Gate Cryptocurrency News and Market Analysis

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced on April 21 that the circulating supply of USDT has reached a new all-time high of $188.0 billion, further widening its lead over competitors and making it the third-largest crypto asset by market cap, trailing only Bitcoin and Ethereum. Ardoino emphasized that more than 550 million users in emerging markets currently rely on USDT for everyday payments.

On April 22, on-chain analyst Yu Jin monitoring showed that, impacted by the rsETH/KelpDAO incident, Aave funds continued to flow out; within three and a half days, total deposits fell from $48.5 billion to $30.7 billion. Morpho saw a modest outflow of $1.5 billion over the same period. The most notable contrast comes from Spark, whose SparkLend business TVL rose against the trend from $1.9 billion to $3.2 billion.

Young Chinese entrepreneurs, many fearing age discrimination after turning 35, are increasingly launching "one-person companies" powered by artificial intelligence, according to a report by AFP. Chinese cities are backing the trend

U.S. Navy Admiral Samuel Paparo said Tuesday at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that Bitcoin, as a means of power projection, is “a very valuable computer science tool,” and he noted that Bitcoin’s Proof of Work (PoW) technology “imposes greater costs on attackers trying to breach networks,” adding that its cybersecurity applications have “very important” computer science significance.

Market “dead phases” often signal accumulation periods before major upward movements. Infrastructure-focused altcoins continue steady development despite reduced market attention. Social and meme-driven tokens remain influential but carry higher volatility risks. The cryptocurrency marke

X (formerly Twitter) announced on April 22 that it is rolling out a Customizable Timeline feature, allowing paid iOS subscribers to pin more than 75 topics on the home tab to create a personalized algorithmic news feed centered around a single topic. The feature is powered jointly by the AI model Grok and X’s personalization system.

SpaceX announced on the X platform on April 21 that it has reached a partnership with the AI software engineering startup Cursor (developer Anysphere), to jointly develop “the world’s best software engineering and knowledge work artificial intelligence”; under the terms of the agreement, SpaceX received an option to acquire Cursor later this year for $60 billion, and if it does not exercise the option, it must pay $10 billion as a partnership fee.

Meta announced on April 21 that it will install a new tracking tool called “Model Capability Initiative” (MCI) on employees’ computers in the United States, to capture employees’ mouse movements, clicks, keyboard input, and periodic screenshots of their work screens, for training AI agent models capable of autonomously carrying out job tasks. This move came against the backdrop of Meta cutting roughly 2,000 employees this year, sparking strong reactions from employees.

According to the on-chain analyst Ai Auntie’s monitoring on April 22, the Venus Protocol attacker transferred 2,301 ETH (about $5.32 million) to address 0xa21…23A7f 11 hours ago, then moved the funds in batches into the crypto mixer Tornado Cash for laundering; as of the time of monitoring, the attacker still held about $17.45 million worth of ETH on-chain.

Security researcher Doyeon Park disclosed on April 21 that there is a high-severity zero-day vulnerability rated CVSS 7.1 in the Cosmos consensus layer CometBFT. It could allow a malicious peer node to attack nodes during the block synchronization (BlockSync) stage and cause them to deadlock, impacting a network that safeguards more than $8 billion in assets.

According to a Bloomberg News report citing documents and people familiar with the matter on Tuesday, April 22, 2026, an Anthropic AI model called Claude Mythos Preview was accessed by a small group of unauthorized users. The access occurred on the same day that Anthropic first publicly announced plans to open Mythos testing to a limited set of enterprises.

Jeff Bezos’s AI lab “Project Prometheus” is set to complete a new round of $10 billion in funding, with institutional investors such as JPMorgan and BlackRock participating. After this round of financing is completed, the company’s valuation will reach about $38 billion. Project Prometheus has already completed $6.2 billion in seed funding and has recruited more than 100 employees from top AI labs such as OpenAI.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse publicly praised the regulatory shift driven by the newly appointed Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair, Paul Atkins, on April 20, describing it as “a refreshing breath of sanity that helps people regain their composure.” Garlinghouse viewed the SEC’s policy pivot as the key driver behind an improvement in sentiment across the U.S. crypto market.

According to Bloomberg’s report on April 22, Hong Kong-listed wealth management firm Bitfire Group Holdings acquired approximately 20 people from the trading team and its trading system from Avenir Group, the family office of Li Lin, the founder of the Huobi Group. Bitfire CEO Livio Weng confirmed the transaction to Bloomberg, saying that after the integration, the company has obtained an initial investment commitment of approximately $500 million.

According to CoinDesk on April 22, the Greek maritime risk services company Marisks issued a warning, saying scammers are impersonating Iranian authorities to send messages to multiple shipping companies and requesting Bitcoin or USDT as a “toll” to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Marisks confirmed that the relevant messages are not coming through official Iranian channels, and, according to Reuters, said it believes at least one vessel was deceived and was still shelled when it tried to pass over the weekend.

The Russian State Duma passed on first reading the bill “On Digital Currency and Digital Rights” on April 22, with 327 lawmakers voting in favor. Once the bill formally takes effect, cryptocurrencies will be legalized in Russia, allowing ordinary Russian citizens to legally buy digital assets through licensed intermediary institutions. The Bank of Russia (CBR) will become the primary regulator, responsible for issuing licenses and approving or banning crypto transactions.

RHEA Finance has released a follow-up update regarding the security incident on April 16, confirming that there has been tangible progress in recovering assets. As of this update, it is estimated that there is still an approximately $400k funding gap, mainly due to the combination of NEAR, USDT, and USDC in the lending market liquidity pool. RHEA Finance has committed to fully cover any remaining shortfall to ensure that all affected users receive full compensation.

American fintech company SoFi Technologies announced on April 21 that it would add XRP deposit services to its platform, bringing this digital asset into the national chartered bank environment overseen by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). SoFi currently supports trading of 27 cryptocurrencies and offers a range of crypto deposit features. Ripple says this is the path to real utility-driven growth.

The Volo within the Sui ecosystem posted a statement on the X platform, confirming that a security vulnerability occurred, resulting in about $3.5 million in assets being stolen from three specific vaults, involving WBTC, XAUm, and USDC. Volo said it notified the Sui Foundation and ecosystem partners immediately after detecting the attack, freezing all vaults to prevent further losses; Volo pledged to cover all losses and would not allow users to bear any responsibility.

The cryptocurrency asset management company Bitmine once again added 61,232 ETH (about $142 million) to its staking on April 22, bringing its total staked ETH holdings to 3,395,869 ETH, with a total market value nearing $7.9 billion. Bitmine chairman Tom Lee said that Ethereum is in the final stage of a “mini crypto winter,” and that multiple signs point to a recovery that is about to come.