Robinhood Chain’s Rise Raises ETH Price

The successful launch of Robinhood Chain’s Layer 2 network has boosted investor sentiment around Ethereum. The newly launched blockchain uses ETH as its native gas token, and approximately $141 million in ETH has already been switched to the chain.

Above half a million wallets holding ETH are now on a network that has overtaken Ethereum L1 and rival L2 Base in the last 24 hours, with DEX volume of $877.56 million. L2 is an offshoot of Robinhood’s TradFi trading platform, which offers tokenized stocks to customers in 120 countries, further strengthening the EVM-compatible ecosystem.

Many experts saw L2 as a bear for Ethereum because they take away from L1 activity without bringing much benefit in terms of transaction fees. However, even some former ETH bears are reassessing this thesis. Influencer Ansem wrote:

“Lighter and robinhood L2 is sneakily the best setup for the bull thesis in a very long time.”

Mike Dudas of 6th Man Ventures added that “the robinhood chain is the most bullish thing I’ve seen in eth-land in years.”

Robinhood surges in 24-hour DEX volume (DeFi Llama)

According to data from Rwa.xyz, Ethereum is also gaining momentum thanks to its 47% share of the Real World asset market. Leon Waidmann, head of research at Lisk, noted that Ethereum’s total value locked (TVL) of $260 billion exceeded Ether’s market capitalization of $210 billion. Waidmann said this distortion signals that “ETH is undervalued” because the current relative valuation is lower than during the 2022 bear market.

British politicians are considering a enduring ban on cryptocurrency transfers in the wake of the Nigel Farage scandal

Members of Britain’s ruling Labor Party are considering a blanket ban on the transfer of digital assets in response to Nigel Farage’s resignation from parliament and the potential influence that crypto billionaires had on his policies.

The Guardian reported on Thursday that Labor MPs had proposed that a moratorium on crypto donations passed in March will be made enduring following revelations that the reform leader had personally accepted millions of British pounds in what he called “gifts” from industry figures.

Last week, Farage sensationally resigned from Parliament in an attempt to pre-empt an investigation into donations by the British Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

“Let me be absolutely clear: I have done nothing wrong,” Farage said in a live broadcast on X. “I have in no way broken the law. I have not misappropriated public money.”

The main parties refuse to field candidates against him in the upcoming by-elections, and his most risky political opponent is Count Binface, a comedy character who received the support of Reform critics.

US Bitcoin Reserve Hits Hurdle as Federal Agencies Debate Control: Bloomberg

The Trump administration’s push to create a U.S. strategic bitcoin reserve has reportedly hit a snag as the Commerce and Treasury departments disagree over how the reserve should be organized and which agency should have primary oversight of the holdings.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order called for the SBR to be placed within the Treasury Department while other agencies would lend a hand seize assets to create the reserve.

However, concerns have been raised about whether the Treasury has the legal authority to manage Bitcoin (BTC) holdings, partly due to its volatility, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Sources say the Commerce Department has emerged as a contender to oversee the reserve. They added that the Justice Department is reportedly working with departments to determine legally available options.

Wyden urges Senate leaders to maintain developer protections in the cryptocurrency bill

Democratic U.S. Senator Ron Wyden called on Senate leaders to ensure that protections for cryptocurrency creators remain in cryptocurrency market structure legislation.

Wyden told Senate Minority Leader John Thune and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer in a letter to preserve the part of the CLARITY Act known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA).

“Developers who create and release software that enables people to manage their own digital assets – and, crucially, where the developer does not control the user’s assets – should not be treated as money providers simply because they create or publish software,” Wyden wrote.

The letter comes after some groups and lawmakers opposed BRCA. Last month, a group of law enforcement organizations and a coalition of Catholic organizations argued that this could create gaps in oversight of illegal activity.

Senate leaders are pushing for the bill to pass this month.

Trump claims he has become a “big cryptocurrency guy” partly because of politics

US President Donald Trump says he got involved in cryptocurrencies “for politics” and became pro-crypto when he saw how much money the industry was making.

In the press conference on Monday in the Oval Office to announce “Trump Accounts,” an investment account for children under 18, Trump was asked whether the accounts would allow Bitcoin (BTC).

“I became a big player in the cryptocurrency industry for one reason only: If we don’t have it, China will,” Trump replied. “I’m a fan, I wasn’t initially, I didn’t know much about it, but for part of my first term I wasn’t very involved and watched it grow and it’s a huge industry.”

“I got involved in this a little bit for political reasons,” Trump added. “I realized there are a lot of people who love cryptocurrencies.”

During his first term, Trump said he was “not a fan” of cryptocurrencies and called Bitcoin a “fraud.” He and his family have since developed deep business interests in cryptocurrencies, and Trump has faced criticism for his pro-cryptopolitical stance and for making more money in cryptocurrencies in 2025 than any of the listed exchanges or miners.

Five senators have called for committee hearings to investigate Trump’s policies, which are potentially influenced by cryptocurrency financing by entities linked to the United Arab Emirates and others.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) will cost $63,762, Ether (ETH) – $1,800, and XRP (XRP) – $1.08. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market capitalization is $2.2 trillion.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin winners of the week are DeXe (DEXE) with an escalate of 94%, Pyth Network (PYTH) with 19%% and Arbitrum (ARB) with 15%.

The three biggest altcoin losers this week were Bonk (BONK) down 19%, Jupiter (JUP) at -18% and Pi (PI) at -16%.

The best forecast of the week

Bitcoin Heads into Late Bear Market: Jamie Coutts, Real Vision

According to Real Vision’s chief cryptocurrency analyst, Jamie Coutts, Bitcoin may enter the final phase of the bear market and the dynamics of declines will begin to sluggish down.

“I think we’re past most of the bear market. It’s definitely not over yet. But you know, I think we’re getting at least into the second half,” Coutts said during interview regarding Cointelegraph trade secrets.

He noted that Bitcoin’s volatility has dropped by about 50% compared to the previous market cycle, suggesting that the current downturn may be less severe than previous bear markets.

Coutts added that he doesn’t feel comfortable forecasting a Bitcoin price of $1 million in 2030 because there are too many variables. However, he said:

“What I like more is the forecast that Bitcoin should reach a price of $200,000 to $250,000 in the next two to three years.”

The best FUD of the week

Strategist’s Saylor needs clarity in BTC’s core message to convince investors

Standard Charter’s global head of digital asset research, Geoff Kendrick, believes the recent sale of $216 million worth of Bitcoin as part of a strategy to pay STRC dividends – and Michael Saylor’s way of communicating the decision – “muddies the waters for BTC in the near future.”

“We believe that effective communication about the new MSTR strategy (using BTC to support STRC) is key to reassuring markets that a wholesale sale is unlikely; this, in turn, should support BTC prices,” Kendrick wrote in a note to clients on Friday. “Indeed, if this signaling proves effective, it should eliminate the need for MSTR to actually sell any BTC by supporting the price of STRC,” he said.

Kendrick said Strategy’s long-held “never sell” strategy restricted the company’s options with the industry’s largest trove of digital assets.

“The problem with the ‘never sell’ approach is that it limits what MSTR’s BTC wallets can do – or, perhaps more importantly, what they are perceived to do,” the StanChart analyst said.

Kalshi is referring to a New York court’s rejection of a proposal to block state gambling law enforcement

Kalshi is appealing to a New York federal judge who rejected his proposal to block New York State Gaming Commission officials from enforcing local laws that conflict with the company’s contracts for sporting events.

The appeal escalates a growing legal battle over whether sports prediction markets are federally regulated derivatives or state-regulated gambling products. This question has already divided courts across the United States.

Judge Analisa Torres rejected that argument and found that New York’s gambling laws, as they applied to Kalshi’s contracts for sporting events, were not preempted by the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act. The court found that Kalshi had not demonstrated “clearly or substantially” that she was likely to succeed on the merits.

“A major loss for Kalshi in the nation’s financial capital, with likely knock-on effects in other cases (particularly Connecticut and other SDNY lawsuits).” he wrote lawyer Daniel Wallach.

Trader loses $1 million after signing consent to phishing token

According to onchain data, a cryptocurrency user lost almost $1 million on Wednesday after signing a consent form for a phishing token on Ethereum.

Fraud detector alarm on Thursday revealed that the victim lost $999,999 (USDT) in an Ethereum phishing token validation scam. The fraudsters first tried to withdraw approximately $1 million via multiple calls, failed due to insufficient funds, and then succeeded seconds later by withdrawing the exact remaining amount in subsequent transfers.

“The script recalculated and accurately collected the remaining amount,” Scam Sniffer said.

Social engineering through the approval of phishing tokens has become a common crypto fraud tactic. According to CertiK, phishing losses amounted to $723 million across 248 incidents in 2025. Fraudsters trick victims into giving a malicious entity access to their wallet in a seemingly innocent transaction.

The victim falsely believes that clicking “submit” will only initiate a minor task, but the malicious links give the attacker permission to siphon funds from the wallet.