Coinbase analysts say the crypto market faces elevated risk as President Donald Trump's April 6 deadline on the Iran deal approaches. David Duong warned that a prolonged standoff could raise geopolitical risk premia across energy and broader risk assets, leaving crypto vulnerable into the weekend. Bitcoin hovered near $68K as SOPR neared 1, while options data showed stronger demand for downside protection into late April.

Telegram's Wallet said on April 2 that it will use Lighter to support native leveraged perpetual trading, letting users trade crypto as well as stocks, metals, and oil with up to 50x leverage. The wallet reports more than 150 million registered users, about 25 million of whom are active, while Telegram has over 1 billion users. Lighter's LIT token rallied about 30% and retested $1 after the integration update.

Japan-based Metaplanet moved up to become the third-largest public company Bitcoin holder after buying 5,075 BTC worth $405M in Q1 2026, lifting its total to 40,177 BTC. The company says it plans to reach 100K BTC in 2026 and 210K BTC by 2027, but its current stash shows an unrealized loss of $1.5B as the position is valued at $2.7B versus a $4.1B cost basis.

On April 1, U.S. equities finished higher while Bitcoin hovered near $69K, then on April 2 it slid to about $66K, a 4% drop, as oil jumped from $97 to $108. The move followed President Donald Trump's mixed comments on the West Asia crisis, while options positioning and other hedging signals pointed to continued caution into April.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE ended Q1 2026 up 48%, while Bitcoin fell 25% and Ethereum dropped 32%, extending its relative edge into the new quarter. The platform’s non-crypto HIP-3 segment saw daily open interest top $2 billion for the first time in late March, a trend that could support buybacks if overall market sentiment improves.

MARA sold 15,133 BTC worth over $1 billion this week and said the move helped cut outstanding debt by 30%, as the firm also advances AI data-center plans. Analysts argue that when large public miners shift capital and infrastructure from BTC mining to AI, the resulting hashrate reduction can lower difficulty and improve margins for miners who stay. They also warned that another bout of miner distress could return if BTC falls below $65K.

Morgan Stanley has proposed a 0.14% management fee for its spot Bitcoin ETF product MSBT, positioning it 44% cheaper than BlackRock’s IBIT at 0.25%. Data cited in the report shows IBIT at $63 billion in cumulative net inflows and $52 billion in net assets, while overall spot BTC ETFs posted $225 million in outflows on 27 March and BTC slipped to $65K.

Lido has proposed a one-time buyback of about 8.5% of LDO’s circulating supply, funded by 10,000 stETH from the Lido DAO Treasury. At $2,000–$2,100 per stETH, the allocation equals roughly $20–$21 million and would purchase around 70 million LDO if approved. The move comes as Lido argues LDO has lagged ETH sharply, while whale wallets have sold nearly 80 million LDO since the October crash.

On March 28, Patrick Witt, executive director of the President's Council on Digital Assets, warned that blocking the CLARITY Act draft could lead to a future Democratic administration taking a tougher approach to stablecoin yield, DeFi, and crypto. Coinbase said the industry is preparing a coordinated counterproposal aimed at preserving stablecoin rewards, while other industry figures flagged separate issues around DeFi developer protections and crypto tax provisions. Coinbase's David Duong said the stablecoin-yield dispute may be resolved within three weeks, with a Senate Banking markup possible in the second half of April and final passage potentially in early May if floor time permits.