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Important updates from last night and this morning (April 13 - April 14)

South Korean crypto exchange Coinone fined approximately USD 3.5 million and partially suspended for three months for violating the Special Act on Anti-Money Laundering

The South Korean Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) has imposed sanctions on Coinone for breaching anti-money laundering obligations, suspending part of its operations for three months (from April 29 to July 28) and imposing a fine of KRW 5.2 billion (approximately USD 3.5 million). The restrictions only apply to external virtual asset transfers for new users, with no impact on existing user transactions. FIU pointed out issues such as unreported overseas exchange transactions, lack of customer identification, and violations of transaction restrictions. Coinone stated it will rectify the issues and carefully consider whether to file a lawsuit.

Circle CEO says not freezing Drift-related USDC is a 'moral dilemma'

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated in South Korea that the company would not freeze USDC addresses involved in hacking or vulnerability incidents without an enforcement or court order, referring to private intervention in user assets as a 'major ethical dilemma.' Previously, DeFi protocol Drift was attacked for approximately USD 280 million, of which about USD 230 million in USDC was transferred from Solana to Ethereum via Circle’s cross-chain protocol, drawing criticism from on-chain analysts like ZachXBT for not freezing the related funds. Allaire mentioned that Circle only freezes assets within a legal framework and is pushing for the U.S. Clarity Act to provide stablecoin issuers with a 'safe harbor' clause for preventive freezes in extreme scenarios. Meanwhile, Circle signed memorandums of cooperation with Dunamu, the parent company of South Korea's two largest exchanges Upbit, and Bithumb, to promote the compliant expansion of USDC in the local market.

Atomicals Market to officially shut down on April 30

Atomicals Market, a trading platform within the Atomicals ecosystem, announced it will officially close on April 30, 2026. The platform noted that current listings and bids are off-chain data and will no longer be displayed after closure, with users not required to take extra actions on their orders. The project team reminded users to withdraw assets or export private keys from AM Wallet before April 30 to avoid loss of asset management capability due to service termination.

The US military will impose a blockade in the Arabian Sea east of the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz

A notice to the crew shows that the US military stated any vessel entering or leaving the blockade zone without authorization will be intercepted, rerouted, and seized. The blockade applies to all vessel traffic, regardless of the flag it is flying. The blockade will be implemented in the Arabian Sea east of the Gulf of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz.

Strategy spent $1 billion last week purchasing 13,927 Bitcoin, bringing its total holdings to over 780,000 BTC.

An 8-K filing reveals that Strategy purchased 13,927 Bitcoin for approximately $1 billion between April 6 and 12, at an average price of about $71,902. Year-to-date BTC returns are 5.6%. As of April 12, the company holds a cumulative total of 780,897 BTC, with a total cost of approximately $59.02 billion and an average cost of around $75,577 per BTC.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies spent $156 million last week to increase its holdings by 71,524 ETH, bringing its total position to over 4.87 million ETH, exceeding 4% of the total supply.

Bitmine Immersion Technologies announced its ETH holdings have reached 4,874,858 (approximately $10.66 billion), accounting for about 4.04% of Ethereum's total supply. Last week, the company added 71,524 ETH (approximately $156 million) to its portfolio. Currently, around 3.33 million ETH are staked, generating annualized staking revenue of approximately $212 million. The company’s total crypto assets, cash, and investments amount to $11.8 billion, and it plans to advance toward the goal of '5% of ETH supply'.

Binance: The Alpha Airdrop for GENIUS has been delayed to start at 23:00.

According to a Binance announcement, the token distribution for Genius Foundation (GENIUS) on Binance Alpha has been delayed until 23:00.

The New York Post reports that Iranian officials are considering abandoning uranium enrichment activities as a condition for the United States to end the war.

Iranian officials are considering abandoning uranium enrichment activities as a condition for the United States to end the war.

Ondo Finance submits no-action letter application for OGM tokenized rights to the SEC.

Ondo Finance has submitted a no-action letter request to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), seeking confirmation that it can record and manage securities rights related to Ondo Global Markets (OGM) in a tokenized form on the Ethereum mainnet without altering the existing securities law framework. OGM will remain as tokenized notes linked to U.S. equities and ETFs for non-U.S. investors, with the underlying securities and official books staying within the existing custody and clearing systems. Only under specific circumstances will the custodian, BitGo, hold corresponding securities rights on-chain for purposes such as collateral monitoring, subscription and redemption processes, and reconciliation optimizations. Ondo stated that this application aims to improve record-keeping and operational efficiency rather than rewrite market structures or launch entirely new products.

AI infrastructure Deluthium Protocol launches Deluthium Dark, an institutional-grade execution layer

AI-native fintech infrastructure company Deluthium Protocol officially launched Deluthium Dark, an on-chain dark pool execution layer designed for institutions and professional users. In this execution environment, trading intentions do not enter the public mempool but are matched and settled in a protected setting, fundamentally eliminating the risks of front-running and sandwich attacks. The underlying execution engine is powered by a self-optimizing reinforcement learning system, capable of intelligently splitting large orders based on real-time market conditions and continuously improving execution quality through closed-loop feedback from each trade. Deluthium Dark offers five core product capabilities: order confidentiality, smart algorithmic execution, guaranteed quotes from institutional market makers, fair access mechanisms, and auditable atomic settlement. Deluthium positions itself as an AI-native fintech infrastructure provider, committed to offering foundational infrastructure for artificial intelligence in the digital finance domain via its intelligent reinforcement learning execution system.

A whale address withdrew approximately 8,091 ETH from Binance, valued at around $17.64 million.

The U.S. SEC issues regulatory guidance exempting self-custody wallet interfaces for crypto securities.

The Trading and Markets Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a staff statement regarding crypto user interfaces, stating that under certain conditions, service providers offering 'self-custody wallets + front-end interfaces' may operate without registering as broker-dealers. The statement defines these 'covered user interfaces' as websites, applications, or browser extensions that help users actively initiate crypto asset securities transactions on blockchains or smart contracts via self-custody wallets. The SEC noted that if interface providers do not solicit investors, do not guide routing choices with terms like 'best price,' and establish appropriate policies and procedures for analyzing trading venues, enforcement actions 'will not object' to their operation as non-broker-dealers. This document represents a temporary staff position and does not constitute a formal rule; the SEC is simultaneously seeking industry feedback.

Iranian Ministry of Defense Spokesperson: Any foreign military intervention in the Strait of Hormuz will exacerbate the crisis.

The spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Defense stated that any foreign military intervention in the Strait of Hormuz will exacerbate the crisis and undermine the stability of global energy security. Any military attempts by President Trump to interfere in the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman will fail.

DownDetector: User reports indicate issues with Claude services.

According to DownDetector, a network status monitoring site, user reports indicate issues with the Claude service.

US media: The US is considering preparing for a second round of face-to-face negotiations, potentially extending the ceasefire deadline

A source familiar with the negotiations revealed that discussions are underway within the Trump administration to arrange specifics for a second round of face-to-face talks with Iranian officials before the US-Iran ceasefire expires next week. However, it remains uncertain whether such a meeting will materialize. If progress is made in the coming days in negotiations with Iran and regional mediators, officials are examining potential dates and locations for the talks, describing these discussions as still in the preliminary stages. A regional source indicated there may be another round of negotiations, with Turkey working to bridge the gaps between the two sides. Informed sources disclosed that Geneva and Islamabad have again been listed as potential sites for the next round of talks. Depending on the pace of negotiations in the coming days, the US and Iran might extend the ceasefire to allow more time.

Russian media: The next round of US-Iran talks may take place in Islamabad on April 16

According to a report by Russia's RIA Novosti on the 13th, citing The Atlantic, the next round of 'direct talks' between the US and Iran may be held in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, on April 16.

Vance stated that substantial progress has been made in negotiations with Iran, and the second round of talks depends on Iran

US Vice President Vance, in an interview with Fox News, stated that significant progress has been achieved in negotiations with Iran. When asked if more talks were forthcoming, Vance said the ball was in Tehran’s court. He added that Washington expects progress from Iran regarding the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and warned that the negotiating landscape would shift if Tehran failed to act. Vance revealed details of the negotiations, stating that the US delegation exited the talks after determining that Iran's negotiators lacked the authority to finalize an agreement. Any further progress now depends on approval from Tehran’s leadership. “I think we’ve truly learned something about how the Iranians negotiate, and this ultimately led to our departure from Pakistan because we realized the team present at the time couldn’t reach an agreement. They had to return to Tehran to get either the Supreme Leader’s approval or someone else’s to accept our terms,” Vance emphasized. He reiterated that Trump remains open to establishing a more normalized relationship with Iran, provided key conditions are met. However, he noted that for Iran to become an economically normal country, it must also become a normal country that does not pursue nuclear weapons or engage in 'terrorism.'

White House crypto advisor: Other obstacles to the Clarity Act are being gradually cleared

Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Digital Assets at the White House, stated that a compromise has been reached on the controversy over stablecoin yields during the advancement of the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (Clarity Act), and other obstacles are being gradually resolved. Witt pointed out that resolving the issue of stablecoin yields is a precondition for advancing the bill, and the current compromise is expected to remain stable. Other unresolved issues include measures to protect against illegal finance in the decentralized finance sector and Democratic demands to prohibit senior government officials, including Trump, from profiting from the crypto industry. Witt mentioned that substantial progress has been made in negotiations, with multiple issues nearing resolution. The bill must undergo a markup session in the Senate Banking Committee before proceeding to a full Senate vote. The American Bankers Association responded on Monday, stating that the White House report claiming stablecoin yields do not threaten the banking deposit and loan base is flawed.

Kraken discloses attempted extortion by criminal groups but confirms no data breach and no risk to customer funds

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken disclosed an attempted extortion by a criminal group, which threatened to release videos showing access to internal systems. Kraken’s Chief Security Officer stated that the system was never compromised, customer funds were never at risk, and the company will neither pay the ransom nor negotiate with malicious actors. Kraken identified and shut down two incidents of unauthorized access involving members of its internal support team, affecting limited customer data from approximately 2,000 accounts. The first incident occurred in February 2025, and Kraken identified and addressed the individuals involved upon receiving leads; recently, similar leads were received, and another individual’s access was identified and terminated. Kraken has notified affected users and enhanced security controls while collaborating with law enforcement to advance arrests. The two incidents impacted only about 0.02% of the customer base.

Crypto wallet company Exodus sues W3C and its CEO, demanding fulfillment of a $175 million acquisition agreement

Crypto wallet company Exodus Movement has filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery against W3C and its CEO Garth Howat, seeking to enforce completion of the $175 million acquisition deal under the stock purchase agreement signed by both parties on November 24, 2025. The complaint states that Howat and W3C accepted an $80 million loan provided by Exodus after signing the agreement, including $10 million for Howat personally, but later claimed they did not need to repay these loans. Exodus also accused the defendants of attempting to siphon millions from its subsidiaries, forging submission dates on documents filed with government agencies, and firing board members, the CEO, and CFO of key operational entities despite prohibitions in the agreement. Baanx and Monovate, subsidiaries of W3C, are companies involved in launching the Crypto Life digital asset card business in collaboration with MasterCard and MetaMask.

ECB supports tokenized EU capital markets but imposes strict regulatory measures

The European Central Bank stated in its latest macroprudential bulletin that tokenization technology can only enhance the efficiency of the EU capital markets if it is anchored to central bank money, infrastructure remains interoperable, and regulation is 'robust and supportive.' The ECB pointed out that distributed ledger technology (DLT) could help deepen the EU's savings and investment union, but the benefits depend on interoperable infrastructure and policymakers' control over new risks. The report emphasized that efficiency gains must avoid fragmentation caused by incompatible platforms and ensure that tokenized market settlements can use central bank money. There is preliminary evidence that tokenized bonds have lowered borrowing costs and narrowed bid-ask spreads, but these benefits remain exploratory and conditional, with technological, legal, and liquidity risks still present. The report also analyzed tokenized money market funds and MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins, noting similar liquidity and operational risks, compounded by new operational vulnerabilities. The ECB made it clear that tokenization could support its vision of integrating capital markets, provided that policies, prudential rules, and central bank infrastructure develop in tandem.

The whale known as 'Set 10 Big Goals' has stopped losses, incurring a loss of approximately $5 million in this round.

According to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, when Bitcoin reached $74,900, the whale @Jason60704294, known as 'Set 10 Big Goals,' stopped losses, incurring a loss of approximately $5 million in this round. During the early morning rebound, the whale chose to stop losses at $73,500 on a short position of 2,567.49 Bitcoin, resulting in a loss of about $5 million. The ETH stop-loss point remains unknown. He stated, 'The original plan was to target $60,000, which would have been worth the risk-reward ratio, but geopolitical news was too strong.' Previously, this address had profited $21.76 million in mid-March, and overall profits and losses from three operations since April have been flat.

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Reform Party, purchases $2 million worth of Bitcoin.

Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Reform Party and Member of Parliament, purchased $2 million (£2.7 million) worth of Bitcoin through Stack, a publicly-listed Bitcoin treasury company, becoming the first sitting MP and party leader in the UK to publicly buy Bitcoin. Farage had previously invested £215,000 in Stack via his company Thorn In The Side Ltd., acquiring approximately 6% of the company, whose chairman is former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng. After announcing the purchase of 37 Bitcoin, Stack’s total holdings now amount to 68 Bitcoin. Farage also received a $4 million crypto donation from BitMEX co-founder Ben Delo and a $9 million donation from crypto investor Christopher Harborne. Farage is working to promote deregulation in the crypto industry and aims to revitalize the UK’s crypto sector if the Reform Party takes power. Critics have called Farage’s crypto investments 'a scandal hiding in plain sight,' viewing it not just as a Bitcoin investment but as an investment in political influence and power.

Huang Li-Cheng's Ethereum long position currently shows a floating profit of $2.14 million, but his total losses still amount to $26.4 million.

According to on-chain analyst Ember’s monitoring, Huang Li-Cheng, who has been rolling over and going long on Ethereum, now holds an Ethereum long position worth $29 million showing a floating profit of $2.14 million after Ethereum surged 8% in a single day. His entry price was $2,195, and the current Ethereum price is $2,365. However, his total losses on Hyperliquid still amount to $26.4 million.

Squads warns of address poisoning attack risks, stating no funds were compromised and that a whitelist mechanism will be launched.

Squads, a multi-signature protocol in the Solana ecosystem, posted on X platform that the team discovered address poisoning attacks targeting Squads users, though there is currently no evidence of any affected users. Attackers programmatically create new multi-signature accounts including existing Squads users as members using public keys available on-chain. Simultaneously, attackers generate public keys matching the beginning and ending characters of users’ real multi-signature addresses, making forged accounts appear legitimate in the interface. The goal of the attack is to mislead users into mistaking fake multi-signature accounts for real ones, transferring funds to their addresses or signing unauthorized transactions. Squads emphasized that this is not a protocol vulnerability; attackers cannot access user funds or modify existing multi-signatures—it is purely a social engineering attack at the interface level. Users should ignore any multi-signature accounts they did not create or that were not added by the team, and fully verify addresses instead of relying solely on matching the beginning and ending characters. Squads will roll out an attack warning banner and alerts for non-interacted multi-signature accounts within two hours, with a whitelist mechanism to follow in the coming days.

South Korean payment service provider NHN KCP will build its own Layer 1 network on Avalanche.

Korean payment service provider NHN KCP has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ava Labs to develop a Layer 1 network on Avalanche that focuses on payment scenarios. The two parties will use the Ava Cloud service to establish a mainnet for real-world payment use cases, focusing on sub-second payment authorization, on-chain transaction data encryption, and customizable merchant payment ecosystems. They also plan to explore new business opportunities in areas such as tokenized deposits, multi-stablecoin settlement, and cross-border payments. The CEO of NHN KCP stated that this collaboration combines the company's payment operation experience with blockchain technology to create innovative models that can be immediately applied to real business. The head of Ava Labs' Asia operations noted that the launch timing of this L1 largely depends on the progress of pending cryptocurrency regulatory legislation in South Korea.

Coinbase launches DEX trading access in the UK, integrating DeFi platforms like Uniswap and Aerodrome

Coinbase has opened decentralized exchange (DEX) trading access to its UK customers. Users can now access DeFi platforms such as Uniswap and Aerodrome via the Coinbase app to trade Base-native assets, with plans to expand to other networks like Solana. The CEO of Coinbase UK stated that the UK is the most important market outside the US, and this launch aims to demonstrate to the government the security of DeFi when operated under compliance. The service design concept keeps the frontend simple with Coinbase's user-friendly experience while connecting to DeFi protocols at the backend. Coinbase will screen asset risks through partnerships with trusted third parties, such as high concentration positions which could indicate rug pull risks. This initiative is part of Coinbase’s strategy to become an 'all-in-one exchange,' with more services planned for rollout in the UK this year.

Strategy's perpetual preferred stock STRC reached a single-day trading volume of $11 billion, setting a new historical record.

The perpetual preferred stock STRC issued by Strategy achieved a single-day trading volume of $11 billion, marking a new all-time high, representing a 46.5% increase from the previous peak.

Two whales holding long positions have unrealized gains exceeding $17.68 million and $19 million respectively.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, as the market continues to rise, whales are securing substantial profits. Whale '0x6c8,' holding a 20x ETH long position, currently has unrealized gains exceeding $17.68 million. An entity associated with Matrixport holds 20x BTC and 15x ETH long positions, with current unrealized gains surpassing $19 million.

The total holdings of the whale group owning between 1,000 and 10,000 Bitcoin have increased to 4.25 million coins, accounting for 21.3% of the total supply.

According to Cointelegraph, the whale group holding between 1,000 and 10,000 Bitcoin currently owns approximately 4.25 million Bitcoin, representing 21.3% of the total supply, with a recent accumulation of about 27,700 Bitcoin.

The long positions in ETH and BTC held by a whale associated with Matrixport currently show unrealized gains exceeding $36 million.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, due to the market rally, the whale associated with Matrixport, holding 120,000 ETH ($283.5 million) and 700 BTC ($52 million) in long positions, is currently floating a profit of over $36 million.

Yi Lihua: Continued optimism on the rebound due to Iran's concessions; altcoins plus futures contracts are a guaranteed losing game.

Jack Yi (Yi Lihua), founder of Liquid Capital, posted on the X platform: 'As Iran is willing to give up enriched uranium as a compromise to end the war, the conflict is progressing towards a complete resolution as expected. Hopefully, the hope for world peace is more than just an empty slogan. Meanwhile, structural solutions will eventually pass. We continue to be optimistic about this rebound phase unless hostilities resume. Recently, I have seen many people get liquidated in altcoin futures. Altcoins themselves are high-risk, and adding futures contracts makes it a sure losing proposition, especially when your opponent controls the chips, capital, and technology. Buffett was absolutely right: getting rich slowly is the best approach. No matter how good you are, if you win five times consecutively but lose everything on the sixth, that’s not a sustainable business model.'

Genius has opened its airdrop claim and released a whitepaper and roadmap, stating that tokens held by team members and investors will be locked for at least one year.

Genius, the Perp DEX trading terminal supported by YZi Labs, opened its airdrop claim last night, stating that Shuttle Labs team and investor tokens will be locked for at least one year. Additionally, Genius released a whitepaper and roadmap early this morning, stating that Genius is committed to building a unified on-chain trading interface layer to achieve execution quality and user experience equivalent to centralized exchanges while retaining non-custodial safeguards. The roadmap includes: Ghost Mode privacy layer, which separates execution from users' main addresses; launching GeniusFi (PropAMM) on BNB Chain, with liquidity actively managed by professional market makers, directly competing with PancakeSwap's approximately $700 billion annual spot trading volume; introducing BNB binary options as a more capital-efficient directional exposure tool, aiming to eventually price all major stocks and commodities. Based on community feedback, Genius added a 'refund' feature to the airdrop plan, allowing users to choose to burn all their GENIUS airdrop shares within 48 hours after TGE in exchange for a net fee refund collected by the platform.

An address was liquidated eight times within a few hours, leaving the account with only $10,600.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, the address 0x3386 was liquidated eight times within a few hours, leaving the account with only $10,600. The address is still highly leveraged shorting Ethereum, with the new liquidation price at $2,399.37.

A selection of the most noteworthy AI news from the past 24 hours, helping you filter out AI noise. Source: PANews AI Observatory

Claude Mythos Preview becomes the first model to complete the AISI network evaluation.

The UK AI Safety Institute (AISI) released its evaluation results of the cybersecurity capabilities of Anthropic Claude Mythos Preview. The assessment showed that the model demonstrated a significant improvement in capturing flag challenges and simulating complex multi-step cyberattacks.

OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google jointly established the AI Defense Alliance to counter China

OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google have begun sharing their most sensitive internal security data through the 'Frontier Model Forum' to collectively address the cloning of their cutting-edge models by Chinese AI companies using techniques such as 'adversarial distillation'.

Exposure of OpenAI Chief Revenue Officer's internal memo: Emphasizing the need to build a moat to respond to competition

In an internal memo sent to employees, OpenAI Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser repeatedly emphasized the company’s need to build a 'moat' around its AI products to fend off competitors (including Anthropic) while locking in users and expanding corporate business.

Microsoft is testing AI agent functions similar to OpenClaw for Copilot

Reports indicate that Microsoft is exploring the integration of OpenClaw-style autonomous operation features into its Copilot AI assistant. The tests aim to enable Microsoft 365 Copilot to operate autonomously around the clock, completing tasks on behalf of users.

OpenAI acquires AI personal finance startup Hiro

OpenAI has acquired the AI personal finance startup Hiro. This acquisition suggests that OpenAI is building a capability for ChatGPT: personal financial planning.

Man faces federal charges for attacking Sam Altman's residence and OpenAI headquarters

Daniel Moreno-Gama allegedly traveled from Texas to California with the intent to kill OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. He was arrested on April 10, after previously throwing a firebomb at Altman's residence and attempting to break into OpenAI headquarters.

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