This week, both Strategy and Bitmine have reached their highest levels of the year in terms of holdings.

April 20, DLNEWS reported that Grinex—a major Russian cryptocurrency exchange—ceased operations last Wednesday amid a suspected large-scale cyberattack, with losses estimated at over 10 billion rubles (roughly $13 million). The platform said in a Telegram post that the attack bore signs of "involvement by a foreign intelligence agency." Grinex is the successor to Garantex, a previously sanctioned and shuttered exchange that provided a financial channel for Russia to evade sanctions. In 2025, it processed nearly $100 billion in transactions for the sanctioned stablecoin A7A5. Experts noted that Grinex’s closure stemmed not only from the cyberattack itself but, more critically, from the loss of a key platform Russian businesses relied on to convert rubles into usable international currencies. This delivered a "severe blow" to Russia’s sanctions-evasion infrastructure, making it harder for Moscow to avoid economic sanctions pressure. The exchange was sanctioned in August 2025 by

April 20 — CNN has learned from sources familiar with the matter that U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is expected to depart Washington Tuesday local time for Pakistan. The exact timing of the U.S. delegation’s travel remains unconfirmed. U.S.-Iran talks are scheduled for Wednesday in Pakistan. Earlier, President Donald Trump noted that Pence and the U.S. delegation would “arrive in Pakistan within hours for Iran-related talks.”

April 20th — The U.S. “Clarity Act” has entered a critical negotiation phase this week, with its timeline (committee review in April or delay to May) hinging on recent developments. The Senate Banking Committee kicked off the week by focusing on the confirmation hearing for Federal Reserve Chair nominee Kevin Wash, and must decide by Friday whether to schedule a vote on the bill for the week of April 27th. Banking groups led by the North Carolina Bankers Association are lobbying against the stablecoin yield restriction clause in the bill, urging members to contact Senator Thom Tillis’s office to push for amendments. Industry groups are also reportedly reaching out to other committee members. After over two months of talks, crypto and banking stakeholders reached a compromise late last month, with the crypto industry largely satisfied. However, calls for amendments from the banking side have intensified since a White House Economic Advisory Committee report downplayed stablecoi

April 20 – Abu Dhabi-based regulated tokenization infrastructure firm KAIO has closed an $8 million strategic funding round led by Tether, with participation from multiple crypto and institutional investors, pushing total funding to $19 million. New backers include Systemic Ventures, Further Ventures, and Laser Digital; existing shareholders such as Brevan Howard Digital also participated in the round. KAIO aims to tokenize traditional fund products from firms including BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, lowering the entry barrier to just $100 for eligible investors. The firm plans to expand into credit, structured products, and ETFs, and partner with Mubadala Capital—a UAE-based private equity giant with $385 billion in assets under management—to launch on-chain funds. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino noted that KAIO will tokenize institutional-grade assets to boost accessibility, creating new avenues for capital formation and investment. KAIO’s platform integrates a compli

April 20th: On-chain sleuth ZachXBT tweeted, raising questions about Kraken’s launch of spot trading for M (Memecore) on July 3, 2025. ZachXBT noted that $7.9 million in suspicious funds were withdrawn from Kraken to 18 newly created addresses, which now hold a combined 11.7 million M tokens—worth $39.8 million at current rates. Insiders have pumped the token’s price to a $6 billion market cap, with a fully diluted valuation of $18 billion. Kraken is among the few platforms supporting spot trading for M. In a recent announcement, the project team only highlighted one “achievement”: $66 million in total trading volume on its Launchpad, plus the claim of thousands of “users” from its incentivized InfoFi event.

April 20 When asked if Iran was open to negotiations, Trump said he didn’t know—and that Iran should be ready to negotiate. Trump also noted that if the ceasefire agreement expires, a “bomb” will go off. He added it’s “okay” if Iran doesn’t participate in the ongoing negotiations in Pakistan. Discussions on Iran’s nuclear program will occur during those talks. (PBS)