• The Beluga Brief
  • Posts
  • 🐳 Weekly Edition: Strait of Hormuz Opens, Tether Seizes Major Opportunity

🐳 Weekly Edition: Strait of Hormuz Opens, Tether Seizes Major Opportunity

Bitcoin has finally broken through the $75k barrier as Tether lands a major deal with Drift Protocol, boxing out Circle to be the main settlement currency of the perpetuals exchange

AuthorAuthor

Will McKinnon & Beluga
April 17, 2026

While the last two weeks held nothing but rejection after rejection for Bitcoin, today’s announcement of the Strait of Hormuz apparently being “fully open” has sent the market into a frenzy. As it stands the opening is a temporary measure while a ceasefire is in place, but it’s given investors hope that there may be a diplomatic way out of this.

The most interesting story of the week (aside from the World Liberty Finance shenanigans) came from arguably the least interesting sector of the market despite its success: stablecoins. Readers may remember Solana’s flagship perps platform Drift Protocol was hacked for half of all funds held on the exchange, about $280M. Circle has caught heat for their repeated ineptitude when it comes to freezing illicit funds, and the Drift hack was just another chapter in the same story.

24 Hour Heatmap, Source: CoinMarketCap

Despite having 6 hours to freeze the stolen funds with all the tracking work already done for them by members of the community, they chose instead to do nothing… and Tether saw an opportunity. They announced a $150M recovery package to be distributed to users over time based on their activity on the platform, but more importantly Drift will be using USDT as their settlement currency instead of USDC.

In one fell swoop Circle found themselves staring down the barrel of a $200M class action lawsuit, and lost one of their most important footholds in the exchange world to their biggest competitor. It’s incredibly ironic that after all these years of government probes and allegations about Tether’s compliance and solvency, that it’s Circle who has become the more untrustworthy counterparty when it comes to crime.

Beluga is giving away 5 passes to lucky subscribers for the upcoming Bitcoin Vegas conference, the largest gathering of Bitcoiners in the world! Enter here for a chance to win!

Major vibe shift happening in stablecoin world…

Check out our latest articles below!

Disclaimer

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. While Beluga strives to ensure the accuracy and timeliness of information, there may be discrepancies when comparing our data to that of financial institutions, service providers, or specific product websites. Always consult with a professional before making any financial decisions. Will McKinnon is the Head of Content for Beluga and has spent every day for many years trading coins. For that reason there are too many to name, however his largest holdings by a significant margin are Ethereum and Bitcoin. NFA DYOR