Author: ChainThink

Key Highlights from Yesterday to Today

Summary of Trump’s White House Press Conference

Iran Responds to US “15-Point Ceasefire Plan” with “10-Point Proposal”

Asset Markets Ride Another Rollercoaster

OpenAI Internal Rift

Circle’s Recent Minting Surge

Detailed Analysis of Major Developments

1. Market Overview

1. Asset Markets Ride Another Rollercoaster

ChainThink report: Bitcoin failed to sustain the upward momentum seen on Monday afternoon, currently trading at $68,819, down 1.62% over the past 24 hours. Oil prices rebounded to pre-weekend levels, with WTI crude at $113 per barrel.

Stock markets closed mixed: the Dow Jones rose preliminarily by 0.36%, S&P 500 gained 0.45%, and Nasdaq climbed 0.5%. Strategy shares surged 6%, while Tesla declined 2%. With escalating U.S.-Iran tensions expected to endure multiple rounds of brinkmanship, military confrontation is likely to intensify—investors’ fragile nerves will face sustained stress in the coming days.

2. Yi Lihua: Long-term ETH investors can accumulate below $2,000 to capture bull market peak

ChainThink report: Yi Lihua posted on social media: “War seems finally nearing an end, though I don’t understand politics—still surprising after such prolonged conflict. Post-conflict recovery will likely be a rebound rather than a reversal. For long-term trend investors, buying ETH below $2,000 positions one to capture the bull market peak. Short-term traders should consider taking profits at key resistance levels.”

3. Arthur Hayes: Bitcoin may dip below $60,000 before reaching $250,000

ChainThink report: In a recent episode of Coin Stories podcast, Arthur Hayes stated he would not allocate his final dollar to Bitcoin due to the Federal Reserve yet being unwilling to expand liquidity. He warned that tariff policies could fuel inflation and potentially push the U.S. toward capital controls—a major catalyst for Bitcoin's liquidity surge.

Hayes maintains a long-term price target for Bitcoin between $250,000 and $750,000 for this cycle, but cautioned that if U.S.-Iran hostilities persist, Bitcoin could temporarily fall below $60,000. Additionally, Charles Schwab confirmed it will launch direct spot trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum via new accounts in the first half of 2026.

Research by Mercado Bitcoin shows that within 60 days following major global shocks, Bitcoin consistently outperforms both gold and the S&P 500. Bitcoin has recently rebounded to around $67,300, while the Crypto Fear & Greed Index remains entrenched in extreme fear territory for several consecutive weeks.

2. Escalation in Geopolitical Tensions

4. Trump’s White House Press Conference Summary: Iran’s “10-Point Plan” Not Good Enough, But America Should Collect Toll Fees at Strait of Hormuz

ChainThink report: On April 7, early morning Beijing time, President Trump held a press conference at the White House. He clearly outlined the consequences Iran would face if it fails to reach a deal by his set deadline.

Trump declared, “We must secure a deal acceptable to me—one that includes free passage for oil and all goods.” He added that U.S. military forces could destroy Iranian bridges and power plants within four hours. Despite the prohibition under the Geneva Conventions against attacking civilian infrastructure, Trump stated he had “no concern whatsoever” about committing war crimes. “The entire nation could be erased overnight—and that night might be tomorrow.”

Additionally, Trump floated the idea of imposing toll fees on vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz:

5. Iran Responds to U.S. “15-Point Ceasefire Plan” with “10-Point Proposal”

ChainThink report: On the evening of April 7, Iran issued its “10-Point Proposal” in response to the U.S. “15-Point Ceasefire Plan.” The initial round of negotiations revealed stark discrepancies in demands. As a result, Trump continues using diplomacy as bait while maintaining threats, coordinating with Israel to sustain attacks on Iran and vowing to “destroy Iranian bridges and power plants” and “take over Iran in a single day.”

6. Iran: Conducted 90th Wave of “True Commitment-4” Operation, Targeting U.S.-Linked Metal Industries

ChainThink report: According to CCTV, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the execution of the 90th wave of the “True Commitment-4” operation. The targets included steel and aluminum facilities in the region linked to U.S. interests.

3. AI Developments

7. OpenAI CFO Questioned 2026 IPO Timeline Privately; Altman Excluded Her from Key Financial Meetings

ChainThink report: Market sources reveal that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman privately expressed interest in completing an IPO as early as Q4 this year. Meanwhile, CFO Sarah Friar shared with colleagues her belief that the company is not ready for public listing in 2026—citing extensive organizational and procedural workloads, as well as financial risks tied to massive compute procurement commitments.

Internally, Altman has repeatedly excluded Friar from critical financial decisions. In recent months, he omitted her from discussions with top-tier investors regarding server procurement—an absence described by attendees as “notable and awkward,” especially given her prior involvement in similar meetings. Since August last year, Friar no longer reports directly to Altman, instead reporting to Fidji Simo, head of applications—a break from the norm in large tech firms where CFOs typically report directly to the CEO.

Financially, OpenAI has committed to spending over $600 billion on cloud servers over the next five years, with internal projections indicating cash burn exceeding $20 billion before achieving positive cash flow. The recent $12.2 billion funding commitment primarily comes from Amazon and NVIDIA—both also serve as OpenAI’s cloud infrastructure and chip suppliers—creating a circular capital arrangement. Anthropic has surpassed OpenAI as the preferred AI model choice among enterprises and developers, and OpenAI’s revenue growth is slowing.

IPO preparations are quietly underway: OpenAI has retained law firms Cooley and Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz, and has initiated preliminary talks with IPO teams at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Altman privately expressed a desire to go public earlier than Anthropic, which is currently discussing a Q4 IPO plan. Both executives later released a joint statement claiming “full alignment on compute strategy.”

4. Industry Frontiers

8. Yi Lihua Announces Strategic Investment in imBack, Citing Recovery of Lost BTC

ChainThink report: Jack Yi, founder of Liquid Capital, announced on social media that crypto recovery service imBack successfully unlocked a sealed iPhone from 18 years ago, recovering BTC previously believed permanently lost.

Yi Lihua stated he had long abandoned hope of retrieving the wallet, but imBack’s technical capabilities exceeded expectations. Based on this experience, he has swiftly completed an investment in imBack. The company specializes in helping early adopters of BTC, ETH, and other digital assets regain access to wallets locked due to device failure or lost private keys.

9. Circle Mints ~3.25 Billion USDC on Solana in Past 7 Days, Record High for 2026

ChainThink report: Data shows Circle minted approximately 325 million USDC on Solana over the past seven days—the largest weekly stablecoin issuance volume in 2026 to date.

10. Circle’s Arc Blockchain Unveils Post-Quantum Cryptography Roadmap, Full-Stack Upgrade from Wallet to Validator

ChainThink report: According to official blog, Circle’s institutional-grade blockchain Arc has released a phased post-quantum cryptography (PQ) upgrade roadmap. The plan includes introducing post-quantum signature schemes at mainnet launch, with gradual coverage across private state protection, infrastructure hardening, and validator authentication layers.

Arc mainnet will support post-quantum signatures from launch via opt-in mechanism—no forced migration or network-wide reset required. Users can independently create wallets with long-term security guarantees. Near-term goals include extending quantum resistance to the private virtual machine (VM) layer, protecting private balances, confidential transactions, and anonymous recipients—public keys will be wrapped with an additional symmetric encryption layer under privacy mode.

Mid-term plans involve upgrading infrastructure to align with industry standards such as TLS 1.3, covering access control, cloud environments, and hardware security modules (HSMs). Long-term objectives include strengthening validator signatures. Given Arc’s block finality time is under one second, current risk assessment indicates limited quantum threat exposure here, so upgrades will proceed steadily once post-quantum consensus toolchains mature.

Circle also warns that adversaries may employ a “harvest now, decrypt later” strategy—organizations should proactively plan their cryptographic migration paths.