Linera Launches Babbage Testnet

April 23 — U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Tuesday that as part of U.S. blockade actions targeting Iran, the U.S. military has directed 29 vessels to turn around or return to port. Media reports over the past 24 hours have claimed several merchant ships — including the HeroI, Hedy, and Dorena — evaded the measures. CENTCOM stated these reports are inaccurate.

April 23rd — Onchain Lens monitoring shows a newly created address withdrew 4,000 ETH (valued at $9.59M) from Kraken 4 hours ago.

April 23rd — Per Coinglass data, Bitcoin surged to a high of $79,472 last night and has since pulled back to $77,933. Short positions across the network were liquidated again amid the uptrend. Over the past 24 hours, total liquidations reached $416 million: $339 million in short liquidations and $76.36 million in long liquidations. Historical data shows Bitcoin shorts across the entire network have paid $12 million in funding fees to longs over the past seven days. Notably, as Bitcoin spiked then retreated, Binance’s funding rate fell from a neutral 0.35% to -0.79%. All other major platforms except Binance currently have negative Bitcoin contract rates. This indicates that even though Bitcoin hit a new high in this uptrend, many investors still remain bearish on its future price and are continuing to short at these elevated levels.

April 23: Per HTX market data, Bitcoin has fallen below the $78,000 mark and is currently trading at $77,949.

April 23rd – White House Press Secretary Levi stated that any extension of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement will be finalized by President Trump. “The President has not set a firm deadline, despite some reports circulating today,” she noted. She rejected anonymous claims of a 3-to-5-day extension as untrue, adding that Trump is waiting for Iran’s leadership to provide a “unified response” to the terms of the proposed peace deal.

According to market data from Bitget on April 23rd, U.S. stock markets closed higher on Wednesday: the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.69%, the S&P 500 gained 1.05%, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.64%—notably, the latter two indices hit all-time closing highs. Crypto-related stocks also saw broad gains, with the following performances: - Circle (CRCL): +5.25% - MicroStrategy (MSTR): +9.39% - Gemini (GEMI): +4.67% - Bitmine (BMNR): +7.37% - SharpLink Gaming (SBET): +1.49% - Bit Digital (BTBT): +7.1% - ALT5 Sigma (ALTS): +7.61% - American Bitcoin (ABTC): +8.06% - Kindly MD (NAKA): +5.65% - Solana Co (HSDT): +4.5%