President Trump announced Thursday that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will serve as interim U.S. attorney general, replacing Pam Bondi. Blanche previously signed an April 2025 DOJ directive that dissolved the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and told prosecutors to avoid regulatory-violation cases against crypto firms. The policy has already been cited in the SDNY case involving Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, where one charge was dropped after prosecutors referenced the memo.

Global X Management Company launched the Global X Ethereum Covered Call ETF (EHCC) on April 2, 2026, aiming to make weekly income distributions by selling call options on Ether-related ETPs. The actively managed fund charges a 0.75% expense ratio and invests at least 80% of net assets in U.S.-listed spot and futures Ether ETPs, without holding ETH directly.

Brian Armstrong said on April 2, 2026 that he will personally spend time on Bitcoin's quantum-resistance efforts and oversee Coinbase's post-quantum cryptography work. The move comes as late-2025 research from Google Quantum AI and Caltech modeled a hypothetical quantum system that could break Bitcoin encryption in under nine minutes, close to the network's 10-minute block interval. Coinbase is also pointing to the need for community consensus through the BIP process before any protocol-level upgrade can be adopted.

BlackRock and other major Wall Street firms are advertising roles for permanent digital-asset desks, including a New York Managing Director position listed at $270,000–$350,000. The article says crypto firms posted 5,154 openings in early 2025, and highlights Singapore job listings rising 158% as institutional hiring spreads beyond New York.

Riot Platforms said it sold 3,778 Bitcoin in Q1 2026 for $289.5 million, while producing 1,473 BTC over the same period. The miner finished the quarter with 15,680 BTC, down 18% from 18,005 at the end of 2025, as it directed capital toward high-performance computing colocation and other infrastructure needs.

World Liberty Financial (WLFI) is drawing ethics scrutiny over a structure that sends 75% of net revenue to DT Marks DEFI LLC, an entity tied to Donald Trump and his family, while shielding them from operational liability. A House Democrats staff report dated November 24 described WLFI as a focal point of alleged self-dealing, alongside claims of at least $890 million collected and tokens valued at $3.8 billion. The project has also been linked to large inflows including Justin Sun's $75 million purchase and a $100 million stablecoin transfer from the UAE-based Aqua 1 Foundation, while WLFI tokens are reported down 50% from all-time highs.

On April 2, 2026, Coinbase and the Linux Foundation launched the X402 Foundation to steward an open-source standard that uses HTTP status code 402 as a built-in payment trigger. The X402 flow lets servers quote a price and accepted tokens, while clients submit a signed payment payload (including stablecoins or other ERC-20 tokens) within normal web/API requests. Early tooling is tied to Base, with Cloudflare's Agents SDK supporting transactions on Base Sepolia using USDC.

Circle has launched cirBTC, a wrapped Bitcoin token backed 1:1 by native on-chain BTC reserves, with initial deployment on Ethereum mainnet and Circle's Arc blockchain. The company says the design includes real-time on-chain reserve verification and no third-party custodian, positioning cirBTC for DeFi lending and derivatives use alongside USDC and Circle Mint.

Russia has introduced crypto mining restrictions across 13 regions, a move expected to impact about 50,000 miners, after the activity was legalized in August 2024. The measures are tied to peak autumn-winter periods and run through 2031, while year-round bans in southern Buryatia and Zabaikalsky Krai are set to begin on January 1, 2026. The crackdown is framed around power supply stress, with Siberian shortfalls cited at nearly 3,000 MW.