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According to the official website of the Council of the European Union, the EU officially passed the 20th round of sanctions against Russia in 2026, which is also the largest sanction package in two years, adding 120 individuals and entities to the list, and applying comprehensive pressure from multiple dimensions including energy, finance, military industry, and trade.In the field of cryptocurrency, given Russia's increasing reliance on cryptocurrency for international settlements under financial sanctions, the EU has implemented a comprehensive industry ban on cryptocurrency asset transfers and trading platforms within Russia. Additionally, it has sanctioned a platform in Kyrgyzstan that supports the government-backed stablecoin A7A5 and prohibited transactions related to the cryptocurrency RUBx as well as all support from the EU for the development of the digital ruble.

Bitget officially launched the "Blockchain4Youth Learning Center" with its first course, aimed at providing a systematic blockchain learning path for young people and further connecting knowledge learning with career development. After completing the course and passing the assessment, students will receive a certificate of completion issued by Bitget's Chief Marketing Officer Ignacio Aguirre Franco, serving as an official certification of their Web3 capabilities. Certificate holders can gain more industry exposure and priority employment opportunities among the partner employers of the Blockchain4Youth Talent Alliance.To bridge the gap from learning to employment, Bitget has partnered with the Web3 recruitment platform Bondex to provide students with a transparent job-seeking channel and a talent pool connection mechanism. Bondex co-founder Ignacio Palomera stated that the project aims to address the real issues faced by learners, such as "lack of industry connections after completing the course, insufficient effective certification, and unclear job-seeking paths," building a more direct bridge between young talent and recruiting companies.So far, the Bitget Blockchain4Youth series of projects has attracted over 15,000 young participants. Bitget CMO Ignacio Aguirre Franco pointed out that the goal of the learning center is to transform young people's interest in Web3 into a tangible entry path. As the program continues to advance, Blockchain4Youth is gradually evolving from a single event project into a long-term infrastructure focused on Web3 education, career guidance, and talent development.

According to the official announcement, the on-chain burn of GateToken (GT) for the first quarter of 2026 has been officially completed, with a total of 2,557,729.381387 GT transferred to the burn address, with a burn value exceeding 20.68 million USD.Since the launch of the Gate Chain mainnet in 2019, GT has implemented a continuous burn mechanism, and as of now, a total of 187,377,156 GT has been burned, with a total burn value exceeding 1.382 billion USD (calculated at current prices), reducing the total token supply from the initial 300 million by approximately 62.46%. With the launch of Gate Layer and the gradual rollout of native applications such as Gate Perp DEX, Gate Fun, and Meme Go, the usage frequency of GT, as the only Gas token of Gate Layer, continues to increase.At the same time, Gate promotes the coordinated development of infrastructure and applications such as Gate for AI Agent, GateClaw, Gate.AI, and GateRouter, driving the simultaneous growth of on-chain transaction and interaction demand. Gate will continue to implement a long-term, stable GT burn mechanism, creating a tighter positive cycle between the token economic model and real usage demand and ecological expansion.

International gold and silver prices are fluctuating at high levels. According to data from the Gate platform, the current price of gold (XAU) is $4,724.38; the current price of silver (XAG) is $76.47. Despite signs of a temporary easing in the international situation, market risk aversion remains strong, driving active trading and positions in related contracts.According to CoinGlass data, the 24-hour trading volume of Gate XAU contracts reached $41.85 million, an increase of 745.48% compared to the previous period, with a position size of $18.87 million, ranking first in the industry; the 24-hour trading volume of Gate XAG contracts reached $31.89 million, a significant increase of 3429.96%, with a position size of $16.51 million, also ranking among the top in the network. In the context of high-level fluctuations, Gate's trading activity has rapidly increased.Gate has pioneered the metal contract trading sector, providing 24/7 uninterrupted trading, offering users greater strategic flexibility and asset management efficiency in volatile markets. Gate contracts cover various traditional financial assets, including stocks, metals, foreign exchange, indices, and commodities, supporting trading in core targets such as gold, silver, and globally popular stocks. Gate continues to build a more efficient and professional multi-asset one-stop trading platform for global users.

Police officer Guo Tingyu from the Cybersecurity Division of the Qingshan Branch of the Wuhan Public Security Bureau participated in the investigation of Hubei's first virtual currency theft case. By tracking the flow of funds and analyzing the code of fake wallets, he identified and dismantled a cryptocurrency theft gang involved in over 100 million yuan in illicit funds, with all five suspects arrested.The gang induced users to download a counterfeit virtual currency wallet app to steal coins, with a total download count of over ten thousand. Guo Tingyu also participated in the investigation of multiple virtual currency-related criminal cases.

Crypto analyst Murphy posted on the X platform, stating that by overlaying three sets of data (Options Gamma Exposure, Options Open Interest by Strike Price, Options ATM Implied Volatility), the impact on BTC from an options perspective shows that $80,000 is currently the first effective resistance above BTC. This position simultaneously has high Call OI, positive Gamma, and low IV conditions.As the price moves upward, the dynamic hedging of market makers can easily create selling pressure; the lower the IV, the higher the marginal sensitivity of market makers to hedge adjustments. Therefore, the thickness of this wall (OI of 7,200 BTC + positive Gamma magnitude) makes $80,000 a "hard nut to crack" in May. Once it breaks through and approaches $82,000, due to the presence of a larger scale of negative Gamma (OI of 4,644 BTC), the market may quickly switch from being suppressed to "amplified volatility" mode.

According to CoinDesk, the open interest (OI) of the Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund IBIT under BlackRock once surged to $27.61 billion, surpassing the $26.9 billion scale of the Bitcoin options market on the crypto derivatives platform Deribit for the first time. Analysts believe this milestone indicates that the institutionalization process of the Bitcoin market in the United States is accelerating.Additionally, according to Volmex data, the open interest volume of IBIT call options suggests that its call options primarily expect the Bitcoin trading price to rise to $109,709, which is about 41% higher than the current market price of $77,400. Furthermore, the average expiration date of IBIT options is also about two months longer than that of Deribit, indicating stronger bullish sentiment and a preference for longer-term holdings.

The newly appointed chief economist of New Fire Group, Fu Peng, stated on Twitter that the underlying business model of Bitcoin perpetual contracts is essentially the same as the "rollover fee/overnight fee" in traditional finance's gold and industrial commodity spot exchanges.Fu Peng pointed out that back in the day, gold exchanges settled through daily forced liquidation, with longs and shorts paying each other rollover fees. When retail investors held a large number of high-leverage long positions, the rollover fee became the most stable and hidden source of income for the platform. Nowadays, Bitcoin spot platforms mainly rely on perpetual contracts, with both sides settling the funding rate every 8 hours. When longs dominate, retail investors holding long positions continuously pay funding rates to shorts.Although the platform does not directly collect this fee, it significantly enhances trading activity, open interest, and liquidity, indirectly generating a large amount of fee income and forming a stable and substantial cash flow. Essentially, it is a business model where large players/institutions "collect rent" from long-term holdings, retail investors pay for leverage to go long, and the platform indirectly takes a cut.

According to Jinshi reports, the White House stated that it is confident the Senate will quickly confirm Kevin Warsh as the next Federal Reserve Chairman.

The probability on Polymarket that "Waller will be confirmed as Chairman of the Federal Reserve before May 15" rose from 27% to 85%, a short-term increase of 211%. The reason is that the U.S. Department of Justice is expected to withdraw the criminal investigation against Federal Reserve Chairman Powell. Previously, Senator Banking Committee member Thom Tillis stated that if Trump did not withdraw the criminal investigation against current Federal Reserve Chairman Powell, he would block Waller's nomination for Chairman of the Federal Reserve from entering the Senate's full voting process. Under the current influence of the news that the Department of Justice will withdraw the criminal investigation against Powell, the market expects that Waller has a very high probability of being confirmed by the Senate as Chairman of the Federal Reserve before Powell's term ends.

Recently, during the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, at the "CypherAsia Smart Crypto Finance Forum" hosted by institutions such as Fosun Wealth Holdings, FinChain, and exSat, guests including ME Group President Vito Luo, FinChain CTO Lance Liu, SBVA Executive Director Wang Yinzhen, Solana Foundation Solutions Architect Mike Ma, Copilot Venture Studio Co-founder Yang Linyuan, and NeoSoul Co-founder Kaelan discussed the development trends of AI and crypto finance.During the forum, NeoSoul Co-founder Kaelan stated that the AI industry is still in the early stages of rapid evolution. When evaluating AI projects, it is important to look not only at the current products but also at whether the team can continuously keep up with the changes in the underlying model capabilities.Kaelan pointed out that AI entrepreneurship requires both groundedness and vision. Groundedness means that the team must have the ability to implement engineering, design products, and understand the market to create perceivable products; vision means that the team should build in line with the evolution of large models.He believes that some early AI products may seem like toys, but in emerging industries, the existence of toy-like forms should be allowed. Many truly new paradigms often first appear as experimental products.

The Web3 asset data platform RootData has outlined 30 business partners of Fireblocks, spanning multiple key areas such as DeFi protocols, payment settlement, compliance analysis, trading institutions, and multi-chain infrastructure:Settlement Layer: Represented by Circle, TripleA, and Lynq, responsible for stablecoin issuance and payment clearing.Liquidity and Trading Layer: Includes market makers and trading institutions such as Wintermute, Amber Group, GSR, and Wootton, responsible for fund distribution and market depth.On-chain Application Layer: Covers DeFi and application tools like Aave, Morpho, and MetaMask, which support the actual operation scenarios of funds.Compliance and Risk Control Layer: Service providers like Chainalysis, Elliptic, and Coincover form an important supplement to its regulatory adaptation capabilities.By 2025, Fireblocks is expected to handle over $200 billion in stablecoin transactions per month, a year-on-year increase of 300%. Fireblocks' positioning is evolving from a "custody and security service provider" to a central hub for on-chain fund flows and institutional asset circulation.Currently, Fireblocks supports over 150 public blockchain networks, and its partnership network has expanded to over 2,500 global institutional participants, including banks, asset management firms, exchanges, market makers, and fintech companies. Related compilation: Fireblocks Web3 Partner Network Compilation (Continuously Updated)Cryptocurrency projects actively showcasing their partner networks have become a key way to enhance transparency and market trust. It is reported that RootData welcomes Web3 project parties to claim information and continues to track and open more project business relationship disclosure channels. The platform has continuously released multiple issues of the cryptocurrency project ecosystem map, nominating Web3 ecosystem partners for upstream clients such as Visa, Mastercard, and Coinbase.If you wish to nominate your project in future ecosystem maps, please fill out the RootData 2026 Industry Ecosystem Mapping form to supplement your important clients and partners.

In response to the U.S. accusations of China "stealing" intellectual property from American artificial intelligence laboratories, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiaqun stated during a regular press conference on the 24th that the U.S. claims are unfounded and are a smear against China's achievements in the development of the artificial intelligence industry. China firmly opposes this. We urge the U.S. to respect the facts, abandon prejudice, stop suppressing technology related to China, and do more to promote technological exchange and cooperation between the two countries.

According to BBX data, the first public collapse case in the corporate digital asset reserve sector occurred yesterday, and on the same day, the crypto industry jointly issued the largest legislative mobilization of the year. Several listed companies disclosed their latest reserve actions, with the core dynamics as follows:Satsuma Technology Plc (LSE: $SATS) reported by Bloomberg on April 23 that digital asset investment firm Pantera Capital (holding approximately 6.7%) is pressuring the company, along with other shareholders, to liquidate all 646 BTC (current market value approximately $50 million) and return the cash to shareholders. The company's executive chairman, Ranald McGregor-Smith, confirmed that they have received requests from shareholders for capital return, stating that they are "evaluating options."DeFi Development Corp. (NASDAQ: $DFDV) announced that its Treasury Accelerator Program has completed a strategic equity investment in Japanese listed company Allied Architects, Inc. (TSE: 6081), marking the company's first entry into the Asian market. As of recently, the company holds approximately 2.2 million SOL (market value approximately $195 million), using "SOL per Share (SPS)" as a core performance indicator.H100 Group AB (OTCMKTS: $HOGPF) upgraded the letter of intent (LOI) signed in March to a binding share purchase agreement, intending to acquire a total of approximately 2,450 BTC reserves from Moonshot AS and Never Say Die AS; upon completion, the company's BTC holdings are expected to rise to approximately 3,501 BTC, with the transaction structure being all-stock consideration (BTC for BTC, no cash involved). Existing shareholders are expected to hold about 30% after completion, with the delivery expected to be completed by August 2026.Remixpoint, Inc. (TSE: 3825) recently increased its holdings by 20.0312 BTC (approximately $1.57 million), bringing its total BTC holdings to 1,431.33 BTC, with a current paper profit of approximately $21.28 million; the company also plans to purchase approximately $3.13 million in additional crypto assets.

According to information from the Governance Forum, Bybit's public chain Mantle plans to provide a loan of 30,000 ETH to Aave to address the bad debt risk caused by recent security incidents.According to crypto analyst Yu Jin @EmberCN, the currently confirmed rescue fund size approximately covers a gap of 43,500 ETH.

Tether announced that it has supported the U.S. government's freeze of over $344 million USDT, involving two wallet addresses. This freezing action was carried out in collaboration with the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and U.S. law enforcement agencies, aimed at preventing further movement of funds.The freeze was based on information provided by multiple U.S. law enforcement agencies, linking these addresses to illegal activities. Tether stated that when wallet addresses are associated with sanctions evasion, criminal networks, or other illegal activities, the company will take freezing measures. This has now become Tether's routine response to legitimate requests from U.S. and global law enforcement agencies.Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino stated, "USDT is by no means a safe haven for illegal activities. We take immediate action when there are credible links to sanctioned entities or criminal networks. Recent events have shown what can happen when platforms fail to act swiftly, law enforcement fails, users are exposed, and trust is lost. Our approach is different; we combine blockchain transparency, real-time monitoring, and direct coordination with law enforcement agencies to prevent the flow of funds. This is a responsibility we take very seriously as one of the largest issuers in the market."This action is part of Tether's cooperation with U.S. law enforcement agencies. The U.S. Department of Justice had previously confirmed Tether's support in law enforcement actions, successfully seizing nearly $61 million and approximately $225 million in "pork scam" funds.

According to CoinGlass data, index contracts have been overall active in the past 4 hours, with the Gate platform's HK50 contract seeing a position increase of up to 5769.9%, ranking first in the entire market.Gate has pioneered the global index perpetual contract, using mainstream global indices and volatility indices as underlying assets, introducing market sentiment indicators into the cryptocurrency derivatives trading system. While maintaining the advantages of USDT settlement and 24/7 trading, it provides users with trading options that are closer to the global macro market. At the same time, Gate has fully laid out traditional financial trading areas including stocks, metals, foreign exchange, indices, and commodities, and is continuously building a multi-asset contract system covering mainstream TradFi assets, creating the industry's most comprehensive index and traditional financial asset contract trading area.