Experts from Standard Chartered believe that Bitcoin will reach a new all-time high (ATH) at $120,000 in the second quarter of 2025. Direct quote: "A number of indicators suggest that Bitcoin is moving towards the next phase of growth. The term premium for US Treasury bonds, with which the asset is closely correlated, is at a level close to the maximum in the last 12 years. Analysis also shows that American investors are interested in foreign assets. Whales continue to accumulate Bitcoins, and the positive dynamics for ETFs indicate a flow of liquidity from gold back into the first cryptocurrency." For info: last week, the net inflow of capital into spot Bitcoin ETFs reached the highest level since November 2024.
On April 20, 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin put forward a proposal that could become one of the most profound changes in blockchain architecture in its entire existence. The programmer is considering the option of replacing the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) with RISC-V — a standard command architecture used in modern processors.
According to Buterin, the idea aims to eliminate a fundamental bottleneck in Layer 1 solutions that hinders scalability and increases verification costs. Especially in the context of zero-knowledge.
At the time of writing, Ethereum is betting on scalability through a roadmap focused on rollups. Meanwhile, L1 remains a kind of foundation that needs to be as simple, proven, and efficient as possible. According to Buterin, further improvements in execution level require radical measures, as traditional attempts to optimize EVM have reached the limits of complexity.
Arthur Hayes, the investment director of the venture firm Maelstrom and co-founder of the BitMEX exchange, stated that he "loves" Trump's tariffs and called them beneficial for the first cryptocurrency.
The expert also noted that the market is not thrilled about the so-called "liberation" that U.S. President Donald Trump appointed on April 2. It is forecasted that if the first cryptocurrency holds above $76,500 by April 15 (tax day in the U.S.), the danger will pass.
Developers $ETH launched the Pectra hard fork in a new testnet. The previous one — Holesky — will cease operations in September 2025. The mainnet update is expected in one to three months.
Moreover, analysts have predicted a potential rise in Ethereum by 65% from its "cyclical bottom," expecting that within two months the asset could reach the $3400 level. They note that currently, the coin is testing an important support zone, which could act as a catalyst for further growth.
The volume of Ethereum burned as a result of transaction fees in the network has reached an all-time low of 53.07 ETH (around $110,600 at the time of writing), indicating a decrease in demand for the blockchain. The EIP-1559 improvement introduced in Ethereum has simplified the fee payment process and involves burning the entire amount of the asset spent on the base transaction fee. This approach aims to reduce inflationary pressure and potentially provides a deflationary nature to Ethereum during times of active network usage. Meanwhile, Standard Chartered Bank has significantly lowered its price forecast for Ethereum in 2025 — from $10,000 to $4,000. The reason is the development and scaling of layer two solutions, particularly Base, which, according to Jeffrey Kendrick, head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, is achieving "super profits" in the Ethereum ecosystem.
The World Network project team $WLD (formerly Worldcoin) is in talks with Visa to expand the functionality of its cryptocurrency wallet.
As noted in the publication, the idea is to transform the cryptocurrency wallet into the World App, the key application of the World Network ecosystem, into a "mini-bank account".
Among other things, it is expected that users will have the opportunity to conduct transactions in stablecoins at points equipped with Visa terminals, access to a payment gateway for conversion to fiat, and a number of other features.
The price of Ethereum ($ETH ) may rise to $3400 by June 2025, as the asset is testing a key support zone that preceded increases of 2000% and 360%. This was stated, adding that Ethereum is preparing for a 65% rise from the 'cyclical bottom'. Analysts noted that if the asset's price falls below the support zone, its value could drop to around $1560.
A Trojan is spreading on the network under the guise of a cracked version of TradingView Premium
On the Reddit platform, in posts related to cryptocurrency, scammers are spreading links to an allegedly cracked version of the TradingView Premium service. In reality, this is a Trojan, as reported by Malwarebytes. It states that the distributed software installer contains the Lumma Stealer and Atomic Stealer (AMOS) viruses. With their help, attackers can gain access to the data on the victim's computer.
The company Ethena Labs, the issuer of the stablecoin USDe, and the RWA platform Securitize have presented a joint development — the Converge blockchain. The launch of the network is expected in the second quarter of 2025. Converge is an EVM-compatible network that is positioned as a settlement layer aimed at bridging TradFi and DeFi.
On the morning of March 24, 2025, the price of Bitcoin recovered above $87,000, according to TradingView. On the weekly chart, the asset is trading with a gain of 5.5%.
The co-founder of the BitMEX exchange and crypto expert predicted that Bitcoin will reach $110,000 before retesting the level of $76,500.
He explained the future growth by stating that the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) is shifting from a quantitative tightening (QT) policy to easing (QE).
Binance is considering a new delisting mechanism with a community-driven approach, and you can participate and vote for the first group of projects for delisting. Users can vote for projects with a Monitoring Tag that they propose for removal. Your vote matters!
The founder of the TRON blockchain, Justin Sun, announced that the native token of the TRON network, TRX, is now available on Solana. The issuance volume of the asset is 50 million TRX.
The integration aims to provide certain cross-chain compatibility between TRON and Solana. This particularly concerns liquidity and the availability of TRX in some projects of this ecosystem.
In the USA, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reviewing 17 applications for the launch of such an exchange-traded fund.
On March 19, 2025, another meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee of the U.S. Federal Reserve (FOMC) took place. As a result, the regulator decided to keep the interest rate unchanged at 4.25%-4.5%.
The Federal Reserve has kept the rate unchanged for the second consecutive time. The last decrease in the interest rate was in December 2024.
This time, Bitcoin also reacted to the news with a rise. At one point, its value increased to $87,453, after which it pulled back.
Microsoft has discovered a new remote access trojan (RAT) StilachiRAT. Using this malware, an attacker can gain remote access to a computer.
In particular, the statement says that StilachiRAT targets 20 cryptocurrency wallet extensions in the Chrome browser. It uses various techniques to steal private keys and other confidential data.
According to Microsoft, the malware targets extensions of the following cryptocurrency wallets: BitKeep, Trust Wallet, TronLink, MetaMask, TokenPocket, BNB Chain Wallet, OKX Wallet, Sui Wallet, Braavos, Coinbase Wallet, Leap Cosmos Wallet, Manta Wallet, Keplr, Phantom, Compass Wallet, Math Wallet, Fractal Wallet, Station Wallet, ConfluxPortal, and Plug.
It is known that StilachiRAT intercepts data from the clipboard and steals browser data to compromise private keys. Furthermore, the virus can gather complete system information, steal data from Google Chrome, and check for the presence of a camera on the device.
At Standard Chartered Bank, the forecast for the price of Ethereum has been revised, lowering the expected value of the asset from $10,000 to $4,000. This was reported by CoinDesk, citing the head of the digital asset research department, Jeff Kendrick.
This structural decline may eventually be halted by market forces, Kendrick noted. This particularly refers to significant growth in the sector of tokenized real-world assets (RWA), where the share of layer one networks still accounts for about 80%.
The policy of U.S. President Donald Trump, which supports crypto assets, may lead to a new financial crisis in the future. This statement was made by a member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) and head of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche. Overall, the ECB has a more cautious stance on cryptocurrencies than a supportive one. For example, the head of the regulator, Christine Lagarde, has repeatedly stated that the central banks of the eurozone do not plan to invest in Bitcoin.$BTC What do you think about the price of BTC?
On the evening of March 15, 2025, the accounts of the Kaito AI project and its founder Yu Hu on the social network X (formerly Twitter) were hacked. Messages were posted on the pages allegedly about a hacker attack and the loss of user funds, causing panic in the community.$KAITO