Chinese tech giant Huawei has reportedly developed a powerful artificial intelligence chip that could rival high-end processors from US chip maker Nvidia.

The Shenzhen-based Huawei is poised to start testing a new AI chip called the Ascend 910D, and has approached local tech firms, which are slated to receive the first batch of sample chips by late May, The Wall Street Journal reported on April 27, citing people familiar with the matter.

The development is still at an early stage, and a series of tests will be needed to assess the chip’s performance and get it ready for customers.

Huawei is pinning hopes on its latest Ascend AI processor being more powerful than Nvidia’s H100 chip, which was used for AI training in 2022.

Huawei is also poised to ship more than 800,000 earlier model Ascend 910B and 910C chips to customers, including state-owned telecoms operators and private AI developers such as TikTok parent ByteDance.

Beijing has also reportedly encouraged Chinese AI developers to increase purchases of domestic chips as trade tensions between China and the US escalate. 

In mid-April, Nvidia stated that it was expecting around $5.5 billion in charges associated with its AI chip inventory due to significant export restrictions imposed by the US government affecting its business with China. 

The Trump administration added Nvidia’s H20 chip, its most powerful processor that could be sold to China, to a growing list of semiconductors restricted for sale to the country.

Some key components for AI chips, such as the latest high-bandwidth memory units, have also been restricted for export to China by the US. 

Huawei is focusing on building more efficient and faster systems, such as CloudMatrix 384, a computing system unveiled in April, connecting Ascend 910C chips. This would leverage their chip arrays and use brute force rather than making individual processors more powerful.

China seeks self-reliance on AI

Reuters reported on April 26, citing state media reports, that Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged “self-reliance and self-strengthening” to develop AI in the country.

“We must recognise the gaps and redouble our efforts to comprehensively advance technological innovation, industrial development, and AI-empowered applications,” Xi said at a Politburo meeting study session on April 25.

Donald Trump (left) meeting with Xi Jinping (right) in 2018 at the G20. Source: Dan Scavino

Related: US Senate bill threatens crypto, AI data centers with fees — Report

“We must continue to strengthen basic research, concentrate our efforts on mastering core technologies such as high-end chips and basic software, and build an independent, controllable, and collaborative artificial intelligence basic software and hardware system,” Xi added.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged Xi to contact him for discussions about a potential trade deal after his administration imposed 145% tariffs on most Chinese goods. 

China has stated that it is not having any talks with the US and that the country should “stop creating confusion.”

Magazine: Bitcoin $100K hopes on ice, SBF’s mysterious prison move: Hodler’s Digest

Crypto exchange Bitget says it is issuing legal letters to account holders it accuses of manipulating the price of perpetual futures contracts linked to the VOXEL token.

Eight account holders that the exchange accuses of being involved in the April 20 incident and who allegedly pocketed $20 million between them will receive a letter from the exchange’s lawyers in “quick succession,” Xie Jiayin, Bitget’s head of Chinese operations, said in an April 27 X post.

“These eight accounts are the main instigators of the VOXEL incident and have improperly gained more than 20 million US dollars from it,” she said, according to a translation of the post.

“Except for these eight accounts, all other users who participated in VOXEL trading on April 20 and have withdrawn funds do not need to worry,” she added. “The accounts have been restored to normal and no responsibility will be pursued in the future.”

Source: Xie Jiayin

On April 20, Bitget said it discovered “abnormal trading activity” on its VOXEL/USDT perpetual futures contract and paused accounts it suspected of market manipulation.

The trading pair clocked over $12 billion in volume, dwarfing the metrics of the same contract on Binance. After the pause, Bitget rolled back the irregular trades to claw back the gains.

At the time, Bitget CEO Gracy Chen told Cointelegraph that the trades were between individual market participants, not the platform itself, and insisted the losses were not platform-wide and user funds remained safe.

Bitget still investigating cause of incident 

Jiayin said Bitget plans to distribute 100% of the recovered funds to affected users through airdrops while a complete incident report is still in the works.

Some X users claimed the incident was caused by a bug in a market maker bot, which caused VOXEL’s excessive volume. Traders who spotted the suspected bug early used high-leverage bets to boost their profits in a zero-cost exploit.

Related: Bitget CEO slams Hyperliquid’s handling of ‘suspicious’ incident involving JELLY token

VOXEL is the native utility token of Voxies, a free-to-play, 3D turn-based tactical RPG game built on the Ethereum blockchain.

Decentralized exchange Hyperliquid suffered a similar incident on March 27, when a whale allegedly exploited the liquidation parameters to profit at least $6.26 million on the Jelly my Jelly (JELLY) memecoin.

Hyperliquid has since delisted perpetual futures tied to the JELLY token, citing evidence of suspicious market activity as the reason for the decision. 

Magazine: Memecoins are ded — But Solana ‘100x better’ despite revenue plunge

Bitcoin is starting to act as a store of value during times of “US-risk-off” sentiment, marking a potential shift in its relationship with traditional assets, according to the New York Digital Investment Group.

Bitcoin (BTC) felt “noticeably different” over the trading week ended April 25, NYDIG’s global head of research Greg Cipolaro said in an April 25 market note. 

“We’ve been observing subtle shifts in its behavior over the past few weeks,” he added. “The decoupling from traditional risk assets is still very early and fragile, but for those watching crypto markets 24/7, the shift is palpable.”

“Bitcoin has acted less like a liquid levered version of levered US equity beta and more like the non-sovereign issued store of value that it is.”

Cipolaro noted that Bitcoin has gained more than 13% since the beginning of April, while US markets such as the S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq have declined amid escalating global trade tensions due to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

He added that the US dollar and long-term US Treasurys have also underperformed since the election and Trump’s April 2 “Liberation Day” tariff announcements, which lumped every country with various rates, the minimum being 10%.

Gold and currencies such as the Swiss franc have been consistent winners as safe havens, Cipolaro said, noting that Bitcoin is emerging as a non-sovereign store of value.

Amid surging volatility in equities, measured with the VIX index, foreign exchange rates (CVIX index), and interest rates and bonds (MOVE index), investors have been on the hunt for these safe haven assets. 

Several asset classes have recently seen high volatility. Source: NYDIG

Cipolaro said investors are also seeking alternatives to US hegemony, whether that is stocks, bonds, forex, or commodities. 

Few large liquid options

However, Cipolaro said investors seeking alternatives outside traditional financial systems have few large, liquid options.

Gold remains the largest non-sovereign store of value at around a $22 trillion market cap, while Bitcoin has just a fraction of that at $1.8 trillion. 

Related: New Bitcoin price all-time highs could occur in May — Here is why

Additionally, Bitcoin is the only top crypto asset listed that “solely focuses on monetary or store of value use cases,” while the others are better described as the fuel for decentralized application platforms, he said. 

Cipolaro concluded that despite Bitcoin’s recent gains, “there are few signs of the market overheating,” and the recovery is still in early stages.

Magazine: Bitcoin $100K hopes on ice, SBF’s mysterious prison move: Hodler’s Digest

Nike has been hit with a class-action lawsuit that accuses the sportswear giant of operating a rug pull for shuttering its non-fungible token (NFT) platform RTFKT in January. 

A group of RTFKT users led by Jagdeep Cheema claimed in the proposed class suit filed in a Brooklyn federal court on April 25 that they suffered “significant damages” as a result of Nike touting its sneaker-themed NFTs to gain investors, then shuttering the platform.

The suit claimed the NFTs were unregistered securities, as Nike sold them without registering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It accused the company of using “its iconic brand and marketing prowess to hype, promote, and prop up the unregistered securities that RTFKT sold.”

“Because the Nike NFTs derived their value from the success of a given promoter and project — here, Nike and its marketing efforts — investors purchased this digital asset with the hope that its value would increase in the future as the project grows in popularity based on the Nike brand,” the lawsuit argued.

The class suit claimed investors suffered damages due to Nike shutting its NFT platform. Source: CourtListener

The lawsuit asks for $5 million in damages, claiming Nike broke consumer protection laws and violated various state unfair trade and competition laws.

A US court hasn’t definitively ruled on whether NFTs are securities. Still, in an April 9 letter to the SEC, marketplace OpenSea urged the regulator to exclude NFTs from federal securities laws, arguing they don’t meet the legal definition of a security. 

In its case against Nike, the class group said that the court doesn’t necessarily need to rule on the legal status of NFTs to address the complaint.

NFT market value dips 

In 2021, Nike acquired the NFT firm RTFKT Studios, which created virtual sneakers. 

According to the complaint, holders of the resulting Nike NFTs were told the tokens could be traded peer-to-peer on the secondary market and used to complete challenges and quests that could lead to rewards.

Nike’s crypto kick NFT collection was changing hands for an average of 3.5 Ether (ETH), or around $8,000 when they were first listed on April 18, 2022, but were trading for around 0.009 Ether, or roughly $16 as of April 21, according to OpenSea. 

Nike NFTs have seen a sharp drop in value since they were first listed. Source: OpenSea

Nike shut down RTFKT in January, which the class suit claims decimated investors when “prices plunged and did not recover,” and also took away the chance to take part in the challenges and quests, which the group argued was a primary reason for purchasing the tokens. 

Related: RTFKT’s CloneX avatars reappear after issue blacks out NFTs

The overall NFT market dropped sharply in the first quarter of 2025, with sales plunging 63% year-over-year, to $1.5 billion in total sales from January to March 2025, down from $4.1 billion during the same period in 2024.

Nike did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again

The Ethereum mainnet’s gas limit could theoretically grow 100-fold and reach 2,000 transactions per second under a new Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) put forward by Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist.

Feist, who had the blockchain’s “danksharding” data storage solution named after him, put forward EIP-9698 on April 27, which would introduce a “deterministic gas limit growth schedule” starting at epoch 369017, or around June 1.

The proposal would gradually increase the gas limit by a factor of 10 for roughly two years, or 164,250 epochs, when one final tenfold increase would occur.

Ethereum clients would need to vote on the proposal for it to take effect, Feist said.

“By introducing a predictable exponential growth pattern as a client default, this EIP encourages a sustainable and transparent gas limit trajectory, aligned with expected advancements in hardware and protocol efficiency,” he added.

As Ethereum can occasionally reach up to 20 TPS in blocks dominated by simple transactions, a 100x gas limit increase could theoretically increase Ethereum’s TPS to 2,000. Feist’s proposal would better position Ethereum to compete with the likes of Solana, which currently processes a non-vote TPS between 800 to 1,050 and has a theoretical TPS of 65,000.

Source: Fabda.eth

The EIP would expand the current gas limit of 36 million to 3.6 billion, potentially allowing around 6,000 transactions to fit into Ethereum blocks.

Feist’s proposal comes after Ethereum validators agreed to raise the gas limit from 30 million to 36 million in February.

Before that, the last change to Ethereum’s gas limit occurred in August 2021 under the London hard fork, where the figure was roughly doubled from 15 million to 30 million.

Daily change in Ethereum Average Gas Limit over the last five years. Source: YCharts

Feist acknowledged that a rapid increase in the gas limit under his proposal may stress less-optimized nodes and increase block propagation times. 

“However, the exponential schedule with very gradual increments per epoch gives node operators and developers ample time to adapt and optimize,” he said.

Related: Ethereum community members propose new fee structure for the app layer

EIP-9698 marks the Ethereum community’s latest effort to boost scalability at the base layer after predominantly focusing on scaling through layer 2 solutions in recent years.

Critics of Ethereum’s layer-2 focused strategy claim that it has fragmented the ecosystem into several siloed chains with little interoperability, leading to a worse user experience.

EIP-9678 looks to increase gas limit

Ethereum developers are also looking to test a fourfold increase of Ethereum’s gas limit in the Fusaka hard fork under EIP-9678.

Fusaka has been flagged as possibly going online in late 2025, while the next major Ethereum upgrade, Pectra, is scheduled to go live on the mainnet in May.Magazine: Ethereum is destroying the competition in the $16.1T TradFi tokenization race

Key takeaways:

Heavy liquidations played a role in Bitcoin’s return to $95,000.

Bitcoin’s weakening correlation with stocks highlights its growing independence as an asset.

Bullish institutional investor positioning contrasts with retail traders’ caution, supporting a rally above $100,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) gained 11% between April 20 and April 26, demonstrating resilience by holding near its two-month high around $94,000. This relief rally followed signals from the Trump administration about easing import tariffs, as well as strong corporate earnings reports.

Investor confidence in Bitcoin was further boosted by a record $3.1 billion in net inflows to spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) over five days. However, a key BTC derivatives indicator showed signs of bearish momentum, raising questions about whether the $100,000 target is still realistic.

Perpetual Bitcoin futures contracts are favored by retail traders because their prices closely track the spot market. A positive funding rate means that buyers pay to maintain their positions, so a reversal in this rate is typically linked to bearish trends.

Bitcoin perpetual futures annualized funding rate. Source: Laevitas.ch

The sharp negative funding rates recorded on April 26 are highly unusual during bull markets, as they indicate stronger demand from sellers. This metric has been volatile since April 14, but sellers were caught off guard as Bitcoin’s price climbed above $94,000. Since April 21, over $450 million in BTC short positions have been liquidated.

Some of the renewed confidence and Bitcoin’s price strength can be attributed to the S&P 500’s 7.1% weekly gain. However, despite this optimism, US President Donald Trump reportedly said on April 25 that negotiations would depend on China making concessions, causing traders to question the sustainability of recent gains.

Companies are now reporting first-quarter earnings from before the escalation of the trade war, so the factors driving the stock market and Bitcoin are different. In fact, Bitcoin’s price is no longer closely correlated with the S&P 500.

30-day correlation: S&P 500 vs Bitcoin/USD. Source: TradingView / Cointelegraph

Currently, the 30-day correlation between the S&P 500 and Bitcoin stands at 29%, well below the 60% level seen from March to mid-April. While this lower correlation does not mean a complete decoupling, since investor sentiment is still influenced by macroeconomic factors, it does show that Bitcoin is not simply a proxy for technology stocks.

Bitcoin’s status as an independent asset has strengthened

Gold’s inability to maintain its bullish momentum after reaching an all-time high of $3,500 on April 22 was also seen as significant for Bitcoin’s status as an independent asset class. Some traders had questioned the “digital gold” narrative, but the longer BTC remains above $90,000, the more confidence investors may have, potentially paving the way for further gains.

The increased demand for bearish leverage in perpetual BTC futures does not align with the sentiment of professional traders. Monthly Bitcoin futures contracts avoid fluctuating funding rates, so traders know their leverage costs in advance.

Bitcoin 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: Laevitas.ch

On April 26, the two-month Bitcoin futures premium (basis rate) rose to its highest level in seven weeks, indicating greater interest in bullish positions. At 6.5%, this metric remains within the neutral 5% to 10% range, but is moving away from bearish territory.

The disconnect between leverage demand in perpetual futures and monthly BTC contracts is not unusual. Even if retail traders remain cautious, substantial accumulation by institutions could be enough to push Bitcoin’s price above $100,000 in the near future.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Key takeaways:

Norges Bank lost $40 billion in Q1 2025 as US tech stocks fell, exposing the risk of concentrated positions.

The bank’s indirect Bitcoin exposure via stocks reached $356 million, raising sell pressure risk amid a global trade war and recession concerns.

Abu Dhabi’s $437 million spot Bitcoin ETF stake shows sovereign wealth funds see Bitcoin as a hedge.

Norges Bank, Norway’s $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth fund, reported a $40 billion loss in the first quarter of 2025, with most of the decline caused by a drop in the value of US-listed technology companies. Norges Bank also indirectly owned 3,821 BTC through its stock market investments by the end of 2024, presenting a potential sell pressure risk to Bitcoin, especially when considering the socio-political uncertainty and the risk of an economic recession caused by the global trade war.

In such times, could Norges Bank increase its investments in Bitcoin-related companies or even buy spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as a way to hedge risk?

For now, it seems unlikely that Norway’s investment fund would consider buying a Bitcoin ETF, especially since the fund does not hold any gold. Besides stocks and bonds, Norges Bank invests in real estate, including retail, industrial, renewable energy, and logistics properties worldwide.

Norway sold all of the central bank’s gold by early 2004, when gold was trading below $400. Since then, gold has outperformed the S&P 500 by 280%. Equities now make up 71.4% of the fund’s total investments, so if the global trade war continues, significant losses could occur.

Gold/USD (orange) vs. S&P 500. Source: TradingView / Cointelegraph

Norges Bank investments generated $222 billion in profits in 2024, and its stock market portfolio dropped by only 1.6% in the first quarter of 2025. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund is “mainly index-driven,” according to CEO Nicolai Tangen, specifically following the FTSE Global All Cap Index.

Although this index includes over 7,100 stocks from both developed and emerging markets, it is based on market capitalization, which means 65% of the exposure is to North American companies. But, according to Norges Bank Deputy CEO Trond Grande, there is some flexibility for active investment, and their exposure to US-listed tech stocks has been below the benchmark for the past 18 months.

Some of these holdings, such as Strategy, Mara Holdings, Coinbase, and Riot Platforms, hold large amounts of Bitcoin (BTC) on their balance sheets. As a result, even if not intentional, the sovereign wealth fund had a $356 million indirect exposure to Bitcoin at the end of 2024.

FTSE Global All Cap (purple) vs. FTSE + 10% Bitcoin (green). Source: TradingView / Cointelegraph

Data shows a 5% hypothetical allocation in Bitcoin back in 2018 would have boosted the fund’s equities benchmark performance by 56%.

Buying Bitcoin ETFs seems unlikely, but indirect exposure remains possible

Technically, it seems unlikely that Norges Bank could buy into the spot Bitcoin ETF without changing the fund’s mandate. However, increasing exposure to companies with significant Bitcoin holdings appears possible. Still, there is no sign of such a move, although Nicolai Tangen stated on April 24 that the fund will increase investments in US stocks.

Related: China may shift from US Treasurys toward gold, crypto — BlackRock exec

The fact that Mubadala Investments, one of Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth funds, held a $437 million stake in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) helps build a case for such investment. Similarly, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board held $321 million in spot Bitcoin ETFs, showing the growing use of cryptocurrency as a hedge.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Key points:

Bitcoin booked a 10% gain in the past week and technical indicators remain bullish going into a new week.

Analysts expect Bitcoin to gain an additional 40% by the end of the year

Select altcoins are showing a positive bias on improving crypto sentiment.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose more than 10% this week as buyers made a strong comeback, pushing the price to the overhead resistance at $95,000. Although buyers are struggling to clear the overhead hurdle, a positive sign is that they have not given up much ground to the bears.

The sharp up move is backed by solid buying in the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which witnessed inflows of $3.06 billion, according to Farside Investors data. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in a post on X that it was really notable to see “HOW FAST the flows can go from 1st gear to 5th gear.”

Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360

After Bitcoin’s recovery, 21st Capital co-founder Sina said in a post on X that Bitcoin reclaimed the power-law price. Sina’s Bitcoin Quantile Model projects Bitcoin to reach between $130,000 and $163,000 before the end of 2025. Anonymous Bitcoin analyst apsk32 had an even bigger target of more than $200,000 for Bitcoin in Q4 of this year.

Could Bitcoin maintain its momentum and rise above the overhead resistance? Let’s study the charts of the cryptocurrencies that look strong in the near term.

Bitcoin price prediction

Bitcoin has been witnessing a tough battle between the bulls and the bears near the crucial $95,000 level.

BTC/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The upsloping 20-day exponential moving average ($88,619) and the relative strength index (RSI) near the overbought zone indicate that bulls are in command. A close above $95,000 could propel the BTC/USDT pair to $100,000 and eventually to $107,000. Sellers are expected to aggressively defend the zone between $107,000 and $109,588.

The 20-day EMA is the critical near-term support to watch out for because a break below it brings the large $95,000 to $73,777 range into play.

BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The 4-hour chart shows the bears are fiercely defending the $95,000 level but are struggling to sink the pair below the 20-EMA. If the price rebounds off the 20-EMA, it enhances the prospects of a break above $95,000. The pair could then surge to $100,000.

Instead, if the price maintains below the 20-EMA, the pair could tumble to the 50-simple moving average. This is an important level for the bulls to defend because a break below it could pull the pair to $86,000.

Sui price prediction

Sui (SUI) has been facing resistance near $3.90, but the shallow pullback suggests that the bulls are in no hurry to dump their positions.

SUI/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

If the price stays above the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level of $3.14, the bulls will make another attempt to shove the SUI/USDT pair above $3.90. If they can pull it off, the pair may skyrocket to $4.25 and then to $5.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns down and breaks below $3.14, it signals the start of a deeper correction toward the 50% retracement level of $2.94. Buyers are expected to fiercely defend the zone between $2.94 and the 20-day EMA ($2.69).

SUI/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The 4-hour chart shows that the pair is finding support at the 20-EMA, but the sellers are active at higher levels. The bears will again attempt to sink the pair below the 20-EMA. If they succeed, the pair could slump to $3.14.

Buyers will have to swiftly push the price above the $3.81 to $3.90 overhead resistance zone if they want to retain the advantage. If they do that, the pair could start the next leg of the up move to $4.25.

Avalanche price prediction

Avalanche (AVAX) has been range-bound between $23.50 and $15.27 for the past few days. In a range, traders usually buy near the support and sell close to the resistance.

AVAX/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Although buyers have failed to push the price above $23.50, a positive sign is that they have not ceded much ground to the bears. That increases the likelihood of a break above $23.50. If that happens, the AVAX/USDT pair will complete a double-bottom pattern, which has a target objective of $31.73.

This optimistic view will be negated in the near term if the price turns down and breaks below the moving averages. The pair may then remain stuck inside the range for a few more days.

AVAX/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The pair has been consolidating in a narrow range between $21.60 and $23.10 for some time. That suggests the bulls are holding on to their positions as they anticipate another leg higher. If buyers propel the price above $23.10, the pair could surge to $25. There is resistance at $23.50, but it is likely to be crossed.

Alternatively, a drop below $21.60 signals that the bulls have given up. That may pull the price down to $19.50.

Related: Bitcoin trades at ‘40% discount’ as spot BTC ETF buying soars to $3B in one week

Official Trump price prediction

Official Trump (TRUMP) surged above the $12.45 resistance on April 23 and held the retest of the breakout level on April 24.

TRUMP/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

A rally above $16 is attracting sellers, but a shallow pullback suggests that every minor dip is being purchased. If buyers drive the price above $16, the TRUMP/USDT pair may reach $17.69, where the bears are expected to mount a strong defense. However, if buyers bulldoze their way through, the pair could skyrocket to $19.60 and then to $22.40.

Conversely, a deeper pullback suggests that the short-term bulls are booking profits. The zone between $11.56 and $12.45 is expected to act as a solid support.  If the price rebounds off the support zone, the pair may swing between $11.56 and $16 for some time. Selling could accelerate if the pair breaks below the 20-day EMA ($10.73).

TRUMP/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The pair turned down from $16 but is finding support near the 20-EMA on the 4-hour chart. That suggests the bulls are active at lower levels. Buyers will try to push the price above the $16 overhead resistance, starting the next leg of the uptrend.

Contrarily, a break and close below the 20-EMA suggests that the bullish momentum has weakened. The pair may then slump to $14 and later to the solid support near $12. Sellers will be back in the driver’s seat on a drop below $11.50.

Bittensor price prediction

Bittensor (TAO) broke and closed above the downtrend line on April 20, suggesting that the bears are losing their grip.

TAO/USDT daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The up move is facing resistance at $375, but the pullback is expected to find support at the 20-day EMA ($298). A solid bounce off the 20-day EMA signals a change in sentiment from selling on rallies to buying on dips. The bulls will then attempt to drive the TAO/USDT pair above $375. If they succeed, the next stop may be $495.

Contrary to this assumption, if the price turns down and breaks below the downtrend line, it will indicate that the markets have rejected the breakout. The pair then risks falling to $222.

TAO/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The pullback is finding support at the 20-EMA on the 4-hour chart. Buyers will try to resume the up move by pushing the price above the $375 resistance. If they manage to do that, the pair could reach $425.

Sellers are likely to have other plans. They will try to sink the price below the 20-EMA, opening the doors for a drop to the 50-SMA and later to the downtrend line. A break below the downtrend line tilts the advantage in favor of the bears.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Michael Saylor’s Strategy is “synthetically halving Bitcoin” (BTC) by purchasing half or more of the newly minted supply from miners every single month, according to Adam Livingston, a BTC analyst and author of “The Bitcoin Age and The Great Harvest.”

Livingston said miners currently produce around 450 BTC per day or approximately 13,500 BTC per month, but Strategy acquired 379,800 BTC in the last six months. This translates to the firm purchasing roughly 2,087 BTC per day — far in excess of daily miner output. The author added:

“When Bitcoin becomes this scarce, access to Bitcoin will require paying a premium. Lending against Bitcoin will cost more. Borrowing Bitcoin will become a luxury business reserved for nation-states and corporate whales, and Strategy will control the bottleneck.”

“BTC’s global cost of capital will no longer be set by ‘the market.’ It will be set by the gravitational policies of the first Bitcoin superpower: Strategy,” Livingston continued.

The author’s prediction of a Bitcoin supply crunch translates into much higher BTC prices if Strategy can continue its pace of BTC acquisitions while market demand for the supply-capped digital asset grows among institutional and retail investors.

The Bitcoin miner reserve, a metric tracking the total amount of BTC held in miner wallets, continues to decline. Source: CryptoQuant

Related: Michael Saylor hints at Bitcoin purchase as whales stack aggressively

Institutions like Strategy are driving the world toward hyperbitcoinization

Cypherpunk and Blockstream CEO Adam Back predicted that Strategy and other institutions that have adopted a Bitcoin corporate treasury plan will drive the market capitalization of BTC to $200 trillion.

“Strategy and other treasury companies are an arbitrage of the dislocation between the Bitcoin future and today’s fiat world,” Back wrote in an April 26 X post.

Critics of the company warn that the debt-based approach to BTC acquisition could sink Strategy financially if a prolonged BTC bear market takes effect and also warn of greater systemic risks to BTC from such a high concentration of the digital currency held by a single entity.

An overview of Strategy’s Bitcoin investment performance. Source: Michael Saylor

However, Bitcoin advocate and author Saifedean Ammous recently said that Strategy’s concentration of BTC doesn’t threaten the protocol.

Ammous argued that institutions like BlackRock and Strategy holding high concentrations of BTC could not engineer a hard fork increasing Bitcoin’s maximum supply, as it would massively devalue their holdings, which, at the end of the day, belong to shareholders with the power to divest.

Magazine: Bitcoin in Senegal: Why is this African country using BTC?

United States President Donald Trump recently said that federal income taxes would be “substantially reduced” or potentially eliminated once the tariff regime fully sets in.

In an April 27 Truth Social post, Trump added that the focus of the purported tax cuts would be on individuals making less than $200,000 per year.

The US President also said that the “External Revenue Service” — a reference to funding the federal government exclusively through import tariffs instead of the current model of collecting taxes through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) — is materializing.

Eliminating the federal income tax would likely be a positive catalyst for asset prices, including cryptocurrencies, as the increase in disposable income should partially flow back into productive investments. However, this stimulative effect is not guaranteed.

Source: Donald Trump

Related: If Trump fired Powell, what would happen to crypto?

Trump’s plan leaves analysts and markets doubting

Trump previously floated the idea of eliminating the federal income tax in an October 2024 appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, although Trump, who was on the campaign trail at the time, provided scant concrete details on the proposal.

The US President suggested that replacing the federal income tax with revenue from import duties would return the US to a time of prosperity seen during the Gilded Age, in the 19th century, when the US did not have a permanent federal income tax.

Research conducted by accounting automation company Dancing Numbers found that Trump’s proposal could save the average American $134,809 in lifetime tax payments.

Dancing Numbers added that the tax savings could be as much as $325,561 per American if other wage-based income taxes are also eliminated.

On April 2, Trump signed an executive order imposing sweeping tariffs on all US trading partners, which included a 10% baseline tariff on all countries and different “reciprocal” tariff rates on countries with import duties on US goods.

However, since that time, the Trump administration walked back its tariff policies several times, flip-flopping on tariff rates and when the tariff regime would fully take effect.

The Trump administration’s ever-changing rhetoric surrounding trade policies has heightened volatility in the US stock market, caused a rise in US bond yields, and has drawn widespread criticism from financial analysts who say the protectionist trade policies hurt capital markets while achieving little else.

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