[News Brief] Apr 22, morning | Trump says U.S. and Iran have reached a de facto framework agreement… Iran pushes back on Hormuz Strait remarks

Trump says U.S. and Iran have reached a de facto framework agreement… Iran pushes back on Hormuz Strait remarks

President Trump said the United States and Iran have effectively reached a basic agreement and that the Strait of Hormuz would remain open. In response, Iran said it would continue to control management of the strait and vessel transit rights, arguing that Trump’s remarks were incomplete.

According to Odaily, Trump said on social media that he discussed Iran and peace-related matters with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain, as well as Pakistan’s army chief. He also said he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that details of a final agreement are still under discussion.

Iran said that even if an agreement is reached based on the exchanges between the two sides, the Strait of Hormuz would still operate under Iranian control. Iran added that it agreed to restore the number of vessel transits to pre-war levels, but emphasized that this does not mean freedom of navigation would be fully restored.

The Strait of Hormuz is a key route for Middle Eastern oil shipments, and any rise in geopolitical tensions could affect global oil prices and risk-asset sentiment.

Trump: latest Iranian proposal under discussion… decision on whether war resumes could come before Sunday

According to Odaily, Trump said he is scheduled to meet negotiators later in the day to discuss Iran’s latest proposal.

Trump said a decision on whether the war will resume is likely before Sunday, adding that the odds are “50-50” between reaching a good deal and launching strikes on Iran.

U.S. April core PCE and Q1 GDP revision due next week

PANews reported on the 24th that major macroeconomic data due next week include the U.S. April core Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, the revised first-quarter real GDP figure, and weekly initial jobless claims.

The calendar also includes Australia’s April CPI, the ECB’s April monetary policy meeting minutes, eurozone economic sentiment, Japan’s unemployment rate, Germany’s CPI, the U.S. Chicago PMI, and remarks from Federal Reserve Governor Bowman.

Markets remain cautious that elevated inflation and rising Treasury yields could increase volatility in U.S. equities and risk assets such as cryptocurrencies. Earnings from major U.S. retailers including Costco and Best Buy are also being watched as indicators of whether consumer demand is slowing.

$180 million in crypto short positions liquidated in the past 30 minutes

According to Watcher.Guru, $180 million worth of short positions were liquidated across the crypto market over the past 30 minutes.

Short liquidation occurs when rising prices force bearish positions to close, and is generally interpreted as a signal of heightened short-term market volatility.

Russia expands scope of information filing requirements for miners and mining infrastructure operators

The Russian government has expanded the scope of information that miners and mining infrastructure operators must submit to tax authorities, PANews reported.

Under the new rules, the state registry for miners and operators must include network address information for ASIC mining equipment.

Russia’s Finance Ministry said the measure is intended to simplify digital asset transaction oversight and procedures for investigating violations. It may also help grid operators more accurately assess infrastructure loads in regions where mining capacity is concentrated.

Under current law, government agencies, courts, the Bank of Russia, and grid operators can access miner registration data. The Federal Tax Service is responsible for maintaining the registries of miners and mining infrastructure operators.

Miners and infrastructure operators such as mining pools must submit and regularly update information including equipment manufacturer, model, serial number, algorithm, hash rate, power consumption, operating method, the type and amount of cryptocurrency mined, and mining pool details.

Two Stable-related contracts suspected of being attacked… potential losses may exceed $3 million

On-chain analyst ZachXBT said two contracts related to European stablecoin issuer Stable are suspected to have been exploited. Potential losses may exceed $3 million, and seven attacker addresses were disclosed.

According to the source, ZachXBT estimated that the attackers funded the operation through Noble’s CCTP platform. The incident may represent a smart contract security breach involving a stablecoin issuer, though additional losses have yet to be confirmed.

Evmos halts operations after governance proposal to shut down network passes

Evmos, a Cosmos ecosystem project, has halted network operations after a governance proposal titled “Evmos Shutdown” was approved.

According to Odaily, Evmos nodes stopped at block height 37,318,000. The Evmos block explorer and official website are currently inaccessible.

Evmos had operated as an EVM-compatible network within the Cosmos ecosystem.

Former FTX US outside counsel Fenwick & West agrees to pay $54 million in class-action settlement

According to PANews, Fenwick & West, the former outside legal counsel to FTX US, agreed to pay $54 million to resolve a customer fraud-related class action.

The settlement also includes $11.75 million from accounting firm Prager Metis and $420,000 from former NBA player Udonis Haslem. The total for the second FTX-related class-action settlement is about $66.17 million.

Fenwick & West has been accused of helping facilitate Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud, though the firm has not admitted wrongdoing. It also faces a separate $525 million lawsuit in Washington.

FTX filed for bankruptcy in 2022, and civil and criminal cases tied to customer losses and fraud allegations against former executives have continued since then.

Strategy holds more Bitcoin than all governments combined

Bitcoin historian Pete Rizzo said Strategy holds more Bitcoin than all governments in the world combined.

He added that Strategy continues raising billions of dollars to fund additional purchases. The company is widely seen as a leading public-market example of a corporate Bitcoin treasury strategy and a key indicator of institutional demand.

Hyperliquid’s HYPE rally driven more by internal buyback structure than ETF expectations: analysis

According to Wu Blockchain, Forbes contributor Zennon Kapron argued that HYPE’s recent rise has been driven more by Hyperliquid’s internal buyback structure than by ETF-related expectations.

Kapron said Hyperliquid has used most of its trading-fee revenue since launch — more than $1.16 billion — through its Assistance Fund to buy HYPE on the open market.

He argued that these purchases, which amount to hundreds of millions of dollars each quarter, may provide stronger price support than early ETF inflows. However, he added that because the structure depends on trading volume, any market slowdown that reduces fee revenue could also weaken downside support for the token.