News linked to this event type.
According to Fox News, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in collaboration with law enforcement agencies in Dubai, China, and Thailand, conducted a large-scale multinational joint operation that successfully dismantled at least nine overseas cryptocurrency scam centers and arrested 276 suspects, involving millions of dollars in illicit funds. In this operation, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California filed federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering against six suspects. Those charged include nationals from Myanmar and Indonesia, who operated scam organizations under names such as “Sanduo Group” and “Giant Company.” Dubai police arrested 275 suspects, while the Royal Thai Police apprehended one additional fugitive. These scam networks employed the “pig-butchering” scheme—building fake friendships or romantic relationships to gain victims’ trust, then luring them into transferring funds to fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platforms, after which the proceeds were laundered and transferred to criminal accounts. This operation aligns with the executive order signed by Trump on March 6, 2026, aimed at combating overseas criminal networks that exploit U.S. citizens. The FBI’s dedicated initiative, “Operation Level Up,” has notified approximately 9,000 victims and recovered roughly $562 million in losses for U.S. citizens. The FBI urges victims to report incidents through the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
According to official announcements, the blockchain infrastructure protocol project IOTA has completed a major consensus upgrade, migrating the IOTA mainnet from Mysticeti to Starfish. Cross-border trade systems operate across multiple jurisdictions and regulatory regimes; thus, the infrastructure underpinning trade, logistics, and regulatory environments must remain reliable even under unpredictable real-world conditions. As an evolutionary iteration of the consensus engine Mysticeti, Starfish represents a novel prototype of distributed ledger technology that decouples the consensus process from validator synchronization. This design ensures network reliability and stability—even if certain validator nodes experience latency or disconnection—much like a starfish, which can regenerate lost limbs without dying. Starfish’s design goals extend beyond performance enhancement: it aims to reinforce IOTA’s position as a foundational platform for global trade and regulated systems. Starfish recognizes that global trade systems must remain available despite latency, volatility, and partial failures—and with Starfish, IOTA can continue advancing and recovering even amid unstable participation.
According to CoinDesk, Nigel Farage, leader of the UK’s Reform UK party, is facing a parliamentary standards inquiry after receiving an undisclosed £5 million (approximately $6.7 million) grant from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne—prior to his election as a Member of Parliament in 2024. Harborne resides in Thailand and holds a 12% stake in stablecoin issuer Tether. Farage stated that the grant was intended to ensure his personal security—not for political activities. However, both the Conservative and Labour parties have accused him of violating House of Commons rules requiring MPs to register any income received within the 12 months preceding their election, and have referred the matter to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. Reform UK countered that the payment constitutes a “personal unconditional gift,” exempt from disclosure requirements and unrelated to the election. The UK government announced in March this year that it would suspend political parties’ acceptance of cryptocurrency donations to guard against foreign interference. Previously, Christopher Harborne donated £9 million to Reform UK—the largest single political donation ever made by a living individual in the UK. This year, Ben Delo, co-founder of BitMEX, also donated £4 million to the party. Additionally, Farage himself holds a 6.31% stake in Stack BTC, a Bitcoin treasury company.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent stated that it would be unusual for outgoing Federal Reserve Chair Powell to remain as a Fed governor. For someone who has always emphasized norms, his unilateral decision would run counter to tradition. Kevin Warsh will bring a fresh perspective to the Federal Reserve with a clear system of accountability, effective management mechanisms, and sound policy-making.
Pump.fun has partnered with Donate.gg to launch the Charity Coins feature, allowing projects to direct creator fees to charitable organizations. Users can set up to 5 charities as fee recipients on the Pump.fun app or web interface, with Donate.gg handling crypto asset processing and donation transfers.According to the introduction, this feature aims to reduce controversy, tax issues, and security risks associated with charity-themed Meme coins. It currently supports compliant donations to over 10,000 charitable organizations.
, RWA tokenization protocol KAIO announced on X platform the launch of its native token KAIO, and simultaneously established the KAIO Foundation as the governance and operational body under the ecosystem chain, responsible for protocol governance, treasury management, and ecosystem development, working alongside KAIO Labs to advance core infrastructure and product innovation. KAIO is positioned as an open infrastructure protocol for institutional-grade Real World Assets (RWA), dedicated to bridging traditional finance and DeFi to build a compliant, auditable, cross-chain tokenized asset network. The platform has currently listed 5 tier-1 institutional funds, covering managers such as BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Hamilton Lane, with approximately $100 million in TVL deployed across 10+ blockchain networks.In terms of tokenomics, KAIO has a total supply of 10 billion tokens, with community and liquidity incentives accounting for 37.5%, making it the largest allocation portion; team and early investor tokens are subject to locking and staggered release mechanisms, with zero initial release at TGE, and the foundation allocation accounts for 17%, designated for long-term ecosystem development.
Ripple has announced a further deepening of its long-term partnership with Bullish, a digital asset trading platform for institutional investors. The two parties will open Bullish's options market to Ripple Prime users.According to the agreement, institutional clients of Ripple Prime will gain direct access to Bullish's regulated Bitcoin options market, which is reportedly the second-largest trading market by open interest for crypto-settled BTC options. The offering also covers products such as spot, perpetual swaps, and futures contracts. Additionally, both parties stated that the stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD) will be used as a settlement and trading instrument in Bullish options trading, further enhancing institutional trading efficiency. (Crowdfundinsider)
pricing on the Kalshi prediction market indicates the market currently sees only about a 50% probability of a Fed rate cut before 2027, a sharp decline from the 80-90% probability seen earlier this year. As the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) convenes, the market is effectively pricing in a "higher for longer" interest rate environment, reflecting a lack of confidence in near-term monetary policy easing.
According to reporter Eleanor Terrett, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) stated that he is prepared to move the “Clarity for Stablecoins Act” into the markup phase and will request the chair to schedule a markup session. Tillis noted that most banking-sector concerns regarding stablecoin yield have been heard and addressed, and he welcomes other stakeholders to engage in good-faith collaboration. Regarding timing, Tillis aims to release the stablecoin yield-related legislative text 4–5 days after stakeholders’ preview and before the markup.
Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, stated that Manus’s practice of relocating projects to Singapore via capital and corporate transfers before selling them to U.S. enterprises raises suspicions of deliberate regulatory evasion. If such practices remain unregulated, more companies may follow suit, undermining national development interests and security. Zhou emphasized that China has consistently maintained an open stance toward foreign investment but adopts a cautious position on sensitive investments involving critical technologies and data security: “Attempting to evade regulation through malicious means will ultimately fail to achieve its intended purpose.”
Odaily Planet Daily reported that Jason Karsh, the new Chief Marketing Officer of the Stellar Development Foundation, stated that for the crypto industry to achieve mainstream adoption, it must shift from short-term speculation and "hype cycles" to long-term value creation, emphasizing that "get rich slow" is the key path to building trust.Karsh pointed out that the industry's long-standing reliance on obscure jargon and technical terminology has actually widened the cognitive gap with average users. He believes that crypto "peaked too early in the public eye" due to the speculative frenzy, distorting its true value potential. He emphasized that the real opportunity lies in rebuilding the global financial infrastructure to enable more efficient value transfer and storage. Meanwhile, the Stellar Development Foundation, which has consistently focused on payment and cross-border financial applications since 2014, is now benefiting from the gradual regulatory recognition of stablecoins and tokenized assets.Karsh called stablecoins "the first killer app," but also noted that there is still a barrier to public understanding, suggesting they be redefined as "programmable dollars." He stated that the industry's future goal is to drive trillions of dollars in assets onto the blockchain, but the key lies in rebuilding trust at both the product and narrative levels, rather than relying on token issuance to drive growth. He concluded that the next wave of crypto growth will come from replacing traditional financial infrastructure, not just speculative cycles, but in the short term, the industry must first prioritize the foundational adoption phase of "attracting 100 million real users." (CoinDesk)
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).
: Solana ecosystem multi-signature protocol Squads announced the completion of an $18 million strategic funding round, led by Solana Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, L1D, and others. Its total cumulative funding has now reached $42.9 million. According to reports, Squads' stablecoin payment platform Altitude allows enterprises to conduct 24/7 global payment settlements in stablecoins through self-custodial wallets, and connects to the global payment network via its compliance and risk control system. (The Block)
Odaily Bitcoin remained consolidating above $77,000 on Wednesday, with markets cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision. According to market data, Bitcoin fluctuated within the range of approximately $75,689 to $77,837 during the session, and is currently trading around $77,100.This FOMC meeting is seen as a pivotal event. Markets widely expect interest rates to remain unchanged, but the real focus is on whether Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will signal a "higher-for-longer" hawkish stance. Additionally, this meeting may be his last as Fed Chair, with markets simultaneously pricing in uncertainty regarding policy direction and potential power transitions.On the capital front, U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw a reversal after nine consecutive days of net inflows. SoSoValue data shows that on April 28, ETFs recorded net outflows of approximately $89.68 million. Among them, BlackRock's IBIT saw a single-day outflow of about $112 million. Meanwhile, Ethereum ETFs also logged net outflows of $21.8 million.On-chain data also signals caution. CryptoQuant noted that on April 27, exchange net inflows reached 9,905 BTC, the largest single-day inflow in nearly 30 days. Exchange reserves have also rebounded recently. If these inflows are not quickly absorbed, prices could retest the support range of $74,000–$75,000.On the macroeconomic front, fluctuations in crude oil prices and shifts in the Middle East energy landscape continue to influence inflation expectations. Some analysts believe this could limit the Fed's room for future easing. Meanwhile, market liquidity continues to weaken, with institutional trading volumes and perpetual contract activity both at low levels. This means any policy surprise could amplify price volatility.Overall, Bitcoin remains in a "low liquidity + high event risk" structure and may continue to oscillate within the $72,000 to $80,000 range in the short term, awaiting further clarity on the Fed's policy path. (The Block)
Odaily Macro investor and hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones stated in a recent podcast interview that Bitcoin is the "unequivocally the best inflation hedge" and called it a "knockout opportunity" in the market.Paul Tudor Jones pointed out that truly major trading opportunities often arise when market structures are imbalanced, assets are underallocated, or when policymakers misjudge the situation. He believes that due to its scarcity and decentralized characteristics, Bitcoin outperforms gold in inflation trades. He emphasized that Bitcoin's total supply is capped at 21 million coins, with less than 1 million remaining to be mined, while gold's supply continues to increase annually. Therefore, Bitcoin holds a stronger advantage in the dimension of scarcity.Paul Tudor Jones recalled that in 2020, against the backdrop of Federal Reserve and fiscal expansion, Bitcoin became one of the most outstanding inflation-hedging assets at the time, and he subsequently increased its allocation to around 5% of his investment portfolio. However, he also warned of risks: in the event of large-scale "momentum conflicts" or cyber warfare-level incidents, the electronic asset system could face systemic disruption risks, and Bitcoin may also be impacted. Additionally, future cryptographic risks driven by quantum computing and AI could become a source of long-term uncertainty. (The Block)
Bitget Wallet has launched a Labor Day QR code payment campaign, running from April 28 to May 7, further driving the adoption of stablecoin payments in everyday consumption and travel scenarios across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. During the campaign, users who complete offline QR code payments using USDT or USDC will receive RLUSD cashback for each transaction. From May 1 to May 7, Bitget Wallet will randomly select one paying user per day to receive an additional 1,000 RLUSD cashback. To lower the barrier to first-time usage, Bitget Wallet will also airdrop XRP to eligible participants—serving as the account reserve required to activate RLUSD withdrawals. RLUSD is a compliant U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Ripple and regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). This campaign marks Bitget Wallet’s first real-world consumer application following its integration of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) mainnet and onboarding of the RLUSD payment ecosystem at the end of March—and represents a key milestone in advancing Bitget Wallet’s Everyday Finance strategy.
: Computershare, a global leader in stock transfer agency, partner to most S&P 500 companies, and Australian financial giant, has officially announced a deep partnership with digital asset platform Securitize, formally entering the stock tokenization track to assist US publicly listed companies in issuing on-chain stock tokens. The two parties will launch Issuer-Supported Tokens (ISTs), which US-listed companies can issue on demand. After holding the tokenized on-chain shares, investors can seamlessly enjoy voting rights, legal protections, and all shareholder-exclusive benefits fully consistent with traditional shareholders, achieving compliant integration of traditional equity with the blockchain ecosystem. (Forbes)
the Avalanche Foundation has announced the launch of its Research Grant Program (Call For Research Proposals), open to academic researchers worldwide with individual grants of up to $50,000. The program focuses on research related to Avalanche network economics, with emphasis on two core areas: first, crypto asset pricing and valuation, concentrating on how native assets of PoS public chains accrue value, including token issuance mechanisms, monetary policy, network adoption rates, and their relationship with long-term value; second, validator economics and network security, with key topics including optimal staking ratios, validator reward models, validator set health, and non-inflationary reward mechanisms.
Polymarket is in communication with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), seeking to reopen its main platform to users in the United States. If approved, this could mean the lifting of restrictions on U.S. users that have been in place since its 2022 settlement with the CFTC.According to the report, Polymarket had already made a limited return to the U.S. market through the regulated QCEX structure. A full return would further intensify the competitive landscape of the U.S. prediction market. (Cointelegraph)
According to QCP Capital’s market report, as the geopolitical risk premium gradually subsided last week, market sentiment turned cautious, and investors’ attention has refocused on policy direction, the interest-rate path, and the economic growth outlook. Equities have been trading near recent highs but lack momentum for an upside breakout. The Federal Reserve’s FOMC decision is due today. A pause in rate hikes is now the baseline market expectation; however, with no new CPI or employment data released since the prior meeting, markets are highly sensitive to Chair Powell’s commentary—any hawkish signal could swiftly reprice front-end rates and tighten financial conditions. Meanwhile, growing attention is turning to potential leadership changes at the Fed. Kevin Warsh has gained increasing traction in market forecasts. His hawkish stance on inflation and skepticism toward quantitative easing stand in marked contrast to current policy approaches. Should he assume leadership, liquidity-driven assets—including crypto—could face pressure, given crypto markets’ particular sensitivity to rising real yields and a stronger U.S. dollar. Regarding Bitcoin: after a strong performance in April—supported by ETF inflows and sustained institutional accumulation—the price has entered a range-bound phase. Funding rates remain subdued, volatility continues to narrow, and the broader market is in a wait-and-see mode. QCP believes Bitcoin’s next directional move will hinge more on Fed signals and macroeconomic data than on crypto-native flows. Additionally, the upcoming tech earnings season, alongside releases of the PCE and GDP price indices, will further test the validity of the “soft landing” narrative.