Uncategorized
It’s Time to End the Bureaucrat’s Secret Weapon: Debanking

«Debanking» has become a buzzword in Washington lately. The term refers to a controversial practice where crypto companies and other businesses have been cut off from banking services, allegedly due to pressure from federal regulators. Many in our industry have dubbed this «Operation Chokepoint 2.0,» comparing it to a previous Obama-era initiative that discouraged banks from serving certain legal but high-risk industries. The issue has sparked heated debate, with multiple congressional investigations examining whether regulators improperly pressured banks to deny services to crypto firms and other businesses.
I’m testifying before Congress about it today because my company experienced it firsthand, despite being a federally-regulated bank ourselves — and because debanking is widely misunderstood. To address this threat to American values, we first need to understand what happened.
Rather than regulators issuing clear, transparent rules on who banks can serve, debanking operates through a shadowy and democratically unaccountable process whereby regulators warn banks against serving certain types of customers not based on the individual risk they pose, but on hostility or bias towards an entire industry. Banks, facing the threat of enforcement action, penalties, or worse, are left with no choice but to comply. And law-abiding individuals and businesses are cut off from basic banking services, which can be devastating.
Here’s what it looked like for us: in June 2023, we received an urgent call from our bank of two and a half years. Despite an established banking relationship — we were even in active discussions about expanding into new partnerships — the bank abruptly informed us they were closing our account in 30 days because it was not comfortable with our crypto clients’ transactions, even though we told them the funds at issue were client payments for custody fees, and that these were fully documented as part of our rigorous compliance process. Our contact refused to provide any further explanation or allow us to speak to the bank’s risk management team.
Read more: Nic Carter — Why You Should (Still) Care About Silvergate
The irony was stark: we ourselves are a federally chartered bank, regulated and supervised by the OCC, subject to the same stringent capital, liquidity, and risk management expectations as any other national bank. Not once in the course of our partnership had our banking partner ever raised an issue with our account. We were a great bank customer — well-capitalized, well-regulated and well-run. Yet out of the blue, our bank abruptly cut us off with no explanation or recourse. While we were eventually able to find banks willing to partner with us, the impact of being nearly shut out of the banking system was devastating. It was extremely disruptive to our business and our clients, and contributed to the difficult decision we made in 2023 to lay off 20% of our workforce.
And we weren’t alone. Legitimate American businesses across our industry found themselves scrambling for basic banking services, spending time and resources on workarounds rather than innovation and growth, causing major disruption and even driving some out of business.
Regulators’ actions amounted to a de facto ban on banking the crypto industry, made even more destructive by its seemingly arbitrary enforcement — no one knew why some firms retained access while others were cut off, creating a climate of constant uncertainty. To be clear, if regulators had enacted such a major policy decision through proper channels, like formal notice-and-comment rulemaking, that would be one thing. But no rule was ever proposed, publicly debated, or subjected to legal scrutiny. Nor did Congress ever pass legislation to authorize the choking off of large parts of an industry from the federal banking system.
History shows us that without a permanent fix, this will happen again. Just over seven years ago, the FDIC apologized for the first iteration of “Operation Choke Point” — a concerted campaign to cut off banking to industries disfavored by regulators — promising to retrain its examiners. Fast forward to 2023, and those same debanking efforts, this time with a different politically disfavored industry, occurred again. Without action, Operation 3.0 is only a matter of time, and any industry could be the next target.
So how can we prevent this from happening again? Congressional oversight, like the hearing I will testify at today, is crucial to uncover the facts and hold the agencies accountable. Congress must also act to establish real safeguards: consider legislation requiring banks to provide fair access to banking services within the bounds of existing law, require agencies to annually certify that they are not pressuring banks to discriminate against lawful businesses, establish Inspector General whistleblower hotlines at the OCC, FDIC and Federal Reserve to report examiner misconduct, require banks to provide written explanations for account terminations, and mandate clear appeals processes.
Read more: U.S. Regulator Told Banks to Avoid Crypto, Letters Obtained by Coinbase Reveal
Such protections would ensure that no federal regulator can abuse its authority to quietly choke off law-abiding individuals, companies, and industries again. More immediate steps that the new Administration and Congress can take are to rescind the January 2023 joint banking regulators’ guidance that served as the nail in the coffin for many crypto businesses, and rescind the OCC’s interpretive letter 1179, which imposed arbitrary pre-clearance requirements that effectively locked many banks out of crypto activities.
These aren’t just procedural changes — they are essential to protect American innovation and ensure democratic accountability. When regulators have to own their decisions and defend them before the public and the courts, the backroom pressure campaigns end and transparency and rule of law prevails. The scrutiny should be on implied threats from bureaucrats, not on legitimate businesses following the rules. Until these reforms are implemented, everyone is at risk.
Uncategorized
Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin Bulls Underpin Price After Pro-BTC Candidate Loses in Canada

By James Van Straten (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)
Bitcoin (BTC) remains stuck near the $95,000 mark, apparently unfazed by the Canadian election result, which saw the crypto-friendly candidate for prime minister lose his seat. Key macroeconomic data due later this week could serve as a catalyst for bitcoin’s next move, with the standout being Friday’s non-farm payrolls report.
In the meantime, the largest cryptocurrency is reaching a series of higher lows and lower highs, forming a symmetrical triangle consolidation pattern. This setup following a strong uptrend typically implies a continuation. A decisive breakout above $95,500 could spark the next leg higher, while a drop below support would indicate a potential reversal.
On the technical front, bitcoin’s hashrate, which has surged over recent months and is now about 10% away from its record, is beginning to decelerate. A downward difficulty adjustment of more than 5% is anticipated in four days and will provide some much-needed relief to miners, who have been grappling with hashprice levels near five-year lows.
The week’s macroeconomic data include personal spending and GDP growth figures on Wednesday, though Friday’s jobs report takes center stage. Economists forecast a drop in new jobs to 135,000 during April, down from March’s 228,000 figure, which was the strongest in three months.
The unemployment rate is projected to have held steady at 4.2%, underscoring a persistently tight labor market. The CME FedWatch Tool currently indicates a 91% probability of the Fed funds rate being held at at 4.25%–4.50% at the May 7 FOMC meeting.
Also in the mix, earnings season is heating up, particularly among the “Magnificent Seven” tech stocks. Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta (META) report after the market close on Wednesday, followed by Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Strategy (MSTR) on Thursday. Stay alert!
What to Watch
- Crypto:
- April 30, 9:30 a.m.: ProShares will debut three ETFs that will provide leveraged and inverse exposure to XRP: the ProShares Ultra XRP ETF, the ProShares Short XRP ETF and the ProShares UltraShort XRP ETF.
- April 30, 10:03 a.m.: Gnosis Chain (GNO), an Ethereum sister chain, will activate the Pectra hard fork on its mainnet at slot 21,405,696, epoch 1,337,856.
- May 1: Coinbase Asset Management will introduce the Coinbase Bitcoin Yield Fund (CBYF), which is aimed at non-U.S. investors.
- May 1: Hippo Protocol starts up its own layer-1 blockchain mainnet built on Cosmos SDK and completes a migration from Ethereum’s ERC-20 HPO token to its native HP token, enabling staking and governance.
- May 1, 9 a.m.: Constellation Network (DAG) activates the Tessellation v3 upgrade on its mainnet, introducing delegated staking, node collateral, token locking and new transaction types to enhance network security, scalability and functionality.
- May 1, 11 a.m.: THORChain activates its v3.5 mainnet upgrade, adding the TCY token to convert $200 million in debt into equity. TCY holders earn 10% of network revenue, while native RUNE remains the protocol’s security and governance token. TCY activates May 5.
- Macro
- April 29, 10 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases March JOLTs report (job openings, hires, and separations).
- Job Openings Est. 7.5M vs. Prev. 7.568M
- Job Quits Prev. 3.195M
- April 29, 10 a.m.: U.S. House Financial Services Committee hearing titled “Regulatory Overreach: The Price Tag on American Prosperity.” Livestream link.
- April 30, 8 a.m.: Brazil’s Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) releases March unemployment rate data.
- Unemployment Rate Prev. 6.8%
- April 30, 8 a.m.: Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography releases (preliminary) Q1 GDP growth data.
- GDP Growth Rate QoQ Prev. -0.6%
- GDP Growth Rate YoY Prev. 0.5%
- April 30, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) releases (advance) Q1 GDP growth data.
- GDP Growth Rate QoQ Est. 0.4% vs. Prev. 2.4%
- April 30, 10 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) releases March consumer income and expenditure data.
- Core PCE Price Index MoM Est. 0.1% vs. Prev. 0.4%
- Core PCE Price Index YoY Est. 2.6% vs. Prev. 2.8%
- PCE Price Index MoM Est. 0% vs. Prev. 0.3%
- PCE Price Index YoY Est. 2.2% vs. Prev. 2.5%
- Personal Income MoM Est. 0.4% vs. Prev. 0.8%
- Personal Spending MoM Est. 0.6% vs. Prev. 0.4%
- April 29, 10 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases March JOLTs report (job openings, hires, and separations).
- Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)
Token Events
- Governance votes & calls
- Uniswap DAO is voting on a proposal to renew the Uniswap Accountability Committee (UAC) for Season 4, extending its mandate until the end of 2025. Voting ends April 29.
- Balancer DAO is voting on allocating $250,000 worth of ARB to a multisig controlled by contributors to fund testing of new automated market maker (AMM) pool models.
- April 30, 2 a.m.: NEO to host an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with its founder, Da Hongfei.
- April 30, 12 p.m.: Helium to host a community call meeting.
- May 5, 4 p.m.: Livepeer (LPT) to host a Treasury Talk session on Discord.
- Unlocks
- April 30: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.89% of its circulating supply worth $24.75 million.
- May 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 2.28% of its circulating supply worth $267.86 million.
- May 1: ZetaChain (ZETA) to unlock 5.67% of its circulating supply worth $12.10 million.
- May 2: Ethena (ENA) to unlock 0.73% of its circulating supply worth $13.44 million.
- May 7: Kaspa (KAS) to unlock 0.56% of its circulating supply worth $14.01 million.
- May 9: Movement (MOVA) to unlock 2.04% of its circulating supply worth $12.35 million.
- Token Launches
- April 29: MilkyWay (MILK) to be listed on Bybit.
- April 29: Virtual (VIRTUAL) to be listed on Binance.US.
- May 2: Binance to delist Alpaca Finance (ALPACA), PlayDapp (PDA), Viberate (VIB), and Wing Finance (WING).
- May 5: Sonic (S) to be listed on Kraken.
Conferences
CoinDesk’s Consensus is taking place in Toronto on May 14-16. Use code DAYBOOK and save 15% on passes.
- Day 3 of 4: Web Summit Rio 2025
- Day 2 of 2: Staking Summit Dubai
- April 29: El Salvador Digital Assets Summit 2025 (San Salvador, El Salvador)
- April 29: IFGS 2025 (London)
- April 30-May 1: TOKEN2049 (Dubai)
- May 6-7: Financial Times Digital Assets Summit (London)
- May 11-17: Canada Crypto Week (Toronto)
- May 12-13: Dubai FinTech Summit
- May 12-13: Filecoin (FIL) Developer Summit (Toronto)
- May 12-13: Latest in DeFi Research (TLDR) Conference (New York)
- May 12-14: ACI’s 9th Annual Legal, Regulatory, and Compliance Forum on Fintech & Emerging Payment Systems (New York)
- May 13: Blockchain Futurist Conference (Toronto)
- May 13: ETHWomen (Toronto)
Token Talk
By Shaurya Malwa
- BNB Chain’s Lorentz upgrade went live earlier Tuesday, boosting BNB token fundamentals by making the network faster and more efficient.
- The upgrade improved the way validators exchange data, making the process quicker and smoother to reduce delays and speed up transaction processing.
- It also added a method allowing validators to receive multiple blocks at once, instead of one by one.
- The time it takes to create a new block is reduced to about 1.5 seconds and could fall to as low as 0.75 seconds. Faster block times mean transactions are confirmed more quickly, making the network feel snappier for users.
- The update makes decentralized apps (dapps) like games or financial tools run faster and smoother. Developers can keep building apps the same way because the update doesn’t change how the network works with their code.
- A faster, more efficient network attracts more users and developers, which can increase demand for BNB and make it more valuable over time.
Derivatives Positioning
- Total open interest (OI) across perpetuals, options and futures now stands at $122 billion globally, according to data from Laevitas.
- SUI has seen a sharp surge in derivatives activity, with its share of global perpetuals volume peaking at 5.06% ($7.12 billion) on April 25.
- It has since sustained volume dominance above 3.5%, significantly higher than its historical average of under 2%, suggesting renewed speculative appetite driven by recent project announcements.
- According to Coinalyze, the top OI gainers in the past 24 hours among tokens with market caps over $100 million are:
- SAFE: +123%
- RAY: +92%
- MOCA: +68%
Market Movements:
- BTC is up 0.43% from 4 p.m. ET Monday at $95,009.93 (24hrs: +0.33%)
- ETH is up 2.81% at $1,838.46 (24hrs: +1.9%)
- CoinDesk 20 is up 0.85% at 2,792.69 (24hrs: -0.08%)
- Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is up 28 bps at 2.975%
- BTC funding rate is at 0.0005% (0.5749% annualized) on Binance
- DXY is up 0.27% at 99.28
- Gold is down 1.11% at $3,306.08/oz
- Silver is up 0.41% at $33.28/oz
- Nikkei 225 closed +0.38% at 35,839.99
- Hang Seng closed +0.16% at 22,008.11
- FTSE is up 0.16% at 8,430.89
- Euro Stoxx 50 is unchanged at 5,168.63
- DJIA closed on Monday 0.28% at 40,227.59
- S&P 500 closed +0.06% at 5,528.75
- Nasdaq closed -0.1% at 17,336.13
- S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +0.36% at 24,798.59
- S&P 40 Latin America closed +0.74% at 2,549.44
- U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is down 6 bps at 4.21%
- E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 0.14% at 5,561.00
- E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 0.15% at 190557.75
- E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 0.36% at 40,515.00
Bitcoin Stats:
- BTC Dominance: 64.24 (-0.24%)
- Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.01928 (1.80%)
- Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 842 EH/s
- Hashprice (spot): $48.7 PH/s
- Total Fees: 6.98 BTC / $651,628
- CME Futures Open Interest: 132, 750 BTC
- BTC priced in gold: 28.6 oz
- BTC vs gold market cap: 8.10%
Technical Analysis
- Ether (ETH) is showing signs of recovery after reclaiming the value area (defined by the two blue dotted lines), suggesting a return to its high-volume price zone established since the October 2023 rally.
- The Point of Control (PoC) remains near $2,200, serving as a major magnet for price action and a critical bullish target.
- ETH is also approaching the 50-day exponential moving average (EMA), a potential inflection point that may spark volatility.
- The level is particularly notable because many altcoins have beaten ether to reclaim their 50-day EMAs.
- Importantly, price action has now broken above the descending trendline stemming from the December 2024 high, a key structural shift favoring bullish momentum.
- Upside targets include:
- $2,104 to confirm a higher high
- $2,200 (PoC), volume-weighted focal point
- $2,480 (200-day EMA), long-term resistance
- To maintain its bullish bias, ETH must hold above the lower boundary of the value area (~$1,745), or risk a return to bearish sentiment.
Crypto Equities
- Strategy (MSTR): closed Monday at $369.25 (+0.15%), up 0.30% at $370.34 in pre-market
- Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $205.27 (-2.08%), up 0.58% at $206.47
- Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at $21.21 (2.81%)
- MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $14.01 (-2.03%)
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $7.63 (-1.8%), up 0.39% at $7.66
- Core Scientific (CORZ) closed at $8.24 (-0.84%), up 1.21% at $8.34
- CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $8.57 (-4.88%), up 0.12% at $8.58
- CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $14.33 (-1.58%)
- Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $35.37 (-3.99%), up 1.78% at $36.00
- Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $42.18 (-7.30%), up 1.92% at $42.99
ETF Flows
Spot BTC ETFs:
- Daily net flow: $591.2 million
- Cumulative net flows: $38.99 billion
- Total BTC holdings ~ 1.14 million
Spot ETH ETFs
- Daily net flow: $64.1 million
- Cumulative net flows: $2.48 billion
- Total ETH holdings ~ 3.40 million
Source: Farside Investors
Overnight Flows
Chart of the Day
- BTC dominates derivatives, with $32.97B in open interest (OI), over 40% of the total and more than double ETH’s $12.26B.
- Memecoins like DOGE, TRUMP, PEPE and FARTCOIN each exceed $480M in OI, outperforming many large-cap assets, showing the strength of memecoins within derivatives positioning.
- ETH + SOL combined ($16.11B) remain fall far short of BTC’s OI, underscoring bitcoin’s continued derivatives supremacy.
While You Were Sleeping
- Bitcoin-Friendly Poilievre Loses Seat as Carney’s Liberals Win 2025 Election (CoinDesk): Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre lost his Ottawa-area seat as Mark Carney’s Liberal Party won enough seats to form at least a minority government.
- Canadian Dollar Slips as Liberals Head for Only Narrow Victory (Bloomberg): Prime Minister Mark Carney faces pressure to ease Canada’s reliance on its southern neighbor as the currency remains sensitive to trade negotiations and U.S. tariff risks.
- DOJ Seeks 20-Year Sentence for Celsius Founder Alex Mashinsky (CoinDesk): Mashinsky pleaded guilty to deliberately misleading customers about the safety of their deposits while manipulating the CEL token for personal gain. Sentencing is set for May 8.
- Russia Hopes Warmer Weather Will Boost Flagging Spring Offensive (The Wall Street Journal): Ukrainian forces have stalled Russia’s advances this spring, but analysts warn warmer weather will harden ground and thicken cover, making future attacks harder to repel.
- Gold Prices Drop as Tariff Concerns Ease; US Data in Focus (Reuters): Growing risk appetite, supported by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s statement that several major trading partners have made strong proposals, is reducing demand for gold.
- EU Faces Trade War on Many Fronts (Financial Times): European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s strategy is to negotiate with Trump, strengthen trade with other nations, and lower internal market barriers to support EU exporters.
In the Ether
Uncategorized
SIGN Rises 60% on Upbit Listing Despite Slow Start on Binance

SIGN, the token linked to its namesake’s multi-chain identity protocol, rose by 60% on Tuesday after being listed on Korean exchange Upbit.
The listing follows the token’s release on Binance, where it became the first project to be selected by the Binance Alpha campaign.
Trading was initially muted on Binance as it traded between $0.06 and $0.08. The Upbit listing boosted prices to $0.129 before receding to $0.11.
Trading volume also increased from $402 million in the 24-hour period prior to Upbit’s listing announcement to $898 million, indicating notable interest among Korean traders.
The move follows a wider trend related to Korean exchange listings, earlier this month filecoin (FIL) rose by 30% following an Upbit listing alongside a similar rise in trading volume.
Uncategorized
BlackRock’s IBIT Sees Second-Largest Bitcoin Inflow Since Launch, Nearing $1 Billion

The BlackRock iShares Bitcoin (BTC) Trust ETF (IBIT) saw $970.9 million in inflows, marking its second-largest net inflow since launching in January 2024, according to Farside data.
Monday accounted for $591.2 million in new capital, which saw heavy outflows from competitors: Fidelity’s FBTC lost $86.9 million, Bitwise’s BITB dropped $21.1 million, and ARK’s ARKB saw $226.3 million in outflows.
The rise comes alongside a 7.2% rise in BTC over the past seven days with it now trading at $94,900.
Since April 22, IBIT has amassed over $4.5 billion in net inflows, bucking the market trend.
Industry experts have taken note. Nate Geraci, President of The ETF Store, remarked:
«Nearly $1 billion into iShares Bitcoin ETF today… Second-largest inflow since January 2024 inception. I still remember when there was ‘no demand’.«
Eric Balchunas, Senior Bloomberg ETF Analyst, added:
«ETFs are in two-steps-forward mode after taking one step back, exactly the pattern we predicted.«
Meanwhile, in derivatives markets, open interest (OI) on CME Bitcoin Futures continues to fall, now sitting at 132,750 BTC after four consecutive days of decline, according to CME data.
The recent decline in open interest could be coming to an end, as the annualized basis yield has climbed from around 5% to 9% in April, according to Velo data. This resurgence in basis trade profitability could prompt renewed activity and a short-term rebound in open interest.
Why it matters: In a typical basis trade, investors buy spot bitcoin and short bitcoin futures to lock in the price gap. When the yield is high, demand for futures rises, boosting OI. As the yield shrinks, fewer traders engage in the strategy, leading to declining open interest and signaling reduced leverage in the market.
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