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According to Jinshi reports, the Office of the Foreign Investment Security Review Mechanism (National Development and Reform Commission) has made a decision to prohibit investment in the foreign acquisition of the Manus project in accordance with laws and regulations, requiring the parties involved to withdraw from the acquisition transaction.

According to the Korea Herald, two active-duty sergeants in their 30s from the South Korean Army Special Warfare Command were sentenced to two years in prison by the Changwon District Court on April 26 for illegally operating an unreported virtual asset exchange during their service and assisting in money laundering for drug transactions, and were fined 54.69 million won.Investigations revealed that the defendants operated an illegal trading platform through Telegram from 2023 to 2024, assisting buyers in converting approximately 54.69 million won in drug payments into virtual currency and transferring it to sellers on 90 occasions.

According to Cointelegraph, Brazilian authorities announced the ban of 27 prediction market platforms, including Kalshi, Polymarket, PredictIt, Robinhood (prediction feature), and Fanatics Markets.The ban is led by the Ministry of Finance and executed by the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), based on Resolution No. 5.298 issued by the Brazilian National Monetary Council (CMN), which will officially take effect in early May. The new regulations explicitly prohibit prediction contracts linked to sports, politics, entertainment, or social events, deeming their nature closer to gambling rather than financial investment; only contracts linked to economic indicators such as inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, and commodity prices will be retained. Dario Durigan, the executive secretary of the Ministry of Finance, stated that prediction markets could deepen the debt burden of households and small to medium-sized enterprises, posing financial risks. Currently, several countries, including France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, have implemented similar restrictions.

Galaxy Research Director Alex Thorn stated on the X platform that the amount of Bitcoin currently held by Strategy has surpassed that of the world's largest Bitcoin ETF, IBIT. According to the current accumulation trend, Strategy is expected to surpass Satoshi Nakamoto in the next two years, becoming one of the largest Bitcoin-holding entities in the world.

According to a report by Reuters, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) stated that it has joined forces with tax authorities and the police to search eight locations in London suspected of illegal peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading and has issued stop notices to each site.The FCA stated that evidence obtained during the inspections has supported multiple ongoing criminal investigations. This operation was conducted under anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regulations, aiming to prevent related traders from providing channels for criminals to transfer, conceal, and use funds. Currently, there are no peer-to-peer cryptocurrency traders registered with the FCA in the UK.

Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against Coinbase and Gemini, accusing them of providing "disguised gambling" services through their prediction market platforms, in violation of New York state law.Regulators believe that such trades based on event outcomes (such as sports and elections) essentially fall under gambling activities, particularly questioning the participation of users aged 18 to 21, while New York law sets the minimum age for sports betting at 21. The prosecution is seeking hefty fines and the recovery of profits, with claims of at least $2.2 billion against Coinbase and at least $1.2 billion against Gemini. The two companies have not officially responded, but Coinbase has indicated that prediction markets are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, suggesting that their legality falls under federal jurisdiction.

According to monitoring by Hyperinsight, in the past 16 hours, the Galaxy Digital associated address (0xcac) has continuously closed ETH short positions, reducing holdings by a total of 905 ETH, approximately worth 2.09 million USD. Currently, there is still a floating profit of 2.6 million USD, with a position size reaching 7.4 million USD.Since March, this address has significantly reduced its positions, continuously selling BTC and ETH spot while simultaneously closing short positions, with a total spot selling volume reaching 11 million USD, completing the liquidation; the size of the short positions has also decreased from 35 million USD to the current 13.8 million USD, during which the funding rate settlement recorded approximately 3.5 million USD in profits.It is reported that this address has received on-chain funds from Galaxy Digital multiple times and has been executing a neutral arbitrage strategy on Hyperliquid for a long time, typically maintaining risk neutrality by selling spot and closing short positions, or buying spot and increasing short positions.

According to Caixin, the one-month public consultation for the "Financial Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft)" ended today (April 19). This is the first overarching law in China and the world with "finance" in its name. The expansion of "quasi-judicial powers" for financial regulation is a topic of great concern in the market.According to Article 55 and related provisions, financial regulatory authorities have the right to access and copy property rights information, communication records, and transaction records of relevant entities and individuals when investigating financial violations. They can directly freeze or seal assets if there is evidence suggesting the transfer or concealment of illegal funds and securities. They can even decide that individuals suspected of violations cannot leave the country during the investigation.In addition, Zeng Gang, chief expert and director of the Shanghai Financial and Development Laboratory, believes that the "Financial Law" should also strengthen its focus and coverage on emerging financial formats. Topics such as AI-driven financial decision-making, the legal status of digital currencies, and the regulatory boundaries of crypto assets have sparked widespread controversy globally, but the draft addresses them very little. How to maintain a dynamic balance between lawful regulation and inclusive innovation is a problem left to be solved by legislation.

Alex Thorn, the research director at Galaxy Digital, posted on the X platform that the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list (SDN list) has historically involved 518 Bitcoin addresses, which have received a total of 249,814 BTC and sent 239,708 BTC, currently holding a net of about 9,306 BTC, worth approximately $707 million at current market prices.Thorn also stated that OFAC sanctions are only one of the means by which the U.S. intercepts illegal assets, and the CLARITY Act will further expand the Treasury's relevant powers.

According to Hong Kong Radio, the Hong Kong government has decided to stop promoting basketball gambling projects. The Secretary for Home Affairs and Youth Affairs, Mak Mei-juan, stated in an interview with this station that the information collected by the authorities shows that the "prediction market" has developed rapidly in recent years, with monthly trading volume increasing from less than $100 million two years ago to over $13 billion last year, of which nearly 40% of the transactions are related to sports. The authorities are concerned that if new gambling projects are promoted at this time, it will lead to greater public concern and even participation in illegal gambling in the "prediction market." Therefore, it is believed that research should be conducted first before deciding on the next steps, and the promotion of new gambling projects should be halted for now.Mak Mei-juan stated that the existing regulated gambling projects have established a more mature monitoring and management system, which can help control risks. However, due to the uncertainty of the "prediction market," as a responsible government, there is a need to conduct research to understand the impact of the "prediction market" and its prevalence in Hong Kong. She also mentioned that the government has always maintained close contact with the Hong Kong Jockey Club, as the club has a rigorous monitoring system to oversee illegal gambling situations, and there are experts specifically targeting the fight against illegal gambling. The government will cooperate with the Jockey Club to obtain professional advice, allowing the authorities to implement measures specifically aimed at illegal gambling.Mak Mei-juan reiterated that the government's consistent policy is not to encourage gambling, and betting on sports projects in the "prediction market" is considered illegal gambling. The authorities will strengthen public education to help citizens understand the harms of gambling and refrain from participating in illegal gambling.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, one address purchased 590,900 HYPE from Galaxy Digital's over-the-counter wallet, worth approximately $25.92 million.On-chain data shows that another address set consisting of 6 addresses may belong to the same entity, holding a total of 4,114,234 HYPE, worth approximately $181 million, all sourced from the Galaxy OTC channel.

The UK asset management firm Legal & General has put its managed liquidity funds, exceeding £50 billion, on-chain through the tokenized distribution network launched by Calastone.The firm is now offering money market funds in tokenized share form on this network, supporting USD, EUR, and GBP, covering issuance, trading, and same-day settlement. Investors can purchase, hold, and transfer the related tokenized shares within a permissioned, regulated network. The relevant funds will be deployed on Ethereum and compatible blockchains, with plans to expand to more networks in the future.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve's Goolsbee stated that if oil prices rise to $5 per gallon and remain there for several months, inflation expectations may become unanchored.

The security agency Innora released a report stating that the financial protocol Saturn on Ethereum has two serious vulnerabilities. These include:Withdrawal freeze vulnerability: Under normal business operations, all user funds could be locked, with a minimum of 30 days and, in extreme cases, indefinitely frozen. No hacker is needed; the protocol can trigger this itself.Privileged addresses in the protocol can legally intercept up to 33.33% of the funds per operation. According to current data, a single operation can intercept up to approximately $157,000, with a theoretical total risk of up to $4.26 million.Innora stated that over 90% of Saturn's assets are managed by privileged addresses, and users are completely reliant on trust. As of the report's release, this vulnerability has not yet been fixed.

According to DL News, the state-owned power company Irkutskenergosbyt in the Irkutsk region of Russia recently discovered over 8,000 suspected illegal cryptocurrency mining sites, which were disguised as chicken coops, greenhouses, forests, paper mills, and abandoned gas stations.Since 2019, the company has filed 2,170 lawsuits against illegal miners, seeking a total compensation of $18.5 million. The courts have ruled fines amounting to about half of that total, and some cases have been settled out of court. Miners often disguise their activities as electric vehicle charging or agricultural electricity use, leading to power losses. In many regions of Russia, to ensure grid stability, licensed industrial mining sites have been shut down, and there are plans to use artificial intelligence tools to trace illegal mining.

Justin Sun previously posted accusations that the WLFI token contract has a "backdoor" and can arbitrarily freeze user assets. The WLFI official responded by denying these claims and stated that they would take legal action.The WLFI official stated that Justin Sun is using the image of a "victim" to smear and make false accusations, and such public accusations are not the first occurrence. WLFI has gathered relevant contracts and evidence and claims it will meet Justin Sun in court.

According to a Caixin article titled "Financial Innovation or Insider Trading: The Rise and Controversy of Polymarket," it points out that when insider information can be openly monetized, the boundaries of prediction markets have become blurred. Is this "gambling" disguised in financial clothing, or even suspected insider trading? However, regardless of the legal debate over whether it is gambling, the fact that Polymarket uses USDC stablecoin for settlement and delivery poses a significant legal risk for participants within China.Previously, U.S. Senators Merkley and Klobuchar proposed the "End Prediction Market Corruption Act," which prohibits the President, Vice President, and members of Congress from trading on prediction markets, and requires the prediction market trading activities of their spouses and dependent children to be included in annual financial disclosures.

According to The Block, Galaxy Digital's annual report shows that the company recorded a net loss of approximately $241 million for the year, primarily affected by unrealized losses in digital assets and investment positions.Adjusted data indicates that the company achieved an EBITDA of approximately $216 million, with core operating business profitable under non-GAAP accounting standards. Among them, the digital asset business, which includes trading, lending, asset management, and staking services, recorded an adjusted gross profit of approximately $505 million. Following the release of the financial report, the company's stock price rose by over 11%.