Bitmine's ETH Buying Spree Rivals Strategy's Bitcoin Pace

Bitmine bought $234 million of ether in its largest weekly purchase of 2026, a pace that, stripped of Strategy's STRC-fueled spikes, approaches the bitcoin accumulator's regular cadence. ETH slipped 1.57% to $2,284.44 on a day when risk appetite faded across crypto markets, but the public miner's treasury conviction tells a different story than the spot tape.

DOJ Draws a Bright Line: Code Is Not a Crime

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed the Department of Justice will no longer investigate or charge software developers unless they knowingly assist third parties in committing crimes. The statement codifies a pivot away from the prior administration's posture of treating open-source protocol development as potential money-transmission or fraud.

The policy shift lands alongside a parallel move by banking regulators. The crypto lobby secured formal removal of "reputation risk" from bank examination criteria after the OCC and FDIC finalized a rule stripping the standard earlier this month. Together, the two developments dismantle significant legal and regulatory barriers that had chilled both developer activity and institutional banking relationships.

Israel's Digital Shekel Goes Live on Solana

Israel approved BILS, its first regulated stablecoin, built on the Solana network with custody infrastructure from Fireblocks and auditing oversight from EY. The stablecoin is pegged to the Israeli shekel, making it one of a growing number of non-dollar fiat tokens seeking regulatory legitimacy.

Fireblocks continues to accumulate sovereign-adjacent mandates. The firm's custody layer now underpins stablecoin infrastructure across multiple jurisdictions, positioning it as a default counterparty for governments and central banks entering digital asset issuance.

Bitcoin Stalls Below $80K, ETF Inflows Snap

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs posted $263 million in outflows, ending a nine-day inflow streak as BTC failed repeatedly at the $80,000 level. Derivatives signals point to reduced risk appetite heading into a key macro week, with FOMC positioning and Bank of Japan rate-hike rhetoric adding pressure.

Three BoJ members dissented in favor of a rate hike at the latest meeting, pushing the yen higher and dragging bitcoin lower. Markets now price a June hike as the base case. Ether followed bitcoin down, with $14.6 billion in 24-hour volume reflecting cautious but active positioning.

Block's Bitcoin Treasury Hits 8,997 BTC

Jack Dorsey's Block disclosed $2.2 billion in total bitcoin holdings through its first third-party audited proof-of-reserves report: $1.5 billion in customer bitcoin and $692 million ($680 million at current prices, or 8,883 BTC verifiable on-chain) in corporate treasury. The firm added 114 BTC during Q1, bringing its total count to 8,997 BTC including all categories, and committed to regular public reports going forward.

The proof-of-reserves format, allowing on-chain signature verification, sets a transparency standard that most fintech competitors have not matched. Block joins a small cohort of public companies treating bitcoin reserves as a balance-sheet staple rather than a speculative allocation.

Kelp DAO's $292M Exploit Gets a Recovery Plan

DeFi United published a restoration plan for rsETH after the $292 million Kelp DAO exploit. The process involves converting ETH into rsETH in tranches and transferring the tokens to the affected lockbox contract, a methodical approach designed to avoid further price disruption.

The exploit is one of the largest DeFi losses in 2026 so far. Aave and other lending protocols with rsETH exposure had already begun adjusting collateral parameters in the days following the incident.

Ondo Brings Proxy Voting to Tokenized Equities

Ondo Finance enabled proxy voting for holders of its $700 million in tokenized equities, narrowing the gap between on-chain stock wrappers and traditional brokerage accounts. The feature applies to Ondo's tokenized stocks and ETFs, giving holders governance rights that most tokenized security products still lack.

Trump Reverses on Prediction Markets

President Trump said the U.S. "can't be left out in the cold" on prediction markets, reversing remarks from days earlier when he expressed displeasure with the platforms. The about-face signals political acceptance of a sector that Polymarket and Kalshi have worked to legitimize through regulatory engagement.

Mining to AI: Core Scientific's 1.5GW Pivot

Core Scientific is converting its Pecos, Texas facility into a high-density AI colocation hub, repurposing 300MW of existing mining capacity as part of a broader 1.5GW data center buildout. The move accelerates a trend among publicly traded miners seeking higher-margin revenue from AI compute rather than proof-of-work block rewards.

The pivot reflects a structural reality: AI inference and training demand steady, high-density power, and bitcoin miners already own the substations and cooling infrastructure. Bitmine, which has concentrated its recent capital deployment on ETH accumulation rather than hardware expansion, represents the opposite end of the strategic spectrum from Core Scientific's AI bet.

Magic City: Bitmine's Miami Roots and the ETH Treasury Trade

Bitmine, headquartered in the Miami metro area, is now the most aggressive public-company buyer of ether in the U.S. The $234 million weekly purchase wasn't an anomaly. The company has been building an ETH-denominated treasury thesis from its South Florida base for months, drawing comparisons to Strategy's bitcoin playbook but denominated in Ethereum's native asset.

Miami's role as a launchpad for crypto treasury strategies reflects the density of digital-asset firms operating in the region. Bitmine's proximity to institutional service providers (Fireblocks maintains a significant Miami presence, and Zero Hash operates stablecoin settlement infrastructure locally) creates a corridor between mining operations, custody, and on-chain capital deployment.

The city's crypto calendar is heating up as late-spring conference season approaches. Builders and capital allocators in the Miami scene will be watching whether Bitmine's treasury accumulation model attracts imitators, particularly among the smaller mining firms clustered across South Florida and Latin America that could treat ETH as a reserve asset rather than a trade.