ga

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.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that a cryptocurrency company linked to "Russian gangs and intelligence agencies" is funding political opponents and influencing domestic cryptocurrency regulatory legislation.During a parliamentary vote on Friday, Tusk pointed out that some Polish politicians obstructing cryptocurrency regulatory legislation are serving the interests of a company named Zondacrypto, which is accused of providing "financial support" to political figures and has ties to Russia. Tusk further claimed that the company sponsored the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) event held in Poland last year, during which former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem publicly supported President Karol Nawrocki's campaign. Tusk bluntly stated that the company's funding sources involve not only "money related to the Russian mafia (Bratva)" but may also be connected to Russian intelligence agencies.Meanwhile, President Nawrocki won the election in June last year, with support from former U.S. President Donald Trump. The president's office responded that it does not oppose cryptocurrency regulation itself but opposes the "flawed regulatory model" proposed by the government. This controversy arises amid the political tug-of-war in Poland over the cryptocurrency regulatory bill. The bill aims to align with the EU's MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) framework, but the president previously vetoed the related bill and blocked parliament from overturning the veto in December, hindering the regulatory process.

According to Gate market data, after Iran announced that the Strait of Hormuz is now "completely open" to commercial shipping, the dollar erased all gains since the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran war, with the dollar index DXY falling 0.5% intraday to its lowest level since February 27. As investors focus on the ceasefire and negotiations for a broader agreement, the index has declined consecutively. Jayati Baladwaj, head of foreign exchange strategy at TD Securities, stated, "Safe-haven buying has begun to fade. That is the reason for the dollar's decline."

Gate Research Institute recently released a report titled "The Evolution of Liquidity and Trading Strategies for Crypto Leveraged ETFs," which points out that crypto ETFs are gradually becoming key tools for market liquidity. During the phase of rising risk appetite, funds migrate from spot ETFs to leveraged ETFs to amplify returns, but the "daily reset" mechanism also exposes them to significant loss risks in high-volatility environments. Overall, leveraged ETFs are more suitable for short-term tactical allocations in one-sided trending markets rather than long-term holding tools.The report further indicates that there are significant differences in product structure and usage logic between crypto market leveraged ETFs and traditional financial markets, with investors more inclined to seek short-term volatility gains or hedge through high leverage (such as 5x products).Strategies built on trading data from the Gate platform show that focusing on "right-side entry," combined with volume-driven momentum breakout signals, and employing a phased position building, momentum scaling, and strict stop-loss mechanisms, can help achieve a dynamic balance of risk and return while controlling volatility losses.

According to Jinshi reports, European Central Bank President Lagarde stated that the risks to the inflation outlook are skewed to the upside.

According to Fortune, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (Democrat, Connecticut) has sent a letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) requesting clarification on the status of two compliance supervisors at the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.Previous reports indicated that internal investigators at Binance had warned executives that over $1 billion in funds were flowing to wallets associated with Iran, but were subsequently fired. Binance denies that the firings were related to the investigation results and claims that its compliance system is strict. Notably, the DOJ had previously terminated independent oversight requirements for Glencore and Boeing, raising concerns about whether the oversight mechanism has also been suspended for Binance. In 2023, Binance was fined $4.3 billion for deficiencies in anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance, and the two supervisors were part of the agreement at that time.

Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB) announced the launch of stablecoin minting and redemption services, allowing businesses and high-net-worth clients to directly convert between fiat currency and stablecoins through SGB accounts, achieving real-time settlement around the clock without relying on traditional intermediary banking processes.This service is integrated into SGB's proprietary clearing network SGB Net, supporting seamless flow of funds both on-chain and off-chain. The first supported stablecoin is USD Coin (USDC), with a minimum transaction amount of $100,000, and it will subsequently support USDT, USDe (Ethena), and Global Dollar (USDG).

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange today published a consultation document regarding the shortening of the settlement cycle for the Hong Kong stock cash market (the "Consultation Document"), proposing to shorten the settlement cycle from the current T+2 to T+1, and seeking market opinions on the proposal.

According to CoinGlass data, WTI crude oil (XTI) is priced at $89.92, with a 24-hour increase of 2.02%; Brent crude oil (XBR) is currently priced at $92.66, with a 24-hour increase of 2.08%, and oil-related contract trading remains active. For XTI, the trading volume on the Gate platform is approximately $7 million, ranking first in the entire network; for XBR, Gate has a position of about $3.42 million and a trading volume of approximately $6.58 million, both occupying the top spot. Against the backdrop of fluctuating oil prices, Gate maintains a leading position in the related derivatives market.Gate contracts have taken the lead in oil, pioneering the commodity contract sector, covering XBRUSDT (Brent crude oil) and WTIUSDT (WTI crude oil) perpetual contract trading, providing 24/7 trading, USDT settlement, and up to 100 times leverage, assisting users in cross-market asset allocation and strategic layout amid volatile markets.

According to Hong Kong Radio, the Hong Kong government has decided to stop promoting basketball gambling projects. The Secretary for Home Affairs and Youth Affairs, Mak Mei-juan, stated in an interview with this station that the information collected by the authorities shows that the "prediction market" has developed rapidly in recent years, with monthly trading volume increasing from less than $100 million two years ago to over $13 billion last year, of which nearly 40% of the transactions are related to sports. The authorities are concerned that if new gambling projects are promoted at this time, it will lead to greater public concern and even participation in illegal gambling in the "prediction market." Therefore, it is believed that research should be conducted first before deciding on the next steps, and the promotion of new gambling projects should be halted for now.Mak Mei-juan stated that the existing regulated gambling projects have established a more mature monitoring and management system, which can help control risks. However, due to the uncertainty of the "prediction market," as a responsible government, there is a need to conduct research to understand the impact of the "prediction market" and its prevalence in Hong Kong. She also mentioned that the government has always maintained close contact with the Hong Kong Jockey Club, as the club has a rigorous monitoring system to oversee illegal gambling situations, and there are experts specifically targeting the fight against illegal gambling. The government will cooperate with the Jockey Club to obtain professional advice, allowing the authorities to implement measures specifically aimed at illegal gambling.Mak Mei-juan reiterated that the government's consistent policy is not to encourage gambling, and betting on sports projects in the "prediction market" is considered illegal gambling. The authorities will strengthen public education to help citizens understand the harms of gambling and refrain from participating in illegal gambling.

As the first centralized exchange (CEX) to connect with Polymarket, Gate's data shows that in the prediction event "How will the Federal Reserve's April interest rate decision change?", the market estimates the probability of interest rates remaining unchanged at a high of 99%. Currently, the overall sentiment in the macro market is cautious, with most participants expecting to maintain a wait-and-see stance in this month's meeting, awaiting more economic data guidance. Keeping interest rates unchanged helps stabilize market liquidity and risk appetite, and various assets, including stock indices and commodities, are expected to attract investor interest. Gate has a comprehensive layout of traditional asset categories, covering the widest range in the network.In addition, users can directly access the prediction market through the Gate App, entering the Polymarket page from the platform's homepage Alpha and using USDT in their exchange account to participate in event predictions. This integration marks a key step for Gate in the fusion of the crypto trading ecosystem and prediction markets, also bringing users a more open and diverse market participation experience.

Claw Wallet, a Web3 wallet infrastructure designed for AI Agents, announced a strategic partnership with TagAI and TagClaw. By deeply integrating Claw Wallet's secure AI-native infrastructure with TagAI's AI and socially predictive community layer, as well as TagClaw's on-chain social collaborative network, the three parties are jointly defining a new standard for the AI Agent ecosystem.The focus of this collaboration is to introduce TagClaw's Skill into Claw Wallet, empowering AI Agents with stronger intelligent coordination capabilities, making on-chain AI interactions more seamless, secure, and socially oriented. Currently, the three parties are fully committed to building a decentralized AI Agent infrastructure based on the BNB Chain, promoting the leap from independent tools to a collaborative social network for AI Agents.

Web3 asset data platform RootData released the sixth issue of the "Cryptocurrency Exchange Transparency Ranking (Stock Category)," continuing to focus on the growth trend of stock assets in cryptocurrency exchanges. In this issue, Binance, OKX, Gate, Bitget, and Bybit ranked in the top five.According to the ranking, most cryptocurrency exchanges saw an increase of around 10% in trading volume over the past week, reversing a downward trend that had persisted for several weeks, but the traffic remained mostly flat compared to last week, with no significant signs of rebound.In terms of ranking changes, Gate and Bitget both moved up one position, while Bybit dropped two positions. Bitget launched the first Pre-IPO project SpaceX (SPCX) in this issue, connecting the Pre-IPO product framework with traditional capital markets, enhancing the richness and institutional attributes of its "tradable stock assets," which is an important reason for the score increase this time.It is reported that RootData adheres to the "transparency first" principle and has taken the lead in establishing a dual evaluation system of "transparency + liquidity" in the field of stock cryptocurrency exchanges, thereby providing investors with more effective data references. The ranking will continue to be improved and published in the future.

According to The Block, Yuga Labs announced a management adjustment, with co-founder and CEO Greg Solano transitioning to the role of chairman of the board, and current Chief Product Officer Michael Figge taking over as CEO; Figge joined the company in 2021 and began his duties a few weeks ago. This adjustment comes as the company continues to advance its metaverse project, Otherside.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, one address purchased 590,900 HYPE from Galaxy Digital's over-the-counter wallet, worth approximately $25.92 million.On-chain data shows that another address set consisting of 6 addresses may belong to the same entity, holding a total of 4,114,234 HYPE, worth approximately $181 million, all sourced from the Galaxy OTC channel.

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.

According to Fortune magazine, in the context of a downturn in the crypto market in 2025 and the distribution of profits to investors, the portfolio values of crypto venture capital firms such as Paradigm and a16z crypto have significantly shrunk.According to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the total assets under management (AUM) of four crypto funds under a16z crypto dropped nearly 40% from 2024 to 2025, falling to $9.5 billion. Part of the reason is that the firm began returning capital to investors from earlier funds, and the timing of the returns coincided with the market peak in 2025, with a net DPI (distributions to paid-in capital) of 5.4 for its first crypto fund.Multicoin Capital's AUM has more than halved, dropping to about $2.7 billion. Paradigm's holdings also slightly decreased by about 6%. Meanwhile, the total size of a16z crypto's parent company, Andreessen Horowitz, has exceeded $100 billion.The report points out that the shrinkage in assets under management reflects the decline in portfolio value due to the market downturn, and is also a sign of normal exits by VCs and the return of funds to limited partners (LPs). Some firms, such as Haun Ventures, have seen their AUM grow by over 30%, reaching around $2.5 billion.Currently, Paradigm is seeking to raise a new fund of $1.5 billion, and a16z crypto is also raising up to $2 billion for its fifth fund.