[News Brief] Apr 22, morning | Trump heads to White House Situation Room for final decision on Iran

Trump heads to White House Situation Room for final decision on Iran

President Trump said he is heading to the White House Situation Room to make a final decision on the Iran issue.

According to PA News, Trump said Iran must commit to not possessing nuclear weapons and must immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz, removing all transit restrictions.

He explained that the United States and Iran had reached agreements on several issues, including clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz, lifting the maritime blockade, and handling Iran’s underground enriched nuclear materials.

Trump said the U.S. would work with Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to dispose of the relevant enriched nuclear materials, adding that “there will be no financial exchanges until further notice.”

If implemented, the agreement could affect Middle East geopolitics, global energy markets, and risk-asset sentiment.

U.S. Treasury secretary says U.S. government seized $1 billion in Iranian cryptocurrency

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. government has seized $1 billion worth of Iranian cryptocurrency.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Bessent said, “We secured the wallets as they were,” adding that some holders may still be unaware that their wallets have been seized.

Details of how the seizure was carried out were not disclosed. The United States has been stepping up crypto enforcement related to sanctioned financial flows.

Source: Bitcoin Magazine

SEC chair says agency is overhauling regulatory framework to support U.S. crypto hub goal

According to PANews, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said in a speech at the 2026 Reagan National Economic Forum that the SEC is overhauling its regulatory framework in line with the Trump administration’s goal of making the U.S. the global center of cryptocurrency.

Atkins said the SEC is advancing “Project Crypto” and working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to clarify digital asset securities classification, review exemption frameworks for tokenized securities, and establish rules for on-chain trading systems.

He argued that the previous SEC’s hardline regulatory stance had pushed innovative projects overseas. He added that the agency will focus on expanding regulatory clarity, reducing unnecessary disclosure burdens, and lowering barriers to public listings.

Coinbase wins CFTC approval to offer global crypto derivatives services to U.S. institutions

Coinbase subsidiary Coinbase Financial Markets has received approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to provide global crypto derivatives services to institutional clients in the United States, PANews reported on the 29th.

With the approval, Coinbase can offer institutional customers access to crypto perpetual contracts and options markets through the regulated Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) channel in the U.S. Previously, U.S. institutions often had to use overseas entities to access offshore platforms such as Deribit.

Coinbase currently supports Deribit bitcoin options and plans to expand contract and collateral types, launch perpetual contracts, and gradually roll out services for retail investors.

CFTC approves KalshiEX listing of spot bitcoin-linked perpetual contract

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has approved the listing of KalshiEX’s spot bitcoin price-linked perpetual contract, BTCPERP, on its designated contract market (DCM).

According to Odaily, the CFTC determined that the contract complies with the Commodity Exchange Act, related regulations, and DCM core principles. Kalshi must comply with CFTC rules during the listing and operation of the product.

The CFTC noted that perpetual contract structures are not suitable for every asset class and recommended that assets with unclear applicability undergo voluntary review before approval.

U.S. spot XRP ETFs record $11.879 million in daily net inflows

PANews, citing SoSoValue data, reported that U.S. spot XRP ETFs recorded $11,879,400 in daily net inflows on the 29th (U.S. Eastern Time).

The product with the largest inflow was the Bitwise XRP ETF, which saw $7,357,100 in daily net inflows. Its cumulative net inflows reached $471 million.

The Canary XRP ETF ranked second, attracting $2,377,900 in daily net inflows, with cumulative net inflows totaling $454 million.

As of the time of reporting, total net assets of spot XRP ETFs stood at $1.123 billion, while cumulative net inflows reached $1.423 billion.

BlackRock files third amended S-1 for iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF

Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Premium Income ETF has submitted a third amended version of its S-1 registration statement.

Fees have not yet been disclosed. The filing is seen as part of BlackRock’s process of refining the terms for launching a bitcoin-related ETF product.

Morgan Stanley-affiliated spot bitcoin ETF MSBT surpasses 3,500 BTC in holdings

The Morgan Stanley-affiliated spot bitcoin ETF MSBT has surpassed 3,500 BTC in holdings.

Odaily, citing Arkham data, reported that MSBT purchased an additional 57.332 BTC earlier in the day. The purchase was worth about $4.21 million.

As a result, MSBT’s total bitcoin holdings rose to 3,543 BTC, valued at approximately $260 million.

Texas forms advisory committee for strategic bitcoin reserve

The U.S. state of Texas has formed an advisory committee for its strategic bitcoin reserve.

According to Odaily, Acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock officially appointed four external members to the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Advisory Committee.

The committee was established under Senate Bill 21 and includes CleanSpark President and CFO Gary Vecchiarelli, Comint founder and CEO Jamie McAvity, Southern Methodist University law professor Carla Reyes, and investment industry executive Laurie Dotter.

They will advise the state comptroller on matters related to reserve operations, including bitcoin valuation, custody, and risk management.

Sui mainnet restored; both recent outages traced to same software bug

The Sui network mainnet has resumed normal operations. Transaction processing and network activity have also recovered, and the two recent outages were confirmed to have stemmed from the same software bug.

According to PANews, Sui said the issue was caused by an interaction between the “address balance” feature introduced in the version 1.72 upgrade and the gas-charging logic.

The Sui core team explained that the previously deployed patch was a temporary fix intended to restore the network quickly, but a low-probability outage risk remained. A variation of the same issue later recurred, causing another temporary mainnet halt.

Validators have now deployed a long-term fix, and Sui said all known issues related to the original vulnerability have been resolved. The team plans to publish a post-mortem report detailing the cause of the outages and the recovery process.