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A majority of crypto users are willing to allow artificial intelligence agents to manage part of their investment portfolios, according to the results of a recent CoinGecko survey.
Among the 2,632 crypto participants surveyed, 87% said they would let AI agents manage at least a tenth of their crypto portfolio, CoinGecko’s April 23 report shows.
Around half the respondents said they were willing to let an AI agent manage half their portfolio or less.
“This suggests that despite having doubts as to how safe or secure AI agents are, crypto users are still mainly curious about the technology and want to try using them for trading or investing,” CoinGecko research analyst Yuqian Lim said.
At the same time, around 36% of survey participants said they would allow AI agents to manage the majority of their holdings. A smaller group, roughly 14.5%, were willing to leave their entire crypto portfolio in the digital hands of an AI agent.
“In other words, 1 in 7 participants either think they can completely trust AI agents with all of their crypto, or believe the potential profits will outweigh the risks, or simply have a high risk tolerance for their crypto holdings,” Lim said.
Mixed opinions on human vs AI trading
However, opinions were mixed on whether AI agents would be better than humans at crypto trading and investing overall. There was a roughly even split, with half of the respondents saying AI agents would be better than humans at crypto trading and investing most of the time.
“That said, the remaining half of survey participants believed AI does not have an edge over humans in the crypto market yet, which suggests that opinions are still divided over this comparison,” Lim said.
About 13%, or 1 in 8, said they weren’t comfortable leaving any of their portfolios for management by AI or thought they could manage their crypto stash better than an AI agent.
The same survey found that participants had very mixed views on whether AI agents could be trusted with access to people’s crypto wallets.
“Specifically, 37.5% indicated that they do not trust AI agents with their crypto wallets, while a slightly lower 34.5% said they can be trusted and 27.9% were neutral on the matter,” Lim said.
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Agentic AI is already being used to build Web3 applications, launch tokens, and interact with people autonomously. Some platforms have also been exploring the use of AI agents for trading.
Last December, crypto industry execs told Cointelegraph they expected AI agents to transform Web3 in 2025, flagging crypto staking and onchain trading as emerging early use cases. However, there was also speculation that AI would face headwinds, including technical challenges, regulatory hurdles, and centralization.
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The host of The Wolf Of All Streets podcast, Scott Melker, says he’s received word that his face and name are being impersonated by scammers, with at least one victim duped out of $4 million.
On April 23, the crypto investor said, “I’m sick,” reporting that he’d been contacted by a private investigator revealing that a client of his was scammed for $4 million by a Nigerian group using his name and face as bait.
“They’ve apparently scammed a number of people,” Melker said, adding, “They sent him a fake driver’s license to prove it was me,” and used his X avatar as the photo.
The scammers used AI to generate the fake ID and used a fake but convincing-looking email account.
“They do zoom calls with AI,” which are “apparently sophisticated,” said Melker, who added that the scammers have also spoofed accounts of his wife and kids to support identity confirmation.
Technical analysts “TheChartGuys” reported something similar, with a person getting scammed for $5,000 after the scammers replicated their voice using AI deepfakes.
Fake ID is easy to spot, says trader
Crypto adviser and trader “Nebraskan Gooner” said a quick Google search easily reveals that the ID is fake.
He pointed out that there were a few subtle discrepancies in the address and date formats. He said that it it sucks that these scammers are getting so sophisticated, but was “surprised how badly this was with how sophisticated of an operation these seems to be.”
Cointelegraph reached out to Melker for further comments but did not receive an immediate response.
Related: ‘Victim-blaming’ Americans can deter crypto scams reporting — Regulator
AI-generated scams are surging as the technology evolves.
In March, California’s Department of Justice warned that it had discovered seven new types of crypto scams that involved AI.
In February, Chainalysis said that 2025 will be a big year for AI scams, stating that generative AI is making scams “more scalable and affordable for bad actors to conduct.”
In a recent report, software giant Microsoft said that bad actors were using AI to “supercharge their scams.”
“AI tools can scan and scrape the web for company information, helping cyberattackers build detailed profiles of employees or other targets to create highly convincing social engineering lures,” it stated.
“It’s going to get exponentially worse, I would imagine,” lamented Melker.
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The Los Angeles Police Department has recovered $2.7 million worth of Bitcoin mining machines it alleges were stolen by a crime ring in a heist at the city’s airport.
The LAPD said on April 22 that detectives from its Cargo Theft Unit, along with the city’s Port Police, the railroad-based Union Pacific Police, and the city’s Airport Police, arrested Oscar David Borrero-Manchola and Yonaiker Rafael Martinez-Ramos over the thefts.
Authorities claimed the pair are “prominent members” of a South American crime ring tied to the theft and sale of stolen goods in and around Los Angeles.
The LAPD said searches of storage unit facilities in the San Fernando Valley, northeast of downtown Los Angeles, recovered $4 million worth of stolen goods, including the Bitcoin (BTC) mining rigs taken from Los Angeles International Airport “as the shipment was about to be loaded onto a plane headed to Hong Kong.”
Detectives also found and seized over $1.2 million in allegedly stolen tequila, clothing, shoes, speakers, coffee, body wash, and pet food.
Borrero-Manchola and Martinez-Ramos were booked at Van Nuys Jail in the city’s northwest. Borrero-Manchola was cited for receiving stolen property and was released, while Martinez-Ramos was arrested on a no-bail warrant.
The LAPD said that “the investigation remains ongoing, and additional arrests may follow.”
Crypto mining rigs fetch top dollar
The LAPD didn’t share the number of machines it seized or what model the rigs are, but a typical, current-model Bitcoin mining machine sells for between $3,000 to over $5,000.
Related: Americans lost $9.3B to crypto fraud in 2024 — FBI
US law enforcement has recovered stolen crypto mining rigs in the past. In July, the LAPD said it arrested a man it alleged was in possession of stolen Bitcoin mining rigs worth $579,000, seizing them from a cargo van and storage unit.
One of the largest thefts of Bitcoin mining rigs happened in late 2017 and early 2018 in Iceland, where a group robbed data centers to make off with over 600 machines.
The rigs reportedly ended up in China, as just three months after they were stolen, Chinese authorities seized a similar number and model of mining rigs in Tianjin, a city southeast of the capital, Beijing.
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Twenty One Capital, a new Bitcoin treasury company led by Strike founder Jack Mallers with the support of Tether, SoftBank and Cantor Fitzgerald, is looking to supplant Michael Saylor’s Strategy to become the “superior vehicle for investors seeking capital-efficient Bitcoin exposure.”
Twenty One revealed it plans to launch with 42,000 Bitcoin (BTC) (worth $3.9 billion) with roughly 23,950 BTC coming from Tether, 10,500 BTC from Softbank and 7,000 BTC from Bitfinex, which will be converted into equity at $10 per share, according to an April 23 statement.
The firm is seeking a public listing via a blank-check merger with Cantor Equity Partners and will trade under the ticker XXI on the Nasdaq once it finalizes an agreement with investors to raise $585 million through convertible bonds and equity financing.
“Our mission is simple: to become the most successful company in Bitcoin, the most valuable financial opportunity of our time. We’re not here to beat the market, we’re here to build a new one,” said Mallers, the founder and CEO of Bitcoin payments-focused firm Strike.
“A public stock, built by Bitcoiners, for Bitcoiners.”
Twenty One specifically compared its business model to Strategy’s in an investor presentation to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming it is potentially a “superior vehicle for investors seeking capital-efficient Bitcoin exposure.”
It claimed that Strategy’s ability to create shareholder value through future Bitcoin purchases will be limited because the firm — which holds 534,741 BTC — would need to make even larger investments to increase its Bitcoin Per Share, or BPS, thus diminishing the per-share dollar impact of future capital deployments.
Twenty One said it would be a more “pure play” for investors seeking Bitcoin exposure with Bitcoin-native operations and more “flexibility” for strategic capital raises.
A launch of 42,000 Bitcoin would make Twenty One the third-largest corporate Bitcoin holder, trailing only Strategy and Bitcoin mining firm MARA Holdings, which holds 47,600 BTC, according to BitcoinTreasuries.NET data.
Twenty One plans to do more than just stack Bitcoin
Twenty One also intends to build out several Bitcoin-focused offerings, including Bitcoin debt and equity products, an advisory service, a lending platform and an educational platform.
“Twenty One’s mission will be to accelerate Bitcoin adoption and Bitcoin literacy at both institutional and retail levels,” the firm said.
Related: Bitcoin ETF inflows top 500 times 2025 average in 'significant deviation'
The firm will also partner with industry players to host Bitcoin conferences.
The news sparked a massive 54.2% price rally in Cantor Equity Partners (CEP) shares to $16.50 on April 23 and has risen another 25.1% in after-hours, Google Finance data shows. CEP will convert to XXI once the $585 million agreement is completed.
The venture strengthens Tether’s ties with Cantor, which manages US Treasury reserves backing Tether’s USDT, which boasts a market cap of $145.3 billion. Cantor also owns a 5% stake in the stablecoin issuer.
Twenty One will be majority-owned by Tether and crypto exchange Bitfinex, while Japanese investment holding firm SoftBank will own a “significant” minority share.
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has released its annual report detailing complaints and losses due to scams and fraud involving cryptocurrency in 2024.
According to the report released on April 23, the IC3 received more than 140,000 complaints referencing cryptocurrency in 2024, resulting in roughly $9.3 billion in losses. The bureau reported that individuals over the age of 60 had been the most affected by crypto-related fraud, with roughly 33,000 complaints and $2.8 billion in losses.
“Last year saw a new record for losses reported to IC3, totaling a staggering $16.6 billion,” said the report. “Fraud represented the bulk of reported losses in 2024, and ransomware was again the most pervasive threat to critical infrastructure, with complaints rising 9% from 2023," notes the report, adding that, as a group, those over the age of 60 suffered the most losses and submitted the most complaints.
The report added that the resultant losses had increased roughly 66% since 2023, from roughly $5.6 billion to $9.3 billion. The most significant percentage of losses occurred due to crypto investment schemes, while the largest number of complaints related to “sextortion” schemes, in which fraudsters manipulated photos and videos to create explicit content. Other scams included schemes involving the use of crypto ATMs or kiosks.
Related: Crypto scam uses trade war fears to lure victims, Canadian watchdogs warn
In February, the FBI reported its “Operation Level Up” had saved potential victims of crypto fraud roughly $285 million between January 2024 and January 2025. However, blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis speculated that 2025 could see the largest number of scams to date, given that generative AI is making the practice “more scalable and affordable for bad actors to conduct.”
Globally, Chainalysis estimated that there had been roughly $41 billion in illicit crypto volume in 2024, with roughly 25% of the funds involved with “hacking, extortion, trafficking, or scams.” Some of the most high-profile crimes included the $1.4 billion in crypto stolen from the Bybit exchange in March and North Korean hackers taking more than $1.3 billion.
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Sovereign wealth funds and other institutions were accumulating Bitcoin (BTC) during April 2025, while retail traders were exiting the markets via exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and spot markets, according to John D’Agostino, the head of strategy at Coinbase Institutional.
During a recent appearance on CNBC, the Coinbase executive likened Bitcoin to gold and said that many institutional buyers bought BTC as a hedge against currency inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty. The Coinbase executive said:
"Bitcoin is trading on its core characteristics, which again are similar to gold. You've got scarcity, immutability, and non-sovereign asset portability. So it's trading the way people who believe in Bitcoin would like it to trade."
"When you do the work, there's a very short list of assets that mirror the characteristics of gold. Bitcoin is on that shortlist," the executive added.
Governments and financial institutions are increasingly adopting Bitcoin to protect purchasing power and the value of their treasuries in the face of macroeconomic shocks and geopolitical tensions.
Related: Bitcoin holders back in profit as new capital enters the market — Is $100K BTC price next?
Institutions adopting Bitcoin reserve strategies to combat inflation
Sovereign countries like El Salvador and Bhutan have adopted national Bitcoin reserves and actively purchase Bitcoin for their reserves.
Municipalities and state governments have also adopted pro-Bitcoin policies and proposed legislation to accumulate Bitcoin to protect the purchasing power of treasuries from depreciating fiat currencies.
Michael Saylor and Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, popularized the corporate Bitcoin treasury concept now adopted by a growing list of companies, including MARA, MetaPlanet, and Semler Scientific.
The executive also transformed the business software and intelligence company into a Bitcoin holding firm, akin to a BTC hedge fund.
On April 20, Saylor announced that over 13,000 institutions have direct exposure to Strategy, while an estimated 55 million beneficiaries have indirect financial exposure to the company.
Bitcoin recently surpassed Google in market capitalization, making Bitcoin one of the top five assets in the world, ranking above Amazon and Silver and showcasing the supply-capped digital asset's meteoric growth since 2009.
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Official Trump (TRUMP) jumped 52% on April 23 after the announcement of an exclusive in-person dinner for the top tokenholders with US President Donald Trump. For some crypto advocates, this marks the end of the bear market, especially as Bitcoin (BTC) bounced back above $93,000, but others raise suspicions on how sustainable the TRUMP memecoin rally really is.
From a purely performance perspective, the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin has been a disappointment. After soaring above $75 on launch day, its gains quickly disappeared as investors noticed the high concentration of tokens and the short-term vesting period.
At first sight, it is difficult to justify TRUMP’s current market capitalization of $2.6 billion, given that 80% of the supply was allocated to founders and entities controlled by Trump.
For comparison, well-established projects such as Arbitrum (ARB), Jupiter (JUP), and Maker (MKR) hold a capitalization below $1.6 billion. Those token valuations derive from buybacks using treasury reserves or direct benefits in staking and DeFi mechanisms. For instance, Arbitrum, a leading Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, holds $2.4 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL).
Jupiter, the leading decentralized exchange (DEX) on Solana, boasts $2.3 billion in deposits and has accrued $76.6 million in fees over the past 30 days, according to DefiLlama data. Meanwhile, Sky (formerly Maker), the project behind the extremely successful DAI stablecoin, holds $5.9 billion TVL and $28.6 million in 30-day fees.
TRUMP still ranks in the top 10 for trading activity
Besides being listed on major exchanges, including Binance, Bybit, OKX, Coinbase, Upbit, and Kraken, and often promoted on social media by Trump, the memecoin holds an impressive share in derivatives markets. Notably, its futures open interest stands at $700 million, a top-10 overall.
Established projects with market capitalizations over $6 billion, such as Chainlink (LINK), Litecoin (LTC), and Polkadot (DOT) have smaller futures open interest than TRUMP. Still, while demand for futures markets allows larger traders to take part in the action, it does not necessarily imply optimism as longs (buyers) and shorts (sellers) are matched at all times.
Even though TRUMP is currently trading 84% below its all-time high, it remains a top-10 token in terms of volume. In fact, excluding the stablecoins, only 4 cryptocurrencies surpassed TRUMP’s impressive $3.84 billion 24-hour turnover, according to CoinGecko data.
Despite the huge trading activity, a single promotional event with US President Trump is unlikely to create lasting demand for the TRUMP memecoin, putting the current $13.50 price tag in check. Unless the project eases investors’ concerns about token unlocks, there is hardly a way to justify the 50% premium versus cryptocurrencies that offer utility and perspectives of growth.
It is worth noting that Shiba Inu (SHIB), another memecoin with no real utility, presently trades at a $8 billion market capitalization, hence one could easily argue that a token officially supported by the sitting US President is worth far more, paving the way for $30 or higher price targets for TRUMP.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Traders are embracing diametrically opposed exchange-traded fund (ETF) strategies in a bid to navigate one of the most unpredictable financial markets in recent history, according to data from Bloomberg Intelligence.
The year-to-date has seen record inflows to ETFs providing leveraged long exposure to volatile assets such as stocks and cryptocurrencies, as well as funds holding risk-off assets such as cash and gold, the data shows.
“[T]here's basically record flows going into leveraged long ETFs but also cash and gold ETFs as people buy the dip and hedge the dip at the same time. May the best degen win!,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas said in an April 23 post on the X platform.
Leveraged ETFs are funds that aim to multiply the daily performance of assets like stocks or crypto, often by two or three times.
In 2025, leveraged long ETFs attracted net inflows of roughly $6 billion, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. Meanwhile, inflows into cash and gold funds approached roughly $4 billion.
Digital gold?
The record fund flows come amid a spike in market turbulence after US President Donald Trump announced plans for sweeping tariffs on US imports on April 2.
Since then, the S&P 500, an index of large US stocks, has shed roughly 5% of its value, according to data from Google Finance. Bitcoin (BTC), meanwhile, has been comparatively resilient.
On April 22, the cryptocurrency’s spot price reclaimed $90,000 per coin for the first time in six weeks, with Bitcoin ETFs clocking nearly $1 billion in net inflows. The cryptocurrency trades above $93,000 as of April 23, according to data from Google Finance.
“Even in the wake of recent tariff announcements, BTC has shown some signs of resilience, holding steady or rebounding on days when traditional risk assets faltered,” Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said in an April research report.
Bitcoin has often been referred to as “digital gold” but the cryptocurrency still has a weak correlation to the safe haven asset and trades more in line with equities, Binance said. Its correlation with gold has averaged around 0.12 over the past 90 days, versus 0.32 for equities.
“The key question is whether BTC can return to its long-term pattern of low correlation with equities,” noted the report, adding that gold is still a preferred safe-haven asset for most investors.
Meanwhile, cryptocurrency exchanges are profiting off of rising volatility by doubling down on financial derivatives, such as futures.
In April, net open interest in Bitcoin futures increased by upward of 30%, to approximately $28 billion, according to data from Coinalyze.
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SOL Strategies, a Canadian investment company, issued $500 million in convertible notes to buy and stake in Solana (SOL) tokens.
The $500 million issuance was made to a singular investor, ATW Partners, a New York-based investment firm. The company provides growth equity and structured capital to companies across public and private markets, a spokesperson for SOL Strategies told Cointelegraph.
A spokesperson for SOL Strategies said the company is focused on building institutional-grade infrastructure for Solana, rather than reacting to short-term price volatility.
According to an April 23 announcement, the yield generated from staking will accrue back to both SOL Strategies and ATW Partners. SOL Strategies is a publicly traded company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange. Its share price has risen 25.3% on the day, according to Google Finance.
Related: Astra Fintech commits $100M for Solana growth in Asia
“This investment represents significant institutional confidence in Solana's long-term potential,” the spokesperson said. “From an ecosystem perspective, we expect several positive impacts. First, by increasing our validator network's stake, we'll contribute to greater network security and decentralization.”
According to StockAnalysis.com, SOL Strategies posted CAD$10.62 million ($7.65 million) in revenue for 2024, a positive turnaround of CAD$15.65 million ($11.27 million) from 2023, when the company posted a loss.
Related: Debate as Solana briefly flips Ethereum in staking market cap
Companies move into Solana
SOL Strategies becomes the second publicly traded company to announce a capital raise aimed at purchasing SOL. On April 21, Upexi disclosed a $100 million raise aimed at building a SOL reserve.
The DeFi Development Corporation (formerly Janover) also recently announced a $42 million raise and plans to create a Solana reserve treasury.
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Today in crypto, Strike founder Jack Mallers is set to lead a crypto firm set to compete with Michael Saylor’s Strategy. US President Donald Trump is hosting a dinner for top holders of his memecoin and gaming giant Ubisoft has teamed up with Immutable to launch a blockchain-based strategy card game.
Strike’s Jack Mallers to head firm seeking superior Bitcoin play to MSTR
Twenty One Capital, a new Bitcoin treasury company led by Strike founder Jack Mallers with the support of Tether, SoftBank and Cantor Fitzgerald, is looking to supplant Michael Saylor’s Strategy to become the “superior vehicle for investors seeking capital-efficient Bitcoin exposure.”
Wow. @jackmallers absolutely smashed this interview.
— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) April 23, 2025
pic.twitter.com/CNY6n1esvB
Twenty One revealed it plans to launch with 42,000 Bitcoin (BTC) (worth $3.9 billion) with roughly 23,950 BTC coming from Tether, 10,500 BTC from Softbank and 7,000 BTC from Bitfinex, which will be converted into equity at $10 per share, according to an April 23 statement.
“Our mission is simple: to become the most successful company in Bitcoin, the most valuable financial opportunity of our time. We’re not here to beat the market, we’re here to build a new one,” said Mallers, the founder and CEO of Bitcoin payments-focused firm Strike.
“A public stock, built by Bitcoiners, for Bitcoiners.”
Top TRUMP tokenholders revealed? US President to host memecoin dinner
Some of the top holders of Donald Trump’s memecoin could come out of the shadows to appear for a dinner the US President is planning to host on May 22.
As of April 23, the official Trump memecoin (TRUMP) website offered the opportunity for the “top 220” holders to meet the president in person at his golf club in Washington, DC. At the time of publication, the guest list for the event was unclear, but the project stated any tokenholder who applied had to pass a background check, “can not be from a [Know Your Customer] watchlist country,” and could not have any additional guests.
The memecoin, which the then-president-elect launched on Jan. 17 before taking office, has been heavily criticized by the crypto industry and lawmakers for potentially allowing foreign officials and interest groups to send money directly to the US President without proper disclosure and oversight. The team behind the project controls 80% of the total supply, while the identities of many of the other top tokenholders are mainly unknown.
The price of the TRUMP memecoin surged roughly 52% from $9.30 to $14.20 shortly after the dinner announcement. After the token launched on Jan. 17, the project’s market capitalization increased to roughly $15 billion before dropping more than 50% by Jan. 20.
Ubisoft taps Immutable to launch Web3 card game “Might & Magic: Fates”
Ubisoft has partnered with Immutable to launch a new Web3 card game. According to a news release shared with Cointelegraph, Might & Magic: Fates blends classic strategic gameplay with modern blockchain technology, offering players digital ownership through Immutable’s Web3 infrastructure.
The game will launch on iOS and Android. The title introduces fresh mechanics, faction-based strategies and a wide array of legendary heroes and creatures.
Players can collect, trade, and customize decks using hundreds of cards, crafting unique strategies in a competitive environment where success is driven by skill and tactical decision-making.
“The game is free-to-play with no hard progression barriers. Players advance by collecting cards and in-game currency through gameplay,” Justin Hulog, chief studio officer for Immutable, told Cointelegraph.
“Additionally, those looking to speed up their progression or acquire specific cards can do so through marketplaces,” Hulog said.
He added that players will have the ability to trade the digital collectible cards they own using dedicated platforms.