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According to The Block, Geoffrey Kendrick, the global head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered Bank, stated that the total scale of on-chain tokenized assets is expected to reach $4 trillion by the end of 2028, with stablecoins and real-world assets (RWA) each accounting for $2 trillion. Standard Chartered believes that DeFi protocols with mature risk control systems and scalability will be the main beneficiaries of this trend, while the advancement of the U.S. Clarity Act may become an important catalyst for accelerating the on-chain transition of traditional finance.Kendrick pointed out that the core advantage of DeFi lies in "composability." In an on-chain environment, the same asset can simultaneously earn yields, serve as collateral, and maintain liquidity, which the traditional financial system cannot achieve with similar efficiency. He stated that this structural advantage means "1+1=3." Standard Chartered cited BlackRock's tokenized U.S. Treasury fund BUIDL as an example, noting that the product not only yields about 4% from U.S. Treasuries but can also be converted into sBUIDL for use in lending protocol collateral and serves as a reserve asset for products like Ethena USDtb and Ondo OUSG.The report also noted that the current scale of off-chain assets is still about 1,000 times that of on-chain assets, and the tokenization of institutional-grade assets may become the core source of growth for the next phase of the industry. Regarding institutional adoption, Standard Chartered mentioned that Aave's asset scale once matched that of the 38th largest bank in the U.S., and the current daily trading volume of on-chain stablecoin lending has reached $1.5 billion to $2 billion.At the same time, the Bitcoin lending product developed in collaboration between Coinbase and Morpho currently has a loan scale of about $1.75 billion, covering approximately 22,000 borrowers, indicating that traditional financial institutions are gradually using DeFi as underlying infrastructure.

Tom Lee, the chairman of BitMine, the largest treasury in Ethereum, stated that if anyone wants to know why Ethereum has been under selling pressure recently: for me, the rise in oil prices is the biggest headwind, and the inverse correlation between ETH and oil is at a historical high.Over the past 6 weeks, while oil prices have continued to rise, the price of ETH has been falling. In the chart, oil prices are displayed inverted (the higher the oil price, the greater the pressure on ETH). Therefore, when oil prices begin to reverse and fall, the price of ETH is expected to rebound accordingly.This is just short-term tactical noise. The real long-term drivers for ETH are asset tokenization and Agentic AI. These structural positives are already in place, so we expect ETH to perform stronger in 2026.

Cryptocurrency analyst Marcel Pechman stated that Bitcoin rapidly fell back after being rejected at $82,000 on Friday, dropping below $79,000. The movement is highly synchronized with the U.S. small-cap stock index, indicating that macro factors are the main driving force behind this round of decline. The Russell 2000 index, which covers small and medium-sized enterprises, has a higher capital cost and is more sensitive to interest rate trends. The high correlation between Bitcoin and this index suggests that the market currently characterizes Bitcoin as a risk asset rather than a safe-haven tool.The funding rate for Bitcoin perpetual contracts briefly turned deeply negative on Thursday and remained close to 0% on Friday, with continued absence of long leverage demand—this indicator has been below the neutral threshold of 6% for several weeks. Multiple attempts to breach $82,000 have failed to boost market confidence. Macro pressures have been piling up: the outcome of the U.S.-China summit disappointed the market, with no specific tariff agreements reached aside from a commitment to accelerate U.S. agricultural exports over the next three years; meanwhile, the ongoing war in Iran continues to weigh on market sentiment, with Brent crude oil prices jumping from $99 to $106 in the past week, further exacerbating inflationary pressures.Additionally, the inflation-adjusted Shiller price-to-earnings ratio shows that the S&P 500 index is currently only about 5% lower than its peak during the internet bubble in January 2000, indicating a significant contraction in overall market risk appetite. However, the massive sell-off in the fixed income market may provide mid-term support for Bitcoin. The yield on Japan's 10-year government bonds has risen to its highest level in over 20 years, while the yield on the Eurozone's 10-year government bonds has also surged to 3.18%, a 15-year high. Analysts believe that in response to recession risks, central banks may be forced to inject liquidity, and funds flowing out of fixed income may ultimately seek other asset allocations, with Bitcoin likely to benefit from this.

According to The Information, the IPO process of AI chip company Cerebras Systems has once again attracted market attention, with key beneficiaries including Foundation, well-known venture capital firm Benchmark, and OpenAI.Cerebras has long been seen as a potential competitor to Nvidia, dedicated to developing ultra-large-scale AI chips, but its commercialization process has faced setbacks. The company withdrew its IPO prospectus in 2025, causing its listing plans to stall for a time. However, as the AI infrastructure boom continues to heat up, the market is refocusing on its potential listing value and early investor returns. Early investment firms, including Benchmark, as well as OpenAI, which has a partnership with the company, may gain substantial benefits from Cerebras' future listing.

Despite Coinbase reporting a net loss of $394 million in the first quarter, with revenue of only $755.8 million significantly below expectations, leading to a 6% drop in stock price, Benchmark analysts still reiterated their buy rating on Tuesday and raised the target price from $260 to $270. Analysts believe that Coinbase is transforming from a market-dependent crypto broker to a foundational infrastructure platform for the "onchain economy," having achieved net inflows for 12 consecutive quarters, with a global trading volume share reaching a new high of 8.6%, and possessing 12 monetization businesses, each contributing about $100 million in annualized revenue; additionally, the trading volume of stablecoins on the Base chain has increased tenfold year-on-year, and derivatives revenue has reached a new high, combined with an improving regulatory environment, all seen as long-term growth drivers.

According to BIT analysis, Circle's stock price surged 16% overnight and is currently approaching the March 2026 high. This week may become a key point for the advancement of the CLARITY Act. The market generally believes that Circle is the most direct beneficiary, and this increase also reflects that the market is pricing in expectations that regulatory uncertainties are likely to ease. It is worth noting that the overall market capitalization of USDC has maintained steady growth recently.This round of increase for Circle more reflects the market's early pricing of potential policy and regulatory benefits rather than a significant improvement in short-term fundamentals. If the regulatory rules for digital assets become clearer, it is expected to not only support Bitcoin but also encourage more institutions to participate in the market.

According to the official announcement, Gate Live has officially launched the "Live Lottery Carnival Phase 21" event. Users can accumulate heat value by watching live broadcasts, participating in comments and interactions, and sharing the live broadcast. 80 heat values can be exchanged for 1 lottery chance.This phase's prize pool has added rewards such as DJI action cameras, 10 GT, position experience vouchers, transaction fee cashback vouchers, and lucky bags. The event prize pool has been replenished, and users can now go to Gate Live to participate in interactions and unlock lottery qualifications.

Strategy CEO Phong Le confirmed that the company only sells Bitcoin under specific conditions. Previously, Executive Chairman Michael Saylor hinted at the possibility of selling Bitcoin to pay dividends, which led to a 4% drop in MSTR's stock price. Le stated that the decision to sell is primarily related to the Series A perpetual preferred stock Stretch (STRC, dividend yield 11.5%). The company will execute sales when it is more beneficial for shareholders to sell Bitcoin than to issue stock for dividend payments, with specific trigger conditions being the stock price falling below book value or mNAV falling below approximately 1.22. The second condition involves tax management, including realizing deferred gains or capturing tax losses. Le emphasized that the company's leverage is about 10%-15%, with a magnification rate of about 35%, and the financial situation is manageable.Strategy currently holds 818,334 BTC, with an average price of approximately $75,537, making it the largest publicly traded holder of Bitcoin in the world. Le pointed out that the daily trading volume of Bitcoin exceeds $60 billion, while the company's annual dividends are only about $1.5 billion, indicating that liquidity is not an issue, and stated, "I believe in math rather than ideology."

CITIC International Auction in Hong Kong kicked off the "Spring Art Treasures Auction (Part Two)", with the core lot Lot 61 "Five Dynasties Chai Kiln Celadon Tombstone Base" achieving a record sale of HKD 660 million. This move not only refreshes the market height of the Chai Kiln system but also marks the official start of a new asset cycle in the art RWA ecosystem centered around $CHAI.Previously, the Chai Kiln system had a transaction record of approximately HKD 380 million, forming the initial price anchor for this system. The hammer price of HKD 660 million is an orderly upward exploration based on the existing anchor point, demonstrating the market's continued recognition of this asset class. Chairman Huang pointed out that continuously establishing a reference system through market mechanisms will further solidify the foundational role of $CHAI in on-chain value mapping and pricing.

According to monitoring by Hyperinsight, ZEC surged again this morning, with the price on Hyperliquid currently reported at $618, a 24-hour increase of 8%. The biggest beneficiary of this round of market activity is on-chain trader Loracle, whose long position has continued to expand with the market, reaching a floating profit of $7.7 million as of the time of writing.It is reported that this position was opened on April 24 with 10x leverage, when the price of ZEC was only around $340. Since then, the position has been continuously rolled over and increased, with the long position gradually pushed up to $20.7 million, at an average price of $387, making it the largest long position on-chain for ZEC, with no profit-taking yet.

According to Jinshi reports, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits in the U.S. for the week ending April 25 was 1.766 million, lower than the market expectation of 1.8 million. The previous value was revised from 1.785 million to 1.776 million.

The AI infrastructure platform B.AI announced on May 7 that its user base has officially surpassed 1.7 million. As an innovative force dedicated to building the core infrastructure for privacy protection, intelligent routing, and the agent economy, B.AI is accelerating the execution layer of autonomous intelligent large-scale development through significant benefits such as zero markup on all models, a gift of 500,000 free points upon new user registration, and a limited-time 1:1 recharge with a cost reduction of 50%. B.AI will continue to drive technological innovation and extreme cost-effectiveness as dual engines, working with millions of users to build an efficient and secure autonomous intelligent execution layer, and jointly advance into a new ecosystem of agents.

Arthur Hayes stated at the Consensus 2026 conference that the cryptocurrency industry does not rely on regulation to drive development, and the core factors affecting Bitcoin prices are only technological reliability and fiat liquidity, with the latter being the true driving force.He pointed out that every round of monetary expansion, from the quantitative easing during the Obama era, fiscal stimulus during Trump's first term, to the release of reverse repo liquidity through short-term debt replacing long-term debt during Biden's term, has been highly correlated with the rise of Bitcoin. Arthur Hayes believes that although the Trump administration has promoted several cryptocurrency regulatory bills, Bitcoin has still fallen about 25% over the past 18 months, indicating that favorable regulation does not directly drive price increases.He also mentioned that the Trump family has previously experienced events such as de-banking, asset freezes, and lawsuits, which may make them better understand the value of Bitcoin as an asset that is detached from state control. Arthur Hayes stated that if Bitcoin ultimately evolves into a regular financial product on bank balance sheets, it will lose its original meaning.

According to market news, investment firm Benchmark has lowered its target price for Strategy from $705 to $570.

Barry Silbert, the founder of Grayscale's parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG), stated on the X platform that the market has yet to realize the global demand for decentralized digital value storage tools like Bitcoin, which could be as high as $2 trillion. At that time, the industry generally believed that Bitcoin itself was sufficiently private and could serve as a relatively private global value storage and transfer tool. However, as market awareness increases, the demand for privacy is being more clearly identified, and therefore privacy coins like Zcash will benefit from the "first-mover advantage."

According to Jinshi reports, the number of people continuing to claim unemployment benefits in the U.S. for the week ending April 18 was 1.785 million, lower than the market expectation of 1.815 million, and the previous value was revised from 1.821 million to 1.808 million.

According to Jinshi reports, the Federal Reserve has kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3.5%-3.75%, marking the third consecutive meeting of inaction, which aligns with market expectations.

Liquid Capital founder Jack Yi stated on the X platform: "In the past, the wave of crypto VC and project disappearances had a core reason, which is that the financing funds were mostly consumed on: maintaining teams to develop useless web3 products. The biggest misconception is benchmarking against web2 products. Essentially, web3 is a financial industry and does not need to replicate web2 products. The most successful companies in the past crypto industry have all been financial products, from stablecoins and exchanges to successful companies in payments.Now that the AI era has arrived, first, there is no need for large financing to recruit teams, and second, AI + finance presents new opportunities. We believe that excellent founders with a few elites can achieve top-tier companies, which is currently the biggest opportunity in primary investment."

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve Chair nominee Waller stated that if we cut interest rates, more people will benefit.

With time still remaining until the U.S. midterm elections, Trump's super PAC raised $35.6 million in March, bringing its campaign fund reserves to $550 million, setting a record for presidential midterm election cycles. It is attempting to maintain the Republican majority in Congress amid a tough election battle.According to Federal Election Commission documents, long-time Republican donor Diane Hendricks—who spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2024—contributed the majority of this month's fundraising, donating $25 million. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz each donated $3 million. The California-based tribal organization Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation donated $2 million. A subsidiary of prison operator GEO Group Inc. (a federal contractor whose clients include Immigration and Customs Enforcement) donated $1 million.As a large influx of funds arrives, polls show that Trump's voter coalition for 2024 is fracturing. Historically, the party in power at the White House tends to lose House seats in midterm elections, and Democrats are increasingly seeing a path to reclaim the Senate.