Bitcoin sellers tap out, clearing the path for a fresh run at new all-time highs
Bitcoin (BTC) price has rebounded by over 11% from the April. 7 low of $74,400, and analysts believe that onchain and technical indicators point to a sustained recovery.According to popular analyst AlphaBTC, Bitcoin will see a sustained recovery if it holds above $81,500.Bitcoin price reclaimed the $80,000 psychological level after retesting the “weekly open and filling in some of the inefficiency left by the Trump 90-day pause pump,” the analyst said in an April 10 post.“I really want to see it back above 81.5k soon, and we may see a bit more sustained upside as shorts get squeezed.”BTC/USD four-hour chart. Source: AlphaBTCSimilar sentiments were shared by fellow analyst Rekt Capital, who said that Bitcoin needs to produce a weekly close above $80,500 to increase the chances of recovery.“Bitcoin has recently lost the red Weekly level, just confirming BTC isn’t out of the woods yet,” Rekt Capital said in an April Post on X. “$BTC needs to stay above red until the Weekly Close for the price to reclaim this Weekly level as support.”BTC/USD weekly chart. Source: Rekt CapitalBitcoin price recovery could be fueled by “seller exhaustion”Bitcoin investors are approaching a degree of “near-term seller exhaustion,” as evidenced by the reduced magnitude of realized losses, according to onchain data from Glassnode. Looking at the 6-hour rolling window for realized losses, the market intelligence firm found that the magnitude of losses realized during these drawdowns has started to decrease with each successive price leg lower.“Bear markets are typically initiated by periods of heightened fear and substantial losses,” Glassnode said in its latest Week On-chain report. “This suggests a form of near-term seller-exhaustion may be starting to develop within this price range.”Bitcoin: 6-hour rolling losses. Source: GlassnodeRelated: Is Bitcoin price going to crash again?Bollinger Bands and W bottom hint at new price highsAfter hitting a five-month low of $74,400 on April 9, Bitcoin retested the lower boundary of the Bollinger Bands (BB) indicator, a line that has supported the price over the last five weeks, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows.BTC/USD weekly chart with Bollinger Bands. Source: John Bollinger/TradingViewThis is an encouraging sign from Bitcoin, according to the creator of the Bollinger Bands volatility indicator, John Bollinger. The Bollinger Bands indicator uses standard deviation around a simple moving average to determine both likely price ranges and volatility.Bollinger said that Bitcoin price could be forming the second low of a W-shaped pattern formation — a double-pronged bottom followed by an exit to the upside — on the weekly chart.“Classic Bollinger Band W bottom setting up in $BTCUSD,” Bollinger commented alongside a chart, adding that the pattern “still needs confirmation.”In this situation, Bitcoin’s drop to $76,600 on March 11 was the first bottom, and the recent drop to $74,400 was the second.If confirmed, BTC price could recover from the current levels first toward the neckline of the W-shaped pattern at $88,800 before rising toward the target of the prevailing chart pattern at $106,000. This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
Trump kills DeFi broker rule in major crypto win: Finance Redefined
Trump kills DeFi broker rule in major crypto win: Finance Redefined, April 4–11In a significant win for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, US President Donald Trump overturned the Internal Revenue Service’s DeFi broker rule, which would have expanded existing reporting requirements to include DeFi platforms.Increasing US crypto regulatory clarity will attract more tech giants to the space, requiring existing crypto projects to focus on more collaborative tokenomics to survive, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.Trump signs resolution killing IRS DeFi broker ruleTrump signed a joint congressional resolution overturning a Biden administration-era rule that would have required DeFi protocols to report transactions to the Internal Revenue Service.Set to take effect in 2027, the 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 on the resolution on April 10, marking the first time a crypto bill has been signed into US 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.Continue readingCrypto needs collaborative tokenomics against tech giants — HoskinsonThe next generation of cryptocurrency projects must embrace a more collaborative approach to compete with major centralized tech companies entering the Web3 space, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.Speaking at Paris Blockchain Week 2025, Hoskinson said one of the main criticisms of the crypto and DeFi space is its “circular economy,” which often means that the rally of a specific cryptocurrency is bolstered by funds exiting another token, limiting the growth of the whole industry.Hoskinsin said that to have a chance against the centralized technology giants joining the Web3 industry, cryptocurrency projects need more collaborative tokenomics and market structure.Hoskinson on stage at Paris Blockchain Week. Source: Cointelegraph“The problem right now, with the way we’ve done things in the cryptocurrency space, is the tokenomics and the market structure are intrinsically adversarial. It’s sum 0,” said Hoskinson. “Instead of picking a fight, what you have to do is you have to find tokenomics and market structure that allows you to be in a cooperative equilibrium.”He argued that the current environment often sees one crypto project’s growth come at the expense of another rather than contributing to the sector’s overall health. He added that this is not sustainable in the face of trillion-dollar firms like Apple, Google and Microsoft, which may soon join the Web3 race amid clearer US regulations.Continue readingBitcoin’s 24/7 liquidity: Double-edged sword during global market turmoilBitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are often praised for offering around-the-clock trading access, but that constant availability may have contributed to a steep sell-off over the weekend following the latest US trade tariff announcement.Unlike stocks and traditional financial instruments, Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies enable payments and trading opportunities 24/7 thanks to the accessibility of blockchain technology.After a record-breaking $5 trillion was wiped from the S&P 500 over two days — the worst drop on record — Bitcoin remained above the $82,000 support level. But by Sunday, the asset had plummeted to under $75,000.Sunday’s correction may have occurred due to Bitcoin being the only large tradable asset over the weekend, according to Lucas Outumuro, head of research at crypto intelligence platform IntoTheBlock. “There was a bit of optimism last week that Bitcoin might be uncorrelating and fairing better than traditional stocks, but the [correction] did accelerate over the weekend,” Outumuro said during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction live show on X, adding:“There’s very little people can sell on a Sunday because most markets are closed. That also enables the correlation because people are panicking and Bitcoin is the largest asset they can sell over the weekend.”Outumuro noted that Bitcoin’s weekend trading can also have upside effects, as prices often rally in calmer conditions.Continue readingBybit recovers market share to 7% after $1.4 billion hackBybit’s market share rebounded to pre-hack levels following a $1.4 billion exploit in February, as the crypto exchange implemented tighter security and improved liquidity options for retail traders.The crypto industry was rocked by the largest hack in its history on Feb. 21, when Bybit lost over $1.4 billion in liquid-staked Ether (stETH), Mantle Staked ETH (mETH) and other digital assets.Despite the scale of the exploit, Bybit has steadily regained market share, according to an April 9 report by crypto analytics firm Block Scholes.“Since this initial decline, Bybit has steadily regained market share as it works to repair sentiment and as volumes return to the exchange,” the report stated.Block Scholes said Bybit’s proportional share rose from a post-hack low of 4% to about 7%, reflecting a strong and stable recovery in spot market activity and trading volumes.Bybit’s spot volume market share as a proportion of the market share of the top 20 CEXs. Source: Block ScholesThe hack occurred amid a “broader trend of macro de-risking that began prior to the event,” which signaled that Bybit’s initial decline in trading volume was not solely due to the exploit.Continue readingNearly 400,000 FTX users risk losing $2.5 billion in repaymentsAlmost 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.About 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: Bloomberglaw.comThe KYC deadline has since been extended to June 1, giving users another chance to verify their identity and claim eligibility. Those who fail to meet the new deadline may have their claims permanently disqualified.According to the court documents, claims under $50,000 may account for about $655 million in disallowed repayments, while claims over $50,000 could amount to $1.9 billion, bringing the total at-risk funds to more than $2.5 billion.Continue readingDeFi market overviewAccording to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, most of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week in the red.The EOS (EOS) token fell over 23%, marking the week’s biggest decline in the top 100, followed by the Near Protocol (NEAR) token, down over 19% on the weekly chart.Total value locked in DeFi. Source: DefiLlamaThanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.
Bitcoin holds $82K as US dollar falls to 3-year low and PPI inflation drops sharply
Bitcoin (BTC) sought higher levels around the April 11 Wall Street open as the week’s final US inflation data gave bulls hope.BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewAnalyst: PPI undershoot “great” for US trade warData from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching highs of $83,245 as US Producer Price Index (PPI) data came in below expectations.The Index came in at 2.7% versus the anticipated 3.3%, while the core PPI print also surprised to the downside.An official news release from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) added:“In March, over 70 percent of the decrease in the index for final demand can be traced to prices for final demand goods, which fell 0.9 percent. The index for final demand services declined 0.2 percent.”US PPI for final demand. Source: BLSReacting, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter was among those noting the rapid pace at which US inflation appeared to be slowing.“We just saw the first month-over-month decline in PPI inflation, down -0.4%, since March 2024,” it told followers in part of a post on X. “Both CPI and PPI inflation are down SHARPLY.”S&P 500 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewRisk-asset performance, however, failed to reflect the notionally positive inflation developments. The S&P 500 was 0.2% lower on the day, while the Nasdaq Composite index was flat.As Cointelegraph reported, after stocks fell precipitously the day prior despite bullish inflation numbers, commentators explained that macro data was helping to fuel the ongoing US trade war.Continuing, crypto trader, analyst and entrepreneur Michaël van de Poppe saw a repeat playing out post-PPI. “PPI comes in significantly lower. That’s great for Trump and his strategy,” he argued, referring to trade tariffs implemented by US President Donald Trump. “The only thing that needs to be resolved is the on-going Trade War, but the ingredients are building up.”Bitcoin gets key bullish dollar triggerAnother macro development failing to provide its standard risk-asset tailwind came in the form of multiyear lows in US dollar strength.Related: Bollinger Bands creator says Bitcoin forming ‘classic’ floor near $80KThe US Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the dollar against a basket of US trading partner currencies, fell below the psychological 100 mark for the first time since 2022.US dollar index (DXY) 1-week chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewAs Cointelegraph reported, long-term lows on DXY have historically sparked a delayed BTC price bull run.“Traditionally, DXY going down is very bullish for $BTC, we now have a massive bearish divergence for DXY, which may suggest it goes to 90,” popular crypto analyst Venturefounder observed in part of an X post on the topic this week.“Last 2 times this happened triggered a Bitcoin parabolic bullrun in final phase of the bullmarket (lasting 12 months).”US Dollar Index (DXY) vs. BTC/USD chart with RSI data. Source: Venturefounder/XAn accompanying chart examined relative strength index (RSI) data for the DXY monthly chart, showing it retesting a downward-sloping trend line as support from above.This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
Price analysis 4/11: BTC, ETH, XRP, BNB, SOL, DOGE, ADA, LEO, LINK, AVAX
Bitcoin (BTC) is showing strength as buyers have pushed the price above $82,500, but higher levels are likely to attract solid selling from the bears. CryptoQuant analysts said in a recent market report that Bitcoin could face resistance around $84,000, but if the level is surpassed, the next stop may be $96,000.Although trade tensions between the United States and China have flared up, institutional crypto investment firm Bitwise remains bullish on Bitcoin. Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan said in a post on X that the firm’s previously predicted year-end target of $200,000 for Bitcoin remains in play.Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360However, market participants remain cautious in the near term. The US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds continued to witness outflows on April 9 and April 10, according to Farside Investors data. Could Bitcoin break and sustain above the overhead resistance? Will altcoins follow Bitcoin higher? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.Bitcoin price analysisBitcoin’s recovery from the $73,777 support has reached near the resistance line, which is a critical level to watch out for in the near term.BTC/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewThe 20-day exponential moving average ($82,435) is turning down, but the relative strength index (RSI) has risen close to the midpoint, indicating that the bearish momentum is weakening. The BTC/USDT pair is expected to face intense selling at the resistance line, but if the bulls prevail, the rally could reach $89,000 and then $95,000.Sellers are likely to have other plans. They will try to defend the resistance line and pull the price below the immediate support at $78,500. If they manage to do that, the pair could retest the vital support at $73,777.Ether price analysisEther (ETH) rebounded off the $1,368 support on April 9, but the bulls are struggling to sustain the higher levels.ETH/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewThe downsloping moving averages and the RSI in the negative territory suggest that the bears hold the edge. Sellers will try to sink the ETH/USDT pair below $1,368. If they can pull it off, the selling could accelerate, and the pair may tumble to $1,150.If buyers want to prevent the breakdown, they will have to quickly push the price above $1,754. That clears the path for a rally to the breakdown level of $2,111. This is an essential level for the bears to defend because a break above $2,111 suggests a short-term trend change.XRP price analysisXRP (XRP) rose back above the breakdown level of $2 on April 9, but the recovery is facing selling at the 20-day EMA ($2.09).XRP/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewIf the price turns down from the 20-day EMA, the bears will try to sink the XRP/USDT pair to the critical support at $1.61. Buyers are expected to fiercely defend the $1.61 level because a break below it may clear the path for a decline to $1.27.Alternatively, if the price rises above the 20-day EMA, it suggests that the markets have rejected the breakdown below $2. The pair could rally to the resistance line, where the bears are expected to mount a strong defense.BNB price analysisBNB (BNB) has reached the 20-day EMA ($590), which is an important near-term resistance to watch out for.BNB/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewSellers will try to defend the zone between the 20-day EMA and the downtrend line, but if the bulls do not give up much ground, it improves the prospects of a break above the overhead resistance zone. The BNB/USDT pair could then ascend to $644.Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns down sharply from the overhead resistance, it suggests that the bears have not given up. That could keep the pair stuck inside the triangle for a while longer.Solana price analysisSolana (SOL) rose above the breakdown level of $110 on April 9, but the bulls are facing resistance at the 20-day EMA ($121).SOL/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewA minor advantage in favor of the bulls is that the bears did not allow the price to slip back below $110 on April 10. That shows buying on dips. If the bulls kick the price above the 20-day EMA, the SOL/USDT pair may rally to the 50-day SMA ($133) and then to $153.This positive view will be invalidated in the short term if the price turns down sharply from the 20-day EMA and breaks below $110. The pair could then retest the April 7 intraday low of $95. Dogecoin price analysisBuyers have successfully defended the $0.14 in Dogecoin (DOGE) but are yet to clear the moving averages.DOGE/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewIf the price turns down sharply from the moving averages, it suggests that the sentiment remains negative and traders are selling on rallies. That increases the likelihood of a break below $0.14. The DOGE/USDT pair could then plummet toward the next significant support at $0.10.Conversely, a break and close above the moving averages will be the first sign of strength. There is resistance at $0.20, but if the bulls overcome it, the pair will complete a double-bottom pattern. The pair could march to $0.24 and subsequently to $0.26.Cardano price analysisCardano (ADA) has reached the 20-day EMA ($0.65), which is a strong near-term resistance to watch out for.ADA/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewIf the price breaks above the 20-day EMA, the ADA/USDT pair could reach the 50-day SMA ($0.71). This level may again pose a strong challenge, but if the buyers prevail, the pair could rally to $0.83.On the contrary, if the price turns down sharply from the 20-day EMA, it signals that the bears are selling on every minor rally. That heightens the risk of a break below the $0.50 support. If that happens, the pair could slide to $0.40.Related: Bollinger Bands creator says Bitcoin forming ‘classic’ floor near $80KUNUS SED LEO price analysisUNUS SED LEO (LEO) rose back above the uptrend line on April 9, signaling solid demand at lower levels.LEO/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewThe 20-day EMA ($9.38) is flattening out, and the RSI is near the midpoint, suggesting a balance between supply and demand. If the price breaks above the 20-day EMA, the LEO/USD pair could reach the overhead resistance at $9.90. If the price turns down from the 20-day EMA, it suggests that the bears continue to sell on rallies. The bears will then make one more attempt to sink the pair below $8.79. If they succeed, the decline could extend to $8.30.Chainlink price analysisChainlink (LINK) has been trading inside a descending channel pattern for several days. The rebound on April 9 shows that the bulls are trying to defend the support line.LINK/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewThe moving averages are expected to act as a stiff resistance on the way up. If buyers propel the price above the moving averages, the LINK/USDT pair could pick up momentum and rally to $16 and later to $17.50.Contrarily, if the price turns down from the moving averages, it suggests that the bears are active at higher levels. The bears will then make one more attempt to sink the pair below the support line.Avalanche price analysisAvalanche (AVAX) rebounded sharply off the $15.27 support on April 9, indicating solid buying at lower levels.AVAX/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewThere is resistance in the zone between the 50-day SMA ($20) and the downtrend line, but if the buyers overcome it, the AVAX/USDT pair could surge to $23.50.Sellers are expected to aggressively defend the $23.50 level because a break and close above it will complete a double bottom pattern. This reversal setup has a target objective of $31.73.Instead, if the price turns down from the overhead resistance, it suggests that the pair could remain range-bound between $15.27 and $23.50 for some time.This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
S&P 500 briefly sees ‘Bitcoin-level’ volatility amid Trump tariff war
The S&P 500 Index briefly experienced Bitcoin-level volatility in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff announcement, underscoring the panic and fear gripping traditional markets amid the ongoing trade war. Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas alerted his followers on X that the S&P 500’s volatility, as measured by the “SPY US Equity Hist Vol” chart, reached 74 in early April, exceeding Bitcoin’s (BTC) 71 level. Source: Eric BalchunasThe increase marks a significant deviation from the S&P 500’s long-term volatility average, which is below 20. For Bitcoin though, extreme volatility has been a feature since the asset’s inception. “Bitcoin’s volatility remains elevated at 3.9 and 4.6 times that of gold and global equities, respectively,” according to BlackRock. While Bitcoin’s average volatility has declined over time, it tends to experience much higher price swings than more established assets. Source: BlackRockStocks are experiencing crisis-level volatility due to Trump’s trade war, which threatened duties of anywhere from 10% to 50% on imports from America’s largest trading partners. While Trump has since paused some of his tariffs for 90 days, the administration has ratcheted up duties on Chinese imports to at least 145%. The volatility has also extended into other assets, most notably US Treasurys, which experienced a large sell-off this week. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond is on track for its steepest rise since 2001.Related: As Trump tanks Bitcoin, PMI offers a roadmap of what comes nextDespite “macro relief,” Bitcoin remains under pressureUS equity markets experienced a historic relief rally on April 9 after Trump’s tariff pause. However, the “macro relief” didn’t extend to Bitcoin or its spot exchange traded funds (ETFs) in any meaningful way, which is a sign that “institutional confidence remains cautious in the near term,” Bitfinex analysts told Cointelegraph in a note. “After January’s record inflows, ETF demand has cooled, with several products seeing net outflows in recent weeks,” the analysts said. “This reflects hesitation among large allocators who may be waiting for more favorable entry points or clearer regulatory guidance.” The US spot Bitcoin ETFs have experienced six consecutive days of outflows. Source: FarsideDespite Bitcoin’s disappointing performance, Bitfinex said the second quarter through the end of 2025 is potentially bullish for the asset class as a whole as “new narratives take hold,” such as sovereign accumulation and growth in real-world asset tokenization.Unchained’s director of market research, Joe Burnett, shared a similar view, arguing that Bitcoin has more attractive characteristics for long-term investors who are worried about government policy and fiat risk impacting their portfolios. While the S&P 500’s volatility spike is likely to be short-lived, Burnett said its recent performance “challenges the long-held belief that traditional markets are safer, less risky, or more stable.” Related: Weaker yuan is ‘bullish for BTC’ as Chinese capital flocks to crypto — Bybit CEO
Vitalik Buterin unveils roadmap for Ethereum privacy
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined an extensive plan to enhance the privacy of the network he helped create.In an April 11 roadmap, Buterin argued for incorporating privacy tools into Ether (ETH) wallets and implementing privacy-enhancing norms and features in the Ethereum ecosystem and protocol. He explained that the roadmap in question is a short-term solution that requires limited changes to the base protocol along with supplemental long-term updates.Buterin recommends adopting privacy-enhancing systems such as Railgun or Privacy Pools by existing wallets, according to the plan. When funds are sent with those wallets, he argues that users should be greeted by an option to “send from shielded balance,” which anonymizes the transaction, and should be “ideally turned on by default.” He wrote:“Users should NOT have to download a separate ‘privacy wallet.’“Related: Privacy Pools launch on Ethereum, with Vitalik demoing the featureMajor changes recommended for DeFiButerin further recommended profound changes in how decentralized finance (DeFi) and broader decentralized applications (DApp) are implemented. He argued that those systems should be limited to “one address per application.”The Ethereum co-founder acknowledged that this would require “significant convenience sacrifices, ” but it “is the most practical way to remove public links between all of your activity across different applications.” He also highlights that the user experience would be “very similar” to depositing funds to one chain from another in crosschain interoperability systems.Buterin also highlighted that to enjoy the benefits of this change, developers would need to ensure that user withdrawal functions are privacy-preserving by default.Ethereum protocol changes neededOther changes included are the implementation of fork-choice enforced inclusion lists (FOCIL) and the Ethereum improvement proposal (EIP) 7701. The latter is an improvement to Ethereum account abstraction, and the former is a censorship-resistance improvement.FOCIL functionality diagram. Source: Ethereum ResearchEIP-7701 ensures that privacy protocols can operate without needing relays or public broadcasters. This, in turn, simplifies the development and maintenance of this kind of protocol. Relays, in this context, are intermediaries or nodes responsible for accepting and forwarding transactions. On the other hand, broadcasters are responsible for publishing transactions to the public blockchain.EIP-7701 divides Ethereum transactions into phases, natively allowing third parties to step in and pay the fees in the right phase. This means there is no need for a relay to accept users’ private transactions to be anonymously broadcast by a separate entity.FOCIL, on the other hand, prevents the censorship of transactions, including privacy-preserving ones. The relevance is presumably that anonymized transactions are at a significantly higher risk of falling victim to censorship attempts.Related: Financial privacy and regulation can co-exist with ZK proofs — Vitalik ButerinInfrastructure changes are requiredA short-term solution to address the privacy limitations of current remote procedure call (RPC) systems used to interact with the blockchain, as proposed by Buterin, is the implementation of a trusted execution environment (TEE).TEE is a secure area within a processor that ensures code and data loaded inside it are protected. Buterin explained that “this allows users to interact with RPC nodes while getting stronger assurances that their private data is not being collected.”As a long-term solution, TEEs should be replaced with a private information retrieval (PIR) system. PIR is a cryptographic protocol that allows users to retrieve a specific item from a database without revealing which item was retrieved.This would allow users to retrieve data concerning blockchain contents without the provider knowing which data is being shared. Buterin highlighted that it is superior because it provides “cryptographic guarantees.” The Ethereum co-founder also argued that wallets should be connected to multiple RPC servers. They should also use a separate RPC per DApp and potentially a mixnet — a privacy-enhancing technology designed to obscure metadata.Other recommendations include the development of proof-aggregation protocols for privacy-preserving protocols. This would result in significantly lower fees for using such systems.Magazine: Big Questions: What did Satoshi Nakamoto think about ZK-proofs?
Speculation is DeFi’s double-edged sword
Opinion by: Billy Campana, contract developer, Api3 Speculation is a cornerstone of price discovery for traditional finance institutions like hedge funds and major banks and plays an essential role in their day-to-day operations. It is the mechanism by which they can establish reliable valuations for everything, ranging from simple stocks and bonds to complex derivatives and structured products. While decentralized finance (DeFi) is often criticized for its speculative “casino” nature, this is, in reality, one of its strengths: making practices like arbitrage more accessible to everyone and empowering individuals to participate in opportunities once out of reachDeFi’s volatilityCritics have highlighted DeFi’s extreme volatility, a concern exemplified by Ether’s (ETH) recent 15% price drop that triggered over $100 million in long position liquidations. These dramatic market movements continually test market resilience and investor confidence in the ecosystem. The accusations that DeFi platforms function essentially as gambling venues persist throughout the industry. Such criticisms have gained further traction following several high-profile memecoin crashes that collectively erased over $46 billion in market value, revealing the systemic vulnerabilities that speculative activities can introduce to the broader ecosystem.Additionally, the recent Bybit hack spotlighted the major security concerns, exposing critical vulnerabilities within DeFi infrastructure and triggering intense scrutiny of the sector’s security protocols. These systemic risks have only escalated institutional skepticism, resulting in increasingly vocal calls for greater transparency and comprehensive regulatory oversight. Simultaneously, the media narrative surrounding DeFi remains overwhelmingly focused on its spectacular failures, growing institutional skepticism and persistent market instability. This one-sided portrayal continues challenging DeFi’s credibility as a serious financial ecosystem capable of responsible innovation.Evening the playing fieldCritics consistently miss that DeFi democratizes the same speculative mechanisms that traditional finance has always employed for price discovery. The fundamental difference is that Wall Street gatekeepers no longer control who benefits from these opportunities. While traditional finance has historically restricted arbitrage opportunities to institutional players with privileged access, DeFi effectively removes these gatekeepers, allowing anyone with an internet connection to participate in the price discovery process that hedge funds and banks have monopolized for decades.Smart contracts have revolutionized financial operations that once required privileged access and teams of highly paid professionals. Smart contracts effectively break down the artificial barriers that have systematically kept ordinary people out of sophisticated markets. Recent: Bitwise makes first institutional DeFi allocationLeading financial institutions increasingly recognize this paradigm shift, with established businesses progressively adopting DeFi mechanisms to automate transactions and enhance operational efficiency. Institutional adoption validates speculation as a legitimate financial practice rather than dismissing it as mere gambling.An arbitrage utopiaThis unprecedented democratization manifests concretely in decentralized lending platforms that enable automated market makers (AMMs), enabling anyone to provide liquidity and earn fees previously reserved exclusively for institutional market makers with significant capital reserves. With unprecedented data transparency across blockchain networks, even uncollateralized crypto loans can enable capital-efficient arbitrage opportunities spanning multiple blockchain ecosystems without requiring the millions in upfront collateral that traditional finance demands from participants. As institutional involvement continues to grow and regulatory frameworks gradually mature, these speculative mechanisms steadily evolve toward the same legitimacy traditional finance instruments enjoy. This evolution reveals that speculation itself was never the problem — the exclusionary access to its benefits was. The practical execution of this democratized speculation includes cross-exchange arbitrage through DeFi aggregators, crosschain bridges that naturally equalize asset prices across different blockchains and automated liquidation mechanisms that maintain system solvency. All these components serve the same fundamental purpose as traditional financial instruments but with radically expanded access for participants worldwide.As institutional investors and traditional financial markets return their gaze to the industry, with increased involvement from regulatory bodies and political figures in the US, DeFi must remember its core value proposition. The actual value of DeFi is not in recreating the current structures that allow the powerful to benefit from methods that regular people don’t have access to but in making these opaque systems transparent and open to everyone.Rather than apologizing for speculation, the industry should embrace and refine it as its revolutionary tool — one that brings financial opportunities to billions systematically excluded from traditional markets. Innovation in DeFi isn’t just technological; it is also social, creating a financial system where opportunity isn’t determined by privilege but by insight, creativity and willingness to participate. The future belongs not to those who can eliminate speculation but to those who can make it fair, transparent and accessible to all.Opinion by: Billy Campana, contract developer, Api3This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
StarkWare researchers propose smart contracts for Bitcoin with ColliderVM
Sidechain developer StarkWare and Weizmann Institute of Science researchers claim to have created a workaround for multiple Bitcoin script limitations.According to a recent research paper, the new design claims to allow the deployment of complex smart contracts on Bitcoin in a more capital-efficient manner. The new system may also be vastly more efficient from a computing standpoint.ColliderVM is a protocol designed to enable stateful computation on Bitcoin, allowing multi-step processes to be securely executed over multiple transactions. Traditionally, Bitcoin script output is not accessible to other scripts, making complex calculations nearly impossible.The researchers argue that ColliderVM could allow the use of Scalable Transparent Arguments of Knowledge (STARKs) — a type of zero-knowledge proof — on Bitcoin without requiring consensus-level changes to the network. The architecture would let Bitcoin verify complex offchain computations with minimal onchain data.ColliderVM targets Bitcoin limitationsEach Bitcoin block can contain up to 4 million OPCodes (commands) across all transactions, and a single Bitcoin script can contain up to 1,000 stack elements (data entries). Furthermore, stateless execution means that each script executes without memory of previous state or intermediate computations from earlier transactions, making complex computations impractical.The BitVM implementation from a 2023 paper by Robin Linus from Bitcoin research firm ZeroSync allowed for complex smart contracts on Bitcoin but required fraud proofs. Fraud proofs are cryptographic proofs that prove a particular transaction or computation was performed incorrectly, possibly triggering corrective actions.Fraud-proof implementation typically requires operators to front capital for potential corrective actions. In BitVM, operators pay an advance to cover potentially fraudulent transactions, recovering the capital after the fraud-proof window closes.The new system is also more efficient from a computing point of view, compared with previous implementations, but still expensive. Previous implementations used cryptographic one-time signatures (Lamport and Winternitz) that were notably computationally heavy.ColliderVM draws from the November 2024 ColliderScript paper by researchers from StarkWare, web services firm Cloudflare and Bitcoin sidechain developer Blockstream. This system relies on a hash collision-based commitment setting a challenge to produce an input that, when run through a hash function, produces an output with pre-determined features.Related: A beginner’s guide to the Bitcoin Taproot upgradeThis setup requires significantly fewer computing resources from honest operators than from malicious actors.Computational resources needed by honest and malicious actors depending on collision difficulty. Source: ColliderVM paperHash, but no food or weedA hash is a non-reversible mathematical function that can be run on arbitrary data, producing a fixed-length alphanumeric string. Non-reversible means that it is impossible to run the computation in reverse to obtain the original data from a hash.This results in a sort of data ID identifying data to the bit, without containing any underlying data.Hash function examples. Source: WikimediaThis system — somewhat resembling Bitcoin (BTC) mining — requires significantly fewer hash operations compared to BitVM, reducing both script size and processing time. ColliderVM researchers claim to have reduced the number of those operations even further, by at least a factor of 10,000.The researchers seemingly suggest that this implementation is nearly making a STARKs-based Bitcoin sidechain practical. The paper reads:“We estimate that the Bitcoin script length for STARK proof verification becomes nearly practical, allowing it to be used alongside other, pairing-based proof systems common today in applications.”STARKs are a ZK-proof system recognized for their scalability and trustless nature (no trusted setup is needed). ZK-proofs are a cryptographic system that allows users to prove a particular feature of a piece of data without revealing the underlying data.Many early ZK-proof systems necessitated a one-time secure setup that relied on “toxic waste” data. If a party were to keep hold of the toxic waste, it would allow them to forge signatures and generate fraudulent proofs. STARKs do not rely on such a setup, making them trustless.Traditional implementation of STARK verifiers would require scripts that exceed Bitcoin’s limits. Now, researchers behind ColliderVM argue that their more efficient system approaches make an onchain verification script for STARK-proofs “nearly practical.”Related: Bitcoin sidechains will drive BTCfi growthBitcoin-based trustless sidechains?Bitcoin is widely considered the most secure and reliable blockchain, but its critics raise issues with its feature set being significantly more limited when compared to many altcoins. Sidechains such as Blockstream’s Liquid exist, but are not trustless.Director of research at blockchain firm Blockstream and mathematician Andrew Poelstra told Cointelegraph as far back as 2020 that ZK-proof-based systems are “one of the most exciting areas of development” in the cryptography space. Cypherpunk, a developer cited in the Bitcoin white paper and Blockstream founder, explained in a 2014 paper that more work was needed to implement trustless ZK-proof-based sidechains on Bitcoin.Still, even 10 years later, a system based on ColliderVM would be trust-minimized rather than trustless. This is because users would still need to trust that at least a minimal subset of network participants will act honestly to ensure the correct functioning of the system.The study’s lead authors include Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder of StarkWare, along with researchers Lior Goldberg and Ben Fisch. Ben-Sasson is one of the original developers of STARKs and has long advocated for the use of zero-knowledge proofs to improve blockchain scalability.In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, StarkWare co-founder Ben-Sasson noted that a real Bitcoin layer-2 solution would need to have “the security of Bitcoin itself.” Instead, current solutions rely on trust in signers or fraud-proof-based economic incentives. Still, he recognized the Lightning Network:“We should also acknowledge there’s, of course, today, lightning networks, which have the security of Bitcoin.“Magazine: ‘Bitcoin layer 2s’ aren’t really L2s at all: Here’s why that matters