News linked to both this project and an event.
According to Reuters, Greek maritime risk management company MARISKS has warned that some shipping companies stranded west of the Strait of Hormuz have received fraudulent messages impersonating Iranian authorities, demanding payment of a “transit permit fee” in Bitcoin or Tether (USDT). These messages are scams and not issued by official Iranian authorities. MARISKS stated that the scam messages claim documents must first be submitted and assessed by the “Iranian Security Department” before the cryptocurrency fee is determined. Currently, approximately hundreds of vessels and around 20,000 seafarers are stranded in the Gulf. During Iran’s brief opening of the Strait on April 18, at least two vessels—including one oil tanker—were forced to turn back after Iranian vessels opened fire on them.
According to the official announcement, HTX (formerly Huobi) has launched perpetual contracts for SNDK/USDT, MSFT/USDT, and BABA/USDT on April 21, with a maximum leverage of 20x. Concurrently, HTX is hosting a trading party for SNDK, MSFT, and BABA perpetual contracts from 17:00 on April 21 to 17:00 on April 28 (UTC+8), with a total prize pool of up to $20,000. During the event, users who register and trade SNDK/USDT, MSFT/USDT, or BABA/USDT perpetual contracts—achieving a cumulative effective trading volume of ≥$5,000—will share the prize pool based on their trading volume ranking. Additionally, new users trading SNDK/USDT, MSFT/USDT, or BABA/USDT perpetual contracts will receive exclusive benefits.
According to an official announcement, Bybit will officially launch its Premier Loans service on April 20, 2026, offering institutional and high-net-worth clients scalable capital support. This service supports multi-asset collateralized lending, with a minimum loan amount of 300,000 USDT and no fixed upper limit (subject to approval). Users may select their preferred loan term based on their strategy and submit their desired annual percentage rate (APR); the platform will then provide a customized lending solution based on risk assessment.
According to the official announcement, Upbit has listed USDAI (CHIP) trading pairs against the Korean won, Bitcoin, and USDT.
According to official news, the subscription scale for the Gate Pre-IPOs project SpaceX (SPCX) has exceeded $300 million. The subscription channel remains open. This product supports participation with both USDT and GUSD. After the subscription is completed, SPCX asset certificates will enter the pre-market trading market with a 100% unlocked form.Furthermore, for new subscription users, they can enjoy up to an additional 200% annualized yield in the Yu'ebao (surplus coin treasure). Users who choose GUSD to participate in the subscription can enjoy an additional 2.9% minting yield. VIP 5 and above users and super agents are receiving additional airdrop rewards, continuously enhancing the overall participation yield potential.
According to the HTX announcement, HTX has enabled OPG deposits as of 23:45 (GMT+8) on April 20. Spot trading for OPG/USDT will commence at 20:00 (GMT+8) on April 21. OPG withdrawals will be enabled at 18:00 (GMT+8) on April 22. Additionally, HTX Margin Trading will introduce isolated-margin leveraged trading for OPG/USDT (10x) at 20:00 (GMT+8) on April 21. OpenGradient is a platform for open-source model hosting, secure execution, agent-based inference, and application deployment. It is building a native intelligence network designed to bring the world’s computing onto the blockchain.
According to official social media announcements, the Chinese decentralized contract trading platform Sun Wukong has now launched META/USDT and AAPL/USDT, both with a maximum leverage of 20x.
According to the official announcement, HTX (formerly Huobi) has launched perpetual contracts for AAPL/USDT, META/USDT, and PIVERSE/USDT on April 20, with a maximum leverage of 20x. Additionally, HTX is hosting an “AAPL, META, PIVERSE Contract Trading Party” from 17:00 on April 20 to 17:00 on April 27 (UTC+8), with a total prize pool of $20,000. During the event, users who register and trade AAPL/USDT, META/USDT, or PIVERSE/USDT perpetual contracts—accumulating a total effective trading volume of ≥$5,000—will share the prize pool based on their trading volume ranking. New contract traders completing trades in AAPL/USDT, META/USDT, or PIVERSE/USDT perpetual contracts will also receive exclusive benefits.
According to a chart analysis released by independent analyst Markus Thielen on April 20, 2026, Bitcoin has remained in a correction phase since last October. During the same period, Tether’s market capitalization has lingered near $18.3 billion, reflecting a lack of new capital inflows and sustained downward pressure on prices overall. Recently, this situation has shifted: Tether’s circulating supply has increased by approximately $3 billion, lifting its market cap to $18.7 billion; the total stablecoin market cap has resumed an upward trend, signaling a recovery in market liquidity. Analysts note that, when viewed alongside other capital flow indicators, the signals are turning positive—though still in their early stages. Marginal improvements in such capital flows typically precede price movements. If this trend continues over the coming weeks, it could provide some support for Bitcoin’s price.
According to the official announcement, Binance will list the following spot trading pairs on April 21 at 16:00 (UTC): BNB/USDT, BNB/USD1, ENJ/USDT, GIGGLE/USDT, and ORDI/USDT. Additionally, Binance will simultaneously enable Trading Bot services for these trading pairs.
According to the official announcement, Upbit will list PIEVERSE trading pairs against KRW, BTC, and USDT.
According to the official announcement, Binance Futures updated the leverage and margin tier parameters for the QQQUSDT, SPYUSDT, EWYUSDT, and EWJUSDT perpetual contracts denominated in their respective base assets at 15:30 (Beijing Time) on April 21, 2026. Existing positions held by users prior to the update will be affected, and active futures grid trading strategies may become invalid due to the changes in leverage and margin tiers. Users are advised to take appropriate actions before the adjustment.
Bitget has launched a futures trading leaderboard campaign, running from April 20 to April 27. During the campaign period, the first 5,000 registered users will receive random rewards of 1–5 USDT each. The campaign comprises three components: a new-user individual contest, an all-user individual contest, and a tiered trading-volume reward program. In the new-user individual contest, participants are ranked by their total futures trading volume; the top-ranked user (Top 1) wins 3,000 USDT. Similarly, the all-user individual contest ranks participants by futures trading volume, with the Top 1 winner receiving an Apple Vision Pro. Additionally, users who reach specific cumulative trading-volume thresholds can claim extra USDT rewards. Full campaign rules are published on Bitget’s official platform. Eligible users must click the “Join Now” button to complete registration in order to participate.
Bitget has launched a new-user-exclusive campaign running from April 20 to April 27. During the campaign period, new users who complete their first deposit and futures trading task totaling at least $100 USDT will receive $10 USDT. Additionally, users whose futures trading volume reaches specified thresholds can earn up to $208 USDT plus a physical DJI Pocket 4 as a reward. Full campaign rules are published on the official Bitget platform. Eligible users must click the “Join Now” button to register in order to participate.
Odaily News, Spark's strategy lead monetsupply.eth posted on X, stating that as the stablecoin market begins to face a liquidity shortage, the situation is entering a more dangerous phase, in my opinion. Approximately 16.5% of the ETH market is backed by rsETH. If losses on rsETH-backed loans are shared across the mainnet and external chains, they could face a 10% to 15% cut in emode, with the remaining 2% to 3% cut left for ETH suppliers to flatten the umbrella structure. ETH suppliers naturally tend to exit as soon as possible to avoid this risk, so utilization is locked at 100%, and the borrowing rate is insufficient to incentivize the repayment of unrelated LST loops (wstETH, weETH) to release liquidity. Since ETH cannot be withdrawn, users who borrowed stablecoins like USDT using ETH as collateral cannot close their positions even when stablecoin borrowing rates rise, which cuts off the typical incentive mechanisms that maintain market health. Currently, there are two unhealthy incentives causing market utilization to be locked at 100%:1) ETH holders cannot close positions to maintain a healthy LTV, and liquidators cannot atomically withdraw or sell collateral. A drop in the ETHUSD price could lead to bad debt.2) Users supplying USDT, in order to exit their holdings, tend to maximize borrowing of other stablecoins. This position is currently generating positive yield (temporarily), so the exit cost is low; if conditions worsen, they can recover at least 75% of the position's value.The bottom line is that for these pooled/restaking lending markets to function properly, liquidity must be maintained at all costs. The recent weakening of the slope2 for Aave's maximum borrowing rate is having a negative impact and significantly increasing the risk of cascading market failure.
According to official news, Gate has now launched ASTEROID perpetual contract trading (USDT-settled), supporting 1-20x leverage.
Odaily News Rhea Finance has released a post-mortem report on the attack, confirming that the actual loss from the vulnerability is approximately $18.4 million, a significant increase from the initial estimate of around $7.6 million.The attacker constructed complex transaction paths, manipulated liquidity using fake token pools, funneled borrowed assets into pools under their control, and returned only minimal assets. This caused a large number of margin positions to rapidly become undercollateralized and triggered liquidations, ultimately depleting the protocol's reserve funds.Approximately $11.2 million in funds have been recovered or frozen so far. This includes some USDC and NEAR assets returned by the attacker, as well as about $4.34 million in USDT that was frozen (with assistance from Tether).
Bitget has launched a new edition of its Super Pairs campaign, ending on April 24. Users can unlock a specific number of mystery boxes by completing tasks such as placing their first futures trade, daily trading, and achieving cumulative trading volume targets. The mystery box prize pool includes trading credits and popular token airdrops, with up to 10 RAVE tokens available per draw. Additionally, all users ranked within the top 1,000 by trading volume—and whose cumulative trading volume reaches at least 10,000 USDT—will jointly unlock a shared prize pool of 20,000 USDT, with a maximum individual payout of 2,000 USDT. This prize pool requires trading in designated tokens. Full campaign rules are published on the Bitget official platform; users must click the “Join Now” button to register and participate.
Bank of AI has partnered with Peking University’s Blockchain Association (PKUBlockchain) to release its inaugural research report, “Web4.0: When AI Agents Become Economic Actors—Infrastructure Gaps, Industry Landscape, and Investment Outlook,” officially published today. The report systematically outlines infrastructure gaps across three layers: the x402 payment protocol, the ERC-8004 identity standard, and the MCP tool-calling protocol. It further analyzes how Bank of AI integrates five core components into a one-stop Agent Financial Operating System—a representative case bridging protocols to real-world products. The report notes that TRON’s blockchain supports over $22 billion in daily transaction volume and $86 billion in circulating USDT, providing a scalable foundation for AI Agents’ high-frequency micro-settlements. Both parties will continue advancing the synergistic development of Web4.0 infrastructure and the agent-driven economy.
According to an official announcement, Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB) launched stablecoin minting and redemption services on April 17. Enterprises and high-net-worth individuals can now directly convert between fiat currency and stablecoins via their SGB accounts, enabling 24/7 instant settlement without relying on traditional correspondent banking processes. This service is integrated into SGB’s proprietary clearing network, SGB Net, supporting seamless on-chain and off-chain fund flows. USDC is the first stablecoin supported, with a minimum transaction amount of USD 100,000; support for USDT, USDe (Ethena), and Global Dollar (USDG) will be rolled out subsequently.