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According to official news, on April 18 at 20:00, AINFT under Bai B.AI will jointly hold a special cooperation seminar on "Payment Systems under the AI Economy" with the PKUBlockchain Association of Peking University. This seminar is based on the emerging context of Web 4.0 and aims to explore in depth how payment, as a key infrastructure, drives the paradigm shift of AI from "content generation" to "transaction decision-making." Both parties will collaboratively delve into the innovative practices in the AI economic ecosystem and financial transaction system through a deep dissection of the intersectional narrative of AI and PayFi, reshaping the boundaries of future intelligent finance.

According to Edaily, Kim Sang-hoon, the chairman of the Digital Assets Special Committee of the People Power Party of Korea, expressed concerns about the restrictions on equity in cryptocurrency exchanges at an academic conference. He called for the prioritization of advancing the basic law on digital assets related to stablecoins (Phase Two legislation) to avoid getting caught in equity regulatory disputes and missing the golden legislative opportunity.He pointed out that the reality of the issuance and circulation of the Korean won stablecoin KRWQ has emerged overseas, posing a severe challenge to monetary sovereignty. Kim Sang-hoon emphasized that the law should provide market predictability, offer clear guidance for operators, and establish effective safety mechanisms for users.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments from lawyers representing the prediction market platform Kalshi and Nevada authorities regarding Nevada's ban on the platform's event contracts. This appeal stems from a lower court ruling that prohibited Kalshi from offering certain event-based contracts in Nevada based on the claim that Kalshi requires a license.The appellate court judges responsible for Thursday's oral arguments and Kalshi's lawyers acknowledged that there have been several state-level enforcement actions against Kalshi and other prediction market platforms, including criminal charges filed in Arizona. However, a federal court last week blocked Arizona authorities from enforcing the state's gambling laws against Kalshi's event contracts."I believe existing case law does indicate that what we want to avoid here is state courts and federal courts simultaneously considering the exact same issue and potentially reaching different conclusions," said Colleen Sinzdak, representing Kalshi.The core argument of Kalshi's debate is that the platform's event contracts fall under "swap" transactions and should be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, rather than state gambling regulators. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig supported this position in the case involving Crypto.com's prediction market and Nevada authorities.Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal predicted that this case may be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. "The questions in the oral arguments are not a reliable signal of the court's leanings; nonetheless, I stand by my long-standing prediction that the Supreme Court will rule on whether sports contracts on designated contract markets fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the CFTC as swap transactions."

According to a report by The Block, Mizuho Bank research analysts released a report on Thursday stating that the financial feature X Money launched by Elon Musk's X platform has the potential to disrupt the U.S. payment industry, but the cryptocurrency integration plan may face regulatory obstacles.Mizuho analysts Dan Dolev and Andrew Jenkins wrote in a client report that X Money is positioned as the financial infrastructure layer of the X platform, aiming to integrate instant messaging, bank deposits, and commercial transaction functions, similar to the "super app" model of WeChat Pay or Alipay. With 500 to 600 million monthly active users on the X platform and Musk's background as a co-founder of PayPal in the payment industry, X Money has the potential to disrupt the U.S. payment industry.On the regulatory front, the analysts pointed out two major potential obstacles: first, the recent "CRYPTO Act" proposed in New York aims to criminalize unlicensed virtual currency operations in the state, which will raise the compliance threshold for X's future cryptocurrency integration plans; second, the "Clarity Act" may restrict non-bank financial platforms from offering yields to users, potentially hindering X Money's plan to provide users with an annualized yield of 6% on cash balances, with analysts stating that the timing for the launch of this yield product is "particularly sensitive."Mizuho also downgraded PayPal (PYPL) stock rating to "neutral," noting that PayPal and its Venmo app face the most direct substitution risk, as X is targeting the same peer-to-peer transfer and digital wallet entry points.This week, the X platform also launched a new feature called "Cashtags," allowing users to view financial data for stocks and cryptocurrencies directly in their timeline.

According to Globenewswire, the American law firm Bernstein Liebhard has announced that it has filed a securities fraud class action lawsuit on behalf of investors against the Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Space Station, alleging that Gemini made false statements regarding its business operations and prospects in its prospectus and related disclosures, particularly accused of exaggerating the viability of its core cryptocurrency platform business. Investors wishing to serve as lead plaintiffs must submit their applications by May 18, 2026.It is reported that Bernstein Liebhard is a well-known investor relations law firm that has previously filed class action lawsuits against companies such as Ruhnn, Apple, and AsiaInfo-Linkage.

The National Police of Ukraine and the Internal Security Department conducted a joint operation, arresting a suspect in the Transcarpathian region who is alleged to be involved in an international cybercrime gang. This gang is implicated in fraud and money laundering cases exceeding $100 million targeting the United States and Europe, and had previously been listed as an international wanted person by the FBI.The suspect was found in possession of forged identity documents and had even fabricated a death certificate to conceal their whereabouts. The gang deployed malware to steal personal and corporate data, subsequently extorting victims for ransom. Money laundering methods included purchasing real estate and using relatives' names to obscure the flow of funds. Authorities seized approximately $11 million in assets, including cash, real estate, vehicles, and about $3 million worth of cryptocurrency, and also apprehended two co-defendants. The suspect faces charges of document forgery and money laundering.

JPMorgan analysts have stated that negotiations for the U.S. "Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act" (i.e., the CLARITY Act) have entered the final stages, with both sides reaching compromises on a few remaining contentious points. The number of disputes has been reduced from over a dozen to 2-3 core issues, with discussions on stablecoin rewards being "in a good place." While banks express concerns about stablecoins offering similar yields to deposits, there is an overall bipartisan compromise trend. JPMorgan believes that "there is no perfect bill," and once passed, the bill will provide important regulatory clarity for the integration of digital assets into the U.S. financial system.The "Cryptocurrency Market Structure Act" is currently in advanced negotiations in the U.S. Senate, with Senate staff stating that the draft is "very close" to resolution, but the final text has not yet been released, nor has a formal vote been scheduled. The remaining major disagreements focus on stablecoin rewards, DeFi regulation, and token classification issues. Although optimism is rising, there is still a risk of delays due to the 2026 midterm elections, which could lead to a more uncertain political environment. If the bill is ultimately passed, it will delineate the regulatory authority between the SEC and CFTC, providing a long-term regulatory framework for stablecoins, DeFi, and the entire cryptocurrency industry.

According to official social media news, the decentralized contract trading platform Sun Wukong will hold a live broadcast today at 19:00 (UTC+8) themed "Hong Kong Web3 Carnival: What Kind of Market Are We Looking Forward to in 2026?" At that time, KOLs in the crypto space such as Alice, Mike Banana, Metamental | Beyond the Realm, MMK, and Web3 He Yi (sophia) will attend to discuss the trends in the crypto market for 2026 surrounding the upcoming Hong Kong Web3 Carnival.

According to official social media news, Huobi HTX will hold a live broadcast themed "HTX Q1 Quarterly Burn is Coming: Will It Enter a Value Reversion Cycle?" today at 20:00 (UTC+8). At that time, HTX DAO core builders Molly, Helium, HTX DAO governance committee member Mao Mao Jie, ppp, HTX DAO listing observer Da Biao Ge, HTX research team leader Cloud, and HTX DAO Volunteer Association president Lan Yang Yang will all attend to engage in an in-depth discussion on the execution of the Q1 burn mechanism, the evolution path of the deflation model, and the subsequent HTX empowerment and ecological construction direction.

According to the official announcement, in order to meet the market demand for trading in the AI-related sector of US stocks, Bitget stock contracts have now launched six popular underlying assets: AMD, AMAT, SNDK, STX, LITE, and FLY, covering areas such as chips, semiconductor equipment, and storage. The aforementioned contracts support a maximum leverage of 20 times. For more details, please refer to the Bitget official platform.

The crypto wallet Zerion disclosed that North Korean hackers are using AI for long-term social engineering attacks, stealing approximately $100,000 from the company's hot wallet.Zerion confirmed that user funds, applications, and infrastructure were not affected, and has proactively disabled the web application as a precaution. Zerion also stated that the attackers obtained some session and credential information from team members who were logged in, as well as the private keys of the company's hot wallet, and pointed out that AI is changing the way cyber threats operate.

According to official social media news, Huobi HTX will hold a live broadcast today at 20:00 (UTC+8) on the theme "Collapse of US-Iran Negotiations, Return of Macroeconomic Uncertainty: Can Bitcoin Still Serve as a Safe Haven?" At that time, crypto KOLs such as Oxpink, Domingo, Michill, Amber, AlanSun, and Qie Ge will be invited to attend and discuss hot topics such as the impact of geopolitical conflicts, oil price fluctuations, and increased uncertainty in Federal Reserve policies on the crypto market, as well as whether the market has entered an "institution-led phase."

According to a report by Bloomberg, a recent study shows that many cryptocurrency investors in the United States may not have reported their digital asset holdings to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Tyler Menzer, an assistant professor at Texas Christian University, and his co-authors found that between 2013 and 2021, only 6.5% of taxpayers reported cryptocurrency sales, while surveys during the same period indicated that 12% to 21% of American adults had held cryptocurrency. The analysis suggests that some investors failed to accurately report income and transactions related to cryptocurrency, potentially leading to tax revenue loss.The study found that cryptocurrency holders are more likely to hold meme tokens, are younger, and have lower incomes, with trading behaviors significantly differing from traditional stock investors. CoinTracker data shows that for the 2025 tax year, cryptocurrency investors are required to report an average of 836 transactions, with average short-term losses of $636 and average long-term gains of $2,692.

Farcaster posted, "There will be no token issuance. The 'token discussion' circulating in the market is actually related to Hypersnap, which is a fork project of the Farcaster protocol. The Hypersnap team refers to its token as the 'Farcaster token' in discussions, which has led to confusion among users who are not familiar with the technical details.It is important to clarify that this is not a comment on the fork project itself. We just want to avoid this kind of speculation that continues to create unnecessary noise, such as bot accounts, airdrop users, and scam accounts, all of which can affect the overall network experience. It should be made clear that there is no so-called Farcaster protocol token airdrop."

Due to the migration of the top decentralized application Ether.fi to Optimism, the Ethereum Layer-2 network Scroll has experienced a significant loss of funds, resulting in a total value locked (TVL) decrease of approximately $160 million and an annual fee loss of about $13 million.Scroll stated that it will propose a plan to dissolve the decentralized security committee and reduce DAO members to lower operational costs, with network control being handed over to the internal team. Additionally, Scroll briefly raised network gas fees by 1,280 times after the protocol migration, causing users to pay over $50,000 in extra fees, but it has since returned to normal. After this adjustment, Scroll's TVL has dropped to approximately $23 million. The official statement claims that all contract changes will remain transparent and verifiable on-chain.

According to a report by Reuters, Federal Reserve Chairman nominee Kevin Warsh's latest financial disclosure shows that his personal assets exceed $100 million, which includes two holdings in Juggernaut Fund LP, each over $50 million, as well as small early investments in several emerging technology and financial companies through an entity named DCM Investments 10 LLC.The related targets include SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, the prediction market platform Polymarket, the Ethereum development platform Tenderly, the crypto financial services platform Lemon Cash, the new consumer credit bank Stashfin, as well as the AI vector art platform Recraft, AI physical security software Volt, the autonomous AI labor platform 11x, the protein engineering company Outpace Bio, the social event platform Partiful, the robotic coffee bar platform Cafe X, and projects developing herpes vaccines, reversible male contraceptives, "bionic" assistive clothing, and the digital avatar platform Delphi AI.

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced that it has initiated a compensation program for victims of the OneCoin cryptocurrency fraud case, with over $40 million in forfeited assets available for payout.The program is aimed at investors who purchased OneCoin and incurred net losses between 2014 and 2019. U.S. prosecutors stated that this move is intended to return some of the illicit proceeds to the victims. OneCoin was initiated by Ruja Ignatova and Karl Greenwood, with the related fraud exceeding $4 billion. Ignatova has been missing since 2017, and Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2023.

According to official news, Scroll announced an important proposal regarding protocol and governance operations. The team proposed to dissolve the Security Council and transfer protocol management authority to the Scroll Admin multi-signature address, with the transition expected to be completed within the next ten days.Scroll stated that the costs of the Security Council are no longer reasonable compared to actual usage over the past few quarters, and resources should be better allocated to product development and growth. Scroll will work with key stakeholders to find a new Security Council structure that is more suited to current market conditions.

Circle founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire spoke at an offline event in Seoul, South Korea, stating: "We are exploring the issuance of a token for the Arc Network (the stablecoin payment public chain being developed by Circle) to achieve governance, incentives, and economic alignment, and to gradually transition it to a PoS system. We hope to announce more details in the near future."