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the Ethereum Protocol Support Team has announced the launch of Ethereum Protocol Fellowship Cohort 7 (EPF7). The application channel is now open, with a deadline of May 13th.This program is designed to cultivate engineers capable of participating in Ethereum core protocol development, focusing on the network's core attributes including censorship resistance, open-source nature, privacy, and security. Key areas of focus include client implementations, protocol specifications, testing, and cutting-edge research.EPF7 will adopt a "small-scale, high-density" model, reducing participant numbers to enhance the depth of mentorship and the quality of project contributions, while strengthening collaboration opportunities with the core development team. The project runs from June to November. Selected participants will receive mentorship support from the Ethereum core developer community. Some participants will also receive monthly grants to focus on protocol development work. The program goals include nurturing long-term contributors for the Ethereum core research and development team, and driving participants towards producing substantive results in client development and protocol research.It is reported that the EPF team will host an online information session on May 6th at 15:00 UTC to further introduce project details and answer application-related questions.
Bitcoin remained near $76,000 on Thursday. After the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, market attention quickly shifted to internal policy divergence and macroeconomic uncertainty. Analysts noted that Bitcoin remains suppressed below the key resistance range of $78,000 to $79,000, lacking short-term breakout momentum.Thomas Perfumo, Chief Economist at Kraken, stated that the market is currently more focused on policy uncertainty stemming from internal "divisions" within the Federal Reserve rather than the inaction itself. This is particularly true against the backdrop of Chairman Jerome Powell's continued tenure and the potential expectation of Kevin Warsh succeeding him, creating a lack of clear policy transition.Glassnode data shows that Bitcoin remains "trapped" below the True Market Mean, with resistance concentrated in the $78,000 to $79,000 range and support lying between $65,000 and $70,000. While selling pressure has eased, demand remains insufficient to support a sustained upward breakout.On the macro front, the Fed has shown rare, severe internal disagreements, interpreted by the market as rising uncertainty over the inflation path. Analysts from institutions like Bitget Wallet and 21Shares point out that the expectation of "higher rates for longer" is suppressing risk asset performance, pushing the crypto market into a wait-and-see phase.Regarding capital flows, U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs have recorded net outflows for three consecutive days, with a single-day outflow of approximately $138 million on April 29. Ethereum ETFs saw outflows of about $87.7 million over the same period. Although individual products still saw inflows, the overall trend indicates cooling institutional demand.Meanwhile, CME open interest and ETF assets under management have stabilized but have yet to show strong signals of capital return. In the derivatives market, short positions in perpetual contracts have reached an all-time high, suggesting a potential squeeze if sentiment improves. However, the current market remains dominated by a low-volatility, low-confidence consolidation structure.Overall, Bitcoin is caught in a tug-of-war between an improving support structure and weak demand. Sustained ETF outflows, policy uncertainty, and macroeconomic risks collectively suppress its ability to break through the key resistance range. (The Block)
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) released its 2025 Annual Report. In the section on key priorities and outlook for 2026, the HKMA stated that it will continue participating in international discussions and cooperation on digital asset policies—particularly regarding the implications of stablecoin-related arrangements for monetary and financial stability—and ensure that its regulatory framework remains aligned with international standards and best practices. Additionally, another key focus area under “Fintech 2030” is advancing Hong Kong’s tokenization ecosystem: further promoting the tokenization of real-world assets (including financial assets), and enabling settlement of these assets on blockchains via new forms of digital currency—such as e-HKD, tokenized deposits, and regulated stablecoins—to support faster and smoother financial transactions.
According to the Ethereum Foundation’s official website, its Ecosystem Support Program (ESP) allocated a total of $9.856 million in Q1 2026, with funding concentrated on core infrastructure areas including cryptography, zero-knowledge proofs, security audits, and protocol research. Key funded projects this quarter include: - In the ZK domain: formal verification of zkVMs, GPU-accelerated R1CS witness generation, and intermediate representation optimization for LLZK; - In security: cryptanalysis of Poseidon, cross-platform canonical signing libraries for ERC-7730, and specification-compliance testing for ePBS; - In node and client development: Erigon zkEVM extensions, Besu HSM compliance integration, and the multi-node validator Vero; - Additionally, privacy tools (Kohaku SDK, Tor bridge extensions), continued operations of the Layer 2 transparency platform L2BEAT, and R&D for the Lighthouse client’s transition to the Fusaka fork. On ecosystem development, ESP simultaneously supported Ethereum developer events in Seoul, Hong Kong, Vancouver, and Buenos Aires, advanced updates to the Ethereum climate impact assessment, and backed policy research initiatives by the European Decentralization Institute (EDI).
The Investment Committee under the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a document titled “Understanding the Nature of Investment through Prediction Markets,” which states: Prediction markets are speculative markets created for the purpose of making predictions. Trading activities or contracts in prediction markets are not investment products. Key features include: events subject to prediction, trading mechanisms, trading prices, and payouts. Before considering any investment, investors should carefully consider the investment’s value, asset allocation, and regulatory safeguards. The Investment Committee notes that members of the public engaging in trading activities on prediction markets are not protected by the Securities and Futures Ordinance or any regulations enforced by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. Should problems arise, redress may be difficult—or even impossible—to obtain.
PrimePiper has launched an enterprise-grade prime broker platform for AI agents, designed to address challenges including fragmented account management, inadequate risk control, inability to reconcile across venues, and insufficient compliance auditing in AI-driven automated trading. According to the company, its infrastructure supports unified connectivity to multiple trading venues—including Hyperliquid, OKX, Tiger Brokers, and Interactive Brokers (IBKR). For risk control, PrimePiper offers enterprise-grade API key management, spending limits, and circuit-breaker mechanisms to constrain AI agent trading behavior. At the execution layer, it enables automated strategy execution via SDK or the Model Context Protocol (MCP). For compliance and auditing, it provides audit-grade reporting capabilities tailored for funds and traders. PrimePiper has been selected for the latest cohort of Founders Inc’s accelerator program; its product is currently in the Alpha stage. Team members hail from Galois Capital, Kraken, DRW, and AWS.
Vercel has released an analysis of a security incident, stating that certain internal systems were accessed without authorization. The breach originated from a third-party AI tool, Context.ai, used by an employee, which was compromised. Attackers leveraged this to take over the employee’s Google Workspace account and access some environment configuration data. Preliminary impact assessment indicates that a small number of customers’ environment variables—unmarked as “sensitive” (e.g., API keys, tokens)—may have been exposed. Affected users have been notified and advised to immediately rotate their credentials. At present, there is no evidence that data explicitly marked as “sensitive” or the supply chain (e.g., npm packages) has been tampered with. Vercel notes that the attackers demonstrated a high level of technical sophistication. The company is collaborating with Mandiant and multiple security organizations to investigate the incident and has filed a report with law enforcement. Vercel also confirms that its platform services remain fully operational. Users are advised to enable multi-factor authentication, comprehensively rotate potentially exposed environment variables, and review account activity logs and deployment records to mitigate further risk.
According to an official announcement, in response to the recent Vercel platform security incident, Jupiter (@JupiterExchange) stated that it has received no notifications or indications of impact, and its jup.ag frontend does not store any sensitive information. Jupiter has proactively implemented all security measures recommended by Vercel, completed rotation of all keys, and conducted a comprehensive review of system logs—no suspicious activity was found. Monitoring remains ongoing.
According to FinanceFeeds, Morgan Stanley stated that real-world asset tokenization has become the “next major step” for its global business and is now a strategic priority in its initiative to upgrade traditional financial infrastructure using blockchain. The firm plans to integrate traditional and digital assets within regulated environments, advance near real-time on-chain settlement, and launch an institutional digital wallet in the second half of 2026—supporting tokenized traditional investment products as well as crypto assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley is also advancing the development of a tokenized private equity secondary market and building both on-chain and off-chain settlement processes.
According to CoinDesk, Ron Hammond, Policy Lead at crypto market maker Wintermute, stated that the U.S. crypto market structure bill—the Clarity Act—continues to face multiple obstacles in its legislative process, with only about a 30% chance of passage this year. The bill aims to clarify the respective regulatory responsibilities of the SEC and CFTC over digital assets. However, current negotiations are progressing unevenly, and the timeline has been repeatedly delayed. Key resistance stems from traditional banking institutions—particularly over whether stablecoins should be permitted to generate yield—a point of serious disagreement. Related compromise proposals have repeatedly stalled. Moreover, internal divisions among Democrats, as well as issues concerning DeFi compliance and anti-money laundering (AML), further add uncertainty to the legislation. That said, Ron Hammond believes the bill still retains room for advancement; whether it can be enacted this year ultimately hinges on whether critical disagreements can be resolved.
According to CoinDesk, S&P Global Market Intelligence released a report stating that although the stablecoin market has surpassed $31.6 billion, banks’ strategic planning around stablecoins remains largely in the early exploratory phase. S&P Global’s Q1 2026 survey found that among 100 surveyed banks, only 7% are developing related frameworks, and none have launched live pilots. Key concerns for banks include risks of deposit outflows, intensifying competition from non-bank institutions, and uncertain impacts on revenue. Regarding strategic divergence, the report forecasts that large banks will explore issuing tokenized deposits, while mid- and small-sized institutions are more likely to participate via fiat on-ramp and off-ramp services. Regardless of the chosen strategy, banks must undertake extensive upgrades to their existing systems to support real-time digital asset operations.