BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund has been named the best new ETF product by etf.com, as it recorded its highest inflows since Jan. 21. 

On April 23, BlackRock’s iShare Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) was awarded the “Best New ETF” at the annual etf.com ETF awards. In an X post shortly after, Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said it “feels right to me.”

IBIT clocks highest inflows in three months

“I’m pretty sure this is how I voted. Both of them did things no one has seen [before],” Balchunas said, also referencing the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) winning the “ETF of the Year” award. Over the past 5 years, VOO is up 89%, according to Google Finance data.

IBIT was also the recipient of the Crypto ETP of the year.

IBIT’s two awards came on the same day IBIT recorded $643.2 million in inflows, according to Farside data. It was the highest inflow day since Jan. 21, when it saw $661.9 million, just a day after US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, when Bitcoin’s spot price hit an all-time high of $109,000.

Bitcoin is trading at $93,290 at the time of publication. Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin commentator Vivek said this “is massive,” while Apollo Sats co-founder Thomas Fahrer said, “Huge inflow.”

The IBIT fund, which launched in January 2024 alongside 10 other US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs, has net assets of approximately $53.77 billion, according to BlackRock data. Over the past 30 days, it has traded, on average, 45.02 million shares per day. 

At the time of publication, a single IBIT share is trading at $53.20, as per Google Finance data.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF is up 6.02% over the past month. Source: Google Finance

Meanwhile, VanEck Bitcoin ETF (HODL) received the award for “Best new ETF ticker.”

Related: Bitcoiners should be cautious over rally as stablecoin indicator lags: Analyst

IBIT’s large inflow on April 23 made up most of the $917 million seen across all 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs that day. It was the second day in a row with over $900 million in inflows amid most of the month posting outflow days due to macro uncertainty.

On April 23, Glassnode pointed out that the $912 million ETF inflows the day prior equaled more than 500 times the 2025 daily average.

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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.

US federal prosecutors have asked a district judge to sentence Avraham “Avi” Eisenberg, the crypto user convicted of the $110 million exploit of the decentralized exchange Mango Markets in 2022, to at least six and a half years behind bars.

Ahead of Eisenberg’s May 1 sentencing hearing, US prosecutors are petitioning US District Judge Arun Subramanian for Eisenberg to face between 78 and 97 months in prison, according to an April 22 filing in a New York district court.

Prosecutors argue it’s an appropriate sentence for Eisenberg’s April 2024 conviction for committing wire fraud, commodities fraud and commodities manipulation in connection with the Mango Markets exploit and separate charges that he possessed child pornography.

“This sentence is necessary to, among other things, appropriately reflect the gravity of the defendant’s crimes, promote respect for the law, deter the defendant from future criminal activity, and protect the public,” the prosecutors said.

“Fraud that takes over $100 million from investors and effectively shuts down a business is a shocking violation of criminal law, and it necessitates a sentence commensurate with the crime.”

Mango Markets announced on Jan. 11 that it was winding down operations. It first launched in August 2021. A subsequent Jan. 18 post to X gave a date of Feb. 3 for the shutdown.

Source: Mango Markets

During his April 2024 trial, Eisenberg’s legal team claimed he orchestrated a legal trading strategy that saw him profit $110 million from Mango Markets.

He has returned roughly $67 million of the funds after the exploit, but retained more than $40 million following a community governance vote.

Mango Markets hopes for restitution

In an April 22 impact statement filed by lawyers acting for Mango Markets, the exchange asks that, in light of Eisenberg’s conviction, the court grant $47 million restitution to make everyone, “including Mango DAO, whole.”

“Although Eisenberg’s attack cannot be undone, return of the funds he misappropriated is critical to righting his wrong,” Mango Markets said.

Related: Mango Markets heist like a fake diamond ring scam: Prosecutor

“No amount of money will fix the damage that Eisenberg has caused to Mango Markets’ reputation and the suffering his avarice caused, but returning the money, Eisenberg made off with will at least help.”

Authorities arrested Eisenberg in December 2022. After his conviction, his sentencing has been postponed multiple times.

Initially, it was scheduled for Dec. 12, 2024, but it was later delayed to Feb. 11, 2025, and April 10, 2025. Eisenberg’s legal team said the complexity of the sentencing issues caused the delays. 

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US federal prosecutors have filed statements from hundreds of victims in their case against Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the defunct crypto lender Celsius Network.

The recently sworn-in interim US Attorney for Manhattan, Jay Clayton, said in an April 23 letter to a Manhattan federal court that he was sharing “more than 200 victim impact statements” collected by his office.

The statements span 418 pages of Celsius users, some named and some only using their initials, detailing the impact that the collapse of the firm had on their lives and how much money they had lost as a result.

Some of the statements detailed victims who said they entrusted their life savings to Celsius, believing Mashinsky’s assurances that the platform was safe.

Others wrote they were dismayed at the amount returned to them as a result of the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, which many said was less than the amount they put into the platform.

An excerpt of a statement by Jesse Gaarenstroom detailing their losses and dissatisfaction with the repayments made to Celsius creditors. Source: CourtListener

Before it collapsed, Celsius Network allowed users to deposit crypto to earn yield and offered loans with crypto posted as collateral. It blocked withdrawals in mid-2022 amid a massive crypto market crash and filed for bankruptcy in July that year.

The Justice Department hit Mashinsky with seven charges a year later in July 2023, but he took a plea deal and copped to a count each of commodities and securities fraud in December, which carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if served consecutively.

Some seek leniency for Mashinsky

A large number of the statements reviewed by Cointelegraph called for Mashinsky to be imprisoned under the maximum allowable sentence, but at least two called for the court to go easy on the admitted fraudster.

Related: US prosecutors to pursue ex-SafeMoon CEO case despite DOJ memo

One statement, written by a person identifying themselves as “Mike,” said further punishing Mashinsky would be “unreasonably excessive” as he claimed, without evidence, that the Celsius founder “was the target of a coordinated attack” by Sam Bankman-Fried, a convicted fraudster and former CEO of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX.

Another statement written by Artur Abreu said that Mashinsky should be given leniency as he’s shown remorse, and macroeconomic factors at the time majorly contributed to Celsius’ collapse.

Mashinsky, whose sentencing is set for May 8, argued in an April 17 sentencing brief that he should not be sentenced to more than a year and one day in prison, or 366 days, as he had “genuinely good intentions, and a previously spotless track record.”

The government’s sentencing brief is due on April 24.

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The ZKsync Association has confirmed the recovery of $5 million worth of stolen tokens from an April 15 ZKsync security incident involving its airdrop distribution contract.

The hacker agreed to accept a 10% bounty and return 90% of the remaining stolen tokens, transferring the ZKsync Security Council almost $5.7 million across three transfers on April 23.

“We’re pleased to share that the hacker has cooperated and returned the funds within the safe harbor deadline,” ZKsync Association posted to X on April 23, which was later reposted by ZKsync’s X account.

Matter Labs, the company behind the ZKsync protocol, also reposted the news shared on X.

The ZKsync X account previously confirmed that no user funds were compromised.

Source: ZKsync Association

The hacker sent two transfers on the ZKsync Era blockchain, consisting of $2.47 million worth of ZKsync (ZK) tokens and $1.83 million worth of Ether (ETH) to the ZKsync Security Council’s ZKsync Era address.

Another 776 ETH worth nearly $1.4 million was also sent to their security council’s Ethereum address, Etherscan data shows.

The first transfer was made on April 23 at 2:39:57 pm UTC on and the last transfer was made roughly 13 minutes later — all within the 72-hour window that ZK Sync had initially set.

ZKsync Association said the company would publish a final report revealing more details from the security incident.

How the hack happened

The hacker breached ZKsync’s admin account, allowing them to exploit the airdrop distribution contract’s sweepUnclaimed() function to mint 111 million unclaimed ZK tokens, worth approximately $5 million at the time of the April 15 attack.

The hack occurred while ZKsync was in the process of airdropping 17.5% of ZK’s token supply to ecosystem participants.

The recovered amount — almost $5.7 million — exceeded the $5 million originally stolen due to a rise in the market value of the stolen tokens, with ZK and ETH increasing 16.6% and 8.8% respectively since the April 15 attack, according to CoinGecko data.

Despite the asset recovery, the ZK token failed to rise substantially on the news and is currently down 0.2% over the last 24 hours.

ZKsync Era is an Ethereum layer 2 solution that uses zero-knowledge rollups to batch and process transactions offchain. It has nearly $59 million in total value locked on its chain and has over $2 billion in real-world assets onchain, according to DefiLlama and RWA.xyz.

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Russia’s finance ministry and central bank are reportedly planning to launch a crypto exchange for qualified investors under an experimental legal regime.

The platform will be aimed at “super-qualified investors,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said during a ministry meeting, according to April 23 reports from Russian media group RBC and Russian news agency Interfax.

“Together with the central bank, we will launch a crypto exchange for super-qualified investors. Crypto assets will be legalized, and crypto operations will be brought out of the shadows,” he said in a statement translated from Russian.

“Naturally, this will not happen domestically, but as part of the operations permitted under the experimental legal regime.”

Anton Siluanov (left) said the Kremlin-backed crypto exchange is only for Russian investors who meet certain income and wealth thresholds. Source: Mehmet Simsek

The Russian central bank announced a proposal on March 12 to allow a limited number of Russian investors with a certain amount of assets to buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) under a three-year experimental regime.

Under the proposal, the bank created a new investor category, super-qualified investors, defined by wealth and income thresholds of over 100 million rubles ($1.2 million) or a yearly income of at least 50 million rubles ($602,000).

Super-qualified investor definition not set in stone 

The deputy director of the Finance Ministry’s financial policy department, Osman Kabaloev, said the criteria for a super-qualified investor are not yet final because they were floated in the early stages of discussions last year, according to RBC.

“Perhaps it will be in this format, or these indicators will be somehow adjusted in one direction or another – this is possible, I think there will be a wide range of discussions,” Kabaloev said in a statement translated from Russian.

Russia implemented a ban on using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin for payments under its first crypto law, which came into force in January 2021.

However, the country has since been trying to make other crypto inroads. On April 16, Kabaloev said the Kremlin should be creating its own stablecoin after a recent freeze on wallets linked to the sanctioned Russian exchange Garantex by US authorities and stablecoin issuer Tether. 

Related: Russia using Bitcoin, USDt for oil trades with China and India: Report

Meanwhile, Evgeny Masharov, a member of the Russian Civic Chamber, proposed on March 20 to create a Russian government crypto fund that would include assets confiscated from criminal proceedings.

At the same time, other officials were progressing with new legislation on recognizing crypto as property for the purposes of criminal procedure legislation.

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Bitcoin has shown resilience compared to the broader financial market amid macroeconomic uncertainty, but analysts caution it’s still too early to know whether the trend will last.

“We’re not quite there yet, but if Bitcoin holds strength through the upcoming CPI, as well as ongoing Powell-related and equity earnings volatility, the decoupling narrative could evolve from “temporary divergence” to “regime change,” Bitfinex analysts said in an April 23 markets note viewed by Cointelegraph.

Bitcoin’s relative strength yet to be proven as structural

The analysts said that while Bitcoin’s (BTC) relative strength against US equities “appears real,” it is yet to be confirmed as structural. The analysts warned that Bitcoin has previously seen short periods of outperformance, only to eventually fall back in line with the broader market.

Cointelegraph recently reported that Bitcoin is increasingly abandoning its stock correlation to copy gold’s upside. At the time of publication, Bitcoin’s price has posted gains of 7.68% over the past 30 days. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are down 6.79% and 8.14%, respectively, as per Google Finance data.

Bitcoin is trading at $93,290 at the time of publication. Source: CoinMarketCap

Over the same period, Nvidia (NVDA), which has outperformed Bitcoin over the past decade, fell 15.4%. The analysts attributed the decline to the “effective ban on advanced chip exports to China and tariff-driven volatility.” In May 2024, Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten said there is a “near zero chance of Nvidia outperforming Bitcoin over the next 10 years.”

The Bitfinex analysts described the current crypto market as a “hybrid state,” with rising macroeconomic risk on one side and an uptick in spot Bitcoin ETF inflows on the other. 

April 22 alone saw $913 million in spot Bitcoin ETF inflows, the largest since late January.

“This backdrop favors Bitcoin as the “cleanest shirt in the dirty laundry.”

They added that this reinforces Bitcoin’s position as a strong store of value, with Bitcoin dominance rising to levels not seen since late 2021. 

At the time of publication, Bitcoin’s dominance was 64.39%, according to TradingView data.

Related: Bitcoin holders back in profit as new capital enters the market — Is $100K BTC price next?

Crypto market participants will be closely watching April’s Consumer Price Index (CPI), published on May 13, after March data showed a cooling trend that some saw as a short-term bearish signal for Bitcoin.

March’s CPI came in at 2.4% year-over-year, down from 2.8% in February, the lowest level since February 2023, according to the US Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, some crypto analysts caution that other indicators suggest Bitcoin’s rally may not last.

10x Research head of research Markus Thielen said, “Given that our stablecoin minting indicator has yet to return to high-activity levels, we remain cautious about the sustainability of the current Bitcoin rally.” 

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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.

Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin is set to branch further into Southeast Asia, targeting the growing crypto market in Thailand. 

KuCoin is planning to launch a crypto exchange platform offering digital assets and related products in the country, according to an April 23 announcement. 

ERX Company Ltd, Thailand’s first Securities and Exchange Commission-supervised digital token exchange, has rebranded as KuCoin Thailand effective April 22, it stated. 

The crypto exchange will operate under ERX, which recently received a crypto exchange license from the Thai financial regulator. 

“We’re strengthening our ability to offer localized solutions tailored to the Thai market,” said ERX chief executive Att Tongyai Asavanund.

Existing ERX users have been migrated to the new KuCoin Thailand platform, and the KuCoin TH app is available on both Android and iOS. 

KuCoin joins an increasingly crowded Thai market 

KuCoin is entering a crowded market, as there are eight other companies licensed by the Thai SEC to operate as crypto and digital asset exchanges.

These are the WAAN Exchange, Gulf Binance, Thai Digital Assets Exchange, InnovestX Securities, GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics, Upbit Exchange, Bitkub Online and Orbix Trade.

Bitkub is the largest by far and has a current daily trading volume of around $70 million, according to CoinGecko. Comparatively, KuCoin’s global platform claims to have $3.8 billion in daily volume. 

Related: Thailand SEC plans to launch tokenized securities trading system

In January, the Thai government announced a pilot program enabling tourists to pay using Bitcoin (BTC) in a sandboxed environment on the holiday island of Phuket. However, it has yet to be launched. 

While crypto trading remains popular in Thailand, using crypto assets for payments was outlawed by the central bank in 2022. 

In early April, Thai finance regulators targeted foreign peer-to-peer crypto platforms in their latest crackdown in an effort to combat scams and money laundering. 

KuCoin is currently trying to get a settlement with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission resolved after it was sued under the previous administration in March 2024 for violating the Commodity Exchange Act. 

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A majority of crypto users are willing to allow artificial intelligence agents to manage part of their investment portfolios, according to the results of a recent CoinGecko survey.

Among the 2,632 crypto participants surveyed, 87% said they would let AI agents manage at least a tenth of their crypto portfolio, CoinGecko’s April 23 report shows.

Around half the respondents said they were willing to let an AI agent manage half their portfolio or less.

“This suggests that despite having doubts as to how safe or secure AI agents are, crypto users are still mainly curious about the technology and want to try using them for trading or investing,” CoinGecko research analyst Yuqian Lim said.

At the same time, around 36% of survey participants said they would allow AI agents to manage the majority of their holdings. A smaller group, roughly 14.5%, were willing to leave their entire crypto portfolio in the digital hands of an AI agent.

A small number said they were willing to let AI control their entire portfolio. Source: CoinGecko

“In other words, 1 in 7 participants either think they can completely trust AI agents with all of their crypto, or believe the potential profits will outweigh the risks, or simply have a high risk tolerance for their crypto holdings,” Lim said.

Mixed opinions on human vs AI trading

However, opinions were mixed on whether AI agents would be better than humans at crypto trading and investing overall. There was a roughly even split, with half of the respondents saying AI agents would be better than humans at crypto trading and investing most of the time.

“That said, the remaining half of survey participants believed AI does not have an edge over humans in the crypto market yet, which suggests that opinions are still divided over this comparison,” Lim said.

About 13%, or 1 in 8, said they weren’t comfortable leaving any of their portfolios for management by AI or thought they could manage their crypto stash better than an AI agent. 

The same survey found that participants had very mixed views on whether AI agents could be trusted with access to people’s crypto wallets.

Despite many of the respondents answering that they were happy to allow AI access to their crypto, there were still trust issues. Source: CoinGecko

“Specifically, 37.5% indicated that they do not trust AI agents with their crypto wallets, while a slightly lower 34.5% said they can be trusted and 27.9% were neutral on the matter,” Lim said.

Related: AI, blockchain convergence to bring ‘watershed moments’ in 2025

Agentic AI is already being used to build Web3 applications, launch tokens, and interact with people autonomously. Some platforms have also been exploring the use of AI agents for trading.

Last December, crypto industry execs told Cointelegraph they expected AI agents to transform Web3 in 2025, flagging crypto staking and onchain trading as emerging early use cases. However, there was also speculation that AI would face headwinds, including technical challenges, regulatory hurdles, and centralization. 

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The host of The Wolf Of All Streets podcast, Scott Melker, says he’s received word that his face and name are being impersonated by scammers, with at least one victim duped out of $4 million. 

On April 23, the crypto investor said, “I’m sick,” reporting that he’d been contacted by a private investigator revealing that a client of his was scammed for $4 million by a Nigerian group using his name and face as bait. 

“They’ve apparently scammed a number of people,” Melker said, adding, “They sent him a fake driver’s license to prove it was me,” and used his X avatar as the photo.

The scammers used AI to generate the fake ID and used a fake but convincing-looking email account. 

“They do zoom calls with AI,” which are “apparently sophisticated,” said Melker, who added that the scammers have also spoofed accounts of his wife and kids to support identity confirmation. 

Fake driver’s license used by scammers. Source: Scott Melker 

Technical analysts “TheChartGuys” reported something similar, with a person getting scammed for $5,000 after the scammers replicated their voice using AI deepfakes. 

Fake ID is easy to spot, says trader

Crypto adviser and trader “Nebraskan Gooner” said a quick Google search easily reveals that the ID is fake. 

He pointed out that there were a few subtle discrepancies in the address and date formats. He said that it it sucks that these scammers are getting so sophisticated, but was “surprised how badly this was with how sophisticated of an operation these seems to be.” 

Cointelegraph reached out to Melker for further comments but did not receive an immediate response. 

Related: ‘Victim-blaming’ Americans can deter crypto scams reporting — Regulator

AI-generated scams are surging as the technology evolves. 

In March, California’s Department of Justice warned that it had discovered seven new types of crypto scams that involved AI. 

In February, Chainalysis said that 2025 will be a big year for AI scams, stating that generative AI is making scams “more scalable and affordable for bad actors to conduct.”

In a recent report, software giant Microsoft said that bad actors were using AI to “supercharge their scams.” 

“AI tools can scan and scrape the web for company information, helping cyberattackers build detailed profiles of employees or other targets to create highly convincing social engineering lures,” it stated. 

“It’s going to get exponentially worse, I would imagine,” lamented Melker. 

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The Los Angeles Police Department has recovered $2.7 million worth of Bitcoin mining machines it alleges were stolen by a crime ring in a heist at the city’s airport.

The LAPD said on April 22 that detectives from its Cargo Theft Unit, along with the city’s Port Police, the railroad-based Union Pacific Police, and the city’s Airport Police, arrested Oscar David Borrero-Manchola and Yonaiker Rafael Martinez-Ramos over the thefts.

Authorities claimed the pair are “prominent members” of a South American crime ring tied to the theft and sale of stolen goods in and around Los Angeles.

The LAPD said searches of storage unit facilities in the San Fernando Valley, northeast of downtown Los Angeles, recovered $4 million worth of stolen goods, including the Bitcoin (BTC) mining rigs taken from Los Angeles International Airport “as the shipment was about to be loaded onto a plane headed to Hong Kong.”

Detectives also found and seized over $1.2 million in allegedly stolen tequila, clothing, shoes, speakers, coffee, body wash, and pet food.

Some of the allegedly stolen products were found at a storage facility in downtown Los Angeles. Source: Los Angeles Police Department

Borrero-Manchola and Martinez-Ramos were booked at Van Nuys Jail in the city’s northwest. Borrero-Manchola was cited for receiving stolen property and was released, while Martinez-Ramos was arrested on a no-bail warrant.

The LAPD said that “the investigation remains ongoing, and additional arrests may follow.”

Crypto mining rigs fetch top dollar 

The LAPD didn’t share the number of machines it seized or what model the rigs are, but a typical, current-model Bitcoin mining machine sells for between $3,000 to over $5,000.

Related: Americans lost $9.3B to crypto fraud in 2024 — FBI

US law enforcement has recovered stolen crypto mining rigs in the past. In July, the LAPD said it arrested a man it alleged was in possession of stolen Bitcoin mining rigs worth $579,000, seizing them from a cargo van and storage unit.

LAPD detectives arrested Bryan Thola, alleging his van contained stolen Bitcoin miners. Source: Los Angeles Police Department

One of the largest thefts of Bitcoin mining rigs happened in late 2017 and early 2018 in Iceland, where a group robbed data centers to make off with over 600 machines.

The rigs reportedly ended up in China, as just three months after they were stolen, Chinese authorities seized a similar number and model of mining rigs in Tianjin, a city southeast of the capital, Beijing.

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