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The crypto market maker Keyrock, in collaboration with Coinbase, Tempo, and Virtuals Protocol, released the report "Who Pays the Agent?" which states that AI Agents are rapidly becoming important participants in the on-chain economy. Data shows that from May 2025 to April 2026, AI Agents have completed approximately 176 million on-chain transactions, with a total settlement amount exceeding $73 million. The report points out that the average payment amount per transaction for AI Agents is only between $0.31 and $0.48, indicating that a machine-native micropayment economy is forming. About 76% of the transaction amounts are below the Visa fixed fee threshold of $0.30, making it difficult for traditional bank cards and banking payment systems to adapt to the high-frequency, small, autonomous payment needs of AI.Data shows that 98.6% of AI Agent payments are settled in USDC. As of Q1 2026, more than 104,000 AI Agents have completed registration. The report states that on the Base network, the cost of a USDC transfer is about $0.0001, accounting for approximately 0.03% of the $0.31 transaction amount, which presents a significant cost advantage compared to traditional payment systems. The report believes that stablecoins are gradually becoming the "default currency infrastructure" for economic activities between AI and machines. However, Keyrock also warns that the current AI payment ecosystem's high dependence on USDC poses a centralization risk, meaning that the entire emerging AI payment system largely relies on the regulation and infrastructure stability of a single stablecoin issuer.In addition, several technology and payment companies have begun to lay out AI Agent payment infrastructure, including the x402 protocol launched by Coinbase, the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) launched by Stripe and Tempo, Google's AP2 delegated payment system, and Visa's expanded tokenized payment voucher service. The report also points out that the current regulatory frameworks, including the European MiCA Act, the U.S. GENIUS Act, and the EU AI Act, still lack comprehensive regulatory standards for autonomous financial transactions and payment behaviors between machines.

Keyrock's latest report shows that crypto rails are gradually becoming the default payment layer for AI Agents. Over the past year, AI Agents have completed more than 176 million transactions via blockchain, with a settlement amount exceeding 73 million dollars.As AI Agents begin to autonomously purchase data, cloud computing power, API services, and AI inference resources, the traditional bank card payment system has struggled to adapt to high-frequency, ultra-small payment scenarios. Currently, about 76% of Agent payment amounts are below 30 cents, while some on-chain stablecoin transfer costs are only "a fraction of a cent." Coinbase, Stripe, Google, and Visa have all begun to lay out the infrastructure for machine-to-machine payments. Among them, Coinbase's x402 protocol allows AI Agents to directly use USDC to pay for on-chain analysis and cloud service fees.Data shows that currently, 98.6% of AI Agent payments are settled in USDC. The report suggests that this further strengthens Circle's important position in the crypto payment field, but it also means that the industry's reliance on a single stablecoin issuer is increasing.

According to GMGN monitoring, the Base ecosystem token POD (dphn.ai) saw a significant increase in market value this morning, peaking over $170 million, currently reported at $130 million, with a 24-hour increase narrowing to 82%, and a trading volume of $6.3 million during the same period.It is reported that dphn.ai is an AI model development and DePIN project, and the "Dolphin Mistral 24B Venice Edition" it provides is the default uncensored AI model on the Venice platform. Previously, during the surge of VVV, POD rose as it served as a core model provider. This increase may also be compounded by the influence of Base co-founder Jesse's retweet, with related sentiment continuing to ferment.

According to GMGN monitoring, the Base ecological token POD (Dolphin) surged significantly this morning, with a peak market value exceeding $82 million, currently falling back to $76.4 million, with a 24-hour increase of 130%, and an on-chain trading volume of approximately $2.9 million during the same period.The catalyst for this round of increase may be the strong market performance of VVV. As an AI model development and DePIN project, Dolphin provides the "Dolphin Mistral 24B Venice Edition," which is the default uncensored AI model on the Venice platform, leading to an increase in POD as the core model provider.

According to Bitcoin.com, Tether has filed a lawsuit in São Paulo, Brazil, seeking to recover a $300 million loan from Titan Holding, a company under the Master Group. The loan was issued by Tether's venture capital arm, Tether Investments, in 2025, with a repayment due in 2026, but no repayments have been received to date.Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of the Master Group, was recently arrested, and his Banco Master was liquidated by the Brazilian central bank last November due to a reserve shortfall of $2.2 billion, affecting over a million customers. In the lawsuit, Tether has requested to freeze all financial assets of Titan and its affiliated companies.

In response to KelpDAO's accusations against LayerZero regarding the rsETH security incident, LayerZero CEO Bryan Pellegrino tweeted a detailed response, stating that much of the content is completely false.Bryan pointed out that KelpDAO initially used LayerZero's default MultiDVN or DeadDVN configuration and later manually migrated to the 1/1 configuration; under the 1/1 configuration, almost 100% of the transaction volume came from rsETH; LayerZero's documentation repeatedly states that the 1/1 configuration is not recommended for production environments and provides specific transaction records and document screenshots as evidence.

Lighter has reached a strategic cooperation with Circle, designating USDC as the default preferred stablecoin for its entire product line, with integration covering spot and perpetual contract trading, settlement, clearing, and user onboarding processes.Circle stated on Tuesday on X that as on-chain markets expand, trusted dollar infrastructure is becoming core market infrastructure. Lighter responded that USDC has been the foundational asset for the protocol and its traders since its launch. This cooperation comes as Lighter attempts to regain market momentum following the token generation event in December last year, during which it briefly led perpetual contract DEX trading volume in November and December, but has since fallen behind Hyperliquid, Aster, and EdgeX.According to DefiLlama data, Lighter currently ranks fourth with a 7-day perpetual contract trading volume of approximately $8.7 billion.

According to CoinDesk, the liquidity re-staking protocol Kelp DAO has raised objections to LayerZero's investigation report regarding the previous $290 million rsETH bridge attack incident.Kelp DAO claims that the single-validator (1/1) configuration that led to this attack was not a choice made in disregard of recommendations, but rather the default setting in LayerZero's official guidelines, and the validator network (DVN) exploited by the attacker is part of LayerZero's own infrastructure.The attack resulted in the theft of 116,500 rsETH, worth approximately $290 million. Security researchers pointed out that LayerZero's publicly deployed code defaults to a single-source validation configuration across networks such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism.LayerZero subsequently responded that it will stop signing messages for any applications using a single-validator setup and will enforce a security migration.

Economist Peter Schiff posted on the X platform that mortgage structures backed by crypto assets could significantly increase home buying costs.Borrowers not only have to pay traditional mortgage interest but also bear the interest on the "second loan" secured by crypto assets. This model essentially amounts to 100% financing for the property, thereby amplifying leverage levels and potentially increasing overall default risk.

According to CoinDesk, Vibhu Norby, Chief Product Officer of the Solana Foundation, stated at the New York Digital Assets Summit (DAS) that the Solana network has processed 15,000,000 on-chain payments from AI agents, primarily for machine-to-machine commercial interactions, with stablecoins becoming the default settlement tool for AI agents' payment computing power and services.Norby pointed out that the programmable nature of AI agent payments gives it a unique advantage in the crypto payment landscape and believes this trend will fundamentally change the monetization model of the internet, supporting micropayments billed by usage down to fractions of a cent, which traditional payment rails cannot achieve. Norby stated that when AI agents choose a crypto payment method, Solana typically ranks highly.He anticipates that in the future, 95% to 99% of crypto transactions will be initiated by large language models (LLM), and the primary way users will interact with crypto networks will shift to being completed through AI agents.

According to Gate market data, the S&P 500 index futures have narrowed their increase significantly to 0.7%. On the news front, there are reports that Iran will not enter into any negotiation process with the defaulting party.

The UK government has announced the abandonment of a previous proposal that allowed AI companies to use copyrighted content for model training by default under an "opt-out" premise. This proposal had sparked widespread opposition, including from Elton John, Dua Lipa, and the House of Lords.UK Secretary of State for Technology Liz Kendall stated that the government has listened to various opinions and will no longer pursue the proposal. A report released at the same time pointed out that there is still no consensus on how to balance the rights of creators with the development of the AI industry. Tom Kiehl, CEO of UK Music, called this a "major victory."However, the UK government has not yet proposed an alternative plan and stated that it will not adjust current copyright laws until it can confirm that reforms can achieve economic and social goals. The technology industry groups are concerned that the long-term lack of clear rules could weaken the UK's position in global competition.

Aave released a recap of the Swap event stating that a user exchanged approximately $50.43 million aEth USDT for about $36,000 aEth AAVE through the CoW Swap route on the Aave front end, with a price impact of about 99.9%.Aave indicated that the transaction occurred within a third-party Swap protocol, and the core lending protocol was unaffected. The cause of the event was the user executing a large order in a market with extremely low liquidity and confirming a high-risk quote. Aave stated that it will launch the Aave Shield feature, which will by default block Swaps with a price impact exceeding 25%.

According to FinanceFeeds, monitored by Abdelaziz Fathi, the Flow network experienced downtime after an attack on December 27, which disrupted the repayment functionality of the NFT lending protocol within the Flow ecosystem, forcing multiple overdue loans into default.The Flow Foundation had previously suspended the Cadence execution environment until the morning of December 29. Flowty posted on the X platform that a total of 11 loans were due during the downtime, of which 8 directly defaulted, and another 2 failed to settle due to account restrictions. Although Flow has resumed online operations, core functionalities such as token exchanges remain limited, preventing borrowers from accessing the assets needed for repayment. Flowty suspended the settlement of all loans starting from December 30 at 14:15, during which overdue loans will neither be repaid nor defaulted. Currently, the price of Flow is approximately $0.086.

According to Foresight News, Moore Threads surged nearly 470% on its first day of listing on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board on December 5, with a market value exceeding 300 billion yuan. However, at the same time, the past controversies of co-founder Li Feng in the cryptocurrency industry have once again drawn attention.The report pointed out that in 2017, Li Feng, along with Li Xiaolai and others, participated in the issuance of a token project called "Malle Go Coin (MGD)." The project raised about 5,000 ETH during the ICO boom, with several team background claims in the white paper being accused of exaggeration and some fund usage being opaque. Under regulatory pressure, the project was renamed "Alpaca Coin." Additionally, in 2018, OKX founder Star publicly accused Li Feng of borrowing 1,500 bitcoins and failing to repay them on time, claiming that legal proceedings had been initiated in both China and the United States.The borrowing agreement presented by Star at the time showed that the two parties first signed the agreement in 2014, and it was renewed in 2017 due to a request for an extension, but ultimately, a default situation still occurred. Due to issues related to cross-border enforcement and the legal recognition of virtual assets, this dispute has yet to reach a clear resolution.

The cryptocurrency platform Voyager Digital announced that its subsidiary Voyager Digital LLC has issued a default notice to Three Arrows Capital (3AC) due to 3AC's failure to repay previously disclosed loans, including 15,250 bitcoins and 350 million USDC. Voyager is consulting with legal advisors on recovery options.Despite 3AC's default, Voyager stated that the platform is still processing customer transactions and withdrawals normally. As of June 24, the company holds approximately $137 million in cash and its own crypto assets, and has access to a $200 million cash and USDC credit facility provided by Alameda Ventures, as well as a credit line of 15,000 bitcoins, of which $75 million has currently been utilized.

Core Foundation announced that the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands found that Maple Finance has "serious issues to be examined" regarding the alleged violation of confidentiality obligations and exclusive cooperation terms during the joint development of lstBTC.Core Foundation stated that since the beginning of their collaboration in early 2025, they have invested substantial resources in technology development, marketing, and product subsidies. However, Maple Finance has since been accused of using related confidential information to develop competing products, violating the 24-month exclusive cooperation agreement between the two parties. Regarding Maple Finance's announcement of the need to impair assets in the Bitcoin Yield product, Core Foundation pointed out that it remains unclear why Maple Finance is unable to return the lenders' bitcoins and emphasized that its actions reflect significant doubts about Maple Finance's business operations.

Africa's largest payment infrastructure company Flutterwave has officially chosen Polygon as the default blockchain network for its new cross-border payment product. The two parties have reached a multi-year strategic cooperation to promote the practical application of stablecoin payments in over 30 African countries.Flutterwave will first launch the Polygon version of its payment solution for enterprise clients in 2025 and plans to expand to personal remittance services in the Send App in 2026. Polygon will support financial inclusion and the popularization of stablecoins in the African market with transaction fees of less than $0.01 and confirmation speeds of seconds.

ChainCatcher news, according to Jinshi reports, Federal Reserve Chairman Powell stated that the current default rate has not yet reached a level of great concern, but it still requires monitoring.

ChainCatcher news, according to Theminermag, Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin mining company IREN stated in its annual report that it will pay $20 million to NYDIG to resolve disputes arising from defaults on Bitcoin mining equipment loans over the years.The settlement agreement was first reached in August, involving IREN's overdue debt of $107.8 million at the end of 2022, including interest and late fees. These loans were arranged through NYDIG in 2021 to finance approximately 35,000 Antminer S19 mining machines. IREN stated that the settlement agreement ends all related lawsuits and protects its subsidiaries, executives, and shareholders from further claims, and is currently awaiting court approval for formal closure.