Earnings Season Kicks Off, X Integrates Crypto, Check Your Ledger
Mid-April has been full of contrasts. While traditional markets are rewriting historical highs driven by the AI boom, the crypto industry is making crucial steps toward mass adoption while simultaneously battling sophisticated security threats.
Records Defying Politics
Despite a complex geopolitical backdrop (diplomats estimate that negotiations with Iran could take at least half a year), Wall Street demonstrates confidence:
BlackRock: The world's largest asset manager reported on its quarter. Revenue grew by 27% (to $6.7 billion), and ETF inflows reached a record $132 billion. BlackRock now has over $11 trillion under management.
TSMC: The Taiwanese monopoly TSMC (chip manufacturer for Apple and NVIDIA) exceeded expectations. The company's net profit soared by 58.3% (to $18 billion), and its net margin reached 50.5%. Every second dollar earned stays within the company thanks to the demand for AI solutions.
S&P 500 Historical High: The index broke through the $7022 mark, showing its best 10-day growth since COVID-19.
Crypto Industry
X (Twitter) Gets Closer to Web3: X's Head of Product, Nikita Bier, hinted at the upcoming launch of a major crypto product. The platform has already taken its first step: implementing Cashtags powered by the Solana blockchain. Users in the US and Canada can now see asset charts directly in their feed by clicking on a ticker (a global release is expected soon).
Bitmine — The New MicroStrategy for Ethereum: The company reported a paper loss of $3.82 billion due to the drop in the ETH exchange rate. However, their strategy is unwavering: Bitmine has accumulated 4.47 million ETH (about 4% of the total global supply) and is successfully monetizing it. During the quarter, the company earned $10 million solely from staking.
The ETH network, meanwhile, experienced the busiest quarter in its history, processing 200 million transactions in the first quarter of 2026.
Kraken Goes Public: The crypto exchange confirmed its IPO filing. Deutsche Börse Group is investing $200 million, valuing Kraken at $13.3 billion (the valuation was reduced from $20 billion due to market correction, but the process of going public has not been halted).
Top 10 Blockchains by Transaction Volume in Q1 2026:
Epidemic of Fake Ledgers
This week, asset storage security became the number one topic. Scammers have reached a new level:
1. Threat in the App Store: A fake Ledger app was discovered. Users, trusting the official Apple store, entered their seed phrases. The result — $9.5 million stolen in BTC, Tron, and Solana. Among the victims was American musician G. Love, who lost 5.9 BTC ($420,000). Hackers have already laundered the funds through KuCoin deposit addresses.
2. Hardware Counterfeits: A batch of physical Ledger wallets with modified chips and built-in Wi-Fi/Bluetooth modules was discovered on Chinese marketplaces. These devices covertly steal the seed phrase and withdraw assets.
Never enter your seed phrase on a computer or smartphone. Buy hardware wallets only on the manufacturer's official website and always use the Genuine Check function.
Have a successful and safe week.