Crypto Vesting

Crypto startup Meanwhile has raised $40 million to scale its Bitcoin-denominated life insurance business, targeting so-called “inflation-prone economies” where policyholders may seek alternatives to traditional fiat-based payouts.

The Series A investment round was led by Framework Ventures and Fulgur Ventures, with additional participation from Xapo founder Wences Casares, the company disclosed on April 10. 

Meanwhile previously secured $20.5 million in seed funding backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others.

Source: Meanwhilelife

Regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority, Meanwhile offers a whole life insurance policy denominated in Bitcoin (BTC), giving policyholders the ability to safeguard the value of their life insurance against currency debasement. 

Policyholders can access the value of their life insurance anytime through loans and tax-free partial withdrawals. 

Meanwhile co-founder Zac Townsend told Fortune that the company’s life insurance policies operate similarly to typical life insurance policies, but

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Bitcoin (BTC) price failed to hold its weekly open gains on April 10 as US stocks ignored positive inflation data.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC price volatility ticking higher around the release of the March Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers.

These numbers came in broadly below expectations, revealing slowing inflationary forces despite mass-market disruption due to US trade tariffs.

An official press release from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) stated:

“The all items index rose 2.4 percent for the 12 months ending March, after rising 2.8 percent over the 12 months ending February. The all items less food and energy index rose 2.8 percent over the last 12 months, the smallest 12-month increase since March 2021.”

US CPI 12-month % change. Source: BLS

While notionally a

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Opinion by: Roman Cyganov, founder and CEO of Antix

In the fall of 2023, Hollywood writers took a stand against AI’s encroachment on their craft. The fear: AI would churn out scripts and erode authentic storytelling. Fast forward a year later, and a public service ad featuring deepfake versions of celebrities like Taylor Swift and Tom Hanks surfaced, warning against election disinformation. 

We are a few months into 2025. Still, AI’s intended outcome in democratizing access to the future of entertainment illustrates a rapid evolution — of a broader societal reckoning with distorted reality and massive misinformation.

Despite this being the “AI era,” nearly 52% of Americans are more concerned than excited about its growing role in daily life. Add to this the findings of another recent survey that 68% of consumers globally hover between “somewhat” and “very” concerned about online privacy, driven

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The crypto industry has welcomed the confirmation of American businessman and former US Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins as chair of the agency.

Atkins’ approval has taken months. He appeared before the Senate on March 27 to explain his intended approach to securities regulation in the United States, as well as his views on digital assets. 

Atkins will replace acting chair Mark Uyeda as head of the agency, which began unwinding a number of court cases and enforcement action against cryptocurrency firms when President Donald Trump took office. However, these actions don’t amount to clear guidance — yet.

Now that Atkins is ready to take the helm, the blockchain industry is hoping for the guidance they’ve been wanting for years. So who is Paul Atkins, and what can the industry expect?

Senator Cynthia Lummis celebrated the confirmation. Source: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/SenLummis/status/1910117597078512069" rel="null" target="null"

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Standard Chartered and cryptocurrency exchange OKX are piloting a new program allowing institutions to use crypto assets and tokenized money market funds (MMFs) as collateral.

Announced on April 10, the collateral mirroring program enables off-exchange collateral usage while enhancing security by placing custody with a globally systemically important bank, according to a joint statement from the companies.

The pilot has been launched under the regulatory oversight of the Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority, with Standard Chartered acting as a regulated custodian in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

The program launched in collaboration with crypto-friendly asset manager Franklin Templeton and features Brevan Howard Digital among the first institutions to trial the new capability.

OKX clients to gain access to assets by Franklin Templeton

As part of the collaboration, OKX clients will have access to

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Escalating trade tensions and renewed uncertainty in global markets are driving investors toward alternative assets, including Bitcoin and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), as concerns mount over the long-term stability of the financial system.

Global trade tensions continue pressuring investor sentiment despite US President Donald Trump announcing a 90-day pause on higher reciprocal tariffs on April 9, reverting the tariffs to the 10% baseline for most countries.

At the same time, Trump escalated his tariffs on Chinese goods from 104% to 125%, the Financial Times reported on April 9.

“President Trump’s tariff escalation marks a significant inflection point for global markets,” a move that signals “more than a trade disagreement,” said Teddy Pornprinya, co-founder of Plume — a layer-1 blockchain focused on tokenized real-world assets. He added:

“It exposes deeper fractures in the global monetary system.”

With both the US and China facing what he described

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The largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies produced nearly $800 million worth of Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting continued growth across the sector as Bitcoin prices held near record highs.

According to publicly available data compiled by Cointelegraph, the top Bitcoin mining companies produced over 9,700 Bitcoin (BTC) in the first quarter. With Bitcoin trading at around $81,600 at the time of writing, the total production was valued at around $800 million. 

Marathon Digital, the biggest Bitcoin mining company by market capitalization, led the pack with 2,285 Bitcoin (worth roughly $186 million) mined in Q1. 

On April 3, Marathon announced that it produced 829 BTC in March, up 17.4% from February and 10.5% higher than January.

Related: Bitcoin miner Bitfarms secures up to $300M loan from Macquarie

Bitcoin miners produce 9,746 BTC in Q1 2025

CleanSpark followed with

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Cosmos, a blockchain network aiming to become the “internet of blockchains,” has launched Eureka, an interoperability layer designed to link its inter-blockchain communication (IBC) protocol with Ethereum.

According to an April 10 announcement, Eureka has expanded the Cosmos IBC protocol, changing IBC from an ecosystem standard “to a universal interoperability protocol,” setting the hub on a course to become the home of multichain apps.

Cosmos projects are integrating into IBC Eureka. Source: Cosmos

With the introduction of Eureka, many Cosmos-based applications and blockchains are now accessible to more users by expanding IBC to the Ethereum network. With the new protocol, developers can reportedly build multichain apps across multiple ecosystems without fragmenting the user base.

Related: Cosmos co-founder proposes peer-to-peer clearing system in white paper

The announcement said that most projects rely on bridges

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American stock exchange Nasdaq has filed an application with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to list and trade shares of the VanEck Avalanche Trust, a proposed exchange-traded fund (ETF) designed to offer indirect exposure to the AVAX token.

The filing, signed by Nasdaq’s executive vice president and chief legal officer John Zecca, requests approval to list and trade shares of the VanEck Avalanche ETF under the company’s Rule 5711(d), which governs the trading of commodity-based trust shares. 

If approved, the VanEck Avalanche ETF would allow investors to gain exposure to the Avalanche (AVAX) price without directly holding them. The ETF would hold the tokens and track their price, allowing investors to profit from the token’s performance without needing crypto wallets or using digital asset trading platforms. 

According to the filing, asset manager VanEck Digital Assets will sponsor the trust, while

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