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Alcoa, the American aluminum company, is about to reach a deal with the Bitcoin mining company NYDIG to sell its idle Massena East aluminum smelter located in New York State, expected to be completed by mid-year.The plant has been idle since 2014 and is equipped with a substation, transmission lines, and high-capacity grid access, making it attractive to Bitcoin mining and data center operators due to the hydroelectric resources provided by the New York Power Authority. Reports indicate that some retired industrial sites in the U.S. are being transformed into Bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence, and high-performance computing facilities.

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

At the "Crypto 2026: From Cryptocurrency to Smart Economy" themed forum held in Hong Kong, Max Zhou, the business head of RootData, delivered a keynote speech titled "Trust as Infrastructure: How Data Transparency Reshapes the New Cycle of Web3."Max Zhou pointed out that transparency is no longer an "added bonus," but rather a threshold for institutions, regulators, and users. RootData positions itself as a leading Web3 enterprise data platform, quantifying project information completeness and credibility through financing data, relationship maps, and the industry's unique "transparency scoring" system.He introduced that RootData has recorded over 9,600 financing events, more than 18,000 key industry figures, and has rated over 19,000 projects on a scale from A to F, becoming an important reference for institutional due diligence and exchange listing assessments. The platform has established ecological partnerships with over 220 institutions, including Binance Wallet, OKX, and ByBit.In addition, RootData has launched a three-dimensional assessment model for exchanges (liquidity + asset value + transparency), discarding the "volume-only theory." Max Zhou emphasized that transparency is becoming a new axis for Web3, just as essential as security audits.

Bank of AI and the Peking University Blockchain Association PKUBlockchain have officially released their first research report titled "Web4.0: When AI Agents Become Economic Entities------Infrastructure, Track Patterns, and Investment Outlook." The report systematically outlines the three-layer infrastructure gaps of the x402 payment protocol, ERC-8004 identity standard, and MCP tool invocation protocol, and focuses on how Bank of AI can package five core components into a one-stop Agent financial operating system, becoming a typical case of a closed-loop from protocol to product. The research report points out that the daily average transaction volume on the TRON chain exceeds $22 billion, with a circulation of $86 billion USDT, providing a scalable foundation for high-frequency micro-settlement for Agents. Both parties will continue to promote the coordinated development of Web4.0 infrastructure and the agent economy.

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong posted on the X platform: "The agent business has not yet been fully priced by the market. Machine-to-machine payments will drive demand for digital dollars beyond current expectations. The scale of the agent economy may surpass that of the human economy, and Coinbase is building infrastructure for both."

HashKey Chain announced a strategic cooperation with the compliance brokerage infrastructure platform HabitTrade. The two parties will collaborate on the on-chain integration of quality assets and on-chain financial infrastructure, promoting the issuance and circulation of compliant assets.As the first tangible progress, HSKSwap has integrated the open-source securities tokenization protocol Stove Protocol under HabitTrade, supporting on-chain tokenized trading of assets including U.S. stocks.HashKey Chain stated that this cooperation will continuously introduce compliant assets backed by real assets, further improving the on-chain financial infrastructure. In the future, both parties will expand into more asset categories and explore cross-market circulation and on-chain financial application scenarios, promoting the integration of traditional capital markets and the on-chain ecosystem.

AI native infrastructure and programmable IP blockchain Story announced the launch of the Confidential Data Rails (CDR) testnet, a universal secure data transmission architecture designed to enable the secure flow and compliant use of sensitive data in AI and general scenarios, under the premise that data is always encrypted and does not leave the domain.CDR supports end-to-end encryption, preset access permissions, and provides secure sharing capabilities for API keys and integration credentials. In addition, Story, as the infrastructure provider for the Seoul Exchange over the next two years, will provide ongoing technical and ecological support for the Korean RWA market.

According to PaymentsJournal, stablecoin payment infrastructure provider PhotonPay announced a comprehensive upgrade to its payment capabilities, officially moving towards the new paradigm of Agentic Payments. At the core of this transformation is the shift in finance from "directive" to "intent-centric," enabling AI agents to autonomously plan and execute complex financial pathways.It is reported that PhotonPay has divided its system into three main modules: global network layer, core execution layer, and intelligent decision-making layer. AI agents can automatically complete the entire process of procurement triggers, payment path optimization, dynamic exchange rate optimization, and compliance review based on preset goals, achieving machine-to-machine (M2M) cross-border capital flow, covering over 200 countries and regions, and supporting real-time processing of financial decisions.In terms of market prospects, McKinsey predicts that by 2030, the global Agentic Commerce driven by AI agents will reach a scale of $3 trillion to $5 trillion, which also provides important market endorsement for PhotonPay's strategic layout.

Bitget today announced the completion of an upgrade to its underlying trading infrastructure. By restructuring the core modules of the matching engine cluster and account system, the order processing delay has been reduced by up to 40%. This upgrade is aimed at all platform users, including Bitget PRO users and market maker users.After the upgrade, the platform can provide faster order reception and status feedback speeds, significantly shortening the response chain from order submission to matching execution. During periods of significant market fluctuations, it further ensures the execution efficiency and transaction stability of large orders and complex trading strategies, continuously optimizing the overall trading experience.Bitget CEO Gracy Chen stated, "The market is ever-changing, and trading tools must evolve in sync. Continuously optimizing matching performance aims to create a reliable execution foundation for traders. Under the UEX strategic framework, this upgrade will further enhance trading efficiency and liquidity capacity within a unified account system, providing more stable and efficient infrastructure support for the integration of crypto assets and traditional assets."

According to Jinshi citing CCTV reports, U.S. President Trump stated in an interview broadcast on April 15 local time that he believes the war with Iran is "about to end," but also warned that the war could last until the midterm elections in November.Trump again threatened to attack Iranian civilian infrastructure, but at the same time expressed that he "hopes it won't escalate to that point."

The blockchain gaming infrastructure Lattice announced that it will gradually shut down its operations after five years, with its Layer 2 network Redstone ceasing operations on May 16, 2026, at 07:59.Lattice reminds users to withdraw their funds before this deadline, especially assets in contracts such as the Uniswap pool. After the shutdown, only L1 withdrawal contracts will be deployed for external account balance withdrawals, and the funds in the contracts will be irretrievable.It is reported that Lattice was founded in 2021 and developed tools such as the MUD framework, Redstone chain, Quarry, and Dozer, but failed to achieve a sustainable business model. The team will use the remaining funds for the final project DUST autonomous world, but the scale has not reached a level to support the business, and they do not believe that VC financing is the right path.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that the financial disclosures of Federal Reserve Chair nominee Waller show that he holds early-stage investments through employment-related investment vehicles, covering a wide range of areas, including some crypto infrastructure projects. The projects involved include: Compound (decentralized lending protocol), Optimism and Blast (Ethereum Layer 2 network), as well as Solana, in addition to trading infrastructure, crypto investment firms, and platforms in various fields such as artificial intelligence and biotechnology. These holdings appear to be relatively small, with poor liquidity, and have not generated reportable income, indicating a preference for indirect venture capital-style exposure rather than direct, tradable liquid assets.

Bitfinex released a report indicating that tokenized commodities are moving from early experimentation to practical application, becoming an important manifestation of the reconstruction of real-world assets (RWA) on the blockchain. The core of this shift is not to create new demand, but to reshape existing market infrastructure.Data shows that the total market value of tokenized commodities has reached approximately $7 billion, growing nearly 600% since the beginning of 2025. Current major participants include crypto-native investors and high-net-worth individuals. Amid increasing geopolitical volatility, tokenization is enhancing asset liquidity and risk management flexibility. Gold remains the primary entry point, with Tether Gold accounting for nearly 40% market share.The report points out that on-chain gold possesses characteristics such as real-time transfer and global auditability, making it more suitable as collateral compared to physical assets, and it can overcome traditional trading hours and settlement limitations. In addition to gold, tokenized commodities have expanded into areas such as oil, natural gas, and agricultural products, with soybeans and soybean oil each around $400 million, and green financing-related exposure around $850 million, indicating that this model has cross-category expansion potential.At the same time, the traceability of blockchain has also enhanced supply chain transparency, meeting regulatory and ESG requirements. Bitfinex believes that in the future, the focus of tokenization will shift from precious metals to industrial products such as copper and oil, achieving a transition from "product innovation" to "market infrastructure upgrade" by improving collateral efficiency, asset circulation speed, and transparency.

As AI moves towards the era of autonomous collaborative agents, the B.AI platform has officially launched, dedicated to providing key "financial infrastructure" capabilities for deep participation of AI agents in value exchange, breaking the bottleneck of the industry's shift from model capabilities to underlying support. As the core infrastructure linking agents and the economic system, B.AI will deeply analyze how it reshapes the economic role of agents through a special Space on April 14 at 8 PM. By building seamless financial access and collaboration standards, B.AI is accelerating the realization of the AGI vision with forward-looking technological layouts, opening new opportunities for intelligent productivity for global users.Users are encouraged to follow the official accounts @sunpumpmeme and @Agent_SunGenX, retweet the post, and @ three friends. The official account will randomly select 5 lucky users from the participants to receive a reward of 10 USDT each.