As Media Dubbed Israel ‘Still Actively Targeting Iran’

April 8th — Official sources confirm Seamless Protocol, the lending arm of Base Protocol, is winding down operations. The platform’s interface will go offline on June 30, 2026, and users must withdraw all assets, redeem leveraged tokens, and unstake their SEAM by that date. The Morpho treasury will also be liquidated in an orderly fashion, with remaining DAO treasury assets allocated to SEAM holders per a governance proposal. The shutdown stems from structural challenges in the DeFi lending market, liquidity issues with leveraged tokens, and a market shift toward actively managed treasuries over permissionless tokenized products. While the protocol’s mechanics operated as intended, market conditions failed to drive widespread adoption, and sustained development lacked a clear path to sustainable revenue.

On April 8, alternative data shows the cryptocurrency Fear & Greed Index sits at 17 today—up from 11 yesterday—easing market "fear" sentiment. Note: The Fear & Greed Index ranges from 0 to 100, with components including: Volatility (25%), Market Trading Volume (25%), Social Media Hype (15%), Market Surveys (15%), Bitcoin Dominance (10%), and Google Trends Analysis (10%).

April 8th – Bitcoin briefly topped $72,000 today, and Coinglass data shows funding rates across major centralized (CEX) and decentralized (DEX) exchanges are signaling a notable weakening of bearish sentiment. Specific funding rate figures are available in the attached image. BlockBeats Note: Funding rates are fees set by crypto exchanges to keep contract prices aligned with underlying asset values, typically applied to perpetual contracts. This is a fund exchange mechanism between long and short traders—exchanges do not collect these fees. They’re used to adjust the cost or profit of traders holding contracts, ensuring contract prices stay close to the underlying asset’s price. A funding rate of 0.01% is the baseline. Rates above 0.01% signal a generally bullish market, while rates below 0.005% indicate a generally bearish market.

On April 8, Raoul Pal—former Goldman Sachs executive, author of *Global Macro Investor*, and co-founder/CEO of Real Vision—took to social media to note: "The ETH/BTC exchange rate is now getting very interesting, aligning with the business cycle (rising ISM) and a trend of increasing liquidity. Looking at the long-term chart, the trend remains very constructive. Since 2017, ETH has broadly held its value relative to BTC; if this chart plays out as currently trended, ETH should outperform BTC over time." This also makes intuitive sense: as a smart contract platform, ETH’s Total Addressable Market (TAM) is fundamentally distinct from BTC’s "store of value" attribute. BTC primarily carries the value of total savings, while ETH can carry the value of economic activity itself. Precisely because of this difference, over time, the dominance of smart contracts (represented by ETH) relative to BTC will continue to rise.

On April 8, Decrypt reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday explicitly opposed Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm’s latest motion to dismiss criminal charges, arguing a recent Supreme Court ruling is irrelevant to the case and should not serve as grounds for dismissal. Storm’s attorney previously signaled intent to cite the high court decision—linked to a civil copyright infringement case—to bolster the dismissal bid. However, federal prosecutors noted in a letter to the judge that the ruling addresses a scenario and industry entirely distinct from the current criminal charges, and thus should not impact the case’s handling. This legal fight underscores the Trump administration’s contradictory stance on the crypto sector: While the U.S. government has taken relatively supportive crypto policies, it still insists on holding some crypto project developers criminally liable. As of now, Storm could face a retrial, and the case is likely to be sent back to court

Israeli outlet N12 News reported on April 8 that a senior U.S. official said the United States had coordinated with Israel in advance on a temporary ceasefire. The official added the U.S. had explicitly told Israel that during upcoming two-week negotiations, Washington would firmly insist Iran remove nuclear materials, halt uranium enrichment, eliminate ballistic missile threats, and address other related issues.