Deutsche Börse Acquires $200M Stake in Kraken Parent Payward
Digital asset markets are rallying as geopolitical tensions ease, pushing leading tokens higher and wiping out massive short positions. Meanwhile, institutional players and publicly traded equities continue to build infrastructure and treasury positions. Stay up on the crypto news that matters with "Crypto Currents," daily from The Fly. Join us at 2 PM ET for your essential briefing on the fast-moving world of cryptocurrency on FlyCast radio.DEUTSCHE BORSE ACQUIRES $200M STAKE IN KRAKEN PARENT PAYWARD:Germany's Deutsche BorseInc. for $200M via a secondary-market transaction. The investment extends a strategic partnership the two firms established in December 2025 spanning crypto trading, custody, settlement, collateral management, and tokenized assets, with Deutsche Borse framing the move as part of a broader push to offer access to a wider array of securities over blockchain rails. The transaction is expected to close in Q2 2026, subject to regulatory approval.BITCOIN SURGES TO FOUR-WEEK HIGH ON U.S.-IRAN PEACE OPTIMISM, TRIGGERING $541M IN CRYPTO LIQUIDATIONS:Bitcoinclimbed to $74,901, its highest level since March 17, as risk assets broadly rallied on expectations of a U.S.-Iran peace deal. The move catalyzed a forced unwind of short positions that also pushed etherup 5.5%. Across the 24-hour window, total crypto liquidations hit $541.16M, with shorts accounting for roughly 81% $440.47M of forced losses across approximately 169,800 traders, and the single largest order a $12.40M bitcoin position on the Aster exchange. Open interest rose 8.48% to $56.1B as traders rapidly re-leveraged into the move;CoinDesk's technical analysisidentified $75,500 as the next concentrated short-liquidation trigger, with $77,000–$78,000 as the primary overhead resistance that will determine whether the recovery extends to crypto-adjacent equities.BITCOIN PASSES HALVING CYCLE MIDPOINT WITH PRICE GAINS LAGGING PRIOR CYCLES, SQUEEZING LISTED MINERS:Bitcoin is now more than halfway through the current halving cycle, block issuance fixed at 3.125 BTC with an annualized inflation rate below 1%, but price gains are lagging the trajectory of prior cycles by a measurable margin, marking it a structural headwind for publicly listed miners including Marathon Digital, Riot Platforms, and CleanSpark. Strategysaw its STRC preferred stock register $1.16B in daily trading volume Monday, more than four times its 30-day average of $278M, with analysts estimating a roughly 7,800 bitcoin purchase could be funded via fresh STRC proceeds on Tuesday.FIDELITY FBTC BLEEDS $229M IN REDEMPTIONS AS TOTAL SPOT BTC ETF FLOWS GO NEGATIVE:U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $291M in net outflows on April 13, led by Fidelity's FBTC at $229M in redemptions, while BlackRock's IBIT attracted a $34.7M inflow and Bitwise's BITB added $11.9M, according to. BlackRockseparately, disclosing that IBIT holds approximately $56B in AUM, captured roughly $8.4B in Q1 net inflows, and has become the firm's top revenue driver. IBIT's inflow on April 13, even as peers absorbed sharp redemptions, underscores the product's relative stickiness in a volatile tape.COPPER NAMES EX-FLOW TRADERS CEO AS CHAIRMAN TO PUSH U.S. REGULATED STATUS:Digital asset custody firm Copper Technologies named former Flow Traders CEO Mike Kuehnel as chairman and BNY veteran John Meserve as non-executive director to accelerate U.S. institutional expansion and pursue regulated status in America, according toa press release. High Roller Technologiesseparately executed a definitive agreement with Crypto.com, a CFTC-registered exchange, to offer event contracts in the U.S. across finance, sports, and entertainment, targeting what the company described as a greater-than-$1T domestic prediction markets opportunity, pera company press release; the agreement upgrades a letter of intent signed in January and represents a regulated revenue line for High Roller.PRICE ACTION:As of time of writing, bitcoin was trading at$74,853.30, while ether was trading at$2,343.91,.
