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According to official social media news, the HTX Genesis Hackathon, hosted by HTX DAO and B.AI, and co-hosted by TinTinLand and OpenCity, has entered a 1-day countdown. The event gathers industry VCs, builders, and leaders of top ecological projects. High-quality projects that stand out in the HTX Genesis Hackathon will receive ongoing computing power support, technical ecological integration, joint promotion, and deep cooperation from TRON, HTX, and B.AI.Huobi HTX global advisor Sun Yuchen and HTX DAO ambassador Molly will deliver keynote speeches at the opening ceremony. Sun Yuchen will share the latest judgments on the future development direction of the industry, focusing on the trend of AI × Web3 integration; Molly will interpret the ecological progress and collaborative path of HTX and HTX DAO.

Vitalik Buterin stated at the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival that Ethereum's ultimate goal is to build a digital infrastructure where users do not need to trust any intermediaries, featuring "self-sovereignty," supporting various decentralized applications from finance, social interactions to identity verification, which will serve as trust anchors for off-chain applications (such as privacy voting, prediction markets, decentralized social).

According to Coinglass data, the cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index is currently at 28, up 2 points from yesterday. The average over the past 7 days is 23, and the average over the past 30 days is 14.

ChainCatcher reports live from the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, where Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin delivered a keynote speech. He defined Ethereum by two core functions: first, as a public bulletin board for applications to publish messages and data; second, as shared digital objects controlled by code, encompassing assets, NFTs, ENS, and DAOs. He emphasized that Ethereum's goal is not to compete with high-frequency trading platforms on speed, but to become the most secure, decentralized, and always-online trusted chain.Regarding the short-term roadmap, he introduced the account abstraction proposal EIP-8141, which natively supports smart contract wallets, quantum-resistant signature algorithms, and privacy protocols; in terms of quantum resistance, there are currently two signature schemes based on hash and lattice, and the team is significantly enhancing their efficiency through EVM vectorization.He revealed that ZKVM is fast enough to prove real-time EVM execution, with this year's goal being to ensure its security, planning to start deployment from a small proportion of the network, aiming to become the primary method of validation by 2028, allowing Ethereum to scale significantly without sacrificing decentralization. In terms of long-term vision, Ethereum is actively utilizing AI to generate mathematical proofs to formalize software security verification, pursuing complete quantum safety and maximum simplicity to ensure platform security does not rely on the continuous existence of any single team.

The Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, Paul Chan, delivered the opening speech at the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, stating, "The rise of AI agents this year is another noteworthy milestone. The intersection of AI and technologies like Web3 is changing the game. The combination of the two will elevate transaction efficiency to a new level and cover a broader range of business areas, from finance and trade to wealth management, supply chain operations, and logistics. This combination will create a multitude of new opportunities but will also pose a series of challenges, such as issues related to infrastructure payment and settlement systems and regulatory rules.Hong Kong's policy on Web3 and AI has always been clear, maintaining consistency under the principle of 'one country, two systems.' As an international financial center, Hong Kong embraces innovation, with stablecoins, tokenization, and AI becoming important components of the mainstream future. Hong Kong's regulators have a dual mission of prudent regulation and promoting market development, which requires us to encourage and support more innovative applications, improving our institutional framework based on continuous experience. I firmly believe that Hong Kong will undoubtedly become a key hub for the thriving development, widespread application, and responsible scaling of the new generation of technologies."

According to on-chain detective ZachXBT, the multi-signature address 0x53d7 associated with the initial distribution of RAVE sent approximately 23 million RAVE to two Bitget deposit addresses, worth up to 23 million dollars, after which the price of RAVE dropped 40% from 1 dollar to 0.6 dollars.

At the "Crypto 2026: From Cryptocurrency to Smart Economy" themed forum held in Hong Kong, guests including Sign partner Sarah, HashKey Chain Senior Business Development YuYi, Monad Greater China Ecosystem Head Harvey Chen, OmenX Chief Marketing Officer Gisele, and SVP Chain Market Head Celest engaged in a roundtable discussion on "The Revaluation of Crypto and the New Cycle."Regarding why they remain firmly invested in Crypto amid the AI boom, Sarah pointed out that the hotter AI gets, the more use cases there are for Crypto assets, and future transactions between AI Agents will rely on digital assets. YuYi believes that the bear market is precisely when the wheat is separated from the chaff, with compliant RWA (such as Hong Kong's first physical silver token) being implemented, speculative assets being eliminated, and the era of on-chain infrastructure arriving. Harvey Chen stated that high-performance public chains are the foundation for supporting large-scale applications, and Monad is committed to this. Gisele noted that Crypto addresses fairness and value transfer, complementing AI's focus on efficiency. Celest emphasized that AI lacks a native value system and increasingly requires Crypto to provide value authentication and decentralized trust.On the changing understanding of Crypto's value, the guests unanimously agreed that the industry is shifting from "issuing tokens for the sake of issuing tokens" to pursuing sustainable business models, with greater focus on capital efficiency, low costs, and 24-hour settlement as practical values. The value of public chains should be assessed based on real business scenarios and user transaction volumes, rather than narratives and financing.Regarding future growth engines and entrepreneurial advice, the guests generally expressed optimism about compliant RWA, AI payments, and sovereign blockchain directions, advising entrepreneurs to focus on real application scenarios, avoid empty concepts, and maintain a long-term construction mindset.

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

According to Coinglass data, the cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index is currently at 26, up 1 point from yesterday. The average over the past 7 days is 21, and the average over the past 30 days is 14.

Lotus Technology Inc. (Lotus Technology, Nasdaq: LOT.US) Chief Financial Officer Dr. Wang Daxue confirmed his attendance at the forum themed "Crypto 2026: From Cryptocurrency to Smart Economy" held in Hong Kong on April 19, where he will present on the topic "Crypto Links to the Physical Industry, Smart Mobility on the Chain." This event is co-hosted by ChainCatcher and RootData and is one of the important peripheral activities during the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival.Lotus Technology has operational entities in the UK, EU, and China, with a sales network covering major markets worldwide. The company is committed to creating high-end luxury lifestyle vehicles, focusing on world-class R&D in next-generation automotive technologies such as electrification and intelligence.In recent performance communications from Lotus Technology, Dr. Wang Daxue emphasized cost optimization and operational efficiency improvements. As AI, crypto networks, and the physical industry accelerate their integration, his presentation will explore how on-chain technology can more deeply serve real-world applications from the perspective of the smart mobility industry. This forum will focus on the paradigm shift under the deep integration of AI technology and crypto networks, engaging in in-depth discussions around cutting-edge tracks such as AI Agent economy, smart payments, RWA, and crypto infrastructure.Event registration: https://luma.com/18v6vwpf

LayerZero posted on platform X that it is aware of the rsETH vulnerability incident and has been actively working with the KelpDAO team on handling and remediation since the incident occurred, while continuing to monitor the situation.LayerZero stated that, aside from the rsETH-related incident, other applications remain secure. Regarding the root cause of the incident, LayerZero is collaborating with SEAL_Org and others to investigate and has indicated that it will release a complete post-incident analysis report in conjunction with KelpDAO once all information is gathered.

According to the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, in response to the increasingly heated topic of "Middle Eastern funds flowing in" to Hong Kong, the Deputy Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Chen Haolian, stated that there are indeed more clients inquiring about how to transfer funds to Hong Kong or open accounts in Hong Kong, and that there is a two-way exchange between Hong Kong and the Middle East.He revealed that a licensed virtual insurance company in Hong Kong has expanded its business in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and that tokenized funds from Hong Kong have landed on Middle Eastern wealth management platforms. Additionally, Asian funds can purchase Islamic bond ETFs in Hong Kong, providing Middle Eastern investors with a familiar and trustworthy market.Chen Haolian emphasized that the Hong Kong government will actively develop financial technology and digital assets, and is currently formulating legislative proposals for the licensing system of digital asset trading and custody services, aiming to establish a complete regulatory framework to develop Hong Kong into a global hub for digital asset innovation.

The "Crypto 2026: From Cryptocurrency to Smart Economy" themed forum, sponsored by Monera Digital and co-hosted by ChainCatcher and RootData, will be held today, April 19, from 14:00 to 18:00 (GMT+8) in Hong Kong. This forum has received joint support from partners including Tencent Cloud, HashKey Chain, Alchemy Pay, Kite AI, Sentient, Sign, Predict.fun, Monad, Brevis, UXLINK, OneBullEx, SVP Chain, OmenX, TurboFlow, LOTUS, Mentis, NeoSoul, Swap315, Electric Soul, and others.As an important peripheral event of the "Hong Kong Web3 Carnival," this forum will focus on the paradigm shift under the deep integration of AI technology and the crypto network, engaging in in-depth discussions on cutting-edge tracks such as AI Agent economy, smart payments, RWA, and crypto infrastructure.Event registration: https://luma.com/18v6vwpf

OneBullEx confirms participation in the "Crypto 2026: From Cryptocurrency to Smart Economy" themed forum to be held on April 19 in Hong Kong. This event is co-hosted by ChainCatcher and RootData and is one of the important peripheral activities of the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival.OneBullEx is an AI-driven smart platform focused on contract trading. The platform deeply integrates AI automation, transparent execution, and trading infrastructure, providing users with a more efficient, transparent, and verifiable contract trading experience through tools like 300 SPARTANS robots and OneALPHA. This forum will focus on the paradigm shift under the deep integration of AI technology and crypto networks, engaging in in-depth discussions on cutting-edge tracks such as AI Agent economy, smart payments, RWA, and crypto infrastructure.

KiteAI Asia Pacific Head Laughing confirmed attendance at the "Crypto 2026: From Cryptocurrency to Smart Economy" themed forum to be held in Hong Kong on April 19, and will participate in a roundtable discussion. This event is co-hosted by ChainCatcher and RootData, and is one of the important peripheral activities of the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival.Kite AI is building the foundational layer of the Agentic Internet, aiming to create a vertically integrated artificial intelligence ecosystem to promote the realization of real business value and the long-term sustainable development of the network. This forum will focus on the paradigm shift under the deep integration of AI technology and crypto networks, engaging in in-depth discussions on cutting-edge tracks such as AI Agent economy, smart payments, RWA, and crypto infrastructure. At the intersection of technological leaps and economic restructuring, this themed forum not only provides insights into the current state of the industry but also offers a forward-looking reflection on the future intelligent economic system.

According to Coinglass data, the cryptocurrency Fear and Greed Index is currently at 25, up 3 points from yesterday. The average over the past 7 days is 20, and the average over the past 30 days is 13.

According to CNBC, a recent study shows that adding Bitcoin to a traditional gold allocation can effectively enhance the overall return of the investment portfolio without significantly increasing the risk level.At the same time, Goldman Sachs released a report indicating that cryptocurrency prices may have bottomed out, and some related stocks have high investment appeal; Standard Chartered Bank has halved its Bitcoin price forecast; other analysts pointed out that due to the recent continuous decline in the cryptocurrency market, the profitability of Bitcoin mining has significantly narrowed, making it difficult to achieve profitability in current mining operations.

According to market news, Xiaomi miclaw has officially passed the evaluation by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology's mobile intelligent assistant (Claw), becoming the first mobile intelligent agent in the country to pass this review.This evaluation was conducted based on the "General Framework for Intelligent Assistant Benchmark Testing," strictly assessing three major dimensions: basic capabilities, edge-side applications, and comprehensive capabilities. It is reported that Xiaomi miclaw relies on Xiaomi MiMo's self-developed large model, possessing four major capabilities: full ecological underlying support, deep memory, cross-domain interconnection, and continuous self-evolution, enabling it to connect mobile phones, PCs, cockpits, and AIoT devices to autonomously execute complex commands.