The post Vitalik Buterin on Ethereum’s Roadmap: zkEVM, Quantum Resistance and 10-Second Finality appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Two days after the largest DeFi hack of 2026 drained $292 million from a bridge and sent $6.6 billion fleeing from Aave, Vitalik Buterin took the stage in Hong Kong and made the case for why Ethereum was built the way it was.

The timing was not lost on anyone in the room.

Vitalik’s Message Is Clear: Security Over Speed

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, Buterin described Ethereum as a “world computer” – not a payments network competing on transactions per second, but a platform for verifiable data and shared digital assets where users control their own security.

That framing is a direct answer to the criticism Ethereum has faced for years. While Solana and other chains chase throughput, Buterin is doubling down on something different: trustworthiness.

Inside Ethereum’s Roadmap

Buterin laid out a three-layer plan.

In the short term, Ethereum is focused on scaling the gas limit, rolling out zkEVM, and beginning preparation for the post-quantum era. zkEVM allows Ethereum to perform more complex computations while keeping on-chain information verifiable – scaling without sacrificing transparency.

In the mid term, the goal is reducing transaction finality to between 10 and 20 seconds. Today that process takes roughly 16 minutes.

The long-term vision is the most ambitious: full quantum resistance, formal verification of the entire protocol, and maximised decentralisation. Buterin wants Ethereum to be verifiable by anyone on any device.

“zkVM allows you to verify the chain without relying on a large computer to run all operations yourself,” he said. “Everyone should verify the chain before you trust it; even your phone and IoT devices should verify the chain.”

The $292M Hack That Made Vitalik’s Argument For Him

The rsETH exploit on April 18 exposed exactly the kind of cross-chain bridge complexity Ethereum has historically been cautious about. An attacker used a single-verifier configuration on a LayerZero bridge to mint 116,500 unbacked rsETH tokens, deposit them on Aave as collateral, and walk away with real ETH. The fallout froze markets, trapped depositors, and raised uncomfortable questions about DeFi’s composability risk.

Buterin did not address the hack directly. He did not need to.

A roadmap built around security, decentralisation, and verifiability is the answer. The critics who say Ethereum moves too slowly might want to ask how a faster, less decentralised Ethereum would have handled Saturday.

The post Why the XRP Community Is Treating the CLARITY Act Like a Sell-the-News Trap appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

The CLARITY Act has more institutional support behind it than at any point in its history.

The White House is pushing hard. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who blocked it twice, now backs it. Senator Lummis calls it now or never. And across crypto Twitter, the narrative that Trump will sign it soon is spreading fast.

But spend time in the Reddit threads and X reply sections where real XRP holders are actually talking, and you find something more complicated. Three distinct camps have formed.

The structural believers who think legal permanence changes everything for institutional adoption. The sell-the-news traders who think the market has already moved and late buyers will get burned.

And the exhausted long-term holders who have watched every catalyst produce a brief pop and then fade, and are not sure this one will be any different.

We went across Reddit and Twitter to find out what real XRP traders and investors are actually saying.

What Happens to XRP the Day the CLARITY Act Becomes Law

The structural case for the CLARITY Act is specific and it is strong.

Right now, XRP’s commodity classification is a regulatory opinion jointly issued by the SEC and CFTC in March. A future administration could reverse it without a single vote in Congress. Banks and asset managers with serious compliance obligations know this, and their legal teams will not greenlight large XRP allocations on the basis of guidance that could be undone.

The CLARITY Act converts that opinion into permanent federal statute.

The capital implications are significant. Standard Chartered projects $4 to $8 billion in XRP ETF inflows if the bill passes.

A banking industry professional on Reddit this week explained the mechanism: “Banks have a strong aversion to risk with large legal departments. Once there is codified legal clarity banks can begin adoption. It may not happen as a surge – it might be a slow trickle.”

Institutional adoption driven by legal permanence is structural. It does not arrive in one day and it does not get priced in overnight.

The CLARITY Act Has Not Even Had a Committee Vote Yet

Before the optimism runs too far ahead, the procedural reality deserves a clear read.

The CLARITY Act markup is targeted for late April but has not been formally scheduled. The bill still needs a Senate Banking Committee markup, a 60-vote Senate floor vote, reconciliation with the House version, and presidential signature. Four steps remain.

Also Read: CLARITY Act Dropped From Senate Schedule: Crypto’s Biggest Bill to Miss Its Last Chance?

Realistically the earliest Trump signs anything is summer. Polymarket currently prices 2026 passage at 50%, down from 82% in February.

Senator Cynthia Lummis said it plainly: “This is our last chance to pass the Clarity Act until at least 2030.”

The Community Has Heard This Before

The skeptics are not arguing the bill is bad for XRP. They are arguing the market has already moved on the expectation of it passing, and that the actual vote will be the moment long-term holders finally exit.

The Bitcoin ETF comparison is everywhere in community threads. BTC ran 164% on ETF rumours. Then flatlined after approval. The traders who won were positioned before the confirmation, not after it.

The exhausted holders are a third camp entirely. These are people who bought at $0.28, held through the SEC lawsuit, watched XRP hit $3.65 in July 2025, and have since watched it drift back below $1.50 despite a string of genuine regulatory wins.

Garlinghouse has reportedly moved his CLARITY Act deadline three times. February he said 80% odds by end of April. April is about to end, and the markup has not been scheduled. The community has learned to discount every deadline.

“Nothing happens. Nothing ever happens to XRP except it drops,” reads one widely upvoted comment this week. It was not posted by someone who has given up on XRP. It was posted by someone who has been holding for years and is tired of being told the moment is finally here.

The bill has never had more support. The community has never been more worn down. In crypto, those two things have a habit of arriving at exactly the same time.

Continue Reading: Ripple CEO Garlinghouse Says CLARITY Act Is Close as Frustration Peaks

The post What is Anthony Scaramucci’s Reasoning Behind Bold $1M Bitcoin Prediction? appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Most Bitcoin price predictions are just numbers. Scaramucci just made an argument.

In a tweet that is circulating widely, SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci laid out why he believes Bitcoin does not just compete with gold, but outclasses it.

“A dollar bill is made of linen and cotton. But we accept it because we trust it. Over 16 years Bitcoin has built its own trust system – decentralized, no central authority, no single point of failure,” Scaramucci wrote.

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley Validate the Bitcoin Thesis

Scaramucci pointed to Morgan Stanley entering the Bitcoin market and Goldman Sachs filing for a Bitcoin ETF as evidence the thesis is playing out in real time in the product lineups of the two most powerful investment banks in the world.

These are firms that move slowly, carefully, and only when the institutional case is bulletproof. When they show up, the conversation changes.

Scaramucci says Bitcoin is now part of “the model portfolio for individuals and institutions worldwide.” A year ago that sentence would have raised eyebrows. Today it is just a description of what is happening.

Why $1 Million Bitcoin Produces a $21 Trillion Market Cap

There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin. If each coin reaches $1 million, the total market cap hits $21 trillion – still below the estimated value of all gold ever mined, but in Scaramucci’s words, “faster to move and easier to store.”

Scaramucci pointed his followers to Niall Ferguson’s The Ascent of Money.

Ferguson’s book’s central argument is that money has never derived its value from the material it is made of. It derives value from trust – collective belief in a system. The Renaissance was funded by Italian bankers who invented credit. The French Revolution was triggered by a stock market bubble. Finance, Ferguson argues, is the backbone of every major event in human history.

Scaramucci’s point is that Bitcoin has spent 16 years building exactly what Ferguson describes – a trust system – and it did so without a central authority or a government guarantee.

“Every characteristic that has defined money throughout human history – Bitcoin checks every single box,” Scaramucci wrote. “That’s why I’m bullish.”

Scaramucci Has 70% of His Wealth in Bitcoin

Scaramucci is not a neutral observer here. SkyBridge Capital has previously set a $1 million Bitcoin target by 2032, tied to the 2028 halving cycle. He has disclosed that 70% of his personal wealth sits in Bitcoin and has been actively buying during the current drawdown.

Not everyone buys the argument. Economist Tony Annett has pushed back directly, arguing Bitcoin still fails the three classical tests for money – medium of exchange, unit of account, and reliable store of value.

But the combination of a serious monetary theory argument, two Wall Street giants moving into the space simultaneously, and a fixed supply of 21 million coins is exactly the kind of setup Scaramucci has been building his thesis around for years.

When will the price catch up – that’s something only the markets and time can answer.

The post Bitget Investigates After ZachXBT Exposes RAVE Token Insider Manipulation appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

One of crypto’s most trusted on-chain investigators just called out a textbook pump and dump, and this time, major exchanges are named.

ZachXBT posted publicly that pump and dump activity for RAVE token originated on Bitget, Binance and Gate, with insiders controlling over 90% of supply. He called on Binance co-founder He Yi and Bitget CEO Gracy Chen to launch internal investigations and offboard the responsible actors.

He offered a $10,000 personal bounty for whistleblowers. Chen responded soon: “Thanks for highlighting! We’ve started investigating into $RAVE.”

How the Manipulation Worked

The setup was deliberate. Wallets linked to the RaveDAO deployer transferred 18.58 million RAVE tokens to Bitget before the pump began – with no announcement and no disclosure. The price was still below $0.50.

Ten hours later, the rally started.

With 74% of traders on Binance holding short positions, insiders then withdrew 29.78 million tokens from Bitget – draining exchange selling pressure entirely. The resulting short squeeze sent RAVE from $0.27 to over $14 in seven days, a gain of more than 5,500%.

ZachXBT had previously reached out to RaveDAO’s co-founder before posting publicly. He was left on read.

The Red Flags Were There

Intergovernmental Blockchain Advisor Anndy Lian flagged the warning signs clearly. The top 10 wallets hold 98.16% of total supply. Only 24-25% of the one billion token supply is in circulation. The fully diluted valuation sits at roughly four times the current market cap – a ratio that historically precedes 40-60% retracements. There is no public codebase and no completed security audit.

The project’s backer list is striking: World Liberty Financial, Warner Music Group, Tomorrowland, and YZi Labs – a Web3 incubator with former Binance staff. None of that changes what the on-chain data shows.

“We cannot allow this blatant market manipulation by insiders controlling more than 90% RAVE support to further extract from retail investors,” ZachXBT wrote.

Bitget has confirmed its investigation is underway. Binance and Gate have not yet responded publicly.

Continue Reading: Kalshi Traders Bet XRP Will Hit $1.60 in April: Top Signals Flashing Now

The post Kalshi Traders Bet XRP Will Hit $1.60 in April: Top Signals Flashing Now appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Prediction markets are watching XRP closely. Kalshi traders are now forecasting a high of $1.60 for XRP this month – and the signals behind that bet are stacking up fast.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said it today: “Demand for XRP keeps growing. More access, more ecosystems, more utility.”

He was responding to RippleX announcing that wXRP is now live on Solana, enabled by Hex Trust and LayerZero. XRP liquidity is no longer contained to the XRP Ledger. It is moving cross-chain, and that is a new demand driver that did not exist a month ago.

$1.11 Billion in XRP ETF Assets – and Institutions Are Still Buying

Five spot XRP ETFs attracted $55.4 million in net inflows over the past five trading days, recording positive flows every single day. The largest single-day inflow arrived on April 15 at $17 million. Those five products now hold a combined $1.11 billion in assets – 1.22% of XRP’s entire market cap.

The week ending April 11 saw $119.6 million in weekly inflows, the strongest figure since December, according to CoinShares. Institutional demand is not fading. It is accelerating despite six consecutive months of price decline.

Also Read: Ripple News: The Critical Vote That Could Turn XRPL Into a Credit Market

XRP Short Squeeze Setup Traders Are Watching Right Now

For the first time since January 17, the SuperTrend indicator has flipped bullish on XRP’s daily chart. The key level to watch is $1.55. A clean break and daily close above it would likely trigger a relief rally toward the $1.90 zone, according to technical analyst Ali Charts.

What makes the setup asymmetric is the positioning.

Funding rates are deeply negative – shorts are doubling down. Coinbase premium is positive – US buyers are stepping in.

And according to Tesseract Group’s Head of Commercial Adam Saville-Brown, approximately $3 billion in short liquidation clusters sit directly above the $1.51-$1.57 resistance zone.

With XRP already at $1.47, that ceiling is now less than 3% away.

The CLARITY Act Vote That Could Send XRP Soaring

The CLARITY Act Senate Banking Committee markup is targeted for late April. Standard Chartered explicitly models XRP trading above $1.60 if the committee delivers. JPMorgan says negotiations are down to two or three unresolved issues. If the vote happens, $1.60 is not a stretch – it may be a floor.

If it does not, analysts see XRP returning toward support at $1.28, and potentially $1.15 if that level breaks.

XRP has cleared every structural hurdle its community waited years for. The price has not caught up yet. That gap, and the timeline closing around it, is exactly what Kalshi traders are pricing in.

The post Ripple News: The Critical Vote That Could Turn XRPL Into a Credit Market appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

XRPL validators are casting votes on two amendments that would change what the XRP Ledger fundamentally does.

XLS-65, called SingleAssetVault, creates the pooled liquidity framework – a structure where multiple depositors contribute funds into isolated vaults, each holding one asset such as XRP or RLUSD. XLS-66, the LendingProtocol, sits on top of that. It enables fixed-term, uncollateralized loans issued directly at the protocol level, with creditworthiness assessed through off-chain underwriting rather than smart contracts.

Together they would make the XRPL a credit market, not just a payments network.

According to live data from XRPScan, XLS-65 currently has 8 validators voting yes at 22.86% consensus. XLS-66 has 7 validators at 20%. Both need 28 of 35 trusted validators to agree for two consecutive weeks before they can activate.

Both are still well short.

Payments Were Never the Full Story

At XRP Tokyo, Akinyele, Head of Engineering at RippleX, was direct about the direction.

“Payments was never the full story for the XRPL,” he said. “The real opportunity is actually more towards the ability for us to enable this notion of a full life cycle of capital. Issuance, trading, collateral, credit. And all of those things are coming together on the XRP ledger.”

His case for institutions was equally clear. XRPL features are native to the protocol, accessible through simple APIs with no smart contract expertise required. If an institution wants to build financial products on-chain, XRPL removes the need for deep blockchain expertise.

The protocol handles the complexity natively, so builders spend less time working around infrastructure and more time building the actual product.

Also Read: Ex-Ripple VP Who Built Japan’s XRP Strategy Launches $100M Fund With SBI

One Million Users Already Waiting for Yield

Robert Kiuru, COO of Xaman – the largest self-custodial XRP wallet – put the demand signal plainly.

“We have over a million users who manage billions of XRP in self-custody,” he said. “They’re not looking to sell their capital. The next unlock that we see from our data is users looking for yields on their XRP.”

The lending protocol is the direct answer to that.

Panos Mekras, co-founder of Anodos, described the consumer vision as making the underlying technology completely invisible. Users should be able to access yield products and banking services without ever knowing XRPL is running underneath.

The validator vote is still open and climbing. Whether it reaches 80% in the weeks ahead will determine how quickly that vision becomes usable.

Keep Reading: Ripple CEO Garlinghouse Says CLARITY Act Is Close as Frustration Peaks

The post More Americans Own Bitcoin Than Gold: Why That Matters in 2026 appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Gold had a 5,000-year head start. Bitcoin is 16 years old. And as Bitcoin crossed $77,000 this week, a striking data point is back in focus – more Americans own Bitcoin than gold.

River’s US Bitcoin adoption report, drawing on data from The Nakamoto Project and the Gold IRA Guide, puts the number at 50 million Bitcoin holders in the US versus 37 million gold owners. That is a 35% gap.

How America Became the World’s Biggest Bitcoin Economy

The US is not just leading on individual ownership. Americans hold 40% of the entire global Bitcoin supply – more than any other country. US public companies account for 94.8% of all corporate Bitcoin holdings worldwide. The US government itself holds approximately 198,000 BTC, representing 65% of all government-held Bitcoin globally.

The US holds the world’s largest national gold reserve at 8,133 tonnes – yet even that position is now being questioned by the public.

River boiled down the shift to two things: access and culture. Favorable regulation, almost zero barrier to entry, and an American instinct toward individual investing and financial freedom.

What Americans Are Saying About Gold Reserves

The ownership crossover is one thing. Public opinion is another.

A separate survey by The Nakamoto Project, conducted with Qualtrics across 3,345 Americans, found that 4 in 5 Americans support converting some portion of US gold reserves into Bitcoin. The median recommendation was 10%. For Americans under 45, it was 24%.

That is the generational divide in one number.

Why This Matters Right Now

This data point is not new. But the context around it in 2026 is.

Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Vanguard have all opened Bitcoin ETF distribution to their clients this year – meaning tens of thousands of wealth advisors are now actively recommending Bitcoin exposure for the first time. Goldman Sachs says 71% of institutional investors plan to increase their crypto allocation over the next 12 months.

The CLARITY Act is nearing a final vote in the Senate, with JPMorgan reporting negotiations are down to just two or three unresolved issues. If it passes, it would give Bitcoin a permanent legal status that gold has had for centuries – and XRP ETF inflows alone are projected to hit $5 billion on the back of it.

Every one of those developments lands differently when you know 50 million Americans already own the asset and are watching.

“America’s Story Began With Sound Money”

“America’s story began with sound money. Hard-working Americans saved their wealth in gold-backed money. Today, Bitcoin carries that torch forward,” River said in the report.

One caveat worth noting: the data counts anyone with $50 on Coinbase the same as a major holder. Depth of ownership is uneven. Gold still dominates at the institutional and central bank level.

But the direction of travel is clear. Bitcoin ETFs hit $10 billion in assets in seven weeks. It took the first gold ETF more than two years. Bitcoin’s daily price volatility is now approaching that of gold and the S&P 500.

The asset that spent a decade being called a scam just passed gold in American ownership.

And according to River, the US is “uniquely positioned to further their economic success and global leadership by embracing their current advantage in Bitcoin adoption.”