CME has also lost its position as the largest Bitcoin futures exchange to Binance for the first time since November 2023.The following is excerpted from The Block’s Data and Insights newsletter.

Ethereum Foundation will convert 5,000 ETH into stablecoins via CoWSwap’s TWAP feature to fund research, grants, and donations.The move follows earlier EF treasury conversions using DeFi rails as part of a broader diversification policy.Market watchers scrutinize EF sales as potential sentiment signals, even when the amounts are small relative to ETH’s total supply.

Barclays Senior US Economist Pooja Sriram forecasts March headline CPI at 0.9 percent month over month and 3.3 percent year over year, “led by a surge in gasoline prices”; BofA Securities economists project a 10.6 percent monthly jump in energy prices driving a 0.9 percent headline increase; Oxford Economics projects headline CPI above 3 percent in March and above 4 percent in AprilThe expected reading would mark a sharp reversal from the 2.4 percent annual inflation rate recorded in the first two months of 2026, and would be the first major inflation data to reflect the impact of the Iran war on consumer energy prices; Pantheon Economics says the US experienced the largest one-month jump in fuel costs since at least 1957Core CPI, which strips out volatile food and energy, is forecast to rise 0.3 percent monthly and 2.7 percent year over year, with the Federal Reserve expected to hold interest rates at 3.50 to 3.75 percent at its April 29 meeting; CME FedWatch shows 98.4 percent of respondents pricing in no change

On Thursday, the government’s lawyer argued that Roman Storm made improvements and updates to Tornado Cash, which they say helped criminals launder funds, and in turn also made him profitable.Meanwhile, Storm’s lawyers continually argued that creating a crypto mixing service is not illegal and said that Storm did not build Tornado Cash to be used to break the law.The government’s lawyer drew an audible gasp from some in the courtroom after he suggested funds that were mixed with criminal funds as part of the mixing service could also be held liable.

With market pricing data currently monopolized by a few players, Pyth seeks to democratize access with a pay-on-demand model beginning with seven big-name providers.

Visa is rolling out a platform that helps merchants make their product inventories discoverable and purchasable by AI agents.

Shibarium transactions have dropped significantly as the blockchain enters a stabilization phase.

Borderless data shows stablecoin FX is reaching parity with traditional rails in key corridors.LATAM markets now exhibit “institutional-grade” pricing with near-zero execution costs, while East Africa is seeing rapid compression in spreads as provider competition intensifies, per the payment infrastructure firm.

Authorities disrupted more than 120 cryptocurrency fraud domains, cutting off key infrastructure used to target victims.Phishing scams are expanding beyond the digital realm, with scammers now likely using leaked personal data to reach victims offline.

In addition to its sizable TON token treasury, AlphaTON is also focused on supporting Telegram’s native decentralized AI platform, Cocoon.AlphaTON is looking to raise $43 million through a deal with Vertical Data Inc. that is expected to close in Q2 2026.

There's now an application for a Pepe ETF, but Dogecoin funds have generated tepid inflows, according to CoinShares' James Butterfill

Yuga Labs first filed a lawsuit in June 2022, accusing Ripps and Cahen of copying its Bored Ape Yacht Club cartoon ape images and selling lookalike NFTs.

CoreWeave’s financing highlights Wall Street’s shift away from volatile, hardware-backed crypto lending toward cash-flow-driven AI infrastructure, according to TheEnergyMag.