Ether Machine and Dynamix Corporation (Nasdaq: ETHM) have agreed to terminate their planned SPAC merger, pointing to "unfavorable market conditions." The decision ends the business combination agreement the parties signed on July 21, 2025. In a Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Dynamix disclosed that the merger was terminated effective April 8, 2026. Ether Machine later confirmed the move on April 11 through its official X account and directed investors to the SEC filing. Under the termination agreement, an unnamed payor must make a $50 million cash payment to Dynamix within 15 days of the April 8 effective date. The agreement also includes broad mutual releases covering known and unknown claims related to the transaction, a covenant not to sue, and mutual nondisparagement provisions. The parties also agreed to indemnification terms tied to potential investor litigation. The payor will indemnify Dynamix, its sponsor DynamixCore Holdings LLC, and affiliated parties for losses arising from claims brought by certain ETHM investors. Dynamix will indemnify Ether Machine-related parties against claims from Dynamix shareholders who are not ETHM investors. With the deal scrapped, the related subscription and contribution agreements were terminated in accordance with their terms. Dynamix, a Cayman Islands exempted company, said it has until Nov. 22, 2026, to complete a new initial business combination under its amended articles of association or redeem public shares and potentially proceed to liquidation. At the time of the termination disclosure, secondary market data showed Dynamix with an approximate market capitalization of $236.5 million. Ether Machine said it will continue operating privately through The Ether Reserve LLC. Based on statistics published at strategicethreserve.xyz, the entity holds about 496,712 ETH. No new public listing plans have been announced. Before the termination, Ether Machine marketed itself as an operating Ethereum business rather than a passive holding vehicle or spot ETF, built around large-scale ETH accumulation, validator operations, staking, and ETH-denominated yield strategies. Cofounder and chairman Andrew Keys, an early ConsenSys executive, contributed roughly 169,984 ETH when the original deal was signed, a stake valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars under Coinbase VWAP pricing mechanics cited in the agreement. The planned transaction had attracted support from institutional investors including 10T Holdings, Electric Capital, and Pantera Capital. The company previously reported more than $800 million in committed institutional capital and said commitments were aimed at building one of the largest corporate Ethereum treasuries ever assembled for a public-market vehicle. As of early 2026, The Ether Reserve LLC held approximately 496,712 ETH, valued at more than $1.1 billion at then-current prices, and reported generating more than 1,000 ETH in early yield from operations. Ether Machine's website remains active. Cofounder and CEO David Merin has not issued an additional statement beyond the X post.

Aave DAO has approved a $25 million stablecoin grant and an allocation of 75,000 AAVE tokens to Aave Labs to support ongoing protocol development. The proposal cleared governance with about 75% backing from token holders, with voting limited to participants staking AAVE. The funding is framed as part of the "Aave Will Win" strategy aimed at long-term expansion. Reports say the package is designed to improve operational stability while reinforcing the protocol's token dynamics.

A new analysis from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City finds stablecoins are still used mainly for cryptocurrency trading and liquidity within the digital-asset market, not as a mainstream way to pay. The report estimates 49% of stablecoin supply supports trading liquidity across centralized exchanges, DeFi protocols, and broader crypto infrastructure. Another 29% is used for wallet-to-wallet transfers or internal fund movements, 21% sits idle, and less than 1% is used for real-world payments. The study says stablecoins, built as crypto-native instruments, face hurdles in scaling into broad payment applications, including cross-chain interoperability constraints and limited connectivity with traditional financial systems. While payment networks such as Mastercard and Visa have said they plan to support related technologies by 2026, stablecoin payment use cases remain early-stage. The report notes progress will depend on resolving interoperability, compliance, and identity-verification challenges.

ME News reported that on April 13 (UTC+8), broader risk sentiment across global crypto markets flipped sharply after the U.S.-Iran ceasefire unraveled and Trump said the U.S. would impose a blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. Bitcoin fell quickly from an intraday peak of $73,668 to around $71,500. Even so, disclosures compiled by BBX Cryptorelated Stock Information show institutional accumulation patterns remained intact. Strategy Inc. (NASDAQ: $MSTR) reported confirmed Bitcoin holdings of 766,970 BTC as of April 5, bought for $58.02 billion at an average price of $75,644. The company has funded purchases through STRC preferred share issuance (about $22.64 billion still available from this round) and common stock ATM sales. Following Michael Saylor's usual cadence, the market is watching for a potential new purchase update expected to be disclosed Monday via an SEC Form 8-K. Strive, Inc. (NASDAQ: $ASST) said on April 6 that, as of April 2, its Bitcoin treasury reached 13,741 BTC, alongside $86.9 million in cash and $50.5 million in STRC shares (Strategy's preferred stock). The structure gives Strive both direct BTC exposure and an indirect position in Strategy's accumulation mechanism through STRC. Metaplanet Inc. (TSE: 3350) bought 5,075 BTC in Q1 2026, lifting total holdings to 40,177 BTC as of March 31. The company's average purchase price is about $104,106, with cumulative cost near $4.18 billion, leaving the position at an unrealized loss of roughly 32%. Metaplanet targets 100,000 BTC by end-2026, with about 40% of that goal achieved. BBX ranks it third globally among public-company BTC treasuries, behind Strategy (766,970 BTC) and Twenty One Capital (43,514 BTC). On the Ethereum side, Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: $BMNR) held about 4.803 million ETH as of April 6, equal to 3.98% of total Ethereum supply. The position was valued at roughly $11.4 billion, including $961 million in cash. Its proprietary staking stack, MAVAN (MadeinAmerica Validator Network), officially launched March 25. BBX estimates annualized staking proceeds at about $266 million, with 3.143 million ETH already staked. The company says 100% of staking rewards are distributed to shareholders, with no platform fees. SharpLink, Inc. (NASDAQ: $SBET) held approximately 868,699 ETH as of early March 2026, ranking second among publicly traded companies globally by ETH treasury size, behind Bitmine. The company has deployed $170 million of ETH on ConsenSys' Linea network, using an "enhanced yield" framework combining native staking, restaking, and DeFi incentives to generate compounding returns. It also says all staking rewards since June 2025 have been fully paid out to shareholders without platform fee deductions. (Source: BBX)

RT Timmy Shen ICYMI: A quick roundup of weekend developments from @TheBlockCo. Bitwise submitted a second amended filing for its Hyperliquid ETF, naming Wintermute and Flowdesk as trading counterparties. Ether Machine and Dynamix called off their SPAC merger, citing unfavorable market conditions. The ECB endorsed an EU proposal to centralize crypto supervision under Paris-based ESMA, Reuters reported. WLFI threatened legal action against Justin Sun after he claimed its token contract contained a hidden blacklist backdoor. The FBI said crypto-related fraud losses reached a record $11.4B in 2025, with seniors hit hardest. Aave DAO approved a $25M funding grant for Aave Labs in a binding "Aave Will Win" vote.

ETF FLOWS: Spot ETFs tracking BTC, ETH and XRP recorded net inflows last week, while SOL spot ETFs posted net outflows. BTC: $786.31M; ETH: $187.07M; SOL: $5.62M; XRP: $11.75M.

A fraudulent Ledger app listed on Apple's Mac App Store is being blamed for the rapid theft of 5.92 BTC from American musician G Love, wiping out what was described as his retirement holdings within minutes. On-chain investigator ZachXBT said the stolen BTC was routed through KuCoin deposit addresses. Safety checklist: ▸ Don't install wallets from DMs, ads, or email links. ▸ Download apps only via the project's official website. ▸ Never save your seed phrase in email, notes apps, or screenshots. ▸ Write your seed phrase on paper and store it securely. Have you ever lost crypto to a scam like this? Share your experience in the comments.

Researchers at the University of California say some third-party routing services used to access large language models (LLMs) pose security risks that could enable cryptocurrency theft. In tests covering 28 paid routers and 400 free routers, the team found nine routers actively injecting malicious code, two using evasion triggers, and 17 attempting to access Amazon Web Services credentials. In one case, a router also initiated an ETH transfer using the researchers' Ethereum private key. The study urges developers not to send private keys or seed phrases through AI agents and calls on AI providers to cryptographically sign model responses to strengthen security.

A sharp reset in Big Tech valuations is pushing key metrics back toward levels seen before the AI-driven run-up. Apollo Global Management partner and chief economist Torsten Slok highlighted in the firm's Daily Spark (April 11) that the S&P 500 Information Technology sector's forward price-to-earnings multiple has fallen from roughly 40 at the height of the AI boom to around 20. The chart tracks the index's 10 largest constituents by market value: NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, Broadcom, Oracle, Micron, Palantir, AMD, Cisco and Applied Materials. The repricing is being blamed on a mix of forces rather than any single trigger. One is a rotation into energy and defensive areas following heightened Middle East tensions. With war in Iran cited as a catalyst, the energy sector rose more than 34% in the first quarter and ExxonMobil was up nearly 42% year to date, drawing capital away from technology. The broader S&P 500 also flashed a "death cross" late March, and by early April was hovering near 6,582, within about 100 points of the 6,300 level typically associated with a correction. A second pressure point is uncertainty over whether massive AI-related spending will deliver returns fast enough. FactSet data show the S&P 500's expected Q1 earnings growth at 12.6% with a forward P/E near 20.4x. Yet hyperscalers are committing extraordinary sums: Amazon plans to spend $200 billion by 2026, while Microsoft, Meta and others have mapped out investments in the hundreds of billions. A CEIBS research estimate cited in the brief suggests that to break even on roughly $400 billion of AI capex in 2025 alone, annual AI-linked revenue would need to reach $160 billion, versus an estimated $15 to $20 billion at the time. The third headwind is moderating profit momentum. Bloomberg Intelligence expects the seven major tech companies to post profit growth of about 18% in 2026, the weakest since 2022, narrowing the gap versus the 13% expected for the other 493 S&P 500 companies. UBS Global Wealth Management's head of U.S. equities David Lefkowitz said in January that earnings growth is spreading beyond tech, reducing the sector's dominance. At the single-stock level, dispersion is widening. Zacks data show NVIDIA's forward P/E down to about 21.4x, well below its 10-year median of 45.3x, even as annualized earnings growth of 39.1% is projected over the next three to five years. Microsoft is down about 23% year to date, and its market value has slipped below $3 trillion after topping $4 trillion in October last year. Apple has held up better within the Magnificent Seven, helped by comparatively lighter AI capex and aggressive buybacks: it repurchased $24.7 billion of shares in a single quarter, benefiting from investor preference for capital discipline as heavy spenders are penalized. Insider activity has added to unease. Motley Fool, citing SEC Form 4 filings, reported that insiders at NVIDIA, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon sold roughly $16.1 billion in net shares in the two years through April 2. While much of the selling is linked to tax-related compensation activity, the lack of insider buying alongside the net sales has unsettled parts of the market. The debate over an AI bubble is intensifying, with many drawing distinctions from the 2000 dot-com era. BlackRock said in a technology-sector report that the S&P 500 Information Technology Index traded at about 30x forward earnings in October 2025. That level is elevated but still well below the roughly 60x seen at the Nasdaq 100's dot-com peak, and BlackRock argues today's valuations are supported by real revenue, proven business models and accelerating AI adoption. Goldman Sachs has similarly noted that the long-term dividend growth implied by current prices is high, but below extremes seen during the internet bubble and the 1960s "Nifty Fifty" period. Valuation warnings remain prominent. The Globe and Mail reported that the S&P 500 began the year at its second-highest valuation level in 155 years based on the Shiller P/E ratio. Historically, when Shiller P/E exceeded 40—during the dot-com bubble and in January 2022—the index later fell 49% and 25%, respectively. Zacks offers a more tactical read: as prices fall while earnings expectations rise, multiples are compressing mechanically, improving the risk-reward setup for select names. NVIDIA is viewed as offering the strongest growth-to-valuation fit, while Microsoft is seen as a potential catch-up rebound candidate. For investors, the central issue is less whether AI is valuable and more whether today's capex can produce profits that justify valuations within a reasonable timeframe. If 2026 proves to be the cyclical peak in hyperscaler spending, the payoff period for AI infrastructure may stretch beyond market patience even as the technology continues to advance.