Bitcoin price caught an unexpected bid by rallying to a session high at $88,500, but will the price gains be capped at a multimonth overhead resistance that is aligned with the 50-day moving average?
Key points:
Bitcoin extended its April. 1 gains as news that the Trump administration had not finalized its “Liberation Day” tariffs emerged.
Israel, Mexico and India have already rolled back their tariffs on US imports or suggested that they will not do “tit for tat” tariffs in response to the expected April 2 US tariffs.
Bitcoin (BTC) trades slightly below a 3-month descending trendline resistance where the price has consistentlybeen rejected during past rallies.
Total market liquidations over the past 12-hour trading period have reached $145 million, with $69.4 million of the figure being Bitcoin shorts.
Data from Kingfisher, CoinGlass and Velo show short liquidations playing a role in today’s push above $88,500.
Crypto market liquidations in the past 12-hours. Source. CoinGlass
For the past few months, Bitcoin price has struggled to hold the gains accrued from rallies driven by leverage. Looking beyond futures markets, there are some positives that suggest that the market structure is slowly transitioning from bearish to bullish.
As shown in the chart below, recent rallies were accompanied by a strong bid in the spot market and the return of the Coinbase Pro premium, leading some analysts to speculate that the shift was influenced by buying from Strategy and other companies focused on building Bitcoin reserves.
Coinbase premium index. Source: CryptoQuant
Over the last two weeks, GameStop, MARA, Metaplanet and Strategy all announced plans to buy more Bitcoin, with GameStop being on the verge of purchasing and Strategy actively adding to its BTC position.
GameStop secures $1.5B for possible BTC purchase. Source: Arkham
In the short-term, sustained spot buy volumes at Binance and Coinbase Pro, and the crypto and equities markets’ response to President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are likely to be the most impactful factors that will influence the current bullish momentum seen in Bitcoin price.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
West Virginia’s Bitcoin (BTC) strategic reserve bill would give the state more sovereignty from the federal government and freedom from a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC), State Senator Chris Rose told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview.
“You hear these rumors that there are people at the federal government that will want to have a central bank digital currency,” Rose said. “And people don’t want that. People want decentralized currency. They want freedom.”
The bill, introduced in February, seeks to allow the state treasury to invest up to 10% of public funds in precious metals like gold and silver, stablecoins, or any digital asset that has had a $750 million market capitalization or higher over the last 12 months. Currently, the only digital asset with such a market cap is Bitcoin.
West Virginia State Senator Chris Rose. Source: Cointelegraph
Rose, the bill’s sponsor, said that the reason they decided on the market cap requirement was to allow the state to have exposure to cryptocurrency, but not to get trapped “in any things like memecoins.”
Adopting Bitcoin on the state level would “give us a little more state sovereignty,” Rose added. “And I think that’s one reason why you see a lot of people who normally buy [Bitcoin] for themselves want to see their state government do the same.”
He added that a 10% allocation of state funds would be a “good way to introduce [Bitcoin] to the state” while avoiding any fear from people who don’t understand digital assets. “It’s a good way to cap that where they feel comfortable, but also give us at least a decent exposure as well.”
Bitcoin: “A very powerful” investment and freedom tool
Rose said that one of the roadblocks to getting the bill passed is fear, in particular among those who don’t understand cryptocurrency. “Just like any other state, we have people who understand it. We also have people that don’t understand it, and people are always afraid of what they don’t know.”
He added that “once they understand it, they realize it’s a very powerful investment tool and freedom tool for every one of us to adopt.”
West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey, who has envisioned a future state economy powered by crypto and other tech, won’t be a roadblock, Rose said. And the state treasurer, whom Rose consulted before introducing the bill, won’t either.
However, according to WVNews, a West Virginia publication, some lawmakers and financial experts remain skeptical. Investing state funds into Bitcoin may be risky due to the asset’s volatility and price swings, which can cause financial instability and make Bitcoin a controversial choice for state investments.
Currently, 47 strategic Bitcoin reserve bills have been introduced in 26 states according to Bitcoin Laws. While, in most of the states, the bills have only been introduced or referred to committees, some have made headway in three: Arizona, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Rose clarified that the 10% of state funds allocated to precious metals, stablecoins, or Bitcoin would be sourced from two key areas.
“It would be the assets under the pensions fund and under the severance tax fund,” Rose said. “They would be able to divest some of those ETF funds into these assets. We wanted to keep it separate from the petty cash fund, which is day-to-day, just paying the bills of the state. We wanted to keep it to our longer-term assets,” he added.
The DoubleZero Protocol, a blockchain infrastructure network aiming to multiply speeds and efficiency for distributed networks, announced a validator token sale to sell token-purchase agreements for its native token to prospective validators.
Applications for the sale will be accepted April 2-10 through the CoinList platform, marking its first public token sale in the United States since 2019. The round is only available to accredited investors.
According to the protocol, only validators currently serving the high-throughput Solana, Celestia, Sui, Aptos, and Avalanche networks are eligible to apply.
Interested parties are invited to submit bids declaring a per-unit token price and maximum budgets, which will be aggregated to determine the final sale price offered to the participating validators.
A diagram of the DoubleZero validator funding round process. Source: CoinList
“The DoubleZero CoinList sale is a first-of-its-kind opportunity for the validators who are already securing the most performant and distributed blockchains. It opens access to infrastructure that will power the next generation of distributed systems.”
“This industry has seen huge investment and innovation at the top of the stack — it is time to revolutionize the physical infrastructure layer powering high-performance distributed systems,” Federa said in the statement.
The token-purchase agreement comes amid a recent uptick in capital fundraising from crypto firms and crypto venture capitalists — suggesting that the market has room to grow in 2025.
DoubleZero protocol targets mainnet launch in the second half of 2025
The DoubleZero Protocol is aiming to launch its mainnet during the second half of 2025 following a successful $28 million fundraising round completed in March.
Crypto venture capital firms Multicoin Capital and Dragonfly Capital led the most recent fundraising round.
First page of the DoubleZero Protocol white paper. Source: DoubleZero
DoubleZero aims to increase the speed and communication of blockchain networks by using a dedicated network of fiber optics to provide the physical infrastructure for high-speed, low-latency blockchain connectivity.
The focus on a dedicated fiber optic network for higher speeds is similar to the shift from dial-up internet that used 56K modems operating through 20th-century telecommunication infrastructure to broadband systems in the early 2000s.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) price is off to a swift start in Q2, rallying by 5.53% to an intraday high of $87,333 on April 2. Currently, Bitcoin is emerging from a ten-week downtrend that began on Jan. 20 when the price peaked at $110,000.
A decisive close above the trendline might lead to continued bullish momentum for Bitcoin in the coming days.
Throughout March, spot traders on Binance and Coinbase held opposite stances in the market. Binance traders were aggressive BTC sellers, while Coinbase showed significant spot bids around the $80,000 price level. This dynamic contributed to the sideways price action during the majority of March.
Fast forward to April, and spot traders on major exchanges have collectively turned bullish over the past three days.
Data from aggr.trade highlights that Coinbase and Binance spot bids are driving positive action for BTC. The buying pressure is particularly high on Coinbase, with spot bids increasing as high as $7.98 million over the past few hours.
Likewise, Dom, a crypto markets analyst, pointed out that Bitcoin’s current rally is possibly due to Binance sellers tapering off. The analyst said,
“BTC has been able to breathe ever since the Binance selling tapered off. We are even seeing some spot buying from them for the first time in over a week.”
Bitcoin flips key resistance at $84,000 to $85,000
From a technical perspective, Bitcoin has flipped an important resistance range between $84,000 and $85,000 into support. Likewise, the cryptocurrency has attained a bullish position above the 50-day, 100-day and 200-day exponentially moving averages (EMAs).
However, based on the external liquidity levels between $87,700 and $88,700, which formed the previous highs, BTC prices might struggle to break this range immediately. Consolidation between the green box (as illustrated in the chart) is likely a net positive, which might fuel BTC’s $90,000 retest for the first time since March 7.
On the flip side, an immediate correction to the current support at $84,000 and $85,000 could possibly discourage bulls, and short sellers might take control of price action.
Bullish invalidation could be on the cards if BTC price closes below $85,000 over the next few days.
With markets bracing for further market volatility ahead of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, Bitcoin price is expected to react further during today’s White House press conference at 4 pm Eastern Time.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
Zoop, the social app created by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely, and the HBAR Foundation have reportedly submitted a bid to purchase the video-sharing app TikTok in the United States.
According to an April 2 Reuters report, the HBAR Foundation and Zoop filed an intent to bid on TikTok with the Trump administration. The bid will follow others from major technology companies, including Amazon, Oracle, Microsoft, and Rumble, in an attempt to keep the video-sharing app’s services alive for US users.
“Our bid for TikTok isn’t just about changing ownership, it’s about creating a new paradigm where both creators and their communities benefit directly from the value they generate,” Zoop co-founder RJ Phillips reportedly said.
Posting the TikTok logo on its X account on April 2, hinting at a bid to purchase the company. Source: HBAR Foundation
In 2024, the US Congress passed, and former President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that could potentially ban TikTok if the firm’s operations weren’t separated from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
The initial deadline for the sale of the company under the law was Jan. 19. After assuming office, President Donald Trump signed a 75-day extension for enforcement, pushing the potential TikTok sale to April 5.
The HBAR Foundation is an organization working with Hedera (HBAR), which had a market capitalization of more than $7.3 billion at the time of publication. Cointelegraph reached out to the foundation and Zoop regarding the TikTok deal but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
It’s unclear how Trump intends to proceed with the sale or ban of TikTok. He could sign another extension to delay enforcement of the law, but only an act of Congress could countermand it.
The US president planned to announce sweeping tariffs against unnamed countries at 4:00 pm ET, shaking up markets. Since Trump took office on Jan. 20, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has dropped under $100,000 to reach $86,927 at the time of publication.
California Representative Maxine Waters, ranking member of the US House Financial Services Committee, used her opening statement at a markup hearing to criticize President Donald Trump’s business and ethical entanglements with the crypto industry, including the launch of a stablecoin by a family-backed company.
Addressing lawmakers at an April 2 hearing, Waters said Trump had used his position as president to leverage “multiple crypto schemes” for profit, including a US dollar-pegged stablecoin launched by World Liberty Financial (WLFI) — the firm backed by his family.
The California lawmaker pointed to Trump’s memecoin launched in January, his plans to establish a national cryptocurrency stockpile, and “his own stablecoin,” referring to WLFI’s USD1 token launched in March.
Rep. Maxine Waters addressing the House Financial Services Committee on April 2. Source: GOP Financial Services
“With this stablecoin bill, this committee is setting an unacceptable and dangerous precedent, validating the president and his insiders’ efforts to write rules of the road that will enrich themselves at the expense of everyone else,” said Waters, adding:
“Trump likely wants the entire government to use stablecoins from payments made by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to Social Security payments, to paying taxes. And which coin do you think Trump would replace the dollar with? His own, of course.”
Waters does not stand alone in her criticism of Trump’s crypto ventures, with many lawmakers and experts across the political spectrum suggesting potential conflicts of interest.
Committee Chair French Hill, who spoke on stablecoins before Waters, also reportedly said that the Trump family’s involvement in the industry makes legislation “more complicated.”
“If there is no effort to block the President of the United States of America from owning his stablecoin business […] I will never be able to agree on supporting this bill, and I would ask other members not to be enablers,” said Waters.
Representative Bryan Steil, who introduced the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy, or STABLE Act, did not immediately address Waters’ concerns about Trump’s stablecoin but referred to establishing safeguards for consumers.
Hill did not mention Trump in his opening statement but said there needed to be a “clear federal framework” for payment stablecoins.
Crypto legislation moving through Congress
The committee will consider amendments to the STABLE Act, as well as bills to combat illicit finance using emerging financial technologies and blocking the US government from issuing a central bank digital currency, or CBDC.
The markup hearing was a necessary step before the committee could vote on whether to advance the bills to the House of Representatives.
The First Digital US dollar-pegged stablecoin (FDUSD) depegged on April 2 following claims of insolvency from Tron network founder Justin Sun, who said that the issuer of the tokenized fiat equivalent, First Digital, is insolvent.
First Digital responded to the claims by assuring users they are completely solvent and said that FDUSD is still fully backed and redeemable with the US dollar on a 1:1 basis.
The firm also said that the ongoing dispute is with TrueUSD (TUSD), another stablecoin. The firm wrote in an April 2 X post:
“Every dollar backing FDUSD is completely secure, safe, and accounted for with US-backed Treasury Bills. The exact ISIN numbers of all of the reserves of FDUSD are set out in our attestation report and clearly accounted for.”
First Digital also indicated they would be taking legal action against Sun for making the claims on social media. “This is a typical Justin Sun smear campaign to try to attack a competitor to his business,” spokespeople for First Digital wrote.
Proof of reserves: The answer to FUD, runs on the bank, and depegging?
Proof-of-reserve audits are onchain cryptographic verifications that a custodian, crypto firm, or stablecoin issuer has the digital assets it claims to hold.
These proof-of-reserve audits use zero-knowledge tech and Merkle Trees — a data structure used to verify onchain information — as an alternative to audit reports or attestations widely used in the crypto industry.
Despite proof-of-reserve technology not yet tracking liabilities against reserves, the system promises to be better than the current system of audits that do not use real-time, onchain data.
First Digital’s audit report of reserves as of Feb. 28, 2025. Source: First Digital
Tal Zackon, founder of the Tres Finance auditing and reporting platform, previously told Cointelegraph that current attestations and third-party audit reports only represent “snapshots” of reserves that can be manipulated, exploited, or misconstrued.
Stablecoin issuers will likely need to adopt proof-of-reserve tools as the tokenized fiat equivalents become more integrated into global capital markets and critical financial infrastructure such as stock exchanges, escrow services, and clearinghouses.
This integration will require stablecoin issuers to provide up-to-date, real-time data, which may need to be updated several times per minute as opposed to the monthly audit reports that are typically released by firms to attest to asset reserves.
Bitcoin (BTC) bulls have pushed the price above the $87,000 level even as US trade tariffs are slated to kick in on April 2. Bitcoin may remain volatile in the near term, but analysts remain bullish for the long term.
According to Fidelity analyst Zack Wainwright, Bitcoin is currently in an acceleration phase, which “can conclude with a sharp, dramatic rally” if history repeats itself. If that happens, Wainwright expects $110,000 to be the starting base of the next leg of the upmove.
BitMEX co-founder and Maelstrom chief investment officer Arthur Hayes said in a post that if the Federal Reserve pivots to quantitative easing, then Bitcoin could rally to $250,000 by year-end.
Could Bitcoin break above the $89,000 overhead resistance, starting a rally in select altcoins? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.
Bitcoin price analysis
Bitcoin has risen close to the resistance line, where the sellers are expected to pose a solid challenge.
The flattening 20-day exponential moving average ($85,152) and the relative strength index (RSI) just above the midpoint signal the bears are losing their grip. That improves the prospects of a rally above the resistance line. If that happens, the BTC/USDT pair could climb to $95,000 and eventually to $100,000.
Alternatively, if the price turns down sharply from the resistance line and breaks below $81,000, it will suggest that the bears are back in the driver’s seat. The pair may then tumble to $76,606.
Ether price analysis
Ether (ETH) rebounded off the $1,754 support on March 31, signaling that the bulls are attempting to form a double-bottom pattern.
The bears will try to stall the relief rally at the 20-day EMA ($1,965). If the price turns down from the 20-day EMA, the possibility of a break below $1,574 increases. The ETH/USDT pair may then collapse to $1,550.
Contrarily, a break and close above the 20-day EMA opens the doors for a rise to the breakdown level of $2,111. If buyers pierce this resistance, the pair will complete a double-bottom pattern, starting a rally to the target objective of $2,468.
XRP price analysis
XRP’s (XRP) weak bounce off the crucial $2 support suggests a lack of aggressive buying by the bulls at the current levels.
That heightens the risk of a break below $2. If that happens, the XRP/USDT pair will complete a bearish head-and-shoulders pattern. This negative setup could start a downward move to $1.27. There is support at $1.77, but it is likely to be broken.
On the upside, a break and close above the 50-day SMA ($2.39) suggests solid buying at lower levels. The pair may then rally to the resistance line, where the bears are expected to mount a strong defense. A break and close above the resistance line signals a potential trend change.
BNB price analysis
BNB’s (BNB) recovery attempt stalled at the moving averages on April 1, indicating that the bears are selling on rallies.
The bears will try to strengthen their position by pulling the price below $587. If they can pull it off, the BNB/USDT pair could descend to the 50% Fibonacci retracement level of $575 and later to the 61.8% retracement of $559. The deeper the pullback, the greater the time needed for the pair to recover.
A break above the moving averages is the first sign that the selling pressure has reduced. The pair may rally to $644 and then to $686, which is likely to attract sellers.
Solana price analysis
Solana (SOL) is getting squeezed between the 20-day EMA ($132) and the $120 support, signaling a possible range expansion in the short term.
If the price breaks and closes above the 20-day EMA, it suggests that the buyers have overpowered the sellers. The SOL/USDT pair may rise to the 50-day SMA ($145) and, after that, to $180.
This positive view will be invalidated in the near term if the price turns down from the moving averages and breaks below $120. That could pull the price to $110, where the buyers are expected to step in.
Dogecoin price analysis
Dogecoin (DOGE) remains pinned below the 20-day EMA ($0.17), indicating that the bears continue to sell on minor rallies.
The first sign of strength will be a break and close above the 20-day EMA. The DOGE/USDT pair may climb to $0.21, which could act as a strong barrier. If buyers pierce the $0.21 resistance, the pair may rally to $0.24 and later to $0.29.
Sellers are likely to have other plans. They will try to defend the moving averages and pull the price below $0.16. If they manage to do that, the pair could descend to the $0.14 support. A break and close below the $0.14 level may sink the pair to $0.10.
Cardano price analysis
Buyers are trying to push Cardano (ADA) back above the uptrend line, but the bears are likely to sell near the moving averages.
The downsloping 20-day EMA ($0.71) and the RSI just below the midpoint signal that bears have the edge. If the price turns down and breaks below $0.63, the ADA/USDT pair could plunge to $0.58 and thereafter to $0.50.
Buyers will have to drive and maintain the price above the 50-day SMA ($0.75) to signal a potential trend change in the near term. The pair could rally to $0.84, which may act as a hurdle.
A minor positive in favor of the bulls is that they have not allowed the price to slip much below $4.14. That increases the possibility of a break above the overhead resistance. The TON/USDT pair could rally to $5 and later to $5.50.
The 20-day EMA ($3.71) is the critical support to watch out for on the downside. If the support cracks, it will signal that the bulls are losing their grip. The pair may slide to the 50-day SMA ($3.48) and then to $2.81.
Chainlink price analysis
Chainlink (LINK) tried to rise above the 20-day EMA ($14.32) on April 1, but the bears held their ground.
Sellers will try to pull the price to the support line of the descending channel pattern, which remains the key short-term level to keep an eye on. If the price breaks below the support line, the LINK/USDT pair could descend to $10.
If buyers want to prevent the downside, they will have to push and maintain the price above the 50-day SMA ($15.47). If they manage to do that, the pair could rally to $17.50 and subsequently to the resistance line.
UNUS SED LEO price analysis
UNUS SED LEO (LEO) turned down from the overhead resistance of $9.90 and plunged below the uptrend line on March 30.
However, the bears could not sustain the lower levels, and the bulls pushed the price back into the triangle on April 1. The recovery is expected to face selling at the 20-day EMA ($9.60). If the price turns down from the 20-day EMA and breaks below the uptrend line, it increases the risk of a fall to $8.
Instead, if the LEO/USD pair breaks above the 20-day EMA, it suggests that the markets have rejected the breakdown. A breakout and close above $9.90 will complete an ascending triangle pattern, which has a target objective of $12.04.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
If you’ve ever wondered when is the right time to invest in Bitcoin (BTC), you won’t want to miss our latest interview with Matt Hougan. As the chief investment officer at Bitwise, Hougan provides an in-depth analysis, explaining why, from a risk-adjusted perspective, there has never been a more opportune time to buy Bitcoin.
In our discussion, Hougan lays out a compelling argument: Bitcoin’s early days were filled with uncertainty — technology risks, regulatory threats, trading inefficiencies, and reputational concerns. Fast forward to today, and those risks have significantly diminished. The launch of Bitcoin ETFs, adoption by major institutional investors, and even the US government’s strategic Bitcoin reserve have all cemented its place in the global financial ecosystem.
“Bitcoin is only 10% of gold. So just to match gold, which I think is just a stopping point on its long-term journey, it has to ten-x from here,” he said.
But that’s just the beginning. Hougan also touches on Bitcoin’s long-term price potential, why institutional adoption is about to accelerate, and how market fundamentals could push Bitcoin to new heights.
“There’s just too much structural long-term demand that has to come into this market against a severely limited new supply,” he said.
Bitfarms, a global computer infrastructure company known for its Bitcoin mining operations, has entered into a $300 million loan agreement with Macquarie Group to finance the development of its high-performance computing (HPC) data centers.
According to an April 2 announcement, Macquarie’s private debt facility will provide $50 million in initial funding for Bitfarms’ Panther Creek data center project in Pennsylvania.
The remaining $250 million will be released once Bitfarms achieves “specific development milestones at its Panther Creek location,” the announcement said.
Once developed, Panther Creek will have a nearly 500-megawatt capacity fueled by several power sources.
Panther Creek “will be sought after by HPC tenants once construction of the project is underway,” said Joshua Stevens, an associate director at Macquarie Group.
The project is being delivered at a time when AI applications are fueling growing demand for new sources of computational power and data storage capacity. Bitcoin miners are rushing to fill the void — and to secure reliable revenue streams for themselves in a post-halving environment.
However, Bitfarms disclosed in its recent quarterly report that it continues to face “regulatory challenges in expanding its energy capacity,” with the approval timeline ranging from 12 to 36 months.
Bitfarms mined 654 Bitcoin (BTC) in the final quarter of 2024 at an average all-in cash cost of $60,800.
Like other miners, Bitfarms has elected to retain a significant portion of its mined Bitcoin. Industry data shows it currently holds 1,152 BTC on its books, placing it among the top 25 publicly traded Bitcoin investors.
Miners like Hive Digital have doubled down on their long-term Bitcoin “hodl” strategy as a way to bolster their balance sheet. The company’s Bitcoin holdings have swelled to 2,620 BTC.
Meanwhile, MARA Holdings has accumulated 46,374 BTC and has announced plans for a $2 billion stock offering to acquire more Bitcoin.
Hive executives told Cointelegraph that the company has repurposed a portion of its Nvidia GPUs for such tasks. They said AI applications can generate more than $2.00 per hour in revenue, compared to just $0.12 per hour for crypto mining activities.
Sentient, an artificial intelligence development platform backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, has released an open-source AI search framework that it says outperforms leading closed-source competitors.
The company announced the public release of Open Deep Search (ODS) on April 2, describing it as a high-performance, developer-friendly alternative to platforms like Perplexity AI and OpenAI’s GPT-4o.
Sentient’s ODS aims to empower developers with open-source “Loyal AI” models, which Sentient says preserve the original intent of their developers.
The firm’s fingerprinting technology allows developers to protect intellectual property while maintaining model openness — aiming to solve the biggest issue of open-source AI, the challenges of monetizing a model without centralization.
“AI should belong to the community, not controlled by closed-source corporations,” according to Himanshu Tyagi, co-founder of Sentient and professor at the Indian Institute of Science.
“We’re building, monetizing and delivering open-source AI with a key principle in mind: singularity in intelligence but plurality in use cases,” he added.
”Open-source development ensures performance and user control that closed systems simply cannot match.”
Sentient’s ODS scored 75.3% accuracy on the “Frames” benchmark, which measures factuality, retrieval and reasoning capabilities, used to answer complex “multi-hop questions” that require the integration of multiple sources.
ODS surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o Search Preview’s 50.5% and the Perplexity Sonar Reasoning Pro, which scored 44.4%.
To prevent potential bias, Sentient ensured that its researchers didn’t have access to the Frames testing sets during the benchmarking process.
Dobby NFT mint. Source: Sentient
“Independent verification is only needed for closed-source solutions because open-source solutions have no incentive to falsely report the evaluations,” Tyagi said, adding:
“Anyone with a computer can run our code, reproduce our results, and verify whether it is correct or not. The numbers reported can be reproduced using the repo’s eval section by anyone and thus are globally verifiable.”
The ODS release follows growing interest in Sentient’s platform. The firm said it amassed more than 1.8 million waitlist registrations in the lead-up to the launch.
The release of Sentient’s new open-source search framework comes amid a tipping point for open-source AI development.
“We’re witnessing a significant shift as open-source AI solutions increasingly challenge closed-source dominance,” Tyagi said.
“Examples such as DeepSeek’s advancements in reasoning, Manus’s innovations with agents, and now our own contributions to ODS with advanced AI search frameworks highlight this shift,” he added.
“Open-source models can easily outperform closed-source giants with the right architecture,” said Sewoong Oh, Sentient’s lead researcher and professor at the University of Washington. “The results of these benchmarks validate our mission to create an open ecosystem that benefits all AI builders and users.”
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC), a Japanese banking and financial services conglomerate, along with business systems firm TIS Inc, Ava Labs — the developer of the Avalanche network — and digital asset infrastructure company Fireblocks, have signed an agreement to explore a framework for commercializing stablecoins in Japan.
Under a Memorandum of Understanding, the companies will focus on developing strategies around issuing and circulating stablecoins pegged to the US dollar and Japanese yen, according to a joint announcement.
Additionally, the collaboration will explore stablecoins as a settlement mechanism for tokenized real-world assets such as stocks, bonds, and real estate.
Stablecoins continue to be a major focus of crypto regulatory frameworks worldwide, and one of the sectors venture capitalists are eyeing in 2025 as nation-states push stablecoins to the forefront of their digital asset strategies.
Stablecoins become central to US digital asset policy
Speaking at the White House Crypto Summit on March 7, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that comprehensive stablecoin regulation was central to President Donald Trump’s stated goal to become the worldwide leader in crypto.
Bessent said stablecoins would help protect US dollar hegemony in global markets by expanding the use and scope of the dollar across the world.
Centralized overcollateralized stablecoins rely on short-term US Treasury instruments and fiat money held in banks to back the value of the tokenized real-world assets.
According to Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of stablecoin issuer Tether, the company is now the seventh-largest buyer of US Treasury bills, beating out sovereign countries such as France, Singapore, Belgium, and the United Kingdom.
Stablecoin issuer Tether is now the seventh-largest buyer of US Treasury bills. Source: Paolo Ardoino
Stablecoin issuers like Tether and Circle accumulate the yield from holding US debt instruments as part of their profit from issuing tokenized fiat assets to buyers.
Recently, calls to share stablecoin yield with customers have escalated, with industry leaders like Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong proposing that stablecoin laws change in the US to allow firms to distribute yield to clients onchain.
US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand disagreed with those proposals and warned against stablecoin issuers sharing yield with clients, arguing that it would displace the banking industry and disrupt home mortgage loans, small business loans, and local bank lending.
