Here’s what happened in crypto today
Today in crypto, Lyn Alden shared her current outlook on Bitcoin, US federal prosecutors continue their case against SafeMoon’s CEO, and Spar shoppers in Zug, Switzerland, can now pay for groceries in Bitcoin via the Lightning Network.
Lyn Alden lowers Bitcoin forecast after “tariff kerfuffle,” eyes liquidity
Macroeconomist Lyn Alden expects Bitcoin to finish 2025 higher than its current price of around $85,000, though she says it would have been much higher if not for US President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement in February.
“Before all this tariff kerfuffle, I would have had a higher price target,” Alden told Natalie Brunell on the April 17 episode of Coin Stories. “My guess is that we end up higher at the end of the year than we are now, at least,” she added.
However, she said that a “massive liquidity unlock” could be the catalyst needed for Bitcoin to reach more optimistic targets, similar to those before the tariffs were introduced.
For example, if the US bond market “broke” and the US Federal Reserve had to step in with measures like yield curve control or heavy quantitative easing (QE), Alden explained.
US prosecutors to pursue ex-SafeMoon CEO case despite DOJ memo
Federal prosecutors said they will continue pursuing their case against Braden John Karony, the former CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, despite the US Justice Department issuing a memo suggesting a policy of abandoning “regulation by prosecution” related to digital assets.
In an April 18 filing in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, US Attorney for EDNY John Durham said his office had reviewed the April 7 DOJ memo issued by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and intended to proceed with a trial against Karony.
The former SafeMoon CEO faces securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering conspiracy charges for allegedly “divert[ing] and misappropriat[ing] millions of dollars’ worth” of the platform’s SFM token between 2021 and 2022.
Spar supermarket in Switzerland starts accepting Bitcoin payments
Global grocery giant Spar has rolled out Bitcoin-based payments in a Swiss city, marking another step in the growing adoption of cryptocurrency for everyday transactions.
A Spar supermarket in Zug, Switzerland, has implemented Bitcoin (BTC) payments via the Lightning Network.
The store’s Bitcoin payments went live on BTC Mao, a community-driven project highlighting stores that accept BTC payments, DFX Swiss, a crypto-to-fiat payment solution firm, announced in an April 17 LinkedIn post.
“This SPAR location is among the first supermarkets in Switzerland where you can pay directly at the checkout using Bitcoin (via LNURL), thanks to our new hashtag#OpenCryptoPay solution, an open P2P standard for in-person crypto payments,” DFX said.
Switzerland has long been regarded as one of the more crypto-friendly European jurisdictions with some of the earliest crypto-adoption initiatives.
In 2023, the Swiss city of Lugano adopted Bitcoin and Tether USDt (USDT) payments for all municipal fees, one of the world’s first city administrations to do so.