Coinpedia - Fintech & Cryptocurreny News Media| Crypto Guide

US spot crypto ETFs recorded strong institutional inflows last week, with Bitcoin ETFs attracting $996.38 million, the highest since mid January and marking a third straight week of gains. Ethereum ETFs added $275.83 million, while Solana and XRP ETFs brought in $35.17 million and $55.39 million, respectively. BlackRock’s IBIT dominated Bitcoin flows with $906 million. The surge highlights sustained institutional demand across major digital assets as ETF adoption continues to strengthen market liquidity and investor participation.

Anthony Scaramucci and analyst Back expect Bitcoin to reach between $500,000 and $1 million this cycle. Scaramucci highlights Bitcoin’s fixed supply of 21 million coins, saying a $1 million price would align with gold’s market value. Back points to rising ETF inflows, corporate accumulation, and growing institutional participation as key drivers. Bitcoin currently trades near $74,500 after peaking above $126,000 last year, reflecting ongoing volatility but strong long-term conviction among investors.

Upbit, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, has listed PIEVERSE trading pairs against KRW, BTC, and USDT. PIEVERSE is a Web3 payment infrastructure project built for an agent native economy where humans, AI agents, and machines can transact seamlessly. It focuses on automated, verifiable, and cross-chain payments with improved transparency and efficiency. The listing is expected to increase liquidity, adoption, and market visibility as demand grows for AI-driven payment systems in the evolving digital finance ecosystem.

KelpDAO suffered a $290M exploit on April 18, 2026, after attackers used a highly targeted cross-chain message spoofing attack. According to post-incident analysis, North Korea’s Lazarus Group is the likely source. The attackers compromised and poisoned RPC nodes used by LayerZero’s DVN system, then triggered a DDoS to force failover to malicious nodes, allowing fake cross-chain messages to pass validation. The root issue was KelpDAO’s 1/1 DVN setup, which had no redundancy or backup verifiers. Only rsETH was affected, with no protocol-wide contagion, and infrastructure has since been replaced and secured.

RAVE token collapsed by about 95% after allegations of market manipulation rattled traders. Launched in December 2025, RAVE spiked from under $1 to nearly $28 within 10 days before tumbling to around $0.70 by April 20. Crypto analyst ZachXBT reported that nine addresses linked to the project held most of the supply and moved funds to major exchanges, wiping out billions in value. Several exchanges said they would investigate the activity, while the RaveDAO team denied any misconduct. Traders reacted with frustration as billions in value evaporated.

Polymarket is in talks to raise 400 million dollars in fresh funding, which could value the company at about 15 billion dollars, up sharply from its 9 billion dollar valuation in late 2025 following Intercontinental Exchange’s investment. The platform has experienced rapid growth, with March trading volume surpassing 10.5 billion dollars and daily revenue close to 1 million dollars, attracting investors who believe its decentralized structure and post-election momentum give it strong long-term potential despite competition from Kalshi.

Crypto investigator ZachXBT has raised serious concerns about manipulation in the RAVE token. He said activity linked to Binance, Bitget, and Gate shows insiders controlling over 90% of supply and influencing price movements. He described coordinated pump and dump behavior targeting retail investors. ZachXBT also offered a $25K bounty for proof. Following the claims, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen confirmed that an internal investigation has started and promised action if misconduct is confirmed across exchanges globally now ongoing.

Aztec has completed the transfer of all ETH raised during its public token auction to Coinbase following a phased withdrawal over recent months. In December, the project sold 15% of its AZTEC supply, raising 19,388.4 ETH (around $59.13M) at an average price of $0.0473 per token, now significantly lower in value. During token generation, 4,234.6 ETH was allocated for liquidity, while the remaining 15,154 ETH was steadily moved to Coinbase, with the final transfer finalized on April 17 at 16:44 UTC.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $663.9 million in net inflows, the strongest since January. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust led with $284 million, extending its eight-day buying streak and pushing total holdings to around 803,000 BTC. Fidelity and ARK also posted solid gains. The steady inflows show growing institutional demand. Meanwhile, spot Ethereum ETFs added $127.4 million, with $30.8 million flowing into BlackRock’s ETHA, signaling continued investor interest.

Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has agreed to acquire crypto derivatives firm Bitnomial in a deal worth up to 550 million dollars, structured in cash and stock. The acquisition strengthens Kraken’s broader Payward ecosystem by adding a fully regulated U.S. derivatives stack that includes brokerage, clearing, and exchange services under one roof. The move is seen as a major step in expanding compliant derivatives infrastructure and deepening its presence in regulated U.S. markets.