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Bitcoin Analysts Optimistic as China Surprisingly Fixes Yuan Beyond 7.2 Level

China eased its grip on the yuan (CNY) on Tuesday, allowing it to depreciate beyond a key level, likely in response to President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs.
Crypto analysts anticipate that the yuan’s depreciation could favor bitcoin (BTC), drawing parallels to similar events from a decade ago.
Early Tuesday, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the so-called daily yuan fix at 7.2038 per dollar on Tuesday, the weakest since September. The yuan isn’t a free float currency like the USD, euro and other G-7 nations and is allowed to trade in a range of 2% on either side of the daily fix announced at 9:15 a.m. Beijing time.
The 7.2 level has been considered a «harder line in the sand» for the central bank for years. The USD/CNY pair has traded above the said level a few times since 2022 but never established a foothold.
That could change with the PBOC explicitly setting the daily mid-point beyond the 7.2 level. In other words, the move signals a shift to managed depreciation of the yuan, which will help keep China’s exports cheaper and competitive, potentially offsetting the negative impact of Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods.
Capital flight into BTC?
The managed depreciation could also trigger capital flight from China, which may find home in cryptocurrencies, according to analysts.
«The U.S. is now pursuing full-scale economic pressure on China, which may be forced to respond with quantitative easing and a currency devaluation. If so—and if China permits capital flight—Bitcoin could surge, much like it did in 2015,» Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, said in a note to clients Monday.
The Chinese central bank devalued the yuan by 1.9% on Aug. 11, 2015, the most significant single-day depreciation in over two decades, sending shockwaves across global financial markets. Bitcoin initially fell over 20% with the U.S. stocks but quickly turned higher and surged nearly 60% in the following four months.
Ben Zhou, CEO and founder of the crypto exchange Bybit, voiced a similar opinion on X, saying yuan depreciation tends to bode well for bitcoin.
«China will try to lower RMB to counter the tariff, historically, whenever RMB drops, a lot of Chinese capital flow into BTC, bullish for BTC,» Zhou said on X.
Regulatory hurdles
While history tells us to expect a bullish BTC reaction to yuan depreciation, note that over the years, China has become anti-crypto, citing financial stability risks and has some of the world’s harshest regulations.
A new regulation announced earlier this year requires banks to monitor and report suspicious international transactions, including those involving cryptocurrency. Banks are obligated to investigate and report any risky crypto trades, which may result in financial restrictions and potential blacklisting for the trader.
The stringent stance means local traders may have a tough time diversifying into bitcoin and other digital assets in the event of a sustained yuan depreciation.
«Since August 2024, the Supreme People’s Court has significantly increased the legal risks for individuals using cryptocurrencies in connection with money laundering, which could easily extend to cases of capital flight,» Thielen said. «This presents a major deterrent, despite rising economic uncertainty.»
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Canary Capital Files for Tron ETF With Staking Capabilities

Canary Capital is looking to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking the price of Tron’s native token, TRX, according to a filing.
The hedge fund submitted a Form S-1 for the Canary Staked TRX ETF with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday. As the name suggests, the fund — if approved — would stake portions of its holdings.
This would be done through third-party providers, with BitGo acting as custodian for the assets. The fund would track TRX’s spot price using CoinDesk Indices calculations.
A proposed ticker as well as the management fee for the product have not been shared yet.
Issuers had initially filed applications for spot ethereum (ETH) ETFs with the staking feature included but removed them in an amended filing later in order to receive approval from the SEC on their proposals.
While the SEC under former Chair Gary Gensler was strictly against staking, issuers have grown more hopeful that they will be able to add the feature to their spot ether funds, among others, with the appointment of crypto-friendly Chair Paul Atkins.
A decision on a February request from Grayscale to allow staking in the Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHE) and the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH) was postponed by the regulator just a few days ago.
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Feds Mistakenly Order Estonian HashFlare Fraudsters to Self-Deport Ahead of Sentencing

Just four months ahead of their criminal sentencing for operating a $577 million cryptocurrency mining Ponzi scheme, the two Estonian founders of HashFlare were seemingly mistakenly ordered to self-deport by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — an instruction that directly contradicted a court order for the men to remain in Washington state until they are sentenced in August.
In a joint letter to the court last week, lawyers for Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin told District Judge Robert Lasnik of the Western District of Washington that both men had received “disturbing communications” from DHS ordering them to leave the country immediately.
“It is time for you to leave the United States,” an email to Potapenko and Turogin dated April 11 read. “DHS is terminating your parole. Do not attempt to remain in the United States — the federal government will find you. Please depart the United States immediately.”
The email, included with the letter filed last week, threatened both men with “criminal prosecution, civil fines, and penalties and any other lawful options available to the federal government” if they stayed in the country. It resembles emails that undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens alike have received over the past few days.
Ironically, Potapenko and Turogin are not in the U.S. of their own volition — they were extradited from their native Estonia at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice in 2022 on an 18-count indictment tied to their HashFlare scheme. Though they initially pleaded not guilty to all charges, in February they both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. They have both been in the Seattle area on bond since last July.
“Although there is nothing Ivan and Sergei would want more than to immediately go home, they understood that they are also under Court order to remain in King County,” wrote Mark Bini, a partner at Reed Smith LLP and lead counsel for Potenko, wrote in the pair’s joint letter to the court. Bini did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
In his letter, Bini said DHS’s emails had caused both Potapenko and Turogin «significant anxiety.”
“We and our clients have all seen recent news. Immigration authorities make mistakes, and individuals who should not be in custody end up in custody, sometimes even deported to places where they should not be deported,” Bini wrote.
Six days after Bini’s letter to the judge, the DOJ filed its own letter with the court saying that prosecutors had coordinated with DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division and secured a year-long deferral to the self-deportation order.
“This should provide ample time for the sentencing to take place,” the prosecution’s letter said.
DHS did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
Potapenko and Turogin are slated to be sentenced on August 14 in Seattle. Their lawyers have said that they will request to be sentenced to time served, meaning no additional time in prison, and to be sent home to Estonia “immediately.”
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CoinDesk Weekly Recap: EigenLayer, Kraken, Coinbase, AWS

Following last week’s tariff-caused drama, this was a relatively quiet week in crypto. Bitcoin remained stable around $84k. The CoinDesk 20, which tracks about 80% of the market, was up about 4% in the last seven days — i.e. nothing historic.
Still, plenty happened. On Tuesday, much of crypto went offline because of a tech issue at AWS, showing how the decentralized economy isn’t always that decentralized. Shaurya Malwa reported the news early. Bitcoin and other major cryptos slipped on bad news for Nvidia, Omkar Godbole reported.
Mantra, a project focused on real world assets, lost 90% of its value. Explanations varied (the company said it was due to “force liquidations” exchanges).
Meanwhile, EigenLayer, a restaking leader, rolled out a “slashing” feature meant to address security concerns (Sam Kessler reported). OKX, a major exchange, announced plans to set up in California following a $500 million settlement with the SEC over claims it operated previously in the U.S. without a money transmitter license. Cheyenne Ligon had that story.
In less good news, Kraken laid off “hundreds” of staff ahead of an expected IPO. And Coinbase became embroiled in a “front running controversy” linked to a curiously named token on its Base L2. Privacy advocates reacted with alarm to rumors that Binance was about to delist Zcash following a long decline in the value of privacy coins.
In D.C. news, Jesse Hamilton reported on a new wave of crypto lobbyists flooding the capital. Some asked if there are now too many trade groups and whether they really all could be effective.
Friends With Benefits, a buzzy social club for creative technologists, launched a new program to build Web3 products for music, film, publishing and other fun activities. (I wrote that one.)
Of course, there was plenty happening in the economy and markets (Trump’s disgust for Fed chair Powell fed into the unease). But, in crypto, it was pretty much business as usual. Fortunes won, fortunes lost, fortunes deferred.
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