Pakistani authorities said the US and Iran delegations left Pakistan on Saturday.

April 12 — The Middle East situation worsened sharply over the weekend, following a brief ceasefire cooling-off period. ### Key Developments: - **U.S.-Iran Talks Collapse**: 21-hour negotiations ended in deadlock after Iran rejected the U.S.-proposed “no nuclear weapons development” clause. - **Ambiguous Dialogue End**: U.S. Vice President Vance announced the talks’ conclusion with vague wording. - **Trump’s Attack Pause Nears End**: His declared two-week attack suspension is winding down with no clear outcome. - **Hormuz Strait Dispute**: A U.S. destroyer claimed the first post-conflict transit of the Strait of Hormuz — a claim Iranian officials immediately denied, signaling ongoing information warfare. ### Market Outlook for Next Week: Geopolitics will dominate sentiment; any Hormuz-related news could trigger asset price swings. Beyond geopolitics, the macro calendar focuses on two critical themes: 1. **Fed Policy Signals**: Speeches by Fed officials (includin

April 12 — Per Iran’s Fars News Agency, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Iran and the U.S. have reached consensus on some issues but differ on two or three key points, ultimately failing to reach a final agreement. (Xinhua News Agency)

On April 12, per HTX market data, Bitcoin is trading at $71,697.20—down 1.80% over the past 24 hours—while Ethereum sits at $2,219.54, a 1.27% drop in the same period. Coinglass data shows funding rates across major centralized (CEXs) and decentralized (DEXs) exchanges point to bearish signals for both BTC and ETH, with market sentiment remaining muted. Specifically, Bitcoin’s funding rate is negative on platforms like Binance: shorts are continuously paying fees to longs to maintain their positions, indicating an overall bearish trend. For Ethereum, rates are negative on Binance, while platforms like OKX see positive rates but all fall below the 0.005% bearish threshold—also signaling a broad bearish trend. Funding rates for specific major coins are displayed in the attached chart. BlockBeats Note: Funding rate is a mechanism set by crypto exchanges to align perpetual contract prices with the underlying asset’s spot price. It involves a fund transfer between long and short trade

Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported on local time April 12 that Tehran is not rushing to negotiate with the U.S., citing informed sources. Iran has put forward reasonable proposals in the talks, and now “the ball is in the U.S.’s court” — Washington should take a pragmatic approach to the issue, the agency said. The source also noted the U.S. government “is making the same mistakes in negotiation decisions as it did in war decisions,” adding Iran is not eager for a quick deal. As long as the U.S. rejects a reasonable agreement, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will remain unchanged. The timing and location of the next round of talks have yet to be determined. (Source: CCTV International News)

April 12 — Ethereum treasury firm The Ether Machine announced Friday its $1.6 billion SPAC merger with Dynamix Corporation (ticker: DYNX) has been terminated due to unfavorable market conditions, per CoinDesk. The deal, first disclosed in July 2025, aimed to take The Ether Machine public on Nasdaq under the ticker ETHM. The firm positions itself as an Ethereum treasury and revenue vehicle, generating returns via staking and DeFi strategies while holding substantial Ethereum reserves. CoinGecko data shows it currently holds 496,712 ETH, valued at over $1.1 billion. The transaction drew attention for its scale: it included a $1.5 billion full-pipe financing (the largest common stock financing of its kind since 2021) and an additional ~$170 million in Dynamix’s trust account. Post-merger, the combined entity was expected to hold over 400,000 ETH, with a portion contributed by co-founder Andrew Keys. In a joint termination statement, the two companies noted the split was by mutual

April 12 — Genius, the perpetual DEX trading terminal backed by YZi Labs, has unveiled details of its Season 1 airdrop, which will distribute 70 million GENIUS tokens total. Users have two claim options: - Claim immediately within a 7-day window: Incur a 70% automatic burn penalty, receiving just 30% of your allocation (the remaining 70% is permanently burned). - Take no action: Your token allocation locks in a smart contract for 12 months, after which you can claim 100% of your share. Genius says the mechanism is designed to attract community members aligned with long-term incentives and discourage short-term speculative activity.