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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 cryptocurrency trading platform SuperEx announced that it will soon launch Canton (CANTON) in the innovation zone and open the CANTON/USDT spot trading pair. Trading will officially start on April 24, 2026, at 11:00 Beijing time (03:00 UTC), and the deposit and withdrawal channels will soon be opened.The official stated that with the launch of spot trading, CANTON will also be included in the margin support range for all-currency contracts, allowing users to use it directly as margin assets for contract trading.It is reported that the Canton Network is a public, permissionless blockchain network designed specifically for institutional finance, aiming to integrate privacy, compliance, and scalability. The network is managed by the Canton Foundation and supported by several leading global financial institutions, enabling instant, secure synchronization and settlement of various asset classes on its shared infrastructure powered by its native token, Canton Coin.

According to market news, at the "9th BCCC Collaborative Day" held on April 21, 2026, Shigeru Shimizu, the head of the Risk Analysis Division of the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan, delivered a special speech revealing significant progress in cryptocurrency regulation. The FSA has submitted a bill to the extraordinary Diet, proposing to transition cryptocurrencies from the Payment Services Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, mainly involving four core aspects: regulations on information disclosure, the establishment of new classifications for independent operators, strengthening penalties for unregistered operators, and preparing regulations against insider trading.At the same time, the FSA is advancing three "Payment Innovation Projects (PIP)" empirical experiments: first, a cross-border payment trial using yen stablecoins involving three major banks; second, on-chain settlement of securities such as government bonds, corporate bonds, and stocks based on blockchain, aiming for 24/7 continuous trading; third, an interbank tokenized deposit transfer experiment that just received support on April 3 of this month, which will be promoted in conjunction with the Bank of Japan's central bank digital currency tokenization sandbox project. Mr. Shimizu stated that blockchain has great potential in enhancing the convenience of financial services and diversifying products, and the FSA will continue to promote institutional development and practical support.

According to Bloomberg, cryptocurrency venture capital firm Blockchain Capital is simultaneously raising two new funds, with a total target size of $700 million, namely its seventh early-stage fund and its second growth fund.Insiders revealed that the firm has begun deploying some of the newly raised capital, and the entire financing round is expected to be completed within five to six months.

AI research lab NeoCognition announced the completion of a $40 million seed round financing, led jointly by Cambium Capital and Walden Catalyst Ventures, with participation from Vista Equity Partners. Angel investors include Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Databricks co-founder Ion Stoica, among others.The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and was co-founded by Ohio State University associate professor Yu Su, along with Xiang Deng and Yu Gu, focusing on enhancing the reliability of AI agents. Their solution is to enable agents to build domain "world models" in real-world use to adapt to specific business environments, rather than relying on generic pre-trained models. The company is currently targeting enterprise clients and plans to embed sustainably optimized AI agents into SaaS products, with no public products released yet.

The cryptocurrency trading platform SuperEx announced that it will soon launch Chip (CHIP) in the innovation zone and open the CHIP/USDT spot trading pair. The specific trading start time is April 22, 2026, at 12:00 PM Beijing time (04:00 UTC), and the recharge channel is now open.The official statement indicated that with the launch of spot trading, CHIP has also been included in the support range for margin of all cryptocurrency contracts, allowing users to directly use it as margin assets for contract trading.It is reported that Chip is a permissionless lending protocol designed to provide financing for artificial intelligence infrastructure. The protocol allows GPU operators to tokenize their hardware assets as collateral to obtain instant financing.

Nik Storonsky, CEO of Europe's largest fintech company Revolut, recently stated in an interview with David Rubenstein that the company's IPO plan will take at least another two years, with the earliest listing expected in 2028. Before going public, the company will continue to provide liquidity to employees and early investors through secondary equity sales. It is reported that a new round of secondary transactions may start in 2026, with the company's latest valuation reaching $75 billion.Meanwhile, Revolut is actively expanding into the U.S. market and has completed its second application for a U.S. banking license. If approved, it will be able to directly access the Federal Reserve payment system and offer loans and credit card services to U.S. users.

According to monitoring by Hyperinsight, in the past hour, the address starting with 0xec4 opened short positions in both BTC and ETH, with a total scale of approximately 12.5 million USD. The specific positions are as follows:40x BTC short position: size of 100 coins, approximately 7.96 million USD, average price of 74,677 USD;25x ETH short position: size of 2,000 coins, approximately 4.6 million USD, average price of 2,292 USD.Currently, the total unrealized loss for both positions is approximately 75,000 USD.

Against the backdrop of easing tensions in the Middle East, Iran announced that the Strait of Hormuz is "fully open" during the ceasefire, leading to a rise in global risk assets. Boosted by the news, Bitcoin briefly surpassed $77,000, reaching a nearly two-month high, with an increase of about 5% in the past 24 hours. Major altcoins also rose, with Ethereum, XRP, and Solana recording gains of around 6%.Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi stated that all commercial vessels can pass through the strait during the ceasefire with Lebanon, but must adhere to the "coordinated shipping lanes" set by Iran. The strait accounts for about 20% of global oil transportation and is a critical energy corridor. In traditional markets, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both reached historic highs, indicating a significant rebound in risk appetite. U.S. President Trump also posted on social media that "the Strait of Hormuz has reopened for commercial activities," but emphasized that Iranian vessels may still face blockade measures until the U.S.-Iran agreement is fully implemented.

Gate is hosting an F1 Red Bull Racing car display parade in Hong Kong, with the display cars appearing around Victoria Harbour and proceeding along a designated route, attracting market and public attention.This parade serves as an important offline action in the cross-industry collaboration between Gate and the F1 Red Bull Racing team, bringing top-tier racing culture into urban landmark scenes, enhancing brand exposure and discussion.From April 18 to 24, Gate will also launch the "Racing the Future" outdoor cross-industry exhibition at the K11 MUSEA waterfront promenade in Hong Kong, which will focus on showcasing Red Bull Racing cars and related equipment, as well as setting up interactive experience areas.As the official sponsor of the F1 Red Bull Racing team, this exhibition will be the first to showcase the brand new 2026 Red Bull Racing car and core equipment, introducing an immersive interactive experience area that recreates the fusion of top racing engineering and the aesthetics of speed.In addition, Gate will hold the "Gate 13 Blue Carpet Ceremony" on April 20, where the unveiling of the F1 Red Bull Racing display car and brand collaboration will take place. That evening, Gate will also host a high-end anniversary dinner event at the Rosewood Hong Kong, where platform founder and CEO Dr. Han will be present, and it is expected that over 300 representatives from top industry institutions and partners will be invited to participate in the exchange.

glassnode published its weekly market outlook, indicating that Bitcoin's price momentum has increased by 51.7%, breaking through previous highs, reflecting a significant enhancement in spot buying power and a strengthening of market buying support.On the other hand, Bitcoin's futures open interest continues to rise, and the options Delta skew shows a moderation of bearish sentiment. Combined with a cooling of on-chain activity, this suggests that the market is currently in a consolidation phase but with improved sentiment. glassnode stated that from a profitability perspective, market pressure has eased. Overall, various indicators collectively suggest that the market is exhibiting strong bullish sentiment, increased investor participation, and enhanced risk appetite, although there are also signs of cautious sentiment and market stabilization.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a giant whale opened a 20x leveraged long position of 13,000 ETH through two different wallets, worth approximately 28.67 million USD, while also holding a 20x leveraged long position of 286,153 SOL and a small amount of 5x leveraged long positions in DYDX.

The Bank of Korea announced the recruitment of 10 new employees, some of whom are required to have at least five years of experience in the cryptocurrency industry, starting as digital asset market analysts as early as July this year, responsible for researching the impact of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized assets on financial stability.The recruitment news coincides with the central bank's restart of the CBDC project, the Han River project, which was halted last year due to feedback from pilot users regarding inconvenience. The new round of plan adjustments is repositioned towards government and enterprise application scenarios: the authorities aim to distribute 25% of government subsidies in digital won by 2030 and plan to launch pilot payments in the first half of 2026. The head of the digital currency planning team at the Bank of Korea stated that stablecoins and CBDCs are not in competition but rather complement each other. This deployment aligns with upcoming legislation, as South Korea will lift the long-standing ban on the domestic issuance of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.

According to monitoring by Hyperinsight, U.S. stock cryptocurrency concept stocks collectively fell back, with Circle (CRCL) down 20.1%. The contract for this asset on Hyperliquid is currently reported at $102.7.During this sharp decline, two on-chain whales (0xcee) and (0x51b) simultaneously took action to bottom-fish early this morning, each opening about $1 million in CRCL long positions, with average entry prices of $106 and $103 respectively, and the liquidation price for the closest one is at $95.8.

According to the official announcement, Gate will launch a VIP rewards triple gift event from March 20 at 19:00 to April 3 at 23:59 (UTC+8), providing multiple incentives for trading users, asset holding users, and VIP advanced users. The event includes three main sections: trading cashback program, fund upgrade program, and VIP growth camp.Among them, in the trading cashback program, users with VIP level 5 and above who sign up will receive a level acceleration reward of VIP level +2 (limited to 15 days, up to VIP 10) if their cumulative contract trading volume reaches the specified amount within 30 days. At the same time, users who meet the cumulative contract trading volume requirements during the event period can also receive a 10% trading cashback voucher, capped at 800 USDT. In the fund upgrade program, users with VIP level 5 and above who meet the asset and net deposit conditions can unlock three fund benefits, including a maximum of 8% USDT wealth management interest rate voucher, a maximum of 20 GT airdrop rewards, and a VIP exclusive 30-day fixed-term wealth management gift of gold activity.In addition, the platform will simultaneously launch the VIP growth camp, providing advanced support for potential users. Users who meet the asset or trading conditions can sign up to receive a VIP 5 experience card (15 days); users who successfully upgrade to VIP 5 during the event period can also receive a VIP newcomer gift package and participate in sharing a 500,000 USDT airdrop prize pool.

According to CoinDesk, influenced by Trump's 48-hour ultimatum to Iran and threats to strike power facilities, Bitcoin quickly fell back over the weekend, dropping below the $69,200 mark, with a 24-hour decline of about 2.2%, and a weekly decline expanding to 3.1%. Affected by market sentiment, mainstream crypto assets weakened simultaneously: Ethereum fell to about $2,114, while XRP, BNB, Solana, Dogecoin, and others recorded varying degrees of decline.This week, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged, and its dovish stance should have supported risk assets, but the ongoing war risk news has made traders hesitant to make significant unilateral bets. Analysts believe that if Iran does not restore passage through the Strait of Hormuz by the deadline, the conflict may escalate further to the level of energy infrastructure, compounded by disruptions to about 20% of global oil and gas transportation, which may continue to suppress the performance of risk assets.