MarketWhisper

Gaming infrastructure developer Lattice announced it will shut down on May 15 and reminded users to withdraw their funds. After the shutdown, contract funds cannot be withdrawn through L1 contracts; only funds in personal wallets can be recovered. Over the past five years, Lattice has failed to realize its business model and ultimately decided to close, but its MUD framework and DUST game will continue to run.

Pi Network officially went live with Protocol 23 on May 18, bringing smart contracts, real-world asset tokenization, and the AI App Studio, enabling Pi to transform from a payment token into a programmable blockchain infrastructure. The protocol covers four major functions, similar to Ethereum, and is expected to attract institutional investors. The upgraded node milestones signal market confidence and may affect Pi’s price performance.

Ripple CEO Garlinghouse confirmed at the summit that the CLARITY Act’s goal for passage is by the end of May, and said that the controversy surrounding stablecoin yield rates is nearing resolution. If the bill passes, XRP is expected to rise to $5–$10; otherwise, it could fall back to $1.2. The bill’s passage would create a regulatory framework for the digital asset market, clarify XRP’s classification as a commodity, and reduce compliance barriers for institutional investors.

Google has launched AI Gemini Personal Intelligence in India, connecting Gmail, Google Photos, and YouTube history to deliver personalized responses. India becomes the third market after the US and Japan, with access initially limited to AI Pro and AI Ultra subscribers before expanding to free users in the coming weeks.

The UK executive recruiting group XCE announced that it will charge service fees in Bitcoin, becoming the first publicly listed recruiting company to issue invoices in Bitcoin and complete settlement. This move reflects its “dual integration strategy”: generating revenue through normal services, without any additional capital operations, to continue accumulating Bitcoin. XCE plans to promote Bitcoin settlement options and emphasizes that all Bitcoin will be directly stored in its treasury, with no fiat-to-Bitcoin conversions.

21Shares updates its Hyperliquid ETF filing, confirming the stock ticker THYP, which is seen as an adjustment in response to SEC comments. This move increases the likelihood of the ETF being listed. Compared with Bitwise’s HYPE ETF, the latter has already announced a 0.67% management fee, one of the highest in the market. The Hyperliquid platform’s strong fundamentals attract attention, but given the uncertainty around inflows of meme-coin ETF funds, market demand still needs to be watched.

The crypto token RAVE surged sharply on April 15 to $19.2, with a 24-hour gain of 135.1%. Liquidation data shows that most short positions were forced to close, resulting in a short squeeze. Monitoring institutions indicate that a suspected market maker used a manipulation mechanism to lure shorts into the market, with a 90% concentration of liquidity concerns. The risk means retail investors should be cautious.

Polygon Labs launches its first native liquid staking token, sPOL, unlocking more than 3.6 billion POL tokens and allowing stakers to use sPOL to perform DeFi operations while earning rewards. With sPOL, stakers can achieve dual yield, and in conjunction with the PIP-85 proposal, for the first time, 50% of validator priority fees are allocated to delegators, strengthening the economic incentives for long-term token staking.

Circle increased issuance by 750 million USDC in South Korea and held talks with major financial institutions, indicating its strategy in the stablecoin market. The South Korean stock market reacted strongly, and stablecoin concept stocks surged across the board. In addition, USDC’s utilization efficiency improved, showing that demand for institutional adoption is increasing; the outlook is optimistic for the future.

Billionaire Tim Draper predicts that Bitcoin will rise to $250k within 18 months, mainly due to inflation pressure and a weakening U.S. dollar. While his prediction is appealing, it hasn’t been met over the past six years, and his personal holdings may affect the assessment. Market conditions and the impact of regulatory policies on prices must be taken into account.

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to rise, reaching $74,670 on April 15. On the X platform, Cashtags were launched in the United States and Canada, integrating real-time financial data and trading. With the Bitcoin halving underway, there are only 105,000 blocks left until the next reward halving. Market sentiment is optimistic, and the US stock market also recorded gains. Among various crypto-news updates, the ARIA token price has crashed, and events such as Virginia’s new law incorporating digital assets have been reported.

Ethereum liquidity re-staking protocol Ether.fi will provide ETH with a value of $3.0 billion to ETHGas within three years as “validator liquidity.” This commitment will support the Ethereum block space futures market, and deliver benefits to validators and stakers by increasing MEV revenue. ETHGas allows users to buy and sell Ethereum block space in advance, ensuring transaction execution, and forecasting gas costs—promoting predictability and stability across the Ethereum ecosystem.

Cow Swap, a DEX aggregation platform built by Cow Protocol, suffered DNS hijacking on April 14. The attacker tampered with domain name records, redirecting user traffic to a spoofed website, and deployed a wallet-draining script. Cow DAO immediately paused the service and advised users to revoke approvals. This incident did not affect the protocol’s smart contracts, but users should remain alert to related risks and verify their transaction records.

On April 15, Bitcoin rebounded about 6% after Trump said Iran is seeking to reach an agreement, breaking above $75,000. Expectations for the resumption of U.S.-Iran negotiations warmed up, lifting Asian stock markets. Technically, roughly $6 billion worth of short positions were forced to close, accelerating the rebound. Analysts said that if the U.S.-Iran situation continues to ease, Bitcoin could break through $80,000, and they predicted it may reach $150,000 by year-end.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage bought Bitcoin with roughly £2 million, becoming the first sitting member of Parliament to publicly disclose an investment of this size. The move highlights his party’s support for cryptoassets and could spark debate about the impact on the UK’s crypto policy and potential conflicts of interest. Farage invested via Stack BTC, strengthening his dual political and financial endorsement.

Foundry Zcash, the Zcash mining pool under Foundry Digital, the operator of a cryptocurrency mining pool, quickly accumulated 29.2% of Zcash hashrate after its launch, squeezing the market share of the leading mining pool, ViaBTC. This shift has boosted the Zcash network’s decentralization and security, reducing the risk of 51% attacks, while the ZEC price surged significantly due to institutional participation and the appeal of privacy technology.

Recently, altcoins represented by RAVE have sparked a fierce investment craze, but some old star projects like FF and INX have used this wave of hype to carry out “pump-and-dump” operations—rapidly driving up coin prices to lure retail investors to buy, and then dumping them heavily, causing the price to plunge rapidly. Such behavior not only exposes the project team’s funding difficulties, but also damages investors’ trust. Investors need to stay alert to signals like abnormal short-term surges in order to avoid the risk of being manipulated by the market.

Dutch state lottery operator Nederlandse Loterij filed a civil lawsuit against Qbet, the Netherlands’ largest unlicensed online gambling platform. The first hearing will be held on April 9. The move is intended to directly pursue the legal responsibility of offshore shell companies and individual directors, protecting consumers from illegal gambling risks. Recently, the KSA issued fines to the relevant operators, but this was still criticized as insufficient, showing that there are gaps in current regulation. If this litigation strategy succeeds, it will provide an enforcement precedent for other European markets.

Ethereum Treasury Company Bitmine recently increased its holdings by 71,524 ETH, bringing its total position to about 4.87 million ETH, nearing its 5% target. Despite having $6.0 billion in paper losses, Bitmine still has $11.8 billion in total assets, and defines ETH as a “wartime value storage method.” This move reflects its confidence in Ethereum’s long-term value.

Aptos Foundation updated its tokenomics on April 14. The main reforms include lowering the staking annualized rate to 2.6%, increasing Gas fees by 10x, setting a supply cap of 2.1 billion tokens, and permanently locking 210 million APT. This adjustment is intended to shift the supply model from a “subsidy-driven” approach to a “performance-driven” one, in order to achieve a deflationary target and encourage long-term participation.