1. A New York state judge ruled that most of the civil securities fraud lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its executives can proceed to trial. The lawsuit alleges that DCG, its CEO Barry Silbert, its bankrupt subsidiary Genesis Global Capital, and its former CEO Michael Moro colluded with the crypto exchange Gemini to conceal a $1 billion asset gap resulting from the collapse of Singapore hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) in 2022. James stated that DCG and Genesis falsely claimed on social media that DCG had absorbed Genesis's losses, when in fact they merely concealed the gap with a 10-year promissory note with a 1% annual interest rate, and DCG had never made any payments under that note. Although the judge dismissed two duplicative claims, the remaining claims will continue to be heard. DCG stated that it will continue to defend itself, claiming these allegations are baseless.
2. Bitcoin fell to around $80,000, with a nearly 2% decline in the past 24 hours; ETH dropped to about $1,540, down over 5%.
Although the market is generally retreating, some Wall Street institutions remain optimistic about Bitcoin's resilience, viewing it as a potential safe-haven asset.
PayPal announced that U.S. users can now buy, sell, and transfer LINK and SOL through PayPal and Venmo, further expanding the application scenarios for crypto assets. The U.S. Treasury Department has removed the Tornado Cash smart contract from the sanctions list. However, its developer Roman Semenov remains on the special sanctions list, indicating that legal issues at the individual level remain unresolved.
3. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) held its latest roundtable on the cryptocurrency industry at its Washington headquarters on April 11, 2025, to discuss regulatory pathways for crypto trading platforms. Acting Chair Mark Uyeda stated that the SEC is considering implementing a short-term regulatory framework while developing a long-term regulatory scheme to supervise crypto trading without hindering innovation. He suggested establishing a 'time-limited, conditional exemption regulatory framework' applicable to both registered and unregistered market participants, thereby promoting blockchain technology innovation within the U.S. SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce also asked representatives of the crypto industry for their opinions on short-term regulatory measures. This meeting reflects the SEC's pursuit of more flexible regulatory approaches to support the development of the crypto industry while protecting investors.
4. Boston Federal Reserve President Susan Collins stated in an interview with the Financial Times that despite recent market volatility, the overall market is functioning well, and there are no liquidity issues at present. She emphasized that the Federal Reserve is 'absolutely prepared' to take action in the event of market dysfunction. Collins also pointed out that current tariff policies create a coexistence of rising inflation and slowing economic growth, posing complex challenges for monetary policy that may delay interest rate cuts. She expects inflation to exceed 3% in 2025 and warned that long-term inflation expectations could spiral out of control.
5. U.S. consumer confidence has plummeted, but the crypto market remains resilient.
On April 11, 2025, the University of Michigan released its consumer confidence index, showing a significant drop from 57.0 in March to 50.8, marking the lowest point since July 2022. This survey marks the first confidence investigation following the China-U.S. tariff war, indicating increased consumer concerns about future economic prospects.
Despite poor macro data, the cryptocurrency market performs strongly:
Bitcoin remains around $82,000, with an intraday increase of about 1%;
SOL and AVAX rose nearly 6% and 4.7%, respectively;
ARKW and other crypto-related U.S. stock ETFs also rose.
Analysis indicates that crypto assets exhibit certain risk-resistant properties amid inflation, interest rate uncertainty, and trade tensions, reflecting a growing market confidence in them as safe-haven assets.
6. Ethereum developers are pushing for deep integration of privacy features into the protocol layer, aiming for default privacy rather than user-selected privacy. Security researcher Pascal Caversaccio suggested that technologies such as encrypted memory pools (mempools) and zero-knowledge cryptography should be used to encrypt transactions before submission, preventing transaction information from being publicly monitored. He emphasized that Ethereum's current 'selective privacy' model has limitations, requiring users to take proactive measures to protect their privacy, which needs to shift to default privacy. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also recently released recommendations to strengthen privacy, showing the core developers' emphasis on privacy issues. This discussion is set against the backdrop of the U.S. government's sanctions on Tornado Cash in 2022 and the subsequent privacy concerns following President Trump's lifting of related sanctions in 2025. Developers believe that relying on third-party tools to protect privacy is not a long-term solution, and privacy should be a fundamental feature of the Ethereum network.