Polymarket Announces New Collateral Token: Polymarket USD

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Market Snapshot: Overnight Moves

Daily Updates:

• Bitcoin is currently trading at around $68.8k. While it has pulled back from highs above $70k yesterday, it remains up from last week’s lows near $66k, as ongoing US–Iran conflict developments continue to dominate market sentiment.
• On Monday, April 7, US spot BTC ETFs recorded their largest daily inflows in six weeks, totaling $471.32M across six funds, since Feb 25 at $506M. 
• ETH ETFs also saw  $120.24M in inflows, the highest since mid March.

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• Oil market prices remain elevated, with Brent crude trading above $109 and WTI crude at around $112.

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• Speaking on Monday, Trump stated, “The entire country can be taken out in one night – and that night might be tomorrow night.” if it does not agree to terms before his set deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
• He has given Tehran until Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time to reach what he described as an “acceptable” agreement ensuring oil and shipments can move freely through the Gulf and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for all vessels.

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• As Iranian officials emphasised last week, the Strait of Hormuz closing is focussed on its “aggressors” and affiliates. Several countries including the Philippines, Pakistan, India, China, Malaysia and Japan, have independently secured or confirmed safe passage deals with Iran. 
• India, China, Malaysia and Japan confirmed access through diplomatic coordination, with statements including “Our Indian friends are in safe hands, no worries” from the Iranian Embassy, and China noting, “Following coordination with relevant parties, three Chinese vessels recently transited the Strait of Hormuz,”.

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• Iran has dismissed calls for a temporary ceasefire, instead demanding a lasting end to hostilities along with the removal of sanctions.

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• This isn't the first ultimatum Trump has set. On 21 March, he said he would “hit and obliterate” power plants, “starting with the biggest ones first”, if Iran failed to act within 48 hours. 
• Two days later, he pointed to “very good and productive conversations” and delayed action for five days. 
• By 27 March, he extended the pause again for 10 days, “as per Iranian government request”, setting a new deadline of 6 April. As that date approached on Friday, he issued a “48 hours” warning before unleashing “all hell”. 
• In Trump's latest message, he reinforced the threat, declaring “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day”, specifying “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time”.
• Markets are cautiously watching developments but seem unconvinced with Polymarket’s “Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by end of April?” market set at just 17% chance and a later date of “Strait of Hormuz traffic returns to normal by end of May?” set at 43%.

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• Polymarket has announced a major upgrade to its exchange over the next 2–3 weeks which includes the introduction of a new collateral token, Polymarket USD, backed 1:1 by USDC, replacing USDC.e.
• The upgrade will introduce a new Conditional Token Framework Exchange V2, a simplified order structure, faster order matching, and support for EIP-1271 signatures (which allow smart contract wallets to sign and validate trades). 
• It also adds builder attribution codes for tracking order flow and improves how fees are collected and distributed.
• During the upgrade, all order books will be reset, and trading will pause briefly during a scheduled maintenance window, with exact timing to be announced in advance.

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• Following the $285M exploit of Solana-based decentralized exchange Drift, Solana Foundation has announced new security initiatives, including STRIDE, a program led by Asymmetric Research to evaluate DeFi protocols against an eight-pillar security framework and publish the results publicly. 
• Protocols with over $10M TVL that pass will receive ongoing 24/7 threat monitoring, while those above $100M TVL will also undergo formal verification of smart contracts.
• It also launched the Solana Incident Response Network (SIRN), a membership-based group of firms such as Asymmetric Research, OtterSec, Neodyme, Squads, and ZeroShadow, focused on real-time incident response and threat intelligence sharing.
• Additional ecosystem support includes free access to tools and services like Hypernative for threat detection, Range Security for risk monitoring, Riverguard for attack simulation, Sec3’s X-Ray for static analysis, and AuditWare’s Radar for identifying vulnerabilities during development.

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• Bitmine acquired 71,252 ETH last week, marking its fastest weekly accumulation since December 2025. 
• As of April 5, 2026, the firm holds 4,803,334 ETH, representing 3.98% of total supply, alongside 198 BTC, $864M in cash, and additional crypto positions.
• Of this, 3,334,637 ETH (~69% of holdings) is staked, valued at $7.1B, generating approximately $196M in annualised staking revenue with a ~2.78% yield. Total crypto, cash, and other holdings stand at $11.4B.

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• Strategy acquired an additional 4,871 BTC between April 1–5, 2026, deploying approximately $330M, bringing total holdings to 766,970 BTC, valued at around $53B at current prices. 
• The latest purchases reduced its average cost basis slightly to $75,644 per BTC (vs. $75,694 on March 31).
• For Q1 2026, the firm recorded a $14.46B unrealised loss on its bitcoin position, according to its latest 8-K filing which translates into a $2.42B deferred tax asset.

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• Crypto wallet Phantom experienced a temporary service outage overnight that affected the display of token prices and balances. 
• The issue was resolved in around 2 hours, with all balances and pricing data returning to normal functionality.

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This Week’s Calendar:

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Charts of the Day:

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