Bitcoin fell nearly 24% in the first quarter of 2026, marking the worst Q1 performance since 2018.Analysts said long-term conviction in bitcoin is still intact, noting that the decline is more cyclical than fundamental.

Ethereum treasury firm Bitmine Immersion Technologies added 71,179 ETH last week, lifting its holdings to about 4.73 million ETH.The company now stakes 3,142,643 ETH, worth roughly $6.3 billion at a reference price of $2,005 per ETH.Bitmine also holds 197 BTC plus equity stakes of $102 million in Eightco Holdings and $200 million in Beast Industries.

EthCC 2026 in Cannes has introduced a dedicated institutional forum, The Agora by Kaiko, drawing more than 60 speakers and around 600 participants from traditional finance and Web3.For the first time, firms like Bloomberg, S&P Global, BNP Paribas, Euroclear, Amundi, SG Forge and Tradeweb are on the official EthCC agenda to debate Ethereum’s market structure under Europe’s MiCA regime.With MiCA and new EU tax rules nearing full implementation, panellists argued that Ethereum’s future liquidity and depth will increasingly depend on institutional rails rather than purely on retail-driven DeFi.

eToro has secured both a New York BitLicense and a money transmission license, opening its crypto platform to residents of New York.The approvals mean eToro now offers cryptocurrency trading in 48 US states, following a $1.5 million settlement with the SEC in 2024.The company calls New York “the heart of the financial markets” and frames the move as a strategic milestone in its US expansion.

iBoxx U.S. Treasuries is being brought natively on Canton alongside DTCC’s on-chain Treasuries to support index-linked product issuance on the same infrastructure.S&P will distribute the index as a smart contract token embedding full index data, IP rights, licensing terms, fees and access controls.The model treats index data “like a financial asset,” enabling traceability, automated fee collection and reusable, scalable licensing on-chain.

The wallet unveiled a new toolkit that lets AI agents automatically execute crypto transactions, including trades and transfers.Compatible across over 25 chains, the agents can handle cross-chain swaps across several networks, including Solana and Bitcoin, in addition to managing recurring buys.

Aave V4 features a hub-and-spoke architecture that concentrates liquidity to supply a wider range of markets and use cases with credit lines.“We want to focus … on the borrow side, creating significant borrow demand by using [Aave’s] onchain liquidity and channeling that back into the real economy,” Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov told The Block.

The Treasury published its notice of proposed rulemaking as the market capitalization of dollar-pegged stablecoins neared $300 billion.

PeckShield reported that losses from crypto hacks and exploits reached $52 million in March.A significant portion of the losses came from an exploit on Resolv Labs, which resulted in the theft of $25 million worth of USR stablecoins.

Co-founder Nick Philpott, who previously served as head of partnerships, was listed as interim CEO on Zodia’s website.Ahmad, who reportedly left in early March, had led the firm since its founding in 2021, when it launched as a joint partnership between SC Ventures and OSL Group.

Crypto news digest: SHIB price jumps 4%; XRP ready for a rebound; BTC whale awakens to dump.

Z Protocol is a new EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain that leverages aspects of Core’s Bitcoin application layer to bolster Zcash.Kieran Dennis, co-founder of Z and an initial contributor to Core, claims Z is the first attempt to bring native EVM capabilities to Zcash.Under a licensing agreement, a portion of Z transaction fees will flow back to Core, and CORE token holders will have preferential access to some of the Z tokens, including through airdrops.