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Saylor, ETF investors’ ‘stronger hands’ help stabilize Bitcoin — Analyst

Bitcoin’s relatively stable price movements despite macroeconomic uncertainty is likely due to resilient spot Bitcoin ETF holders and Michael Saylor’s firm continuing to buy aggressively, according to a Bloomberg analyst.

“The ETFs and Saylor have been buying up all ‘dumps’ from the tourists, FTX refugees, GBTC discounters, legal unlocks, govt confiscations and Lord knows who else,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in an April 16 X post.

Bitcoin ETF holders hold despite market volatility

Balchunas pointed out that spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs have attracted $131.04 million over the past 30 days and are up $2.4 billion since Jan. 1. Balchunas called this “impressive,” noting it helps explain why Bitcoin has “been relatively stable.”

“Its owners are more stable,” Balchunas said. Balchunas said Bitcoin ETF investors have “much stronger hands than most people think.” He said this “should” increase the stability and lower Bitcoin’s

Galaxy Research proposes new voting system to reduce Solana inflation

Crypto research firm Galaxy Research has made a proposal to adjust the voting system that decides the outcome of future Solana inflation following the failure to come to a consensus in a previous vote.

On April 17, Galaxy introduced a Solana proposal called “Multiple Election Stake-Weight Aggregation” (MESA) to reduce the inflation rate of its native token, SOL (SOL). The researchers described the proposal as a “more market-based approach to agreeing on the rate of future SOL emissions.”

Rather than using traditional yes/no voting for inflation rates, MESA allows validators to vote on multiple deflation rates and uses the weighted average as the outcome.

“Instead of cycling through inflation reduction proposals until one passes, what if validators could allocate their votes to one or many changes, with the aggregate of ‘yes’ outcomes becoming the adopted emissions curve?” Galaxy explained.

The motivation for the concept

Arizona crypto reserve bill passes House committee, heads to third reading

One of Arizona’s crypto reserve bills has been passed by the House and is now one successful vote away from heading to the governor’s desk for official approval.

Arizona’s Strategic Digital Assets Reserve Bill (SB 1373) was approved on April 17 by the House Committee of the Whole, which involves 60 House members weighing in on the bill before a third and final reading and a full floor vote.

Source: Bitcoin Laws

SB 1373 seeks to establish a Digital Assets Strategic Reserve Fund made up of digital assets seized through criminal proceedings to be managed by the state’s treasurer.

Arizona’s treasurer would be permitted to invest up to 10% of the fund’s total monies in any fiscal year in digital assets. The treasurer would also be able to loan the fund’s assets in order to increase returns, provided it doesn’t increase financial risks.

However, a

Slovenia’s finance ministry floats 25% tax on crypto transactions

Slovenia’s Finance Ministry is considering a possible 25% tax on crypto trading profits for residents in the country under a new draft law now open for public consultation.

The bill proposes to tax traders when they sell their cryptocurrency for fiat or pay for goods and services, but crypto-to-crypto and transfers between wallets owned by the same user will be exempt, Slovenia’s Finance Ministry said in an April 17 statement.

Under the proposed legislation, crypto tax will be aligned with existing tax laws. Slovenia taxpayers will be required to keep a record of all their transactions for annual tax returns. The tax base would be calculated on profits by subtracting the purchase price from the sale price.

In a statement to the Slovenia Times, finance minister Klemen Boštjančič said it’s unreasonable that crypto trading for individuals isn’t currently

Bitcoin dip buyers nibble at BTC range lows but are risk off until $90K becomes support

Bitcoin’s (BTC) realized market cap reached a new all-time high of $872 billion, but data from Glassnode reflects investors’ lack of enthusiasm at BTC’s current price levels.

In a recent X post, the analytics platform pointed out that despite the realized cap milestone, the monthly growth rate of the metric has dropped to 0.9% month over month, which implied a risk-off sentiment in the market.

Bitcoin realized cap net position. Source: X.com

Realized cap measures the total value of all Bitcoin at the price they last moved, reflecting the actual capital invested, providing insight into Bitcoin’s economic activity. A slowing growth rate highlights a positive but reduced capital inflow, suggesting fewer new investors or less activity from current holders.

Additionally, Glassnode’s realized profit and loss chart recently exhibited a sharp decline of 40%, which signals high profit-taking or loss realization. The

Kyrgyzstan’s president signs CBDC law giving ‘digital som’ legal status

Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Zhaparov has signed a constitutional law authorizing the launch of a central bank digital currency pilot project while also giving the “digital som” — the national currency in digital form — legal tender status.

The law gives the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic the exclusive right to issue the digital som, establish the rules for its issuance and circulation, and oversee the platform on which the national currency will operate, Kyrgyzstan’s presidential office said on April 17.

However, a final decision on whether to officially issue the CBDC is not expected until the end of 2026, local outlet Trend News Agency reported in December.

If the central bank decides to adopt the digital som, it would also need to outline cryptographic protection measures to ensure the digital som remains secure and isn’t used for

OpenAI sought Anysphere deal before turning its sights on WindSurf

OpenAI was reportedly in talks to buy Anysphere, the company that produces the Cursor AI coding assistant, before entering into talks with rival company WindSurf.

According to CNBC, OpenAI approached Anysphere in 2024 and again in 2025, but talks stalled both times. Failing to arrive at a deal led OpenAI to look elsewhere for potential acquisitions.

Sources familiar with the deal also say OpenAI is prepared to pay $3 billion to purchase WindSurf, which would make it the company’s largest corporate acquisition to date.

An example of OpenAI’s ChatGPT producing computer code through simple text prompts. Source: ChatGPT

OpenAI’s attempted acquisition of an AI coding assistant company follows the release of DeepSeek R1 in January 2025, which shattered long-held assumptions about artificial intelligence.

DeepSeek was reportedly trained at a fraction of the cost of leading AI models while delivering comparable performance — challenging the belief

Crypto exchange eXch to shut down amid money laundering allegations

Cryptocurrency exchange eXch announced it will cease operations on May 1 after reports alleged the firm was used to launder funds from a Bybit hack.

In an April 17 notice, eXch said the majority of people in its management team voted to “cease and retreat” in response to the allegations that North Korea’s Lazarus Group used the exchange to launder roughly $35 million of the funds stolen in a $1.4 billion exploit on Bybit. The exchange said it was the subject of “an active transatlantic operation” aimed at shutting it down and potentially pursuing charges.

“Even though we have been able to operate despite some failed attempts to shut down our infrastructure (attempts that have also been confirmed to be part of this operation), we don’t see any point in operating in a hostile environment where we are the target of SIGINT

Ripple acquisition Hidden Road secures FINRA registration

Prime brokerage Hidden Road, which was recently acquired by Ripple for $1.25 billion, has secured a broker-dealer license from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) — a move that enhances its capacity in the fixed-income markets.

As a FINRA broker-dealer, Hidden Road can further develop its fixed-income prime brokerage services and extend its capabilities in traditional markets, the company announced on April 17. This includes offering institutional clients regulatory-compliant clearing and financing services across fixed-income securities.

Membership in FINRA is considered a significant commitment to compliance and investor protection. It also boosts registrants’ credibility in the eyes of investment bankers, according to Telos Capital Advisors, a Dallas-based investment bank.

Hidden Road operates a prime brokerage and credit network, clearing more than $10 billion in daily transactions on behalf of more than 300 institutional clients. When it was founded in 2018, Hidden Road focused

US jobless claims hint at stability as Bitcoin reaches 'inflection point' at $85K

The latest US initial jobless claims data came at 215,000, below the estimated expectation of 225,000, on April 17. The dip in jobless claims indicated that the US labor market remained stable, with fewer people being affected by the uncertainty of US tariffs. Initial jobless claims are a leading economic indicator that measures the health of the US economy and it often impacts investor sentiment around risk assets like Bitcoin (BTC). US jobless claims data. Source: Investing.com

Resiliency in the labor market comes on the back of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s recent comment about the impact of tariffs. In a press conference at the economics club of Chicago on April 16, Powell said,

“The level of the tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated. The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will