April 2026 Update

📈📉 Market Update: The Middle of the Bear

Disclaimer: Not financial advice.

March’s Monthly Closes:

BTC: 1.8%, ETH: 7.1%, SOL: -1.7%, SUI: -2.8%, MON: 17.7%

This month’s market brought little excitement, which, in a bear market is honestly welcome. It’s worth remembering that we’re likely only halfway into the bear market, which should run from October 2025 - October 2026 according to the four year cycle. Given that, we should assume that any lengthy period of sideways market precedes a downward move, as support levels are broken. Don’t be surprised when the market takes another significant downward hit, even given a lack of news or events.

It’s spring, so get off Tradingview, touch grass, and strengthen your human relationships. Bear markets are about survival. Making the most of it doesn’t need to involve trading. 😉

✅ TACEO is Live

TACEO is live!  A private execution layer for digital rails, it encrypts and distributes sensitive data across independent node operators so that no single party controls the data, the keys, or the outcome. We’re one of ten node operators proudly supporting this made-in-Austria project with infrastructure.

🔥 Magma gVaults

Magma announced the launch of gVaults for liquid staking on Monad. For the first time ever, liquid staking users on Monad can choose their own validator. gVaults offer an institutional on ramp to the liquid staking ecosystem. Our H2O Nodes vault is ready to go!

📣 Shelby Early Access

We’re in touch with Shelby, a storage network from Aptos and Jump, which is moving through its first testnet, and recently announced early access for developers. The first verifiable global object storage for AI, Shelby provides Global access, cryptographic verifiability, and egress economics that don't break at scale. More to come.

🎂 Solana Turned 6 Years Old

6 years ago now, Solana produced its first block. When we started in 2022, it was the ugly duckling, a "VC chain that goes down all the time." Today, its a leader, and the haters have become HODLers. Happy birthday, Solana. Here's to the next 6 years, and beyond!

🟣 RevTec, Coming Soon™️

We’ve now finished the audit of our V2 smart contracts, and carrying out internal testing our application on devnet. Won’t be long now until we are ready for “friends and family” testing! Reach out if you’re interested in being one of the first users of RevTec.

I hope everyone is surviving this bear market. While “creative destruction” can be a useful part of capitalism, it is painful to watch brain drain as Solana validators shut down, or friends leave crypto entirely.

We’re not going anywhere, we’ll be here for our stakers and partners through to the other side.

All the best,

-Max Sherwood, H2O Nodes Co-founder