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At the "Crypto 2026: From Cryptocurrency to Smart Economy" themed forum held in Hong Kong, Dr. Daxue Wang, CFO of Lotus Technology Inc., delivered a keynote speech titled "Crypto Links to the Physical Industry, Smart Mobility Running on the Chain."Dr. Daxue Wang stated that smart mobility is the pioneering carrier of the smart economy. Lotus, a luxury electric vehicle brand with a 78-year history, has been listed on NASDAQ and is actively exploring the deep integration of crypto technology with the physical industry. He proposed three major integration directions:First, safeguarding data value by utilizing the immutable nature of blockchain and privacy computing, allowing users to have absolute control over their personal data, achieving credible data circulation and value flow. Second, releasing asset value by exploring efficient circulation and fair trading of assets such as vehicle sales, brand value, autonomous driving technology patents, and global sales networks through RWA, while promoting credible traceability of carbon assets in green mobility. Third, co-creating ecological value by recording data on driving, charging, and maintenance through on-chain smart nodes, allowing users to upgrade from "car owners" to "participants in the brand ecosystem" through on-chain rights confirmation.Dr. Daxue Wang pointed out that the current challenges include compliance implementation, technology adaptation, and ecological co-construction, but the opportunities lie in open cooperation, promoting smart mobility as a practical landing scenario of the smart economy. Lotus hopes to work hand in hand with the crypto ecosystem to realize the vision of "from buying a Lotus car to sharing the growth value of Lotus technology."

Gate's outdoor crossover exhibition "Racing the Future" officially opened at the K11 MUSEA waterfront promenade in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong. On the opening day, the event attracted a large number of citizens and tourists, with attendance exceeding ten thousand, and the waterfront area remained crowded, creating a lively atmosphere.As the official sponsor of the F1 Red Bull Racing team, Gate showcased the team's brand new 2026 racing car and related equipment at this exhibition, and set up an interactive experience area to attract visitors to closely experience the combination of racing engineering and speed culture. Many visitors stopped to take photos and engage with the interactive content. The racing suits, equipment, and gloves of champion driver Max Verstappen and driver Isack Hadjar were also on display, along with a giant driver helmet installation of Max Verstappen, drawing many fans to the event.In addition, Gate will hold the "Gate 13 Blue Carpet Ceremony" on April 20, where the unveiling of the F1 Red Bull Racing team's display car and brand collaboration will take place; that evening, Gate will also host a high-end anniversary dinner at the Rosewood Hong Kong, with platform founder and CEO Dr. Han in attendance, and over 300 representatives from top industry institutions and partners expected to participate in the exchange.

Base Marketing Director Sarah Wolf tweeted that she will officially leave Coinbase after nearly five years of work. She joined Coinbase in 2023 as the first Builder Marketer, participating in and promoting Base from its initial small pizza party to an active builder community covering 52 countries.Sarah Wolf stated that after leaving, she will join Anthropic to be responsible for startup marketing, expressing her anticipation to support the startup ecosystem built around Claude.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, a certain whale/institution purchased 32,007 ETH (worth $77.49 million) from Binance, and it is likely that they will purchase more.In the past 24 hours, they sent $225.12 million worth of USDC to Deribit, Bybit, and Binance, with these funds coming from BitGO.

Bloomberg senior ETF analyst Eric Balchunas posted on the X platform that BlackRock's spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund IBIT has been rising almost daily for the past three weeks, increasing by about 3.5% again, and has accumulated a rise of about 19% since the market sell-off triggered by the conflict between the U.S. and Iran. As concerns about geopolitical impacts have eased, fund sentiment has clearly recovered, driving Bitcoin-related ETFs to continue strengthening.

The enterprise-focused digital banking platform Slash announced the completion of a $100 million Series C financing round, led by Ribbit Capital, with Goodwater Capital and Khosla Ventures co-leading. The post-money valuation is approximately $1.4 billion, with total financing reaching $160 million.Slash claims to serve over 5,000 corporate clients, offering features such as corporate accounts, virtual accounts, stablecoin payments, expense management, accounting automation, and real-time payments. The company stated it will use the new funds to accelerate product iteration and promote its strategy of "bank accounts as the financial command center for businesses."

According to Jinshi reports, Deutsche Bank expects that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged in 2026, whereas the previous forecast was for a rate cut in September.

Deribit officially tweeted that tomorrow at 08:00 UTC (16:00 Beijing time), approximately 2.1 billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency options will expire on the platform.Among them, the notional value of BTC options is about 1.63 billion dollars, with a put/call ratio of 1.02, having flipped from bullish dominance to bearish dominance since last week; the notional value of ETH options is about 445 million dollars, with a put/call ratio of 0.94, and the open interest (OI) for Ethereum has increased week-on-week.Deribit pointed out that despite overall market volatility, both major assets are currently operating below their maximum pain price levels. The maximum pain for BTC is 71,000 dollars, and for ETH it is 2,250 dollars.

Gate is hosting an F1 Red Bull Racing car display parade in Hong Kong, with the display cars appearing around Victoria Harbour and proceeding along a designated route, attracting market and public attention.This parade serves as an important offline action in the cross-industry collaboration between Gate and the F1 Red Bull Racing team, bringing top-tier racing culture into urban landmark scenes, enhancing brand exposure and discussion.From April 18 to 24, Gate will also launch the "Racing the Future" outdoor cross-industry exhibition at the K11 MUSEA waterfront promenade in Hong Kong, which will focus on showcasing Red Bull Racing cars and related equipment, as well as setting up interactive experience areas.As the official sponsor of the F1 Red Bull Racing team, this exhibition will be the first to showcase the brand new 2026 Red Bull Racing car and core equipment, introducing an immersive interactive experience area that recreates the fusion of top racing engineering and the aesthetics of speed.In addition, Gate will hold the "Gate 13 Blue Carpet Ceremony" on April 20, where the unveiling of the F1 Red Bull Racing display car and brand collaboration will take place. That evening, Gate will also host a high-end anniversary dinner event at the Rosewood Hong Kong, where platform founder and CEO Dr. Han will be present, and it is expected that over 300 representatives from top industry institutions and partners will be invited to participate in the exchange.

According to the official announcement, Binance Futures will launch the MSFT USDT perpetual contract on April 20, 2026, at 13:30 (UTC), the AVGO USDT perpetual contract at 13:40 (UTC), and the BABA USDT perpetual contract at 13:50 (UTC).These contracts track the stock prices of Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Broadcom (Nasdaq: AVGO), and Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) respectively. The above contracts support up to 10x leverage and multi-asset mode.

According to Jinshi reports, ECB board member Müller stated that the possibility of an interest rate adjustment at the April meeting cannot be ruled out.

According to SoSoValue data, yesterday (Eastern Time April 15) the total net inflow of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $186 million.The Bitcoin spot ETF with the highest net inflow yesterday was the Blackrock ETF IBIT, with a net inflow of $292 million for the day, bringing IBIT's historical total net inflow to $64.267 billion.Next was the Morgan Stanley ETF MSBT, with a net inflow of $19.3242 million for the day, bringing MSBT's historical total net inflow to $72.3613 million.The Bitcoin spot ETF with the highest net outflow yesterday was the Fidelity ETF FBTC, with a net outflow of $47.3457 million for the day, bringing FBTC's historical total net inflow to $10.881 billion.As of the time of publication, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $97.566 billion, with an ETF net asset ratio (market value as a percentage of total Bitcoin market value) of 6.51%, and the historical cumulative net inflow has reached $57.050 billion.

According to Cointelegraph, Chicago-based cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Bitnomial has launched Injective monthly futures contracts, marking the first entry of the Injective token into the regulated derivatives market in the United States. The contract is settled in INJ, expires monthly, and allows traders to gain price exposure without holding the underlying asset, with all cryptocurrencies or USD available as collateral through Bitnomial.Institutional clients can trade the futures immediately, while retail trading is expected to open in the coming weeks through Bitnomial's Botanical platform. Bitnomial also plans to introduce INJ perpetual futures and options.Analysts state that the launch of the Injective futures contracts will begin a six-month trading record, which is expected to support the application for a spot ETF. Previously, Canary Capital submitted a staking-based INJ ETF application to the SEC.

According to Xinhua News Agency, the spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that the United States proposed a package plan to Iran and hoped that Iran would "accept it in full." The U.S. knows very well that "this is impossible," and it does not conform to the logic of negotiation and dialogue. The spokesperson stated that Iran had previously submitted 10 ceasefire terms to the U.S. through Pakistan in response to the so-called U.S. ceasefire "15-point plan."The spokesperson said that with the participation of countries along the Persian Gulf, Iran is fully capable of ensuring the security of the Middle East, provided that the U.S. stops military intervention and war provocations. Any intervention from outside the region will only complicate the issues further. Many European countries are wise to "avoid falling into the U.S. military trap."

Investment company KKR announced that it has reached a final agreement with Samsung SDS, a blockchain and IT financial services provider under Samsung, to acquire newly issued convertible bonds worth 1.22 trillion won (approximately 820 million USD).Samsung SDS launched digital transformation experience services in 2020, including a blockchain platform, and co-developed a certificate service driven by blockchain technology with Shinhan Bank. Additionally, it serves as a technical advisor for the CBDC pilot project led by the Bank of Korea. It is reported that KKR will provide consulting services in mergers and acquisitions, capital allocation, artificial intelligence products, and global expansion, as well as accelerate the construction of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

According to Jinshi reports, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen stated that Federal Reserve Chair nominee Kevin Warsh lacks "credibility" in advocating for interest rate cuts.

According to SoSoValue data, yesterday (Eastern Time April 14), the total net inflow of Bitcoin spot ETFs was $411 million.The Bitcoin spot ETF with the highest single-day net inflow yesterday was the Blackrock ETF IBIT, with a single-day net inflow of $214 million. Currently, the historical total net inflow of IBIT has reached $63.975 billion.Following that is the Ark Invest and 21Shares ETF ARKB, with a single-day net inflow of $113 million. Currently, the historical total net inflow of ARKB has reached $1.502 billion.As of the time of writing, the total net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs is $96.563 billion, and the ETF net asset ratio (the market value compared to the total market value of Bitcoin) is 6.51%. The historical cumulative net inflow has reached $56.864 billion.

Bitwise Asset Management points out that the recent strength of Bitcoin is not contrary to a risk-averse environment, but is directly driven by geopolitical conflicts. Since the escalation of the situation in the Middle East at the end of February, BTC has risen by about 12%, while the S&P 500 index has fallen by about 1% and gold has dropped by about 10%, showing a clear divergence in performance.Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan and research director Ryan Rasmussen state that Bitcoin is simultaneously embodying two logics: "store of value asset" and "potential international settlement currency." As the financial system becomes "weaponized" and the global payment system fractures, the appeal of non-sovereign neutral assets continues to rise. The report suggests that geopolitical fragmentation is prompting some countries to explore alternative paths to bypass the traditional financial system, such as attempting to introduce Bitcoin settlements in trade. This trend enhances BTC's potential position in the global monetary system. Based on the aforementioned changes, Bitwise indicates that the Bitcoin valuation framework is being reshaped; if it captures both store of value and transaction settlement demand, long-term price expectations may be underestimated, and $1 million could shift from a target ceiling to a "benchmark level."

According to Jinshi reports, the Iran war has restored the traditional relationship between the dollar and stock market volatility, with risk-averse investors flocking back to U.S. assets. Since the outbreak of the war, the positive correlation between the dollar and the fear index VIX has continued to strengthen, currently nearing its highest level since 2024. Shaun Osborne, Chief Foreign Exchange Strategist at Scotiabank, stated that if the situation in the Gulf region does not trigger a significant and sustained rebound in VIX, the dollar may further widen its decline.

According to market news, the UK Liberal Democrats have written to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), requesting an investigation into the relationship between Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and the Bitcoin company Stack BTC.The party questions whether Farage's appearance in the company's promotional video, while holding shares in Stack BTC, violates market rules and presents a conflict of interest. Stack BTC recently disclosed that it purchased 37 bitcoins as company reserves, valued at approximately $2.7 million, and Farage holds a 6.31% stake in Stack BTC through his media company. At the same time, the UK government is advancing a proposal to ban political donations in cryptocurrency to prevent external funding from interfering in elections. The FCA stated that it will review the relevant correspondence and respond.