nomic

a16z Crypto published an article explaining the investment logic behind Arc, pointing out that stablecoins have evolved from tools for crypto trading to a core layer of global financial infrastructure, driving the upgrade of blockchain from "application layer finance" to "system-level economic operating systems."The trading volume of stablecoins reached approximately $9 trillion last year, placing them on the same scale as global payment networks like Visa and PayPal. The total supply of US dollar stablecoins has also exceeded $270 billion, with cross-border payments, B2B settlements, and foreign exchange trading becoming the core use cases for stablecoins, gradually making them the "upgrade layer for global capital flows."a16z Crypto stated that the existing blockchain infrastructure is still primarily aimed at crypto-native users and individual developers, lacking native support for large institutional-level demands. The reason for participating in the ecosystem construction related to ARC tokens is mainly due to the gradual on-chain transition of global finance; in the future, only a few public chains will be able to support the "on-chain economic system foundation."

Artificial intelligence is driving economic growth in the United States: investments in software and IT equipment contributed +134 basis points to GDP growth in the first quarter of 2026, growing by 2.0%, marking the largest quarterly contribution in history. This means that 67% of economic growth in the previous quarter was driven by artificial intelligence.In other words, without technology investments driven by artificial intelligence, GDP growth in the first quarter would have been close to flat. This contribution is also about 10 basis points higher than the record set in 1999. Over the past five quarters, investments in software and IT equipment have averaged a contribution of +90 basis points per quarter, setting the highest contribution for any consecutive five quarters on record. The U.S. economy has become highly dependent on artificial intelligence.

According to Jinshi reports, SEI analyst Jim Smigiel stated in a report that given the Federal Reserve's dual mandate to support maximum employment and stable prices, a direct interest rate hike is unlikely, as it could have potential negative impacts on the economy and labor market. It is expected that global central banks will follow the Federal Reserve's lead to some extent to avoid instability in foreign exchange rates and capital markets.

According to Jinshi reports, former U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin stated that if the economy falls into recession, interest rates will drop to 1%.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve's Williams stated that U.S. monetary policy remains in a favorable position to respond to an uncertain economic environment.

According to Reuters, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed the review of the first batch of predictive market ETFs, resulting in the postponement of more than 24 products originally scheduled for launch. Insiders revealed that the SEC is requesting issuers to provide further clarification on product mechanisms and information disclosure details, and this delay is expected to be temporary.Issuers such as Roundhill Investments, Bitwise Asset Management, and GraniteShares submitted applications in February this year to launch ETF products linked to real-world events such as election results, economic recessions, tech layoffs, and oil prices.According to SEC rules, ETF applications typically become effective automatically 75 days after submission unless the regulatory agency intervenes. Currently, Roundhill has set May 5 as the effective date, and Bitwise and GraniteShares' products are also expected to launch around the same time. The market is closely watching whether the SEC will ultimately approve these products that open up the "event contract" asset class.Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated, "This is a rapidly maturing field, and regulation is maturing in parallel," noting that innovative products like Bitcoin ETFs have also gone through a lengthy review process but ultimately launched successfully.

According to Jinshi reports, U.S. interest rate futures data shows that after the release of U.S. economic data, the market's expectations for the probability of interest rate hikes before the end of 2026 have slightly increased.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell stated that the economic outlook is highly uncertain.

According to Jinshi reports, the Federal Reserve FOMC statement indicates that the developments in the Middle East have increased uncertainty in the economic outlook.

According to Jinshi reports, Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed A. El-Erian stated that the price shocks caused by the Middle East war have pushed market expectations toward an environment of "interest rates remaining at higher levels for a longer period," affecting almost all systemically important central banks, with the sole exception being the Bank of Japan. He pointed out that the current situation, accompanied by negative demand shocks from "second-round effects," poses a potential risk of spreading to financial instability, highlighting the uncertainty of the outlook.

According to Gate Ventures' latest weekly report, as the situation in the Middle East has temporarily eased and energy prices have fallen, global risk appetite has marginally improved, stock indices have reached new highs, and both the dollar and U.S. Treasury yields have declined. However, gold remains strong, indicating that while the market is flowing back into risk assets, the demand for safe-haven assets has not completely faded. Against this backdrop, the cryptocurrency market has seen a slight rebound overall, with BTC and ETH rising 4.3% and 3.3% respectively. ETF funds continue to see net inflows, but market sentiment remains cautious. Mainstream assets have performed relatively steadily with institutional support, while the recovery in the altcoin market remains limited.At the industry level, regulatory advancements and infrastructure development continue to deepen. France supports promoting the euro stablecoin plan under the MiCA framework to enhance the competitiveness of the local currency system; Circle has launched USDC Bridge to further improve the cross-chain liquidity structure of stablecoins; the X platform has introduced the Cashtags feature to accelerate the integration of trading and social scenarios. In terms of investment and financing, a total of 12 financing deals were disclosed this week, with a total amount of $41.8 million, among which Paxos Labs completed a $12 million financing focused on compliant DeFi infrastructure development, reflecting that capital is still continuously laying out around compliance and underlying capability upgrades.

According to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve's Daly stated that the impact of oil shocks on inflation may be greater than on economic growth.

Bank of AI and the Peking University Blockchain Association PKUBlockchain have officially released their first research report titled "Web4.0: When AI Agents Become Economic Entities------Infrastructure, Track Patterns, and Investment Outlook." The report systematically outlines the three-layer infrastructure gaps of the x402 payment protocol, ERC-8004 identity standard, and MCP tool invocation protocol, and focuses on how Bank of AI can package five core components into a one-stop Agent financial operating system, becoming a typical case of a closed-loop from protocol to product. The research report points out that the daily average transaction volume on the TRON chain exceeds $22 billion, with a circulation of $86 billion USDT, providing a scalable foundation for high-frequency micro-settlement for Agents. Both parties will continue to promote the coordinated development of Web4.0 infrastructure and the agent economy.

The decentralized AI economic protocol Mindra AI announced the completion of a new round of strategic financing, with participation from LandScape Capital, Harbor Digital Ventures, and Candaq Fintech Group.Mindra AI stated that the funds from this round will primarily be used to accelerate the development of its full-stack four-layer protocol, advancing the construction of the dynamic reasoning routing layer, Agent collaboration ecosystem, AI-Fi (computing power financialization), and the economic value flywheel, creating a decentralized "Intelligence Grid" to fundamentally address issues such as the centralized monopoly of AI reasoning infrastructure, algorithmic black boxes, and ecological fragility.It is reported that Mindra AI is a full-stack decentralized AI economic protocol that breaks the smart hegemony and reshapes AI production relations through dynamic reasoning routing, Agent cross-chain collaboration, and AI-Fi (computing power financialization).

According to Jinshi reports, New York Fed President Williams reiterated that monetary policy remains in a favorable position to address the threat of long-term supply shocks caused by the Middle East war. He stated that the current monetary policy stance can balance the risks to employment and inflation targets. Williams expects U.S. economic growth this year to be between 2% and 2.5%, with an unemployment rate of about 4.25% to 4.5%, and an inflation rate between 2.75% and 3%.

According to Jinshi News, Joe Capros, head of the International Economics Department at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), stated that the dollar index remains stable above 98, and the dollar is expected to continue benefiting from the slowdown in global economic growth.He pointed out that the global economy needs to adapt to the reduction in energy supply, and interest rate hikes will help align demand with supply.

According to official social media news, Huobi HTX will hold a live broadcast today at 20:00 (UTC+8) on the theme "Collapse of US-Iran Negotiations, Return of Macroeconomic Uncertainty: Can Bitcoin Still Serve as a Safe Haven?" At that time, crypto KOLs such as Oxpink, Domingo, Michill, Amber, AlanSun, and Qie Ge will be invited to attend and discuss hot topics such as the impact of geopolitical conflicts, oil price fluctuations, and increased uncertainty in Federal Reserve policies on the crypto market, as well as whether the market has entered an "institution-led phase."

Aptos released an update on its token economics. The main adjustments include: the annualized staking reward rate decreased from 5.19% to 2.6%; Gas fees increased tenfold (the cost of stablecoin transfers remains as low as approximately $0.00014); after the launch of Decibel DEX, on-chain trading volume and Gas fee burning will significantly increase, with an expected annual burn of over 32 million APT; setting a hard cap total supply of 2.1 billion APT at the protocol layer; the Aptos Foundation will permanently lock and stake 210 million APT; future incentives will be converted to milestone triggers; exploring a programmatic buyback plan.

The underlying financial infrastructure of the AI Agent era, B.AI, officially launched today, aiming to provide foundational support for the autonomous economic activities of agents. At 21:00 Beijing time on April 9, B.AI will hold an English live broadcast event in X Space. Justin Sun will join several industry guests and community representatives to discuss the underlying logic of the economic engine aimed at AGI.This event is co-hosted by @trondao and @DCBK2LA. Participants who follow @BAI_AGI, retweet the post, and @ three friends will have a chance to win a reward of 10 USDT.