News linked to both this project and an event.
According to The Block, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stated clearly on Wednesday at the Consensus Miami conference that she would not support the Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act unless it includes an ethics provision. She emphasized that members of Congress, the President, the Vice President, and senior executive branch officials must not profit from the industry by virtue of their insider status, bluntly declaring, “Without this provision, corruption will destroy this industry.” Previously, before the presidential inauguration, both Donald Trump and his wife launched meme coins. Their family-led DeFi and stablecoin project, World Liberty Financial, has also sparked widespread controversy. Bloomberg estimates that Trump has already earned at least $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency-related businesses.
According to The Block, Y Combinator will hold its first interview event in New York focused on startups in the cryptocurrency and fintech sectors, aiming to support more companies in these fields. Selected teams will join YC’s Summer 2026 batch and travel to San Francisco to participate in the program, receiving YC’s standard $500,000 investment offer—funds that can optionally be disbursed in Circle’s USDC stablecoin.
According to The Block, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig stated on Tuesday at CoinDesk’s Consensus Miami conference that the CFTC plans to formally codify its prior position protecting non-custodial software developers into regulation. In March this year, the CFTC issued a “no-action” letter to cryptocurrency wallet provider Phantom, clarifying that self-custodial wallet software developers meeting certain conditions are not required to register as brokers. Selig said the agency will move forward with rulemaking as soon as possible to provide clear guidance for such businesses developing and offering software in the United States.
Coinbase Australia has launched a dedicated support service for Self-Managed Super Funds (SMSF), providing Australian trustees with a compliant and secure digital asset investment solution to help incorporate crypto assets like Bitcoin into retirement portfolios.According to Coinbase's official blog, the service leverages its recently obtained Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) and local team capabilities, offering entity verification processes tailored to Australian fund structures, downloadable audit reports compliant with local accounting standards, and institutional-grade security measures.Data from the Australian Taxation Office shows there are currently over 653,000 SMSFs in Australia, managing assets worth A$1.05 trillion and serving more than 1.2 million members. Coinbase stated that SMSFs are among the few retirement structures globally that allow individuals to directly manage digital assets, becoming a key gateway for investors to include cryptocurrencies in their long-term retirement strategies. (The Block)
According to The Block, Coinbase Australia announced on Monday that it will support cryptocurrency investments for self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs), providing trustees with a compliant channel for allocating crypto assets. The service offers downloadable data compliant with Australian Accounting Standards, as well as a streamlined entity verification process tailored to local fund structures.
SOL Strategies, a Nasdaq-listed Solana ecosystem treasury company, has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire HoudiniSwap, a cross-chain privacy exchange aggregation platform, for $18 million.HoudiniSwap is a non-custodial, privacy-oriented cross-chain transaction aggregator that enables users to find the best exchange routes across centralized exchanges, decentralized exchanges, and cross-chain bridges. The platform generated approximately $13 million in revenue last year.SOL Strategies stated that this acquisition supports its long-term strategy to "embed Solana into institutional financial infrastructure," expanding from a single validator and staking business into transaction routing, cross-chain liquidity, and software-based revenue structures. (The Block)
North Korea has denied allegations of its involvement in cryptocurrency theft, calling the claims "absurd slander" and a "political tool." The statement, issued by state-run media, emphasized that necessary measures will be taken to safeguard national interests. However, data from blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs shows that in the first four months of 2026, hacker groups linked to North Korea have stolen approximately $577 million, accounting for about 76% of global crypto theft losses during the same period. This includes two major attacks on KelpDAO (approximately $292 million) and Drift Protocol (approximately $285 million).TRM pointed out that the attacks are primarily associated with the Lazarus Group and its sub-organizations. Since 2017, the cumulative scale of crypto theft linked to North Korea has exceeded $6 billion.U.S. and international agencies widely believe that such funds are used to support military and missile programs. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department has recently imposed sanctions on relevant individuals and entities, targeting approximately $800 million in illicit fund flows in 2024. (The Block)
According to The Block, Payward, Kraken’s parent company, has announced the completion of its acquisition of Chicago-based crypto-native exchange Bitnomial, thereby obtaining a full suite of U.S. derivatives licenses from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), including Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), Designated Contract Market (DCM), and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) licenses. Payward stated that it will first launch spot margin trading on Kraken, followed by perpetual contracts and options products, all available to eligible U.S. customers. This acquisition will also provide partners—including banks, brokers, and payment service providers—with a channel to offer U.S. derivatives to their end customers. Bitnomial will operate independently under Payward while retaining its existing licenses and regulatory framework. The transaction’s value is reported to be up to $550 million, comprising cash and stock, implying a valuation for Payward of approximately $20 billion; however, the final terms have not been disclosed.
Payward (Kraken’s parent company) has announced the completion of its acquisition of Bitnomial, marking its official entry into the U.S. crypto derivatives market with full regulatory credentials. Following the transaction, Payward now holds a comprehensive set of U.S. CFTC licenses, including Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), Designated Contract Market (DCM), and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) status, enabling it to launch compliant derivatives services in the U.S. market.Payward stated that it will gradually roll out spot margin trading under the Kraken brand, followed by plans to launch perpetual contracts and options products, while expanding institutional-grade derivatives capabilities through the Bitnomial framework. It is reported that Bitnomial, as a Chicago-based native crypto derivatives trading platform, has long held the three core CFTC licenses and has been relatively aggressive in listing new assets. After the transaction, it will retain its existing licenses and regulatory framework, continuing operations within the Payward system.Additionally, this acquisition continues Payward’s recent expansion moves: the company had previously secured a $200 million investment from Deutsche Börse Group and filed IPO-related documents with the U.S. SEC, signaling its accelerated push into globally compliant derivatives and capital market pathways. (The Block)
According to The Block, MoonPay has launched the stablecoin debit card “MoonAgents Card,” enabling AI agents and users to spend directly from on-chain wallets. The card is integrated with the Mastercard network and issued by Monavate, a regulated global payment platform.
according to financial data released by Riot Platforms, the company recorded $33.2 million in data center revenue for the first time in the first quarter. A significant portion of this revenue came from lower-margin tenant retrofitting services, which involve procuring and installing specific equipment for clients. Notably, AMD has chosen to exercise its option to double its contracted capacity from 25 MW to 50 MW, with the possibility to further expand to 200 MW in the future. Currently, 5 MW of capacity related to the AMD deal has been delivered and is generating revenue, with the remaining initial capacity expected to come online in the second quarter. Additionally, Riot Platforms reported total revenue of $167.2 million for the first quarter, with its core Bitcoin mining business contributing $111.9 million. The company currently holds 15,679 Bitcoins (valued at approximately $1.2 billion), making it the world's seventh largest public holder of Bitcoin. (The Block)
According to the latest data from the omnichain stablecoin USDT0, its user base is primarily retail: approximately 99.2% of holders have wallet balances under $1,000, only about 1,200 addresses hold between $100,000 and $1 million, and just 35 addresses hold over $10 million.The report notes that the main use case for USDT0 is small-value cross-chain transfers, with active users primarily engaged in daily transactions rather than large fund flows. However, in terms of transaction volume, single transfers exceeding $1 million still account for approximately 68.8% of the total transfer volume.USDT0 was launched by Everdawn Labs and is supported by LayerZero and Tether, pegged 1:1 to USDT. It has currently expanded to 23 chains, with a total transaction volume of $86.7 billion, becoming the third-largest holder of USDT, trailing only Binance and OKX. (The Block)
Exponent Finance, a Solana-based yield trading platform, announced the completion of a $5 million seed funding round. The round was led by Multicoin Capital, with participation from Solana Ventures, RockawayX, L1D, Prelude, and Theia Blockchain, along with several key figures from the Solana ecosystem as angel investors. The round was initiated in May last year and closed in August, bringing Exponent's total funding to $7.1 million. Exponent stated that the funds will be used to expand its yield trading platform and upgrade it into a more comprehensive on-chain yield infrastructure, covering active yield management needs within the Solana ecosystem. (The Block)
According to The Block, Oobit—a wallet startup backed by Tether—has launched virtual “Agent Cards,” enterprise expense cards powered by Visa and designed for AI agents. These cards enable AI bots to make online purchases directly using their USDT balances, eliminating the need to convert to fiat currency or obtain manual, per-transaction approval. Each agent card features individual spending limits, category-level expenditure controls, and per-transaction or per-merchant caps. Every transaction automatically generates a human-readable record and supports integration with payment platforms such as Stripe for handling subscription billing and vendor payments.
According to The Block, blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs released a report stating that North Korean hacker groups stole approximately $577 million in crypto assets during the first four months of 2026—accounting for 76% of global hacking losses over the same period. All these losses stemmed from two major incidents that occurred in April: KelpDAO was attacked by the TraderTraitor group, resulting in $292 million in losses; and Drift Protocol was compromised by another North Korean sub-group, suffering $285 million in losses. Preparations for the latter attack began as early as March 11, and funds were fully extracted within 12 minutes. The two incidents employed distinct money-laundering pathways: stolen funds from Drift remain largely dormant on Ethereum, whereas funds stolen from KelpDAO were rapidly swapped into BTC via THORChain, with subsequent laundering facilitated by Chinese intermediaries. TRM Labs noted that since 2017, North Korea’s cumulative crypto theft has exceeded $6 billion—and its share of global losses has risen steadily, from less than 10% in 2020 to 64% in 2025.
According to The Block, stablecoin management firm Stable Sea has announced a partnership with asset management firm WisdomTree to directly integrate WisdomTree’s tokenized money market fund WTGXX into its enterprise payment and treasury management platform. Stable Sea users can now one-click transfer idle stablecoin balances into the WTGXX fund to earn yield (currently offering an approximate 7-day annualized yield of 3.5%) and redeem those holdings at any time back into stablecoins for global payments.
Odaily reports, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart, the first batch of prediction market ETFs in the United States could launch next week. Roundhill has submitted updated documents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, aiming to activate six prediction market ETFs on May 5. The products will be designed around event contracts related to the U.S. presidential and congressional elections.Additionally, similar products submitted by GraniteShares and Bitwise may also be launched around the same time. James Seyffart believes this reflects a growing trend of combining event contracts with ETF products. (The Block)
According to The Block, decentralized exchange Ostium has completed a major backend architecture upgrade, officially positioning itself as a “decentralized execution layer” for the global market and providing on-chain traders with access to off-chain liquidity. The core of this upgrade is the introduction of a Translation Layer that bridges communication between smart contracts and institutional liquidity provider networks—including partners such as Jump, which hold traditional market access licenses. This mechanism enables on-chain users to indirectly tap into liquidity resources from traditional financial markets.
According to The Block, TON Tech—the infrastructure team under The Open Platform—has announced the launch of an AI-powered autonomous trading agent that supports independent on-chain actions on the TON blockchain, including transfers, token swaps, DeFi operations, automated trading, staking, and basic portfolio management—all without requiring users to surrender their private keys.
According to The Block, Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank has launched a cryptocurrency-linked credit card that allows users to directly pay bills using assets held in their exchange accounts—including settling payments in bitcoin. The credit card also offers 0.5% cryptocurrency cashback on monthly spending. Per the report, Bitbank introduced this product to enable everyday payment use cases for crypto assets held on its exchange.