The DeFi Education Fund, a research and advocacy organization, has petitioned the Trump administration to intervene in the prosecution of Roman Storm, the Tornado Cash co-founder facing criminal charges. According to an April 28 letter directed to White House crypto…

DeFi Education Fund urges Trump to “discontinue” DOJ’s Tornado Cash case against Roman Storm

1inch is integrating Solana to its platform, enabling cross-chain swaps across 
1 million of its tokens.

1inch launches Solana integration to boost DeFi liquidity

The FTX Estate has initiated legal action against NFT Stars Limited and 
Kurosemi Inc., accusing them of failing to deliver contractually owed tokens. 
FTX Still Open to Engagement The entity overseeing the estate of the collapsed 
cryptocurrency exchange FTX announced on April 28 that it is commencing legal 
action against token issuers NFT Stars Limited […]

FTX Estate Sues NFT Stars and Kurosemi Over Unreturned Tokens

A16z Crypto led a $25 million investment round into Miden, an independent 
blockchain project spun out of Polygon Labs.
Miden closed its $25 million seed rounds led by a16z Crypto, 1kx, and Hack VC, 
with participation from Finality Capital Partners, Symbolic Capital, P2 
Ventures, Delta Fund, MH Ventures, as well as from angel investors, including 
MakerDAO&#8217;s Rune Christensen and EigenLayer&#8217;s Sreeram Kannan.
Miden is a zero-knowledge (ZK) proof-powered blockchain focused on high 
scalability through its hybrid consensus mode, which moves transaction 
execution from the mainnet on &#8220;edge devices,&#8221; referring to users&#8217; devices.
Designed for institutions that value confidentiality, Miden enables 
applications to execute both public and private transactions with full 
privacy, according to an April 29 announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
Execution on edge devices can help with the &#8220;bottlenecks that limit 
traditional chains,&#8221; said Bobbin Threadbare, the co-founder at Miden and 
former engineer at Meta, adding:
&gt; &#8220;It allows blockchains to scale without relying on supernodes or sacrificing 
&gt; decentralization, while making privacy a built-in feature instead of an 
&gt; afterthought.&#8221;
The $25 million will be used to fund Miden&#8217;s development, and its mainnet 
launch is slated for the fourth quarter of 2025.
_**Related:**__**Coinbase to launch yield-bearing Bitcoin fund for 
institutions**_
## Miden is &#8220;the future of blockchains,&#8221; says Polygon Labs&#8217; Nailwal
&#8220;Miden is what the future of blockchains looks like. With edge execution at 
its core, it&#8217;s not just an upgrade &#8212; it&#8217;s the blueprint for the final form of 
blockchain architecture,&#8221; according to Sandeep Nailwal, the founder of Polygon 
Labs.
&#8220;With ambitions to rival Solana, Sui, and Aptos &#8212; and to be the epicenter of 
crosschain liquidity for Agglayer as a native chain and help grow the Agglayer 
ecosystem&#8211; building independently naturally positions Miden to attract the 
capital and focus needed to compete at the highest level,&#8221; Nailwal added.
Miden plans to airdrop around 10% of its native tokens to Polygon (POL) 
tokenholders and stakers to reward its native ecosystem.
_**Related:**__**BlackRock Bitcoin ETF buys $970M in BTC as inflows surge, 
boost market**_
## No existing blockchain is ready for mass adoption: Miden co-founder
&#8220;The reality is that no existing blockchain is ready for mass adoption,&#8221; 
either lacking privacy, scalability, or Web3-native principles such as 
censorship resistance, according to Miden&#8217;s Threadbare.
However, Miden&#8217;s infrastructure may be a &#8220;catalyst for large institutional 
adoption,&#8221; he claimed, adding:
&gt; &#8220;The reality is that up until this point, blockchains have not been in the 
&gt; position to offer privacy without compromising on performance or 
&gt; programmability, which is a major issue.&#8221;
Large tech firms joining the space require privacy solutions with regulatory 
compliance, leaving a significant gap for solutions like Miden, added the co- 
founder.
_Inco: the fourth layer of the blockchain stack_
Other industry watchers have also criticized the industry&#8217;s lack of 
confidentiality for limiting institutional adoption.
Confidential computing technologies such as fully homomorphic encryption could 
unlock the next $1 trillion worth of capital for the crypto space with 
continued technological development, Remi Gai, the founder of Inco, told 
Cointelegraph.
_**Magazine:**__**Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra &#8216;s plan to win trust: 
Hodler&#8217;s Digest, April 13 &#8211; 19**_

A16z leads $25M funding for Miden blockchain project

OKX&#8217;s latest proof-of-reserves report reveals the crypto exchange holds 
reserves exceeding the number of assets deposited by customers on the 
platform, specifically for 22 major cryptocurrencies. According to the crypto 
exchange&#8217;s 30th consecutive Proof of Reserves report, the platform currently…

OKX publishes proof of reserves with over 100% assets held for 22 cryptocurrencies

A recent forecast by financial services company Standard Chartered, indicates 
that the market’s leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), would hit new record 
highs of almost $120,000 in the second quarter (Q2) of 2025. By the end of 
2025, the cryptocurrency might have risen to $200,000, a 65% gain from the Q2 
aim and over 110% from its present price, according to this prediction, which 
implies a possible growth of around 25% from current levels. Bitcoin Surge 
Amid Rising Term Premium Analyst Geoff Kendrick emphasizes several key factors 
contributing to this optimistic view on Bitcoin’s price projection, pointing 
to the US Treasury term premium, which is currently at a 12-year high. 
According to the analyst, the term premium refers to the additional yield that 
investors demand for holding longer-dated Treasury bonds compared to shorter- 
term ones, indicating broader market conditions that could favor Bitcoin as an 
investment. Related Reading: Dogecoin On Track For $10+ Explosion By October 
2025, Says Crypto Pundit In addition to macroeconomic indicators, Kendrick 
highlights the behavior of major large-cap investors, known as &#8220;whales,&#8221; These 
BTC holders have been actively accumulating the asset, a trend that suggests 
growing confidence in its value. For instance, Bitcoin proxy firm Strategy 
(formerly MicroStrategy), founded by BTC bull Michael Saylor and currently the 
largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency, has recently disclosed on 
Monday another round of weekly purchases. Potential Sideways Trading Ahead? 
Another noteworthy trend is the movement of funds into Bitcoin exchange-traded 
funds (ETFs), which Kendrick interprets as a safe-haven reallocation from 
traditional assets like gold. In his view, this shift reflects a broader 
sentiment among investors who are increasingly looking at BTC as a viable 
alternative during uncertain economic times. As of Monday morning, Bitcoin was 
trading at approximately $95,300, remaining relatively flat for the year but 
up 51% compared to the same time last year. Related Reading: Justin Sun Bets 
Big On JUST Token – Here’s Why He Sees 100x Potential Kendrick cautions that 
historical patterns in Bitcoin&#8217;s price action indicate that sharp increases 
are often followed by extended periods of sideways trading. Conversely, 
Seeking Alpha analyst Damir Tokic offers a more cautious perspective on 
Bitcoin&#8217;s future trajectory. He notes that BTC could continue to decline 
alongside the Nasdaq 100 if the market selloff accelerates and investor 
sentiment deteriorates. However, he also acknowledges the potential for 
Bitcoin to solidify its position as a safe-haven asset, particularly if the US 
dollar continues to depreciate. When writing, BTC retraced below the $95,000 
mark toward $94,560, still up 1.1% in the 24 hour time frame. Ethereum (ETH), 
however, has outperformed BTC’s price action with a nearly 14% surge in the 
weekly time frame, compared to Bitcoin’s 7.3% surge in the same time frame. 
Other major altcoins like XRP and Solana (SOL), have also seen notable price 
recoveries, recording gains of 10% and 6% in the weekly time frame. Featured 
image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com