News linked to both this project and an event.
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.
In response to the first customized commodity trade completed on the Kalshi platform, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour posted on X platform, "Historically, the bottleneck for institutional risk transfer has been liquidity. The bottleneck for liquidity is the lack of price benchmarks for each type of relevant risk (e.g., WTI for oil). Kalshi has built a large community of top global superforecasters who rank among the world's best at pricing risk. This allows us to create price benchmarks for a broader range of issues faced by people and institutions. Institutions have already begun adopting these price benchmarks by integrating them into traditional asset pricing models. Although work remains, we are seeing rapid expansion in data use cases and integration.""The next phase is utilizing these price benchmarks to transfer risk via block trades and requests for quote (RFQ). This phase is still in its early stages but is beginning to take shape. The market size for risk transfer of non-traditional financial instruments is difficult to estimate. The closest references are the reinsurance market and the derivatives desks of banks: reinsurance is approximately $700 billion; insurance-linked securities and parametric insurance (such as catastrophe bonds) are around $120-135 billion; bank derivatives (structured products, dealer-to-dealer, exotics, etc.) are about $200-400 billion. The current market is roughly $1-1.5 trillion, but most of it is illiquid and traded over-the-counter (OTC, i.e., with a single counterparty). Whenever a major OTC market moves to exchange trading, the market grows significantly due to the establishment of price benchmarks, narrowing bid-ask spreads, the end of Wall Street elite's monopoly on access, and the entry of new participants. For example, interest rate swaps grew 10-15 times, stock options grew 20-30 times, and energy derivatives grew 5-8 times. The institutional use case for prediction markets could form a $10-15 trillion market, with even greater upside potential, depending on the extent to which it democratizes products currently exclusive to Wall Street."
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.
According to an official announcement, Block has launched a new Bitkey hardware wallet featuring a secure touchscreen. Additionally, Cash App now supports automatic conversion of received peer-to-peer payments into Bitcoin, and users can earn 5% Bitcoin cashback when spending at Square merchants. Block has also implemented Proof of Reserves for its corporate Bitcoin treasury holdings as well as for Bitcoin holdings of Cash App and Square customers—enabling independent on-chain signature verification. Furthermore, Block will showcase Square’s NFC-based Bitcoin tap-to-pay solution at Bitcoin Las Vegas 2026 and advance the development of its Proto Bitcoin mining product suite.
According to The Block, Bernstein analysts stated in their latest report that the fundamentals of the crypto market are continuously improving. Bitcoin’s recent low of $60,000 has formed a clear bottom, and with the current price approaching $80,000, a longer-term structural bull market is likely, driven by institutional demand. Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani highlighted the following key drivers: • Ongoing expansion of institutional channels: Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF and Charles Schwab’s spot Bitcoin/Ethereum trading platform have both recently launched; approximately 60% of Bitcoin supply has remained unmoved for over one year, indicating a stabilizing holder structure; • Persistent accumulation by Strategy: Its STRC perpetual preferred stock product has attracted yield-oriented investors, and its current holdings stand at 818,334 BTC; • Stablecoin demand hits an all-time high: Stablecoin supply has surpassed $30 billion, decoupling from the crypto market’s price cycle and reflecting sustained real-world payment and settlement demand; • Tokenized real-world assets accelerating growth: Tokenized private credit and Treasury assets now total $34.5 billion, representing a 110% year-on-year increase. Bernstein also cautioned that quantum computing poses a long-term potential risk, though it expects the blockchain ecosystem to have ample time to complete the transition to post-quantum security.
According to The Block, Bitcoin mining infrastructure company Luxor Technology announced an expanded partnership with MicroBT, committing $100 million to purchase WhatsMiner mining rigs. As part of the agreement, MicroBT—through its investment management entity Inflection Technology Ltd.—signed a letter of intent to invest in Luxor; the specific investment amount was not disclosed. Additionally, Luxor will support WhatsMiner rigs via its LuxOS firmware, introducing new features including power switching completed within 30 to 60 seconds and improved startup speed during power-limiting events; these features will be rolled out in phases. Operators running LuxOS-enabled miners gain access to Luxor’s full suite of services, including the Luxor mining pool, hashrate derivatives, energy services, and fleet management tools.
Western Union has announced the upcoming launch of the Solana-based stablecoin USDPT next month, serving as an alternative settlement network between the company and its agents.Additionally, Western Union plans to launch a digital asset network connecting crypto wallets with its existing retail and agent networks. It also intends to introduce a "Stable Card" in dozens of markets later this year, enabling users to hold value in stablecoins and spend globally. (The Block)
Litecoin disclosed on X platform that a recent zero-day vulnerability once led to a DoS attack, affecting the operation of major mining pools. Mining nodes that were not updated in time allowed an invalid MWEB (MimbleWimble Extension Block) transaction to be executed, enabling the relevant tokens to be withdrawn to a third-party DEX. The Litecoin network rolled back these invalid transactions through a 13-block reorganization (reorg), confirming they would not be included in the main chain. All valid transactions during this period were unaffected. The vulnerability has now been completely fixed, and the network has resumed normal operation.
According to The Block, OSL Group has announced a partnership with Circle’s affiliated entities to expand USDC integration across its payment and trading platforms. Through OSL Global, users can exchange USD for USDC at a 1:1 ratio and trade BTC, ETH, SOL, USD, and USDT pairs in a dedicated USDC trading zone. Meanwhile, OSL has adopted USDC as its unified margin asset and integrated USDC into its payment services to support compliant digital dollar settlement and payment use cases. OSL also stated that it plans to support Circle’s tokenized money market fund, USYC, subject to regulatory requirements and platform eligibility criteria.
MegaETH has completed its first Key Performance Indicator (KPI), with 10 "Mega Mafia" applications officially launched within its ecosystem, and will conduct its TGE on April 30.It is reported that MegaETH previously linked its token release mechanism to actual business performance, rather than a traditional time-based unlock model. The first KPI required applications to demonstrate real user interaction capabilities, including conditions such as cumulative trading volume exceeding 100,000 transactions within 30 days for a single application, which has now been achieved. A co-founder of MegaETH stated that this move aims to ensure the network has real use cases and economic circulation before the token issuance, rather than relying solely on market expectations.Currently, the MegaETH ecosystem has incubated approximately 30 projects, covering areas such as stablecoin payments, yield tokenization, and on-chain lending. The total supply of MEGA tokens is 10 billion, with 53.3% to be gradually released based on subsequent KPIs. (The Block)
According to The Block, Cluster Protocol—an AI-native infrastructure company building for Web3—has raised $5 million in funding, led by DAO5, with participation from Paper Ventures, JPEG Trading, and Mapleblock Capital. This brings the company’s total funding to $7.75 million. The new capital will accelerate the development of CodeXero, its browser-native IDE built for the EVM ecosystem, expand its product and engineering teams, and enhance its AI systems, developer workflows, deployment infrastructure, and ecosystem growth. Cluster Protocol stated that CodeXero has already connected over 300,000 wallets, processed more than 3 billion AI tokens, and supported the deployment of over 25,000 dApps.
According to The Block, Jaret Seiberg, Managing Director of the Washington Research Group at investment bank TD Cowen, stated that stablecoin yield issues are not the sole obstacle to the passage of the Clarity Act—and cited the following five additional hurdles: 1. A severe shortage of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioners: only Chairman Michael Selig remains in office, and the process to appoint new commissioners could take several months, while the bill must complete its review by the end of July; 2. Complex regulatory questions surrounding prediction markets—including concerns about insider trading and potential conflicts of interest involving the Trump family—which may prompt Democratic lawmakers to withdraw their support via related amendments; 3. Ongoing controversy surrounding World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency project affiliated with the Trump family, increasing political resistance from Democrats toward supporting the bill; 4. Reports indicating Iran is discussing requiring vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to pay tolls in cryptocurrency—a development that could trigger contentious anti-money laundering (AML) amendments, potentially serving as a “poison pill” for the bill; 5. Risk that the Credit Card Competition Act could be attached to the Clarity Act, jeopardizing the entire bill’s progress. Regarding stablecoin yield issues, Senator Thom Tillis indicated that the Senate Banking Committee will not vote on the bill until as early as May. TD Cowen maintains its assessment that the bill has approximately a one-in-three chance of passing this year, while Galaxy Digital estimates the probability at roughly 50%.
According to The Block, B2B stablecoin technology provider Infinite has launched Infinite Accounts—a banking account service for enterprises that supports deposits, withdrawals, ACH transfers, domestic and international wire transfers, as well as stablecoin minting, burning, and on-chain transfers—all accessible via a single API. This service is powered by the traditional banking infrastructure of Erebor Bank, which recently obtained its banking license. Infinite states that fiat balances held in these accounts may be eligible for FDIC insurance, whereas stablecoin balances are not. This launch comes amid continued growing institutional adoption of stablecoins.
According to The Block, Gensyn—a decentralized AI infrastructure network backed by a16z crypto—has launched its flagship product, Delphi. Delphi is an AI-settled decentralized information marketplace platform where creators can launch markets and earn a 1.5% fee on trading volume upon successful settlement. Delphi is currently open to all users for trading, but only invited creators may launch markets; mainnet launch is expected within the coming weeks. Built on Gensyn’s Ethereum Layer 2 network, the platform uses verifiable smart oracles to execute settlements. Gensyn reports that Delphi has already processed millions of dollars in trading volume since its testnet launch in December 2025.
According to The Block, the UK Treasury has unveiled a payment regulatory reform proposal that aims to bring traditional payment services, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits under a unified regulatory framework. The proposal also plans to regulate stablecoins used for payments through subsequent issuance rules. Additionally, it seeks to expand the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) supervisory authority over open banking and explore regulatory adjustments for payment activities conducted by AI agents. Meanwhile, the UK Treasury will provide £1 million in funding to the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology starting in April and has appointed Chris Woolard CBE to lead the development of a tokenized financial system for wholesale digital markets.
Odaily News Grayscale has updated its ETF application document linked to Hyperliquid, changing the custodian to Anchorage Digital Bank, replacing Coinbase which previously served as the prime broker and custodian.This adjustment has garnered significant attention, as Coinbase has long dominated the crypto ETF custody space. Currently, almost all U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs (except Fidelity's) rely on its custody services.The filing shows that The Bank of New York Mellon will continue to serve as the transfer agent for this ETF (proposed ticker GHYP). The fund's staking functionality still requires regulatory approval and will utilize CoinDesk's Hyperliquid benchmark pricing data.Furthermore, Anchorage Digital Bank, as the first federally chartered crypto bank in the U.S., has been continuously expanding its institutional service capabilities in recent years, including areas such as stablecoins, wealth management, and token lifecycle management. (The Block)
According to The Block, Grayscale has filed a revised Hyperliquid ETF application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), naming Anchorage Digital Bank as the fund’s custodian in place of Coinbase. Anchorage is the first crypto-native bank to receive a federal banking charter in the U.S. and has recently expanded rapidly into stablecoin services, wealth management, and token lifecycle management—becoming the first institution in the U.S. to support TRON. If approved, the ETF will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker “GHYP”; staking functionality remains subject to regulatory approval.
Odaily News The x402 protocol, incubated by Coinbase, has announced the launch of a unified platform called Agent.market, positioned as an "AI Agent App Store" for centrally showcasing and integrating various tools and services built on the protocol. According to the introduction, Agent.market already covers seven major categories at launch: inference, data, media, search, social, infrastructure, and trading. It integrates service providers including OpenAI, Bloomberg, CoinGecko, LinkedIn, X, and AWS Lambda, and supports permissionless integration.Erik Reppel, Engineering Lead at Coinbase Developer Platform, stated that the platform is essentially "an app store for agents." Currently, there are approximately 69,000 active agents on the x402 network, which have cumulatively completed over 165 million transactions, with a transaction volume reaching $50 million. Most services on Agent.market adopt a pay-per-use model, with some charging an "agentic premium" for AI agents. However, costs can be reduced through subscriptions in high-frequency usage scenarios. Meanwhile, the "agent economy" based on x402 is lowering customer acquisition and integration costs for businesses, unlocking previously constrained demand due to API keys, subscriptions, and micro-payment mechanisms.The x402 protocol is named after the HTTP 402 "Payment Required" status code, enabling websites, APIs, and AI agents to conduct instant micropayments via blockchain and traditional payment channels. The protocol is governed as an open standard by the x402 Foundation under the Linux Foundation and has received support from over 20 technology and crypto institutions including Cloudflare, Stripe, Amazon Web Services, Google, and Visa. (The Block)
Bitget, in collaboration with data research firm Block Scholes, has jointly released a report analyzing the correlation trends between crypto assets and traditional financial markets under macroeconomic event-driven conditions, based on Q1 2026 market data. The report notes that as Bitcoin’s correlation with major stock indices has risen to one of the highest levels since the end of 2025, traders’ demand for real-time cross-market allocation is increasing. Data shows that Bitget’s CFD business volume has demonstrated sustained growth: daily trading volume stood at approximately $2 billion at launch, rose to $4 billion shortly thereafter, and surged beyond $6 billion during periods of heightened market volatility. According to the report, this shift reflects how some users are progressively integrating crypto assets, equities, and commodities into a unified trading framework for coordinated management—rather than treating them as entirely separate trading strategies. The report further highlights that, against the backdrop of continuously strengthening multi-asset correlations and increasingly pronounced macro-driven trading characteristics, Unified Exchanges (UEX)—platforms that integrate crypto assets and traditional financial instruments within a single account system—are drawing growing attention from active traders and are gradually becoming a key venue for cross-asset allocation.