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Bitcoin (BTC) is exhibiting familiar “bottom” behavior at current prices, according to one of its best-known leading indicators. 

In an X post on April 10, John Bollinger, creator of the Bollinger Bands volatility metric, offered potentially good news to Bitcoin bulls.

Bollinger bands %b metric teases BTC price comeback

Bitcoin may already be establishing a long-term bottom, the latest Bollinger Bands data suggests.

Analyzing weekly timeframes, Bollinger drew attention to one of his proprietary indicators, known as “%b,” which offers further clues about market trend reversals.

The indicator %b measures an asset’s closing price relative to Bollinger Band position, employing standard deviation around a 20-period simple moving average (SMA). 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission and blockchain payments firm Ripple agreed to pause their appeals in the ongoing XRP legal battle, signaling a potential move toward a final settlement.

The SEC and Ripple agreed to put their appeals in “abeyance,” meaning the proceedings are now paused pending an anticipated settlement of the XRP (XRP) case.

“An abeyance would conserve judicial and party resources while the parties continue to pursue a negotiated resolution of this matter,” the parties jointly stated in an April 10 court filing.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse previously announced the end of the XRP case on March 19, and the new filing hints that the SEC is ready to settle once nominated and approved Chair Paul Atkins takes office, according to some community speculation.

The filing cancels Ripple’s April 16 brief deadline

According to Ripple’s defense attorney, James Filan, the new filing supersedes the April 16 deadline for Ripple to respond to the SEC’s brief filed in January. “The settlement is awaiting commission approval. No brief will be filed on April 16,” Filan wrote in an April 10 X post.

Asset managers Osprey Funds and Grayscale Investments agreed to settle a lawsuit over alleged violations of Connecticut law in the advertising and promotion of Grayscale’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). 

According to an April 9 court filing, the parties agreed to settle the two-year-old case and are finalizing documentation and settlement terms. The filing noted that once those steps are completed, Osprey will withdraw its appeal.

“Soon after this appeal was filed, the parties reached a settlement of this case,” the motion stated. “It is expected that all these tasks can be done within 45 days, and it is uncertain whether a shorter extension would suffice.”

Details of the settlement have not been made public. 

Grayscale and Osprey reach settlement

The legal battle between the two firms started on Jan. 30, 2023, when Osprey filed a suit in the Connecticut Superior Court. Osprey claimed it was Grayscale’s only competitor in the over-the-counter Bitcoin (BTC) trust market and that Grayscale had maintained its market share through deceit. 

The Illinois Senate, by a vote of 39 to 17, passed a regulatory bill aimed at curbing cryptocurrency fraud and protecting investors from deceptive practices, including rug pulls and misleading fee structures.

On April 10, the chamber passed Senate Bill 1797 (SB1797), also known as the Digital Assets and Consumer Protection Act, which Senator Mark Walker introduced in February.

The bill gives the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation authority to oversee digital asset business activity within the state.

Under the legislation, any entity engaging in digital asset business with Illinois residents must be registered with the state’s financial regulator. The bill also requires crypto service providers to offer advance full disclosure of user fees and charges.

Bill SB1797. Source: Ilga.gov

US authorities have charged a tech app founder with fraud, alleging that his advertised artificial intelligence-powered e-commerce app actually relied on human workers in the Philippines.

Albert Saniger of Barcelona, Spain, founder and former CEO of the company Nate, was charged with one count of securities fraud and wire fraud, the Justice Department said in an April 9 statement, while the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a parallel civil action.

Court documents said Saniger founded Nate around 2018 and launched an app of the same name in July 2020, marketing it as an AI-powered universal shopping cart that offered users the ability to complete online retail transactions, including filling in shipping details and sizing, without human input.

The Justice Department alleged that, in reality, “Saniger used hundreds of contractors, or ‘purchasing assistants,’ in a call center located in the Philippines to manually complete purchases occurring over the nate app.”

Source: US Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York

It may be too early for Bitcoiners to start getting bullish over the longer-term impacts of a potential recession on Bitcoin’s price, says 10x Research head of research Markus Thielen.

Thielen said in an April 11 markets report that credit spreads continue to widen, indicating that “recessionary concerns may be seeping deeper into the economy.”

“Expecting a bullish impulse is too early,” he said.

Bitcoin may face short-term headwinds

While the long-term effects of a recession could be bullish for Bitcoin (BTC) — due to the monetary easing that typically follows US Federal Reserve rate cuts — Thielen warned that Bitcoin may face headwinds before gaining bullish momentum.

“Normally, Bitcoin first sells off when China devalues or the Fed cuts, as the first cut might not be so impactful and also confirms economic weakness,” Thielen told Cointelegraph. 

Crypto-critical US Senator Elizabeth Warren has led six Senate Democrats in urging the Department of Justice to reverse its decision to terminate its crypto investigations and prosecutions division.

In an April 10 letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Senators said the decision to disband the department’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team was a “grave mistake” that would support “sanctions evasion, drug trafficking, scams, and child sexual exploitation.”

Senators Richard Durbin, Mazie Hirono, Sheldon Whitehouse, Christopher Coons and Richard Blumenthal signed the letter in addition to Warren.

On April 7, Blanche shuttered the DOJ’s crypto enforcement team, saying in a memo that “The Department of Justice is not a digital assets regulator.”

The senators claim that the decision gave a “free pass to cryptocurrency money launderers” and claimed that crypto mixing services — used to obfuscate blockchain transactions — are “go-to tools for cybercriminals.” 

US Bitcoin mining firms will try to capitalize on the Trump administration’s recent tariff pause by stocking up on mining rigs, but the baseline 10% tariffs will still leave the industry at a disadvantage, industry executives say.

President Donald Trump paused his administration's hefty reciprocal tariffs until July 8, but kept a minimum 10% tariff on most countries bar China, which had its rate hiked to 145%.

Hashlabs CEO Jaran Mellerud told Cointelegraph that while the 10% levy is much lighter than the initial tariffs, US miners are still at a “clear disadvantage” when it comes to purchasing mining machines compared to competitors abroad.

He said the baseline US tariffs aren’t enough “to make mining in the US unprofitable, but it definitely raises capital expenditure and will impact the long-term viability of new investments.”

“We expect to see a short-term spike in machine imports as miners rush to get ahead of potential future tariff hikes,” Mellerud added.

Blockchain gaming for the first quarter of 2025 has been a “mixed bag,” seeing a greater number of deals while the amount invested significantly dipped, says blockchain analytics platform DappRadar.

Web3 gaming projects raised $91 million in Q1 2025, marking a 71% decrease from the fourth quarter of 2024 and a 68% drop compared to the same quarter a year ago, DappRadar said in its April 10 State of Blockchain Gaming report.

DappRadar analyst Sara Gherghelas wrote the figures showed “the growing pressure on early-stage startups and hint that 2025 may prove more challenging than previous years — unless broader market conditions improve.”

Another factor for the drop in investments in blockchain games is investors are increasingly shifting toward real-world assets and artificial intelligence, according to Gherghelas.

Over the same time, the number of blockchain gaming-related deals that closed increased by 35% quarter-over-quarter.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has sent a letter to US congressional leaders urging “common sense” federal crypto regulations and to keep digital assets out of US pensions.

“I am urging Congress to pass legislation that would strengthen federal regulations on the cryptocurrency industry to protect investors, strengthen financial markets, and stop fraud,” James said in a 14-page letter shared on April 10, outlining six major risks if the sector remains unregulated.

She said that without appropriate safeguards, the “unchecked proliferation of digital assets” undermines US dollar dominance, weakens national security due to criminal activity, and “undermines the stability of financial markets.” 

Unregulated crypto also subjects investors to “price manipulation and rigged markets,” facilitates fraud that “drains billions of dollars from hardworking Americans, and extracts assets and investments from the American economy,” she said. 

An excerpt of James’ letter to Congress. Source: Office of the New York State Attorney General

Bitcoin could hover in the low $80,000s in the near term if it fails to break through its next resistance level, CryptoQuant says, while other analysts predict the cryptocurrency will hit a fresh all-time high within the next two months.

CryptoQuant analysts said in an April 10 markets report that if Bitcoin (BTC) “continues to rally,” it could hit resistance around the $84,000 price level, but if it breaks through, it could soar before its next resistance level of $96,000.

Bitcoin’s previous support levels are now resistance

“These price levels have acted as price support during this bull cycle but can now act as price resistance if bullish conditions don’t continue to improve,” CryptoQuant said in its report. “This has been the case in past bearish cycles.”

Bitcoin was trading at $79,474 at the time of publication, down 3.5% over the past day, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin is down 2.24% over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap

Solana-based memecoin Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) has outperformed the broader crypto market so far in April, rising over 104% versus SOL being down 2% for the week. As of April 10, it was trading for as high as $0.87.

FARTCOIN/USD vs. TOTAL crypto market cap 30-day performance. Source: TradingView

The cryptocurrency’s outperformance appears despite US President Donald Trump’s seesaw tariff announcements that have wiped nearly $160 billion from the crypto market capitalization in April.

FARTCOIN has outperformed even other memecoins inside the Solana ecosystem, the primary being Official Trump (TRUMP), which has dropped by approximately 25% in April.

As it seems, the third-largest Solana memecoin could rise another 30% in April due to a classic bullish continuation setup.

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.

New Hampshire’s House votes to pass HB302, the state’s Bitcoin reserve bill. Source: New Hampshire House of Representatives

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.

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.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dismissed a lawsuit against Nova Labs, developer of decentralized wireless network Helium, for allegedly issuing unregistered securities, Helium stated in an April 10 blog post. 

Filed in January 2025, the lawsuit was among the SEC’s final enforcement actions against a cryptocurrency developer under former Chair Gary Gensler, who stepped down from his post on Jan. 20 after US President Donald Trump took office. 

The dismissal with prejudice means the blockchain developer cannot be charged with similar violations again for issuing in 2019 its native token Helium (HNT), the company said. 

“[W]e can now definitively say that all compatible Helium Hotspots and the distribution of HNT, IOT, and MOBILE tokens through the Helium Network are not securities,” Helium said. 

“[T]he outcome establishes that selling hardware and distributing tokens for network growth does not automatically make them securities in the eyes of the SEC [and] that the SEC cannot bring these charges against Helium again,” it added.

Cryptocurrency exchange HashKey has received approval from Hong Kong regulators to offer staking services, potentially broadening the institutional appeal of proof-of-stake investments such as the spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

HashKey was granted approval on April 10 after the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) provided regulatory guidance on staking services to Licensed Virtual Asset Trading Platforms (VATPs) and authorized funds, the company disclosed on social media. 

HashKey said it had become “one of the first” regulated Hong Kong exchanges to offer staking services.

Source: HashKey Group

The approval was granted after the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) recognized the potential benefits of crypto staking services, the SFC said.

North Carolina (NC) representative Neal Jackson introduced the North Carolina Digital Asset Freedom Act on April 10. The bill proposes that qualifying "digital assets" be accepted as a legally recognized form of payment and for taxes.

Although the language of the bill does not specifically mention Bitcoin (BTC), there are several provisions laid out that make BTC uniquely qualified under the bill's definition of a "digital asset."

These stipulations include a minimum market capitalization of $750 billion and a daily trading volume of over $10 billion, a market history of 10 years or more, proven censorship resistance, proof-of-work consensus, lack of a central authority, 99.98% or more network uptime, and a maximum supply cap. The bill read:

Jackson's bill is merely the latest in state-led Bitcoin strategic reserve legislation in the United States amid inflation concerns, high US federal debt and a depreciating currency.

NC Digital Asset Freedom Act. Source: North Carolina Legislature

Escalating geopolitical tensions threaten to balkanize blockchain networks and restrict users' access, crypto executives told Cointelegraph. 

On April 9, US President Donald Trump announced a pause in the rollout of tariffs imposed on certain countries — but the prospect of a global trade war still looms, especially because Trump still wants to charge a 125% levy on Chinese imports. 

Industry executives said they fear a litany of potential consequences if tensions worsen, including disruptions to blockchain networks’ physical infrastructure, regulatory fragmentation, and censorship. 

“Aggressive tariffs and retaliatory trade policies could create obstacles for node operators, validators, and other core participants in blockchain networks,” Nicholas Roberts-Huntley, CEO of Concrete & Glow Finance, told Cointelegraph. 

“In moments of global uncertainty, the infrastructure supporting crypto, not just the assets themselves, can become collateral damage.”