SpendNode Podcast: Crypto News & Analysis

Tokenized real-world assets on-chain have grown fivefold from $4.1B to $25.2B in just over a year, according to new data Cointelegraph flagged. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/rwa-market-cap-25-billion-fivefold-growth-april-2026/

Jane Street has filed to dismiss Terraform Labs' insider trading lawsuit tied to the May 2022 UST depeg and LUNA collapse that erased roughly $40B. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/jane-street-terraform-labs-dismiss-ust-luna-insider-trading-april-2026/

Telegram founder Pavel Durov says TON transaction fees will drop 6x within a week, sharpening the network's pitch as a cheap payments rail. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/ton-network-6x-fee-cut-durov-telegram-april-2026/

OKX has gone live with trading for Tempo, a new payments-focused L1 incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, putting the chain in front of millions of traders. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/okx-lists-tempo-l1-stripe-paradigm-april-2026/

Federal prosecutors charge a US Army soldier with using classified Venezuela intelligence to win over $400,000 betting on Polymarket outcome markets. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/army-soldier-polymarket-classified-venezuela-intel-april-2026/

Mantle's core team proposes lending 30,000 ETH from its treasury to Aave DAO to absorb the $292M rsETH bridge exploit losses from April 18. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/mantle-30000-eth-aave-bad-debt-kelpdao-exploit-april-2026/

Pokemon card values have turned collectibles into a multibillion-dollar asset class, pushing owners toward museum-grade vaults and blockchain provenance. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/pokemon-cards-blockchain-provenance-museum-vaults-april-2026/

The US military is running its own Bitcoin node and views crypto as a tool of strategic power projection against China, according to a new CoinDesk report. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/us-military-bitcoin-node-power-projection-china-april-2026/

Kalshi says new monitoring tools caught three US political candidates placing trades tied to their own campaigns. All three are now permanently banned. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/kalshi-bans-three-us-candidates-insider-trading-april-2026/

A NiceHash EasyMining customer paid roughly $750 for rented hashpower and hit Bitcoin block 945711 solo, netting about $235,000 in subsidy and fees. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/nicehash-easymining-user-750-to-235000-solo-bitcoin-block-april-2026/

Bitcoin hit $79,485 intraday on April 22, then slipped back as oil prices rose and short-term holders who bought near the ceiling took the exit. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/bitcoin-80k-rejection-oil-shock-recent-buyers-exit-april-2026/

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko deployed an immutable Percolator binary and put a bounty on anyone who can exploit it, raising the stakes for the scheduler. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/solana-percolator-immutable-binary-yakovenko-bounty-april-2026/

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index rose from 32 to 46 in 24 hours, the largest single-day climb in three months as BTC holds $78K. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/crypto-fear-greed-index-32-to-46-biggest-daily-jump-three-months-april-2026/

Finding Satoshi, a new documentary, argues Hal Finney and Len Sassaman jointly built Bitcoin. Here is what the film claims and why the theory holds up. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/finding-satoshi-documentary-hal-finney-len-sassaman-april-2026/

The KelpDAO exploiter converted nearly all 75,700 ETH, roughly $175M, into BTC over 36 hours, locking in gains and complicating recovery. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/kelpdao-hacker-75700-eth-btc-swap-175-million-april-2026/

Uniswap founder Hayden Adams says his X follower count jumped from a few hundred to ~600 a day, pointing to AI bots as proof of the dead internet theory. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/hayden-adams-uniswap-dead-internet-theory-ai-bots-april-2026/

Peter Schiff labeled Strategy's STRC preferred share an obvious Ponzi and hosted a public X Space challenging Michael Saylor to defend the structure on air. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/peter-schiff-strategy-strc-ponzi-challenge-saylor-april-2026/

A Cointelegraph analysis argues FTX's estate would hold $114B in assets today if liquidators had not offloaded Anthropic, Solana, and SpaceX stakes early. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/ftx-114-billion-counterfactual-anthropic-solana-spacex-april-2026/

Naval Ravikant's new USVC fund opens AI startup exposure to retail investors at a $500 minimum, covering OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI positions. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/naval-ravikant-usvc-500-minimum-ai-startup-fund-april-2026/

Benjamin Pasternak, founder of Solana memecoin launchpad Believe, was arrested and faces second-degree strangulation and assault charges, per WuBlockchain. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/believe-founder-benjamin-pasternak-arrested-strangulation-assault-april-2026/

GSR's first Nasdaq ETF, ticker BESO, gives investors exposure to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana, with staking rewards passed through where applicable. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/gsr-beso-etf-nasdaq-btc-eth-sol-staking-april-2026/

Coinbase added tGBP, a pound-pegged stablecoin, to its global order books. The listing gives UK crypto users a sterling-native rail outside USD stablecoins. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/coinbase-tgbp-gbp-stablecoin-global-listing-uk-april-2026/

American Bitcoin, the Trump-linked public miner, switched on 11,000 BTC mining machines, expanding its owned hash rate as the stock continues to rally with BTC back near $79,000. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/american-bitcoin-11000-miners-activation-hash-rate-shares-spike-april-2026/

Kraken submitted 56 million 1099 crypto tax forms to the IRS for 2025, with one third covering transactions under $1 and 74% worth less than $50. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/kraken-56-million-crypto-tax-forms-irs-2025-under-fifty-dollars-april-2026/

Aave's supplied balances have fallen $15 billion since the Kelp DAO bridge exploit on April 15, as users pull collateral amid rsETH contagion fears. Read the full article: https://www.spendnode.io/blog/aave-15-billion-deposits-drop-kelpdao-exploit-flight-april-2026/