Blog

Stablecoin issuer Tether has announced it intends to deploy its existing and future Bitcoin hashrate to OCEAN’s Bitcoin mining pool in an effort to strengthen the network’s decentralization.

“Deploying hashrate to OCEAN aligns with both our mining investments and our broader mission to fortify Bitcoin against centralizing forces,” Tether’s CEO Paolo Ardoino said in an April 15 statement.

While Bitcoin hashrate is decentralized, the block-building process conducted by mining pools is mostly centralized by a few dominant actors — most notably Foundry USA, AntPool and ViaBTC.

The OCEAN protocol attempts to decentralize this process by empowering miners to build their own block templates using their open-source DATUM protocol, reducing dependency on centralized intermediaries and enhancing censorship resistance, Tether said.

Tether’s deployment would leverage OCEAN’s DATUM software across all of its mining operations worldwide, including in rural areas in Africa. 

“By enabling on-site generation of unique block templates and aggregating thousands of rig connections with low-latency performance, DATUM ensures global competitiveness while promoting geographic and operational diversity,” Tether said.

Related: Inside the Trump-backed Bitcoin mining mega-deal with Hut 8

Tether currently deploys Bitcoin hashrate at sites in Uruguay, Paraguay and El Salvador, where the $144 billion stablecoin issuer is also headquartered.

Those initiatives emerged around the time Tether announced it would invest $500 million into Bitcoin mining in late 2023.

OCEAN was created by Bitcoin core developer Luke Dashjr in 2023 and has been backed by the likes of Block CEO Jack Dorsey. OCEAN also relocated its headquarters to El Salvador in May 2024.

Dashjr sparked controversy in December 2023 when he slammed Bitcoin Ordinals users for clogging the network with “spam.” However, he refuted claims that OCEAN censored the non-fungible token-like transactions.

OCEAN still has a lot of market share to capture

The OCEAN protocol currently mines between 0.2% to 1% of Bitcoin blocks, according to mempool.space data.

It has mined nine blocks over the last week, including two in a row at 892342 and 892343 on April 14.

However, OCEAN’s output remains a fraction of that seen by Foundry USA, AntPool and ViaBTC, which have mined 331, 199 and 161 Bitcoin blocks, respectively, over the same timeframe — accounting for over 66% of all blocks.

The Tether partnership would likely provide a much-needed boost to OCEAN’s hashrate, which has amounted to 18.3 exahashes per second (EH/s) over the last 24 hours.

By comparison, Foundry USA’s hashrate over the same timeframe has exceeded 298 EH/s, leveraging hashrate from the likes of Bitcoin mining firms Hut 8, Bitdeer and Bitfarms.

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again

The Trump family-backed crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) has added 4.89 million SEI tokens valued at $775,000 to its portfolio, according to onchain data.

Data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence shows the purchase was made on April 12 by one of WLFI’s trading wallets using USDC transferred from the project’s main wallet. It’s the same trading wallet previously used by WLFI to accumulate other altcoins.

WLFI holds a diversified portfolio, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and a larger number of altcoins, such as Tron (TRX), Ondo Finance (ONDO), Avalanche (AVAX) and now Sei (SEI).

According to blockchain researcher Lookonchain, WLFI has spent a total of $346.8 million accumulating 11 different tokens, but as of April 12, it has yet to see a profit on any of them. The project’s Ethereum investments alone are currently down over $114 million. 

Overall, Lookonchain says WLFI’s portfolio is down $145.8 million.

Only two months ago, in a Feb. 3 X post, Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump, urged his followers to buy Ether, writing: “In my opinion, it’s a great time to add $ETH.” Originally, the tweet also included “you can thank me later,” but it was edited to remove those five words.

At the time of writing, data from CoinGecko showed ETH’s price had fallen 55% since Eric Trump’s tweet, currently trading at $1,611, down from the Feb. 3 close of $2,879.

Related: Democrats slam DOJ’s ‘grave mistake’ in disbanding crypto crime unit

WLFI’s USD1 logo appears on major exchanges

Meanwhile, an icon for WLFI’s stablecoin, USD1, has appeared on Coinbase, Binance and the crypto aggregator website CoinMarketCap in what appears to be the coin’s unofficial logo unveiling. 

WLFI has made no official announcement about USD1’s logo.

Trump’s involvement with USD1 has attracted criticism from lawmakers on both sides of US politics. At an April 2 US House Financial Services Committee hearing on stablecoin legislation, Democratic Representative Maxine Waters suggested President Trump may be ultimately planning to use USD1 to replace the US dollar.

“Trump likely wants the entire government to use stablecoins, from payments made by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to Social Security payments to paying taxes. And which coin do you think Trump would replace the dollar with? His own, of course.”

The committee’s Republican chair, French Hill, aired similar concerns.

“If there is no effort to block the president of the United States of America from owning his stablecoin business […] I will never be able to agree on supporting this bill, and I would ask other members not to be enablers.”

Magazines: 3 reasons Ethereum could turn a corner: Kain Warwick, X Hall of Flame

A fast-tracked temporary crypto regulatory framework could bolster innovation within the US crypto industry while permanent regulations are still in the works, says acting US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Mark Uyeda.

“A time-limited, conditional exemptive relief framework for registrants and non-registrants could allow for greater innovation with blockchain technology within the United States in the near term,” Uyeda said at the SEC’s April 11 Crypto Task Force roundtable titled “Between a Block and a Hard Place: Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading.”

Relief measures may address immediate challenges

Uyeda said this might be the short-term answer as the SEC works toward a “long-term solution,” at the roundtable with SEC members and crypto industry executives, including Uniswap Labs’ Katherine Minarik, Cumberland DRW’s Chelsea Pizzola, and Coinbase’s Gregory Tusar.

He flagged state-by-state regulation of crypto trading as a concern, warning it could lead to a “patchwork of state licensing regimes.”

Uyeda said that a favorable federal regulatory framework would ease the burden for market participants wishing to offer tokenized securities and non-security crypto assets, allowing them to operate under a single SEC license instead of navigating “fifty different state licenses.”

He urged crypto market participants to share feedback on areas where “exemptive relief” could be appropriate.

Uyeda also reiterated the benefits of blockchain technology in financial markets during the roundtable discussion. 

“Blockchain technology offers the potential to execute and clear securities transactions in ways that may be more efficient and reliable than current processes,” Uyeda said.

Uyeda to fill chair position until Atkins is sworn in

“Blockchains can be used to manage and mobilize collateral in tokenized form to increase capital efficiency and liquidity,” he added.

Uyeda will continue serving as acting SEC chair until US President Donald Trump’s nominee, Paul Atkins, is officially sworn in.

On April 10, the US Senate confirmed Atkins as chair of the SEC in a 52-44 vote largely along party lines. 

Related: SEC, Ripple file joint motion to pause appeals in XRP case

Uyeda has served as acting SEC chair since Jan. 20, succeeding former chair and crypto skeptic Gary Gensler. He’s been widely seen within the industry as a pro-crypto advocate.

On March 18, Cointelegraph reported that Uyea said the SEC could change or scrap a rule proposed under the Biden administration that would tighten crypto custody standards for investment advisers.

“I have asked the SEC staff to work closely with the crypto task force to consider appropriate alternatives, including its withdrawal,” Uyeda said.

Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research

Solana (SOL) price is outperforming the crypto market on April 11, up 7.45% over the last 24 hours to trade at $121.

Let’s take a closer look at the factors behind Solana’s rally today.

Renewed SOL ETF approval optimism

Solana price appears to be benefitting from a broader market bounce across the entire cryptocurrency market and renewed optimism surrounding a potential Solana ETF approval in the US following Paul Atkins’ appointment as SEC chair. Atkins, known for his crypto-friendly stance, has sparked speculation that altcoin ETFs, including Solana, could face a smoother path to approval. 

The betting odds for a SOL ETF approval in 2025 now stand at 76% on Polymarket. Over the past three months, the probability of approval has swung 11% in favor of the bulls, which was around 65% on Jan. 4.

Several major asset managers have submitted applications for a Solana ETF, including VanEck, Grayscale, 21Shares, Bitwise, and Canary Capital.

Market participants believe such an offering could attract new capital and enhance liquidity in SOL trading. 

Margin short liquidations push SOL price higher

Rising liquidations in Solana’s derivatives market also played a role in today’s rally, according to data from CoinGlass. The crypto futures market witnessed the liquidation of over $226 million worth of leverage positions in the last 24 hours, with $152.4 million being short liquidations.

Over $9.3 million in short SOL positions were liquidated against $2.1 million in long liquidations over the same period. 

Related: Fartcoin rallies 104% in a week — Will Solana (SOL) price catch up?

Solana’s RSI shows a bullish divergence

On SOL’s daily chart, there is a bullish divergence with the daily RSI which preceded today’s price increase.

The bullish divergence could be a hint that the bulls are gaining control, and if the trend holds, SOL price could rally toward the 50-day SMA above $130 in the short term.

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.

New Hampshire’s House and Florida’s House insurance and banking committee have respectively advanced bills allowing their states to create Bitcoin reserves.

New Hampshire’s House passed its Bitcoin reserve bill, HB302, in a 192-179 vote on April 10 which will now head to the Senate. The state is now the fourth to pass a Bitcoin (BTC) reserve bill through one chamber, joining Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma.

If HB302 clears New Hampshire’s Senate and Governor Kelly Ayotte signs it into law it would allow the state’s treasurer to use 10% of the state’s general fund and other authorized funds to invest in precious metals and certain digital assets. The bill also sets out how they should be custodied.

The bill specifies that only cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization of over $500 billion would be eligible for investment, a criteria that only Bitcoin currently meets.

In a debate prior to the vote, Democrat Representative Terry Spahr argued that the bill is unnecessary and could undermine the future security of the state’s digital assets stockpile. 

“Unbeknownst to the committee and to the sponsor […] the treasurer testified that they already have that authority,” Spahr said. He added that cryptocurrency is “constantly shifting and changing, and it’s sort of dangerous to be kind of locked into certain types of security measures, and I think that bill does this.”

Republican Representative Jordan Ulery countered that the bill was necessary as it could create the “potential for a large amount of money being earned by the state in these investments.”

New Hampshire has two other blockchain-related bills working their way through the legislature — HB310, which covers stablecoins and real-world asset tokenization (RWA) and HB 639, which deals with blockchain regulation and dispute resolution.

Florida House Committee passes Bitcoin reserve bill 

Meanwhile on April 10, Florida’s House Insurance and Banking Committee passed the state’s Bitcoin reserve bill, HB487, with a unanimous vote.

The bill has three committees to clear before it progresses to Florida’s House.

WATCH: Florida House Committee PASSES Bitcoin Reserve Bill

The Insurance and Banking Committee passed HB 487 unanimously today

Including moving testimony from bill sponsor Rep. Webster Barnaby pic.twitter.com/myAlNvtFl9

— Bitcoin Laws (@Bitcoin_Laws) April 10, 2025

Similar to New Hampshire’s bill, HB487 would allow Florida’s chief financial officer and the State Board of Administration to invest up to 10% of certain state funds — including the General Revenue Fund and the Budget Stabilization Fund — into Bitcoin.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Representative Webster Barnaby pleaded with the Committee before the vote “to vote up on this very important bill” which he claimed would “put Florida in the leading edge of this very new technology.”

Related: US federal agencies to report crypto holdings to Treasury by April 7

Florida’s bill gives the state’s financial chief the ability to invest in digital assets directly, through certain qualified custodians, or through exchange-traded products and details security and custody requirements.

According to Bitcoin Laws, which tracks the progress of digital assets legislation, Arizona is currently leading the race to become the first US state to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. 

On March 24, two digital assets reserve bills, SB1373 and SB1025, cleared Arizona’s House Rules Committee and are now headed to the state’s House for a full floor vote. 

If passed by the House, the bills would then need the signature of Arizona’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs to become law.

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again

US Securities and Exchange Commission staff have given guidance on how federal securities laws could apply to crypto, saying companies issuing or dealing with tokens that could be securities should give better details about their business.

The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance said in a staff statement on April 10 that it was giving its views “to provide greater clarity on the application of the federal securities laws to crypto assets.” 

The Division said its statement was made of observations of disclosures given in existing disclosure requirements and “addresses our views about certain specific disclosure questions that market participants have presented to the staff.”

The guidance, which the Division noted had “no legal force or effect,” said crypto companies who are giving disclosures about their business have typically shared a host of information about their operations, such as what the company specifically does, how any issued tokens work and how the business generates — or intends to generate — revenue.

Companies have also disclosed whether they plan to remain engaged in a crypto network or app after they launch it and, if not, whether any other entities will take over.

Crypto firms should also explain their technology, such as if their product is a proof-of-work or proof-of-stake blockchain, its block size, transaction speed, reward mechanisms, the measures to ensure network security and whether the protocol is open-source or not.

The SEC staff also noted that registration or qualification is not required in connection with crypto offerings that aren’t securities and aren’t part of an investment contract. However, the statement didn’t provide clarity on what digital assets could be securities.

Commercial litigator Joe Carlasare told Cointelegraph the statement was “a welcome and refreshing step toward clearer regulatory guidance.”

“Adhering to the guidelines will help entities not only position themselves more favorably with regulators but also demonstrate a commitment to transparency and credibility,” he said.

Crypto firms should share all risks

The SEC staff statement said that issuers usually clearly disclose risks related to price volatility, network and cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and custody risks, in addition to standard business, operational, legal and regulatory risks.

A “materially complete description” of a security is also typically required from an issuer, which includes the mechanism behind paying dividends, distributions, profit-sharing and voting rights, including how those rights are enforced.

Related: No crypto project has registered with the SEC and ‘lived to tell the tale’ — House committee hearing

It added a company should share if a protocol’s code can be modified, and if so, who can make such changes and whether the smart contracts involved have been subjected to a third-party security audit.

Other disclosures the statement mentioned are whether the token’s supply is fixed and how it was or will be issued along with identifying executives and “significant employees.”

The Division said its guidance intended to build on the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, which is planning to host a series of roundtables with the crypto industry to discuss how it should police crypto trading, custody, tokenization and decentralized finance.

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Update April 11, 1:46 am: This article has been updated to include more information and background on the resolution.

US President Donald Trump has signed a joint congressional resolution overturning a Biden administration-era rule that would have required decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to report transactions to the Internal Revenue Service.

Set to take effect in 2027, the so-called IRS DeFi broker rule would have expanded the tax authority’s existing reporting requirements to include DeFi platforms, requiring them to disclose gross proceeds from crypto sales, including information regarding taxpayers involved in the transactions.

Trump formally killed the measure by signing off the resolution on April 10, marking the first time a crypto bill has ever been signed into law, Representative Mike Carey, who backed the bill, said in a statement.

“The DeFi Broker Rule needlessly hindered American innovation, infringed on the privacy of everyday Americans, and was set to overwhelm the IRS with an overflow of new filings that it doesn’t have the infrastructure to handle during tax season,” he said.

Critics of the rule claimed it would lump decentralized platforms with too onerous rules, hampering innovation in crypto and DeFi.

Supporters, such as Democratic Representative Lloyd Doggett, said in March that killing the IRS rule would create a loophole that wealthy tax cheats would exploit.

The resolution to kill the rule had quickly made its way through Congress and passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 25, with the House passing it on March 11.

The Senate passed the resolution on March 26. It had previously passed its own version of the resolution in early March, but the House made its own due to Constitutional rules about where budget measures should originate.

Trump was widely expected to sign the bill, as White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks said in March that the president supported killing the measure

Industry “can breathe again” with IRS rule repealed

Crypto advocacy group Blockchain Association CEO Kristin Smith said in an April 10 statement the “industry’s innovators, builders, and developers can breathe again,” now the resolution has passed. 

“This rule promised an end to the United States crypto industry; it was a sledgehammer to the engine of American innovation,” she added.

Related: OpenSea urges SEC to exclude NFT marketplaces from regulator’s remit

The lobby group filed a lawsuit in December against the IRS, the Treasury and then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to repeal the IRS rule, claiming it was unlawful and an “unconstitutional overreach.

The Trump administration has taken a friendly attitude toward crypto and has worked to heel the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has wound back its hardline stance toward crypto forged under former Chair Gary Gensler.

The regulator has dismissed a number of enforcement actions and probes against crypto firms that it launched under the Biden administration and has begun a series of industry consultations on how it should regulate crypto.

Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research

Ukraine’s financial regulator has proposed taxing certain crypto transactions as personal income at a rate of up to 23% but excluding crypto-to-crypto transactions and stablecoins.  

Crypto transactions would be taxed at 18% with a 5% military levy on top as part of the proposed framework, released on April 8 by Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission. 

NSSMC Chairman Ruslan Magomedov said in an April 8 statement that “the issue of crypto taxes is not a hypothesis, but a reality that is fast approaching.” 

He added that the agency created the framework to help lawmakers make an “informed resolution” by considering each suggestion’s advantages and disadvantages because “these aspects can have a critical impact on the market and tax liability.”

Under the NSSMC’s proposed crypto framework, a tax will be applied when crypto is cashed out for fiat currency or exchanged for goods or services. 

Crypto-to-crypto transactions wouldn’t be taxed, bringing Ukraine in line with other European countries, including Austria and France, as well as crypto-friendly jurisdictions like Singapore, the NSSMC said. 

The regulator says it “makes sense” to exclude stablecoins backed by foreign currencies or only apply a 5% or 9% tax because Ukraine’s tax code already excludes income from transactions in “foreign exchange values.” 

Mining, staking, hard forks and airdrops 

Other crypto-related activities, such as mining, staking and airdrops, are also addressed in the framework which floated a few options for taxation. 

The NSSMC said crypto mining is generally considered a business activity, but there might be a general tax-free limit for certain crypto transactions, including mining. 

Under the framework, staking could be considered as “business captive income” or only taxed if the crypto is cashed out for fiat currencies. While hard forks and airdrops could be taxed either as ordinary income or when the tokens are cashed. 

Related: Ukraine officials get training on crypto and virtual assets investigation

The regulator suggests a tax-free threshold could help “relieve the burden on small investors” and is common in other jurisdictions. 

Exemptions for donations, transfers between family members, and holders who keep their crypto for a set amount of time are also flagged as possibilities. However, the NSSMC says the exemption might not apply to non-custodial crypto wallets. 

Last December, Daniil Getmantsev, head of the tax committee of Ukraine’s parliament, said a draft bill to legalize cryptocurrencies was under review and expected to be finalized early this year. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first signed a law establishing a legal framework for the country to operate a regulated crypto market in March 2022. 

Magazine: New ‘MemeStrategy’ Bitcoin firm by 9GAG, jailed CEO’s $3.5M bonus: Asia Express

Digital asset manager 21Shares has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot Dogecoin exchange-traded fund, following similar filings from rivals Bitwise and Grayscale.

The 21Shares Dogecoin ETF would seek to track the price of the memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE), according to the firm’s April 9 Form S-1 registration statement. The Dogecoin Foundation’s corporate arm, House of Doge, plans to assist 21Shares with marketing the fund.

21Shares said Coinbase Custody would be the proposed custodian of its Dogecoin ETF but did not specify a fee, ticker or what stock exchange it would list on.

21Shares must also file a 19b-4 filing with the SEC to kickstart the regulator’s approval process for the fund. 

DOGE currently has a $24.2 billion market cap and is the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by value. It was created in 2013 as a joke and is a fork of Lucky Coin, which itself is a fork of Bitcoin.

21Shares’ proposed Dogecoin ETF is the company’s latest effort to expand its spot crypto ETF offerings, which currently includes only a spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fund.

The issuer also filed with the SEC in February to launch a spot Polkadot (DOT) ETF and last year, it filed to create a spot XRP (XRP) ETF.

Related: Dogecoin millionaires are buying dips as DOGE price eyes 30% rally

The recent surge in crypto ETF filings reflects a “spaghetti cannon approach” from issuers testing which products the new SEC leadership might approve, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said in February.

“Issuers will try to launch many many different things and see what sticks,” Seyffart said.

Seyffart and fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in February that there is a 75% chance that the SEC will approve a spot Dogecoin ETF this year, while the betting platform Polymarket currently gives approval odds of 64%.

21Shares and House of Doge partner for DOGE funds in Switzerland

21Shares also said on April 9 that it partnered with House of Doge to launch a fully backed Dogecoin exchange-traded product on Switzerland’s SIX Swiss Exchange.

The 21Shares Dogecoin product will trade under the ticker “DOGE” with a 2.5% fee.

21Shares president Duncan Moir said that Dogecoin “has become more than a cryptocurrency: it represents a cultural and financial movement that continues to drive mainstream adoption, and DOGE offers investors a regulated avenue to be part of this exciting project.”

Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research

Update April 10 at 1:41am UTC: This article has been updated to include more background on Paul Atkins before becoming SEC chair.

The US Senate has confirmed US President Donald Trump’s nominee, Paul Atkins, as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission in a 51-45 vote largely along party lines.

Atkins’ confirmation on April 9 comes after Trump named the pro-crypto former Wall Street consultant to lead the agency late last year. Atkins also served as an SEC commissioner between 2002 and 2008, during the global financial crisis.

”A veteran of our Commission, we look forward to him joining with us, along with our dedicated staff, to fulfill our mission on behalf of the investing public,” the agency’s commissioners wrote in an April 9 statement.

Atkins founded financial consulting firm Patomak Global Partners in 2009, specializing in regulatory compliance and risk management, and served as co-chair of crypto advocacy group Token Alliance between 2017 and late 2024.

After he’s sworn in, Atkins will take over from Mark Uyeda, who has been the SEC’s acting chair since Jan. 20, after former chair Gary Gensler stepped down. Gensler’s tenure saw the SEC launch multiple lawsuits and investigations against crypto firms over alleged breaches of securities laws.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott expressed confidence that Atkins would continue the SEC’s crypto-friendly approach that it has taken under the Trump administration.

“Atkins will also provide regulatory clarity for digital assets, allowing American innovation to flourish, and ensuring we remain competitive on the global stage.”

Under Trump, the SEC created a Crypto Task Force to consult with the industry on regulation and dropped several crypto-related investigations and enforcement actions undertaken by the Gensler-led SEC.

Atkins is expected to take a different approach, telling a Senate confirmation hearing in March that a top priority of his at the SEC would be “to provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent, and principled approach.”

Atkins’ confirmation delayed by disclosures

Atkins’ confirmation was reportedly delayed due to several financial disclosures he needed to file as a result of marrying into a billionaire family.

Related: No crypto project has registered with the SEC and ‘lived to tell the tale’ — House committee hearing

He married Sarah Humphreys Atkins in 1990 — whose family is tied to TAMKO Building Products LLC, a manufacturer of residential roofing shingles that turned over $1.2 billion in revenue in 2023, Forbes reported in December. The couple have a reported combined net worth of at least $327 million.

Some of those financial disclosures revealed that Atkins owned up to $6 million worth of crypto-related investments, including crypto custody platform Anchorage Digital and blockchain tokenization platform Securitize, Fortune reported last month.

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered