ergo

According to Bits.media, the Central Bank of Brazil has tightened the licensing rules for virtual asset service providers, requiring them to undergo independent financial audits before obtaining operational licenses starting June 1. The auditing firms must not only examine the company's financial status but also review its compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulations, including whether the platform separates its own funds from customer assets, its risk management practices, and employee training. Auditors must be registered with the Brazilian Securities Commission. Cryptocurrency exchanges, brokerage firms, and custody services applying for a license for the first time must comply with these requirements from the start of the registration process, and companies that already hold licenses must also pass independent audits when renewing.Brazil first clarified in legislation in 2022 that virtual asset services are regulated by the central bank, establishing a category for licensed virtual asset service providers in November 2025. Additionally, Brazil recently imposed a complete ban on 28 betting and prediction market platforms, including Polymarket and Kalshi, on the grounds that they did not comply with local derivatives trading requirements. Starting October 1, Brazilian electronic foreign exchange providers will be prohibited from using cryptocurrencies for international remittances.

According to CoinDesk, during a recent Senate Banking Committee review, substantial progress was made in advancing the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, referred to as the "CLARITY Act," which passed into the Senate full review stage with a vote of 15 to 9.Several bipartisan lawmakers emphasized the urgent need for the United States to establish a unified regulatory framework covering digital assets to clarify asset classification, trading platform regulation, and market structure rules, thereby providing long-term certainty for the industry. Angela Alsobrooks pointed out from a family perspective that the younger generation shows a natural interest in digital assets, and the regulatory system should strike a balance between "opportunity and protection" to avoid technological development being detached from regulatory constraints. Tim Scott emphasized that legislation should be promoted from the perspective of economic opportunity and the American Dream, while Cynthia Lummis stated that the legislative process has already shown a clear foundation for bipartisan cooperation.Supporters believe that digital assets have become an irreversible trend, with approximately 68 million Americans holding related assets, but a significant amount of trading still occurs on overseas platforms. The U.S. urgently needs to establish a domestic regulatory system to enhance market transparency and investor protection levels.Analysis indicates that the CLARITY Act is seen as a key complement following the stablecoin-related legislation (GENIUS Act). Without supporting rules at the market structure level, the U.S. may lose its leading position in the competition for digital financial infrastructure. As the bill advances to the Senate full stage, there is widespread attention on whether it can achieve final legislation based on bipartisan consensus to establish the core rules of the U.S. digital asset regulatory framework.

According to a report by The Information, the prediction market Polymarket is facing increased regulatory and compliance pressure, and the platform is pushing traders to undergo identity verification (KYC) to reduce potential legal and compliance risks.The report states that although Polymarket's platform rules do not allow such activities in certain regions, some users are still participating in market trading through automated trading bots and other means, creating gray usage paths in areas like Russia. Some developers are even using tools like Telegram to organize trading traffic and expand the user base. As the platform grows and regulatory scrutiny increases, Polymarket is being forced to seek a balance between decentralized prediction markets and compliance requirements to address potential sanctions and legal risks.

According to BBX data, yesterday the earnings season for cryptocurrency-related stocks and the expansion of stablecoin infrastructure advanced simultaneously, with the following key developments:Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ: $HOOD) released its Q1 2026 earnings report and submitted SEC Form 8-K after the market closed on April 28: total revenue of $1.07 billion (up 15% year-over-year), below the analyst consensus expectation of $1.14 billion; adjusted EPS of $0.38, slightly lower than the consensus of $0.39; cryptocurrency trading revenue plummeted 47% year-over-year to $134 million (compared to $252 million in the same period last year), with cryptocurrency trading volume also declining 48% to $24 billion, marking the third consecutive quarter of declining cryptocurrency revenue. Meanwhile, revenue from event contracts (prediction markets) surged 320% year-over-year to $147 million, surpassing cryptocurrency revenue for the first time to become the largest source of trading revenue, with a record contract volume of 8.8 billion for the quarter; affected by the earnings report, $HOOD fell about 13.24% to $71.20 yesterday.Visa Inc. (NYSE: $V) announced on April 29 through an official BusinessWire press release that five new blockchains—Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon, and Tempo—have been added to its global stablecoin settlement pilot, expanding the total supported network to nine (previously Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Stellar); the annualized scale of stablecoin settlements reached $7 billion, a 50% increase from the previous quarter. The pilot allows issuing banks and acquiring banks to settle using stablecoins instead of traditional banking rails, currently covering over 50 countries and more than 130 stablecoin-related card projects, and has expanded to USDC settlements with U.S. banks.Senator Cynthia Lummis publicly confirmed on April 29 that the markup for the CLARITY Act in the Senate Banking Committee is scheduled for May 2026; at the same time, the SEC announced it will hold a roundtable discussion on May 3 regarding issues related to the CLARITY Act, further clarifying the signals of coordination between regulatory and legislative bodies to accelerate the process, providing an official timeline endorsement for the previously anticipated "end of May" market expectations.

The prediction market platform Polymarket will undergo a V2 exchange upgrade on April 28 at 19:00, and will be down for approximately 1 hour. The V1 order book will be cleared, and all open limit orders will be canceled. Users trading via API need to update to the latest version of the SDK before the upgrade, as the V1 client will no longer be usable after the upgrade.

As high APY and liquidity bonuses gradually recede, DeFi is undergoing a critical cycle test from "narrative-driven" to "real demand."On April 21st at 8 PM, the themed Space "From Narrative-Driven to Real Demand: What Cycle Test is DeFi Undergoing?" will commence. This session will focus on three core topics: whether DeFi can return to the narrative mainline under the diversion of AI and RWA; whether JUST's completion of the third round of buyback and destruction marks a shift in value standards from high APY to real returns; and how ordinary users can identify signals and misconceptions in a volatile market. The event will feature special guests including WinkLink Oracle, with multiple speakers participating in the discussion.Users are encouraged to follow the official accounts @sunpumpmeme and @Agent_SunGenX, retweet the post, and @ three friends. The official account will randomly select 5 lucky users from participants to receive a reward of 10 USDT each.

According to Jinshi reports, the S&P 500 index reached a record high during Wednesday's trading session, marking the first new high since the outbreak of the Iran war. The market's expectations for a de-escalation of the war situation and strong earnings forecasts have attracted investors back to risk assets. Despite the ongoing geopolitical crisis, there has been a shift in market risk pricing, with traders more willing to factor in lower escalation risks in the short term. Since the conflict erupted on February 28, the S&P 500 index had fallen as much as 9%, but did not meet the criteria for confirming a "technical adjustment."

In the 13th anniversary open letter, Gate founder and CEO Dr. Han pointed out that the crypto industry is undergoing a structural reshaping driven by multiple variables. Technological evolution, improvements in regulatory systems, changes in the macro environment, and a broader user base are all working together to influence the industry's development path, continuously raising the overall threshold.Dr. Han stated that this change is reflected not only in compliance and technical requirements but also in the higher demands for platform system capabilities and long-term investment; as the threshold rises, resources and space are accelerating towards participants who possess long-term judgment and sustained investment capabilities, and long-termists will gain more certain growth opportunities in the new cycle.As a global leading crypto asset trading platform, Gate always regards security and transparency as the cornerstone of development, being the first to introduce a 100% reserve proof scheme and continuously expanding its global compliance footprint. Currently, multiple entities under Gate have obtained or completed relevant regulatory registrations, license applications, authorizations, or approvals in jurisdictions such as Malta, Cyprus, the Bahamas, Japan, Australia, and Dubai. At the same time, the platform deeply integrates AI innovative technology, building an ecosystem that covers multi-asset allocation and full-scenario services, driving the industry towards a smarter and more sustainable future.

According to official news from the Polygon Foundation, the Giugliano hard fork upgrade will take place around 22:00 on April 8 at block height 85,268,500 on the Polygon mainnet.This upgrade will bring the following improvements: allowing producers to announce blocks earlier for faster finality; directly adding fee parameters to the block header; introducing new RPC interfaces to support fee data.The official reminds all node operators that they must upgrade Bor to version v2.7.0 or upgrade Erigon to version v3.5.0 to ensure normal operation.

According to Bloomberg, there have been personnel changes in Binance's compliance team, involving key positions related to financial crime monitoring and sanctions compliance. Its Chief Compliance Officer Noah Perlman is currently discussing future departure matters with management and may leave this year or next year.Noah Perlman joined Binance in 2023, responsible for rebuilding the sanctions enforcement and anti-money laundering system, which is one of the key rectification measures following the company's guilty plea for regulatory violations in the U.S. In response, Binance stated that it "currently has no departure timeline and has not determined a successor," and emphasized that he remains focused on his current work.

The Arizona Digital Asset Reserve Act will undergo a final vote, which allows the state to hold seized BTC and XRP instead of auctioning them off.

MCN Group officially announced today that it has completed the full acquisition of the NADI public chain (NADI Chain) and will undergo a comprehensive strategic restructuring.Based on a shared belief in the future development trends of blockchain technology, both parties have decided to integrate their advantageous underlying technologies and the resources of hundreds of millions of global users, fully incorporating the NADI public chain into the MCN ecosystem to jointly create a brand new public chain, MCN Chain, dedicated to building a comprehensive and multi-dimensional AI + blockchain ecosystem.According to the acquisition and restructuring plan, the new public chain will uniformly use MCN as the official sole native token. It will deeply empower the new public chain in terms of technological research and development, ecological incentives, and market expansion. MCN Group will use this as a starting point to build a more vibrant and competitive global AI Agent blockchain network.

Binance posted on platform X that withdrawals are currently affected by a technical issue. The team is working on a fix, and services will be restored as soon as possible.

According to data from Greeks.live, 91,000 BTC options will expire today, with a Put Call Ratio of 0.48, a maximum pain point of $90,000, and a notional value of $7.6 billion. 435,000 ETH options will expire today, with a Put Call Ratio of 0.68, a maximum pain point of $3,000, and a notional value of $1.19 billion.

Researchers and developers expect that 2026 will be a key year for Ethereum to achieve exponential scalability through zero-knowledge proofs (ZK). By then, some Ethereum validators will no longer re-execute transactions but will directly verify ZK proofs, fundamentally changing the way the blockchain operates, with scalability comparable to Ethereum's transition from PoW to PoS in "The Merge" in 2022.Ethereum researcher Justin Drake stated that the first validators will begin to verify ZK proofs for each block instead of re-executing all transactions, which will bring immediate scalability benefits to Layer 1 and lay the groundwork for 10,000 TPS in the future. Currently, the Ethereum mainnet has a throughput of about 30 TPS. During Devconnect, Drake demonstrated that ZK proof verification could be completed using an old laptop, and it is expected that by the end of 2026, about 10% of validators will switch to ZK verification mode (Lean Execution Phase 1). This transition will significantly reduce the hardware requirements for validating nodes while maintaining network decentralization.Ethereum Besu client engineer Gary Schulte pointed out that future compute-intensive tasks will mainly be handled by block builders and ZK provers, while regular validators will only need to perform lightweight checks, creating conditions for increasing gas limits and overall throughput. On the roadmap, Ethereum is currently still in Phase 0 (voluntary validation), expected to enter Phase 1 (partial validator switch) in 2026, and move into Phase 2 in 2027, which will require block producers to generate ZK proofs, achieving fully ZK execution.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on the X platform: "I am impressed by the decentralized open-source cryptographic documentation tool Fileverse. It has more vulnerabilities fixed every month, and recently it has finally reached a level where I can confidently send documents out for others to comment or collaborate on, and things generally don't go wrong. I believe there are more outstanding operational cases than people realize, and Fileverse has the added advantage of being much less dependent on network effects."