Crypto Vesting

Nearly 400,000 creditors of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX risk missing out on $2.5 billion in repayments after failing to begin the mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process.

Roughly 392,000 FTX creditors have failed to complete or at least take the first steps of the mandatory Know Your Customer verification, according to an April 2 court filing in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

FTX users originally had until March 3 to begin the verification process to collect their claims.

“If a holder of a claim listed on Schedule 1 attached thereto did not commence the KYC submission process with respect to such claim on or prior to March 3, 2025, at 4:00 pm (ET) (the “KYC Commencing Deadline”), 2 such claim shall be disallowed and expunged in its entirety,” the filing states.

FTX court filing. Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null"

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Crypto-friendly billionaire investor Bill Ackman is considering the possibility that US President Donald Trump may pause the implementation of his controversial proposed tariffs on April 7.

“One would have to imagine that President Donald Trump’s phone has been ringing off the hook. The practical reality is that there is insufficient time for him to make deals before the tariffs are scheduled to take effect,” Ackman, founder of Pershing Square Capital Management, said in an April 5 X post.

Trump may postpone tariffs to make more deals, says Ackman

“I would, therefore, not be surprised to wake up Monday with an announcement from the President that he was postponing the implementation of the tariffs to give him time to make deals,” Ackman added.

On April 2, Trump signed an executive order establishing a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries, which took effect

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The White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks says Meta’s release of its latest AI model, Llama 4, has pushed the United States into the lead in the global race for artificial intelligence dominance.

“For the US to win the AI race, we have to win in open source too, and Llama 4 puts us back in the lead,” Sacks said in an April 5 X post, as speculation continues to mount over the US and China competing for the top spot in the global AI race.

Sacks has been outspoken about the AI race since taking on his role following US President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Just over a week into the job, Sacks said he is “confident in the US, but we can’t be complacent.”

Llama 4 “best in their class for

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Traders on the Kalshi prediction market place the odds of a US recession in 2025 at 61%, following the sweeping tariff order signed by President Donald Trump on April 2.

Kalshi uses the standard criteria of a recession, two business quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth, as reported by the United States Department of Commerce.

Odds of a US recession on the prediction platform have nearly doubled since March 20 and mirror the current 2025 US recession odds on Polymarket, which traders on the platform currently place at 60%.

The macroeconomic outlook for 2025 deteriorated rapidly following US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff order and the ensuing sell-off in capital markets, sparking fears of a prolonged bear market.

Odds of US recession in 2025 top 60% on the Kalshi prediction market. Source: kalshi

Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-bulls-defend-80-k-support-as-world-war-3-of-trade-wars-crushes-us-stocks"

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XRP (XRP) price has plunged more than 35% since reaching a multi-year high of $3.40 in January — and the downtrend may deepen in April as new bearish signals emerge.

Let’s examine these catalysts in detail.

XRP nears a classic technical breakdown

XRP’s recent price action is flashing a classic bearish reversal signal dubbed “inverse cup and handle formation.”

The inverse cup and handle is a bearish chart pattern that signals fading buyer momentum after an uptrend. It resembles an upside-down teacup, with the “cup” marking a rounded decline and the “handle” forming after a brief consolidation.

Inverse cup-and-handle pattern illustrated. Source: 5Paisa

A break below the handle’s support typically confirms the pattern, often leading to a drop equal to the cup’s height.

In XRP’s case, the rounded “cup” topped around March 19 and completed its curved decline by the end of the month. The ongoing sideways price movement

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Mixed-martial arts (MMA) champion Conor McGregor launched a memecoin called “REAL” on April 5, which will reportedly feature staking rewards and voting rights for token holders.

Spokespeople for the project told Cointelegraph that the token was launched through a sealed-bid auction to eliminate snipers and bots hijacking the token launch and in collaboration with the Real World Gaming decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

REAL token initial allocation breakdown. Source: Real World Gaming DAO

The auction will take place from April 5-6. In a statement shared with Cointelegraph, McGregor touted the launch as a fair memecoin offering:

“This is not some celebrity-endorsed bullshit token, it is a REAL game changer that will change the crypto ecosystem as well as make REAL change in the world. The sealed-bid auction is the new way of launching a token to prevent rug pulls and snipers.

“This is about transparency — we are showing the world how it is done with

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Opinion by: James Newman, chief corporate affairs officer at Chiliz

The perception of blockchain, especially for those outside the industry, has often been driven primarily by stories of extreme volatility, bad actors and speculation. 

In past months, the industry has been dominated by the narratives around the rise and subsequent fall of memecoins like HAWK, Fartcoin and LIBRA. Rewind to 2021, and lacking a genuine use case, the massive hype around non-fungible tokens (NFTs) failed to translate to long-term success, with the average NFT project today having a lifespan 2.5 times shorter than the average crypto project. 

For many, however, the appeal of these assets lies in their volatility, turning a few dollars into a fortune overnight. While NFTs and memecoins are undeniably part of Web3 culture, what sustains projects, keeps users engaged, and drives the industry forward is not volatility but providing genuine solutions to real-world problems. Ultimately, it’s about utility. 

Utility drives

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US President Donald Trump’s trade policies will create worldwide macroeconomic turmoil and short-term financial crises that will ultimately lead to greater adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) as a store of value asset, according to Bitwise analyst Jeff Park.

Economic instability from the trade war will cause governments to adopt inflationary fiscal and monetary policies, which will further debase currencies and lead to a worldwide flight to safety in alternative stores of value, like Bitcoin, Park argued.

This increased demand for BTC will drive prices much higher in the long term, the analyst concluded. In an X post on Feb. 2, Park predicted the immediate impact of a trade war:

“The tariff costs, most likely through higher inflation, will be shared by both the US and trading partners, but the relative impact will be much heavier on foreigners.

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The most successful cryptocurrency traders are still chasing quick profits in memecoins, despite signs that the broader “supercycle” for the speculative assets may be winding down. The shift follows recent disappointment tied to memecoin launches associated with US President Donald Trump.

The industry’s most successful cryptocurrency traders by returns — tracked as “smart money” traders on Nansen’s blockchain intelligence platform — continue hunting for quick memecoin returns.

While growing stablecoin holdings show increased caution, smart money remains open to speculative plays, according to Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen.

“There was the recent meme surge and smart money is always happy to capitulate on that. But they’re also happy to rotate out of these quickly as well,” he said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction live show on X.

“The recent meme frenzy was just a fun play they worked on, while the broader market is sorting out the direction

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