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Odaily Odaily News: Flipcash, an app created by Kik founder Ted Livingston, has launched a native stablecoin USDF on Solana, based on Coinbase's "Stablecoin as a Service" platform.According to reports, USDF is pegged 1:1 to the US dollar and fully backed by USDC. Coinbase handles issuance, reserves, and compliance matters. Flipcash has become the first application to use the Coinbase stablecoin-as-a-service platform.It is understood that USDF will primarily be used for cash-like payment scenarios within the Flipcash app. Flipcash is a digital payment application built on Solana, allowing users to create and trade "community currencies" with a fixed supply.Coinbase launched its stablecoin-as-a-service platform in late 2025, aiming to help enterprises issue branded stablecoins without needing to build their own infrastructure. (The Block)
According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency custody firm Copper is seeking to sell the company at a valuation of approximately $500 million and has engaged Wall Street investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald to assist with the transaction. Copper’s core asset is its ClearLoop custody-based settlement system, which enables institutional clients to execute delivery versus payment (DvP) transactions without moving assets on-chain, effectively eliminating settlement risk. The company currently boasts over 1,000 active counterparties and processes over $50 billion in notional trading volume monthly. Copper had previously considered an IPO, but the broader crypto IPO market has entered a wait-and-see phase amid sluggish Bitcoin prices and the capital-attracting effect of the AI sector.
Odaily Y Combinator has launched the YC Crypto Deals program to help startups secure grants, Gas fee credits, and crypto infrastructure support from partners such as the Solana Foundation, QuickNode, Helius, and Phantom.
Morgan Stanley Global Head of Technology M&A Wally Cheng said that as companies race to fill technological gaps in areas such as chips, electricity, networking, and infrastructure, mergers and acquisitions in the artificial intelligence field are covering all sizes and expanding across multiple industries. Cheng stated: "I believe transaction activity will cover the full spectrum, including both private and public companies." While the semiconductors providing computing power for AI have attracted attention due to their "technological miracle" attributes, the infrastructure surrounding these chips also holds significant value, including areas such as networking, storage, electricity, and real estate. Cheng said that valuations in the AI industry remain "very difficult" because a balance must be struck between "imaginative unicorns with rainbow-like prospects" and actual execution risks. Evercore Senior Managing Director of Technology Investment Banking Tammy Kiely echoed similar views. She said potential acquirers must assess the potential value they themselves can create while weighing the cost of missing out on opportunities. (Jinshi)
USDF, a custom stablecoin on the Solana blockchain jointly launched by Coinbase and Flipcash, has gone live. It is part of the "Custom Stablecoins" initiative, enabling businesses and protocols to easily issue their own branded USD stablecoins for payments, payroll, cross-border settlements, and more, while maintaining regulatory compliance.
Odaily reports, In a recent video interview with Cointelegraph, Gate Founder and CEO Dr. Han stated that the crypto industry is transitioning from a primarily speculation-driven market towards a phase focused on infrastructure development and real-world applications. Dr. Han pointed out that stablecoins, RWA, AI, and asset tokenization are becoming core directions for the industry, and that clearer regulatory frameworks (such as the CLARITY Act) are expected to further drive innovation in DeFi, payments, and on-chain finance.Dr. Han also mentioned that high user entry barriers, security risks, and liquidity fragmentation remain significant challenges facing the industry. In the future, the crypto industry will further integrate with traditional finance, playing a more important role in areas such as payments, settlement, and the circulation of digital assets.Gate continues to deepen its multi-asset and TradFi strategy. In addition to expanding into assets such as stocks, metals, forex, indices, and commodities, it has also launched Pre-IPOs with the first project, SpaceX (SPCX). At the same time, as one of the first CEX platforms to integrate Polymarket, Gate is continuously promoting the development of the prediction market ecosystem, accelerating the construction of a comprehensive trading platform that spans crypto and traditional finance.
amidst the US earnings season and the continuous advancement of AI narratives by tech giants, according to official sources from Bitget, the platform has recently added 10 new US stock contract targets. As a result, Bitget's Universal Exchange (UEX) now supports 263 US stock tokens and 81 US stock contracts. The total number of US stock-related assets tradable across the entire platform has exceeded 340.This week enters a period of密集 earnings reports and macroeconomic data releases. Through continuous expansion, Bitget aims to provide users with a wide range of cross-market asset allocation channels.3 Key Focus Targets This Week:• NVDA (NVIDIA): Will release Q1 earnings after the US market closes on May 20. The implied volatility from the options market suggests a potential single-day swing of over 7.5%. As the core of AI computing power, its performance will directly impact the overall valuation trend of the tech sector.• GOOGL (Google): Recently, at its I/O conference, Google intensively released multiple new products such as Gemini 3.5 and AI agents. The market is closely monitoring the subsequent pace of commercial implementation and revenue monetization capabilities.• WMT (Walmart): Will release Q1 earnings before the market opens on May 21. As a retail giant, Walmart's resilience during the consumer downturn cycle is under significant scrutiny. The earnings results and guidance will directly influence investors' assessment of full-year growth expectations and the stock's short-term performance.
Drift Protocol stated on X platform that after the protocol resumes operation, users who have staked in the Insurance Fund will be able to withdraw their corresponding shares normally. The Insurance Fund is designed to maintain the protocol's solvency during liquidation or bankruptcy scenarios. Since the protocol was paused before losses were realized through normal liquidation or bankruptcy processes, the Insurance Fund was not affected by the relevant vulnerability or attack.Drift Protocol added that the protocol's own Insurance Fund assets will be used to support system restart and user recovery, and it plans to disclose the relevant on-chain addresses to allow the community to track fund usage and subsequent deployment.
according to Lookonchain monitoring, a trader utilized a sniping strategy to participate in trading during the early stages of the ZEST token launch, paying approximately 536.88 BNB (around $343K) as a "bribe fee" to secure priority transaction execution rights.The trader then invested an additional approximately $600K in USDT to buy about 18.3 million ZEST during the opening phase, bringing the total cost to roughly $943K.Subsequently, the trader sold their entire position, recovering approximately $1.22 million, ultimately realizing a net profit of about $277K. This event once again highlights the prevalence of MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) and sniping activities in on-chain trading during the launch phase of new tokens.
LayerZero Labs has released a recent incident report stating that on April 18, 2026, the KelpDAO rsETH cross-chain bridge, built on its cross-chain communication protocol, suffered an attack resulting in the theft of approximately 116,500 rsETH (around $292 million). Multiple security organizations, including Mandiant, CrowdStrike, and independent researchers, have attributed this attack to the North Korea-linked hacker group TraderTraitor (UNC4899).According to the report, the attack began on March 6, 2026. The attackers compromised a LayerZero developer account through social engineering, obtained session keys, and penetrated the RPC cloud environment. They further contaminated internal RPC node data and manipulated the returned results to deceive monitoring systems and the Decentralized Verification Network (DVN). Subsequently, the attackers launched a denial-of-service attack against external RPC providers, forcing the verification system to rely on the compromised nodes to generate forged cross-chain proofs, thereby successfully extracting the funds.LayerZero pointed out that the core vulnerability of this incident lay in the affected application adopting a "single-verifier" configuration. This allowed the target contract to execute asset releases upon receiving only a single valid signature, leading to the theft of rsETH.Following the incident, LayerZero Labs announced an adjustment to security policies. This includes no longer allowing its own DVN to act as the sole signer in a single-verifier configuration, rebuilding the affected cloud infrastructure, and introducing short-term credentials, instant permission upgrades, and multi-party approval mechanisms to enhance security. Additionally, zeroShadow and law enforcement agencies have initiated investigations and asset tracing. LayerZero stated it will continue to collaborate with ecosystem partners to strengthen the cross-chain security framework to address increasingly sophisticated nation-state attack threats.
According to an official announcement, Coinbase will list Nexus (NEX) spot trading. NEX deposits will only be available after the Nexus issuer enables transfer functionality.
Coinbase has announced it will list Nexus (NEX) for spot trading. The NEX deposit function will be available once the Nexus issuer enables transfer capabilities.
: Digital asset infrastructure platform Fireblocks announced the launch of the "Agentic Payments Suite" to support the AI Agent payment framework of the x402 protocol, and simultaneously announced its joining of the x402 Foundation. It is reported that this suite covers the entire AI Agent payment process, including wallet infrastructure for Agents to initiate transfers, a merchant receiving layer, and settlement and risk control functions for compliant financial institutions. (Cointelegraph)
According to official announcements, Brevis Vera—the media authenticity verification tool launched by Brevis, a ZK-powered intelligent verifiable computing platform—is now fully open to the public. Users can capture images using any C2PA-compatible camera or smartphone. C2PA enables devices to cryptographically sign media content at the moment of capture, binding the content to the hardware and generating tamper-proof provenance metadata.
On-chain sleuth ZachXBT posted on his personal channel that chain tracking analysis shows at least approximately $25 million in presale funds from two investment schemes related to Gurhan Kiziloz show signs of commingling. These funds were transferred to pay for promotions by KOLs and streamers, linked to his online gambling platform. ZachXBT stated that the fundraising materials for the related presale projects, BlockDAG Network and ZKP, did not disclose that the funds would be used to support other businesses. However, on-chain data reveals that after the funds were pooled across multiple addresses, they were transferred via cross-chain bridges to exchanges and then to promotional payment addresses.ZachXBT also named several related addresses, including the Spartans KOL payment address and the BlockDAG / ZKP presale wallets, and advised investors to stay away from the BlockDAG, ZKP, and Spartans projects. Currently, some retail investors are continuously complaining on social media about the use of these funds.
According to Fortune, Catena Labs—founded by Sean Neville, co-founder of Circle—has raised $30 million in its Series A funding round, led by Acrew Capital and a16z crypto, with participation from Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, and QED. Catena Labs focuses on developing tools that enable AI agents to conduct financial transactions securely. The company has applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in New York for a national trust bank charter, seeking regulatory authorization to process payments and hold customer funds. Previously, in 2025, Catena Labs secured an initial $18 million financing round led by a16z crypto.
Odaily reports, Soluna Holdings, a Nasdaq-listed company primarily focused on crypto computing and artificial intelligence, announced it has acquired all remaining equity interests in the Dorothy 1B project for approximately $8.8 million, achieving 100% control of the project. Following the equity consolidation, the company will leverage its proprietary computing campus to enhance infrastructure deployment, accelerate the upgrade of its business structure, and expand into the fields of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. (Businesswire)
Odaily Odaily reports: According to an official announcement, Gate has launched Zest Protocol (ZEST) perpetual contract live trading (USDT-settled), supporting 1-20x leverage.Gate has also added ZEST unified account borrowing, isolated margin trading pairs, and simultaneously launched ZEST savings, flexible lending, and fixed-term lending features. ZEST flash swap, trading bots, copy trading, and recurring buy functions are now available.
According to The Block, Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor for Financial Stability at the Bank of England, stated that the UK’s future financial system will advance tokenization, with the retail payments system incorporating tokenized deposits, regulated stablecoins, and potentially a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Bank of England plans to publish a draft regulatory framework for systemic stablecoins next month and finalize it by the end of 2026—imposing temporary caps on stablecoin issuance volumes if necessary. Breeden also noted that the Bank of England will continue supporting banks in developing tokenized deposits and advancing initiatives such as the Digital Securities Sandbox and Digital Gilt.
According to the South China Morning Post, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, stated that gold can serve as a potential bridge between traditional finance and new finance. He emphasized that Hong Kong needs to provide more development opportunities for the digital asset market to support its sustainable growth. He also noted that, given the “convergence” trend between traditional and innovative finance, Hong Kong has opted not to establish a separate digital asset regulatory authority. Hui pointed out that both gold ETFs and blockchain-based tokenized gold products are already available in the market. Earlier, HSBC and Hang Seng Investment launched Hong Kong’s first tokenized, non-listed Hang Seng Gold ETF product on HashKey Exchange in April.