Mountain City may soon welcome a bitcoin mining operation, as Cleanspark has secured preliminary backing from local planners, contingent upon final evaluations of the site and energy arrangements. Cleanspark’s Bitcoin Mining Facility Proposal Moves Forward in Mountain City The Mountain City Planning Board has expressed early favor toward a bitcoin mining data center proposed by
Bitcoin's (BTC) price action is relatively muted as it hovers around $95,000. The flagship cryptocurrency went past $95,000 on Friday, rising to $95,620, but lost momentum and declined to its current level of $94,285. Analysts predict BTC could reclaim $100,000 and potentially rally to a new all-time high if bullish momentum picks up. Bitcoin (BTC) Poised For Strongest Weekly Gain Bitcoin’s 11% jump to crack the $95,000 ceiling is on track to become its strongest weekly performance since November 2024. The flagship cryptocurrency pushed above $95,000 Friday before registering a marginal decline. BTC is marginally up over the past 24 hours as it looks to build momentum and reclaim $95,000. The broader crypto market also continued its positive momentum, with most cryptocurrencies, including Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), and Solana (SOL) trading upwards. The gains indicate that the markets have overcome the early-April turmoil created by economic uncertainty and Trump’s tariffs. ETFs have also bounced back, recording $2.68 billion in net inflows this week, the highest since December, according to data from SoSoValue. The flagship cryptocurrency’s resilience highlights its decoupling from traditional macro assets. David Duong, Global Head of Research at Coinbase Institutional, stated, “It’s rare to witness market inflection points in real-time, as we only tend to recognize major regime shifts with the benefit of time and reflection. This week’s decoupling of Bitcoin’s performance from that of traditional macro assets may be as close as we come to such a moment. In our view, this divergence highlights bitcoin’s maturing role as a store-of-value asset—one that is increasingly being viewed by institutional and retail investors alike as resilient against the macroeconomic forces affecting risk assets more broadly.” Swiss National Bank Dismisses Bitcoin Reserve An official from the Swiss National Bank has dismissed calls for adding Bitcoin to its reserves as a hedge against the ongoing macroeconomic turmoil. According to a report by Reuters, Swiss National Bank Chairman Martin Schlegel stated that cryptocurrency cannot fulfill the requirements of Switzerland’s currency reserves. The comments come amid growing pressure from the crypto industry to add BTC to the bank’s reserves. Luzius Meisser, a board member of cryptocurrency broker Bitcoin Suisse, stated, “Holding Bitcoin makes more sense as the world shifts towards a multipolar order. The need is even more dire now that the dollar and the euro are weakening.” This is not the first time the Swiss National Bank under Schlegel has pushed back against the idea of adding Bitcoin to its reserves. Schlegel had earlier stated he did not want to create a Bitcoin reserve in Switzerland due to the asset’s volatility. Bitcoin (BTC) Price Analysis Bitcoin (BTC) has registered a marginal decline during the ongoing session as selling pressure around $95,000 prevents a push higher. The flagship cryptocurrency has had a bullish week, rising over 11%, and is on track to post its highest weekly gain since November 2024. One analyst believes BTC is gearing up for a massive price surge that could take it to $150,000 or beyond. The analyst pointed out that $89,000-$90,000 were key levels for BTC , stating that if the price fell below this level, it would have to wait for momentum to return. Additionally, Bitcoin’s Market Value to Realized Value (MVRV) has formed a Golden Cross with its 365-day Simple Moving Average (SMA). BTC has also reported a significant rise in its Apparent Demand. The indicator returned to positive territory after spending several weeks in the red. Bitcoin’s Apparent Demand measures the cumulative net demand for BTC over the past 30 days, tracking wallet accumulation and exchange outflows. An increase in this metric suggests strong buying pressure and bullish sentiment, leading to a potential rally. This is the first time since February that the Apparent Demand has turned positive, aligning with growing spot Bitcoin ETF inflows and accumulation by long-term holders. According to John Glover, chief investment officer of crypto lender Ledn, markets will remain choppy over the next week, but the flagship cryptocurrency should reclaim $100,000. “My expectations continue to be for a rally to $133-$136k into the end of this year, beginning of next.” BTC crossed the 50-day SMA on Thursday, rising 1.10% and settling at $84,956. The price lost momentum on Friday, registering a marginal drop and settling at $84,518. Sentiment changed over the weekend as BTC registered an increase of 0.61% to reclaim $85,000 and settle at $85,033. The price continued to push higher on Sunday despite selling pressure, registering a marginal increase and settling at $85,224. Bullish sentiment intensified on Monday as the price surged past $87,000 and settled at $87,508. BTC rallied on Tuesday, rising almost 7% to surge past $90,000 and settle at $93,373. Source: TradingView However, the rally lost momentum Wednesday as BTC encountered volatility and selling pressure. Despite this, the price rose 0.40% and settled at $93,749. Sellers drove BTC to a low of $91,693 on Thursday. However, buyers did not cede ground to the bears, and the price rebounded from this level to cross $94,000 and settle at $94,009. Buyers retained control on Friday as BTC registered an increase of almost 1% and $84,776, but not before reaching an intraday high of $95,865. The flagship cryptocurrency is marginally down during the current session as it attempts to overwhelm the overhead resistance. If BTC breaks above this level, it could reclaim $100,000 and push toward its all-time high. However, if the price dips below $90,000, it could signal buyer exhaustion. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda has proposed that state-chartered trust companies should be permitted to act as qualified custodians for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He suggests that allowing these institutions to custody digital assets would provide investment advisers with more options and increase competition in the market. Uyeda's proposal is part of ongoing regulatory discussions about expanding custodial options for investment advisers and clarifying the role of state-chartered trusts in the custody of cryptocurrencies. To continue reading this as well as other DeFi and Web3 news, visit us at thedefiant.io
Bitcoin has been on the rise again with positive sentiment returning after Donald Trump revealed plans to reduce tariffs on China. This suggests that an end to the tariff wars which began in January 2025 could be drawing to an end. Taking this as a sign, Bitcoin whales have begun to make moves once again. So far, they have bought almost 20,000 BTC, with BTC exchange outflows rising to levels not seen in over two years. Bitcoin Exchange Outflows Reach February 2023 Levels According to the on-chain data tracking platform CryptoQuant, more BTC has been flowing out of exchanges at levels that have not been seen in two years. This data was taken on a 100-day moving average basis and shows netflows are down significantly from not only 2025 and 2024, but dating as far back as 2023. Related Reading: Is The XRP Price Rally Over At $2.22? New Developments Suggest Major Pump Is Coming CryptoQuant’s data shows that Bitcoin net flows from all exchanges have crashed by more than 50% in the last year. Currently, it is sitting so low that the last time it was this low was back in January 2023, when the crypto market was just coming out of the impact of the FTX crypto exchange collapse. When net flows are this low, it suggests that Bitcoin investors are choosing to accumulate rather than sell. It points to withdrawals from exchanges into private storage, with investors holding onto their BTC in anticipation of higher prices before they begin to sell. “This essentially indicates the highest Bitcoin outflow from exchanges since that date,” CryptoQuant explained in the post. “A review of historical patterns suggests that this could imply re-accumulation of assets by investors.” BTC Whales Are Turning Bullish Again The recent Bitcoin price rise seems to be driven by bulls who had taken the reduced price to accumulate large amounts of BTC in a very short time. Santiment reported on this development, showing how the 11% Bitcoin price rise could have been driven by the buying activities of these large investors. Related Reading: Bitcoin Price Recovery At Stake If This Level Doesn’t Hold, Crash Could Erase Gains The post shows that investors holding between 10 and 10,000 BTC had gone on a buying spree in the last week. In total, they added 19,255 more BTC to their balances in only seven days. This shows that whales had realized how undervalued the BTC price was and had seized the opportunity to secure profits quickly. At the time of writing, the Bitcoin price was trending around $94,578, showing strong staying power from the bulls. Featured image from Dall.E, chart from TradingView.com
According to recent disclosures by Nate Geraci, President of The ETF Store, Grayscale’s GBTC has experienced a *remarkable uptrend* over the past nine days. This trend is highlighted by *steady
Michael Saylor, the Executive Chairman of the world’s largest Bitcoin corporate holder Strategy, has predicted that in the next ten years, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which launched in January 2024 alongside 10 other US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs, will become the largest ETF in the world. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF Accounts For Nearly 3% Of Entire BTC Supply It might be pocket change when considering BlackRock currently boasts trillions of dollars in assets under management, but it hasn’t gone unnoticed that the asset management giant’s Bitcoin ETF stash is closing in on 3% of Bitcoin’s total supply. “BlackRock is accumulating. They now hold 2.77% of the entire Bitcoin supply,” Arkham Intelligence wrote to X on Friday, noting the Wall Street behemoth had added a staggering $1.2 billion in BTC this week alone. As of April 26, BlackRock held approximately 582,000 BTC via IBIT, worth around $54 billion. That makes it the 33rd biggest exchange-traded fund by assets under management. In comparison, the largest ETF by market cap, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO), boasts a market capitalization of $593.5 billion, more than ten times that of IBIT. However, speaking at the Bitcoin Standard Corporation’s Investor Day, Strategy’s Michael Saylor forecasted that “IBIT will be the biggest ETF in the world in ten years.” NEW: @saylor predicts that @BlackRock ’s $IBIT will be “the biggest ETF in the world in ten years.” pic.twitter.com/cyDDFf47FV — Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) April 24, 2025 Bloomberg’s senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas concurred with Saylor that IBIT could potentially become the world’s biggest ETF, though he stressed that it would be extraordinary. “It’s possible, especially if IBIT starts taking in more cash than VOO, but that would require inflows well north of $1 billion a day — more likely in the range of $3 to $4 billion daily, to gain ground. In short, some extraordinary things would have to happen, but it’s possible,” Balchunas said. It’s pertinent to note that this is not Saylor’s first insanely optimistic Bitcoin-related prediction. As ZyCrypto reported previously, the tech entrepreneur said he thinks the crypto will rocket to a price of $13 million per coin over a 21-year period. Saylor’s company currently holds 538,200 BTC , worth roughly $51 billion. Bitcoin recently changed hands at $94,969, up 1.5% over the past 24 hours. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap is up 13.5% over the past 14 days.
Swiss National Bank (SNB) President Martin Schlegel has rejected holding Bitcoin reserves , citing market liquidity and volatility as reasons for doing so. Schlegel concedes that Bitcoin can have a high level of liquidity at times, but during crises, this liquidity can become less stable. Schlegel further states that Bitcoin is well known for its volatility, experiencing wild swings in market prices, which prevents the digital asset from being used to preserve long-term value. Schlegel concluded that Bitcoin is not an appropriate asset for the SNB’s reserve at this time. The Bitcoin Initiative, a group advocating for an SNB reserve, argued that SNB investments grew by about 10% since 2015. Using a back-of-the-envelope analysis, if the SNB added 1% of Bitcoin to its reserve, it would have nearly doubled its returns. Moreover, the volatility of the SNB portfolio would have only increased slightly. The Bitcoin Initiative concluded that Bitcoin’s volatility should not be analyzed in isolation, but rather considered in conjunction with the other assets in the current portfolio. The Bitcoin Initiative further noted that Bitcoin was resilient to market stress, highly liquid even with large sums of capital, and remained available even on bank holidays. Schlegel, however, disagreed with the Bitcoin Initiative and said a reserve needs a high level of liquidity to buy and sell foreign currencies at a rapid rate. He also reiterates that Bitcoin has very high volatility, making it difficult for the SNB to include it in its portfolio. Schlegel states that SNB needs to maintain control over the reliability of the bank’s reserves. The extremely high volatility of Bitcoin makes the currency a risky asset for the bank. SNB, therefore, maintains a conservative stance regarding cryptocurrencies, despite many advocates pushing for a Bitcoin reserve. There is a lot of interest in adopting a Bitcoin reserve in Switzerland. Yet, at this point, SNB’s Schlegel is not convinced about the suitability of Bitcoin for the Swiss bank. The Bitcoin Initiative, meanwhile, believes that the SNB should urgently consider a Bitcoin reserve to offset the risks caused by Trump’s tariffs. They believe that the bank should consider diversifying its reserves and include a currency that has been referred to as digital gold. A referendum campaign has started to change the constitution and force the SNB to hold both Bitcoin and gold reserves. Schlegel, however, remains firm with his strategy, saying that liquidity and volatility are factors that discount Bitcoin. He claims that the bank should be able to buy and sell currencies at any time. Schlegel has opposed the idea of a Bitcoin reserve in the past. Last month, he stated that the SNB has no plans to buy cryptocurrencies. He argued that foreign exchange reserves are strictly for implementing monetary policy. Schlegel mentioned that crypto proves difficult to preserve value over time due to its significant price fluctuations. He also pointed out that crypto was software and could be prone to security risks such as data breaches and software bugs. Time will tell whether the SNB will change its strategy or maintain a conservative approach focused on implementing monetary policy.
Today in crypto, tokenized real estate could top $4 trillion by 2035, according to a new Deloitte report, US Senator Cynthia Lummis says the Federal Reserve’s latest crypto decision is “just lip service,” and US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Paul Atkins speaks at the agency’s roundtable. Deloitte predicts $4 trillion tokenized real estate on blockchain by 2035 Over $4 trillion worth of real estate could be tokenized on blockchain networks during the next decade, potentially offering investors greater access to property ownership opportunities, according to a new report. The Deloitte Center for Financial Services predicts that over $4 trillion worth of real estate may be tokenized by 2035, up from less than $300 billion in 2024. The report, published April 24, estimates a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 27%. The $4 trillion of tokenized property is predicted to stem from the benefits of blockchain-based assets, as well as a structural shift across real estate and property ownership. Global tokenized real estate value, growth predictions. Source: Deloitte “Real estate itself is undergoing transformation. Post-pandemic work-from-home trends, climate risk, and digitization have reshaped property fundamentals,” according to Chris Yin, co-founder of Plume Network, a blockchain built for real-world assets (RWAs) . “Office buildings are being repurposed into AI data centers, logistics hubs and energy-efficient residential communities,” Yin told Cointelegraph. “Investors want targeted access to these modern use cases, and tokenization enables programmable, customizable exposure to such evolving asset profiles,” he said. Crypto banking rule withdrawal by Fed “not real progress” — Senator Lummis United States Senator Cynthia Lummis says the crypto industry may be celebrating too soon over the US Federal Reserve softening its crypto guidance for banks. “The Fed withdrawing crypto guidance is just noise, not real progress,” Lummis said in an April 25 X post. Lummis called the Fed’s April 24 announcement — withdrawing its 2022 supervisory letter that had discouraged banks from engaging with crypto and stablecoin activities — “just lip service.” Lummis, a pro-crypto advocate known for introducing the Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Bill in July 2024, pointed out several flaws in the Fed’s announcement, even as Strategy founder Michael Saylor and crypto entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano suggested it was a step forward for banks and crypto. She argued that the Fed continues to “illegally flout the law on master accounts” and still relies on reputational risk in its bank supervision practices. Lummis also highlighted the Fed’s policy statement in Section 9(13), which hasn’t been withdrawn, stating that Bitcoin and digital assets are considered “unsafe and unsound.” SEC chair suggests “huge benefits” in agency’s third crypto roundtable In one of his first appearances as the recently sworn-in chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Paul Atkins delivered remarks to the agency’s third roundtable discussion of crypto regulation. In the “Know Your Custodian” roundtable event on April 25, Atkins said he expected “huge benefits” from blockchain technology through efficiency, risk mitigation, transparency, and cutting costs. He reiterated that among his goals at the SEC would be to facilitate “clear regulatory rules of the road” for digital assets, hinting that the agency under former chair Gary Gensler had contributed to market and regulatory uncertainty. “I look forward to engaging with market participants and working with colleagues in President Trump’s administration and Congress to establish a rational fit-for-purpose framework for crypto assets,” said Atkins. SEC chair Paul Atkins addressing the April 25 crypto roundtable. Source: SEC Some critics of US President Donald Trump see Atkins’ nomination to lead the SEC as a nod to the crypto industry, acting on campaign promises to remove Gensler — the former chair resigned the day Trump took office — and cut back on regulation. Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee questioned Atkins on his ties to the industry, potentially presenting conflicts of interest in his role regulating crypto.
In a notable shift within the crypto market, Bitcoin has surged past the significant threshold of $94,000, currently priced at $94,179. This aggressive uptick has prompted financial analysts to reassess
Bitcoin’s recent performance post-halving has been underwhelming, highlighting the stark contrast with previous cycles driven by market dynamics. Despite a significant rise to $95,000, market analysts noted that recent gains