Circle this week launched USDC Bridge, an official, Circle-operated portal for moving native USDC between supported blockchains without relying on wrapped tokens, liquidity pools, or manual routing. The company announced the release via the official USDC account on X, highlighting upfront fees, live transfer tracking, and automatic handling of destination-chain gas. The app is live at bridge.usdc.com. The service is built on Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), a permissionless on-chain utility introduced in 2023. CCTP V2 is now the default version, offering faster finality and enabling automated post-transfer actions such as swaps and deposits. Transfers follow a burn-and-mint flow. Users connect a wallet and initiate a transfer on the source chain, where the specified amount of USDC is burned. Circle then issues a signed attestation confirming the burn, and an equivalent amount of native USDC is minted on the destination chain and delivered to the recipient address. Because Circle, as the issuer of USDC, controls the mint-and-burn mechanism, the process does not depend on third-party liquidity providers or external validators—reducing the trust assumptions common in independent bridge designs. Circle says standard transfers carry no protocol fee; users pay on-chain gas. "Fast" transfers that leverage Circle's attestation service for near-instant finality may result in higher gas costs. In certain cases, a small minting fee may apply on the destination chain, with details provided in Circle's developer documentation. At launch, USDC Bridge supports EVM-compatible networks including Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Optimism Mainnet, Polygon PoS, Avalanche, Sei, and Monad. Non-EVM chains such as Solana are not included in the initial rollout. Circle said the list of supported chains will expand over time, and users can view the latest coverage at bridge.usdc.com. Early usage appears strong. The bridge's dashboard showed about $602.5 million in transfers over a single 24-hour period shortly after launch. Circle also said CCTP has processed more than $140 billion in cumulative volume across over 20 chains since its debut. Circle is also pushing developers toward CCTP V2: CCTP V1 (Legacy CCTP) is scheduled to begin phasing out on July 31, 2026. Applications integrated with V1 will need to migrate to V2 to remain compatible with Circle's attestation service and the broader CCTP ecosystem. While USDC Bridge targets individual users, Circle positions CCTP as a foundational primitive that wallets, decentralized applications, exchanges, and other bridge protocols can integrate directly—already supporting treasury rebalancing, trading flows, and DeFi activity across networks. Circle frames the bridge as a step toward reducing liquidity fragmentation created by chain-specific wrapped versions of USDC. By keeping transfers native, Circle says USDC on supported chains remains redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars through the company. Standard crypto risks remain, including gas-fee exposure, smart-contract risk, and network congestion. USDC is not covered by FDIC insurance or similar deposit protections. The launch gives Circle a primary, first-party interface for cross-chain USDC movement, potentially reducing reliance on third-party infrastructure that has historically handled much of the stablecoin's cross-chain activity.

Wallets associated with the U.S. government transferred 8.2 BTC—worth about $628,000—to Coinbase Prime, Arkham Intelligence reported. The bitcoin came from assets seized in connection with the 2016 Bitfinex hack.

BREAKING: Donald Trump commented on reports that Iran has again closed the Strait of Hormuz, saying "Iran can't blackmail us" with threats tied to the waterway. He added that more information should be available by the end of the day.

Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin holdings have reached 1,348 BTC, with the position valued at more than $102 million.

Sam Altman's World announced a major upgrade to its "proof of human" system on Tuesday. Tinder, Zoom and DocuSign are integrating World ID biometric verification as they step up efforts to curb bots and deepfakes. Despite the news, $WLD has fallen 13% over the past 24 hours.

Monitoring by Seer Prophet Channel shows Polymarket pricing now implies a 30% chance that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz returns to normal before April 30, down 24 percentage points over the past 24 hours. Trading volume in the related event contract has surpassed $15.9 million. Under the contract rules, the outcome settles as "Yes" if IMF Portwatch data indicates the 7-day moving average of vessel arrivals reaches or exceeds 60; otherwise it settles as "No". The update comes as Iran has declined to enter new negotiations, citing U.S. maritime blockades and what it describes as excessive demands. Oil-tanker tracking services also report that two Indian vessels were turned back by the Iranian navy, with shots exchanged.

ChainCatcher cited Coinglass data indicating that if ETH rallies above $2,472, liquidations across major centralized exchanges could total $1.146 billion. If ETH drops below $2,252, liquidations could reach $403 million.

The Strait of Hormuz swung between open and closed five times this week as U.S. President Donald Trump and Iranian officials traded public statements over the world's most critical oil chokepoint. Sunday, April 12: Trump posts on Truth Social that the U.S. will impose a full naval blockade after talks in Islamabad collapse following 21 hours of negotiations led by Vice President JD Vance. Status: CLOSED. Monday, April 13: CENTCOM says the U.S. Navy blockade begins at 10 a.m. ET. Brent jumps above $95. Status: CLOSED. Wednesday, April 15: Brent trades erratically around $94–$95 as enforcement continues. Status: CLOSED. Thursday, April 16: The Pentagon says 13 ships have been turned back. Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine holds a press briefing. Status: CLOSED. Friday, April 17: Iran's foreign minister, Araghchi, says on X that the strait is "completely open". Trump thanks Iran but says the U.S. blockade will remain "until transaction 100% complete." Oil slides more than 10% in a single session. Status: OPEN. Saturday, April 18: Iran reimposes restrictions after Trump maintains the blockade. IRGC gunboats fire on a tanker. Status: CLOSED AGAIN. In normal conditions, roughly 20% of global oil supply moves through the Strait of Hormuz.

BREAKING: Roughly 20 ships attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz have reportedly reversed course following Iran's declaration that the waterway is closed.