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The National Association of Attorneys General, the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the National Sheriffs' Association jointly sent a letter to the Department of Justice and the White House on Tuesday, warning that Section 604 of the Digital Asset Market Structure Clarity Act contains serious enforcement loopholes that could make it difficult for law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute crypto-related criminal activities. The letter pointed out that Section 604 includes broad exemption clauses that may allow individuals or entities assisting in the circulation of crypto assets to evade regulatory accountability, disrupting the investigative and enforcement powers that have long been relied upon.The four organizations emphasized that their concerns are not aimed at developers who simply write or publish software code, but rather at the broad exemptions that may provide a shield for illegal activities. The core of the controversy lies in Section 604—the "Blockchain Regulatory Clarity Act" (BRCA) provision, which was originally a standalone bill but was later incorporated into the Clarity Act, aimed at providing a safe harbor for non-custodial developers, clarifying that they do not fall under money transmission entities. Law enforcement organizations believe this move will create obstacles for investigations into crypto crimes.Additionally, the letter pointed out that several other provisions of the bill would "reduce transparency, weaken accountability mechanisms, and create loopholes in the anti-money laundering framework." On the same day, nearly a hundred Catholic leaders representing parishes across the country also issued a warning, stating that the bill could weaken protections against human trafficking. In response, White House cryptocurrency advisor Patrick Harker insisted that the Clarity Act is a bill that "supports regulation and supports law enforcement," emphasizing that the U.S. must proactively set standards or risk passively accepting the rules of other countries.

According to an open letter released by The Blockchain Association, multiple organizations related to cryptocurrency and blockchain have written to Jason Smith, Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means, and senior member Richard Neal, supporting the passage of H.R. 9175, the "Tax Clarity for Mining and Staking Act," as originally proposed by Congressman Mike Carey.The joint letter states that the bill provides a compromise solution for the taxation timing and nature of PoW mining and PoS staking rewards under the "self-created assets" tax framework, avoiding immediate taxation on "unrealized gains" and reducing forced selling and compliance burdens. It also opposes the addition of additional clauses such as a five-year mandatory confirmation in the existing text, urging Congress to legislate as soon as possible to stabilize the tax expectations for blockchain validation activities in the United States.

Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, stated on social media that it would be a wonderful thing if the world could have a truly trustworthy and neutral global coordination and digital asset settlement platform. It is the large-scale and rigorous decentralization achieved by the Ethereum platform that makes this vision possible. Soon, and in the near future, more organizations with trustworthy neutrality and ample funding will join in to promote this mission alongside the Ethereum Foundation.These organizations will focus on facilitating the development of the entire Ethereum ecosystem and advancing the areas of interest for many financial institutions adopting Ethereum technology, including: Ethereum Mainnet, Layer 2 networks (L2), and private Ethereum networks. In the future, these three major systems will be able to achieve near real-time interoperability and composability, while ETH will flow freely within this expanded Ethereum ecosystem landscape.

Binance founder CZ disclosed on social media that over the past two years, he has donated $500,000 every six months to the nonprofit organization Prison Professors, totaling four donations and reaching $2 million. It is reported that this funding is primarily used to support free educational programs in U.S. prisons. CZ stated that he had not publicly disclosed this donation matter before.

According to the Korea Herald, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Wide Area Crime Investigation Team has dismantled two organizations involved in money laundering using virtual assets, with a total amount involved exceeding 14 billion Korean won. One organization consists of nine individuals, including a Chinese suspect A (45 years old), who were instructed by a Cambodian telecom fraud group. From February 2024 to April 2025, they purchased USDT through overseas exchanges and transferred it between domestic and foreign exchanges, laundering approximately 14 billion Korean won in total. The organization charged a fee of 650 million Korean won, and the main suspects have been transferred to the prosecution, with two individuals arrested, and the leader Y (29 years old) has been issued a red notice by Interpol.The other organization, consisting of 14 individuals, directly participated in laundering the proceeds from the Cambodian romance scam, with an amount involved of approximately 2.8 billion Korean won. In addition, another 33 individuals have been transferred to the prosecution for allegedly providing unlicensed virtual currency exchange services to foreign tourists (involving 6.3 billion Korean won).

According to CriptoNoticias, Chilean judicial authorities have launched an investigation into the cryptocurrency platform Plusspay, accusing it of providing a money laundering channel for the multinational criminal organization Aragua Train.The investigation shows that the platform may have exchanged local fiat currency for Tether, USD stablecoins, and other stablecoins through multiple affiliated companies, and used the Chilean banking system to transfer funds, with the scale of related suspicious fund flows exceeding 84 million dollars.

Zcash core developer Sean Bowe published an update on the progress of the Ironwood upgrade, stating that in the past 48 hours, protocol developers from various organizations have held two meetings and reached consensus on several specifications and implementation details of Ironwood, including disabling Orchard pool bundling in Coinbase transactions, using anchors for hardware wallet migration authentication data, and the order of processing ZIPs and specifications. Currently, the Ironwood circuit and ZIP 2005 integration draft are under review. Valar Group has completed the setup of the testnet and implemented some changes on the wallet side.Meanwhile, formal verification work continues to advance, and the development team plans to hold a meeting tomorrow to determine the final verification strategy. In addition, at least three mainstream auditing firms are conducting security audits on Orchard, and multiple AI auditing tools have also been put into use. Sean Bowe stated that overall development progress is going smoothly.

Stand With Crypto's UK branch has initiated action, calling on banks to lift restrictions on transfers to cryptocurrency exchanges, arguing that such practices conflict with the UK's goal of becoming a global digital asset hub.The organization stated that about 40% of banks in the UK have blocked or delayed transactions to cryptocurrency exchanges, and 80% of exchanges reported a significant increase in trading resistance from customers over the past year. Some exchanges have even experienced nearly £1 billion in transaction cancellations within a year due to banks refusing to process transfers.Stand With Crypto UK plans to mobilize over 286,000 registered cryptocurrency advocates in the UK to submit formal complaints to their respective banks. The organization stated that users should not be unable to access legitimate asset classes due to banks imposing "one-size-fits-all" restrictions on the entire industry.

Hyperliquid's lobbying organization, Hyperliquid Policy Center, issued a statement welcoming the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)'s latest regulatory initiatives, including the approval of the first listed perpetual contract in the U.S., the release of a policy statement on the listing of perpetual derivatives, related interpretive guidance, and a no-action relief letter, as well as staff consultation documents regarding 24/7 trading, clearing, and settlement.The Hyperliquid Policy Center stated that these initiatives represent the first time in a long while that regulators have explicitly acknowledged the legitimacy and importance of perpetual contracts in price discovery and risk management. It pointed out that past regulatory uncertainty has led to related markets and liquidity flowing overseas, weakening the U.S.'s competitiveness in the global derivatives market.The Hyperliquid Policy Center also expressed its eagerness to work closely with the CFTC to promote the establishment of a regulatory framework that applies not only to centralized intermediaries but also to on-chain protocols. Currently, most perpetual contract trading activities actually occur in on-chain markets.

Several core institutions have chosen the 1155 F Street building in Washington as their office location, including Coinbase, DCG, the Blockchain Association, and Injective on the third floor, as well as the Solana Policy Institute, Hyperliquid Policy Center, and DeFi Education Fund on the tenth floor. In addition, the venture capital firm Paradigm is set to move into the building. According to market news, White House officials, Capitol Hill staff, state legislators, and congressional candidates seeking cryptocurrency support have all visited this building. Therefore, it can be said that the 1155 F Street building in Washington has become the lobbying command center for the cryptocurrency industry.

According to The Block, former Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist posted on the X platform, proposing the establishment of a new organization aligned with the Ethereum economy to "save" Ethereum. He believes that the Ethereum Foundation currently holds less than 0.1% of ETH, with no staking or fee income flowing in, so the new organization needs to raise at least $1 billion in funding, managed by competent leaders, with part of the funds coming from staking income, and driven by a more responsible board to boost Ethereum's price.Feist left the foundation last year to join Layer 1 network Tempo. He co-created the Danksharding shard design in the Ethereum community to enhance Layer 2 scalability, was appointed as a strategic advisor in areas such as L1 scaling and user experience during the restructuring of the foundation's leadership, and proposed EIP-9698, which would increase the Gas limit by 100 times.

In response to Bloomberg's report on CME and ICE pressuring the CFTC regarding Hyperliquid, the Hyperliquid Policy Center, a lobbying organization led by prominent crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky and funded by the Hyper Foundation, tweeted that the concerns lack basis.The organization stated that Hyperliquid publishes complete on-chain transaction records in real-time, with transparency far exceeding that of traditional exchanges, which serves as a strong deterrent against insider trading and price manipulation, and is beneficial for regulatory agencies and law enforcement to conduct monitoring and investigations.Additionally, Hyperliquid offers 24/7 uninterrupted trading, effectively eliminating price gaps between the opening and closing of traditional markets. The organization acknowledged that current U.S. laws have not yet made specific provisions for on-chain derivatives markets and will continue to work with Washington policymakers to promote the implementation of relevant regulatory frameworks.Previously, the Hyperliquid Policy Center was established on February 18 of this year in Washington, with former Blockchain Association and Variant Chief Legal Officer Jake Chervinsky serving as CEO, receiving a donation of 1 million HYPE from the Hyper Foundation, focusing on promoting a compliant regulatory path for DeFi in the United States.

According to CoinDesk, the American Innovation Project (AIP), a U.S. technology policy advocacy organization, has added two policy researchers, including Jacob Smagula, who has a background in the cryptocurrency industry, to join Congressman Ritchie Torres's team to participate in legislation related to digital assets.It is reported that Smagula previously worked in the government affairs team of the Bitcoin mining company MARA and is currently engaged in policy research at the DeFi Education Fund, possessing experience in communication between the cryptocurrency industry and regulators. AIP was established in 2025 with support from organizations such as the Digital Currency Group, aiming to provide Congress members with professional insights and policy support on emerging technologies like AI and digital assets. This appointment is seen as a signal of further professionalization in U.S. cryptocurrency legislation and regulation.

According to The Block, Gemini's Olympus division has officially obtained a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) license issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), allowing it to act as an internal clearinghouse for settlement, risk management, and collateral management without relying on third-party clearing, which is expected to reduce operational costs.Combined with the previously obtained Designated Contract Market (DCM) license, Gemini is now capable of conducting full-stack compliant operations in the fields of futures, options, perpetual contracts, and prediction markets. Currently, Gemini is further applying for a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) license to complete its full suite of CFTC qualifications and compete directly with Kraken and Coinbase.

Payment giant PayPal officially announced the launch of a strategic reorganization, simplifying its business into three core segments: payment checkout and PayPal, consumer financial services and Venmo, and cryptocurrency and payment services. The cryptocurrency and payment services segment is listed as a core business unit, integrating payment processing, platform capabilities, and cryptocurrency business, including Braintree, payment processing for small and medium-sized merchants, value-added services, and stablecoin PYUSD. Jeff Pomeroy has been appointed as the interim head of this segment.PayPal President and CEO Enrique Lores stated that this reorganization aims to accelerate the execution of long-term growth strategies, simplify decision-making processes, and drive innovation. It will promote sustainable growth by being closer to consumer needs, strengthening collaboration among the three business segments, and enhancing operational efficiency. It is reported that PayPal will provide more details about the new operating model during the earnings call on May 5.

Litecoin disclosed in a post on platform X that a recent zero-day vulnerability had caused a DoS attack, affecting the operation of major mining pools. Mining nodes that were not updated allowed an invalid MWEB (MimbleWimble Extension Block) transaction to be executed, enabling the related tokens to be withdrawn to a third-party DEX.The Litecoin network rolled back these invalid transactions through a reorganization (reorg) of 13 blocks, confirming that they would not be included in the main chain. All valid transactions during this period were unaffected, and the vulnerability has been completely fixed, with network operations restored to normal.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has signed agreements with European Card Payment Cooperation, Nexo Standards, and Berlin Group to reuse existing open payment standards for digital euro transactions, aiming to reduce the system access costs for banks, merchants, and payment service providers.The relevant standards cover contactless payments, connections between merchants and payment service providers, as well as alias payments based on mobile phone numbers. The European Central Bank stated that this move helps to reduce market adoption costs and promotes a unified digital euro user experience in the euro area. Previously, the European Central Bank analyzed that the digital euro could bring about 4 billion to 6 billion euros in costs to EU banks within 4 years.

According to CoinDesk, more than 100 U.S. cryptocurrency companies and industry organizations have written to the Senate Banking Committee, urging the advancement of the Clarity Act for the establishment of a federal regulatory framework for the digital asset market. The signatories include Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, Andreessen Horowitz, Paradigm, Consensys, and others.Their core demands include clarifying the regulatory division between the SEC and CFTC, protecting developers of non-custodial tools, simplifying information disclosure rules, and avoiding fragmented regulatory standards across states. The signatories stated that if the U.S. continues to lack a comprehensive cryptocurrency regulatory framework, investment, employment, and development activities may flow overseas.

Helius CEO mert posted on platform X, stating that decentralization is essentially "coordination without a central authority." If the cost of coordination is close to zero, then it is effectively centralized; if the cost of coordination is infinitely high, then it technically cannot be called decentralized, as the system would not function properly.mert illustrated this point through a thought experiment: suppose there currently exists a highly decentralized blockchain with hundreds of thousands of nodes running from home, distributed mining power, and token supply. He then proposed another extreme hypothesis—if North Korea could transfer funds from wallet A to wallet B within time T, then this would be equivalent to that chain being able to simultaneously detonate nuclear weapons in most countries around the world.Finally, assuming that the blockchain could successfully freeze the funds in wallet A through a fork without causing mass casualties, would this blockchain still be considered decentralized? mert believes that although humanity can achieve coordination due to the shared incentive of "not dying," this does not mean that the chain is "unorganized." Decentralization is still fundamentally "coordination without a central authority."