There’s never a dull moment onchain. Here’s what you need to know this week:

Bitcoin

$71,454.12

󰢸

3.02%

Ethereum

$2,215.42

󰢸

4.50%

Tether

$1.00

󰢸

0.04%

XRP

$1.35

󰢸

2.55%

BNB

$604.63

󰍾

0.70%

USDC

$1.00

󰍲

0.00%

See the latest prices

MARKET BYTES

Crypto markets bounce back on Iran ceasefire news

As has been the trend in recent weeks, bitcoin prices have been rising and falling on hopes for reduced tensions in the Iran conflict. On Tuesday night, after news broke around a two-week ceasefire, BTC spiked more than 5% to $72,849 and ETH rose as much as 7.4% to $2,273. Prices dipped slightly on Wednesday.

“I would still expect markets to stay choppy from here until we see a durable resolution,” Ivan Lim, senior derivatives trader at FalconX, told Bloomberg. “Overall though, for now, the tone is positive.”

Bitcoin has generally been less impacted than most other asset classes by the Iran conflict, with ProCap Financial CEO Anthony Pompliano describing it as a “shining light” in a new interview with CNBC. “Stocks are down, you see bonds going down, you see gold going down, bitcoin has been flat to slightly up,” Pompliano said. 

For a lot of people who hold bitcoin, according to Pompliano, “the geopolitical uncertainty and chaos actually makes [them] want to own more bitcoin, rather than less.” 

Here’s more news you should know.

Crypto ETF inflows bounced back after down week

Crypto ETFs rebounded last week with $224 million in inflows, after shedding more than $400 million the week prior, according to CoinShares data. The lion’s share of inflows came from BTC ETFs ($107 million) and XRP ETFs ($120 million).

That momentum continued into this week, when BTC ETFs roared out of the gates with $471 million in inflows on Monday alone — the biggest single-day inflow in six weeks. “This reflects renewed confidence among institutional participants in the crypto market,” analysts told The Block. 

JPMorgan CEO doubles down on tokenization

In his latest annual letter to shareholders, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon made it clear that tokenization is key to the firm’s future competitiveness.

Tokenization is the process of creating digital, blockchain-based tokens to represent pretty much any real-world asset: cash, stocks, bonds, real estate, royalties, art, and much more. Why? Because tokenized assets can be traded cheaply, instantly, and around the clock. 

“Our rivals increasingly include a large and growing set of nontraditional and fintech competitors globally in areas such as payments, digital banking and investing, and global market making,” Dimon noted. 

Many of Wall Street’s biggest firms, including JPMorgan, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs, have been investing in blockchain-based infrastructure, bespoke stablecoins, and other tokenization technologies. 

Strategy posted a $14.5 billion paper loss, but is still buying lots of BTC

The bitcoin accumulation giant Strategy reported two interesting statistics in recent filings: It bought around $330 million in BTC last week, but for Q1 2026 it was around $14.5 billion underwater on its holdings, which were purchased at an average price of more than $75,000.

The company’s share price increased by around 6% on Monday, compared to around 4% for bitcoin. 

One way the firm has been able to continue buying without diluting the shares of existing holders is to sell preferred shares that offer dividends but no voting rights. “For the model to hold, Bitcoin must appreciate faster than Strategy’s obligations compound,” notes Bloomberg. “The company has a cash reserve of about $2.25 billion, enough to cover interest and distributions for more than two years.”

AUTO PILOT

The world’s largest financial firms want AI payments to be the next big thing

When the creators of the internet first built its architecture, they imagined a world where machines could pay for things directly. For a long time, that wasn’t possible.

But now, as stablecoins, AI agents, and blockchain payments converge, some of the biggest financial firms in the world, including Stripe, Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Coinbase, are building for the next generation of transactions.

Last year, Coinbase introduced the x402 protocol, with the goal of building the infrastructure for the future of online commerce, in which AI agents are doing most of the transactions. And just last week, the x402 Foundation launched, expanding corporate collaboration around what the next phase of “agentic payments” might look like.

Here’s what you need to know.

What is x402 and what does it mean for AI payments?

x402 is an open payments protocol started by Coinbase that can be used by both humans and AI agents.

This month, Coinbase — alongside cloud-security giant Cloudflare, payments processor Stripe, and more than 20 other partners — announced that the protocol has been put under the stewardship of the Linux Foundation, helping ensure that it remains open-source and neutral. 

Most basic functions of the internet, like SSL (the encryption standard that’s foundational to secure web browsing) are the result of collaborations on open-source code. x402 aims to become the AI commerce equivalent to the SSL protocol. 

“The internet was built on open protocols,” said Jim Zemlin, CEO of the Linux Foundation. “The x402 Foundation will create an open, community-governed home to develop these capabilities in the open, ensuring they evolve with transparency, interoperability, and broad participation across the ecosystem.”

How does x402 work?

The protocol allows payments functionality to be added directly to the internet’s basic frameworks, instead of having to rely on third-party payment processors.

Agents could, for example, use x402 to pay for their own computing power, buy premium data sources to aid research, and even manage portfolio positions while you’re sleeping. If adopted broadly, x402 would empower AI agents to transact autonomously without requiring accounts or subscriptions, while also making it possible for any agent to access paid online resources. 

“We’re laying the groundwork for an economy run not just by people, but by software—autonomous, intelligent, and always on,” said Erik Reppel, head of engineering at Coinbase Developer Platform and co-author of the x402 whitepaper. 

This means anyone can create AI agents, equip them with a wallet, and send them off on the internet to make transactions using stablecoins, a wide variety of tokens, or even traditional payment methods.

Agents simply request access to a resource that requires payment, and that website responds by specifying the price, and where to send the payment. Once the agent sends the payment authorization, the transaction is processed and settled. Then, the website sends the agent confirmation of the payment, and the resource the agent had requested. 

For example, imagine an agent arrives at a paywalled article. The agent is empowered to send the appropriate payment, unlocking access to the article.

Which companies are involved with x402?

While x402 was originally incubated by engineers at Coinbase, Cloudflare is integrating the protocol into a variety of the developer tools it offers, helping to distribute it across the internet. At the same time, companies like Amazon are exploring ways that merchants and financial institutions can use x402 in their operations. 

Other Fortune 500 firms that are part of the x402 Foundation include Mastercard, American Express, Microsoft, and Google, alongside crypto-native organizations like the Solana Foundation and USDC-issuer Circle. 

What benefits do companies see in using AI agents for payments?

Agentic payments have the potential to unlock new types of transactions, and create economic opportunities. But for AI agents to reach their full potential of being able to execute decisions autonomously and securely, there needs to be ground-level infrastructure enabling the transition. 

Instead of software being a static tool that requires constant human supervision, x402 enables AI agents to be capable of “autonomously discovering, acquiring, and leveraging new capabilities on-demand,” said Coinbase in a blog post.

Traditional payment methods have limitations including high transaction fees and long processing times, Bloomberg says. But since AI agents are largely transacting on blockchains and often using stablecoins with instant settlement times, the protocol will enable high frequency payments and more efficient machine-to-machine commerce. 

“The problem to solve is not, ‘How does an agent buy something on Amazon?’“ said Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle. “The real opportunity is all of the things that AIs need to consume from each other.”

PREDICTION MARKETS

What will crypto markets do in April?

So far, traders have placed more than $1 million on what they see happening for various cryptocurrencies’ prices this month. 

Here’s what markets see as most likely as of Wednesday around 1 p.m. PDT. 

How high will BTC get in April?

Above $75,000, 57%

What markets say: Nearly $1 million in predictions volume has flowed into this market since opening at the start of the month. After bitcoin closed March in the green and briefly surpassed $72,500, traders appear to be making more bullish predictions for April, especially after this week’s ceasefire rally. The bullishness has limits though — traders only believe there’s a 18% chance of BTC crossing $80,000.

How high will ETH get in April?

Above $2,500, 38%

What markets say: March was also Ethereum’s first green month since the fall, with the token ending the month up around 7% and surpassing $2,300 for the first time since early February. Still, traders see modest upside for ETH in April. With ETH trading at around $2,200 as of Wednesday, traders are assigning a 17% probability of it hitting $2,750 or higher. 

How high will XRP get in April?

Above $1.40, 82%

What markets say: As XRP sits at $1.35 as of Wednesday, traders do see some upside for this month, which would give XRP its first green month since September. Traders don’t see it as likely for XRP to make it to $1.60, though, assigning it just a 19% probability.

TOKEN TRIVIA

What is the smallest unit of a Bitcoin?

Find the answer below.

Trivia Answer