Today's top news highlights:
Russia passes cryptocurrency bill on first reading; central bank to dominate market access.
Prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket plan to launch perpetual contract trading.
Crypto-friendly fintech company Revolut plans to go public with a valuation of up to $200 billion.
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Images 2.0
Regulation & Macro
Russia passes cryptocurrency bill on first reading; central bank to dominate market access.
The Russian State Duma passed the first reading of the bill "On Digital Currency and Digital Rights," legalizing cryptocurrencies. The central bank is the primary regulatory body, responsible for issuing licenses and approving or prohibiting crypto transactions. Cryptocurrencies are considered property but are prohibited from use for domestic payments; the ruble remains the sole legal tender. Businesses can use them for foreign trade settlements under sanctions. Non-qualified investors must pass a test and have an annual purchase limit (the central bank proposed 300,000 rubles). Only cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization exceeding 5 trillion rubles, a daily trading volume exceeding 1 trillion rubles, and a trading history of at least five years are permitted to be traded; this may include Bitcoin and Ethereum. Illegal operations could result in a maximum fine of 1 million rubles and a maximum imprisonment of 7 years.
Iran has agreed to a suspension of military fighting, but the war is not over.
Iranian state television stated that Iran has emerged victorious on the battlefield, and control of the Strait of Hormuz is a valuable bargaining chip. Iran has agreed to a truce in military fighting, but the war is not over. Iran must be wary of any rhetoric suggesting it must participate in negotiations, which must be conditional on not infringing upon Iran's independence and dignity.
U.S. Representatives Sam Liccardo and Young Kim jointly introduced the Payments Access and Consumer Efficiency Act (PACE Act), which aims to allow eligible non-bank payment service providers access to the Federal Reserve's payment system, including Fedwire, FedNow, and FedACH. The bill would establish a federal regulatory framework overseen by the OCC and require providers to maintain 1:1 reserves. Crypto industry organizations have expressed their support.
New York sues Coinbase and Gemini for allegedly violating state laws.
New York State has filed a lawsuit against Coinbase and Gemini, accusing them of violating state laws.
Warsh: Digital assets are already part of our financial system
Federal Reserve Chairman nominee Warsh stated that digital assets are already part of our financial industry.
Federal Reserve Chair nominee Kevin Warsh stated at his hearing that digital assets have become integrated into the financial services industry and should be incorporated into the financial system. He supports exploring limited CBDCs but considers issuing a CBDC a "bad policy choice." Senator Elizabeth Warren suggested Warsh could become a "puppet" of Trump, and Senator Tillis indicated she would not support Warsh's nomination until the Justice Department's investigation into Powell is resolved.
Project Updates
Sui's ecosystem protocol Volo disclosed that Volo Vaults suffered a security breach today, resulting in the theft of approximately $3.5 million in assets (WBTC, XAUm, and USDC). Volo has notified the Sui Foundation and frozen all vaults. Approximately $28 million in TVL in other vaults remains secure. The vulnerability is limited to three specific vaults. Volo is prepared to absorb the loss itself and will develop a remedial plan.
Security researcher Doyeon Park disclosed a high-risk zero-day vulnerability (CVSS 7.1) in the Cosmos consensus layer CometBFT, which could cause nodes to freeze during block synchronization, affecting the network protecting over $8 billion in assets. Park followed the coordinated vulnerability disclosure process without success, and due to the vendor's lack of cooperation and refusal to publicly report, he ultimately made the disclosure public. Cosmos validators are advised to avoid restarting nodes until a patch is released.
Prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket plan to launch perpetual contract trading.
Prediction market platform Kalshi plans to launch cryptocurrency perpetual contract trading in the US, starting with tokens like Bitcoin, leveraging its CFTC license and approved margin trading permissions. Rival Polymarket has also announced plans to launch perpetual contracts. The two sectors are rapidly converging.
Mastercard has joined the Blockchain Security Standards Committee (BSSC) as an incorporation-level member, working with Coinbase, Fireblocks, and others to develop security frameworks for blockchain networks and tokenized assets. Mastercard will also join the Security and Privacy Working Group, and a representative from its Security Solutions division will serve on the BSSC Board of Directors.
Umbra has shut down its front-end website to prevent attackers from using the protocol to transfer stolen funds. Approximately $800,000 was stolen and transferred through its protocol; all transfers are identifiable. Umbra stated that the hosted front-end has been placed in maintenance mode and will be restored once it is confirmed that it will not hinder recovery efforts.
Base: The first standalone network upgrade, "Base Azul," will launch on the mainnet on May 13th.
Base announced that its first standalone network upgrade, "Base Azul," will launch on the mainnet on May 13, 2026. Key updates include: activating a multi-proof system to advance Stage 2 decentralization and enable withdrawals within one day; integrating into a single high-performance client stack, reducing the number of empty blocks from approximately 200 per day to approximately 2; and aligning with the Ethereum Osaka execution layer specification. Simultaneously, an Immunefi audit competition will be launched with a prize pool of up to $250,000.
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Images 2.0
OpenAI announced ChatGPT Images 2.0, capable of handling complex visual tasks and generating accurate images with sharper editing, richer layouts, and cognitive intelligence. It achieves breakthroughs in following detailed instructions, accurately placing objects, and rendering dense text, and supports multiple aspect ratios and multilingual text generation.
SlowMist's Chief Information Security Officer, 23pds, warned that the North Korean hacking group Lazarus Group has released a new native macOS malware toolkit called "Mach-O Man," targeting cryptocurrency and high-value executives.
Ethena restores LayerZero bridging for sUSDe and USDe, and DVN configuration is upgraded to 4/4.
Ethena announced that the LayerZero cross-chain bridge between sUSDe and USDe has resumed after its suspension, and all on-chain connections are back online. The DVN configuration has increased from 2/2 to 4/4, while maintaining the existing rate limit of $10 million per hour.
Coinbase will launch perpetual contracts for gold (GOLD) and silver (SILVER).
Coinbase Markets announced that trading in perpetual contracts for gold (GOLD) and silver (SILVER) will launch on April 22, 2026. The GOLD-PERP and SILVER-PERP markets will open for trading in regions where liquidity conditions are met and local regulations are supportive.
The Venus attackers have transferred 2,301 ETH to Tornado Cash for cleansing.
According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi, the Venus attackers transferred 2,301 ETH (approximately $5.32 million) to an address 11 hours ago, and then transferred them in batches to Tornado Cash for laundering. Currently, there is still $17.45 million worth of ETH on the chain.
Binance launched CHIP, an AI infrastructure lending protocol token, and marked it with a seed tag.
Binance has announced the listing of Chip (CHIP) and the opening of spot trading pairs such as CHIP/USDT. The CHIP contract is deployed on Arbitrum. CHIP is labeled as a seed-tagged high-risk token, and users must pass a quiz before they can trade it. An additional 75 million CHIP tokens are reserved for future marketing activities.
Coinbase will launch Sign (SIGN) spot trading on April 21.
Coinbase will launch spot trading for Sign (SIGN) on April 21. The SIGN-USD trading pair will be launched when liquidity conditions are met and will be available in regions that support the relevant trading.
Coinbase delists multiple perpetual contracts, including TRB-PERP and RARE-PERP.
Coinbase has announced the suspension of trading in perpetual contracts including TRB-PERP, RARE-PERP, ORDI-PERP, STX-PERP, and ENS-PERP. All open positions have been automatically settled at the final settlement price. The settlement price is the average index price over the 60 minutes prior to the trading suspension, such as TRB-PERP's settlement price of 18.44 USDC.
Investment and financing news
Crypto-friendly fintech company Revolut plans to go public with a valuation of up to $200 billion.
Revolut has informed investors that its future IPO targets a valuation of up to $200 billion. Following a $75 billion share sale last November, the current IPO valuation range is $150 billion to $200 billion, with a secondary share sale planned for the second half of 2026. Revolut obtained a full UK banking license in March of this year and has applied for a banking license from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Pre-tax profits are projected to increase by 57% to £1.7 billion by 2025.
Hong Kong-listed wealth management firm Bitfire is acquiring its trading team and trading system from Avenir Group, the family office of Li Lin, who holds a 30% stake in the company. With the new team joining, Bitfire has secured initial investment intentions of approximately $500 million and plans to expand its Ethereum and stablecoin trading strategies.
According to the New York Times, SpaceX has agreed to acquire AI startup Cursor for more than $50 billion. Cursor, founded in 2022, focuses on developing code-writing software and has raised over $3 billion. SpaceX is preparing for one of the largest IPOs in history.
Opinions & Analysis
Grayscale: Bitcoin price may have formed a stable bottom in the $65,000 to $70,000 range.
Zach Pandl, head of research at Grayscale, pointed out that Bitcoin's price has rebounded more than 20% to around $76,000 since hitting a low of approximately $63,000 on February 5th, slightly above the average cost basis for recent buyers. The actual price of Bitcoin traded over the past one to three months is approximately $74,000, and recent buyers have returned to their break-even point. This may indicate that Bitcoin has formed a sustainable market bottom in the $65,000 to $70,000 range.
Jefferies analyst Andrew Moss warned that the approximately $293 million security breach at Kelp DAO could prompt major Wall Street banks to reassess the pace of their blockchain and tokenization projects. The vulnerability exposed risks associated with cross-chain bridges and single validator configurations. While traditional financial institutions' tokenization plans may temporarily slow due to this risk reassessment, the long-term outlook for stablecoins remains intact.
A report commissioned by Coinbase from an independent advisory committee warns that quantum computing poses an increasingly real threat to the crypto industry. Post-quantum cryptography already exists, but replacing existing signature schemes could lead to a 38-fold increase in block size and issues such as wallet migration. The report recommends flexible strategies such as hybrid systems, and NIST suggests migrating to quantum-resistant cryptography by 2035.
Forbes released its eighth annual AI 50 list, focusing on the world's most promising privately held AI companies, which have raised a total of approximately $305.6 billion. OpenAI and Anthropic raised a combined $242.6 billion, accounting for about 80% of the total. The list includes 20 new entrants such as Physical Intelligence and Mistral, and also features a new AI 50 Brink sub-list.
Important data
Bitcoin's Coinbase Premium Index has been positive for 14 consecutive days, marking its longest positive streak since Bitcoin reached its all-time high of $126,000 in October 2025. Coinbase is the preferred exchange for US institutions, and the premium indicates active buying by US buyers. Bitcoin is currently trading above $78,000, with a 14% increase since April.
According to on-chain analyst Ember, Aave has seen a continuous outflow of funds, with $15.1 billion flowing out in three and a half days, reducing total deposits from $48.5 billion to $30.7 billion. Among other platforms, Morpho saw an outflow of $1.5 billion, while Spark saw an inflow of $1.3 billion, absorbing some of the large funds.
