Decentral Block Post

A subgroup of the North Korea-linked hacker organization Lazarus set up three shell companies, two in the United States, to deliver malware to unsuspecting users.

The three sham crypto consulting firms — BlockNovas, Angeloper Agency and SoftGlide — are being used by the North Korean hacker group Contagious Interview to distribute malware through fake job interviews, Silent Push threat analysts said in an April 24 report.

Silent Push senior threat analyst Zach Edwards said in an April 24 statement to X that two shell companies are registered as legitimate businesses in the US.

“These websites and a huge network of accounts on hiring / recruiting websites are being used to trick people into applying for jobs,” he said.

“During the job application process an error message is displayed as someone tries to record an introduction video. The solution is an easy click fix copy and paste trick, which leads to malware if the unsuspecting developer completes the process.”

Key Takeaways

Bitcoin Standard author Saifedean Ammous says that even if one entity owned a huge amount of Bitcoin, it wouldn’t hurt the protocol

Ammous reiterated major companies like BlackRock and Strategy don’t own the Bitcoin they hold since it belongs to the investors

Ammous said if these companies ever abused their position, people would likely pull their money and invest somewhere else.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy hypothetically hoarding nearly 48% of Bitcoin’s total supply wouldn’t pose any risk to the Bitcoin protocol or its price, says Bitcoin Standard author Saifedean Ammous.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking to drop its unregistered securities lawsuit against blockchain firm Dragonchain in the agency’s latest crypto-related backdown. 

In a joint stipulation filed with Dragonchain on April 24 in a Seattle federal court, the SEC said it “believes the dismissal of this case is appropriate,” citing the work of the agency’s Crypto Task Force in helping “develop the regulatory framework for crypto assets.”

“The Commission and the Defendants stipulate that this Litigation be dismissed with prejudice [...] and without costs or fees to either party,” the filing reads.

The SEC sued Dragonchain, Inc.; its backer, the Dragonchain Foundation; The Dragon Company; and Dragonchain’s founder, Joseph Roets, in August 2024, claiming they raised $16.5 million through a crypto token that was an unregistered securities offering.

According to the SEC, the Dragonchain (DRGN) tokens raised $14 million in an August 2017 presale and an initial coin offering (ICO) that ran in October and November of that year. At the time, it said the company needed to register as the tokens were investment contracts under securities laws. 

Ethereum core developers are considering a four times increase in the layer 1 gas limit as one of the key features for the next hard fork after Pectra, known as Fusaka.

The devs are proposing to test a raise in Ethereum’s gas limit to 150 million by the Fusaka hard fork, according to Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) 9678, introduced on April 23 by Sophia Gold, a developer on the protocol support team at the Ethereum Foundation. 

During the last All Core Devs Execution (ACDE) meeting, there were discussions to make the gas limit increase a “key feature” of Fusaka, Ethereum core developer Tim Beiko said in an April 24 meeting summary. 

“To align on client defaults and keep this as a priority, we’ve drafted an EIP. It’s a bit unconventional, but not unprecedented (see EIP-7840). We plan to get it merged early next week and formally SFI it on the next ACDE,” Beiko said. 

“As we continue this work, we expect to identify changes that need to be made in-protocol to support a higher gas limit. This implies adding more EIPs to Fusaka, even though the fork scope is final.”

Key takeaways:

Crypto market sentiment hit a two-month high with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index returning to “Greed” territory on April 23.

Despite Bitcoin’s price hold, the sentiment score is gradually declining, and analysts are expressing doubt over the rally’s sustainability.

The crypto market remains Bitcoin-heavy, with its dominance above 64%, strong ETF inflows and a low altcoin season score.

Bitcoin’s several-day surge above $90,000 pushed crypto market sentiment to its highest point in more than two months on April 23, but it’s gradually tapering off again as analysts air concerns about the sustainability of Bitcoin’s rally.

Regulatory changes could be the catalyst to spark significant adoption of stablecoins and blockchain tech in 2025, according to investment banking giant Citigroup.

“2025 has the potential to be blockchain’s ‘ChatGPT’ moment for adoption in the financial and public sector, driven by regulatory change,” a team of Citigroup financial analysts said in an April 23 report. 

A combination of growing regulatory support and adoption by financial institutions has set the stage for the stablecoin market cap to fly as high as $3.7 trillion by 2030, or in a base case, $1.6 trillion.

“The main catalyst for their greater acceptance may be regulatory clarity in the US, which could enable greater integration of stablecoins specifically, and blockchain more widely, into the existing financial system,” Citi said in its report. 

On the heels of US President Donald Trump’s crypto-friendly administration assuming power earlier this year, lawmakers are weighing stablecoin legislation, such as the GENIUS Act, which seeks to regulate US stablecoins, ensuring their legal use for payments. 

Billion-dollar asset manager ARK Invest has raised its “bull case” Bitcoin price target from $1.5 million to $2.4 million by the end of 2030, driven largely by institutional investors and Bitcoin’s increasing acceptance as “digital gold.”

ARK’s “bear” and “base” case scenarios for the price of Bitcoin (BTC) were also bumped up to $500,000 and $1.2 million, ARK research analyst David Puell said in an April 24 report.

The new bear and base targets were bumped up from ARK’s $300,000 and $710,000 Bitcoin price predictions on Feb. 11.

ARK’s price projections were modeled on Bitcoin’s total addressable market (TAM), penetration rate — the percentage of Bitcoin’s TAM that it could capture in certain cases — and Bitcoin’s supply schedule.

“Institutional investment contributes the most to our bull case,” said Puell, who estimated that Bitcoin would achieve a 6.5% penetration rate into the $200 trillion financial market in a best-case scenario (that figure excludes gold).

The capital city of Slovenia — Ljubljana — has been named the world’s most crypto-friendly city by migration advisory firm Multipolitan.

The city outranked runners-up Hong Kong and Switzerland’s economic powerhouse Züric, which scored the same in the Crypto-Friendly Cities Index, found in its 2025 Crypto Report.

The index featured 20 cities and ranked their crypto-friendliness based on their regulations, tax environment, lifestyle factors and digital and crypto infrastructure.

Multipolitan said its evaluation included weighing areas such as a city’s licensing frameworks, capital gains tax rates, GDP per capita, housing affordability and internet speeds.

“The presence of crypto ATMs and retail adoption rates were analysed to reflect each city’s embedded cryptocurrency culture,” it explained. “High concentrations of these assets earned the top scores.”

The Italian municipality of Fornelli in the Molise region of Italy will be dedicating a monument to pseudonymous Bitcoin (BTC) creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

In an April 23 Facebook post from the municipality, Fornelli said it plans to unveil the Satoshi artwork on May 1. Details surrounding the monument were unclear in the announcement, but the municipality said it had been designed by artist Mattia Pannoni and financed by the local government. 

“It is important, indeed fundamental, as an administration, to take into consideration all the new ideas that come from our young people,” said Fornelli Mayor Giovanni Tedeschi.

According to the local government, Fornelli has the “highest density of Bitcoin adoption in the world” among its roughly 1,800 residents. Other regions have attempted to use BTC or other cryptocurrencies to attract visitors, including the Bitcoin Beach area of El Salvador and the Swiss city of Zug, which accepts crypto payments for many local goods and services. 

Portraying a faceless individual through art

The identity of Satoshi, whether a single individual or a group of people, remains one of the biggest mysteries in the crypto space since the publication of the Bitcoin white paper in 2008. 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed a decision on whether to approve a proposed exchange-traded fund (ETF) holding Polkadot’s native token, regulatory filings show. 

According to an April 24 filing, the regulator has extended its deadline for a final ruling until June 11, nearly four months after the Nasdaq sought permission to list Grayscale Polkadot Trust on Feb. 24.

Grayscale’s ETF filing adds to a roster of roughly 70 proposed ETFs awaiting SEC approval, including funds holding altcoins, memecoins, and crypto-related financial derivatives, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.  

Asset managers are pitching ETFs for “[e]verything from XRP, Litecoin and Solana to Penguins, Doge and 2x Melania and everything in between,” Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas said in an April 21 post on the X platform. Asset manager 21Shares is also awaiting permission to list its own Polkadot ETF.

Polkadot is a layer-1 blockchain network launched in 2020. Its native token, DOT (DOT), has a market capitalization of approximately $6.6 billion as of April 24, according to CoinMarketCap.

The US Federal Reserve announced it is withdrawing guidance that served to deter banks from engaging in crypto and stablecoin activities.

”The Board is rescinding its 2022 supervisory letter establishing an expectation that state member banks provide advance notification of planned or current crypto-asset activities,” the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve explained in an April 24 statement.

Any crypto-related activities will now be monitored through the Federal Reserve’s normal supervisory process, it said.

The Federal Reserve is also rescinding its 2023 supervisory letter that impacted how state banks could engage in stablecoin activities.

Related: Trump fought the bond market, the bond market won: Saifedean Ammous

Its guidance initially flagged that crypto may pose risks related to safety and soundness, consumer protection and financial stability of the American financial system.

The White House said on April 24 that it received more than 10,000 public comments on its planned artificial intelligence action plan, indicating widespread interest in the technology as the global race for AI leadership accelerates.

Among the stakeholders providing inputs were AI giants such as OpenAI, Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. In addition, organizations in academia, non-profits, and industry associations also took part in the discussion.

A preliminary review of comments from major private-sector companies highlighted several recurring themes, including the need for greater investment in US energy resources to support AI growth, foreign policy efforts to enhance the global influence of American AI firms, and improved infrastructure to advance AI development domestically.

In addition, many companies lobbied for an open, innovative framework to guide the American AI industry and provide safeguards to individuals.

The White House issued a request for comments on Feb. 6. The administration says these comments “will help define the priority policy actions needed to sustain and enhance America’s AI dominance.” US President Donald Trump has pledged to make the United States the “world capital” of AI and crypto.

Global cross-border payment platform Axiym is targeting the rising demand from money services businesses (MSBs) for blockchain-based infrastructure and stablecoin solutions for international transactions, the company told Cointelegraph.

Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Axiym disclosed on April 24 that it has processed more than $132 million in cumulative volume on the Avalanche blockchain.

The platform uses Avalanche to deliver real-time credit and liquidity infrastructure to MSBs worldwide.

MSBs — a broad category that includes money transmitters like Western Union, currency exchanges, crypto platforms, fintech firms, and check cashers — are embracing these innovations, Morgan Krupetsky, head of institutions and capital markets at Ava Labs, told Cointelegraph.

In the case of Axiym, “MSBs themselves don’t operate onchain,” Axiym CEO Khibar Russel told Cointelegraph. Instead, “Axiym connects their existing payment operations to Avalanche behind the scenes using blockchain to automate, move, and manage capital far more efficiently.” 

Ether (ETH) price has climbed above $1,700 after 16 days of selling pressure caused by macroeconomic uncertainty and a sharp decline in onchain activity. Despite the rebound, Ether has underperformed the broader altcoin market by 23% year-to-date.

Some traders claim that ETH is set for a “generational” bull run by offering a “truly” decentralized and permissionless financial system, but is that really the case?

Ether was one of the few major cryptocurrencies that did not reach a new all-time high in 2025, unlike competitors such as Solana (SOL), Tron (TRX), and BNB (BNB).

Some critics argue that moving away from proof-of-work mining removed a competitive advantage that Ethereum once had over its rivals.

Ethereum fee drop signals ETH price weakness

Eventually, Ether may outperform its competitors, even if only for a short period, and influencers who are calling for a “generational bottom” will celebrate their predictions, despite the lack of strong fundamentals to support lasting price growth. However, considering the 95% drop in Ethereum fees since January, the chances of an immediate ETH surge seem low.

Ethereum's focus on scaling through many layer-2 networks, each with its own transaction processing speed and parameters, potentially gives the network an unlimited number of unique high-throughput chains, according to Anurag Arjun, co-founder of Avail, a unified chain abstraction solution.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Arjun acknowledged that Ethereum and high-throughput competitors with monolithic architecture are fundamentally different products. However, Ethereum's choice to scale through a plethora of L2 solutions gives it an overlooked quality:

This allows a diverse set of high-throughput sidechains to appear rather than just one singular architecture on any monolithic layer-1s, the executive added. However, without true interoperability, switching between L2s will remain as complex as bridging assets between different blockchain ecosystems altogether, Arjun warned.

The Avail co-founder's perspective runs contrary to the many critics of Ethereum's L2-focused approach, who say that the network's scaling solutions silo liquidity and are ultimately corrosive to the base layer. Ethereum's critics argue that L2s are one of the primary causes of Ether's (ETH) poor price performance in the last year.

Related: Vitalik Buterin proposes swapping EVM language for RISC-V

Tokenization platform Securitize has partnered with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Mantle to launch an institutional fund designed to earn yield on a diverse basket of cryptocurrencies, the companies said. 

Similar to how a traditional index fund tracks a mix of stocks, the Mantle Index Four (MI4) Fund aims to offer investors exposure to cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and Solana (SOL), as well as stablecoins tracking the US dollar, Securitize said in an April 24 announcement. 

The fund also integrates liquid staking tokens — including Mantle’s mETH, Bybit’s bbSOL, and Ethena’s USDe — in a bid to enhance returns with onchain yield, according to the announcement.

The launch comes as retail and institutions alike increase exposure to cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, as a hedge amid escalating macroeconomic uncertainty.

‘S&P 500 of crypto’

The market capitalization-weighted index fund aspires to “become the de facto SPX or S&P 500 of crypto,” Timothy Chen, Mantle’s global head of strategy, said in a statement. 

The company offers institutions a way to generate yield from digital assets. One of its liquid staking products, Mantle Staked Ether (mETH), yields holders approximately 3.78% APR as of April 24, according to data from DefiLlama. The protocol has more than $680 million in total value locked (TVL). 

Key Takeaways:

The Bitcoin long-term holder cohort saw a $26 billion value increase as BTC price surged to $94,900.

Short-term holders sold at a loss in early April.

Bitcoin’s 30% correction lines up with historical cycles, and BTC could find support in the $88,750 and $91,000 zone.

Bitcoin (BTC) long-term holders (LTHs) significantly increased their collective wealth in April as BTC price surged from $74,450 to $94,900. According to data from CryptoQuant, the long-term holders (LTHs) realized market cap increased from $345 billion to $371 billion between April 1 and April 23, marking a $26 billion gain.

Jay Clayton, recently appointed interim US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has begun offering statements in criminal cases involving crypto fraud.

In an April 23 notice, the US Attorney’s Office said Eugene William Austin, also known as Hugh Austin, had been sentenced to 18 years in prison following his conviction on conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property. Together with his son, Brandon, sentenced to four years, Austin offered fraudulent crypto investment services, resulting in roughly $12 million in losses to more than 24 people.

“For years, Hugh Austin was the leader of a fraud and money laundering scheme that stole more than $12 million from more than two dozen victims,” said Clayton. “Austin involved his own son in his crimes, working with him to rip off victims and spending investor money on personal expenses, like luxury hotels [...] Austin will now be held accountable for the harm he caused to individual investors and others.”

The criminal case involving digital assets marked one of Clayton’s first public statements since becoming the interim US Attorney on April 22. US President Donald Trump nominated Clayton on Jan. 20 when he took office. The district has since seen the resignation of acting US Attorney Danielle Sassoon in response to the Justice Department directing her to halt a case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Related: US prosecutors file over 200 victim statements in Celsius ex-CEO’s case

Nvidia’s accelerator program appears to sidestep digital assets startups, with its help section listing crypto-focused companies as ineligible to join the tech giant's global network of founders.

According to the program website, crypto companies and four other types of businesses are excluded from participating in Nvidia's Inception: consulting and outsourced development firms, cloud service providers, resellers and distributors, and companies that are already public.

The move indicates a shift in Nvidia's policy regarding crypto startups in its accelerator program. For instance, in 2018, the company accepted Ubex — a startup combining blockchain and AI for digital advertising — in its Inception program.

A Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment on the eligibility policy. The Inception Program is designed for companies younger than 10 years in all stages of funding.

Nvidia is best known for its semiconductors, which play a crucial role in powering microchips for data centers. That same processing power has also made Nvidia’s hardware popular among crypto miners, with the company having previously explored crypto-related use cases for its products.

Related: Public mining firms sold over 40% of their BTC in March — Report

Key Takeaways:

Ethereum saw a record 449,000 in ETH inflows to accumulation addresses on April 22.

Active addresses rose 10%, signaling growing network engagement, but DeFi activity remains weak with declining DEX volumes.

Holders in accumulation addresses remain underwater with a realized price of $1,981.

Over the past 10 days, Ethereum inflows into accumulation addresses reached their highest levels since 2018. On April 22, a record-breaking 449,000 Ether (ETH), valued at an average price of $1,750, flowed into these addresses, marking the most significant single-day inflow in Ethereum’s history. This surge suggests that long-term holders remain optimistic about Ethereum’s future, despite recent price declines.