The Twitter Exchange Gets Heated

Philion opened the exchange by pointing out that Cardano launched in 2017 while Flare launched in 2023. 

He argued that Cardano has been “trying and miserably failing” to copy Flare’s strategy and has far lower DeFi stats despite a massive head start and vast treasury.

“Cardano will not win BTC,” Philion declared. 

“Flare will win by creating the unified DeFi layer for FXRP, FBTC, FXLM, RWAs, Stables and the rest,” he added.

Hoskinson dismissed the attack as outdated marketing tactics, responding that attacking Cardano for attention and media “is so 2022” and suggesting Philion try TikTok reaction videos instead.

Philion Fires Back With Data

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Bitcoin continues to hold above $80,000 as Bitcoin ETFs saw $46.3 million in net inflows on Wednesday, while Ethereum ETFs reported $11.6 million in net inflows.    

Meme coin market capitalization is trading 1.4% higher to $39.8 billion over the past 24 hours.

Trader Commentary: 

Crypto chart analyst Ali Martinez said Bitcoin appears to have absorbed bearish liquidity positioned between $80,000 and $84,000, suggesting short sellers in that range may have been squeezed out.

Focus is now shifting to lower levels, where liquidity clusters worth more than $55 million remain concentrated around $75,000, $73,000 and $70,000. These areas could act as important support zones or potential…

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Schiff Attacks STRC Again

Schiff took a dig at Saylor and his firm on X, labeling the Perpetual Stretch Preferred Stock (NASDAQ:STRC) offering as a “Ponzi scheme” that gets prolonged by such commitments.

“But my guess is when the time comes, he’d suspend the dividend and crash STRC rather than crash Bitcoin,” Schiff predicted.

Strategy didn’t immediately return Benzinga’s request for comment

Will Saylor Really Sell Bitcoin?

Saylor said during Strategy’s first-quarter earnings call that the company may “sell some Bitcoin” to fund a dividend and “inoculate” the market, a rather unexpected departure from when he told holders to “sell a kidney if you must, but keep the Bitcoin.”

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U.S. stock futures rose on Thursday after Wednesday’s record rally. This followed President Donald Trump‘s celebration of record stock market gains.

Trump said that strong job growth and rising retirement accounts reflected continued economic momentum. He posted on Truth Social, “Stock Market hit an ALL-TIME HIGH TODAY. Jobs & 401-K’s are BOOMING!!!”

Speaking to reporters about Iran at the White House, Trump said, “They want to make a deal. We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal.”

Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.33%, and the two-year bond was at 3.85%. The CME Group’s FedWatch tool‘s projections…

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Cryptocurrency bettors are showing the strongest conviction for XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) reclaiming $1.60 this month.

Polymarket Traders Wager On XRP’s Price

Polygon (CRYPTO: POL)-based Polymarket assigns a 28% chance of XRP hitting at least $1.60 in May. The odds were at 41% at the start of the month.

XRP slipped below $1.60 in the first week of February and has yet to recover that level.

Meanwhile, the odds of XRP dropping below $1.20 were 20%, the second highest among outcomes.

What Does This Rejection Mean?

Ali Martinez, a well-known cryptocurrency analyst and trader, identified $1.45 as a key resistance level for XRP earlier this week, with a confirmed closing above it potentially leading…

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Ali Martinez, a leading cryptocurrency analyst and trader, said on Wednesday that they recorded profits after Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) hit their target at the top of a price channel.

Plan Comes To Fruition

Martinez had flagged $0.1172 as their “technical target” on April 22. DOGE hovered around $0.09 at the time, implying a 30% upside target.

The dog-themed cryptocurrency eventually hit the target on Wednesday, after which Martinez booked a profit.

Analyzing Dogecoin’s Latest Spike

Dogecoin has lately been on the rise, up 4.75% over the week and 22% over the month. Institutional investments most likely played a significant role.

Interestingly, on-chain activity declined during this…

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Trump Says Crypto ‘Won The Race’

At CoinDesk’s Consensus event in Miami, Trump stated that JPMorgan went from calling Bitcoin a “joke asset” to allowing institutional clients to use it as collateral for loans in just 18 months.

“It’s all gonna become digitized, and the banks have fought like hell. They kept that from happening, and we broke the banks,” he added. “We’ve won this race.”

Trump said that institutional cryptocurrency adoption is just getting started, and the speed of growth over the next couple of years would be “monumental.”

JPMorgan didn’t immediately return Benzinga’s request for comment.

Trump’s Firm Reports Second Straight Quarterly Loss

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) reiterated on Wednesday her misgivings over suspected insider trading in bets tied to U.S. military strikes on Iran.

Warren Raises Alarm Over Iran Bets Again

Warren, citing an April report by The Guardian, pointed to traders placing “perfectly-timed” bets on U.S. strikes on Iran in February and netting millions.

“Was that just luck? Looks like insider trading to me,” the senior lawmaker said.

Iran Bets Under Scanner

Blockchain analysis revealed earlier that six suspected insider accounts made $1.2 million at the exact time of the U.S. strikes on Iran.

Later, newly created anonymous accounts booked over $480,000 in profits by betting on a ceasefire…

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Leading cryptocurrencies took a breather on Wednesday, while stocks closed at new records as investors weighed the report of a potential U.S.-Iran deal to end the war.

Crypto Market Cools Down

Bitcoin consolidated in the range between $80,800 and $82,800, while Ethereum retreated to the $2,300 region after pushing past $2,400 the day before.

Over $500 million was liquidated in the past 24 hours, with the majority of that in short positions, according to Coinglass data.

Notably, open interest in Bitcoin futures fell by nearly 4% over the last 24 hours. A falling open interest with a sideways price action typically indicates the market is consolidating or preparing for a trend reversal. 

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