The post Next Altcoin to 10x: Is It HYPE, LINK, ONDO or AVAX? appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Bear markets are often where the next cycle’s winners get built. Most traders are watching Bitcoin and Iran headlines right now. But four altcoins are stacking institutional catalysts that the broader market has not priced in yet.

Here’s what you should know.

Hyperliquid’s ETF Race

Hyperliquid surpassed Coinbase in notional trading volume in 2025, recording $2.6 trillion against Coinbase’s $1.4 trillion. Its protocol generated $14 million in fees in a single week in March – a 56% jump – with 97% of that revenue automatically used to buy back HYPE tokens daily.

Four major asset managers have now filed spot ETFs for HYPE: Grayscale, Bitwise, 21Shares, and VanEck. That is the first time four firms have raced simultaneously for a DeFi-native token ETF. JPMorgan published a research note on Hyperliquid’s oil trading surge in March. S&P Dow Jones Indices officially licensed the S&P 500 for perpetual contracts on the platform – the first officially licensed S&P 500 derivative on any blockchain.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes set a $150 price target for HYPE by August 2026, calling it his fund’s largest non-Bitcoin position.

HYPE currently trades near $42.

LINK Token: JPMorgan and UBS Are Testing It

Chainlink secures over $28 trillion in total value across more than 15 blockchains. Its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol processes $18 billion per month, growing 62% quarter over quarter. JPMorgan and UBS are running live blockchain settlement tests through CCIP. The Bitwise LINK ETF launched on NYSE Arca, opening LINK to 401(k) and IRA accounts for the first time.

Standard Chartered has set a $25-$45 price target. LINK currently trades near $9.

The gap between what the network does and what the token costs is the story.

ONDO: The Tokenisation Play on Binance’s Rails

Binance partnered with Ondo Finance to relaunch tokenised US stocks and ETFs – the exchange’s first such offering since 2021. Ondo holds 58% market share in tokenised stocks. TVL hit a record $2.52 billion in February 2026.

Franklin Templeton’s $1.7 trillion asset management operation has partnered with the platform. ONDO currently trades near $0.25.

AVAX: BlackRock Chose This Chain

BlackRock is actively tokenising assets on Avalanche. RWA total value locked on the network reached $1.3 billion, doubling since April 2025. VanEck launched the first US spot AVAX ETF in January 2026, including staking rewards. AVAX trades near $9.2.

As one analyst put it: “BlackRock doesn’t tokenize on untrusted chains. If the ETF gains traction, $55 is realistic – but patience is required.“

Which token will rally first and the highest? The market will tell, but the catalysts are live today.

The post Private Credit Is Cracking: Are We Headed for a 2008-Like Crisis? appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

The Federal Reserve is asking major US banks how exposed they are to the private credit market. The Treasury is asking insurance companies the same question. Neither has announced a formal investigation. They are doing it through routine examination channels, which is what regulators often do when they are worried but do not yet know how worried to be.

The $1.8 trillion private credit market is facing its most significant stress since it emerged after the 2008 financial crisis. Understanding why requires a brief look at how it was built.

What Private Credit Is and Why It’s Cracking

Private credit funds lend directly to mid-market companies – typically businesses too small for public bond markets. Between 2019 and 2021, when interest rates were near zero, these funds wrote loans aggressively, particularly in software and technology. The problem is loans written during that period are now coming due. That puts the refinancing wall squarely in 2025 and 2026, when rates are dramatically higher.

Companies that borrowed at effectively zero must now refinance at 5-6% more, or default. Many are choosing a third option: Payment-in-Kind interest, or PIK, where instead of paying cash interest, they simply add it to the principal.

According to reports citing Fitch and KBRA ratings data, bad PIK reached 6.4% of total private debt volume in Q1 2026 – a recognised precursor to hard defaults.

Blue Owl Capital became the most visible casualty. Its OBDC II fund, which had promised retail investors access to private lending returns, was overwhelmed by a 200% surge in withdrawal requests and permanently closed its redemption gates. Morgan Stanley’s North Haven Private Income Fund met only 45.8% of tender requests in March.

The deeper problem is opacity. These funds mark their own books. There is no public market to challenge their valuations. A loan can sit at 100 cents on the dollar in a quarterly report and be zero the next.

Is This 2008?

Not yet. The Federal Reserve has stated the private credit market does not currently pose a systemic threat to the banking core. Unlike 2008, around 80% of private credit assets sit in closed-ended structures with locked capital. There are no depositor runs possible. Fund-level leverage remains modest.

But pockets of stress are real, spreading, and now drawing regulatory attention.

What This Means for Bitcoin and Crypto

Private credit stress compounds the same macro ceiling that has kept Bitcoin range-bound since February. Credit stress plus energy inflation plus a Fed on hold is the late business cycle environment where capital does not rotate into risk assets.

Bitcoin’s best week in months came from geopolitical relief, but the underlying financial conditions have not changed.

The post No, Bitcoin Has Not Bottomed Yet: Analyst Who Called the Top Explains Why appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Bitcoin just had its best week in a while. The ceasefire rally, the CPI relief, $73,000 briefly touched. After weeks of grinding losses, it finally feels like something has changed.

But one analyst who publicly called the top six months ago is not buying the narrative shift. According to Benjamin Cowen, founder of Into The Cryptoverse, the data does not yet support calling a bottom – and the 4-year cycle is still pointing to October.

The Three On-Chain Signals That Matter

Cowen’s case is not based on sentiment or macro headlines. It is based on three specific on-chain conditions that have marked every previous Bitcoin cycle bottom and none of which have triggered yet.

First, the supply in profit/loss indicator has not crossed.

“All prior lows occur after they cross, not before,” Cowen said in a recent video. “And we haven’t seen that cross yet.”

Second, the MVRV Z-score has not gone below zero. Every previous bear market bottom has required this reset. It has not happened.

Third, Bitcoin has not traded below both its realized price, currently around $54,000, and its balance price, which sits near $39,000. Historically, every cycle bottom has involved Bitcoin touching both levels.

The Bear Market Resistance Band

Cowen identifies $78,000 to $79,000 as the current bear market resistance band – the level where the former bull market support has flipped to overhead resistance. Until Bitcoin closes convincingly above that level, the structure of a bear market remains intact.

Tactical rallies, he notes, are entirely normal within bear markets and do not signal a trend reversal.

October Is the Most Likely Bitcoin Bottom

The 4-year cycle has run November to November in 2021-2022 and December to December in 2017-2018. Cowen’s base case is October to October this time, putting the most likely low in Q4 2026.

He gives it 75% probability that the bottom is still ahead.

“I would say there’s like a 75% chance that the Bitcoin bottom is still in the future,” he said. “Maybe a 25% chance that it’s already in.”

His implied price target for a full reset sits around $39,000 – the balance price, and roughly a 70% decline from the $126,000 peak, consistent with every prior bear market being slightly less severe than the last.

What Would Change the Thesis

Cowen is not permanently bearish. He acknowledges the 25% scenario where the low is already in and says he would revise his view if Bitcoin has not made a new low by October. The thesis is data-dependent, not directional.

The post Trump Says Iran-US Deal Is 99% About One Thing: What That Means for Bitcoin appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

An extremely consequential diplomatic meeting is hours away.

Iran’s 71-person team, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, arrived in Pakistan’s capital this morning for direct negotiations with US Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

It is the first face-to-face meeting between the two nations since the war began on February 28. Bitcoin is currently trading at $72,798, up 8.62% on the week.

Iran vs US: What Both Sides Are Demanding

The positions entering these talks remain far apart. Iran’s 10-point proposal demands Iranian oversight of the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions relief, war reparations, frozen asset releases and a halt to Israeli operations in Lebanon.

The US 15-point counter-proposal centres on one non-negotiable: no nuclear weapon.

Trump Says This Deal Is “99%” About One Thing

President Donald Trump made his priorities explicit before departing for Virginia yesterday. Asked what a good deal looks like, he said: “No nuclear weapon. That’s 99% of it.”

On the Strait of Hormuz, his view was equally direct: “That’ll open up automatically, otherwise they make no money.”

That framing matters. Trump is not treating Hormuz as the primary obstacle. He is treating it as an economic inevitability. If nuclear is genuinely 99% of the deal, the bar for an agreement that moves markets is lower than most traders currently assume.

Also Read: Is Bitcoin Being Manipulated by Market Insiders?

What a Peace Deal Actually Does to Bitcoin’s Price

The war has been Bitcoin’s single biggest macro headwind since February. The conflict closed the Strait of Hormuz, disrupted 20% of global oil supply, drove the largest monthly CPI increase since June 2022, and kept the Federal Reserve on hold. Every one of those pressures traces back to this room in Islamabad.

A deal framework, even a partial one, removes the energy inflation overhang that has suppressed Bitcoin for six weeks. Analysts have projected a move toward $75,000 to $80,000 if geopolitical risk is sustainably removed.

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index has been in extreme fear for over 60 consecutive days, the longest streak on record. A credible path to peace ends that.

The Honest Risk

Pakistan has set a modest goal: get both sides to agree to keep talking. Ghalibaf arrived saying “we have goodwill, but we do not trust.” A breakdown in talks sends oil back toward $110 and Bitcoin back toward $65,000 support.

Vance said before boarding his flight: “I think it’s going to be positive.”

The gap between those two statements is where Bitcoin’s next major move is being decided today.

The post Bitcoin Breaks $73,000 as Core CPI Surprises: Will the Rally Last? appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Bitcoin briefly crossed $73,000 this afternoon, hitting a high of $73,115 before pulling back.

It is currently trading at $72,794, up 2.51% in the past 24 hours and 8.81% on the week.

The March CPI report that everyone had been watching landed this morning, and understanding what it actually said explains the move.

The CPI Report: Reading Past the Headline

The March CPI report landed this morning and the headline looked alarming. Inflation rose to 3.3% year-on-year, up from 2.4% in February, marking the largest month-on-month increase since June 2022.

But CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost published a breakdown that explains why Bitcoin rallied rather than sold off.

The entire rise was driven by energy prices, which surged 10.9% in March including a 21.2% spike in gasoline – a direct consequence of the Iran war’s disruption to oil supply routes. Food prices remained flat.

Core CPI, which strips out energy and food, came in at 0.2% month-on-month. The forecast was 0.3%.

“Looking at Core CPI which excludes energy and food shows that inflation has not deeply anchored itself in the broader economy, as there was little to no significant change,” Darkfost wrote. “This suggests that, for now, inflation remains concentrated in energy and largely reactive in nature, rather than systemic.”

His conclusion on the Fed was direct: “The Fed will do nothing, and will wait and see, as usual.”

For Bitcoin, a contained core reading removes the scenario the market feared most. The rate cut conversation hasn’t reopened but it hasn’t closed either.

Also Read: Bitcoin Bear Market In Its Final Stage? 2 On-Chain Signals to Know Before Your Next Trade

The Next Catalyst Is This Weekend

The CPI data landed on top of existing geopolitical momentum. The two-week US-Iran ceasefire announced April 7 already sent Bitcoin from $68K to $72K.

Now, peace talks between US and Iranian delegates are scheduled in Islamabad this weekend, with JD Vance leading the American team in what would be the highest-level US-Iran meeting since 1979.

A confirmed deal would ease energy prices further, strengthen the rate cut case, and accelerate Bitcoin’s rally.

What to Watch

Analysts are flagging that April’s CPI data will be the real structural test – the question is whether energy-driven inflation begins spreading into the broader economy as the conflict continues.

$75,000 remains the confirmed breakout level analysts are watching. Whether it can hold above $73,000 on a sustained basis remains the immediate question.

The post Bitcoin Bear Market In Its Final Stage? 2 On-Chain Signals to Know Before Your Next Trade appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Two things are happening in the Bitcoin market right now that most people aren’t connecting. One is visible on price charts. The other is buried in on-chain data, and it tells a different story.

Bitcoin is in pain. Long-term holders are now spending coins at a loss. That’s a pattern that has appeared at the same point in every previous bear market. And it’s happening while the number of Bitcoin addresses sending coins to exchanges has fallen to a 10-year low.

Bitcoin Bear Market Final Stage: The LTH SOPR Signal

The LTH SOPR – a metric tracking whether long-term holders are realising profits or losses when they spend – currently sits at 0.96 on its 30-day moving average. Any reading below 1.0 means long-term holders are spending at a loss. The yearly average is still positive at 1.71, but that reflects historical data, not what’s happening now.

The pattern behind this matters.

Short-term holders have been under stress for six months. Now that pressure is shifting to long-term holders – the most patient, most experienced participants in the market. Historically, this transition marks the final phase before a cycle turns.

“When LTHs begin to realise sustained losses, it becomes a signal worth monitoring for long-term accumulation,” noted CryptoQuant analyst Darkfost, who flagged the data today.

His caveat is important: it can go lower, and it can last several more months.

The Supply Side Is Already Gone

Simultaneously, Bitcoin exchange depositing addresses have fallen to their lowest level in a decade, according to CryptoQuant data. The number of addresses actively sending Bitcoin to exchanges – a direct measure of selling intent – has collapsed to levels last seen around 2016.

Total exchange reserves stand at 2.706 million BTC as of April 8, with negative netflows recorded every month since February. Nobody is queuing up to sell.

“This is the most dangerous market to be short in right now,” analyst CryptoTice wrote. “Supply drying up. ETF inflows returning. Long term holders refusing to move. When demand meets a market with nothing left to sell – the move is never gradual.”

Also Read: Iran’s Bitcoin Toll at Hormuz Could Generate Millions in Daily BTC Demand

What History Says Happens Next

What makes this moment notable is not that either signal exists in isolation.

Bear markets routinely produce both stressed holders and declining exchange activity. What is unusual is the degree to which both are present simultaneously, and how precisely the configuration mirrors the late-stage patterns of 2018 and 2022 – both of which preceded sharp recoveries.

History does not guarantee repetition, but markets rarely offer clean setups, and this one is tracing a familiar shape.

Bitcoin is currently trading at $72,212, up 7.82% on the week.

Keep Reading: Who’s Actually Making Money in Bitcoin Right Now? STH vs LTH Data

The post Hong Kong Issues First Stablecoin Licenses to HSBC and Standard Chartered appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Hong Kong just wrote itself into crypto history. This morning, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority granted the city’s first stablecoin issuer licences and the two recipients are the same banks that have printed Hong Kong’s banknotes since 1846.

The licences, effective today, were awarded to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited – HSBC – and Anchorpoint Financial Limited, a joint venture led by Standard Chartered that also includes Animoca Brands and Hong Kong Telecommunications.

The HKMA assessed 36 applications before issuing this first batch.

Why HSBC and Standard Chartered and Why It Matters

The choice is deliberate and deeply symbolic. HSBC and Standard Chartered are two of only three commercial banks authorised to issue Hong Kong dollar banknotes, a privilege dating back to 1846. The HKMA is handing the digital money supply to the same institutions that manage the physical one.

HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue called it “an important milestone for the development of digital assets in Hong Kong,” adding that he hoped the licensees would “address pain points in financial and economic activities” for both individuals and businesses.

The Stablecoins Ordinance took effect in August 2025. Hong Kong missed its own March 2026 target to issue the first licences. Today’s announcement is the delivery, and both licences take immediate effect.

You Might Find This Interesting: ‘Big Short’ Exposed: Did a Hong Kong Hedge Fund Trigger the Bitcoin Price Crash?

What Comes Next

Neither institution is launching immediately. According to the HKMA, both licensees intend to “complete the necessary preparation work and launch business in the coming few months.” Both will issue stablecoins pegged to the Hong Kong dollar.

Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters has previously described Hong Kong’s stablecoin push as potentially laying “the foundation for a new era of digital trade settlement.”

The Bigger Picture

This is not just a regulatory milestone. It is Hong Kong placing itself at the centre of Asia’s digital asset infrastructure at a moment when the global stablecoin market has grown beyond $310 billion – with Citi projecting it could grow to between $1.9 trillion and $4 trillion.

Dollar-denominated tokens dominate almost all of it today. Hong Kong is betting that regulated, bank-issued HKD stablecoins can carve out a meaningful role in regional trade settlement.

The same institutions that have managed the city’s monetary system for over 170 years will now test whether that history translates into digital trust.