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According to Bloomberg, multinational commodity trading firm Trafigura Group is in discussions with Tether about a pilot project aimed at using the stablecoin USDT for payments at fuel stations in El Salvador. The pilot will focus on gas stations operated by Puma Energy, Trafigura's fuel distribution division, where consumers in El Salvador can pay for fuel or snacks using USDT, which will then be converted to dollars by an intermediary and transferred to Trafigura. The discussions are still in the early stages and require regulatory approval.A spokesperson for Puma Energy stated that the discussions are still in the exploratory technical phase. This is the first known collaboration involving the use of stablecoins between Tether and a major commodity trader. Tether previously indicated that it funded an oil transaction but did not disclose specific details. Tether's CEO stated last November that they plan to "significantly" expand their lending business to commodity traders, having already issued $1.5 billion in loans.

The open-source data visualization tool Grafana stated on platform X that it recently discovered an unauthorized attacker had obtained a token that could access the Grafana Labs GitHub environment and used it to download the code repository.An investigation confirmed that this incident did not involve customer data or personal information leakage, and no impact on customer systems or business operations was found. After the incident, forensic analysis was immediately initiated, and it is believed that the source of the credential leak has been identified. Additional security measures have also been deployed to strengthen environmental protection.Furthermore, Grafana disclosed that the attacker attempted to demand a ransom to prevent the code repository from being made public, but the company ultimately decided to refuse to pay the ransom and will release more information about the incident review after the investigation is completed.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee has released the first updated complete draft of the CLARITY Act since January of this year. The new draft has made significant adjustments in several key chapters.These include: a major rewrite of Chapter 1 concerning definitions, the authority of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other content; the addition of insider trading provisions in Section 109; updating "joint control" to "coordinated control" in Chapter 2; rewriting Section 301 to further clarify the regulatory boundaries between DeFi and CeFi; updating Section 404 to incorporate the compromise proposal from Tillis and Alsobrooks; adjusting Section 505 to narrow the scope of SEC's authority limitations in the tokenization field; and restructuring the bankruptcy and insolvency framework in Sections 701 and 702. Additionally, Section 904 is a new addition, titled the "Build Now Act."Alex Thorn also pointed out that the protective provisions for developers in the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act in Section 604 remain largely intact, with only minor modifications that do not weaken its core protective content.

On May 12, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee released the latest 309-page draft of the CLARITY Act, but Section 404 of the draft stipulates that it prohibits rewards "solely for holding" stablecoins.Specifically, no regulated entity may directly or indirectly pay any form of interest or yield (whether cash, tokens, or other consideration) to a restricted payee solely because the restricted payee holds its stablecoins, or pay stablecoin balance rewards in a manner economically or functionally equivalent to paying interest or yield on bank deposits.However, the latest draft also stipulates that rewards and incentives for stablecoins based on real activities or transactions are allowed, such as rewards linked to actual transactions, payments, platform activities, liquidity provision, etc.

According to market news, Musk's SpaceX plans to invest $55 billion in the Terafab super factory in Texas.

According to CCTV News, the chairman of the Iranian Parliament's Civil Affairs Committee stated that under the Parliament's plan for managing the Strait of Hormuz, all traffic in the Strait of Hormuz must obtain permission from Iran, and any goods belonging to Israel are not allowed to pass under any circumstances. Hostile countries engaged in conflict with Iran are not permitted to pass through the Strait of Hormuz until compensation for damages is made.

According to CNBC, the crypto data and research platform Blockworks announced the completion of its Series A extension financing, with a post-money valuation of $192 million. This round was co-led by Parafi Capital and Reciprocal Ventures, with participation from several institutions including Coinbase Ventures, Advancit Capital, and MoonPay. Over 20 founders and operators from projects such as Solana, LayerZero, Pyth, EigenLayer, Kraken, Arbitrum, and Polygon also participated personally, though the specific financing amount has not been disclosed.The company stated that the crypto market has grown to a trillion-dollar scale without the infrastructure of traditional capital markets, but still faces issues such as data fragmentation, inconsistent disclosures, and a lack of communication mechanisms for investors. Blockworks aims to fill this gap through a "data + disclosure + investor relations" integrated framework.

Ethereum developer Tom Lehman has released a draft proposal for EIP-8182, which aims to make private transactions a native feature of Ethereum by introducing shared privacy pools, a fixed address system contract, and zero-knowledge proof verification precompiles at the Ethereum protocol layer.The proposal states that the solution will be implemented through a hard fork upgrade, without an administrator key, governance tokens, or on-chain upgrade mechanisms, with the goal of addressing the issues of decentralization and inconsistent trust models in privacy applications. As designed, users can make private transactions to any Ethereum address or ENS name using existing wallets, and it supports atomic "de-sensitization - interaction - re-privatization" processes.

According to Caixin, the one-month public consultation for the "Financial Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft)" ended today (April 19). This is the first overarching law in China and the world with "finance" in its name. The expansion of "quasi-judicial powers" for financial regulation is a topic of great concern in the market.According to Article 55 and related provisions, financial regulatory authorities have the right to access and copy property rights information, communication records, and transaction records of relevant entities and individuals when investigating financial violations. They can directly freeze or seal assets if there is evidence suggesting the transfer or concealment of illegal funds and securities. They can even decide that individuals suspected of violations cannot leave the country during the investigation.In addition, Zeng Gang, chief expert and director of the Shanghai Financial and Development Laboratory, believes that the "Financial Law" should also strengthen its focus and coverage on emerging financial formats. Topics such as AI-driven financial decision-making, the legal status of digital currencies, and the regulatory boundaries of crypto assets have sparked widespread controversy globally, but the draft addresses them very little. How to maintain a dynamic balance between lawful regulation and inclusive innovation is a problem left to be solved by legislation.

The UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has released the final draft of the crypto asset framework. This new regulation is set to bring most crypto activities under the regulation of the Financial Services and Markets Act by October 25, 2027.According to the proposal, any institution that holds customer crypto assets for more than 24 hours or has the ability to revoke customer permissions will be considered a regulated custodian and must hold a full safeguarding license. Validators and node operators that provide value-added features such as yield or reward reinvestment will lose their technical exemptions. In addition, stablecoin issuers within the UK must control the entire lifecycle from issuance to redemption. Relevant institutions must submit authorization applications between September 30, 2026, and February 28, 2027.

According to Decrypt, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis stated that the Senate is expected to release a revised draft text on stablecoin yield distribution this week.Currently, there is a disagreement between banks and crypto companies on whether cryptocurrency exchanges should be allowed to pay yields to stablecoin holders through reward programs, and this controversy has stalled the legislative process of the Clarity Act. The White House Council of Economic Advisers recently released a report stating that banning stablecoin yields would have a minimal impact on small banks, only increasing bank lending by 0.02%. However, the American Bankers Association believes this analysis underestimates the risks. Observers point out that if the draft provisions are too strict, it may lead users and liquidity to flow to other jurisdictions that allow yields.

The People's Daily of China published an article titled "Disrupting the Capital Market, These Chaos of Financial Self-Media Accounts Need to Be Vigilant," which specifically names certain accounts that attract traffic for virtual currency trading by posting false profit information such as "hundred times coin" and "making millions a month from trading coins."The article again cites a previous notice from the central bank and eight other departments, emphasizing that activities related to virtual currencies are considered illegal financial activities. It points out that accounts and platforms providing traffic and technical services for illegal virtual currency trading are suspected of violating laws and regulations, which may threaten financial security and anti-money laundering efforts.

According to BBX data, yesterday, with the start of the first complete trading week of the second quarter, global listed companies disclosed several key data points regarding "cross-border positioning":$15 million initial position: DraftKings (NASDAQ: $DKNG) disclosed that it has completed a strategic allocation of $15 million in Bitcoin. As a North American sports betting giant, the company plans to use this reserve as the underlying clearing fund pool for its upcoming "Web3 event prediction market."100% hash rate retention: Greenidge Generation (NASDAQ: $GREE) released operational guidance for March and early second quarter yesterday, announcing that its mining facility in New York State has officially entered the 100% output retention phase and has further reduced the acquisition cost of each BTC by utilizing low off-peak electricity prices.$5 million IP anchoring: Lionsgate (NYSE: $LGF.A) confirmed yesterday that it has allocated $5 million to purchase Bitcoin. This marks the first time a leading Hollywood studio has included digital hard assets on its balance sheet, aiming to provide real asset backing for the on-chain tokenization (RWA) of its future film IP.Treasury hedge infrastructure: Cboe Global Markets (BATS: $CBOE) announced yesterday the launch of two brand new "enterprise-level Bitcoin volatility index options," specifically designed for listed companies with more than 500 BTC on their balance sheets, helping them smooth out the fluctuations in book value during quarterly reporting periods.

According to Jinshi, citing the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Gharibabadi stated that Iran is drafting a passage agreement for the Strait of Hormuz with Oman.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett revealed that the office of U.S. Senator Thom Tillis plans to publicly release legislative text related to stablecoin yields and reward mechanisms next week, and is currently in ongoing communication with various industry stakeholders.According to reports, this move comes in response to dissatisfaction expressed by participants in the crypto industry, such as Coinbase, regarding the relevant terms presented earlier this week. Coinbase's Global Head of Investment Research, David Duong, stated that the industry is preparing a coordinated counter-proposal aimed at pushing for adjustments to the terms to protect users while maintaining a sustainable reward mechanism.

U.S. Congressman Steven Horsford and Max Miller announced the discussion draft of the "Digital Asset PARITY Act," which aims to promote the development of digital assets and enhance compliance by establishing a unified tax framework.The draft proposes a small tax exemption for regulated dollar stablecoin transactions under $200 to reduce the tax burden in everyday payments; it also allows miners and stakers to defer tax on rewards for up to 5 years. Additionally, the draft plans to extend the rules for false sales and presumed sales to digital assets and introduce tax treatments based on market value, while clarifying the tax rules for digital asset lending and charitable donations. The bill is still in the discussion stage and has not yet been formally submitted to Congress.