News linked to both this project and an event.
Base has announced that its first independent network upgrade, Base Azul, is now live on the testnet, with a target mainnet activation date of May 13, 2026. This upgrade marks Base’s first network-level upgrade conducted independently of the OP Stack. Officially, Azul will deliver improvements across three dimensions: security, performance, and developer experience. Specifically, Base will implement a multi-proof mechanism via Azul; base-reth-node will become its sole execution client; and Base will adopt the latest execution-layer specification (Osaka) to maintain full alignment with Ethereum. Users do not need to take any action for this upgrade.
Odaily News Etherealize has released its latest report, adjusting the long-term price expectation for Ethereum (ETH) to $250,000.This prediction is based on a core assumption: if ETH can capture a "monetary premium" similar to gold and Bitcoin, securing a place in the approximately $31 trillion store-of-value market, its price could reach this level.The report argues that ETH possesses unique historical attributes, serving not only as a store of value but also as a "yield-generating asset," distinguishing it from traditional asset forms.
Odaily News A 50-page report commissioned by Coinbase indicates that although current quantum computers are not yet capable of cracking the encryption technologies of networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum, fault-tolerant large-scale quantum computers will eventually be built, and the crypto industry must begin preparations now. The report was authored by an independent advisory committee, including cryptographers and scholars such as Dan Boneh from Stanford University, Justin Drake from the Ethereum Foundation, and Sreeram Kannan from Eigen Labs.The report states that estimates for the time it would take quantum computers to break current encryption standards range from several years to over a decade. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology recommends migrating to post-quantum cryptography by 2035, but the report suggests this timeline may be optimistic. Post-quantum cryptography already exists and is undergoing standardization, but post-quantum digital signatures can be tens to hundreds of times larger than existing signatures, potentially increasing block sizes by up to 38 times and introducing challenges such as wallet migration. The Ethereum Foundation has proposed a post-quantum digital signature scheme, and projects like Solana are also experimenting with post-quantum wallet designs. The report recommends adopting flexible transition strategies, such as hybrid systems, to prepare for future upgrades without compromising current security.
Coinbase’s Quantum Computing and Blockchain Independent Advisory Committee released its first position paper, stating that sufficiently powerful quantum computers could one day break the cryptographic mechanisms used by mainstream blockchains to protect digital assets—but such devices do not yet exist, and crypto assets remain secure for now. The industry should begin preparing for quantum-resistant upgrades immediately. The paper notes that Bitcoin mining, hash functions, and on-chain historical records currently face no material risk; the primary vulnerability lies at the wallet layer—in digital signatures. Ethereum has already proposed a relatively clear migration roadmap, while Solana, Algorand, and Aptos have either begun offering or are planning quantum-resistant solutions.
According to PRNewswire, Nasdaq-listed Eightco Holdings (ORBS) released an update on its holdings, disclosing that the total value of its assets has increased to approximately $336 million, comprising: 283,452,700 Worldcoin (WLD) tokens; 11,068 ETH; a $90 million investment in OpenAI; a $25 million investment in Beast Industries; and $118 million in cash and stablecoins. Eightco Holdings stated that its WLD token holdings account for 23% of the company’s total assets, its investment in OpenAI now represents 27% of total assets (down from a previous level), and its investment in Beast Industries accounts for 7% of total assets.
Odaily News The opening ceremony for the ETH HK Hub (Hong Kong Ethereum Community Hub), supported by the Ethereum Foundation, was held today in West Kowloon, Hong Kong. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum Foundation Chairperson Aya Miyaguchi attended the event and participated in a fireside chat with Hong Kong Legislative Council member Duncan Chiu.In his keynote speech, Vitalik suggested that Chinese builders return to Ethereum's core principles, fully leverage hardware advantages, open-source AI talent, and ZK technology to explore new cross-disciplinary ventures.Vitalik pointed out that the emergence of each new wave of technology presents an opportunity for a new generation of developers to return to the same starting line as global leaders. The Chinese-speaking community can maintain forward-thinking in an accelerating world and drive the development of the entire ecosystem through innovative solutions.The launch of the ETH HK Hub continues the Ethereum Foundation and the Ethereum ecosystem's emphasis on the Asia-Pacific community and also marks Hong Kong's crucial significance within Ethereum's global landscape.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT updated that funds related to the KelpDAO attack have begun moving: approximately $1.5 million has been cross-chained from Ethereum Mainnet to the Bitcoin network via Thorchain, and roughly $78,000 has been transferred via Umbra. The attacking address initially sourced its funds from Tornado Cash, and fund laundering and cross-chain transfers are ongoing.
According to the official announcement, Bithumb has launched a flexible staking product for Story (IP), adding it to its existing lineup of 15 assets—including ETH, SOL, and TRX. The incentive campaign will run from April 21 to 27, with a total prize pool of 200 million KRW. $IP is the native token of the Story protocol. Story positions itself as an on-chain IP infrastructure for AI, supporting IP registration, programmable licensing, and automated revenue distribution for datasets, models, and AI-generated content.
According to ZDNet Korea, South Korea’s National Tax Service (NTS) issued a tender notice on April 15 to introduce cryptocurrency transaction tracking software from firms including Chainalysis and TRM Labs. The system aims to monitor cryptocurrency transactions in real time, trace hidden assets of tax evasion suspects, and combat disguised inheritance, gifting, and offshore tax evasion involving digital assets. It can track approximately 70 million types of cryptocurrencies—including Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, and stablecoins—across 45 blockchain layers. The system also features “de-mixing” capabilities to identify mixing-service-based money laundering techniques and can perform partial identity verification for non-custodial wallets such as MetaMask and Phantom. This marks the NTS’s third deployment of such solutions since 2024; system construction is scheduled for completion in June, with official operation commencing in July.
Odaily News KelpDAO stated in a post on X platform that it will continue to explore all feasible avenues to support rsETH holders and mitigate the impact of the related security incident on the DeFi ecosystem.It mentioned that over the past two days, the team has collaborated with the Arbitrum Security Council and multiple ecosystem participants, providing context on the incident and assisting with the assessment efforts, while also expressing gratitude for the coordination and support from teams like SEAL 911. Previously, the Arbitrum Security Council had frozen approximately 30,700 ETH, involving assets related to the KelpDAO attacker.
Odaily News Aave provided an update on the rsETH incident via the X platform, stating that the WETH reserve on the Ethereum Core V3 market has been unfrozen. Users can now supply WETH again, although its Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio remains set at 0.Meanwhile, the WETH reserves on the Ethereum Prime, Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea networks are still frozen. Aave stated that the relevant service providers will continue to advance subsequent handling and will provide synchronized updates on the progress.
Aave risk service provider LlamaRisk has released an incident report: On April 18, 2026, the attacker exploited a vulnerability in Kelp’s LayerZero V2 Unichain-to-Ethereum rsETH routing (a 1-of-1 DVN configuration flaw), forged inbound packets, and illicitly released 116,500 rsETH from the Ethereum-side adapter. Of these, 89,567 rsETH were deposited as collateral into multiple Aave V3 markets—including Ethereum Core and Arbitrum—enabling the borrowing of approximately 82,650 WETH (valued at ~$191 million) and 821 wstETH. Currently, only 40,373 rsETH remain in the adapter, while the total claimable rsETH on the remote chain stands at 152,577—creating a substantial shortfall. Depending on the loss allocation methodology, Aave faces two potential bad-debt scenarios: - Scenario 1 (global pro-rata allocation): Estimated bad debt of ~$123.7 million, with Ethereum Core bearing the greatest pressure; - Scenario 2 (loss confined to L2s): Estimated bad debt of ~$230.1 million, with Mantle facing a WETH reserve shortfall of up to 71.45% and Arbitrum facing a 26.67% shortfall. Following the incident, Aave Protocol Guardians and Risk Administrators immediately froze rsETH/wrsETH reserves across all 11 affected markets.
According to NADA NEWS, JPYC, the issuer and operator of the Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin JPYC, announced that it has raised an additional $17.62 million in the second closing of its Series B funding round. Combined with the first closing, the total funds raised are expected to reach approximately $28.93 million. Participating investors include NCB Venture Capital, Metaplanet, Kitao Bank, and Yokohama Capital, among others. The newly raised capital will be primarily used for system and application development, hiring talent for business expansion, stablecoin issuance and redemption, trading, payments, management-related operations, and new strategic investments. JPYC stated that, as of April 15, its cumulative issuance has exceeded approximately $13.21 million. The stablecoin is currently supported on Avalanche, Ethereum, and Polygon, and the company is considering adding support for Kaia and Arc.
According to The Asian Banker, OCBC Bank Singapore and its asset management arm Lion Global Investors have announced plans to issue the physical gold fund token GOLDX Token on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. OCBC Bank will support the design of the token issuance architecture, while Lion Global Investors will provide the underlying fund’s investment framework and governance structure.
According to an official announcement, Coinbase has launched its crypto-backed lending service in the UK, enabling users to borrow USDC in under one minute using BTC, ETH, and cbETH as collateral. The service is powered by Morpho, an open-source lending protocol built on Base. Coinbase stated that this product first launched in the U.S. in January 2025. As of April 14, 2026, loans facilitated via Coinbase’s integration with Morpho have exceeded $2.17 billion in USDC. Users can monitor their loan health, historical annualized interest rates, and liquidation alerts directly within the Coinbase app. Interest rates are dynamically adjusted based on market conditions.
According to monetsupply.eth, Spark’s Strategy Lead, in a post on X, Spark has long maintained a relatively high borrowing interest rate cap for its SparkLend ETH market. Although this policy caused many users to migrate to Aave—resulting in substantial loss of business and revenue—the current market liquidity crisis has validated the prudence of this strategy. Presently, Aave is experiencing severe liquidity shortages across multiple chains—including Ethereum Mainnet, Arbitrum, Polygon Plasma, Mantle, and Base—with ETH borrowing utilization reaching 100%. This has prevented depositors from withdrawing funds and hindered normal liquidation of ETH collateral. He warns that if the current liquidity crunch persists, a 15–20% drop in ETH’s price could expose Aave to widespread bad debt—compounded by the potential impact of the rsETH vulnerability incident.
Odaily News Vitalik Buterin stated at the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival that Ethereum's ultimate goal is to build a digital infrastructure where users do not need to trust any intermediaries, possessing "self-sovereignty." It will support various decentralized applications ranging from finance and social to identity verification, serving as a trust anchor for off-chain applications (such as private voting, prediction markets, decentralized social networks).
Odaily News: A LayerZero cross-chain bridge related to Kelp DAO was hacked on Saturday, resulting in 116,500 rsETH worth $291 million flowing to a new wallet. The hacker used the illicitly obtained rsETH as collateral to borrow on Aave, causing the utilization rate of Aave's core lending pool to reach 100% and triggering a liquidity crunch. According to monitoring by 0xngmi, as of early Sunday, the net withdrawal amount from Aave had reached $6.2 billion. Kelp DAO has suspended the rsETH contracts on the Ethereum mainnet and several L2 networks. Affected by this, the price of the Aave token fell 16% to $90.13, and the price of Ethereum dropped 2% to $2,300. Currently, Justin Sun has posted on platform X attempting to negotiate with the hacker.
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.
Vitalik Buterin and Aya Miyaguchi, Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation, have confirmed their attendance at the opening event of the Hong Kong Ethereum Community Center on April 21, where they will deliver keynote speeches. This center—the first physical community space in Asia supported by the Ethereum Foundation—is operated by SNZ and ETHTAO and located in West Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is positioned as a strategic hub connecting the Ethereum ecosystems of East and West. The event agenda also features multiple keynote speeches and panel discussions across domains including zero-knowledge (ZK) technology, privacy, AI, and on-chain payments. Industry participants include Joseph Chalom, CEO of Sharplink; Yat Siu, Co-Founder of Animoca Brands; and Niki, Vice President of Chainlink APAC.