News linked to both this project and an event.
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).
The DeepSeek-V4, a new model series from DeepSeek, is officially launched today in preview form and simultaneously open-sourced. The series comprises two variants: - **DeepSeek-V4-Pro**, whose performance rivals top-tier closed-source models and leads the open-source domain in agent capabilities, world knowledge, and mathematical/coding reasoning; - **DeepSeek-V4-Flash**, which features a smaller parameter count and delivers faster, more cost-efficient API services. Both models support a 1M (million-token) ultra-long context window and operate in both non-thinking and thinking modes. Technically, DeepSeek-V4 introduces a novel attention mechanism—combining DSA (Dynamic Sparse Attention)—to achieve globally leading long-context capability while significantly reducing computational and GPU memory requirements. For API usage, the `model` parameter accepts `deepseek-v4-pro` and `deepseek-v4-flash`. The legacy model names `deepseek-chat` and `deepseek-reasoner` will be deprecated on July 24, 2026.
Nasdaq-listed Axe Compute Inc. (NASDAQ: AGPU) announced today that it has signed a 36-month AI infrastructure contract valued at approximately $260 million with an enterprise client. The deployment includes a dedicated cluster of 2,304 NVIDIA B300 GPUs and a high-speed AI storage system, scheduled to go live in Q3 2026 at a Tier 3 data center in the United States. This is Axe Compute’s largest single enterprise contract since its founding. Axe Compute’s underlying compute infrastructure is powered by Aethir’s decentralized GPU cloud. Daniel Wang, Co-Founder and CEO of Aethir, stated: “Enterprise workloads supported by 2,304 NVIDIA B300 GPUs represent precisely the scale we targeted when designing Aethir’s compute infrastructure. Today’s announcement demonstrates that decentralized GPU infrastructure is now capable of supporting the world’s top-tier enterprise AI workloads. I am proud of the dedication shown by both the Aethir and Axe Compute teams.” The contract includes dedicated 4.8-megawatt N+1 redundant power, with the client specifying the deployment location and service standards, and features a structured payment schedule. Following the announcement, A
Odaily News: HIVE Digital Technologies, a technology company specializing in crypto mining and high-performance computing hosting, announced that its subsidiary has completed a private placement of $115 million in 0% interest exchangeable senior notes (maturing in 2031). The offering included an over-allotment option of $15 million, indicating strong institutional demand.HIVE Digital stated that the net proceeds from this financing are approximately $109.5 million. The funds will be primarily used for capital expenditures (including GPU procurement), data center construction, general corporate purposes, and to support its AI infrastructure expansion strategy. The initial conversion price for the notes is approximately $2.57 per share, representing a premium of about 17.5% over the pre-issuance stock price, with a capped hedge price premium reaching 125%. This zero-interest financing introduces a new group of institutional investors while helping achieve its 2026 growth targets under reduced capital costs.
According to an announcement by HTX, HTX has enabled CHIP deposits as of 20:30 (GMT+8) on April 21. CHIP/USDT spot trading will go live at 21:30 (GMT+8) on April 21. CHIP withdrawals will be enabled at 21:30 (GMT+8) on April 22. Meanwhile, HTX Margin Trading will introduce new isolated-margin leveraged trading for CHIP/USDT (10x) at 21:30 (GMT+8) on April 21. CHIP is a recently trending stablecoin project. USD.ai is a yield-bearing synthetic stablecoin backed by computing resources, AI hardware, and network nodes. It funds decentralized infrastructure assets—such as GPUs and cellular towers—to address liquidity gaps.
According to an official announcement, BitMart will list USD.AI (CHIP) at 21:00 (UTC+8) on April 21. The trading pair CHIP/USDT will be available.USD.AI is a permissionless lending protocol providing financing for the AI infrastructure industry. The protocol allows GPU operators to tokenize and collateralize their hardware equipment for quick access to capital. It employs a dual-token model: USDai (a stablecoin over-collateralized by PayPal's PYUSD) and sUSDai (an interest-bearing token with a target annual yield of 10-15%, with returns sourced from GPU-backed loans). CHIP is the governance token, allowing holders to vote on protocol parameters, administrator approvals, and USD.AI Improvement Proposals (UIPs).
According to an official announcement, Bybit will list CHIP in its spot trading section. CHIP is the “Dollar Protocol for AI Interest Rates,” a DeFi lending platform collateralized by real GPUs, and $CHIP is used for governance and determining the financing rules for AI infrastructure.
Decentralized GPU cloud computing infrastructure platform Aethir confirmed that its Ethereum-related bridge contract was attacked. The team promptly disconnected the affected contract and, in collaboration with major exchanges, blacklisted the hacker’s wallet, limiting losses to under $90,000. Earlier, blockchain security firm PeckShield estimated losses at $400,000. The attacker exploited Aethir’s cross-chain smart contract, AethirOFTAdapter, to transfer stolen funds from BNB Chain to Tron. Aethir stated that its Ethereum mainnet ATH token supply remains unaffected. It plans to release a detailed compensation plan and incident analysis next week and will collaborate with exchanges including Binance, Upbit, and Bithumb to freeze funds. Web3 security platform ZeroShadow is assisting with the investigation. In 2025, Aethir achieved $127.8 million in revenue and deployed over 440,000 GPU containers globally.
According to The Block, AlphaTON Capital has announced plans to raise $43 million through a strategic partnership with Vertical Data Inc. to expand its AI compute infrastructure; the transaction is expected to close in Q2 2026. AlphaTON CEO Brittany Kaiser stated that the funding will be used to deploy additional NVIDIA B300 GPUs, with the core objective of advancing the convergence of AI, digital assets, and confidential computing—and scaling up the platform’s overall compute capacity. On the business front, AlphaTON not only holds a substantial amount of TON tokens as corporate treasury assets but also actively participates in building infrastructure for the Telegram and TON ecosystems, with key investment focus areas including Cocoon, Telegram’s decentralized AI platform. Background-wise, AlphaTON was formed through the restructuring and transformation of former biotech public company Portage Biotech Inc., which had previously focused on cancer therapy research; the company completed the spin-off of its cancer therapy subsidiary in February this year.
AlphaTON Capital (NASDAQ: ATON) announced a strategic AI hardware and financing agreement with Vertical Data Inc., with a total transaction value of approximately $43 million, expected to close in Q2 2026. The agreement centers on deploying high-performance GPU clusters powered by NVIDIA’s B300 architecture. Financing will be provided through Vertical Data’s GPUfinancing.com platform via an asset-backed, non-recourse structure and includes managed infrastructure services. This expansion will support AlphaTON’s business initiatives with partners including Telegram, Gamee, Animoca Brands, and Midnight Blockchain.