Bitcoin (BTC) rose modestly on April 3 and briefly traded above $67,200 as daily funding rates increased by more than 300%. The move suggests leveraged traders expanded bullish positioning, though open interest was down 0.12% at the time of writing. Analysts framed the divergence as a funding spike driven more by trader repositioning than by a clear surge of new capital.

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.

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood said Bitcoin is now a "proven" technology and asset class and should no longer suffer 85% to 95% collapses from all-time highs. In comments aired April 1, she argued that even a 50% drop would be viewed as comparatively mild, while a separate forecast on X pointed to $34,000 as the next potential BTC floor.

Riot Platforms said it sold 3,778 bitcoin in Q1 2026, generating $289.5 million in net proceeds at an average price of $76,626 per BTC. The company reported producing 1,473 BTC in the quarter and ending with 15,680 BTC on its balance sheet, including 5,802 restricted BTC.

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.

On April 2, 2026, Soluna Holdings, Inc. said it closed a $53 million deal to acquire the 150 MW Briscoe Wind Farm in West Texas to supply its Project Dorothy data center infrastructure. The company expects the transaction to be immediately accretive, with year-one Adjusted EBITDA projected at $6 million to $11 million, and said the site supports a planned 300 MW Project Dorothy 3 AI campus expansion.

On April 3, Bitcoin (BTC) rose nearly 1% as the broader market advanced about 0.5%, while BTC dominance moved above 58% and total open interest increased 4.5%. Finbold's AI aggregation of ChatGPT, Gemini 3 Flash, and Grok 4.1 set an average April 30, 2026 target of $63,517 versus $66,936, with model calls ranging from $61,551 to $64,500.

On April 3, the Coinbase Bitcoin Premium Index returned to positive territory after 15 straight days below zero, printing 0.0019%. The tiny premium suggests Coinbase BTC traded only marginally above the global average, offering at most a tentative hint of improving U.S. spot demand. Bitcoin was quoted around $66,958 at the time, up about 0.71% over 24 hours.