US Lawmaker Urges SEC to Investigate 'Suspicious' Trades During Iran War

April 9th, per CoinDesk: Michael Saylor, founder of Strategy, said Bitcoin most likely bottomed around $60,000 in early February—with traders forced to sell then having been washed out of the market. He noted the bottom was driven more by seller exhaustion than valuation. Saylor added current selling pressure is limited: ETF inflows are absorbing daily supply, while corporate treasury allocations to Bitcoin are fueling sustained demand. For the next bull market, Saylor predicts the catalyst will be a Bitcoin-based banking credit and digital credit system—transforming Bitcoin from a non-interest-bearing asset into a capital market engine. On recent quantum computing threat debates, he argued the risk is overstated: it’s still theoretical and likely decades from materializing, with solutions expected by then. Mizuho has maintained its Outperform rating on Strategy, with a target price of $320—representing roughly 150% upside from the current stock price of $127.

On April 9, The Block reported that Yuga Labs—developer of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT series—has reached a settlement with conceptual artist Ryder Ripps and his business partner Jeremy Cahen over a long-running trademark dispute. Court documents confirm the parties agreed to resolve all claims in the case, though settlement details remain undisclosed. Ripps has been formally barred from using Yuga Labs’ brand visual elements and trademarks going forward. In 2022, Yuga sued Ripps and Cahen, alleging the pair created a so-called “satirical fork” project using the same images and ape characters from the original BAYC collection. Ripps argued his RR/BAYC project qualified as “expressive fair use” and was protected by the First Amendment. However, a 2023 federal court ruling found the forked tokens could confuse the NFT market, infringing on Yuga’s trademark rights, and ordered the two to pay nearly $9 million in damages. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals later rejected most of

April 9th — Per on-chain analyst yu4ll0w, the Ethereum Foundation initially planned to offload 5,000 ETH. To date, it has sold 3,750 ETH (valued at $8.3 million) at an average price of $2,214.

April 9 — The U.S. and Iran announced a temporary ceasefire on April 8, with both sides saying negotiations will take place later this week. Just one day after the ceasefire was unveiled, disagreements have already emerged over whether it includes Lebanon. Iranian analysts note Israel views Iran as its top regional foe. Since the ceasefire, Israel has stepped up attacks on Lebanon in an attempt to undermine the truce and weaken Iran’s influence in the region. If Israel does not halt its actions against Lebanon soon, the regional conflict could reignite. Source: CCTV International News

On Wednesday, April 9, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. denied Anthropic’s request for a temporary pause on the Department of Defense’s (DoD) blacklisting of the company—an action Anthropic is currently suing over. Earlier, at the end of last month, a federal judge in San Francisco issued a preliminary injunction barring the Trump administration from enforcing a ban on Anthropic’s Claude AI model. In its ruling, the appeals court noted: “We find the equitable balance in this case favors the government. On one hand, the risk of economic harm to the private company is relatively minimal; on the other, how the DoD acquires critical AI technology amid military conflict—and from whom—requires judicial oversight. Accordingly, we deny Anthropic’s motion for a stay and will await further review of the case’s merits.” (Source: CNBC)

On April 9, The Block reported that Canary Capital has filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) tracking the spot price of the PEPE token. In the filing, Canary noted PEPE launched in April 2023 with a total supply exceeding 420 quadrillion tokens, and highlighted the meme coin has no utility. The firm also submitted ETF applications last year tied to tracking the prices of MOG and Pengu.