Decentral Block Post

Opinion by: Felix Xu, co-founder of ARPA Network and Bella Protocol

AI has been a dominant narrative since 2024, but users and companies still cannot completely trust it. Whether it’s finances, personal data or healthcare decisions, hesitation around AI’s reliability and integrity remains high.

This growing AI trust deficit is now one of the most significant barriers to widespread adoption. Decentralized, privacy-preserving technologies are quickly being recognized as viable solutions that offer verifiability, transparency and stronger data protection without compromising AI’s growth.

The pervasive AI trust deficit 

AI was the second most popular category occupying crypto mindshare in 2024, with over 16% investor interest. Startups and multinational companies have allocated considerable resources to AI to expand the technology to people’s finances, health, and every other aspect.

For example, the emerging DeFi x AI (DeFAI) sector shipped more than 7,000 projects with a peak market cap of $7 billion in early 2025 before the markets crashed. DeFAI has demonstrated the transformative potential of AI to make decentralized finance (DeFi) more user-friendly with natural language commands, execute complex multi-step operations, and conduct complex market research.

Key points:

Bitcoin’s most recently-moved supply segment is increasing as higher prices see an influx of “speculative capital.”

“Hot supply” has doubled in just five weeks versus local lows in March.

Active address numbers have yet to mimic a classic bull market comeback.

Bitcoin (BTC) short-term holders (STHs) are back in the game as a “speculative capital” enters the market.

Cryptocurrency compliance firm Bitrace found that $649 billion worth of stablecoins flowed through addresses classified as high-risk in 2024, according to an April 29 report.

Bitrace defines high-risk blockchain addresses as those used by illegal entities to receive, transfer or store stablecoins.

Crypto compliance firms typically score crypto wallet addresses based on their likelihood of involvement in illicit activities. The higher the risk, the higher the likelihood of foul play, and the less likely compliant crypto businesses are to accept the assets.

Per the report, the amount accounted for roughly 5.14% of all stablecoin transaction volume in 2024. This is down 0.8% from 5.94% the previous year, but significantly higher than the 2.8% reported in 2022 and 1.63% in 2021.

Proportion of high-risk stablecoin transactions. Source: Bitrace

Related: Americans lost $9.3B to crypto fraud in 2024 — FBI

Tron USDT tops high-risk transactions

Tron-based USDt (USDT) dominates high-risk stablecoin transactions, with Bitrace data indicating that well over 70% of the volume moved on the network. The remaining high-risk stablecoin transactions are mostly Ethereum-based USDt and a small amount of USDC (USDC).

Key takeaways:

Ether’s price was rejected at $1,860, but $1,800 must hold for a $2,000 breakout.

Strong Ethereum ETF inflows signal high institutional demand.

Ethereum’s $51.8B TVL and 30% DEX weekly volume rise show robust network strength.

A bull flag pattern on the ETH’s four-hour chart targets $2,100.

The United States’ rejection of a central bank digital currency has not halted the progress of CBDCs globally, but their success has been questionable so far, according to a former Binance executive.

Global CBDC projects have not failed, but they have also not become what they were anticipated to be, according to Olga Goncharova, CEO at the consulting firm Rizz Go and former director of government relations in the Commonwealth of Independent States at Binance.

“CBDCs were conceived as a technological breakthrough, but so far they look like expensive imitations of existing traditional fiat currencies that citizens and businesses already use through online banking and payment apps,” Goncharova told Cointelegraph at the Blockchain Forum in Moscow.

Olga Goncharova during a panel on Web3 geopolitics at the Blockchain Forum 2025 on April 23. Source: Blockchain Forum

Though some of the CBDC-like creatives date back to the 1990s, modern initiatives are yet to offer users a real added value compared to traditional payment channels, she said.

CBDC leaders like China struggle with adoption

“Today it is clear that the expectations around CBDCs were overestimated,” Goncharova claimed, adding that none of the jurisdictions worldwide have succeeded in the mass adoption of retail CBDCs.

The Beijing city administration has announced a plan for local blockchain development and implementation over the next two years.

According to an April 29 announcement, the plan was jointly developed by the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, the Cyberspace Administration Office, the Bureau of Government Services and Data, the Bureau of Economy and Information Technology and the Bureau of Commerce. The implementation is expected to start this year and continue until 2027.

The announcement. Source: Beijing government

The Beijing Blockchain Innovation and Application Development Action Plan recognizes blockchain as a “critical foundational technology for industrial digitalization and vital digital infrastructure.”

Notably, the objectives also include plans to “enhance the value extraction from digital assets through blockchain,” which may indicate crypto mining. The announcement also claims that the city has already invested heavily in this area of research:

“Beijing has significantly progressed in autonomous blockchain technology development and application scenarios.“

Related: An overview of China’s digital yuan

A16z Crypto led a $25 million investment round into Miden, an independent blockchain project spun out of Polygon Labs.

Miden closed its $25 million seed rounds led by a16z Crypto, 1kx, and Hack VC, with participation from Finality Capital Partners, Symbolic Capital, P2 Ventures, Delta Fund, MH Ventures, as well as from angel investors, including MakerDAO’s Rune Christensen and EigenLayer’s Sreeram Kannan.

Miden is a zero-knowledge (ZK) proof-powered blockchain focused on high scalability through its hybrid consensus mode, which moves transaction execution from the mainnet on “edge devices,” referring to users’ devices.

Designed for institutions that value confidentiality, Miden enables applications to execute both public and private transactions with full privacy, according to an April 29 announcement shared with Cointelegraph.

Execution on edge devices can help with the “bottlenecks that limit traditional chains,” said Bobbin Threadbare, the co-founder at Miden and former engineer at Meta, adding:

The first 100 days of the administration of US President Donald Trump have deeply impacted the crypto industry, starting with his own memecoin and culminating in a Bitcoin reserve and a spate of blockchain policymaking. 

Trump’s trade war with the entire world has had the largest short-term impact on crypto markets, as crypto prices have wavered amid macroeconomic worry and uncertainty. Higher prices on electronics mean Bitcoin (BTC) miners are finding it harder to break even, and de-dollarization concerns abound. 

Still, crypto markets have shown some resilience and cause for optimism in the administration’s crypto-friendly policies. A number of pro-crypto leaders have been appointed to key government agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The crypto industry’s long-awaited regulatory framework is also imminent.

Trump’s first 100 days have seen remarkable changes for the crypto industry, and it appears that things are only getting started. Here’s a look at what’s happened so far.

Jan. 20 — Trump’s first 100 days kick off with a memecoin

On Jan. 20, while Trump was sworn into office in the rotunda of the Capitol Building, his family’s crypto investment firm, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), launched its second token sale of WLFI tokens.

USDC stablecoin issuer Circle has received in-principle approval (IPA) from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), the company announced on April 29.

The approval moves Circle closer to obtaining a full Financial Services Permission (FSP) license, allowing it to operate as a regulated money services provider in the United Arab Emirates, the firm said in an official press release.

Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s Co-Founder and CEO, said the approval “advances our strategy to establish deep roots in markets embracing the onchain economy.” He added:

“It also underscores Circle’s enduring commitment to global stablecoin oversight—strengthening trust, compliance, and adoption worldwide, while laying a resilient foundation for the internet financial system.”

Comments from Circle CEO and Chief of Market Development at ADGM regarding the regulatory nod. Source: PR

Related: Circle files for Initial Public Offering planned for April

Bitcoin mining firm Phoenix Group announced the addition of 52 megawatts (MW) worth of mining capacity to its capabilities in Ethiopia.

According to an April 29 announcement, with this latest addition, Phoenix’s Bitcoin mining capacity in Ethiopia reaches 132 MW. The firm’s global capacity now reportedly exceeds 500 MW.

Phoenix’s co-founder and CEO, Munaf Ali, said the firm’s strategy relies on “securing prime locations with abundant, low-cost energy.”

“Initiatives like our latest expansion in Ethiopia are pivotal steps, not only creating significant value today but also solidifying our position,” he said.

Related: Arkansas city rejects crypto mining proposal after community pushback

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin’s price consolidates as the market awaits President Trump’s 100-day speech.

Over $4.7 billion in BTC has been withdrawn from exchanges since April 22, reducing supply and boosting price sensitivity to demand.

Trump’s crypto policy clarity could spark a BTC surge, but tariffs may cap gains.

Traders say Bitcoin price must clear key hurdles above $95,000 before continuing the uptrend to $100,000 and beyond.

BlackRock’s exchange-traded fund (ETF) bought nearly $1 billion worth of Bitcoin on behalf of its clients on April 28, with continued inflows providing “structural support” for Bitcoin’s price appreciation, according to market analysts.

BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) ETF bought $970 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) on April 28, its second-largest day of inflows on record after scooping up $1.12 billion of BTC on Nov. 7, 2024, Sosovalue data shows.

IBIT ETF Inflows, all-time chart. Source: Sosovalue 

IBIT’s near $1 billion investment brought total net inflows to US spot BTC ETFs to just above $590 million, with all other ETFs realizing net negative outflows or remaining flat. ARK Invest’s ARKB ETF recorded the highest outflows of $226 million.

Related: Bitcoin treasury firms driving $200T hyperbitcoinization — Adam Back

“Nearly *$1bil* into iShares Bitcoin ETF today.. 2nd largest inflow since Jan 2024 inception. I still remember when there was “no demand,” Nate Geraci, the president of ETF Store advisory firm, wrote in an April 29 X post.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin supply in profit has climbed back above 85%, nearing the classic euphoric area.

Onchain data shows strong accumulation from new and momentum buyers with minimal profit-taking.

Bitcoin could rally toward $110,000–$115,000 helped by a “max buying” zone.

Bitcoin (BTC) is charging toward a potential new all-time high near $115,000, as a surge in profitable supply signals growing bullish momentum and a classic setup for market euphoria.

DeFi protocol Loopscale has recovered nearly half of the funds stolen during a major exploit over the weekend, as white hat negotiations with the attacker show signs of progress.

In an April 29 update posted to X, Loopscale confirmed that approximately 19,463 Wrapped SOL (WSOL) (worth roughly $2.88 million) have been returned to its wallets since April 28.

The first two returns included 10,000 WSOL (~$1.48 million) and 4,463 WSOL (~$660,000), following an earlier recovery of 5,000 WSOL (~$740,000).

“Our pursuit of an amicable resolution regarding Saturday’s incident continues to make progress,” the team wrote.

Loopscale updating community on negotiations progress. Source: Loopscale

Related: DeFi platform KiloEx to compensate users impacted by $7.5M hack

Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, faces a 20-year prison sentence as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) seeks a severe penalty for his role in a multibillion-dollar fraud.

The DOJ on April 28 filed the government’s sentencing memorandum against Mashinsky, recommending a 20-year prison sentence for his fraudulent actions, which led to billions of dollars in losses for Celsius customers.

The 97-page memo mentioned that Celsius users were unable to access approximately $4.7 billion in crypto assets after the platform halted withdrawals on June 12, 2022.

“The Court should sentence Alexander Mashinsky to twenty years’ imprisonment as just punishment for his years-long campaign of lies and self-dealing that left in its wake billions in losses and thousands of victimized customers,” the DOJ stated.

Mashinsky’s personal benefit was $48 million

In addition to the investor losses, the DOJ noted that Mashinsky has personally profited from the fraudulent schemes in his role.

Key points:

Bitcoin has beaten out three key resistance levels in a single weekly candle.

The weekly close defended the 2025 yearly open, but a subsequent dip below it is making analysis question the strength of the BTC price breakout.

BTC/USD remains in a “critical zone” pending fresh support confirmations.

Bitcoin (BTC) has broken through three key resistance levels in a week, but its biggest reclaim battle continues.

Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch has launched on Solana, marking a significant step toward its vision of a “unified multichain” decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

According to a press release shared with Cointelegraph, the integration enables users to trade over 1 million Solana-based tokens directly through the 1inch decentralized application (DApp), benefiting from maximal extractable value-protected swaps, optimized rates and open-source smart contract infrastructure.

The move brings 1inch’s Fusion protocol to Solana for the first time. Fusion enables users to define their ideal swap parameters, which are then executed by competing professional market makers, or “resolvers,” using Dutch auction mechanics.

Combined with Solana’s ultra-fast block times, the setup promises more efficient and seamless trading execution than other networks.

A 1inch representative told Cointelegraph that users could expect “minimal fees” when executing swaps on Solana. “Users may expect costs of less than one cent,” they said.

The concept of a Russian ruble stablecoin received special attention at a major local crypto event, the Blockchain Forum in Moscow, with key industry executives reflecting on some of the core features a ruble-backed stablecoin might require.

Sergey Mendeleev, founder of the digital settlement exchange Exved and inactive founder of the sanctioned Garantex exchange, put forward seven key criteria for a potential “replica of Tether” in a keynote at the Blockchain Forum on April 23.

Mendeleev said a potential ruble stablecoin must have untraceable transactions and allow transfers without Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.

However, because one of the criteria also requires the stablecoin to comply with Russian regulations, he expressed skepticism that such a product could emerge soon.

The DAI model praised 

Mendeleev proposed that a potential Russian “Tether replica” must be overcollateralized similarly to the Dai (DAI) stablecoin model, a decentralized algorithmic stablecoin that maintains its one-to-one peg with the US dollar using smart contracts.

A trio of major Abu Dhabi institutions, including the Emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, have teamed up to launch a new dirham-pegged stablecoin.

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ, the United Arab Emirates’ largest bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), and the massive conglomerate the International Holding Company, have partnered to launch the stablecoin, pending regulatory approval, the three companies said on April 28.

The trio said the stablecoin would be regulated by the UAE’s central bank and backed by the country’s currency, the dirham. It will also support use cases such as machine-to-machine and artificial intelligence.

Source: IHC

The goal is to place the UAE at the “forefront of global blockchain innovation,” while also strengthening the digital infrastructure, according to ADQ.

If it gets the nod from regulators, the new stablecoin will operate on the ADI blockchain, created by the ADI Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping established financial systems and governments advance and adopt blockchain technology.

The founders of the crypto fintech firm Bankera used funds from the project’s 2018 initial coin offering to purchase luxury properties worldwide, according to a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The OCCRP reported on April 28, citing leaked company records and bank statements, that nearly half of the funds from Bankera’s 100 million euro ($114 million) ICO were transferred to a bank in the Pacific Island country of Vanuatu that was purchased by the project’s founders, Vytautas Karalevičius, Justas Dobiliauskas and Mantas Mockevičius.

Soon after, the Vanuatu bank reportedly began issuing millions of euros in loans to companies owned by the trio to build a luxury real estate portfolio — including a villa in the French Riviera and high-end property in Lithuania, where the project was founded.

Bankera’s three founders. Source: Bankera

The leaked records and statements reportedly show that the funds were used to underwrite loans to other companies, which were then used to purchase high-end real estate. 

The Vanuatu bank also loaned millions more directly to the three founders for “personal use,” according to the OCCRP report.

Researchers at the University of Zurich have been accused of undertaking an unauthorized four-month-long experiment on a Reddit board using artificial intelligence-generated comments to test whether AI could alter people’s opinions. 

As part of the experiment, AI-powered accounts faked a variety of personas, including a rape victim, a person opposed to specific social movements and a trauma counselor specializing in abuse, moderators of the r/changemyview subreddit said in an April 26 post.

“Our sub is a decidedly human space that rejects undisclosed AI as a core value,” the moderators said. “People do not come here to discuss their views with AI or to be experimented upon.” 

The researchers used AI to generate responses but attempted to personalize the replies based on information from the original posters’ prior Reddit history, such as political orientation, gender, age, and ethnicity, according to a draft of the paper.

Moderators of the r/changemyview subreddit say researchers at the University of Zurich conducted an unauthorized experiment within their community. Source: Reddit

Over the four-month experiment, Zurich University’s fake AI accounts posted 1,783 comments and received 137 deltas — a mark showing when another Reddit user acknowledged the account had persuaded them to change their opinion on an issue. 

US federal prosecutors and the co-founders of the crypto mixer Samourai Wallet have asked a court for more time to consider potentially dismissing the case after the Justice Department rolled back its crypto enforcement.

Lawyers for Samourai Wallet CEO Keonne Rodriguez and chief technology officer William Hill said in an April 28 letter to Manhattan federal judge Richard Berman that they jointly requested with the government “for a continuance of the pretrial motions schedule by 16 days.”

The Samourai executives' lawyers said on April 10 that they wrote to Acting Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton to request the dismissal of the case after an April 7 memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche shuttered the Justice Department’s crypto team.

“On April 24, 2025, defense counsel met with the prosecutors and their supervisors in person at the U.S. Attorney’s Office to discuss this request,” the lawyers said.

“The Defendants believe that a continuance of the pretrial motions schedule is warranted to permit Defendants to avoid the significant expense of preparing their motions while the Government determines its position,” the letter stated.

While United States dollar-denominated stablecoins dominate the stablecoin and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization game, other competitors are coming into play, according to Tether co-founder Reeve Collins. 

Speaking to Cointelegraph in Dubai, Collins said that while dollar-backed stablecoins may be dominant, other currencies and assets may compete to back stablecoins.

“The stablecoin definitely helps preserve the dollar dominance, especially in the crypto space,” Collins said. “The dollar is kind of the reserve currency of crypto. But now there are other currencies coming into play. But more importantly, it’s not currencies. It’s other types of backing,” he added.

Collins said that other assets used to back stablecoins may compete with US dollars by bringing a higher yield to users. 

Interview with Tether co-founder Reeve Collins in Dubai, UAE. Source: Cointelegraph 

Tether co-founder says tokenized assets can back stablecoins

Collins, who works bringing stablecoin yield for users through Pi Protocol, told Cointelegraph that apart from currencies, money-market funds, other commodities and gold could back stablecoins in the future. 

Legendary investor Ray Dalio has said the world is “on the brink” of the global monetary order breaking down, which is being accelerated by the Trump administration’s tariff disruptions.

The trade tensions are fracturing the monetary, political and international world orders by fueling deglobalization and unsustainable trade imbalances, Dalio, the former CEO of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, said in an April 28 X post.

Dalio added that this is leading to irreversible damage, and an increasing number of importers and exporters, particularly between the US and China, are drastically reducing interdependencies and “making alternative plans.”

“[They’re] recognizing that whatever happens with tariffs, these problems won't go away, and that radically reduced interdependencies with the US is a reality that has to be planned for.”Source: Ray Dalio

Dalio said America’s role as the world’s largest consumer of manufactured goods and the largest debt issuer is looking increasingly unsustainable, and the idea that trade partners would continue selling to the US and receive dollars was “naive thinking.”

As a result, more countries may increasingly bypass the US by forming new trade networks that rely on alternative currencies.

The crypto lobby group, the DeFi Education Fund, has petitioned the Trump administration to end what it claimed was the “lawless prosecution” of open-source software developers, including Roman Storm, a creator of the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash.

In an April 28 letter to White House crypto czar David Sacks, the group urged President Donald Trump “to take immediate action to discontinue the Biden-era Department of Justice's lawless campaign to criminalize open-source software development.” 

The letter specifically mentioned the prosecution of Storm, who was charged in August 2023 with helping launder over $1 billion in crypto through Tornado Cash. His trial is still set for July, and his fellow charged co-founder, Roman Semenov, is at large and believed to be in Russia.

The DeFi Education Fund said that in Storm’s case, the Department of Justice is attempting to hold software developers criminally liable for how others use their code, which is “not only absurd in principle, but it sets a precedent that potentially chills all crypto development in the United States.”

The group also called for the recognition that the prosecution contradicts the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) guidance from Trump’s first term, which established that developers of self-custodial, peer-to-peer protocols are not money transmitters. 

Mastercard says it will allow merchants across its network to be paid with stablecoins in a partnership with payment processor Nuvei and stablecoin issuers Circle and Paxos. 

Through the venture, 150 million merchants across the Mastercard network will now have the option to receive payments in stablecoins, regardless of how a customer pays, Mastercard said on April 28.

The payments giant also partnered with crypto exchange OKX for a crypto-enabled bank card, which Mastercard product chief Jorn Lambert said creates a “360-degree approach” where consumers can spend stablecoins and merchants can receive them.

He added that the “mainstream use cases are clear” for blockchain tech, and the company wanted “to make it as easy for merchants to receive stablecoin payments and for consumers to use them.”

Source: Mastercard News

The stablecoin market has continued to make gains, crossing a market value of $230 billion, an increase of 54% since last year, with Tether (USDT) and USDC (USDC) dominating 90% of the market.

The Ethereum Foundation, which backs the development of the Ethereum blockchain, has overhauled its leadership structure to separate the responsibilities of its management team and board of directors.

The board will act as the “security council to protect the heart and soul” of the foundation and set visions for Ethereum, while the new management will be focused on the strategic and operational execution of those visions, the Foundation said in an April 28 blog post.

It added in an April 28 X post that Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz K. Stańczak were appointed as co-executive directors on March 2 to deliver on those visions — which are centered around championing censorship resistance, open-source innovation, privacy and security

Wang and Stańczak’s roles took effect on April 28 with the foundation setting a two-year term for Stańczak to address some of Ethereum’s biggest challenges. Stańczak’s new role will be balanced with his work as founder of Ethereum infrastructure firm Nethermind and a soon-to-be-announced Ethereum-focused venture capital firm.

Source: Ethereum Foundation

Bastian Aue and Josh Stark are also a part of the management team, with Aue to focus on organizational strategy, hiring and training, and Stark to primarily be tasked with project execution, communications and marketing.

Key takeaways:

BONK price is up 73% since April 22, hitting a five-month high of $0.00002167.

BONK’s open interest surged 290% to $43.2 million. 

Bonk (BONK), the second-largest Solana-based memecoin by market capitalization, is on track to continue the recovery it began on April 22. BONK has climbed approximately 73% from its April 22 low of around $0.00001247, bringing its price up to an intraday high of $0.00002167 on April 28.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows BONK trading at $0.00001923, up 3% over the 24 hours and 60% over the last seven days.