Speaker 1: Hey, it's Alex with the Token Metrics Daily Pulse for
Speaker 1: April thirtieth, twenty twenty six. Big day to close out
Speaker 1: the month. We've got a record hack month, Solana showing
Speaker 1: up everywhere, a Bitcoin minor making a massive bet on AI,
Speaker 1: and a resistance level that keeps not breaking. Let's get
Speaker 1: into it, but first a quick word from our sponsor. Okay,
Speaker 1: So here's what's happening. April just became the worst month
Speaker 1: for crypto theft since February of last year. Six hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty million dollars gone across sixty eight incidents. So
Speaker 1: far in twenty twenty six, hackers have taken more than
Speaker 1: a billion dollars total. And here's the number that should
Speaker 1: actually stop you cold. North Korea accounts for seventy six
Speaker 1: percent of all crypto theft this year seventy six Since
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, DPRK linked actors have stolen over six billion
Speaker 1: dollars from this industry, more than the entire economy of
Speaker 1: several small countries. They find the new week points, exploit them,
Speaker 1: and move on before anyone can patch the hole. The
Speaker 1: industry keeps fixing individual problems while the attacker keeps upgrading.
Speaker 1: That's not a security strategy. That's whack a mole with
Speaker 1: nine figure stakes. Meanwhile, Bitcoin is sitting around seventy six
Speaker 1: thousand dollars and the fear and Greed index is at
Speaker 1: twenty nine points, which means most people in this market
Speaker 1: are scared not buying defensive posture to close the month.
Speaker 1: So where does that leave the broader market? Pretty quiet,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of the point. Bitcoin closed April down
Speaker 1: less than two percent on the month. Ethereum is softer,
Speaker 1: down more than Bitcoin on the day. DeFi the world
Speaker 1: of decentralized finance apps has about eighty four billion dollars
Speaker 1: locked up across protocols. Stable Coin supply is just over
Speaker 1: three hundred and seventeen billion, down about half a percent
Speaker 1: of the week. That last number matters more than it sounds.
Speaker 1: When stable coin supply shrinks, it means fresh cash isn't
Speaker 1: flowing into the system, and you can't push Bitcoin through
Speaker 1: a resistance level without new money coming in. The setup
Speaker 1: isn't broken, but it's not loaded with fuel either. All right,
Speaker 1: let's get into what's actually moving things first. Up Solana.
Speaker 1: Three separate stable coin announcements landed today all pointing at
Speaker 1: the same chain. Meta is now routing USDC creator payouts
Speaker 1: through Solana and Polygon via Stripe. A German company called
Speaker 1: all Unity expanded its eurostable coin to Solana, and South
Speaker 1: Korea's largest credit card network just partnered with Solana for
Speaker 1: stable coin payments. Three stories, one thesis. Meta doing this
Speaker 1: means millions of people will touch Solana without ever knowing it.
Speaker 1: That's how real adoption works quietly underneath the surface. The
Speaker 1: South Korean credit card deal is the more interesting one.
Speaker 1: In plain English, a major traditional payments company chose a
Speaker 1: crypto network to move money. When that happens, it stops
Speaker 1: being headline and starts being the actual pipes money flows through,
Speaker 1: and those pipes tend to stick around. If Solana transaction
Speaker 1: volume shows a real uptick in the next two weeks,
Speaker 1: the thesis has real world confirmation. If volume stays flat,
Speaker 1: these were announcements, not adoption. Next Mara Holdings, the bitcoin minor,
Speaker 1: just announced it's buying a company called long Ridge Energy
Speaker 1: in a one point five billion dollar deal to build
Speaker 1: AI data centers. Here's why that matters. When renting your
Speaker 1: hardware to AI companies pays better than mining bitcoin you
Speaker 1: either adapt or fall behind. Mara is adapting aggressively. The
Speaker 1: question is whether the market sees this as smart diversification
Speaker 1: or as a miner that lost confidence in its own business.
Speaker 1: Watch how Mara trades relative to pure play miners like Clean,
Speaker 1: Spark and Riot over the next week. That gap will
Speaker 1: tell you which story investors believe now Bitcoin, specifically, it
Speaker 1: keeps to listting eighty thousand dollars and keeps getting turned away.
Speaker 1: The bets traders are placing on future prices are showing caution,
Speaker 1: not panic. Nobody's selling in a frenzy. They're just not
Speaker 1: buying either. Here's the tension. The data says, be careful,
Speaker 1: but May is historically a stronger month for bitcoin. If
Speaker 1: it breaks cleanly above eighty thousand with rising activity, that
Speaker 1: ceiling flips to a floor. If it gets rejected again
Speaker 1: and drops below seventy four thousand, the cautious mood becomes
Speaker 1: a real down trend. And in the layer two space, faster,
Speaker 1: cheaper networks built on top of ethereum, things are moving fast.
Speaker 1: Megath's total value locked surged over two hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: percent in seven days after its token launched on major
Speaker 1: exchanges ape Chain was up sixty percent, Loomia Prism up
Speaker 1: nearly forty, but Manta Pacific and Sonium each dropped around
Speaker 1: fifteen percent in the same week. Token launches bring capital,
Speaker 1: and capital creates the appearance of traction. The more honest
Speaker 1: signal is ape Chain and Lumia gaining without a token launch.
Speaker 1: That's real money moving in the chains. Losing ground quietly
Speaker 1: are smaller networks without a clear reason to exist, getting
Speaker 1: drained as attention moves elsewhere. Quick Hits with Sabi protocol
Speaker 1: got hit for over five million dollars in a cross
Speaker 1: chain exploit, the second significant hack this month. The US
Speaker 1: Treasury confirmed it seized five hundred million dollars in Iranian
Speaker 1: crypto assets, one of the largest government enforcement actions on record.
Speaker 1: The Genius Act stable coin bill is still hitting procedural
Speaker 1: hurdles in the Senate. A key senator flagged the timeline
Speaker 1: is uncertain, which matters because this would be the first
Speaker 1: major US stable coin law. South Korea is seeking a
Speaker 1: twenty year prison sentence for the CEO of Delhio, a
Speaker 1: crypto lender that collapsed, and World Liberty Financials token unlock
Speaker 1: vote is passing. It basically unanimous approval closing May sixth
Speaker 1: a meaningful increase in token supply is effectively a done deal.
Speaker 1: All right, Before we get into the risks, quick word
Speaker 1: from our sponsor. Okay, we're back. Let's talk about what
Speaker 1: to watch for. Three risks worth keeping on your radar. First,
Speaker 1: fear and greed is at twenty nine points while Bitcoin
Speaker 1: is still holding above seventy six thousand. That gap doesn't
Speaker 1: usually last. Either confidence catches up the price and we
Speaker 1: get a rally, or price catches down to confidence and
Speaker 1: we get a pullback. Historically, when this gap sticks around
Speaker 1: more than five days, it's price that moves. Second, stable
Speaker 1: coin supply is shrinking slightly, heading into a resistance test.
Speaker 1: You can't push through a ceiling without fresh money entering
Speaker 1: the system Right now, that money isn't showing up. Third,
Speaker 1: North Korea, seventy six percent of this year's hack loss
Speaker 1: is traced to one state level actor. This isn't a
Speaker 1: software bug you can patch. It's a government running crypto
Speaker 1: theft as a full time operation. The industry can improve
Speaker 1: its defenses, but it's playing a different game than a
Speaker 1: typical hacker. Looking ahead, Bitcoin's monthly options expiry resets trader
Speaker 1: positioning this weekend. The first few sessions of May will
Speaker 1: tell us whether the seasonal bullfisis has real buying behind
Speaker 1: it or whether it's just a calendar story. The World
Speaker 1: Liberty Financial Token unlocked vote closes May sixth. Markets may
Speaker 1: start pricing in that supply increase before it officially closes,
Speaker 1: and keep one eye on the Genius Act. Any movement
Speaker 1: in the Senate this week could speed up or derail
Speaker 1: the first major US stable coin law, which would directly
Speaker 1: affect how USDC and Tether operate going forward. That's the
Speaker 1: April thirtieth Pulse. For those of you who are serious
Speaker 1: about your portfolio, Token Metrics Roundtable gives you private AI
Speaker 1: portfolio reviews, live monthly discussions, and everything in our alpha plan.
Speaker 1: Head to tokenmetrics dot com to see if it's a fit.
Speaker 1: This is educational content, not investment advice. Always do your
Speaker 1: own research. I'm Alex, See you next time.