According to Cointelegraph, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has warned that tokens using the codes "HKDAP" and "HSBC" are not issued or associated with licensed stablecoin issuers. The authority stated that as of April 28, no licensed entity has launched regulated stablecoins.

According to Cointelegraph, Alex Mashinsky, founder of the cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network, has officially reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of the United States. According to an order signed by Judge Denise Cote of the Southern District of New York, Mashinsky will be permanently barred from promoting any products or services used for asset deposits, exchanges, investments, or withdrawals. The settlement agreement specifies that Mashinsky must pay a fine of $10 million, while the FTC's previous judgment of $4.72 billion against him is currently mostly "stayed." If Mashinsky is found to have concealed significant assets, misreported asset values, or had any significant omissions in subsequent financial disclosures, the stay will immediately lapse, and the judgment amount of $4.72 billion will become due and enforceable. Previously, in May 2025, Mashinsky was sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of commodity fraud and securities fraud, and this settlement resolves part of the major civil lawsuits he faces.

According to The Block, Maximilien de Hoop Cartier, a descendant of the Cartier jewelry family, was sentenced to eight years in prison by a U.S. court for operating an unlicensed over-the-counter cryptocurrency exchange and involvement in money laundering. Prosecutors noted that the exchange used U.S. bank accounts to illegally transfer over $470 million in drug profits to Colombia. The prosecution revealed that Maximilien de Hoop Cartier falsely claimed that his companies engaged in software publishing and development, using them as tools to receive and transfer drug money. In addition to the eight-year prison sentence, the court also ordered Maximilien to pay a fine of approximately $2.36 million, representing the commission earned from participating in the money laundering network. The court has also ordered the seizure of all bank account assets involved in the scheme.

According to Edaily, Park Jeong-ryeol, head of the Individual Taxation Bureau of the Korean National Tax Service, stated today in a briefing that the National Tax Service has officially launched preparations for the virtual asset taxation that will take effect in January next year (2027), aimed at ensuring a smooth first comprehensive income tax declaration in May 2028. Although the National Tax Service is steadily advancing, there remains significant controversy in South Korea. The ruling party, the "People Power Party," currently advocates for the abolition of the taxation plan, citing reasons such as the imperfections in the current taxation standards and the potential outflow of funds to countries that are not part of the "Crypto Asset Reporting Framework" (CARF). Currently, the tax authorities' preparations are proceeding in parallel with political maneuvers.

According to Axios, the U.S. White House is formulating guidance to allow federal agencies to bypass the supply chain risk assessments of Anthropic, gaining access to its strongest AI model, Mythos.

According to CBC, the Canadian federal government announced in its 2026 spring economic update its plan to ban cryptocurrency ATMs to protect citizens from fraud. The government identifies such ATMs as a "primary means" of fraud. These ATMs allow users to purchase cryptocurrencies directly with cash, which is often exploited by fraudsters due to their anonymity and the irreversibility of transactions. The specific implementation timeline for this policy is yet to be determined, marking a shift towards a stricter stance in Canada regarding consumer protection in cryptocurrencies.

According to Cointelegraph, Manhattan federal judge Lewis Kaplan denied Sam Bankman-Fried's (SBF) motion for rehearing, ruling that his claims about three former FTX executives being able to prove the exchange's solvency were "baseless." Kaplan stated that SBF was already aware of these witnesses but did not request to compel them to testify. SBF was convicted in 2024 on seven counts of fraud and money laundering, involving the illegal transfer of billions of dollars of FTX customer funds to Alameda Research. SBF is currently detained in Lompoc Federal Prison in California, and his allegations of government threats against witnesses were dismissed by the judge as "conspiracy theories."

According to Cointelegraph, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the Treasury has taken action against Iran's shadow banking network, cryptocurrency acquisition channels, and oil trade infrastructure.

Evan Van Ness posted on X platform, questioning the U.S. government's continued prosecution of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm, stating that this action extends Elizabeth Warren's "war" on cryptocurrencies, and attached the FreeRomanStorm hashtag calling for the release of the developer. Roman Storm faces criminal charges for allegedly participating in the development of the mixing protocol Tornado Cash, and the case has sparked wide discussions in the crypto community about the boundaries of code freedom and regulation. Elizabeth Warren has previously pushed for strict cryptocurrency regulatory legislation, being viewed as a representative of an anti-crypto stance.

According to CryptoBriefing, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the inclusion of XRP into the fast-track commodity trust shares category, placing it within the same regulatory framework as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana.

According to CoinDesk, the U.S. regulator CFTC is deploying artificial intelligence (AI) technology to review cryptocurrency registration applications and monitor trading data. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig stated that this move aims to address the over 20% workforce reduction the agency faced during the Trump administration. By introducing AI technology, the CFTC hopes to maintain effective regulation of the cryptocurrency market while reducing manpower, enhancing review efficiency, and strengthening real-time monitoring capabilities for trading activities.

According to CoinDesk, U.S. Congressman Nick Begich stated that he plans to reintroduce the "U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act" in the coming weeks and rename it as the "U.S. Reserve Modernization Act." The bill aims to establish a national strategic Bitcoin reserve, and the reintroduction and renaming indicate that lawmakers are adjusting their strategy to push for the proposal's passage in Congress. Previous similar proposals have sparked widespread discussions about incorporating Bitcoin into national reserve assets.

Lido Finance posted on X platform, stating that Lido DAO is reviewing an emergency proposal related to the Kelp incident, primarily aiming to seek authorization to temporarily lower the "first loss protection" trigger threshold of the EarnETH treasury. Under the existing mechanism, the protection mechanism for Lido EarnETH only automatically triggers when the treasury loss exceeds 1%. However, based on assessments by Lido contributors, if the rescue efforts by DeFi United progress smoothly, the actual gap in rsETH is expected to result in final losses for the treasury estimated between 400 to 600 Ethereum. Although this loss amount is substantial, it has not yet reached the universal trigger standard of 1%. To protect user interests and maintain brand reputation, the proposal suggests a "one-time exception" for this Kelp incident rather than a permanent modification of the 1% standard.

According to PeckShield monitoring, the KyberNetwork attacker today transferred 2,900 Ethereum to the privacy mixing protocol Tornado Cash, valued at approximately $6.8 million. KyberSwap suffered a severe "re-entrancy attack" on November 23, 2023, resulting in a loss of about $47 million in its liquidity pool. Although the official has repeatedly attempted to communicate with the attacker via on-chain messages and offered bounties to recover the funds, the attacker has remained firm and made extreme demands. This large-scale transfer of funds indicates that after months of silence, the attacker has begun laundering and cashing out through mixing platforms.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin began clearing out meme tokens donated to his wallet today. On-chain data shows that Vitalik sold 40 million ASTEROID-2 tokens for 114,566 USDC. This is not Vitalik's first large-scale cleanup of "airdrop gifts" this month. On April 1, he conducted a "spring cleaning," exchanging various unknown small-cap tokens for ETH. Vitalik has publicly expressed multiple times that he hopes token developers will directly donate these marketing tokens to charitable organizations instead of sending them to his personal wallet.

According to SolanaFloor, the total value (TVL) of real-world assets (RWA) on the Solana chain has surpassed $2.5 billion, setting a new historical high.

Binance will support the network upgrade and hard fork of the Rootstock Infrastructure Framework (RIF). To ensure user experience, Binance will suspend RIF network token deposits and withdrawals at approximately 17:00 on May 4, 2026. According to the official plan of RIF, the network upgrade and hard fork will take place at block height 8,804,200, with an estimated time of around 18:00 on May 4, 2026. During this period, RIF's spot trading will not be affected. Binance will handle all technical requirements related to this upgrade for users. Once the upgraded network is stable, Binance will reopen deposit and withdrawal functions for RIF tokens without further announcement.

According to Cointelegraph, Strategy has proposed to change its STRC dividend payment frequency from monthly to bi-monthly, and shareholders can now vote on this amendment. The company previously adopted a monthly dividend mechanism, and this adjustment, if approved, will alter its cash flow distribution. This proposal requires shareholder voting approval to take effect.

Prediction market platform Polymarket stated on the X platform that it denies a "data breach." Polymarket claims that all transaction and holding data on the platform is on-chain data, inherently open and auditable, reflecting the core characteristics of blockchain technology rather than a security flaw. Polymarket further clarified that any user or developer can access this data for free through its public API and directly on the blockchain, without having to pay additional fees. Previously, there were rumors that some third-party platforms were selling so-called "Polymarket leaked data," and the official response aims to emphasize the transparency of decentralized prediction markets and remind users to recognize misleading information.

According to Cointelegraph, Zhao Changpeng stated that "agentic money" is equivalent to blockchain. "Agentic money" usually refers to a form of currency managed and executed autonomously by AI agents. This viewpoint emphasizes the foundational role of blockchain technology in supporting automated and intelligent financial systems.

According to Cointelegraph, cross-chain protocol LayerZero Labs has committed to providing over 10,000 Ethereum to DeFi United, which includes a donation of 5,000 Ethereum and a deposit of 5,000 Ethereum, aimed at enhancing Aave liquidity and expanding GHO stablecoin liquidity.

According to CoinDesk, Robinhood stated in its Q1 earnings call that its cryptocurrency business revenue declined by 47% year-on-year to $134 million, down from $252 million in the same period last year. Despite the significant drop in cryptocurrency revenues, the company's overall revenue still increased, mainly due to strong performance in other business segments. This data reflects the direct impact of changes in cryptocurrency market activity on the revenue structure of trading platforms.

According to CryptoBriefing, Tether has partnered with Canaan and ACME Swisstech to develop modular bitcoin mining infrastructure, enhancing large-scale mining efficiency and scalability by separating computing, power, and casing designs. The system replaces traditional integrated solutions with application-specific hash board modules that support immersion cooling and allow component-level independent upgrades. Tether's CEO stated this design could reduce energy costs and give operators direct control over performance, and this deployment is based on prior work with their open-source Mining OS and SDK.

According to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency payment company Lightspark announced a partnership with Visa to become a major member of its network to expand global payment services driven by stablecoins. Lightspark, founded by former PayPal President David Marcus, focuses on Bitcoin Lightning Network and stablecoin payment solutions. This collaboration will enable Lightspark to leverage Visa's global payment network, promoting the use of stablecoins in cross-border payment scenarios.

According to Cointelegraph, Tether announced the expansion of its bitcoin mining infrastructure business, releasing an open-source framework that supports operators in managing mining hardware and software through a single system. The current bitcoin mining industry is widely shifting towards data centers and AI workloads to alleviate revenue pressure, with mining companies such as HIVE Digital, TeraWulf, and MARA Holdings diversifying into AI infrastructure. Bernstein analysts pointed out that IREN may gradually phase out mining operations, using AI cloud services as the primary source of future revenue.

According to U.Today, Litecoin developers have recently released a zero-day vulnerability report for the MWEB privacy protocol. In April this year, hackers exploited a data validation flaw in the protocol to execute a "peg-out" operation, minting 85,034 LTC out of thin air, resulting in a network split and the rollback of 13 blocks. The attack affected cross-chain protocols, with NEAR Intents losing 7.78 bitcoin and THORChain losing approximately 0.007 bitcoin. The Litecoin core team has released version 0.21.5.4 to fix the vulnerability. In the first attack, founder Charlie Lee paid 850 LTC to reach a settlement with the hacker.

According to CryptoBriefing, multi-asset trading platform Liquid announced the completion of an $18 million seed funding round, co-led by Neo and Left Lane Capital, with participation from Paradigm, General Catalyst, and others. The funds will be used to expand its 24/7 trading platform supporting over 500 markets for cryptocurrency assets, stocks, commodities, etc. Since launching in August 2025, the platform has handled over $3 billion in trading volume, serving 40,000 users and offering leverage up to 200 times along with AI assistant features. Following this round of financing, the company has raised a total of $25.6 million.

According to crypto.news, Startale Group has announced the integration of Privacy Boost developed by Sunnyside Labs into its Sony-supported Soneium app, providing users with self-custodied privacy protection and zero-knowledge payment functionality, supporting proof generation in under 500 milliseconds and processing over 1800 transactions per second.

a16z crypto has released a global financial technology stack map, systematically outlining the technological architecture and core components for building future financial infrastructure, providing developers and entrepreneurs with an industry-wide reference.

According to CoinDesk, Visa is working with stablecoin infrastructure company WeFi to build on-chain payment and banking services. WeFi was founded by Tether co-founder Reeve Collins. The platform plans to roll out regionally, starting with select markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, aiming to provide services to the unbanked population through stablecoin infrastructure. WeFi positions itself as a coordination layer between decentralized finance and regulated payment infrastructure, supporting scenarios such as cross-border consumption and on-chain value storage. Collins stated that this collaboration completes the "last mile" of on-chain banking infrastructure, with plans to expand to more markets upon receiving regulatory approvals and card issuance partnerships.

According to Cointelegraph, asset management firm State Street plans to launch tokenized fund services in Luxembourg by the end of this year.

According to WuBlockchain, Galaxy Digital has announced its Q1 2026 financial results, reporting a net loss of $216 million, primarily impacted by a approximately 20% decline in digital asset prices. The company disclosed that its total assets stood at approximately $10 billion by the end of the quarter, with shareholders' equity of $2.8 billion. This loss mainly stems from the impact of falling cryptocurrency prices on position valuations.

According to Cointelegraph, TON Tech, the ecological tech team of TON, has officially launched Agentic Wallets. This feature allows AI agents deployed on the Telegram platform to hold funds and perform transactions on-chain autonomously, without requiring user authorization for every single operation. TON (The Open Network) is a Layer1 blockchain network deeply integrated with Telegram. The launch of Agentic Wallets marks a further increase in the autonomy of AI agents within the blockchain ecosystem, enabling AI to independently complete on-chain financial operations such as payments and transfers within the Telegram ecosystem, providing new infrastructure for the integration of AI and cryptocurrency payments.

Blockchain data analytics platform Nansen announced on the X platform that it has designated OpenDelta as its first Joint Venture Partner (JVP), which provides a unified layer for on-chain asset management operations, supporting the design, issuance, operation, and distribution of financial products through a single interface. The OpenDelta team has built structured products in both CeFi and DeFi domains, including the tokenized index NX8. This partnership marks Nansen's official entry into the on-chain asset management infrastructure sector, further expanding its ecosystem beyond its data analytics business.

According to watcher.guru, the stablecoin RLUSD issued by Ripple now has a market cap of approximately $1.6 billion, ranking 8th among global stablecoins. This stablecoin has been adopted by institutions including BlackRock, LMAX Group, and Deutsche Bank for key mechanisms such as BUIDL tokenized fund redemption and core collateral assets. Under the GENIUS Act framework signed in July 2025, compliant stablecoins are gaining larger market shares. RLUSD is regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services and deeply integrated with the XRP Ledger's settlement infrastructure, and its institutional adoption growth will directly enhance ledger liquidity and XRP transaction fee revenue. Recent statements from the SEC chairman also suggest that regulatory policies are shifting towards a more defined direction.

According to Cointelegraph, OKX has incorporated BlackRock's tokenized treasury fund, BUIDL, into Standard Chartered's custody program, which is now open to eligible institutions and VIP clients, with plans to expand based on jurisdiction and demand. The exchange stated that this framework combines regulated custody, major asset management institutions, and globally systemically important bank partners. The BUIDL fund is tokenized by Securitize and invests in cash, U.S. Treasury bonds, and repurchase agreements, with returns distributed on-chain. Standard Chartered acts as an over-the-counter custodian holding customer collateral, separate from the exchange's own assets.

According to Decrypt, Block released its first-quarter proof of reserves report, revealing that it holds 28,355 bitcoins, valued at approximately $2.2 billion. Client assets comprise 19,357 bitcoins, while the corporate treasury holds 8,997 bitcoins.