News linked to this event type.
According to Bloomberg, Gemini (GEMI), the cryptocurrency exchange founded by the Winklevoss twins, has seen its market value more than halved this year, with its stock price down over 50% year-to-date. The company has laid off approximately 30% of its workforce and exited major overseas markets including the UK, the EU, and Australia, significantly increasing its financial pressure. According to sources familiar with the matter, Gemini is internally discussing a proposal to request that its founder-twins waive—or convert into equity—the roughly $330 million in loans they extended to the company. These loans were primarily provided through Winklevoss Capital Fund LLC. As of December 31, 2025, Gemini still owed 4,619 bitcoins (valued at over $330 million at the time). As the company’s primary controlling shareholders, the twins’ approval of such a move would directly impact Gemini’s capital structure. Following the report’s publication, Gemini’s stock price surged nearly 9% temporarily, though it remains sharply down for the year. The company has previously weathered executive departures, a strategic pivot toward prediction markets, and shareholder lawsuits; this latest focus on loan restructuring further underscores the ongoing impact of the crypto winter on exchanges.
According to a post on Grayscale’s official website, the firm has updated its list of cryptocurrencies under consideration for future investment products. Per the latest list, the “Currencies” category includes Bitcoin and XRP; the “Smart Contract Platforms” category now adds Stacks, Sui, Toncoin, and Tron; the “Financials” category includes assets under consideration such as Ethena, Hyperliquid, and Jupiter; the “Consumer & Culture” category features Dogecoin and Decentraland; the “AI” category includes Worldcoin, Virtuals Protocol, Story, and Grass; and the “Utilities & Services” category comprises Chainlink, LayerZero, and Helium. Grayscale stated that this list is reviewed quarterly to provide investors with diversified digital asset investment options.
According to a report by the Hong Kong Wen Wei Po, Norman Chan, Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), stated that stablecoin issuers’ choice of currency for issuance primarily depends on the applicants’ own preferences. While the first stablecoin to be launched will be pegged to the Hong Kong dollar, issuing stablecoins pegged to other currencies—including the renminbi—is permitted under Hong Kong’s regulatory framework. However, applicants must also obtain approval from mainland Chinese regulatory authorities. Regarding when the second batch of stablecoin issuer licenses will be issued, Chan said there is currently no official timeline, though the HKMA continues to engage in discussions with prospective applicants. It is reported that HSBC’s stablecoin will be integrated into both the PayMe and HSBC HK mobile apps, supporting real-time peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers as well as peer-to-merchant (P2M) services.
Bitdeer, a Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company, announced its latest Bitcoin holdings data on X. For the week ending April 10, Bitdeer mined 165 BTC but sold all 165 BTC during the same period, resulting in a net addition of 0 BTC. It continues to hold zero Bitcoin.
OpenAI announced that during a recent industry-wide security incident, a potential security issue was identified in Axios, a third-party development library used by OpenAI. After investigation, there is no evidence that user data was accessed, systems were compromised, or software was tampered with. As a precautionary measure, OpenAI has initiated security hardening efforts, focusing on strengthening the authentication mechanism for its macOS application to prevent malicious actors from distributing counterfeit official applications. OpenAI also urges all macOS users to update to the latest version of the application as soon as possible—either via in-app updates or through official channels—to mitigate potential risks.
HashKey Group Chairman Xiao Feng stated in an exclusive interview with the Hong Kong Wen Wei Po that Hong Kong’s issuance of the first batch of stablecoin licenses represents a significant milestone for the local digital asset market. He noted that this move further accelerates Hong Kong’s tokenization of fiat currency and completes a critical piece of infrastructure—clearing and payment systems—for its digital financial ecosystem. Beyond facilitating cross-border payments and trade settlements, Hong Kong-issued stablecoins will also serve as core mediums of exchange for digital asset transactions. Xiao Feng added that, in the long term, their greater value lies in enabling micro, cross-border, and programmable payments among AI agents, while synergizing with real-world assets (RWA), on-chain clearing, and other use cases—thereby helping Hong Kong secure a more pivotal role in the global evolution of digital assets and digital finance. He also emphasized that HashKey’s trading platform will adhere to principles of openness and regulatory compliance, supporting stablecoin issuers and related products that meet supervisory requirements to jointly foster healthy ecosystem development. Currently, HashKey is actively engaging in substantive cooperation discussions with licensed stablecoin issuers and welcomes institutions planning to launch compliant stablecoins in Hong Kong to establish partnerships. As a core participant in Hong Kong’s digital asset market, HashKey will leverage its existing licensed and compliant framework, fiat on-ramps, and industry resources to support compliant stablecoins across listing, liquidity provision, payment scenario expansion, and the implementation and refinement of related applications—driving orderly industry ecosystem development.
According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, Bitwise has updated its Hyperliquid ETF application filing again; the proposed ticker symbol is BHYP, with an expense ratio of 67 basis points (0.67%). He noted that such updates typically signal an imminent official launch.
According to Fox News and NBC News, a spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed that San Francisco police arrested a suspect early Friday morning for throwing a Molotov cocktail at the residence of OpenAI’s co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, as well as for making threats outside the AI giant’s San Francisco headquarters. OpenAI stated: “Fortunately, no one was injured.” The company added: “We are deeply grateful to the San Francisco Police Department for their swift response and thank the city government for its support in ensuring the safety of our employees. The suspect has been taken into custody, and we are cooperating fully with law enforcement in their investigation.” As of now, Altman has not issued any public statement regarding this arrest. In a separate statement, the San Francisco Police Department said officers responded early Friday to a residential property in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood “for a fire investigation.” The suspect fled on foot, and his description was immediately disseminated to all officers. Later, the San Francisco Police Department received a report and dispatched officers to a business located at 1400 Third Street to address “an unidentified male threatening to burn down the building.” (OpenAI’s headquarters is located at 1455 Third Street.) The department stated: “Upon arriving at the scene, officers recognized the male as the same suspect involved in the earlier incident and immediately took him into custody.” The suspect is reported to be a 20-year-old man.
Circle has unveiled its 2026 vision for the development of internet finance systems, outlining a strategic focus on building cross-chain interoperability infrastructure, liquidity orchestration capabilities, and institutional-grade asset issuance frameworks to enable efficient value flow across multi-chain ecosystems. Regarding cross-chain infrastructure, Circle stated that it will introduce features such as “Fast Transfer” in the future—enabling sub-second settlement without waiting for source-chain finality—to enhance capital efficiency. At the asset expansion level, the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) will expand beyond USDC to support additional assets—including EURC, USYC, and cirBTC—and facilitate the issuance and circulation of real-world assets (RWAs) across multiple chains. Additionally, Circle is advancing cross-chain process coordination by offering tools such as Bridge Kit, Deposit Kit, Fee Service, and Workflows—streamlining multi-chain operations into “one-click” cross-chain interactions, reducing development complexity, and improving user experience.
Nasdaq-listed Trident Digital Tech Holdings has entered a strategic partnership with Ripple Strategy Holding, which will provide RLUSD stablecoin technology and payment infrastructure to support Trident’s business expansion in the African market. Trident plans to build a blockchain-based tax settlement and reporting system for approximately 2.1 million micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Ghana, and establish an RLUSD/GHS liquidity pool to create a low-cost, real-time foreign exchange market supporting 24/7 cross-border payments. The stablecoin pilot is expected to launch in mid-2026.
SimpleChain announced the completion of a $15 million seed funding round, raised privately from family offices and institutional investors. SimpleChain is building an RWA-focused Layer 1 operating system for institutions. Built on Granular Data and native Compliance-as-a-Service (CaaS) technologies, the platform aims to accelerate the development of the Real World Assets (RWA) sector. The official statement notes that further updates will be released in the future. SimpleChain focuses on asset tokenization, on-chain verification, compliance automation, and global liquidity—providing infrastructure support for real-world economic systems. Its core capabilities include a trusted data foundation, a programmable compliance layer, and a high-performance blockchain architecture, enabling institutional-grade RWA issuance and on-chain financialization. SimpleChain seeks to enable seamless global interaction among assets, data, and institutions—replacing traditional intermediaries’ trust with technology, cryptography, and verifiable data.
According to CoinDesk, amid the Iran conflict, Binance has offered its approximately 1,000 employees in the UAE the option of temporary relocation to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, or Bangkok. Binance stated that its UAE operations continue normally, with some employees choosing to remain locally, and global user services remain unaffected. This measure follows regional unrest that has disrupted major cryptocurrency, business, and sports events in the UAE—including the postponement of TOKEN2049 Dubai to 2027 and the cancellation of TON Gateway due to security and travel concerns. The UAE government reported having intercepted hundreds of missiles and drones since late February. Binance is deepening its collaboration with local authorities through Abu Dhabi’s global regulatory framework, and its global operations are backed by Abu Dhabi.
Circle Chief Strategy Officer Dante Disparte responded to the major security breach affecting Drift Protocol on April 1, which resulted in over $270 million in stolen funds. He stated that open financial systems must be built upon foundations of legal accountability, shared security, and rules that evolve in real time with emerging threats. Circle freezes USDC funds only when legally required—a measure reflecting its compliance obligations and safeguarding users’ assets and privacy rights. He emphasized that openness and accountability must be balanced, and all participants across the ecosystem—including protocols, wallets, infrastructure providers, exchanges, and stablecoin issuers—must jointly shoulder responsibility for security and accountability. Circle is collaborating with U.S. and international policymakers to advance stablecoin legislation, including the GENIUS Act, to establish a more modern legal framework enabling lawful, rapid intervention against illicit activities while protecting property rights and privacy—ensuring the continued resilience and robust growth of open financial systems.
According to Reuters, the European Central Bank (ECB) recently stated its support for the European Commission’s initiative to centralize regulatory authority over systemically important cross-border financial market participants—including crypto-asset service providers, major trading venues, central counterparties, and central securities depositories—from national regulators to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). This move aims to deepen the integration of EU capital markets and enhance overall competitiveness. The ECB recommends that ESMA’s Board establish a non-voting seat for central banks and emphasizes that ESMA must be granted adequate resources and personnel to effectively assume these new responsibilities. The relevant proposal will undergo negotiations between EU member states and the European Parliament and is expected to take several months before final legislation is adopted.
According to an official announcement from Mantle, xStocksFi has officially launched on the Mantle network, supported by BackedFi and Flowdesk. As one of the first stock tokenization projects to achieve on-chain liquidity, users can trade major global assets—including TSLAx, NVDAx, AAPLx, and METAx—24/7 via the Fluxion network, with a total of 10 top U.S. equities available. Leveraging institutional-grade infrastructure and official, dedicated deposit and withdrawal support from Bybit, Mantle enhances the distribution efficiency of real-world assets (RWA) while delivering ultra-low trading fees and high-speed execution. The official announcement states that the launch of xStocks marks only the beginning of ecosystem expansion, with additional features—including xChange and xPoints—planned for future release.
Decentralized GPU cloud computing infrastructure platform Aethir confirmed that its Ethereum-related bridge contract was attacked. The team promptly disconnected the affected contract and, in collaboration with major exchanges, blacklisted the hacker’s wallet, limiting losses to under $90,000. Earlier, blockchain security firm PeckShield estimated losses at $400,000. The attacker exploited Aethir’s cross-chain smart contract, AethirOFTAdapter, to transfer stolen funds from BNB Chain to Tron. Aethir stated that its Ethereum mainnet ATH token supply remains unaffected. It plans to release a detailed compensation plan and incident analysis next week and will collaborate with exchanges including Binance, Upbit, and Bithumb to freeze funds. Web3 security platform ZeroShadow is assisting with the investigation. In 2025, Aethir achieved $127.8 million in revenue and deployed over 440,000 GPU containers globally.
According to The Block, Avihu Levy, a researcher at StarkWare, published a paper proposing the Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme, claiming it enables quantum-resistant transactions under Bitcoin’s existing script rules—without requiring a soft fork. This scheme replaces elliptic-curve cryptography with the RIPEMD-160 hash function via a “hash-to-signature” puzzle, thereby enhancing resilience against quantum attacks. The paper notes that QSB’s current per-transaction cost ranges from $75 to $150—significantly higher than today’s average transaction fee—and involves complex user experience; thus, it is recommended only as a “last resort.” The scheme remains constrained by script opcodes and size limits, and does not yet support all use cases—such as the Lightning Network. Compared to BIP-360—which requires protocol-level changes—QSB needs no modifications to the Bitcoin protocol, but remains experimental.
According to Reuters, Kraken has become the first cryptocurrency exchange approved for a Federal Reserve master account. However, the account is restricted: it only permits Kraken’s banking operations to access the Fedwire payment system and hold limited balances—earning no interest and ineligible for emergency lending. This move has raised concerns in the U.S. financial system regarding risk and transparency, including a call from Maxine Waters, Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, for greater disclosure of account details. Regulatory experts warn that lightly regulated crypto firms gaining direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment system could pose operational and financial stability risks. The Federal Reserve stated that these restrictions are intended to mitigate liquidity shocks and credit risk; however, banks caution that they may impair banking system liquidity and exacerbate money laundering and operational vulnerabilities. Kraken says its bank reserves are fully backed and that it complies with bank-level anti-money laundering (AML) and customer identification requirements.
Bybit announced that the CC and RLUSD-related features officially launched on April 10, 2026, at 10:00 UTC. This upgrade introduces several core capabilities for both assets, including spot leveraged trading, lending, and collateral support, while also integrating wealth management and institutional lending product lines—further expanding their use cases and capital efficiency.
According to an official announcement, the fifth installment of the Strategy campaign—collaborating between the decentralized stablecoin USDD and Binance Wallet—officially launched on April 10 at 08:00 (Singapore Time) and will run until May 30, 2026, at 07:59. This edition features a total reward pool valued at $1 million in USDD. Users who deposit at least 100 USDT into the USDD-USDT Strategy via the Binance Wallet Strategy section automatically qualify to share in the rewards. Notably, participants currently engaged in the campaign do not need to take any additional action—they are automatically enrolled in the fifth installment. Access the campaign via the Binance Wallet Strategy page; for more details, please visit the official website.