Goldman Sachs and 21Shares Advance in Crypto ETFs

Find out our latest reports, listed below:‍

• Block Scholes x Panoptic: Bridging The Onchain Convexity Gap
• Volatility Report: February 2026
• 2026 – the year of RWA perps?
• Bybit x Block Scholes: “2026: It's Different This Time

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Market Snapshot: Overnight Moves

Daily Updates:

• Renewed expectations that the US and Iran may reach a more permanent end to the now 47 day-long war has continued to bolster risk appetite. 
• According to the New York Post, President Trump said that additional peace talks “could be happening over the next two days” in Islamabad — the same location where the first round of negotiations took place. 
• For now, the two week ceasefire announced April 7 between both sides is set to expire next week on April 22. 

• Trump also told ABC News that he predicts “an amazing two days ahead” that may not even require extending the current ceasefire, but instead end the war completely. 
• “It could end either way, but I think a deal is preferable because then they can rebuild. They really do have a different regime now. No matter what, we took out the radicals,” Trump said. 
• Speaking at an event yesterday, Vice President JD Vance also said that Trump doesn’t want to make “a small deal, he wants to make the grand bargain.”
• In a separate interview with ABC News, he said extending a two-week ceasefire that was clinched last week after nearly six weeks of fighting may not be necessary, hinting at significant near-term progress without elaborating.
• The optimism around an end to the six-week conflict has seen major equity indexes bounce back from the losses they have faced since the conflict first began. 
• China’s CSI 300 Index is amongst the latest to have pared its losses, while on Wall Street, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 now trade above their pre-war levels. 
• The S&P 500 closed 1.18% higher yesterday, narrowing in on its late January all-time high, while the Nasdaq-100 rallied 1.81% in its tenth consecutive up session — its longest win streak since 2021.
• Those moves occurred against a backdrop of lower oil prices too — as Brent oil fell as low as $94 a barrel. 
• BTC on the other hand has largely held up around the $74K mark after briefly reaching $76K, while ETH continues to trade above $2,300. 

• According to the BLS, wholesale prices in the US rose by less than expected in March amidst the war-related rise in energy prices. The producer price index rose 0.5% between February and March, below expectations of 1.2% while core PPI rose only 0.1%. The headline year-over-year figure rose 4% for its “largest 12-month advance since increasing 4.7% in February 2023”, though that was also below expectations of 4.6%. 
• The report also said that goods prices rose by the most since August 2023, with almost half of the increase being due to a 15.7% jump in gas prices.
• Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee said yesterday that the central bank may have to wait until next year before cutting interest rates should there be an extended bout of higher oil prices. 
• At the World Economy conference he said, "I thought there could ​be even multiple rate cuts in 2026. The longer this goes where we never got ​to see the decrease in inflation (and) if the inflation stays up, realistically, I think ⁠that starts pushing it out of '26". 
• On the other hand, Former Treasury Secretary and ex-Fed Chair Janet Yellen said that “This is really a broad supply shock” and “I suppose my guess would be that maybe there would be a cut later in the year. I think that’s entirely possible, the main scenario. But gee, a lot of things are possible”.

• The SEC has approved the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority's (FINRA) proposal to replace the Pattern Day Trader (PDT) rule, removing the $25,000 minimum equity requirement for active intraday stock traders.
• The PDT regime will be replaced by an intraday margin framework that assesses risk in real time rather than by trade count.
• The change is not immediate yet – FINRA still needs to publish a Regulatory Notice, and brokers may have up to 18 months to complete the transition.
• The significance of the reform is that U.S. regulators are moving away from a fixed capital threshold and toward a more dynamic, risk-based model for stock and options trading in margin accounts.
• While the reform applies to equities rather than crypto directly, it could modestly lower the barrier to entry for retail stock trading.

• Goldman Sachs has filed for the Goldman Sachs Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, a proposed fund that would offer indirect exposure to Bitcoin through investments in Bitcoin ETPs and related options, rather than by holding BTC directly.
• The structure suggests an income-focused approach to crypto exposure, distinguishing it from traditional spot Bitcoin ETFs and marking a further step in Goldman’s expansion into digital asset investment products. 

• 21Shares has filed a second amended S-1 for its proposed Hyperliquid ETF, indicating continued engagement with the SEC as the product moves through the registration process.
• The updated filing shows the fund is expected to list on Nasdaq under the ticker THYP, while also outlining a structure that would allow the ETF to stake a portion of its HYPE holdings.

• Societe Generale-FORGE has partnered with Consensys to integrate its USD CoinVertible (USDCV) stablecoin into MetaMask, expanding distribution for one of Europe’s bank-backed digital dollar products.
• The move brings a MiCA-compliant stablecoin into one of the most widely used self-custody wallets, where it is expected to support fiat on- and off-ramping, trading, DeFi access, and gas fee payments. 
• Global multi-asset investment platform, eToro, is acquiring crypto wallet provider Zengo to strengthen its self-custody and digital asset offerings. 
• The move aims to bridge traditional finance with decentralized, on-chain services while expanding access to products like tokenized assets and DeFi tools. 
• Users won’t see immediate changes, but future updates will integrate Zengo’s technology to offer more advanced crypto features.

• The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has permitted banks to open accounts for licensed virtual asset service providers, effectively reversing its 2018 prohibition on banks facilitating crypto-related transactions and services. 
• The move follows the Virtual Assets Act, 2026, aiming to integrate digital assets into the formal financial system under strict AML and compliance frameworks, with oversight from the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority led by Bilal bin Saqib. 
• Banks are required to verify licences, maintain segregated non-interest-bearing accounts, and are prohibited from holding or investing in virtual assets directly.

• Tether has launched Tether Wallet, a non-custodial crypto wallet supporting USDT, USAT, XAUT, and BTC at launch.
• The product allows users to send funds to customised addresses such as name@tether.me, while transaction fees are paid in the same asset being transferred, removing the need for separate gas tokens.
• As a non-custodial wallet, keys and access remain stored only on the user’s device, giving users full control over their funds. 

• Ripple has partnered with Kyobo Life Insurance to support the settlement of tokenized government bonds in South Korea using Ripple Custody.
• The initiative aims to move bond settlement closer to near real-time execution, compared with the conventional two-day settlement cycle, with the potential to improve capital efficiency and reduce counterparty risk.
• Ripple also said the partnership could expand into stablecoin-based payment rails, highlighting its broader ambitions in Asia-Pacific financial infrastructure.

• Strategy’s STRC preferred stock recorded a $1.1B trading day.
• The spike in volume came alongside Strategy’s latest Bitcoin purchase of 13,927 BTC for approximately $1.0B, a transaction that increased the firm’s total holdings to 780,897 BTC. 

• Bitmine posted a $3.82B quarterly net loss for the period ended 28 February 2026 today, largely due to unrealised losses on its digital asset holdings, but it has continued to increase exposure to Ethereum regardless.
• As of 12 April 2026, the company said it held 4.875M ETH, representing just over 4% of total supply.
• Chairman Tom Lee has defended the strategy, saying the recent weakness was “attractive” given “strengthening fundamentals,” while maintaining that ETH’s price still understates its long-term importance.
• With over 3.33M ETH staked and more than $200M in projected annualised staking revenue, Bitmine is positioning its treasury strategy around both ETH accumulation and staking income.

• The Ethereum Foundation has launched a $1M Security Subsidy Program to help reduce the cost of smart contract audits for builders on Ethereum, according to their post on X.
• The initiative is being run with Areta’s audit marketplace, giving selected teams access to more than 20 security firms, while subsidies can cover up to 30% of audit costs.
• The programme also aligns with the Foundation’s broader push to strengthen Ethereum’s security standards under its earlier Trillion-Dollar Security initiative.

• Justin Sun, founder of TRON, has said in his post on X that the network is preparing a post-quantum upgrade, with the stated goal of becoming the first major public blockchain to deploy NIST-standardised post-quantum cryptographic signatures on mainnet.
• In announcing the initiative, Sun argued that quantum security should be treated as a built-in product feature rather than a theoretical debate. 

This Week’s Calendar:

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