final reading and a full floor vote.

SB 1373 seeks to establish a Digital Assets Strategic Reserve Fund made up of digital assets seized through criminal proceedings to be managed by the state’s treasurer. 

Arizona’s treasurer would be permitted to invest up to 10% of the fund’s total monies in any fiscal year in digital assets. The treasurer would also be able to loan the fund’s assets in order to increase returns, provided it doesn’t increase financial risks.

However, a Senate-approved SB 1373 may be set back by Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, who recently pledged to veto all bills until the legislature passes a bill for disability funding.

Hobbs also has a history of vetoing bills before the House and has vetoed 15 bills sent to her desk this week alone.

Arizona is the new leader in the state Bitcoin reserve race

SB 1373 has been passing through Arizona’s legislature alongside the Arizona Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act (SB 1025), which only includes Bitcoin (BTC).

The bill proposes allowing Arizona’s treasury and state retirement system to invest up to 10% of the available funds into Bitcoin.

SB 1025 also passed Arizona’s House Committee of the Whole on April 1 and is awaiting a full floor vote.

Related: Binance helps countries with Bitcoin reserves, crypto policies, says CEO

Utah passed Bitcoin legislation on March 7 but scrapped the cornerstone provision establishing the Bitcoin reserve in the final reading.

The Texas Senate passed a Bitcoin reserve bill on March 6, while a similar bill recently passed through New Hampshire’s House.

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Slovenia’s Finance Ministry is considering a possible 25% tax on crypto trading profits for residents in the country under a new draft law now open for public consultation. 

The bill proposes to tax traders when they sell their cryptocurrency for fiat or pay for goods and services, but crypto-to-crypto and transfers between wallets owned by the same user will be exempt, Slovenia’s Finance Ministry said in an April 17 statement.

Under the proposed legislation, crypto tax will be aligned with existing tax laws. Slovenia taxpayers will be required to keep a record of all their transactions for annual tax returns. The tax base would be calculated on profits by subtracting the purchase price from the sale price. 

In a statement to the Slovenia Times, finance minister Klemen Boštjančič said it’s unreasonable that crypto trading for individuals isn’t currently taxed in the country. 

“The goal of taxation of crypto assets is not to generate tax revenue, but we find it illogical and unreasonable that one of the most speculative financial instruments is not taxed at all,” he said in a statement translated from Slovenian.

New tax could stifle crypto in Slovenia, lawmaker says 

Jernej Vrtovec, a member of Slovenia’s national assembly and New Slovenia opposition party, slammed the proposal in an April 16 statement to X, arguing it could stifle crypto growth in the country. 

“Slovenia has the opportunity to become a crypto-friendly country, but with the government’s proposals, we will miss the train again,” he said in a post also translated from Slovenian.

“With excessive taxation, we will once again see young people and capital fleeing abroad. Taxes should encourage, not stifle.” 

The proposal is open to public consultation until May 5. If Slovenian lawmakers pass the bill, it will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026. 

Slovenia introduced a 10% tax on crypto withdrawals and payments in 2023, but capital gains from occasional crypto trading are not taxed, according to the crypto tax platform Token Tax. 

Related: NFT trader faces prison for $13M tax fraud on CryptoPunk profits

Crypto activity can also currently be exempt from tax if it’s considered a hobby. Business activity, such as mining or staking, is subject to income tax. 

A previous bill proposed in April 2022 planned to levy a 5% tax on profits over 10,000 euros ($11,372), but it was never passed into law. 

Slovenia issued the first digital sovereign bond in the European Union on July 25 last year. It had a nominal size of 30 million euros ($32.5 million) with a 3.65% coupon and a maturity date of Nov. 25 that year. 

The number of crypto users in Slovenia is projected to reach roughly 98,000 in 2025, according to online data platform Statista, with a penetration rate of 4.6% among its population of 2.12 million people. While the projected revenue for the country’s crypto market is slated to hit $2.8 million. 

Magazine: How crypto laws are changing across the world in 2025

Bitcoin’s (BTC) realized market cap reached a new all-time high of $872 billion, but data from Glassnode reflects investors’ lack of enthusiasm at BTC’s current price levels.

In a recent X post, the analytics platform pointed out that despite the realized cap milestone, the monthly growth rate of the metric has dropped to 0.9% month over month, which implied a risk-off sentiment in the market.

Realized cap measures the total value of all Bitcoin at the price they last moved, reflecting the actual capital invested, providing insight into Bitcoin’s economic activity. A slowing growth rate highlights a positive but reduced capital inflow, suggesting fewer new investors or less activity from current holders.

Additionally, Glassnode’s realized profit and loss chart recently exhibited a sharp decline of 40%, which signals high profit-taking or loss realization. The data platform explained,

“This suggests saturation in investor activity and often precedes a consolidation phase as the market searches for a new equilibrium.”

While new investors remained sidelined, existing investors are probably adopting a cautious approach due to the short-term holder’s realized price. Data from CryptoQuant suggested that the current short-term realized price is $91,600. With BTC currently consolidating under the threshold, it implies short-term holders are underwater, which can increase selling pressure if they sell to cut their losses.

Similarly, Bitcoin’s short-term holder market value to realized value remained below 1, a level historically associated with buying opportunities and further proof that short-term holders are at a loss.

Related: Bitcoin US vs. offshore exchange ratio flashes bullish signal, hinting at BTC price highs in 2025

Bitcoin chops between US and Korean traders

Data shows a sentiment divergence between Bitcoin traders in the US and Korea. The Coinbase premium, reflecting US trading, recently spiked, signaling strong US demand and potential Bitcoin price gains.

Conversely, the Kimchi premium index fell during the correction, indicating lagging retail engagement among Korea-based traders.

This particular uneven demand is reflected in Bitcoin’s recent price action. The chart shows that Bitcoin’s price has oscillated between a tight range of $85,440-$82,750 since April 11. On the 4-hour chart, BTC has retained support from the 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day moving averages, but on the 1-day chart, these indicators are putting resistance on the bullish structure.

Related: Bitcoin online chatter flips bullish as price chops at $85K: Santiment

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Quantum computing research firm Project Eleven has launched a competition to see just how much of a threat quantum computing currently poses to Bitcoin.

Launching the competition on April 16, Project Eleven said it is offering 1 Bitcoin (BTC) to whoever cracks the biggest chunk of a Bitcoin key using a quantum computer within the next year. 

Project Eleven said the purpose of the “Q-Day Prize” is to test “how urgent the threat” of quantum is to Bitcoin and to find quantum-proof solutions to secure Bitcoin over the long term.

“10 million+ addresses have exposed public keys. Quantum computing is steadily progressing. Nobody has rigorously benchmarked this threat yet,” Project Eleven wrote on X on April 16.

More than 6 million Bitcoin — worth around $500 billion — could be at risk if quantum computers become powerful enough to crack elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) keys, Project Eleven said.

Participants can register as individuals or as a team and have until April 5, 2026, to complete the task. The prize winner will win 1 Bitcoin, currently worth $84,100.

The aim is to run Shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer to crack as many bits of a Bitcoin key as possible, acting as a proof-of-concept that the technique could scale to crack a full, 256-bit Bitcoin key once the necessary compute is available. 

“The mission: break the largest ECC key possible using Shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer. No classical shortcuts. No hybrid tricks. Pure quantum power,” Project Eleven said.

“You don’t need to break a Bitcoin key. A 3-bit key would be big news,” it added.

No ECC key used in real-world applications has ever been cracked, noted Project Eleven, adding that the winner could “go down in cryptography history.”

Project Eleven noted that several online platforms offer quantum computing access, such as Amazon Web Services and IBM.

Related: Bitcoin’s quantum-resistant hard fork is inevitable — It’s the only chance to fix node incentives

Current estimates suggest that around 2,000 logical qubits (error-corrected) would be enough to break a 256-bit ECC key, Project Eleven noted.

IBM’s Heron chip and Google’s Willow can currently do 156 and 105 qubits — significant enough to cause concern, according to Project Eleven, which believes a 2,000-qubit quantum system could be developed within the next decade.

Quantum threat to Bitcoin is real but there’s time, Bitcoiners say

Bitcoin cypherpunk Jameson Lopp recently said the question of how concerned the industry should be about quantum computing is currently “unanswerable.”

“I think it’s far from a crisis, but given the difficulty in changing Bitcoin it’s worth starting to seriously discuss,” Lopp said in a March 16 post.

In February, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the concern is well-founded but is confident that quantum-proof Bitcoin addresses will be implemented well before any “serious threat” emerges.

Magazine: Bitcoin vs. the quantum computer threat: Timeline and solutions (2025–2035)

Stablecoins rose to popularity as a result of limitations in the US financial system — particularly restricted banking hours and the lack of a non-USD trading pair, according to Jerald David, president of Arca Labs.

“So we start thinking about the reason why, we start talking about the nine-to-five banking hours,” David said during a panel at TokenizeThis 2025 event on April 16.

The panel discussion centered on yieldcoins or, essentially, the rising of cryptocurrencies that can generate yield through holding, staking or lending, like stablecoins.

“Well, nine-to-five banking hours don’t work, right? There are implementations right now of payment systems that are going to come to market very soon, that are a good combination of both yield-bearing instruments as well as stabletokens,” David said.

According to David, the need for stablecoins stems from the fact that the traditional US banking infrastructure doesn’t support round-the-clock transactions. “And this industry, as we all know, is a 24-hour industry.”

KYC for stablecoins

Know Your Customer procedures were a significant topic at the panel. One representative from Figure Markets said that everyone who owns a yield-bearing stablecoin would have to be KYC-ed for tax reasons.

But David pointed out that stablecoins have several use cases beyond yield generation, including payments. “Using this stable token to buy a cup of coffee is not something that really should require AML or KYC for somebody.”

Nick Carmi, head of exchange at Figure Markets, suggested that part of the solution could be a trust-based KYC system that allows users to carry their credentials across platforms. KYC is a process used by financial institutions to verify a user’s identity. It’s meant to prevent fraud, money laundering, and other illegal activities by ensuring users are who they claim to be.

Currently, users must complete separate KYC checks for each financial institution or service they use, creating friction and frustration — especially for those navigating multiple platforms or exploring different crypto ecosystems.

Magazine: Bitcoin payments are being undermined by centralized stablecoins

Panama’s capital city will accept cryptocurrency payments for taxes and municipal fees, including bus tickets and permits, Panama City mayor Mayer Mizrachi announced on April 15, joining a growing list of jurisdictions globally that have voted to accept such payments.

Panama City will begin accepting Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Circle’s USDC (USDC), and Tether’s USDt (USDT) stablecoin for payment once the crypto-to-fiat payment rails are established, Mizrachi posted on the X platform.

Mizrachi said previous administrations attempted to push through similar legislation but failed to overcome stipulations requiring the local government to accept funds denominated in US dollars.

In a translated statement, the Panama City mayor said that the local government partnered with a bank that will immediately convert any digital assets received into US dollars, allowing the municipality to accept crypto without introducing new legislation.

Panama City joins a growing list of global jurisdictions on the municipal and state level accepting cryptocurrency payments for taxes, exploring Bitcoin strategic reserves to protect public treasuries from inflation and passing pro-crypto policies to attract investment.

Related: New York bill proposes legalizing Bitcoin, crypto for state payments

Municipalities and states embrace digital assets

Several municipalities and territories around the globe already accept crypto for tax payments or are exploring various implementations of blockchain technology for government spending.

The US state of Colorado started accepting crypto payments for taxes in September 2022. Much like Panama City said it will do, Colorado immediately converts the crypto to fiat.

In December 2023, the city of Lugano, Switzerland, announced taxes and city fees could be paid in Bitcoin, which was one of the developments that earned it the reputation of being a globally recognized Bitcoin city.

The city council of Vancouver, Canada, passed a motion to become “Bitcoin-friendly city” in December 2024. As part of that motion, the Vancouver local government will explore integrating BTC into the financial system, including tax payments.

North Carolina lawmaker Neal Jackson introduced legislation titled “The North Carolina Digital Asset Freedom Act” on April 10. If passed, the bill will recognize cryptocurrencies as an official form of payment that can be used to pay taxes.

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Fresh from successfully convincing game retailer GameStop to add Bitcoin to its balance sheet, Strive Asset Management CEO Matt Cole has now set his sights on fintech firm Intuit to do the same.

Cole said in an April 14 open letter to Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi that Intuit’s growth is admirable, but Bitcoin (BTC) is the best way to ensure the company’s long-term success and hedge against any potential disruption caused by artificial intelligence.

Intuit’s flagship products are its tax preparation app TurboTax and the small business accounting software Quickbooks. The company laid off 10% of its staff in July to pursue its AI endeavors, but Cole said the firm needs an additional hedge because TurboTax is at risk of being automated away by AI. 

“While we appreciate Intuit’s own investments and internal implementation of AI, we believe an additional hedge is warranted, and that a Bitcoin war chest is the best option available,” Cole said. 

That Bitcoin war chest, he added, will ensure Intuit has “enough strategic capital to weather the AI storm and act from a position of strength through the turbulence of the AI revolution.” 

Cole sent a similar letter to GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen in February to advise the gaming retailer to use its $4.6 billion in cash to buy Bitcoin. 

GameStop’s Cohen acknowledged the letter in an April 1 regulatory filing and revealed his company had finished a convertible debt offering that raised $1.5 billion, with some proceeds earmarked for buying Bitcoin.

Strive urges Intuit change crypto policy

In his letter to Intuit, Cole said the firm should reconsider the acceptable use policy for its marketing platform Mailchimp, which he claims has continued to suspend crypto-related accounts over policy violations.

Cole said he “remains concerned that Intuit’s censorship and de-platforming policies discriminate against Bitcoin enthusiasts, which may harm long-term shareholder value.”

Mailchimp has said that crypto-related content isn’t necessarily banned under its policy, and crypto content can be sent provided the sender isn’t involved in the sale, exchange, or marketing of crypto. 

Related: Saylor signals Strategy is buying the dip amid macroeconomic turmoil

Its current acceptable use policy states that the platform might not allow accounts that offer “cryptocurrencies, virtual currencies, and any digital assets related to an initial coin offering.” 

According to Cole, Mailchimp likely adopted its policies when the legal status of crypto and related businesses was uncertain, but said with the crypto-friendly Trump administration, it’s time to “amend the acceptable use policy to end the blanket ban on crypto-related businesses.”

Intuit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Magazine: Bitcoin eyes $100K by June, Shaq to settle NFT lawsuit, and more: Hodler’s Digest, April 6–12

Mantra CEO John Mullin said he is planning to burn all of his team’s tokens in order to win back the trust of the network’s community following the sudden collapse of the Mantra (OM) token on April 13.

“I’m planning to burn all of my team tokens and when we turn it around the community and investors can decide if I have earned it back,” Mullin posted to X on April 16.

Mantra set aside 300 million OM, 16.88% of the token’s nearly 1.78 billion total supply, for its team and core contributors. They are currently locked and were scheduled to be released in stages between April 2027 and October 2029, according to an April 8 blog post.

The team’s tokens are worth around $236 million, with OM currently trading around 78 cents but were worth around $1.89 billion before the token sank on April 13, going from around $6.30 to a low of 52 cents and wiping over $5.5 billion in value, according to CoinGecko.

Many community members welcomed Mullin’s pledge, but others saw the token burn as a potential blow to the team’s long-term commitment to building the real-world asset tokenization platform.

“This would be a mistake. We want teams that are highly incentivized. Burning the incentive may seem like a good gesture but it will hurt the team motivation long term,” said Crypto Banter founder Ran Neuner.

Mullin suggested a decentralized vote could determine whether to burn the 300 million team tokens.

Mantra recovery process already underway

Mullin promised a post-mortem statement explaining what went wrong to be transparent with the community. 

Speaking to Cointelegraph on April 14, Mullin outlined plans to leverage the $109 million Mantra Ecosystem Fund for potential token buybacks and burns to stabilize OM’s price, which had fallen from $6.30 to as low as $0.52.

Related: Red flag? Mantra’s TVL jumped 500% as OM price collapsed

Mullin’s firm has strongly refuted rumors that it controls 90% of OM’s token supply and engaged in insider trading and market manipulation.

Mantra claims the OM price implosion was triggered by “reckless liquidations,” adding that it wasn’t related to any actions undertaken by the team.

OKX and Binance were among the crypto exchanges that saw significant OM activity right before the token collapse.

Both exchanges denied any wrongdoing, attributing the collapse to changes made to OM’s tokenomics in October and unusual volatility that ultimately triggered high-volume cross-exchange liquidations on April 13.

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The amount of Bitcoin held on the books of publicly traded companies rose by 16.1% in the first quarter of 2025, according to crypto fund issuer Bitwise.

Total company Bitcoin (BTC) holdings rose to around 688,000 BTC by the end of Q1, with firms adding 95,431 BTC over the quarter, Bitwise reported in an April 14 X post.

The value of the combined Bitcoin stacks rose around 2.2%, reaching a total combined value of $56.7 billion with a price per BTC of $82,445, the firm added.

Bitwise noted that the number of public companies holding Bitcoin rose to 79, with 12 firms buying the cryptocurrency for the first time in Q1.

The largest first-time Bitcoin buyer was the Hong Kong construction firm Ming Shing, whose subsidiary Lead Benefit bought a total of 833 BTC over the quarter, with an initial 500 BTC buy in January and a follow-up 333 BTC buy in February.

The next largest maiden Bitcoin holder was the far-right favored YouTube alternative Rumble, which bought 188 BTC in mid-March.

One notable debut Bitcoin buyer was the Hong Kong investment firm HK Asia Holdings Limited, which only purchased a single Bitcoin in February, but the announcement caused its share price to nearly double in value in a single trading day.

Metaplanet buys the dip with 319 Bitcoin scoop

Meanwhile, Japanese investment firm Metaplanet said in an April 14 note that it purchased another 319 Bitcoin for an average price of 11.8 million yen ($82,770) per coin, bringing its total holdings to 4,525 Bitcoin, currently worth $383.2 million.

However, the company has spent a total of 58.145 billion yen, nearly $406 million, buying up its current Bitcoin stack.

Metaplanet (3350) was down 0.5% by the April 15 lunch break on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after closing trading on April 14 up 3.71%, according to Google Finance.

The Tokyo-based firm’s latest Bitcoin buy puts it firmly in tenth place among the world’s largest public companies holding Bitcoin, trailing behind Jack Dorsey’s Block, Inc., which holds 8,485 BTC, according to Coinkite data.

Bitcoin is trading around $84,440 and has traded flat over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. It’s up around 2.3% since the end of Q1 on March 31, having clawed back from a low of under $75,000 on April 7 after a wider market drop due to a round of fresh global tariffs imposed by the US.

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Decentralized exchange KiloEX has confirmed it has suspended usage of its platform and is tracing stolen funds after suffering a $7.5 million exploit. 

The exploit has been contained, with use of the platform suspended and an investigation underway, the KiloEX team said in an April 14 statement to X.

“The team has immediately suspended platform usage and is working with security partners to trace the flow of funds,” KiloEX said. 

“We are analyzing the attack vector and affected assets. We are collaborating with ecosystem partners to trace and recover funds where possible.” 

A bounty program and a full report on how the exploit occurred is also in the works, according to KiloEX. 

In an update, the KiloEX team said it was collaborating with BNB Chain, Manta Network, and cybersecurity firms Seal-911, SlowMist and Sherlock in an effort spanning “multiple ecosystems.” 

“Our investigation has confirmed that the stolen assets are currently being routed through zkBridge and Meson,” KiloEX said. 

“We are urgently attempting to engage with both protocols to halt ongoing transactions and prevent additional losses.” 

KiloEX attacker exploited price oracle issue, say analysts 

Cybersecurity firm PeckShield said in an April 14 post to X the exploiter looted $7.5 million in total, $3.3 million Base, $3.1m opBNB and $1m BSC. 

The firm has speculated the exploit is likely a “price oracle issue,” where the information used by a smart contract to determine the price of an asset is manipulated or inaccurate, leading to the exploit. 

“Our initial analysis on one transaction exploit indicates a price oracle issue,” PeckShield said. 

“The hacker exploits it to create a new position with initial given ETH/USD price of 100 and then immediately close the position with inflated ETH/USD price of 10000, netting the $3.12m profit in one single transaction.” 

Chaofan Shou, co-founder of blockchain analytics firm Fuzzland, also weighed in, speculating the exploit was likely due to a price oracle issue.

“Anyone can change the Kilo’s price oracle. They did verify that the caller shall be a trusted forwarder, though, but didn’t verify the forwarded caller,” Shou said. 

Shou added it was a “very simple vulnerability” when a user asked about the complexity of the exploit. 

The news has sent the KiloEX’s native token, Kilo, plunging over 27% to trade at $0.03596, according to CoinGecko. It’s still down over 78% from its all-time high of $0.1648, which it hit on March 27.

Related: Mantra CEO says OM token recovery ‘primary concern’ but in early stages

KiloEx was established in 2023 and is backed by Binance Labs, which is a lead investor and strategic partner. 

This exploit comes just days after the exchange announced a partnership with Dubai-based Web3 venture capitalist firm DWF Labs on April 13, which promised to expand KiloEx’s market presence and accelerate growth. 

On March 25, DWF Labs launched a $250 million Liquid Fund to accelerate the growth of mid- and large-cap blockchain projects and drive real-world adoption of Web3 technologies.

Magazine: Bitcoin eyes $100K by June, Shaq to settle NFT lawsuit, and more: Hodler’s Digest, April 6–12