Crypto Weekly 4/26/26

The US Freezes $344M in Tether Linked to Iran, Justin Sun Sues Trump's World Liberty Financial for Fraud, and Litecoin Rewrites Three Hours of Its Own Blockchain History

PRICE CHANGE: WTD/YTD

- Crypto Market Cap ($2.70T): +3% / -12%
- BTC ($78,244): +4% / -11%
- ETH ($2,365): +3% / -20%
- SOL ($87): +2% / -30%
- UNI ($3.29): +1% / -41%
- OP ($0.13): +4% / -53%
- COIN ($200): -3% / -12%
- Tether Mkt Cap ($190B): +1% / +1%
- USDC Mkt Cap ($78B): -1% / +2%
- BTC / ETH Dominance: 58% / 11%

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THIS WEEK IN CRYPTO

- The U.S. Treasury Department froze $344 million in USDT stablecoins linked to Iran. Link. Link.

- Litecoin reversed three hours of blockchain history by reorganizing 13 blocks to undo a zero-day exploit of its privacy layer that allowed attackers to perform double-spend attacks against cross-chain swap protocols, resulting in reported losses of approximately $600,000. Link.

- Pornhub has switched from accepting Tether (USDT) to Circle’s USDC stablecoin for model payouts, citing USDC’s regulatory compliance and reliability as reasons for the change. Link.

- Justin Sun filed a federal lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, alleging the Trump-linked DeFi project fraudulently induced him to invest $75 million, froze his tokens without justification, stripped his governance rights, and threatened to burn his holdings to coerce further investment. Link.

- Tennessee has become the second US state to ban crypto ATMs statewide, making it a misdemeanor to operate or host the machines in response to widespread fraud that caused nearly $390 million in losses in 2025, particularly affecting older Americans. Link.

- Russia’s State Duma has passed comprehensive cryptocurrency legislation that would classify crypto as property and permit cross-border crypto transactions, effectively allowing Russian companies to circumvent Western sanctions while maintaining domestic payment restrictions. Link.

- DoorDash will use Stripe’s Tempo blockchain to pay its delivery workers and merchants in stablecoins across more than 40 countries, aiming to reduce payment settlement times, cross-border fees, and currency conversion costs. Link.

- Fintech unicorn Ramp has launched zero-fee conversions between USDT stablecoin and U.S. dollars across its entire product suite, adding support for USDT across Ethereum, Solana, and the Plasma network. Link.

- New York Attorney General Letitia James filed lawsuits against Coinbase and Gemini, claiming their prediction markets are illegal gambling operations and seeking $2.2 billion and $1.2 billion in damages respectively. Link.

- Morgan Stanley launched a money market fund designed for stablecoin issuers to manage their reserves, positioning itself to compete with BlackRock’s similar offerings in the rapidly growing stablecoin sector. Link.

- MegaETH’s Ethereum Layer 2 network achieved its first performance milestone by launching 10 verified applications on mainnet, triggering a seven-day countdown for the MEGA token generation event scheduled for April 30, 2026. Link.

- Goldman Sachs has filed for its first Bitcoin ETF. Link.

- The ECB has signed agreements with standards-setting organizations to streamline the digital euro’s adoption and launch, aiming to reduce costs, facilitate interoperability, and reduce European dependence on U.S. payment systems ahead of its planned 2029 rollout. Link.

- Stripe and Paradigm-backed blockchain Tempo has launched a stablecoin advisory unit to help businesses and financial institutions adopt stablecoins, offering technical support and expertise to integrate blockchain payments into their operations. Link.