Today's top news highlights:
The US CFTC will use AI to review US crypto registration applications and monitor transaction data.
Musk claims OpenAI is his own creation, while current CEO Altman is a "thief."
Michael Saylor reiterated his prediction that Bitcoin will rise to $10 million in the long term.
Polymarket has been reportedly compromised, with over 300,000 records leaked.
The Canadian federal government plans to ban cryptocurrency ATMs in an effort to combat fraud.
Regulation & Macro
The Korean National Tax Service has begun preparations for taxing virtual assets, aiming for May 2028 to be the first day of comprehensive income tax filing. Under current law, income from the transfer and leasing of virtual assets will be classified as "other income" starting January 1, 2027, with annual income exceeding 2.5 million won subject to a 22% tax rate. The National Tax Service plans to obtain data from exchanges such as Upbit to refine the tax base. However, the People Power Party argues for the abolition of the tax, citing inadequate standards.
French citizen Maximilien de Hoop Cartier was sentenced to eight years in prison and had approximately $2.36 million in commissions confiscated for operating an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange and laundering over $470 million through shell companies and crypto accounts. He had been converting cryptocurrency into hard currency and transferring it to criminal organizations since 2018.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has warned against tokens claiming to be associated with licensed stablecoin issuers. Tokens with the codes "HKDAP" or "HSBC" appearing on the market are not issued by the licensed issuers. Neither of the two licensees has issued a regulated stablecoin, and the public should purchase them through regulated channels.
The Canadian federal government plans to ban cryptocurrency ATMs in an effort to combat fraud.
The Canadian federal government plans to ban cryptocurrency ATMs to combat fraud, with its spring economic update noting that these machines are a primary means for scammers to defraud victims and for criminals to store cash. Canada has the world's highest number of cryptocurrency ATMs per capita (nearly 4,000), but no specific regulations exist yet.
The US CFTC will use AI to review US crypto registration applications and monitor transaction data.
Mike Selig, chairman of the U.S. CFTC, stated that the agency is developing AI tools to review crypto registration applications and assist in market oversight. The AI will automatically identify applications with missing or incorrect information. The CFTC will also strengthen enforcement against fraud, manipulation, and insider trading in the crypto market and take action against participants suspected of abusing insider information in the prediction market sector.
Project Updates
Binance Alpha will launch trading for Gensyn (AIGENSYN) on April 29th at 17:00. Users with at least 227 points can receive an airdrop of 715 tokens on a first-come, first-served basis, consuming 15 points. The threshold decreases by 5 every 5 minutes, and confirmation is required within 24 hours to claim the token.
Binance Alpha will list Gensyn (AIGENSYN).
Binance Alpha will list Gensyn (AIGENSYN) on April 29. Eligible users can use Binance Alpha Points to receive an airdrop after Alpha trading opens.
Lido DAO is considering a proposal to temporarily lower the first-loss protection threshold for the EarnETH vault from 1% in the Kelp incident, as the expected actual loss is between 400 and 600 ETH, below the threshold. The proposal suggests a one-time exception to protect users and the brand.
Vitalik sold 40 million ASTEROID-2 tokens in exchange for 114,600 USDC.
Vitalik sold 40 million ASTEROID-2 tokens for 114,566 USDC and may continue to sell more MEME tokens as a gift.
CertiK: Syndicate lost approximately $330,000 due to attack on Commons cross-chain bridge.
The attacker compromised the Commons cross-chain bridge to attack Syndicate, obtaining approximately 18.5 million SYND tokens. They then sold these tokens for a profit of about $330,000, and the funds were transferred to Ethereum.
Polymarket has been reportedly compromised, with over 300,000 records leaked.
Polymarket has been reportedly compromised, with over 300,000 records and exploit kits leaked to cybercrime forums. Attackers claim to have obtained data through undocumented API endpoints, and the leaked information includes user PII, comments, and market metadata. Polymarket denies the data breach, stating that all data is freely available through its public API.
Polymarket denies data breach, stating that all on-chain data is publicly auditable and available for free via a public API. This comes after Dark Web Informer disclosed a breach of over 300,000 records.
Monad's official X account has been reinstated after being banned yesterday.
Monad's official X account has been reinstated after being banned yesterday. The X platform did not previously explain the reason for the suspension.
ZetaChain suffered a targeted attack where attackers used Tornado Cash to deposit funds and forged wallet addresses, resulting in a loss of approximately $334,000 across four connected chains. A mainnet patch has been deployed, and cross-chain transactions will be re-enabled.
Upbit will list its BLEND token on the Korean Won, BTC, and USDT markets.
Upbit will list its BLEND token on the Korean Won, BTC, and USDT markets, with trading commencing at 14:00 local time on April 29.
The Over Foundation has announced the termination of its operations due to a funding shortage, ceasing all infrastructure services including OverWallet and OverNode, with no plans to resume them. Although Over Protocol is a decentralized Layer 1 mainnet, the chain is highly likely to cease functioning after the service termination, as block generation depends on independent validators.
Coinbase will launch spot trading of Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL).
Coinbase plans to launch spot trading of Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) on April 29. The VIRTUAL-USD trading pair will open once liquidity conditions are met.
Coinbase will launch spot trading of Pharos (PROS) and the PROS-USD trading pair.
Coinbase launched spot trading of Pharos (PROS) on April 28th. The PROS-USD trading pair will be launched in regions where trading is supported.
Binance will delist several spot trading pairs, including BAND/BTC and BAT/BTC, on May 1st.
Binance will delist several spot trading pairs, including BAND/BTC, BAT/BTC, BREV/BNB, NEO/BTC, ROSE/BTC, SOLV/BNB, and TFUEL/BTC, at 11:00 AM on May 1st.
Tether has partnered with Canaan and ACME Swisstech to develop a modular Bitcoin mining system that uses immersion cooling to reduce energy consumption and maintenance costs. Tether also recently invested in mining finance company Antalpha and open-sourced its self-developed Bitcoin Mining OS.
Investment and financing news
Crypto derivatives trading platform Liquid has raised $18 million in Series A funding, led by Neo and Left Lane Capital, with participation from Haun Ventures and others. Founded by a former Two Sigma quantitative analyst, Liquid has expanded to include multiple asset classes such as stocks, cryptocurrencies, and forex, offering leverage up to 200x.
RWA yield platform Nuva Digital has raised $5.2 million in seed funding, led by Morgan Creek Digital with participation from Ulu Ventures and others. Nuva was incubated by Animoca Brands and Nuva Labs. Users can earn nvAsset tokens by depositing USDC, and its initial products are based on Figure Technologies on-chain assets.
Opinions & Analysis
Musk claims OpenAI is his own creation, while current CEO Altman is a "thief."
During the trial, Musk claimed that OpenAI was his own creation, accusing current CEO Altman of abandoning the non-profit mission and turning it into a for-profit giant. He demanded the restoration of the non-profit nature of the company and the removal of its executives. Musk stated, "I came up with the idea and the name. I recruited key personnel and provided all the seed funding. The initial intention was philanthropy, not to allow any individual to profit."
Michael Saylor reiterated his prediction that Bitcoin will rise to $10 million in the long term.
At the Bitcoin 2026 conference, Michael Saylor reiterated his prediction that Bitcoin will reach $10 million in the long term, stating that digital credit is a killer application that will erode the $300 trillion credit market and the $100 trillion equity market. He pointed out that Bitcoin has achieved an annualized return of 38% over the past 5 years, with a Sharpe ratio of 2.7, and has become the world's largest and most liquid preferred stock within 8 months.
A report by a16z Crypto shows that AI agents can achieve a success rate of up to 70% when replicating DeFi price manipulation vulnerabilities using structured knowledge, but they still face difficulties in multi-step strategies and profit judgment. The study selected 20 Ethereum cases, and after adding structured knowledge, the success rate increased from 10% to 70%. In the failed cases, the AI could identify vulnerabilities but could not build profitable solutions.
Forbes criticized Eric Trump's Bitcoin company, American Bitcoin, as an arbitrage tool exploiting MAGA investor sentiment by issuing shares at inflated valuations to cash out and buy Bitcoin, causing significant losses for ordinary investors. Since its IPO, the company has sold approximately 158 million shares, raising $351 million, while its stock price has plummeted by 92%, resulting in investor losses of approximately $500 million. Eric Trump responded by calling Forbes a political weapon, stating that the company holds over 7,000 Bitcoins and has quarterly revenue of $78.3 million.
Czech central bank governor Aleš Michl revealed that the bank's research shows that allocating 1% to Bitcoin can improve expected returns, while the overall risk remains largely unchanged.
A joint report by Coinbase and Glassnode suggests that the macroeconomic environment may have turned positive, and crypto assets are likely to bottom out soon. Bitcoin market sentiment has rebounded to an "optimistic" level, with approximately 75% of institutional respondents believing Bitcoin is undervalued. Ethereum's short-term supply has decreased by 38%, while its long-term supply has increased by 1%, suggesting that speculative players may have been weeded out.
Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones claims Bitcoin is a stronger inflation hedge than gold, warning that the US stock market is overvalued, with the S&P 500 valuation implying negative returns over the next decade. He also warns that a sharp stock market correction could exacerbate budget deficits and impact the bond market.
Important data
On April 28, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net outflow of $89.6754 million. ARKB saw the largest net inflow of $41.2021 million, while IBIT saw the largest net outflow of $112 million. The total net asset value of the ETFs was $100.39 billion, with a net asset ratio of 6.56%, and a historical cumulative net inflow of $58.211 billion.
A whale deposited 211,700 SOL tokens into Binance, facing a loss of $17.62 million.
After 11 months of inactivity, a whale deposited 211,700 SOL tokens ($17.77 million) into Binance, now facing a loss of $17.62 million. This whale initially withdrew 200,010 SOL tokens ($35.39 million) from Kraken.
Bitmine is suspected of receiving a total of 45,000 ETH ($103 million) from BitGo and FalconX through two new wallets, one receiving 20,000 ETH and the other receiving 25,000 ETH.
Matrixport-linked whales have been buying 30,000 ETH with 15x leverage in the past hour.
A whale associated with Matrixport added 30,000 ETH to its long positions with approximately 15x leverage in the past hour, with a notional value of approximately $68 million. Currently, this whale holds a total of approximately 58,000 ETH in 15-20x leveraged long positions across three wallets, with a notional size of approximately $132 million.
Robinhood's cryptocurrency revenue and trading volume both declined by nearly 50% in Q1.
Robinhood reported first-quarter cryptocurrency revenue of $134 million and trading volume of $24 billion, representing year-over-year declines of 47% and 48%, respectively. Overall trading revenue increased by 7% year-over-year to $623 million, driven by a 320% increase in event contract revenue. Net income was $346 million, a 3% year-over-year increase. Shares fell more than 6% in after-hours trading.
Bitmine is suspected of receiving 25,000 ETH, or approximately $57.13 million, from BitGo through a new wallet.
