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Coinbase’s Layer 2 System Base Gets a Marketplace Linked to Gas Revenue

The runaway success of Base, the Coinbase-owned Ethereum overlay blockchain designed for faster, cheaper transactions, has prompted the creation of a market linked to the fluctuating cost of the total gas needed to power the network, allowing speculators to bet on recurring utility spikes on the layer 2 system.
Taking a cue from the way traders speculate and hedge in traditional energy markets, Alkimiya, a startup backed by Coinbase Ventures as well as firms like Dragonfly and Castle Island Ventures, enables users to go long or short on the cost of transactions being included in blocks, or “blockspace” – a representation of the storage and computational capacity of a blockchain.
“Paying for blockspace is like paying for other energy sources, such as cars paying for petrol or aeroplanes paying for jet fuel,” said Alkimiya founder Leo Zhang in an interview. “Traditional energy markets have developed that allow airlines to hedge against their jet fuel price, for example, and we think there should be a better price discovery mechanism for how people price and use this core energy resource, which is blockspace.”
Launched in August 2023, Base has outperformed its layer 2 rivals, generating over $14 million in the last month. Increased activity on Base means the cumulative gas paid to the network can fluctuate dramatically, from as low as 10 ETH to as high as 200 ETH in a single day.
Unlike many other blockchains, Base does not have a token and has no plans to issue one. Alkimiya’s smart contracts allow users to bet on how the cost of Base blockspace might fluctuate thanks to the introduction of AI agents, for instance, or on-chain events like the arrival of a particular memecoin, NFT or airdrop.
Under the hood, Alkimiya uses a very common decentralized finance (DeFi) architecture where an oracle tracks the gas being consumed by users on Base, and a system of smart contracts facilitate the accounting and logic, Zhang explained.
“A user can purchase this contract that tracks the total amount of gas paid to the Base roll up itself,” Zhang said. “And the reason this is doable is because it’s entirely transparent. There’s no centralized exchange where everything is in a black box.”
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Tesla Reports $951M in Crypto Holdings as it Misses Earnings

Tesla (TSLA) still holds almost $1 billion in bitcoin, according to the automaker’s latest earnings report.
The electric vehicle firm reported digital asset holdings worth $951 million as of March 31, down from $1.076 billion on Dec. 30. Tesla currently holds 11,509 bitcoin in its balance sheet, according to Bitcoin Treasuries data.
The change is almost certainly due to bitcoin’s price depreciating between the two quarters. Data from Arkham Intelligence indicates that Tesla did not perform any transactions in the last three months. Arkham marks Tesla’s holdings as being currently worth $1.049 billion.
A new rule from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) requires corporate holders of digital assets to begin marking those assets to market each quarter.
Tesla also reported $19.34 billion in revenue for the first quarter of the year; analysts had expected the carmaker to rake in $21.37 billion.
The TSLA shares were up more than 2% in after-hours trading.
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Bitcoin Tops $91K as Trade Optimism Fuels Crypto Rally But Demand Headwinds Remain

Bitcoin (BTC) surged past $91,000 on Tuesday, climbing nearly 5% amid renewed investor optimism and fresh hopes of a thaw in U.S.-China trade tensions, but headwinds persist that could cap further upside, analytics firm CryptoQuant cautioned.
The largest crypto by market capitalization hit $91,700 in the U.S. afternoon, its strongest price since early March. Altcoins followed BTC higher, with Ethereum’s ether (ETH) rising 8% over the past 24 hours above $1,700, and dogecoin (DOGE) and Sui’s native token (SUI) gaining 8.6% and 11.7%, respectively. The broad-market crypto benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index advanced 5.2%.
Markets were buoyed by remarks from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who reportedly told investors at a closed-door JPMorgan event that the tariff standoff with China was unsustainable. Bessent said de-escalation would come “in the very near future,” characterizing current conditions as a “trade embargo.” However, he cautioned that a more comprehensive deal between the two nations could take even years.
Stocks recovered from yesterday’s decline, with the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq finishing the session 2.5% and 2.7% higher, respectively. Gold, meanwhile, sharply reversed from its record price of $3,500 during the day and was down 1%.
«As capital rotates into safe-haven and inflation-hedging assets, BTC and gold are proving to be key beneficiaries of the exodus from USD risk,» analysts at hedge fund QCP Capital said in a Telegram broadcast.
They highlighted rejuvenating inflows to spot U.S.-listed BTC ETFs and the return of the so-called Coinbase price premium, suggesting demand from American institutional investors. BTC ETF booked over $381 million net inflows on Monday adding to Thursday’s $107 million, according to Farside Investors data.
But not all signs point to a sustained breakout.
Despite the price jump, on-chain data points to fragility beneath the surface, CryptoQuant analysts said in a Tuesday report. Bitcoin’s apparent demand has decreased by 146,000 BTC over the past 30 days—an improvement from the sharp drop in March, but still negative. CryptoQuant’s demand momentum metric, which tracks new investor interest, has deteriorated further to its the most bearish level since October 2024, the report noted.
Market liquidity remains soft, with the report using USDT’s market cap growth as a proxy for crypto liquidity. USDT grew $2.9 billion over the past two months, below its 30-day average. Historically, BTC rallies coincided with USDT growth above $5 billion and above trend — a threshold not yet met.
Adding to the caution, bitcoin is now facing a key resistance zone between $91,000 and $92,000 at around the «Trader’s On-chain Realized Price» metric, a level that has often served as resistance in bearish conditions. CryptoQuant’s on-chain bull score classified current market conditions as bearish, suggesting a pause or pullback could follow if sentiment weakens.
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Unicoin CEO Rejects SEC’s Attempt to Settle Enforcement Probe

Unicoin has rebuffed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) attempt to negotiate a settlement agreement to close an ongoing probe into the Miami-based crypto company, its CEO Alex Konanykhin revealed in a Tuesday letter to investors.
In his letter, Konanykhin said Unicoin was given an “ultimatum” by the SEC to attend a settlement negotiation meeting last week, on April 18.
“We declined to show up,” Konanykhin told CoinDesk, adding that the SEC had made demands ahead of the meeting that he found “unacceptable.” He declined to share specifics, telling CoinDesk that the communication between Unicoin’s lawyers and the SEC was confidential.
Unicoin received a Wells notice — a sort of official heads-up from the SEC that it intends to file an enforcement action against the recipient — in December, shortly before former Chair Gary Gensler stepped down, alleging violations related to fraud, deceptive practices, and the offer and sale of unregistered securities. No official enforcement action has yet been filed.
Since President Donald Trump took office, the SEC has reversed its once-aggressive stance toward crypto regulation, backing off from many of its open investigations into crypto companies, including blockchain gaming firm Immutable and non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, and even some of its ongoing litigation, including against Coinbase and Cumberland DRW.
Other SEC enforcement cases against crypto companies, including its cases against Binance and Tron, have been paused while the parties attempt to negotiate a settlement. The agency recently reached a settlement agreement with Nova Labs, the parent company behind the Helium blockchain, that saw Nova Labs pay a $200,000 fine to settle civil securities fraud charges, and the SEC dropped its claims that Helium (HNT) and other related tokens were securities.
In his letter to investors, Konanykhin claimed that the SEC’s probe has caused “multi-billion-dollar damage” to the company and its investors.
“We would likely be a $10B+ publicly traded company by now if the SEC had not blocked our ICO, stock exchange listing and fundraising,” Konanykhin wrote, adding that the SEC had prevented Unicoin from acting on the “very favorable market opportunities.”
“We were forced into a standstill,” Konanykhin wrote.
The SEC did not respond to a request for comment.
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