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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has released the "Draft Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2026-2030" and is seeking public comments. The goals proposed in the draft include "providing a solid regulatory foundation for digital assets and distributed ledger technology through a rational, coherent, and principle-based approach."The document points out that a modernized framework will also ensure that custody, trading, and staking services can operate under appropriate regulation, avoiding duplicative or conflicting requirements, while clarifying jurisdictional issues between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. This coordination aims to ensure that the crypto market has clear, principled, regulation-based rules of the game, promoting innovation while maintaining the highest level of investor protection. Furthermore, the document suggests that the agency's responsible use of artificial intelligence and blockchain technology could further enhance regulation, reduce costs, and unlock new efficiencies.

According to the official announcement, Anthropic has confidentially submitted a draft Form S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to advance its initial public offering (IPO) of common stock. The company stated that this move means it can choose to go public after the SEC completes its review, but the specific issuance timing still depends on market conditions and other factors. Currently, the number of shares to be issued and the issuance price have not yet been determined. Anthropic also emphasized that this announcement is made pursuant to Section 135 of the Securities Act of 1933 and does not constitute an offer to sell securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities.

According to Jin Shi reports, Tim Miller, the current host of the blog "The Bulwark Podcast," shared on social media the preliminary informal document content of the U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding published by Iranian state television.Subsequently, the official White House account "Rapid Response 47" retweeted Miller's post, stating that he "has contracted an extremely severe case of 'Trump Derangement Syndrome,' to the extent that his 'pea-sized' brain has been distorted, and he has begun to treat reports from Iranian state media as facts, even spreading false information on their behalf. Perhaps Tim should register as a foreign government agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)."

On the 27th local time, a member of the Iranian National Security Council, Broujerdi, stated that according to the preliminary draft agreement reached between Iran and the United States, the U.S. side will commit to a comprehensive ceasefire for 60 days on all fronts in the first phase, especially within Lebanon.

According to TASS, the Russian Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Russia plan to finalize the draft law for cryptocurrency market regulation next week and submit it to the State Duma for a second reading.Deputy Minister of Finance Ivan Chebeskov announced this news to reporters during the "Russian Digital Financial System: Digital Currency, Tokenization, and Artificial Intelligence" conference.

According to The Block, Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor for Financial Stability at the Bank of England, presented a vision for the digitization of the UK financial system at the 2026 London City Week conference, focusing on the integration of regulated stablecoins. A draft rule for systemic stablecoins is planned to be released next month, with the final version to be completed by the end of the year. Breeden pointed out that future retail payment systems should include various interchangeable forms of currency, including digital deposits and stablecoins.She stated that shared ledger technology is expected to reduce payment costs and accelerate processing speeds, minimizing intermediaries. In addition, smart contracts support customization, conditionality, and automation, further enhancing the efficiency of retail payments. Breeden emphasized that the Bank of England will actively support the responsible adoption of AI technology, including agent payments and commercial transactions.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee has released the first updated complete draft of the CLARITY Act since January of this year. The new draft has made significant adjustments in several key chapters.These include: a major rewrite of Chapter 1 concerning definitions, the authority of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other content; the addition of insider trading provisions in Section 109; updating "joint control" to "coordinated control" in Chapter 2; rewriting Section 301 to further clarify the regulatory boundaries between DeFi and CeFi; updating Section 404 to incorporate the compromise proposal from Tillis and Alsobrooks; adjusting Section 505 to narrow the scope of SEC's authority limitations in the tokenization field; and restructuring the bankruptcy and insolvency framework in Sections 701 and 702. Additionally, Section 904 is a new addition, titled the "Build Now Act."Alex Thorn also pointed out that the protective provisions for developers in the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act in Section 604 remain largely intact, with only minor modifications that do not weaken its core protective content.

On May 12, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee released the latest 309-page draft of the CLARITY Act, but Section 404 of the draft stipulates that it prohibits rewards "solely for holding" stablecoins.Specifically, no regulated entity may directly or indirectly pay any form of interest or yield (whether cash, tokens, or other consideration) to a restricted payee solely because the restricted payee holds its stablecoins, or pay stablecoin balance rewards in a manner economically or functionally equivalent to paying interest or yield on bank deposits.However, the latest draft also stipulates that rewards and incentives for stablecoins based on real activities or transactions are allowed, such as rewards linked to actual transactions, payments, platform activities, liquidity provision, etc.

Ethereum developer Tom Lehman has released a draft proposal for EIP-8182, which aims to make private transactions a native feature of Ethereum by introducing shared privacy pools, a fixed address system contract, and zero-knowledge proof verification precompiles at the Ethereum protocol layer.The proposal states that the solution will be implemented through a hard fork upgrade, without an administrator key, governance tokens, or on-chain upgrade mechanisms, with the goal of addressing the issues of decentralization and inconsistent trust models in privacy applications. As designed, users can make private transactions to any Ethereum address or ENS name using existing wallets, and it supports atomic "de-sensitization - interaction - re-privatization" processes.

According to Caixin, the one-month public consultation for the "Financial Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft)" ended today (April 19). This is the first overarching law in China and the world with "finance" in its name. The expansion of "quasi-judicial powers" for financial regulation is a topic of great concern in the market.According to Article 55 and related provisions, financial regulatory authorities have the right to access and copy property rights information, communication records, and transaction records of relevant entities and individuals when investigating financial violations. They can directly freeze or seal assets if there is evidence suggesting the transfer or concealment of illegal funds and securities. They can even decide that individuals suspected of violations cannot leave the country during the investigation.In addition, Zeng Gang, chief expert and director of the Shanghai Financial and Development Laboratory, believes that the "Financial Law" should also strengthen its focus and coverage on emerging financial formats. Topics such as AI-driven financial decision-making, the legal status of digital currencies, and the regulatory boundaries of crypto assets have sparked widespread controversy globally, but the draft addresses them very little. How to maintain a dynamic balance between lawful regulation and inclusive innovation is a problem left to be solved by legislation.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has released the final draft of the crypto asset framework. This new regulation is set to bring most crypto activities under the regulation of the Financial Services and Markets Act by October 25, 2027.According to the proposal, any institution that holds customer crypto assets for more than 24 hours or has the ability to revoke customer permissions will be considered a regulated custodian and must hold a full safeguarding license. Validators and node operators that provide value-added features such as yield or reward reinvestment will lose their technical exemptions. In addition, stablecoin issuers within the UK must control the entire lifecycle from issuance to redemption. Relevant institutions must submit authorization applications between September 30, 2026, and February 28, 2027.

According to Decrypt, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis stated that the Senate is expected to release a revised draft text on stablecoin yield distribution this week.Currently, there is a disagreement between banks and crypto companies on whether cryptocurrency exchanges should be allowed to pay yields to stablecoin holders through reward programs, and this controversy has stalled the legislative process of the Clarity Act. The White House Council of Economic Advisers recently released a report stating that banning stablecoin yields would have a minimal impact on small banks, only increasing bank lending by 0.02%. However, the American Bankers Association believes this analysis underestimates the risks. Observers point out that if the draft provisions are too strict, it may lead users and liquidity to flow to other jurisdictions that allow yields.

According to BBX data, yesterday, with the start of the first complete trading week of the second quarter, global listed companies disclosed several key data points regarding "cross-border positioning":$15 million initial position: DraftKings (NASDAQ: $DKNG) disclosed that it has completed a strategic allocation of $15 million in Bitcoin. As a North American sports betting giant, the company plans to use this reserve as the underlying clearing fund pool for its upcoming "Web3 event prediction market."100% hash rate retention: Greenidge Generation (NASDAQ: $GREE) released operational guidance for March and early second quarter yesterday, announcing that its mining facility in New York State has officially entered the 100% output retention phase and has further reduced the acquisition cost of each BTC by utilizing low off-peak electricity prices.$5 million IP anchoring: Lionsgate (NYSE: $LGF.A) confirmed yesterday that it has allocated $5 million to purchase Bitcoin. This marks the first time a leading Hollywood studio has included digital hard assets on its balance sheet, aiming to provide real asset backing for the on-chain tokenization (RWA) of its future film IP.Treasury hedge infrastructure: Cboe Global Markets (BATS: $CBOE) announced yesterday the launch of two brand new "enterprise-level Bitcoin volatility index options," specifically designed for listed companies with more than 500 BTC on their balance sheets, helping them smooth out the fluctuations in book value during quarterly reporting periods.

According to Jinshi, citing the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Gharibabadi stated that Iran is drafting a passage agreement for the Strait of Hormuz with Oman.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett revealed that the office of U.S. Senator Thom Tillis plans to publicly release legislative text related to stablecoin yields and reward mechanisms next week, and is currently in ongoing communication with various industry stakeholders.According to reports, this move comes in response to dissatisfaction expressed by participants in the crypto industry, such as Coinbase, regarding the relevant terms presented earlier this week. Coinbase's Global Head of Investment Research, David Duong, stated that the industry is preparing a coordinated counter-proposal aimed at pushing for adjustments to the terms to protect users while maintaining a sustainable reward mechanism.

U.S. Congressman Steven Horsford and Max Miller announced the discussion draft of the "Digital Asset PARITY Act," which aims to promote the development of digital assets and enhance compliance by establishing a unified tax framework.The draft proposes a small tax exemption for regulated dollar stablecoin transactions under $200 to reduce the tax burden in everyday payments; it also allows miners and stakers to defer tax on rewards for up to 5 years. Additionally, the draft plans to extend the rules for false sales and presumed sales to digital assets and introduce tax treatments based on market value, while clarifying the tax rules for digital asset lending and charitable donations. The bill is still in the discussion stage and has not yet been formally submitted to Congress.

According to the Iranian SNN news agency, Iranian Navy Commander Irani stated that the U.S. aircraft carrier strike group "Lincoln" is under continuous surveillance by Iran, and once it enters the range of the missile system, it will become a target for attack.

On Tuesday morning, US stocks saw the issuer of USDC, Circle (CRCL), drop by as much as 18%, while the crypto platform Coinbase (COIN) fell by about 8%. CoinDesk reported that the latest draft of the U.S. Clarity Act aims to restrict rewards on stablecoin balances, including prohibiting rewards for passive stablecoin balances and banning structures that are "economically equivalent to interest."Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev stated that the draft may prohibit payments of earnings solely for holding stablecoins and limit any practices that make the program equivalent to bank deposits in any way. The report mentioned that the GENIUS Act previously prohibited issuers from directly paying earnings to users, but issuers and platforms arranged rewards through methods such as distributing earnings from reserve assets; among them, Circle earns interest on the assets backing USDC and shares it with Coinbase, which uses this to provide rewards to users.Keyrock digital asset researcher Amir Hajian noted that the latest draft of the Clarity Act points to the aforementioned "earnings penetration" model by prohibiting arrangements that are "economically equivalent to interest." Additionally, USDT issuer Tether announced that it has hired one of the "Big Four" accounting firms to conduct a comprehensive audit of its USDT reserves. The report also pointed out that this drop occurred after Circle's stock price had risen by 170% since early February, with Clear Street analyst Owen Lau suggesting that the market reaction may be excessive; market participants are also factoring in expectations of interest rate hikes.