Crypto app developers are now free to direct users to payments outside of Apple’s ecosystem without restrictions or hefty fees, after a United States district judge ruled that Apple violated an injunction in its antitrust legal battle against Epic Games.

“The Court finds Apple in willful violation of this Court’s 2021 Injunction, which was issued to restrain and prohibit Apple’s anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing. Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated,” US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said in an April 30 court filing.

Apple must make changes “effective immediately”

“Effective immediately, Apple will no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users, nor will they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases,” Rogers added.

Rogers reiterated, “This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order. Time is of the essence.”

Source: Hector Lopez

The ruling stated that Apple must not impose “any commission or any fee on purchases that consumers make outside an app.” It added, “no reason exists to audit, monitor, track or require developers to report purchases or any other activity that consumers make outside an app.”

It was ruled that Apple can’t control how developers design or place links that lead users to buy items outside the app. Apple also cannot exclude “certain categories of apps and developers from obtaining link access.”

Following the court ruling, several crypto industry participants noticed that Apple guidelines were updated, with some claiming that the tone of the guidelines suggests they weren’t too pleased with the ruling.

Appfigures co-founder and CEO Ariel Michaeli said that people may find Apple’s “passive aggressive language confusing.”

Related: FTX sues NFT Stars and Kurosemi in push to recover tokens

Michaeli summarized Apple’s update as Apps can now link to an external non-fungible token (NFT) collection, can link outside of the App Store without needing an entitlement, and can link to an external payment system without requiring an entitlement.

Crypto commentator “Xero” told their 50,000 X followers on May 2, “This is hugely bullish for mobile crypto games and apps.” Meanwhile, Alex Masmej said, “This is absolutely huge for crypto.”

The same day, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said Epic would be relaunching Fortnite to the US Apple App Store.

“Epic puts forth a peace proposal: If Apple extends the court’s friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we’ll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic,” Sweeney said.

In August 2023, Justice Elena Kagan declined to let a federal appeals court decision take immediate effect as Epic had asked — with no explanation for the decision.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes says the United States is unlikely to add more Bitcoin to its reserves beyond what it has already seized due to the country’s high debt levels and the stereotype behind “Bitcoin bros.”

“I’m not really into the whole Strategic Reserve situation,” Hayes said in a May 1 interview.

Hayes doubts any government announcing print money plans for Bitcoin 

“The United States is a deficit country; the only way they can do a Strategic Reserve is not sell the Bitcoin they took from people, fine, that’s 200,000 Bitcoin,” he said.

Arthur Hayes spoke to Kyle Chasse on his crypto interview series. Source: Kyle Chasse

However, Hayes said it’s hard to imagine any “properly elected” politician openly announcing that the government plans to print money to buy Bitcoin (BTC).

“Especially when the popular narrative is a bunch of Bitcoin bros going to the club.”

“Is that really what you want people to think about your policy?” he asked.

On March 6, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a Bitcoin strategic reserve and digital asset stockpile in the US. The US holds 198,012 Bitcoin worth over $18 billion, as per recent data. The reserve is primarily formed of Bitcoin seized in criminal and civil cases, including significant amounts from the Silk Road and Bitfinex hack cases.

However, many crypto industry leaders believe that if the US government starts buying Bitcoin, it could set off an aggressive domino effect.

Sergej Kunz, co-founder of exchange aggregator 1inch, said during Cointelegraph’s LONGITUDE event in Dubai that if the US starts buying Bitcoin for a strategic reserve, even smaller countries may soon struggle to acquire the cryptocurrency.

He added. “I’m pretty sure we’ll soon see countries battling over who owns more Bitcoin. The US will start.”

Hayes sees Bitcoin to altcoin rotation playbook staying the same

Hayes remains confident that the Bitcoin cycle leading into altcoin season will follow the same pattern as it did in 2021, despite differing views from other analysts.

“I personally think Bitcoin dominance is going back to where it was before the 2021 altcoin season, which is about 70%,” Hayes said.

Hayes isn’t convinced the pattern will change. “Then people just start rotating,” he said. “It’s back at all-time highs; bull markets are back, and altcoins should outperform. Should is a keyword there,” Hayes said. “Depends on what you buy,” he added.

Related: Bitcoin price about to ‘blast’ higher as Fed rate cut odds jump to 60%

Bitcoin dominance — the ratio of Bitcoin’s market capitalization to the entire crypto market — is 64.78% at the time of publication, according to TradingView data. 

Bitcoin dominance was 57.59% on Jan. 1. Source: TradingView

This represents an 11.68% increase since Jan. 1, when Bitcoin dominance was hovering just below 60%, a level where some analysts said would be its peak before altcoin season began. Several analysts doubted that Bitcoin dominance would ever return to 70%.

One of those skeptics was Into The Cryptoverse founder Benjamin Cowen, who explained in August that he doesn’t “think it is going back up to 70%,” and his target for Bitcoin dominance has been 60%.

Meanwhile, in December CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju said “altseason is no longer defined by asset rotation from Bitcoin.”

He said the traditional signal marking the beginning of an altcoin season when capital rotates from Bitcoin to altcoins is outdated. Instead, altcoin trading volume has become more prevalent against stablecoin and fiat currency pairs. 

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, and now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Key takeaways:

BTC hit $97,900 due to soaring institutional investor demand, but futures pricing shows traders aren’t confident in a sustained rally.

Macroeconomic risks and global trade tensions cap bullish sentiment despite $3.6 billion in spot BTC ETF inflows.

BTC options lean bullish, suggesting big players expect upside, but their caution keeps leverage use low.

Bitcoin (BTC) broke out of a tight trading range between $93,000 and $95,600 on May 1, following six days of limited movement. Despite reaching its highest price in ten weeks at $97,930, sentiment remains neutral according to BTC derivatives indicators. This price action has occurred alongside significant net inflows into US spot exchange-traded Bitcoin funds (ETFs).

Some of the disappointment among traders can be attributed to the ongoing global tariff dispute, which is beginning to affect macroeconomic data. Bitcoin traders are concerned that, despite growing interest from institutional investors, fears of an economic recession could limit price performance. This concern reduces the likelihood of BTC reaching $110,000 or higher in 2025.

Bitcoin 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: Laevitas.ch

The annualized premium for Bitcoin’s two-month futures has remained between 6% and 7% over the past week, staying within the neutral range of 5% to 10%. Compared to January, when Bitcoin was trading near $95,000 and the futures premium was above 10%, traders’ sentiment has weakened. This data suggests there is less optimism, or at least less conviction, in further price gains toward $100,000 and above.

Gold’s performance outshone Bitcoin’s modest gains

Some market participants point to gold’s 20% rally, from $2,680 to $3,220, as a source of concern. Although Bitcoin recently surpassed silver’s $1.8 trillion market capitalization to become the seventh largest global tradable asset, gold’s surge to a massive $21.7 trillion valuation has overshadowed this achievement. Investors worry that Bitcoin’s strong correlation with the stock market has diminished the appeal of its “digital gold” narrative.

Bitcoin spot US-listed ETFs daily net flows, USD. Source: CoinGlass

There is also a possibility that the $3.6 billion in net inflows to US spot ETFs over the past two weeks are being driven by delta-neutral strategies. In this scenario, the flows reflect Bitcoin holders moving to listed products or using derivatives for hedging. If so, the direct impact on price would be limited, which is consistent with Bitcoin’s modest 5% gain during this period.

To determine whether professional traders are comfortable with Bitcoin around $97,500, it is helpful to examine the BTC options market.

Bitcoin 1-month options 25% delta skew (put-call) at Deribit. Source: Laevitas.ch

The BTC options 25% delta skew metric is currently near its lowest level since Feb. 15, indicating that whales and market makers are assigning higher odds to further upside from here. This marks a sharp reversal from three weeks ago, when put (sell) options traded at a premium.

Related: Bitcoin unsure as recession looms, US-China tariff talks kick off

Bitcoin derivatives’ resilience favors further BTC price gains

Overall, Bitcoin derivatives indicate moderate optimism. Traders generally expect further price gains, but bulls are refraining from using leverage. Some might argue that this creates the ideal conditions for a surprise rally, especially since the retest of $74,500 on April 9 did not significantly affect BTC derivatives.

The most important factor influencing Bitcoin’s performance remains the commercial relationship between the US and China. As long as the trade war continues, Bitcoin is likely to continue tracking the S&P 500 movements. While this environment may prevent Bitcoin from reaching a new all-time high in the near term, BTC derivatives are currently leaning slightly in favor of the bulls.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.