The Fed Keeps Interest Rates Unchanged as Expected, Bitcoin Maintains Strength, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Hit New Highs

April 16 — Per The Wrap, a $70 million film about Bitcoin’s mysterious founder quietly wrapped principal photography last month inside a London “gray box” that resembled a warehouse. At first glance, it looks like a run-of-the-mill commercial flick: directed by Doug Liman, starring Gal Gadot, Pete Davidson, Casey Affleck, and Isla Fisher, and centered on a global thriller about unmasking Bitcoin’s anonymous creator. But it boasts a major distinction: *Bitcoin: The Satoshi Mystery* is billed as the first fully AI-generated, studio-caliber feature film. Acme AI & FX produced the indie film. Producers say it was shot on a custom-built soundstage over 20 days, with AI tools cutting costs drastically: traditional production would have topped $300 million, but this version stayed within a far more manageable budget. Set design and lighting were AI-generated, but the actors’ performances remained untouched. They wore costumes that’ll end up on screen; Casey Affleck also got wig and make

On Wednesday, April 16, CoinDesk reported that U.K.-based asset manager Legal & General Asset Management (LGAM) has successfully tokenized more than ￡500 billion (roughly $680 billion) in assets under management via Calastone’s new distribution channel. LGAM liquidity investment specialist Ross McDonald said, “We’re excited to have our liquidity funds linked to Calastone’s tokenized distribution network. Tokenization has boosted efficiency and coverage significantly.”

On April 16, per Onchain Lens data, Matrixport fully exited its final 25,000 ETH long position (20x leverage), netting ~$17.32M in profit after a ~65-day hold.

On April 16, The Block reported that Cantor Fitzgerald—a Wall Street firm formerly owned by current U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick—donated $10 million to a super PAC backing a crypto-friendly candidate during the heated U.S. election season. Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show the contribution was made to “Fellowship PAC” in February. Cantor Fitzgerald is now led by Lutnick’s sons. Since 2021, Cantor Fitzgerald has maintained close ties with Tether, having begun serving as custodian of Tether’s reserve assets that year. During Lutnick’s Senate confirmation hearing last year, lawmakers also questioned him about these relationships and his influence on the broader crypto industry.

April 16 — The top U.S. derivatives regulator is investigating crude oil futures trades with “highly precise timing” that occurred just before recent shifts in former President Trump’s Iran war policy, Bloomberg reported. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is leading the probe into trades on CME Group and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) platforms, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is not public. Both trading platforms have been asked to submit relevant trade data to the regulator to assist with the investigation.

April 16 — Official sources confirm that AO, a scalable blockchain network built on Arweave, has launched its **Network Availability Staking Alpha (NASA)** test program. A key milestone for the AO ecosystem, the initiative aims to boost the availability and reliability of its decentralized data network through a staking mechanism. Currently in the Alpha stage, users can participate in network availability validation and earn rewards by providing data services to Arweave gateways and staking AO tokens. In the initial pilot, AO’s "Availability Staking" rule requires node operators to stake 25 AO coins to join the network—where they compete to deliver fast, stable responses to user requests. The system will distribute rewards from a monthly pool of 1,000 AO tokens based on node performance in data services. Powered by the next-gen HyperBEAM architecture, the program enables gateways and routing services to achieve higher verifiability and trustlessness while cutting operating cos