Cryptopolitan

Tech giant Meta has begun taking steps toward its long-touted plan of making humanoid robots.

The social media firm has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence and folded its team into the company’s Superintelligence Labs unit, according to reports on Friday. The financial terms were not disclosed.

At its core, Assured Robot Intelligence has been working on a difficult problem, like teaching machines to better understand people. Its AI models are designed to help robots interpret human behavior and respond to it in real-world, often unpredictable environments.

The startup’s co-founders, Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang, will now join Meta’s robotics push, working alongside its Robotics Studio, which was set up in 2025 to develop the building blocks of humanoid machines.

Both founders bring deep research experience. Wang previously worked at Nvidia. Pinto co-founded Fauna Robotics, which was acquired by Amazon earlier this year as part of its own robotics ambitions.

Meta says the new team will focus on improving how robots move, learn, and interact, particularly when it comes to full-body humanoid motion. 

Meta is betting on robots next

Meta disclosed its plan to build humanoid robots in February last year. People familiar with the matter noted the company was forming a dedicated team from the hardware division of Reality Labs, which was initially focused on building the company’s metaverse ambitions. 

In 2025, Reality Labs reported operating losses exceeding $19 billion. The company has now ditched its metaverse dream and is channeling its resources toward building humanoids. 

Meta will initially focus on robots that will take on household chores, according to reports. As of last year, the people said Meta had no intention of immediately building Meta-branded robots to compete with Tesla’s Optimus. However, they may take on that direction later in the future.

Why Meta acquired Assured Robot Intelligence

Last year, Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth mentioned that the software to power the robots is the biggest bottleneck for the company, not necessarily the hardware. 

“I don’t think the hardware is the hard part,” Bosworth said during Meta’s recent Connect conference. “I’m not saying the hardware isn’t also hard, but it’s not the bottleneck. The bottleneck is the software.”

Assured Robot Intelligence is focused on building AI models that drive robots. 

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Andreessen Horowitz’s (a16z) crypto arm submitted a comment letter to the CFTC on Wednesday, urging the agency to build a regulatory framework for prediction markets that addresses insider trading. 

The latter came as the U.S. Congress has also been putting pressure on the prediction market industry over suspicious trades tied to classified information.

What does a16z want the CFTC to do? 

In a recent comment letter authored by a16z crypto’s Miles Jennings, Scott Walker, David Sverdlov, and Aiden Slavin, a16z argued that the CFTC needs to establish a uniform federal framework to prevent conflicting state laws. 

The a16z letter responds to the CFTC’s Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that was issued earlier this year under Chairman Selig. It argues that prediction markets are a natural extension of how information is collected in traditional markets, meaning that their potential goes beyond the current applications. 

Prediction markets are uncertain by design, so there will always be disagreements about whether an event really happened or not. a16z says the CFTC needs clear rules to settle those fights.

They recommend using blockchain’s auditable nature for real-time monitoring and implementing KYC checks to create “prohibited trader lists.” 

Kalshi’s weekly volume surged from $300 million to $3 billion, prompting the firm to argue that clear rules are needed before AI agents begin trading autonomously on these markets.

a16z argues that Congress already set up one federal system for other markets, and so prediction markets should get the same treatment.

a16z also clarified its position on “forbidden markets,” stating that the CFTC should permit event contracts on controversial topics, as long as the platform can show how it serves a legitimate public interest.

Kalshi landed in hot water and had to cancel its market on the Iranian regime change that was ultimately settled when Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed. 

a16z agrees with Congress on stopping insider trading 

a16z’s letter coincides with Washington’s crackdown on insider trading on prediction platforms. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate banned lawmakers and their staff from using platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. 

The legislation was passed just one week after a U.S. special forces soldier was charged with using classified information to bet on the capture of Venezuela’s former president, Nicolas Maduro. 

Cryptopolitan reported that similar concerns arose when traders placed uniquely timed bets ahead of U.S. strikes on Iran, prompting Senator Elizabeth Warren to call for an investigation.

In another case, Senator John Fetterman (D-Pa.) purchased Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) stock on March 30, catching the “exact bottom” before it surged over 60%. Fetterman’s committee oversees the CHIPS Act funding, which recently awarded Micron $6.1 billion.

Kalshi also recently suspended a U.S. Senate candidate and two House candidates for betting on their chances during the elections. Kalshi also previously suspended a MrBeast video editor for trading on privileged information and fined a candidate running for governor in California for betting on his own race. 

Polymarket recently updated its rules to prohibit insider trading. The platform also banned elected officials and government insiders from betting on events they can influence. Violators will either face wallet bans, fines, and they can even be reported to law enforcement.

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The US Trade Representative’s (USTR) office has designated Vietnam as a “Priority Foreign Country” for intellectual property violations.

This is the first time any nation has received that label in 13 years, and it opens the door to a Section 301 trade investigation against the country, which has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the US tariff campaign against China.

For years, China had been the primary target of American IP enforcement, with the US accusing Chinese AI companies of copying frontier models built by US companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.

However, Vietnam now occupies the most severe category on Washington’s watchlist, a tier above the “priority watch list” where China, India, Russia, and three other nations sit, as seen in the USTR’s 2026 Special 301 Report.

Why is Vietnam designated a priority IP threat country?

Since 2025, the US has been pointing out what it calls a trade surplus between it and Vietnam. Exports from the Southeast Asian country to the United States hit $153 billion in 2025, producing a trade surplus of nearly $134 billion, according to Reuters.

Its economy grew 8% last year, and this was largely fueled by foreign manufacturers like Samsung, Apple, and Nike assembling goods in Vietnamese factories, often from Chinese-sourced components.

Last year, the Trump administration accused Vietnam of serving as a transshipment hub for Chinese goods headed to American consumers. Le Monde reported in April that Vietnamese garment and footwear factories have been exporting more than ever to both the US and Europe, one year after new tariffs reshaped global supply chains.

The “Priority Foreign Country” tag carries statutory weight as it is reserved for countries whose IP practices have “the most egregious” adverse impact on US products and that have not entered good-faith negotiations to fix them. 

The agency will decide within 30 days whether to open a formal Section 301 investigation, the same legal mechanism used to impose tariffs on China starting in 2018.

Why was the European Union (EU) added to the USTR watchlist?

A surprise entry to the watch list was the EU, which was placed in the lower-tier “watch list” for the first time.

This comes at a period when there is growing friction between Washington and Brussels on IP enforcement. The transatlantic relationship is already strained by disagreements over tariffs, tech regulation, and defense spending.

However, some countries like Argentina and Mexico saw their status on the watchlist upgraded from the “priority watchlist” red zones to the standard watchlist. Mexico is a member of the three North American trade pacts, with the US and Canada.

China stays on the priority watch list

China remains on the “priority watch list,” one tier below Vietnam’s new designation. The placement comes after months of escalating accusations over AI intellectual property. OpenAI told Congress in February that Chinese startup DeepSeek had used “increasingly sophisticated tactics” to extract results from American models.

Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic began sharing information through the Frontier Model Forum to detect unauthorized distillation attempts, according to the same report.

Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Russia, and Venezuela are the six countries on the priority list. Another 19 trading partners, including the EU, occupy the standard watch list, while Bulgaria was removed entirely.

The 30-day clock on a potential Section 301 investigation into Vietnam starts now. If the USTR moves forward, it will request consultations with Hanoi aimed at resolving the IP concerns that triggered the designation. 

For Vietnam, which has built its economic growth strategy around export-driven manufacturing and foreign investment, the outcome could determine its trade relationship with its largest customer and also have lasting impact on its growing economy.

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Crypto, tech, and software stocks are rallying today because traders are buying growth names again while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite sit at record levels. The S&P 500 rose 0.29% to 7,230.12 after touching a fresh all-time intraday high.

The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.89% and closed at 25,114.44, also at a record. The Dow Jones Industrial Average went the other way, falling 0.31%, or 152.87 points, to 49,499.27. Apple (AAPL) helped push the wider market higher, while lower oil prices gave traders one less headache at the start of the new trading month.

Donald Trump had said on Truth Social that he would raise tariffs on European cars and trucks:

“Based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal, next week I will be increasing Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks coming into the United States. The Tariff will be increased to 25%.”

Trump also wrote, “It is fully understood and agreed that, if they produce Cars and Trucks in the U.S.A. Plants, there will be NO TARIFF.” Stellantis (STLA) fell more than 2% after the post, while Ferrari (RACE) lost nearly 1.5%.

Tech traders buy software stocks as the sector beats the S&P 500 across every major period

The technology sector gained 1.57% on the day, while the S&P 500 rose 0.29%. That is why the rally looks so concentrated. Traders are not treating every corner of the market the same. They are buying tech, AI-linked names, cloud companies, security firms, and software stocks tied to infrastructure.

The longer-term numbers also show why money keeps chasing tech. The sector is up 8.34% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 is up 4.84%. Over one year, tech has gained 42.67%, compared with 29.83% for the index. Over three years, tech is up 122.43%, while the S&P 500 has gained 73.41%. Over five years, tech has returned 125.84%, compared with 72.45% for the index.

The software stocks rally is also coming from infrastructure names. This group includes companies that build system software, operating systems, networking tools, cloud storage, web services, and related tech services.

Microsoft (MSFT) traded at $414.44 and rose 1.63%. Oracle (ORCL) traded at $171.83 and jumped 6.47%. Palantir (PLTR) traded at $144.12 and gained 3.60%. Palo Alto Networks (PANW) traded at $181.08 and rose 0.98%.

Cybersecurity and cloud names also joined the rally. CrowdStrike (CRWD) traded at $455.64 and gained 2.22%. Synopsys (SNPS) traded at $489.02 and rose 1.33%. Cloudflare (NET) traded at $217.50 and jumped 6.11%. Fortinet (FTNT) traded at $86.29 and gained 2.35%. CoreWeave (CRWV) traded at $119.01 and rose 6.64%. Block (XYZ) traded at $71.81 and gained 1.84%.

Crypto stocks climb as Bitcoin gains in April, while futures drive most of the buying

Crypto-linked stocks also traded higher, especially names tied to exchanges, payments, Bitcoin holdings, and mining. 

Robinhood (HOOD) traded at $73.69 and gained 1.1%. Coinbase (COIN) traded at $191.21 and rose 1.83%. Strategy (MSTR) traded at $177.28 and jumped 7.15%. PayPal (PYPL) traded at $50.43 and gained 0.58%. Block (XYZ) traded at $71.82 and rose 1.86%. Circle (CRCL) traded at $99.89 and surged 9.91%.

The mining and crypto treasury board looked messier, because crypto stocks rarely behave like polite adults. IREN (IREN) traded at $45.65 and gained 0.31%. Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR) traded at $21.87 and rose 2.2%. Galaxy Digital (GLXY) traded at $28.11 and gained 2.44%.

Riot Platforms (RIOT) traded at $18.50 and jumped 7.31%. Hut 8 (HUT) traded at $76.94 and rose 1.53%. Bullish (BLSH) traded at $39.29 and gained 4.13%. Core Scientific (CORZ) traded at $20.34 and rose 1.68%.

Some crypto names fell despite the wider bid. MARA Holdings (MARA) traded at $11.45 and fell 4.5%. Alliance Resource Partners (ARLP) traded at $26.15 and lost 1.73%. CleanSpark (CLSK) traded at $12.15 and fell 3.03%. Rumble (RUM) traded at $7.33 and lost 2.69%.

Bitcoin gained 12.7% in April after rising nearly 2% in March. That gave it two straight winning months after five monthly losses. Ether gained 8% in April, also its second monthly gain in a row.

CryptoQuant said perpetual futures were the “sole driver” of Bitcoin’s rally. Its apparent demand gauge, which tracks the 30-day change in direct Bitcoin purchases, stayed negative through April while futures demand increased.

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New York, NY, April 30, 2026 — Uphold HQ, Inc (“Uphold”) yesterday entered into a settlement agreement with the New York Office of the Attorney General (“OAG”), to resolve the OAG’s civil inquiry into the collapse of Cred, LLC (“Cred”), a third-party firm, and Cred’s CredEarn program, due to the fraud perpetrated by Cred executives in 2020.

Yesterday, the OAG issued a statement about this settlement, which misrepresents key facts. 

Uphold categorically rejects any suggestion that it knowingly promoted Cred’s fraudulent scheme. To the contrary, Cred deliberately and repeatedly misled Uphold. Uphold, like its customers and CredEarn’s other users, was a victim of Cred’s deception. The U.S. Department of Justice identified Uphold as a victim in its criminal prosecution of the Cred executives. 

Any statements in the OAG’s press release should not be read to suggest that Uphold acted knowingly or otherwise acted to intentionally deceive customers. Uphold expressly rejects those characterizations and did not agree to them or admit any liability in its settlement with the OAG.

“We are deeply disappointed by the New York Attorney General’s statement, which is profoundly inaccurate and misrepresents the facts of the case,” said Simon McLoughlin, CEO of Uphold. 

“Uphold acted with integrity throughout its relationship with Cred LLC, a third-party lending firm that ran into financial difficulties in 2020. As soon as Uphold became aware of the issues at Cred, we demanded that Cred notify its regulators, shut down access to the service, and acted to protect our customers immediately. 

“The U.S. Department of Justice, in its criminal investigation of Cred, correctly found that Uphold was a victim of Cred and was not in any way to blame for that company’s actions.”

Uphold and the OAG jointly agreed the factual basis upon which any public statements would be issued. What was published by the OAG yesterday misrepresents those facts and is inconsistent with the parties’ agreement.

As acknowledged by the OAG in the settlement agreement, Uphold did not know of the liquidity issues at Cred until October 2020. Uphold was also unaware that Cred’s statements about the financial viability of its CredEarn product were false, and that Cred was taking active steps to deceive Uphold and CredEarn users.

Critically, as soon as Uphold became aware of Cred’s liquidity issues it acted decisively to protect customers. Within hours, Uphold froze Cred’s access to Uphold, cutting off Cred from
continuing to offer its product on Uphold’s platform. Uphold immediately demanded that Cred self-report the losses of customer funds to its regulators, issuing an ultimatum that Uphold itself would notify regulators if Cred failed to do so. These actions brought Cred’s misconduct to light and halted its ability to continue taking in customer funds.

Without  Uphold’s intervention, Cred would have continued soliciting and receiving funds while concealing its losses. Uphold put an end to that conduct and thereafter cooperated extensively in federal law enforcement’s prosecution of Dan Schatt and other Cred executives, which resulted in significant prison sentences and financial restitution orders for the victims. 

These facts fundamentally contradict any narrative suggesting passive or complicit behavior by Uphold.

Uphold voluntarily cooperated with regulators throughout the investigation and entered into an Assurance of Discontinuance with OAG in good faith to resolve regulatory issues relating primarily to marketing and registration matters—without any admission of liability. That agreement does not contain any allegation that Uphold knew of any fraudulent scheme or that it caused investor losses.

Uphold remains focused on transparency, regulatory compliance, and protecting users. 

About Uphold 

Uphold is a financial technology company that believes on-chain services are the future of finance. It provides modern infrastructure for on-chain payments, banking and investments. Offering Consumer Services, Business Services and Institutional Trading, Uphold makes financial services easy and trustworthy for millions of customers in more than 140 countries. 

Uphold integrates with more than 30 trading venues, including centralized and decentralized exchanges, to deliver superior liquidity, resilience and optimal execution. Uphold never loans out customer assets and is always 100% reserved. 

The company pioneered radical transparency and uniquely publishes its assets and liabilities every 30 seconds on a public website (https://uphold.com/en-us/transparency).

Uphold is regulated in the U.S. by FinCen and State regulators; and is registered in the UK with the FCA and in Europe with the Financial Crime Investigation Service under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania. Securities products and services are offered by Uphold Securities, Inc., a broker-dealer registered with the SEC and a member of FINRA and SIPC.

To learn more about Uphold’s products and services, visit uphold.com.

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent and the Grenadines 

Some milestones mark a date on a calendar. Others mark a shift in how a company sees itself and the world it operates in. For ChangeNOW, the release of its first-ever feature documentary: “Beyond the Hype”, belongs firmly in the second category. 

This project follows a period of massive growth for the ChangeNOW platform, which now supports over 1,500 cryptocurrencies across 110 networks, proving that our infrastructure has matured to meet global demand. This expansion is driven by our ability to serve the 8 million users who depend on us to connect the gaps between technology and its practical applications. 

This is not a product launch or a marketing campaign dressed up as content. It is a genuine reckoning with a question that sits at the heart of everything ChangeNOW does: What does it actually mean to build financial infrastructure for real people? 

You can watch the full film on ChangeNOW official YouTube channel. 

Built for the People 

Fundamentally, all financial systems are promises. A guarantee that value may flow from one location to another and from one person to another in a dependable, cost-effective, and frictionless manner. But for millions in places like Manila, Caracas, or Lagos, those promises have been broken for generations. 

The reality of cross-border finance is often a story of care arriving diminished. Fees accumulate at every handoff, and processing times stretch into days as intermediaries extract their share before a single cent reaches its destination. 

ChangeNOW exists because that is not good enough. We believe that Web3, built with intention, offers a different path: transfers that are instant and secure, amounts received in full, with no gatekeeper deciding what portion of someone’s own money they deserve to keep. The documentary captures this not as a technical achievement, but as a human one. 

Voices from the Frontier 

“Beyond the Hype” is not a one-way conversation. It draws on the perspectives of some of the most thoughtful and forward-looking figures currently operating at the intersection of

decentralization, finance, and community-building. The following figures (listed in order of appearance) share their vision for a landscape where the work of building trust is no longer just an ideal, but a requirement for survival: 

● ChangeNOW: Pauline Shangett & Tim 

● Strategic Partners: WanKyu Kim (D’Cent Wallet), KG (Internet Money), Tadeas Kmenta (Zelcore), Joel Valenzuela (Dash), Dorian Vincileoni (Kraken), Martin Masser (TON Foundation), Jye Sandiford (WalletConnect), Thomas D’Eletto (Arculus) 

● Ambassadors & Media: Ornella Hernandez, Albert Quehenberger (AQForensics), Oihyun Kim (BeInCrypto), Ramia Farrage (Forbes Middle East). 

Their collective honesty provides the film with its unique depth, proving that in the new digital economy, building trust is no longer an ideal, it is a necessity. 

Why a Documentary, Why Now 

ChangeNOW has reached a point in its evolution where telling the story behind the service feels not just appropriate, but necessary. The crypto industry has spent years explaining what it does. This film is an attempt to show why and to do so in a way that connects with people who may never have interacted with a blockchain in their lives. 

Decentralization, at its best, is a community project. It works when people trust it, when they understand it, and when the systems built on it reflect their actual needs. Building that kind of trust requires more than whitepapers and wallet addresses. It requires stories. This documentary is one of those stories. 

About ChangeNOW 

ChangeNOW is a leading non-custodial crypto exchange service, built for maximum safety, speed and simplicity. With a commitment to making the digital economy transparent and accessible to everyone, everywhere, the platform serves millions of users across the globe, from seasoned traders to first-time explorers. ChangeNOW provides a truly borderless experience, supporting over 1,500 cryptocurrencies, 70+ fiat currencies, and spanning across 110 networks, ensuring that users always have the tools they need to navigate the future of finance. 

Don’t miss our latest updates, subscribe to our YouTube Channel today! Contacts: 

ChangeNOW PR Team 

Website: changenow.io

DEX activity declined in April, extending an overall downward trend. The liquidity outflows and volume declines affected both spot and futures markets. 

DEX activity dipped again in April, extending the overall downward trend since October 2025. Trading on DEX reflects crypto sentiment for native traders, as well as general interest in long-tail assets. 

In April, total DEX volumes reached $166.78B, the lowest level since August 2024, according to DeFi Llama data. 

DEX activity in April contracted further, following the general downward trend from the October 2025 peak. | Source: DeFi Llama

DEX trading is now around 59% lower than the October 2025 peak, reflecting the generally weaker sentiment in the crypto market. 

As of early 2025, DEX volumes still outperformed results for January, February, and March of the past five years. In April, however, DEX volumes fell below the levels from 2025 and 2024, stalling the expansion trend. 

DEX activity makes up 14.57% of centralized trading, standing within its usual range. The ratio is preserved due to the outflow of traders from centralized markets. 

Why did liquidity flow out of DEX trading?

The main reason for the slowdown comes from Uniswap and PancakeSwap, the two most widely used DEXs. Traders shifted to Hyperliquid and HIP-3, gaining exposure to perpetual futures for stocks, gold, and oil. 

The idea of decentralized trading remains, but activity shifted from token swaps to other markets. Token hype diminished, and memes no longer attracted speculative trading. Some DEXs were still used for the most liquid crypto assets, or for swaps between stablecoins. 

DEX activity also reflected the more stagnant crypto sentiment. Traders no longer expected hype to lift all tokens. Instead, only specific assets rallied, supported by market makers and deliberate liquidity providers. 

Overall, liquidity providers also abandoned DEX pairs due to the risk of rug pulls and token crashes. Despite the near-peak supply of stablecoins, they were not really flowing into DEXs. 

According to Artemis data, BNB Chain and Ethereum also saw significant outflows of liquidity in the past month. Some of the inflows moved to Hyperliquid or to Polymarket, which is still displacing DEX speculation.

Liquidity outflows from leading chains also contributed to the slower DEX activity. | Source: Artemis

DEXs also lost the inflows of new tokens, either from meme platforms or token sales. The slowdown of token sales or ICOs led to fewer new listings. More meme tokens from Pump.fun also remain in the “trenches,” and never graduate to exchanges.

DeFi hacks affected trust in DEXs 

DEX activity slowed down during a month with a record number of hacks. Since smart contracts are generally vulnerable, DEXs were seen as potentially unsafe destinations. 

Liquidity pools are also a common target for exploits, where flawed smart contracts lead to drained liquidity or stolen tokens.

Most of the outflows from exchanges happened on EVM-compatible networks and on Ethereum. Solana DEX activity defied the trend, but did not offset the overall outflows. Meteora displaced Raydium and PumpSwap as the leading exchange. 

Solana survived the DEX outflows due to aggressive USDC minting, which boosted liquidity pairs on Meteora. The absence of hacks on Solana also kept traders more confident.

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Tether reported about $1.04 billion in net profit for Q1 2026, with its gold reserves becoming one of the biggest parts of its balance sheet story.

The company published its first-quarter attestation, covering the assets backing USD₮ as of March 31, 2026, and showed that the company’s excess reserves reached a record $8.23 billion. Tether said the reserve base stayed mostly in short-term, liquid, high-quality instruments, while markets stayed rough across the quarter.

USD₮ stayed large and steady through the same period. The company reported about $183 billion in token-linked liabilities at the end of March, and listed total assets at $191,767,741,495 and total liabilities at $183,535,531,717.

Out of those liabilities, $183,438,487,810 came from issued digital tokens. That left assets above liabilities by $8,232,209,778. No stock ticker applies to Tether, BDO, or the World Gold Council, while Bitcoin trades as BTC.

Tether holds $141 billion in Treasury exposure while gold and Bitcoin sit inside reserves

Tether kept most of its reserves in short-term instruments tied to the U.S. government. Direct and indirect exposure to U.S. Treasury bills reached about $141 billion by March 31, 2026. The company said most reserve assets sat in government-backed holdings and short-term liquidity facilities.

That reserve layout placed Tether as the 17th largest holder of U.S. Treasuries worldwide. The company kept its main reserve focus on short-dated sovereign debt, which matters because USD₮ is used at scale and must meet redemptions without drama. In crypto, drama already comes free.

The reserve book also included other assets. Physical gold holdings stood at about $20 billion. The company said the precious metal portion was fully made up of actual gold, not paper claims. Bitcoin holdings were about $7 billion, giving Tether exposure to the largest crypto asset by market value.

Tether also separated its proprietary investments from the reserves backing issued tokens. Those investments sit under Tether Investments and are funded with excess capital and profits. The company said those holdings are not counted as part of the reserve backing for USD₮, and they allegedly do not affect the liquidity, quality, or transparency of the token reserve base.

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, said, “Our responsibility is to make sure USD₮ works without compromise. That means building a system that behaves the same way in any market condition, not just when things are stable.”

By April, Paolo said USD₮ was trading at or near record circulation levels, and more than 5 billion USD₮ had been added into the second quarter. He also tied that demand to the launch of Tether Wallet, a self-custody app built for people who use USD₮ every day.

Gold drops as the U.S. and Iran standoff keeps central banks cautious

The gold market was under pressure while Tether reported its large bullion position, as prices fell as much as 1.2% after gaining 1.5% in the prior session. Traders were watching the standoff between the U.S. and Iran, which hurt hopes for central bank rate cuts.

Trump said the naval blockade on Iran would stay in place. He was also briefed by military commanders on further options. Iran said the blockade had to end before the Strait of Hormuz could reopen.

This whole war has been bad for gold because bullion does not pay interest. Gold has fallen about 13% since the conflict started at the end of February.

Gold still gained on Thursday when the yen posted its biggest jump in three years, and Japan’s government announced an intervention in the currency market. A weaker U.S. dollar usually helps gold because the metal is priced in dollars.

The World Gold Council said central banks added gold in the first quarter at the fastest pace in more than a year. Most analysts stayed bullish on bullion, even after the latest drop.

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Japan is eager to build more data centers. But finding enough electricity to power them while maintaining efficiency and global competitiveness is a delicate balancing act. 

Data center capacity will dictate how quickly AI rolls out and which industries benefit first.

At Japan’s largest technology expo, SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, industry leaders drew attention to increased bidding competition for electricity between households and AI data centers.

Will AI drive up electricity bills?

Rocky Lee of Zettabyte, an AI infrastructure company based in Taiwan, said that tackling latency is a major factor behind electricity volume.

“If you ask an AI a question and get a response 40 seconds later, that’s not an ideal customer or enterprise experience. Power has to be transferred to GPUs, which is where we see the shortage.”

He warned that households in Japan will likely bear the brunt of rising electricity costs.

“AI is competing with you. If somebody is willing to pay a little bit more than you, then you have a problem,” said Rocky Lee of Zettabyte, an AI infrastructure company based in Taiwan.

Wholesale electricity prices have already soared in U.S. cities with a high concentration of data centers, such as Virginia, Texas, and Silicon Valley.

What is regional Japan’s role?

The need for low-latency AI services is prompting companies to build data centers around big cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. However, the Japanese government is trying to buck this trend.

Japan is home to an estimated 256 operational data centers. The U.S., on the other hand, operates a whopping 5,400 facilities, followed by approx. 520 in Germany, 500 in the UK and roughly 450 in China.

On April 24, it announced an expansion of its GX strategy with the aim of creating industrial clusters around renewable energy sources in regional Japan. The designated regions have not been made public, but likely include Hokkaido, Tohoku, and Kyushu.

GMI Cloud is one AI cloud startup that is poised to build Japan’s largest data center in the southern city of Kagoshima. The massive $12 billion gigawatt-scale (GW) project is expected to be completed by 2030.

Japan is a safe haven for data

GMI Cloud Founder and CEO, Alex Yeh, explained that ample availability of nuclear power is just one reason for the location.

“Japan is a huge hub for fiber optic internet access from the U.S. to Asia, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia. That’s why Google, Amazon, Microsoft Azure are located in Japan.”

Its data protection policy is an added advantage. Alex Yeh said Japan is the best choice when it comes to building highly sought-after sovereign data centers.

“Data is sensitive. There’s government data, military data, and enterprise data. You don’t want data situated in geopolitically sensitive areas such as the U.S. and Korea. That’s why Japan matters.”

Corporate giants bet on AI infrastructure

Japan’s legacy industrial giants are pivoting toward data centers and power infrastructure in an effort to reinvent their business model and generate new avenues of growth.

Japanese telecommunication giant NTT is expanding R&D into AI-native infrastructure. It currently holds the largest market share of data centers in Japan. It has more than 160 sites across all 47 prefectures.

On April 27, it announced the AI x OWN initiative. It’s NTT’s effort to redesign the internet around real-time AI use.

In a statement, NTT President Akira Shimada said “NTT’s AI infrastructure must shift from conventional ICT infrastructure to infrastructure for a new market premised on AI utilization.”

NTT also plans to triple its domestic power capacity from approximately 300 MW today to around 1 gigawatt by fiscal 2033.

Can data center deregulation boost AI competition?

At SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026, Alex Yeh of GMI Cloud said top-down deregulation could make Japan globally competitive in AI data centers. He criticized legacy businesses for stifling innovation as well as the government’s preference for traditional, concrete-built data centers.

“In the U.S. and Taiwan, data centers are built modularly. These are 40-foot container units that can be shipped and deployed quickly. They’re essentially pre-built data centers, with all wiring integrated, that can be dropped on-site. So why can’t we do that in Japan?”

Yeh hopes Japan will turn to modular data centers, slashing construction timelines to six to eight months instead of the 18 to 24 months needed for conventional concrete facilities.

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Iran’s rial extended its decline to a record low in April 2026, reflecting mounting economic pressure tied to U.S. actions and ongoing regional tensions.

Data tracking the open market exchange rate shows the currency falling to 1,800,000 rials per U.S. dollar on April 29. The move follows a long-term devaluation trend that began in early 2025 and expanded in recent months.

At the start of 2025, Iran’s rial traded near 800,000 per dollar, moving within a narrower range during the first half of the year. However, the second half marked a turning point, as the currency weakened more consistently.

By September, it had crossed 1,100,000, then climbed past 1,300,000 in December and continued its decline into 2026.

Iran’s rial decline accelerates under pressure

Iran’s rial recorded short-term volatility in early 2026, but the overall trend remained negative. By late April, the surge to 1,800,000 marked the highest level recorded in the reported period.

Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pointed out the economic pressure came from the U.S. campaign Operation Economic Fury. He said the campaign aims to disrupt financial networks by seizing assets, freezing accounts and preventing global financial transactions.

Bessent said that almost $500 million has been seized in Iranian crypto assets. He also reported that the U.S. is freezing accounts and monitoring assets overseas, including properties and savings associated with Iran. He said the campaign has been ongoing for more than a year and has been ramped up since orders issued in March 2025.

Inflation rises as economic conditions tighten

Iran’s rial depreciation coincides with rising domestic inflation. Data from Iran’s central bank shows annual inflation increased from above 40% before the conflict to 50% as of April 4. The change reflects rising costs for essential goods.

Prices for items such as rice, eggs, and chicken have increased during the same period. The shift has followed reduced access to foreign currency and disruptions in trade flows. Imported goods, including food, medicine, and raw materials, remain directly affected by exchange rate movements.

In addition, according to Cryptopolitan’s earlier report, the blockade on Iranian ports has reduced access to oil revenues and limited foreign currency inflows. This restriction has affected a key source of government income. As a result, economic pressure has continued to build alongside currency depreciation.

Strait of Hormuz tensions and global impact

Iran’s rial has moved alongside geopolitical tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. The waterway handles a large share of global oil and gas trade during peacetime. Its closure has disrupted supply chains and contributed to rising global fuel and related goods prices.

Although Iran and the United States agreed to a ceasefire on April 8, tensions remain. The U.S. imposed a blockade on April 13, further limiting Iran’s ability to generate revenue from exports. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump rejected a proposal from Iran to reopen the strait in exchange for easing restrictions.

The proposal aimed to delay discussions on Iran’s nuclear program, leaving key disagreements unresolved. As a result, the standoff has continued, with multiple countries calling for the reopening of the route for economic and humanitarian reasons.

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The money big tech poured into artificial intelligence is starting to show results, but Wall Street remains nervous about the hundreds of billions being spent on chips and data centers, and not every company is winning.

Reddit’s stock (NYSE: RDDT) rose 16% before the market opened on Friday, after the company furnished investors with a higher-than-expected revenue outlook for the coming quarter.

The gains show how well Reddit’s AI-powered advertising solutions are doing.

The company developed a system that inserts advertising into relevant discussion threads (interest-based communities known as subreddits) and utilizes AI to help advertisers write copy, manage campaigns, and automatically crop images to match different ad placements.

Strong numbers set Reddit apart from tech rivals

The numbers backing this up are hard to ignore. Reddit’s daily active visitors grew 17% to 126.8 million in the quarter, and the average revenue it made per user worldwide jumped 44%.

That puts Reddit in a strong spot against much larger tech rivals like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. Unlike those companies, Reddit is also still bringing people on board.

“Reddit is still hiring and adding to our talent base,” Chief Operating Officer Jen Wong said.

That’s a contrast to what Meta, Snap, and Pinterest have been doing. All three have cut thousands of jobs in the past year to cut costs and redirect money toward AI.

Reddit’s content library has become valuable for another reason too. AI companies are competing to get their hands on text data to train their large language models, the systems behind tools like ChatGPT, and Reddit’s archive of discussions is a sought-after resource.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley said that how well Reddit executes across these areas will be key to showing its value “even in a future GenAI enabled and agentic landscape.”

Apple caught off guard as chip shortages bite

On the hardware side, things look different. 

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook said demand for Mac minis and Mac Studios has outpaced what the company expected, largely because developers are using them to run an AI agent platform called OpenClaw.

The software lets users run AI agents locally on their own machines using their own data, and it caught on fast among developers.

“The Mac Mini and the Mac Studio, both of these are amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools, and the customer recognition of that is happening faster than what we had predicted,” Cook said on the company’s Q2 earnings call.

He added that reaching supply-demand balance for those products “may take several months.”

The base model M4 Mac mini is already sold out on Apple’s website.

On eBay, refurbished units are going for as much as $979. Demand has since spilled over to the Mac Studio, which is also sold out in several configurations.

The shortage is costing Apple real money, even if the problem is one that other companies might envy.

Cook also flagged a longer-term concern: memory chip costs. “Beyond the June quarter, we believe memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business,” he said.

Memory prices have risen sharply because so much of the global chip supply is being funneled into AI data centers.

Research firm IDC expects PC shipments overall to fall 11.3% in 2026 because of this shortage. Apple’s MacBook Neo has also been hit. A shortage of A18 Pro chips has made the $599 laptop hard to find.

The bigger picture is that the entire tech industry is feeling the pressure.

Microsoft, Alphabet, Meta, and Amazon together spent $410 billion on infrastructure last year and are projected to spend more than $670 billion in 2026.

“We’re seeing constraints across the board. The hyperscalers who are trying to get into the gold mine, they’re having to wait, or spend more to get in,” said Brent Thill, a tech analyst at Jefferies. “It’s good for the picks and shovels, but it’s not good for the people who are assembling all the pieces.”

Overall, AI is creating clear winners in software while driving up costs and shortages across hardware.

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Prediction market giant Polymarket has stepped up surveillance and compliance controls following a high-profile insider trading scandal. The prediction market operator is collaborating with Chainalysis to tighten oversight following the $410,000 insider bet on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

According to Polymarket, it will work with Chainalysis to create a more reliable and transparent betting environment and, hopefully, set the gold standard for market oversight.

It also stated that they will collaborate to introduce new monitoring and detection tools and reinforce on-chain security to prevent threats. Chainalysis will also help train Polymarket’s team, build new detection capabilities, and support complex investigations.

Chainalysis and Polymarket will introduce a new detection model

Primarily, their deal centers on a detection model built on Chainalysis Data Solutions, which would sift through and identify wagers made using insider information. The model would add more muscle to the multi-level security setup Polymarket already relies on to spot rule-breakers.

Speaking on the partnership, Shayne Coplan, Founder and CEO of Polymarket, emphasized that the platform intends to prioritize transparency. He commented, “This partnership with Chainalysis pairs that transparency with the monitoring and enforcement infrastructure to back it up, and helps us continue to build the most trusted source of truth in markets.”

Jonathan Levin, Co-Founder and CEO, Chainalysis, also noted that, with the team-up, they are paving the way for on-chain markets to grow into the world’s most reliable and trusted tools for understanding global news as it happens.

The recent clampdown, however, follows a string of messy headlines about traders making a killing off insider information or manipulated storylines. Recently, a US special forces soldier, Van Dyke, allegedly made more than $400,000 on classified information of Maduro’s capture.

So far, Dyke pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges against him in court and has been granted bail of $250,000. Though the federal judge restricted his travel, limiting him to parts of North Carolina, New York, and California. His case represents the first time the Department of Justice (DOJ) has pursued insider trading charges involving a prediction platform.

More recently, the US Senate passed a unanimous vote to bar senators and their staff from trading in prediction markets. As earlier reported by Cryptopolitan, Republican Senator Bernie Moreno had led the charge on the resolution, even asserting at one point, “United States Senators have no business engaging in speculative activities like prediction markets while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck, period.” 

Nevertheless, Polymarket, after the Senate’s decision, voiced its support, calling it a progressive move that aligns perfectly with its own existing anti-insider policies. 

How are prediction platforms holding up against lawmaker criticism?

Overall, prediction markets are holding their ground against state and public opposition. A Bitget-Polymarket report found traders pushed monthly volumes to a staggering $25.7 billion in March during a crypto dry spell.

Their analysis showed retail participants are leading the activity, moving away from isolated bets toward more consistent engagement, especially in sports. Dune Analytics also reported similar results, noting that markets saw over $23.7 billion in trading volume in March.

In the past few months, prediction platforms have been embroiled in several controversies. Polymarket and Kalshi are still caught in the middle of a showdown, with state governors pushing for bans on the platforms in the name of protecting residents, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) arguing over its sole authority to regulate them.

A group of Democratic lawmakers recently even pushed the CFTC to address “the rapid erosion of integrity” in prediction markets. In a letter to the agency, they requested that the agency take measures to curb insider trading and corruption within the platforms. Meanwhile, New York recently filed suit against Coinbase Financial Markets and Gemini Titan, contending that their prediction market platforms violate state gambling laws.

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US stocks went ballistic all through April and gave Wall Street its strongest month since 2020, with investors piling back into tech while oil, inflation, and the Iran war kept the macro side messy.

The S&P 500 ended the month at a record close after gaining 14.2% from its March 30 low. That rebound added about $8.1 trillion in market value across 23 trading days, which is the kind of number that makes even crypto traders blink twice.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 15.29% in April, its best monthly run since April 2020, when markets were bouncing from the early Covid crash.

The tech trade got help from earnings, with Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), and Microsoft (MSFT) all beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations and showing stronger cloud numbers.

Big Tech carries stocks as AI demand pushes traders back into growth names

Alphabet (GOOGL) jumped 10% after its earnings report and finished April up 34%. That was its strongest month since October 2004, the same year it went public.

Amazon (AMZN) gained 27% for the month, helped by its cloud performance and the wider rush into AI-linked tech. Meta Platforms (META) had a rough Thursday, falling 9% after saying it would spend more on capital projects, but the stock still ended April higher by nearly 7%.

Chip stocks had an even wilder month because data center demand is still pulling serious money into the sector. Broadcom (AVGO) gained 35% in April.

Qualcomm (QCOM) jumped close to 40% for the month after having its strongest session since last year on Thursday. Micron Technology (MU) climbed 53%, while Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) surged 74%. Nvidia (NVDA) rose about 14%, giving the AI chipmaker its strongest month since June.

Intel (INTC) had the loudest rebound in the group. Its shares doubled in April, giving the company its best month in 55 years. 

Intel is still trying to fix years of late launches and weak production results that allowed Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM) and Nvidia (NVDA) to pull ahead in AI hardware. Traders are now paying attention to Intel’s 18A chips, which are coming out of its new Arizona factory.

Another reason Intel got attention is the return of demand for central processing units as agentic AI spreads. Bank of America (BAC) expects the CPU market to more than double by 2030.

Oil, inflation, Fed cuts, and Asia keep pressure around the stock rally

April’s rally in stocks came even as energy prices turned ugly. Brent crude climbed above $125 a barrel on Thursday, sending gasoline to about $4 per gallon across the US.

That matters because expensive fuel can keep inflation hot, squeeze consumers, and make the Federal Reserve less willing to cut interest rates.

Citi (C) lifted its rating on US stock markets to overweight versus other regions in April. Beata Manthey, Citi’s head of global equities strategy, said “tech is carrying the weight” of the wider market. The data backed that up. Tech stocks were flying, but the economy did not look clean.

The US economy grew at a 2% annualized rate in the first quarter, when economists had expected 2.2%. Investors then cut back their bets on Fed rate cuts for this year because oil and gas prices raised the risk of another inflation problem.

Meanwhile, trading in Asia was thin because the May Day holiday shut several large markets. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 (.AXJO) rose 0.74% to 8,729.80. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (.HSI) fell 1.28% to 25,776.53. South Korea’s KOSPI (.KS11) dropped 1.38% to 6,598.87. India’s Nifty 50 (.NSEI) lost 0.74% to 23,997.55. China’s Shanghai Composite (.SSEC) added 0.11% to 4,112.159.

Japan traded higher. The Nikkei 225 (.N225) rose 0.38% to 59,513.12. The Topix recovered from earlier losses and ended up 0.04% at 3,728.73.

The yen also firmed a little against the dollar on Friday after reports said Tokyo stepped into the market on Thursday to support the currency. The yen was last at 156.56 per dollar after crossing 160 earlier in the week and touching 160.72, its weakest level in two years.

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BTC ended April in the green, with 11.87% net growth. The leading coin closed in the green for the second month in a row and completed the most successful month for the year to date.

BTC reversed some of the deep losses from February and moved up to $76,960.11 in early May. The coin has accrued 12.94% in gains for Q2 to date, leading to more bullish expectations of a price reversal.

BTC ended April with nearly 12% in net gains, repeating the recovery pattern from 2025. | Source: CoinGlass.

The recent monthly gains arrived after a five-month streak of net losses. Based on the fear and greed index at 26 points, traders are still not confident to set up large long positions. However, April achieved a reversal, abandoning the ‘extreme fear’ trading from the previous month. 

Historically, April has mostly been a positive month for BTC, with only five years with a red monthly candle. BTC made a similar return in April 2025, paving the way for the all-time highs later in the year. May is a more bearish month on a five-year time frame, with deeper losses and shocks.

BTC passed several stress tests in April

BTC passed several stress tests in April, with both macro factors and crypto insider shocks. April saw a record of hacks and exploits, as Cryptopolitan reported earlier.

Oil shocks and the uncertainty of the situation in the Strait of Hormuz also led to fearful trading. Trader interest shifted to stocks and oil futures, while BTC attracted mostly whales on the spot and futures markets. 

The leading coin gained support from ongoing accumulation by whales and some cohorts of retail wallets. Demand also came from treasury companies, with Strategy performing its third-largest weekly purchase in history, adding 34,164 BTC as of April 20. 

BTC dominance recovered slightly to 58.2%, as interest in altcoins and tokens remained at historical lows. The coming months may continue with a sentiment of BTC maximalism, as the rest of the crypto market deals with hacks and the lost trust in DeFi lending. 

BTC options point to a relief rally

BTC options markets may be the reason for a short-term relief rally. On May 1, a total of $1.74B in BTC options expired, with another $394M in ETH options. 

The BTC weekly event expired with a put/call ratio of 1.1, suggesting cautious positioning and downside protection. The relatively small event for the new month still suggested prevailing downside protection.

Ahead of the options expiry event, the market was close to the maximum pain point of $76,000 per BTC.

Put options have now shifted to $75,500, setting up a higher level of downside protection.

BTC options suggest strong downside protection, and more bullish positioning if BTC breaks out above $80,000. | Source: CoinGlass.

The biggest accumulation of call options is at $79,500-$80,000 per BTC, which is seen as a level potentially triggering a breakout. 

Options markets still signal cautious downside protection rather than an upcoming bull market. The weekly options’ expiry near maximum pain may lead to a gamma squeeze, as traders abandon the attempt to push the price to the maximum pain point, where the most options expire worthless.

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Eric Trump is no longer shown on the leadership page of Alt5 Sigma Corp., the Las Vegas company that became closely tied to the Trump family’s crypto business, World Liberty Financial Inc.

His name had appeared on the company’s website as recently as March, when he was listed as an adviser and board observer. By last week, Eric was no longer there.

Alt5, which now calls itself AI Financial (NASDAQ: ALTS), became part of the Trump crypto story after it agreed to hold World Liberty tokens on its balance sheet in August, and agreed to build a $1.5 billion crypto reserve. In return, World Liberty received stock in AI Financial and board seats..

Alt5 keeps other World Liberty names listed while Eric leaves the public page

Eric was first lined up for a stronger role at Alt5. The early plan had him joining the board as a director. He was expected to sit there with Zachary Witkoff, the son of presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, and Zak Folkman. Zachary and Zak are also co-founders of World Liberty Financial.

That plan did not stay the same. Eric later became a board observer, not a director. A board observer can usually attend board meetings, read materials, and stay close to the company’s internal discussions. The person does not normally vote on board decisions.

Zachary and Zak are still listed on the company’s board page. Alt5 reported a loss of more than $341 million in its latest fiscal year. In its newest annual filing, management warned investors that there was serious doubt about whether the company could keep running for another year.

World Liberty faces legal heat, falling token prices, and questions over outside crypto ties

The trouble around World Liberty has been getting louder. Last month, Cryptopolitan reported crypto billionaire Justin Sun sued the company. Justin accused World Liberty of extortion and of illegally freezing his tokens. Eric responded on X and called the lawsuit “ridiculous.”

Other Trump-linked crypto assets have also lost value since launch. Shares tied to a Bitcoin mining company have fallen. The $TRUMP virtual token has also been steadily crashing.

AI Financial has also agreed to buy Block Street, a crypto infrastructure startup owned by one of the company’s own advisers. SEC filings say the Las Vegas company signed the deal last Monday. The purchase could be worth up to $43 million.

Morgan, the adviser behind Block Street, pushed back against the idea that the deal was self-dealing. He told Fortune that Block Street is not making revenue. He also said he had offered the startup to several public companies in late 2025 and turned down proposals with possible value above $100 million in “upside.”

Another issue comes through AB, a crypto venture that announced an arrangement with World Liberty less than a month after the Trump administration brought criminal charges and sanctions against a large alleged scam network. One AB-linked project was a planned “blockchain”-themed resort in East Timor.

Two men tied to that resort were later named in the U.S. crackdown. They were the controlling shareholder and the general manager of the resort project. U.S. officials said the men had worked for the Prince Group, which the government described as one of Asia’s biggest criminal organizations.

The Justice Department said on October 14 last year that Prince Group ran at least 10 violent scam compounds in Cambodia. Officials said enslaved workers were forced to run online fraud, including “pig butchering,” where scammers build fake relationships with victims before stealing their money.

That same day, the Treasury Department sanctioned more than 140 people and companies over alleged Prince Group activity and money-laundering networks.

A lawyer for World Liberty denied any relationship with the sanctioned men. He said the company did not know about the planned resort when it announced the AB arrangement.

He also said the AB deal was not a partnership, but a “limited non-exclusive technology integration” that would allow AB’s network to use the Trump family’s USD1 stablecoin. The lawyer added, “WLF takes its compliance obligations very seriously.”

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The XRP ecosystem is once again at the center of both optimism and long-term technological concern, as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse doubles down on XRP being the company’s “North Star,” even as broader discussions around quantum computing risks begin to surface in the crypto industry.

XRP Ledger validator Vet cautions that some quantum processors might eventually compromise the very earliest wallets of the XRPL, the equivalent of the “Satoshi Era” Bitcoin addresses.

Vet said, after studying 7.8 million accounts looking for quantum threats, that most of the XRPL network is safe, but 0.02% of the total XRP supply, the Genesis wallets, are vulnerable to quantum decryption. That puts approximately 23.16 billion XRP completely secure from potential quantum risks.

He wrote, “23.16B XRP is completely Quantum Safe. These accounts either rotate keys or never sign a transaction.”

Recent statements from Garlinghouse have reinforced XRP’s position as the core asset guiding Ripple’s long-term strategy. In multiple appearances and social media posts, the CEO has consistently described XRP as the “North Star” of the company, meaning every major product and institutional initiative ultimately aligns with the token’s ecosystem.

According to recent industry reports, Garlinghouse reiterated that “all roads lead back to XRP,” framing it as the foundation of Ripple’s payments, custody, and institutional blockchain services.

Vet asks users to change to more secure wallets and protect themselves from quantum attacks

In a subsequent post, Vet detailed that the 300,000 Genesis wallets were receive-only and therefore their cryptographic signatures have not been revealed, rendering them quantum-resistant.

He further commented, “Dormant, vulnerable XRP whales are almost nonexistent. The rest are active and have their public key exposed, but it is also reasonable to expect to rotate keys if needed.”

Additionally, responding to a question on X, Vet said users can protect themselves by adopting quantum-safe signatures or rotating their keys, but raised concerns about what happens to inactive accounts—should their assets be left vulnerable, frozen, redistributed, or burned?

So far, the XRPL has already put key pieces in place to enable forward migration in a post-quantum era. According to reports, if traditional encryption ever fails, the network is prepared to flip the switch on a backup plan for a secure migration.

XRPL is looking to fully deprecate classical signatures and force a shift to post-quantum security measures. 

The network said it would be stepping up trials of globally recognized cryptographic standards recommended by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The team is also aiming to integrate new quantum-resistant signature schemes alongside today’s elliptic curve signatures, first on Devnet for developer trials.

What did Google say on its quantum research and cryptographic protections?

Google recently published a white paper showing that future quantum systems might crack current cryptographic protections with fewer qubits and gates than once believed. According to analysts, the analysis means that the quantum threat has shifted from theoretical to credible, and the timing of quantum-safe upgrades is absolutely critical.

Google reported that a 500,000-qubit solution could run some cryptographic circuits almost instantly, reducing the number of qubits required for an ECDLP-256 algorithm by almost 20 times, which is sufficient to secure most blockchains.

However, according to a researcher, bad actors are “playing the long game” by collecting ledger data now and betting that future tech will eventually unleash a master key, employing a more ‘harvest now, decrypt later’ approach. The threat at hand is still modest, but the findings serve as a ‘start-your-engines’ alert for any future secured systems seeking long-term value.

Nevertheless, Google has promised the crypto community that it will continue to pioneer the process into the post-quantum age, alongside Coinbase, the Stanford Institute for Blockchain Research, and the Ethereum Foundation, to meet its 2029 timeline. The announcement also encouraged users to ditch exposed wallets and offered policy options for handling abandoned crypto assets.

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A U.S. Senate effort to overhaul crypto market structure through the CLARITY Act is approaching a mid-May committee markup, though negotiations remain strained by disputes over ethics rules, stablecoin yield provisions, and political concerns tied to Donald Trump’s crypto-related business interests.

The legislation would establish a federal framework dividing oversight of digital assets between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a long-sought regulatory clarity effort for the industry.

Bipartisan agreement remains uncertain as lawmakers struggle to resolve both technical and politically sensitive issues.

Legislative push toward May markup

Sen. Tim Scott, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said the CLARITY Act is nearing a critical stage, with lawmakers aiming for a bipartisan committee vote in May. Sen. Thom Tillis told Politico he would oppose final passage without ethics provisions included.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins described the agency’s March guidance as “an important bridge” while Congress develops permanent rules, Axios reported.

The House passed its version in July 2025 by 294–134, including 78 Democrats. The Senate Banking Committee released a 278-page draft in January 2026, but multiple scheduled markups have been postponed.

Banks continue to oppose proposals that would let crypto firms offer yield on stablecoin deposits. Standard Chartered estimates stablecoins could divert up to $500 billion in US bank deposits by 2028, per Reuters.

A White House Council of Economic Advisers report countered that stablecoin yield would displace only about 0.02% of total bank loans, roughly $2.1 billion, as Cryptopolitan reported when industry group NC Blockchain pushed Tillis to advance the bill last week.

Trump crypto ties drive ethics standoff

Bloomberg reported Trump has earned at least $1.4 billion through crypto-related ventures, including World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance and stablecoin project. His family also holds a stake in bitcoin mining firm American Bitcoin.

Democrats argue that these financial ties raise the potential for conflicts of interest in shaping digital asset regulation. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) told The Block that bipartisan support depends on resolving ethics and illicit finance concerns.

Earlier this year, the Senate Agriculture Committee advanced a related crypto bill without Democratic support, with lawmakers citing Trump-related crypto ties as a key concern.

Vote math tightens as time runs out

The bill needs 60 Senate votes, meaning unanimous Republican support plus seven Democrats. That path tightened after Sen. John Kennedy said he would not support it, per Punchbowl News. Kennedy’s defection drops effective Republican backing to 52 from 53, raising the Democratic threshold from seven to eight.

Polymarket odds moved from 38% to 46% over the past week. Estimates cited by The Block place the probability between 15% and 50%.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis has warned that failure to pass this Congress could delay comprehensive crypto regulation for years. Sen. Bernie Moreno delivered an ultimatum at a Washington event on April 22, declaring the bill must clear Congress by end of May.

Digital policy analyst Adrian Wall told Reuters: “If this doesn’t get passed and put in front of the President’s desk by July, I think everyone feels that window will have been closed because of the mid-terms.”

The Polymarket move suggests the market sees the path widening. The 60-vote math says it has not widened by enough.

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The Financial Conduct Authority finalised rules on Thursday allowing UK asset managers to maintain official investor registers on blockchain and introduced an optional Direct-to-Fund dealing model that removes intermediaries from fund transactions.

The changes, set out in policy statement PS26/7, take effect immediately. They apply to about 2,600 firms managing an estimated £16.5 trillion in assets across the UK market.

The policy formalises a framework the regulator has tested since January 2025, when it authorised the UK’s first tokenised UCITS fund under the industry “Blueprint” model. PS26/7 turns that pilot into permanent rules.

Onchain records gain regulatory recognition

Under the new rules, authorised fund managers can use distributed ledger technology (DLT) as the official register of investor ownership.

A full off-chain duplicate is no longer required, provided firms maintain operational resilience and comply with governance, data protection, and financial crime standards.

The framework builds on an industry “Blueprint” model already used to approve the UK’s first tokenised UCITS fund.

Funds may operate on public or private blockchains, including across multiple networks, as long as investor rights and fee structures remain unchanged.

Simon Walls, the FCA’s executive director of markets, said tokenisation would “play an important role in asset management” and that the regulator had delivered “a practical framework to give firms confidence in how fund tokenisation can operate within the FCA’s rules.”

Direct-to-fund dealing reduces intermediaries

The FCA also introduced an optional Direct-to-Fund (D2F) dealing model.

Under D2F, the fund or its depositary becomes the counterparty to investor transactions. This removes the need for an asset manager or intermediary between the investor and the fund.

Transactions are executed in a single step, with units issued or cancelled as cash moves directly between investor and fund. The regulator said the structure could reduce operational friction and better align with faster settlement systems, including blockchain-based infrastructure.

Firms will still be able to use traditional dealing models or combine both approaches within umbrella fund structures.

Three-stage roadmap signals what comes next

PS26/7 sits at stage one of a broader FCA digital assets path. Stage two extends to traditional securities moved on-chain. Stage three involves tokenised cash flows enabling portfolio management through wallets and smart contracts. The regulator said it may explore settlement using digital cash and stablecoins in consultations later in 2026.

The framework sits alongside the broader cryptoasset regime. As Cryptopolitan reported, the FCA’s CP26/4 consultation proposes Consumer Duty rules, safeguarding requirements for client cryptoassets, and stricter governance for large stablecoin issuers. That regime takes effect in October 2027.

The industry has been signalling this shift for months

Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan and head of research Ryan Rasmussen wrote in a July client note that “tokenisation, the shift to issuing stocks, bonds, and other real-world assets on blockchains instead of traditional rails, is having a moment.”

The global stocks and bonds market is worth roughly $257 trillion combined, against current tokenised real-world assets at about $25 billion.

Robinhood chief executive Vlad Tenev offered a sharper version at Token2049 in October. “Tokenisation is like a freight train. It can’t be stopped, and eventually it’s going to eat the entire financial system,” he told the conference, predicting most major markets will have tokenisation frameworks within five years.

The first tokenised UCITS launched 16 months ago. The framework that authorised it is now permanent.

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The U.S. Senate has taken a rare unanimous step. It voted on Thursday to ban lawmakers, staff, and chamber officers from betting on prediction markets. Senate Resolution 708 passed by unanimous consent and took effect immediately as a change to the Senate’s standing rules.

The vote came eight days after federal prosecutors indicted a U.S. Army Special Forces master sergeant for using classified information to win more than $400,000 on Polymarket, and one week after Kalshi fined three congressional candidates for betting on their own races.

Republican Senator Bernie Moreno introduced the measure. Democratic Senator Alex Padilla widened it to include Senate staff.

Moreno framed the issue bluntly. “United States senators have no business engaging in speculative activities like prediction markets while collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck,” he said, according to Reuters.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer backed the move. He warned against turning public service into speculation.

“We must never allow Congress to turn into a casino where members representing the public can gamble on wars or economic crises,” Schumer said.

Prosecutors acted on U.S. Army Master Sergeant’s bet

The vote did not happen in a vacuum. It followed a case that stunned both lawmakers and regulators.

Federal prosecutors charged Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a 38-year-old Army Special Forces master sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg, with using classified information to place wagers on Polymarket. The trades were tied to Operation Absolute Resolve, the U.S. military mission that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas on January 3.

Van Dyke “was involved in the planning and execution” of the operation, the Justice Department said in announcing the indictment. Prosecutors allege he placed approximately $33,034 in 13 bets between December 27 and January 2, all on “Yes” positions for contracts predicting U.S. forces would enter Venezuela by January 31.

The wagers won him approximately $409,881 in profit. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a parallel civil complaint, calling it the agency’s first insider trading action involving prediction markets.

Van Dyke pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday and was released on $250,000 bail.

Experts warn that prediction markets remain vulnerable

For many experts, the case confirmed long-standing concerns.

“The idea that insider trading is somehow permissible in prediction markets is a myth,” said David Miller, CFTC Director of Enforcement. He named insider trading on prediction markets as one of the agency’s five enforcement priorities going forward.

Academic research published days earlier reached a similar conclusion. Columbia Law professor Joshua Mitts and University of Haifa professor Moran Ofir analyzed two years of Polymarket data through February 2026 and identified more than 210,000 suspicious wallet-market pairs.

Flagged traders posted a 69.9% win rate, well above chance, and accumulated approximately $143 million in aggregate anomalous profit.

Mitts told American Banker that prediction market regulation is “a lot trickier” than securities-market enforcement because the contracts are commodities, not securities, and so fall outside the SEC’s classical insider trading framework.

When outcomes are yes-or-no and trading is thin, even one informed bet can move the market.

The polymarket ban has limits

Despite the strong vote, the Senate’s action has clear limits. This is not a criminal law. It is an internal rule. That means the Senate polices itself. Penalties could include reprimands, loss of committee roles, or fines tied to ethics violations.

But there is an important catch.

If a lawmaker uses insider information, existing federal laws could still apply. Regulators and prosecutors can still step in. So the rule acts more like a guardrail than a hammer. It is designed to stop the behavior before it starts.

How does this ban compare to the stalled stock trading ban?

Feature Prediction Market Ban Stock Trading Ban (Proposed) Status Already in force Still stalled Who it covers Senators and staff Members of Congress What it bans Event-based bets Stock trades Enforcement Senate ethics system Would require federal law Penalties Internal sanctions Proposed legal penalties

A narrower, simpler rule passed in a single afternoon. The broader stock trading ban, debated for nearly a decade, remains stuck. Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., have introduced separate legislation to ban all federally elected officials and government employees from using insider information on prediction markets.

Young called Resolution 708 “a good first step.”

Prediction markets remain a global gray area

Around the world, prediction markets sit in a legal gray zone. In the U.S., regulators are starting to treat them like financial derivatives.

In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority has taken a cautious approach. Across Europe, rules vary widely. Some countries treat them as gambling. Others treat them as financial instruments.

This patchwork creates gaps. And those gaps can be exploited.

Regulators are watching the Van Dyke case closely. A conviction would set a precedent for how Rule 180.1 of the Commodity Exchange Act applies to government-sourced classified information.

As Cryptopolitan reported in March, Polymarket has already updated its insider trading rules across both its DeFi platform and its U.S. exchange, citing pressure from regulators and the Ritchie Torres bill that has drawn 40 Democratic co-sponsors.

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