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VanEck analysts Matthew Sigel and Patrick Bush wrote an analysis stating that Bitcoin has shown two historically bullish signals: negative funding rates and a decline in hash rate concentration, while volatility has cooled down.As tensions between the U.S. and Iran eased, Bitcoin's realized volatility dropped from 56% to 41%, while the 7-day average funding rate turned negative to -1.8%, marking the lowest level since 2023.Historically, negative funding rates typically indicate strong future returns: since 2020, the average 30-day return for Bitcoin during periods of negative funding rates has been +11.5%, compared to an overall return of +4.5%, with a hit rate as high as 77%. Funding rates below -5% have brought a +19.4% return over a 30-day period.Additionally, hash rate has fallen to the 16th percentile in the past 30 days, marking the most concentrated decline since the mining ban in 2021. In the last 7 instances of hash rate decline, Bitcoin's price increased 6 times after 90 days, with a median increase of +37.7%.

According to The Block, AWS Marketplace has integrated data services such as Chainlink's Data Feeds, Data Streams, and Proof of Reserve, supporting developers in connecting AWS's computing, storage, database, and API capabilities with blockchain smart contracts.AWS stated that the Chainlink oracle infrastructure provides a secure two-way connection between AWS resources and on-chain smart contracts, making it easier for institutions to develop applications that interact with tokenized assets and smart contracts in a familiar AWS environment.

India is promoting the application of the digital rupee through about 10 welfare pilot projects, distributing part of the approximately $80 billion in subsidies and food benefits via e-rupee to reduce fund leakage and corruption, and to provide a clearer use case for central bank digital currency.At the same time, the Reserve Bank of India is pushing for a cross-member CBDC interconnection plan to be proposed at the 2026 BRICS summit, aiming to enhance the efficiency of cross-border trade settlements and reduce reliance on the US dollar. Currently, there are about 10 million e-rupee users, with a cumulative transaction amount of approximately $3.6 billion, which is still significantly lower than the UPI system that processes about $300 billion in transactions monthly in India.

KuCoin announced the launch of KuCard in Australia, allowing users to use cryptocurrency assets for daily consumption at merchants worldwide that accept Mastercard, with payment options through Apple Pay and Google Pay. The service initially supports 37 USDC trading pairs, covering mainstream digital assets such as BTC, ETH, and USDT, with real-time conversion to fiat currency during the settlement process. KuCoin stated that this move is an important step in enhancing compliance and transparency in the cryptocurrency payment experience, and it is the latest progress in promoting the real-world application of cryptocurrency assets after completing its registration with AUSTRAC as a digital currency exchange (DCE).

The Web3 asset data platform RootData has outlined the Web3 business partners of Zero Hash, whose partners cover key areas such as asset management institutions, payment channels, public chain infrastructure, and stablecoin systems, and are building a cooperative network centered on compliance clearing and asset access.Structurally, Zero Hash is committed to becoming a B-end crypto financial infrastructure provider, offering institutions a one-stop capability of "fiat currency → crypto assets → multi-chain circulation → stablecoin settlement":Upstream, it connects asset management and financial platforms such as Morgan Stanley, Franklin Templeton, and Republic; on the funding entry side, it interfaces with payment and fiat channels like Stripe, Ramp, and Transak; at the infrastructure level, it covers multi-chain infrastructures such as Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, and Aptos; at the same time, it connects with stablecoin systems like Circle, Tether, Paxos, as well as PYUSD and RLUSD, completing clearing and settlement support.In addition, Zero Hash, as one of the few infrastructure providers holding money transmission licenses (MTL) in multiple U.S. states and possessing complete regulatory framework adaptation capabilities, has a very clear common characteristic among its partners: funding entry (banks/payments), asset carriers (stablecoins/public chains), or distribution platforms (financial products/applications). Related collection 【Zero Hash Web3 Partner Network Collection (Continuously Updated)】Crypto projects actively showcasing their partner networks has become a key way to enhance transparency and market trust. It is reported that RootData welcomes Web3 project parties to claim data and continues to track and open more project business relationship disclosure channels. The platform has continuously released multiple versions of the crypto project ecosystem map, nominating Web3 ecological 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.

Lido stated on platform X that its EarnETH treasury was affected by the theft of 116,500 rsETH (approximately $29.2 million) from the Kelp DAO cross-chain bridge on April 18.EarnETH holds approximately $21.6 million in rsETH risk exposure through leveraged positions in rsETH/ETH on Aave, accounting for about 9% of the total assets in the treasury. The EarnETH team is currently actively deleveraging to reduce risk, and the outcome depends on the final decisions made by Kelp, LayerZero, and Aave regarding loss sharing and bad debt handling.Lido further stated that EarnETH has a $3 million "first loss protection mechanism" funded by the Lido DAO treasury, which will be used to cover losses if necessary. The treasury has currently suspended redemption processing to assess the losses. This incident does not affect stETH and wstETH, and the core staking protocol of Lido is not involved.

According to official news, Gate has integrated with the Kasplex L2 network and has opened up Kaspa (KAS) token deposits and withdrawals on the Kasplex L2 network. Users can now transfer KAS from Kaspa L1 to the Kasplex L2 wallet through Gate, significantly lowering the entry barrier and enhancing asset circulation efficiency and on-chain interaction experience.Kasplex is a Layer 2 network built on the Kaspa ecosystem, aimed at improving smart contract compatibility and transaction processing efficiency, supporting a wider range of decentralized applications (dApps) to operate securely and efficiently within the Kaspa ecosystem. As an L2 network ordered by Kaspa L1, Kasplex still uses KAS as its sole network token.

Binance Co-CEO He Yi responded to community questions at the BNB Chain event in Hong Kong, stating that when trading memecoins on BSC, one should not "nitpick" (picking apart He Yi or Big Brother's Twitter content) and deceive oneself.He Yi mentioned that she is not a narcissistic person and does not tweet every day to create hype. Some coins discussed at the Binance Alpha event are popular not because she tweeted about them, but because they have inherent popularity, which creates a false cycle.She emphasized that BNB Chain is a public chain, and just as one does not question the Ethereum Foundation about the quality of projects on Ethereum, everyone trading memecoins on BSC should have the correct understanding. Binance's mission is to protect users, but that does not mean that every investment on the BNB Chain will necessarily be profitable."99.9% of memecoins will go to zero," He Yi stated, noting that most projects will fail, and investors must be clear about what they are doing and not be misled by others. One cannot assume that any memecoin "picked out" by He Yi will definitely be listed on Binance; otherwise, it would contradict the reputation of "protecting users," and this understanding is misguided.

At the "Crypto 2026: From Cryptocurrency to Smart Economy" themed forum held in Hong Kong, guests including KiteAI's Asia Pacific head Laughing, Sentient's Asia Pacific head Anita, Brevis content director Nic Tang, Mentis product head Jerry, and Predict.fun's Asia Pacific BD head Ah Huang Ricardo engaged in a roundtable discussion on the theme "AI × Crypto --- The Foundation of the Next Generation Digital Economy."Regarding whether the outbreak of open-source AI Agents (such as "raising lobsters") is a short-term sentiment or a long-term trend, Laughing believes this marks a paradigm shift of AI from "conversational" to "executive," signaling the beginning of a long-term trend. However, Agents lack a physical identity, making it difficult for merchants to trust their trading behavior, and issues of data leakage and uncontrollability remain obstacles that must be overcome for scaling. Jerry pointed out, based on his own usage experience, that current Agents face security risks such as memory fuzziness, token consumption in dead loops, and accidental file deletion. Although newly emerged Agents have improvements, they still have shortcomings. Ah Huang Ricardo stated that behind the short-term sentiment is real user demand, but truly reproducible profitable trading Agents are still very rare, and there is a long way to go.Addressing core bottlenecks such as trust, security, and verifiability, Nic Tang emphasized that the current execution process of Agents is like a black box, where users cannot verify whether their decisions are executed as promised. Zero-knowledge proof technology can mathematically prove the source of an Agent's output and compliance with behavior, while not exposing privacy. Anita added that Sentient is committed to building an open and collaborative AI agent network, promoting the deep integration of AI and blockchain in identity, data, and incentive layers, providing foundational support for the next generation digital economy.Regarding the application scenarios that are likely to scale first, the guests generally believe that the programming field is relatively mature, and Agents in prediction markets perform better than humans in specific tracks due to their rationality and lack of emotions. In the short term, they are optimistic about API Marketplace and cross-platform consumer shopping Agents, while in the medium term, they are optimistic about content creation AI (such as AI influencers). Agent-to-Agent interaction and the Agent/Skill Marketplace are seen as important future trends.

At the "Crypto 2026: From Cryptocurrency to Smart Economy" themed forum held in Hong Kong, Tencent Cloud's industry architect Alan Nie delivered a keynote speech titled "Cloud + AI Dual Engine: Tencent Cloud Empowers New Growth in Web3."Alan Nie pointed out that Web3 enterprises face three major bottlenecks in global infrastructure, R&D efficiency, and business intelligence. Tencent Cloud deeply integrates the "Cloud + AI" dual engine to provide low-latency infrastructure covering the globe. Among them, the Singapore data center is the only cloud provider in the world that offers four availability zones, and the self-developed TDSQL-C database can achieve elastic scaling in seconds, with Redis single-node performance reaching over 300,000.In terms of AI empowerment, Tencent Cloud launched CodeBuddy (AI Pair Programmer) and WorkBuddy (Personal AI Assistant), which can automatically generate code, batch process office documents, organize meeting minutes, and support multi-agent parallel execution of complex tasks. In financial scenarios, the automation research report reproduction cycle has been shortened from three days to half a day; in on-chain data analysis scenarios, storage costs have been reduced to one-tenth of the original, with query responses reaching millisecond levels.Alan Nie stated that Tencent Cloud is committed to using the "Cloud + AI" dual engine to help Web3 enterprises build the next generation of smart economic infrastructure.

The Web3 asset data platform RootData has outlined 78 business partners of Anchorage, including over 30 DeFi protocols, more than 20 blockchain infrastructure projects, as well as various stablecoins and payment settlement networks, covering the complete path from asset issuance to on-chain operations.Represented by institutions like BlackRock, products such as ETFs bring funds into the crypto market, after which Anchorage assumes custody and compliance responsibilities. These assets are then deployed on-chain, participating in liquidity operations and yield generation through DeFi protocols, stablecoin systems, and infrastructure networks. Ultimately, they flow back into the traditional financial system through OTC, trading, and clearing paths.In this process, Anchorage's role is not just "custody," but a key node throughout the entire lifecycle of funds, with its upstream and downstream including crypto-native institutions such as A16z, Blockchain Capital, Electric Capital, and Defiance, as well as DeFi protocols, L1/L2 networks, stablecoins, and clearing and settlement systems, along with fintech companies like AngelList and Series Financial, as well as payment companies and core banking systems.Anchorage's partner strategy emphasizes "key path coverage," ensuring that funds have corresponding infrastructure at every stage. As compliant entry points like ETFs gradually open up, the crypto market shifts towards asset allocation-driven strategies, and bridge-type institutions like Anchorage are moving from the background to the core. Related compilation: Anchorage Web3 Partner Network Compilation (continuously updated)Crypto 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 data and continues to track and open more project business relationship disclosure channels. The platform has continuously released multiple editions of crypto project ecological maps, nominating Web3 ecological partners for upstream clients such as Visa, Mastercard, and Coinbase.If you wish to nominate your project in future ecological maps, please fill out the RootData 2026 Industry Ecosystem Mapping form to supplement your important clients and partners.

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that it has initiated a compensation program for victims of the OneCoin cryptocurrency fraud case, with over $40 million in forfeited assets available for payout.The program is aimed at investors who purchased OneCoin and incurred net losses between 2014 and 2019. U.S. prosecutors stated that this move is intended to return some of the illicit proceeds to the victims. OneCoin was initiated by Ruja Ignatova and Karl Greenwood, with the related fraud exceeding $4 billion. Ignatova has been missing since 2017, and Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023.

According to a report by Kyodo News, a new company has been established for artificial intelligence (AI) development, led by SoftBank, NEC, Honda, and Sony Group. The report states that the company will utilize support from the Japanese government to create a domestic AI foundational model, with the intention of providing the developed AI to Japanese companies.The company is named "Japan AI Foundational Model Development" and plans to gather about 100 AI developers, with the president position held by an executive from SoftBank. In addition to these four companies, Nippon Steel, Kobe Steel, as well as three major banks—Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Mizuho Bank—are also participating in the funding. SoftBank and NEC will handle the development, while Honda will apply the development results to autonomous driving. AI development company Preferred Networks (Tokyo) is also involved. The developed AI will also be widely available to Japanese companies outside of the funding companies, and in the future, it will venture into the AI field for controlling robots.

According to official news, Gate US has officially launched the Gift Card feature, allowing users to create and send cryptocurrency gift cards directly within the app. This feature supports sending to users who have completed KYC verification via phone number, email, or UID.The recipient can instantly receive the gift card, and the funds will be credited directly. This feature also supports flexible currency combinations, allowing users to pay with one cryptocurrency and gift another asset. All transactions are processed through a KYC-based account system, aimed at promoting security, traceability, and compliance with applicable regulatory requirements.This feature further connects cryptocurrency assets with everyday social scenarios, expanding the practical application value of digital assets beyond transactions. Currently, Gate US holds a total of 35 licenses, with compliant operations covering 46 jurisdictions in the United States. Based on this, Gate US continues to expand the real-world application scenarios of cryptocurrency assets on its platform.

According to Cointelegraph, Visa has launched the "Intelligent Commerce Connect" service, which supports AI agents to complete purchase payments on behalf of consumers in commercial scenarios worldwide.

VanEck's Preferred Securities ex Financials ETF (PFXF) disclosed the purchase of 1.27 million shares of Strategy's perpetual preferred stock Stretch STRC, valued at $127 million. This accounts for 6% of its net assets in digital credit.

According to reports from the official public account, Alibaba's Qianwen App has completed an upgrade of its "in-depth research" feature, adding a financial analysis module. In collaboration with Tonghuashun, it integrates real-time minute-level market data for over 13,000 stocks and consolidates approximately 1 million financial reports, announcements, and authoritative research reports from listed companies. Users can generate a complete in-depth research report with one click using pre-set analysis instruction templates. The report supports automatic generation of visual charts and can be exported in Word/PDF format.The core technological support for this upgrade is the Qianwen Agentic architecture, which has autonomous planning and execution capabilities. It can interpret user intent, automatically call real-time data, and integrate multi-source information to output conclusions, with all key data clearly indicating the original source.

According to The New York Times, Argentine President Milei had seven phone call records with project-related entrepreneur Mauricio Novelli on the night of February 14, 2025, when LIBRA went live, covering the time around his promotional post on X.The report states that newly discovered mobile forensic information also includes suspected payment recordings and draft funding arrangement documents, further raising doubts about Milei's previous claim of "no connection to the project." Milei has not yet been formally charged but has been listed as a key subject of the investigation.