Crypto World
OpenAI Pits AI Agents Against Each Other to Red-Team Smart Contracts
OpenAI has unveiled a benchmarking framework aimed at measuring how effectively AI agents can detect, mitigate, and even exploit security vulnerabilities in crypto smart contracts. The project, titled “EVMbench: Evaluating AI Agents on Smart Contract Security,” was released in collaboration with Paradigm and OtterSec, two organizations with deep exposure to blockchain security and investment. The study assesses AI agents against a curated set of 120 potential weaknesses drawn from 40 smart contract audits, seeking to quantify not just detection and patching capabilities but also the theoretical exploit potential of these agents in a controlled environment.
Key takeaways
- EVMbench tests AI agents against 120 vulnerabilities culled from 40 smart contract audits, emphasizing vulnerabilities sourced from open-source audit competitions.
- Among the models tested, Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.6 led with an average detect award of $37,824, followed by OpenAI’s OC-GPT-5.2 at $31,623 and Google’s Gemini 3 Pro at $25,112.
- OpenAI frames the benchmark as a step toward measuring AI performance in “economically meaningful environments,” not just toy tasks, highlighting the real-world implications for attackers and defenders in the crypto security landscape.
- The researchers note that smart contracts secure billions of dollars in assets, underscoring the strategic value of AI-enabled tooling for both offensive and defensive activities.
- Industry observers have tied these developments to broader discussions about AI-driven payments and the role of stablecoins in everyday transactions, with major executives predicting growing agentic usage in the coming years.
- The context for such work is underscored by 2025’s crypto-security incident data, which shows a continued flow of funds through vulnerabilities and attacks, reinforcing the demand for robust AI-enabled auditing and defense mechanisms.
Detect awards for AI agents are detailed in the OpenAI PDF accompanying the study, which also describes the evaluation methodology and the scenarios used to simulate real-world smart-contract risk. The authors emphasize that while AI agents have evolved to automate a wide range of routine tasks, assessing their performance in “economically meaningful environments” is essential to understanding how they’ll perform under pressure in production systems.
“Smart contracts secure billions of dollars in assets, and AI agents are likely to be transformative for both attackers and defenders.”
OpenAI notes that it expects agentic technologies to broaden the scope of payments and settlement, including stablecoins used in automated workflows. The discussion around AI-enabled payments extends beyond security testing to the broader question of how autonomous systems will participate in daily financial activity. The company’s own projections suggest that agentic payments could become more commonplace, grounding AI capabilities in practical use cases that touch everyday consumer transactions.
In tandem with the benchmark results, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire has publicly forecast that billions of AI agents could be transacting with stablecoins for everyday payments within the next five years. That view intersects with a recurring theme in crypto circles: the potential for crypto to become the native currency of AI agents, a narrative that has gained notable attention from industry leaders and investors alike. While such predictions remain speculative, the underlying trend is clear—AI automation is moving from the lab to the transaction layer, where it could reshape how value moves across networks.
The study arrives at a moment when crypto security continues to be a significant risk factor for investors. The data point about 2025’s assault on crypto funds—where attackers pulled roughly $3.4 billion—highlights the urgency of improved tooling and faster, more reliable patching mechanisms. The EVMbench framework is positioned, in part, as a way to measure whether AI agents can meaningfully contribute to defensive capabilities at scale, reducing exploitation opportunities and accelerating threat mitigation.
To build the benchmark, researchers drew on 120 curated vulnerabilities spanning 40 smart contract audits, with many weaknesses traced back to open-source audit challenges. OpenAI argues the benchmark will help track AI progress in recognizing and mitigating contract-level weaknesses at scale, offering a standardized way to compare future AI models as they evolve. The study also provides a lens into how AI might be applied to normalizing risk assessment across a wide range of smart-contract architectures, rather than focusing solely on isolated cases.
Smart contracts weren’t built for humans: Dragonfly
In a contemporaneous thread on X, Haseeb Qureshi, a partner at Dragonfly, argued that crypto’s promise of replacing property rights and traditional contracts never materialized not because the technology failed, but because it was never designed with human intuition in mind. He has highlighted the persistent fear associated with signing large transactions in an environment where drainer wallets and other attack vectors remain a constant threat, in stark contrast to the comparatively smoother experience of traditional bank transfers.
Qureshi contends that the next phase of crypto transactions could be enabled by AI-intermediated, self-driving wallets. Such wallets would monitor risk, manage complex operations, and autonomously respond to threats on behalf of users, potentially reducing the friction and fear that characterize large transfers today.
“A technology often snaps into place once its complement finally arrives. GPS had to wait for the smartphone, TCP/IP had to wait for the browser. For crypto, we might just have found it in AI agents.”
The broader takeaway from this thread is that AI agents may play a critical role in transforming how people interact with crypto—shifting from manual, error-prone transactions to automated, risk-aware processes that can scale with adoption. As AI agents begin to demonstrate more competence in handling security concerns, users could see improved reliability and resilience in decentralized finance workflows, even as the underlying technologies continue to mature.
What to watch next
- Publication and independent replication of the full EVMbench dataset across additional AI models and architectures.
- Broader adoption of AI-assisted auditing workflows by auditors, exchanges, and DeFi projects looking to bolster security postures.
- Explorations into agentic wallets and autonomous payment flows, including regulatory and compliance considerations for AI-managed assets.
- Follow-up benchmarks comparing more AI systems as new versions roll out, tracking improvements in detection accuracy and patching speed.
Sources & verification
- OpenAI: EVMbench: Evaluating AI Agents on Smart Contract Security — PDF: https://cdn.openai.com/evmbench/evmbench.pdf
- OpenAI: Introducing EVMbench — https://openai.com/index/introducing-evmbench/
- Crypto security losses in 2025 (reporting coverage): https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-3-4-billion-losses-2025-wallet-hacks
- Dragonfly: Haseeb Qureshi on AI and crypto UX (X post): https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2024136762424185208
- China’s AI lead and crypto implications (analysis): https://cointelegraph.com/news/china-ai-lead-future
- AI Eye — IronClaw and AI bot developments in Polymarket coverage: https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/ironclaw-secure-private-sounds-cooler-openclaw-ai-eye/
Key figures and next steps
The EVMbench study demonstrates that large language models and related AI agents are beginning to perform meaningful security work in the smart contract space, with clearly quantifiable differences across models. Claude Opus 4.6’s lead in average detect awards signals that certain architectures may be more adept at spotting and mitigating vulnerabilities within complex contract logic, while others trail, offering a spectrum of capabilities that researchers will likely want to refine. The inclusion of multiple industry partnerships in the project underscores the growing consensus that AI-enabled security and automated risk management could become essential to scale in decentralized environments.
As the field evolves, observers will be watching for how quickly AI agents can transition from detection to remediation, and whether these agents can operate reliably in live systems without introducing new risks. The conversation about AI-driven wallets and autonomous payments touches on a broader set of questions around security governance, user consent, and regulatory alignment. If the trajectory suggested by OpenAI and its partners continues, AI-assisted tools could become a core component of future crypto infrastructure, changing both the risk calculus and the user experience in meaningful ways. The next round of benchmarks, alongside real-world deployments, will help determine how quickly this vision materializes and what safeguards must accompany it.
Soluna Holdings, a publicly traded Bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure firm focused on renewable energy, disclosed a $53 million deal to acquire the Briscoe Wind Farm in Briscoe County, Texas. The purchase is aimed at powering its upcoming Project Dorothy 3 AI data center campus. The Briscoe facility carries a potential capacity of up to 300 megawatts (MW), and Soluna expects the site to generate annualized revenue in a range of $20 million to $24.4 million. On the news, Soluna’s shares rose about 7.6%, trading near $0.76 per share.
Soluna has been diversifying beyond crypto mining since February 2024, expanding into AI data center infrastructure in the midst of a broader industry pivot toward AI and high-performance computing to shore up revenues as mining profits faced pressure.
Related coverage on the strategic shift and its implications for the crypto mining sector provides additional context for readers following this transition.
Key takeaways
- Soluna commits to a wind-powered expansion with the Briscoe Wind Farm, potentially adding up to 300 MW of capacity to feed its Dorothy 3 AI campus.
- The project is expected to generate $20–$24.4 million in annual revenue, illustrating a shift toward diversified infrastructure revenue streams for crypto-focused operators.
- Industry profitability remains under pressure: CoinShares reports show up to 20% of mining companies aren’t profitable as of early 2026, with miners facing higher energy costs and flattening block rewards.
- Mining economics have deteriorated: the average cost to mine one BTC rose to nearly $80,000 in Q4 2025, while Bitcoin traded well below that level amid a volatile price environment.
- Hashrate growth and balance-sheet strain have driven renewed emphasis on renewables, with several operators adopting wind and solar solutions to reduce exposure to traditional energy markets.
Wind power as a hedge for an evolving sector
The Briscoe Wind Farm purchase aligns with Soluna’s broader strategy of integrating renewable energy with cutting-edge compute capacity. The company’s plan to power Dorothy 3 with wind capacity reflects a longer-term thesis: align infrastructure assets with revenue streams less tied to the cyclical swings of crypto mining. Soluna previously highlighted its foray into AI hosting and co-location services as part of a February 2024 expansion into AI data center infrastructure, signaling a deliberate pivot away from relying solely on volatile mining rewards.
In September, Soluna also announced a collaboration with Canaan, a major mining hardware manufacturer, to deploy a wind-powered BTC mining facility at the Briscoe site. That partnership underscores a dual objective: leveraging renewable energy to improve mining cost structures while integrating AI-focused data center capabilities to diversify cash flows.
The move comes amid a broader industry environment where operators are rethinking energy strategies. The growing emphasis on renewables is partly driven by the need to reduce exposure to asymmetric power costs and by the search for predictable, long-term capacity utilization that AI and HPC workloads can provide.
Industry profitability in the crosshairs
The mining sector continues to grapple with a convergence of challenges. A March 2026 report from asset manager CoinShares notes that a sizable portion of miners are operating at or near breakeven, with as many as 20% of surveyed firms not profitable in that period. The report attributes slipping margins to several factors, including the halving cycle’s aftermath, elevated energy costs, and a tougher price environment for BTC.
The trajectory of Bitcoin prices has also weighed on miners. CoinShares notes that the October 2025 market crash pulled BTC from a peak near $125,000 to around $60,000, a move that compressed margins further as network hashrate continued to climb. The rising hashrate implies more competition for block rewards, intensifying the push for cost-efficient energy and hardware strategies.
In response, several miners have been retreating to renewable energy and smarter energy arrangements. The industry’s energy-cost sensitivity is evident in the fact that miners sold more than 15,000 BTC between October and early March to cover operating expenses, with selling continuing into recent weeks. The pivot to renewables, including partnerships and wind/solar-powered facilities, has become a cornerstone of efforts to sustain operations in a tighter profitability environment.
Renewable deployments are not limited to Soluna’s circle. Other operators—such as The Phoenix Group and Sangha Renewables—have begun integrating renewables to power mining operations, highlighting a broader market trend: energy resilience is increasingly a competitive differentiator for miners facing margin compression.
The momentum around AI-oriented data centers and renewable energy co-location has also fed into broader industry discussions about how Bitcoin mining can coexist with high-demand compute workloads. A related piece of coverage has explored whether AI buildouts could crowd out or compete with mining for energy resources, a dynamic that investors are watching closely as the sector evolves.
What changes, and what remains uncertain
Soluna’s strategic bet on a wind-powered, high-capacity data center campus signals an ongoing effort to diversify revenue beyond commodity mining rewards. The Briscoe deal illustrates how renewable energy assets can bolster a capital-intensive plan to scale AI infrastructure while mitigating the sensitivity of traditional mining to price swings.
Yet the path forward is not without risk. The profitability gap for miners, volatile BTC pricing, and ongoing energy price dynamics remain central uncertainties. The success of Dorothy 3 will hinge on the pace of AI compute adoption, the cost of wind-energy integration, and the ability to sustain utilization at scale. Investors will also be watching how revenue from AI-focused data center operations compares to, and complements, traditional mining earnings over time.
As the sector navigates a period of transition, market participants will likely scrutinize the economics of similar renewable-energy collaborations, the pace of AI demand growth, and the regulatory environment shaping both mining and data-center development.
Readers should monitor Soluna’s project updates, energy grid considerations in Texas, and how the company’s revenue projections progress against actual performance once the facility becomes operational. The evolving balance between AI infrastructure and mining economics will help determine whether renewables can reliably stabilize cash flows for crypto-native operators moving forward.
For context, Soluna’s objectives and the broader industry dynamics continue to be discussed in tandem with coverage on AI-hosting momentum and its potential impact on Bitcoin mining, underscoring a pivotal moment for the sector’s energy strategies and growth trajectories.
Source context: Soluna’s deal details and the Briscoe Wind Farm capacity were reported by Cointelegraph, while CoinShares provided analysis on mining profitability, energy costs, and hashrate dynamics. Market price references for Soluna shares come from Yahoo Finance, reflecting intraday movement around the announcement.
Crypto World
Coinbase’s x402 Payment Protocol Moves to Linux Foundation With Backing From Google, Stripe, and Visa
The open standard for embedding payments into HTTP interactions aims to become the settlement layer for AI agent commerce, with over 20 founding members spanning tech, payments and crypto.
The x402 protocol, Coinbase’s open standard for embedding stablecoin payments directly into web interactions, has officially moved to the Linux Foundation as the newly launched x402 Foundation opens its doors with a broad coalition of industry heavyweights.
The announcement, made Thursday at the MCP Dev Summit North America, marks the protocol’s transition from a Coinbase-led project to a vendor-neutral, community-governed standard designed to accelerate adoption as AI agents increasingly need to pay for services autonomously.
The foundation’s initial governing body includes Cloudflare and Stripe, and founding members include Adyen, Amazon Web Services, American Express, Ampersend.ai, Ant International, Base, Circle, Fiserv Merchant Solutions, Google, KakaoPay, Mastercard, Merit Systems, Microsoft, Polygon Labs, PPRO, Sierra, Shopify, Solana Foundation, Thirdweb and Visa.
From HTTP Error Code to Payment Layer
The x402 protocol revives HTTP’s long-dormant “402 Payment Required” status code, turning it into a functional payment handshake. When an AI agent requests a paid resource, the server responds with a 402 status containing machine-readable price and settlement details. The client signs a payment payload and retries the request, and a facilitator verifies and settles the transaction on-chain.
The design supports both fiat and crypto payment methods across multiple blockchains.
The launch comes as the race to build the internet’s AI payment layer intensifies. x402 faces competition from the Machine Payments Protocol, developed by Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempo blockchain, which uses session-based authentication rather than x402’s per-request model.
Google has already integrated x402 into its Agentic Payments Protocol as the default stablecoin rail. The surrounding infrastructure is also expanding: MoonPay last week released the Open Wallet Standard for AI agent wallet interactions, Visa launched its CLI payment tool targeting agent commerce, and Circle built its Nanopayments directly on x402 for sub-cent USDC transactions.
Coinbase and Cloudflare first announced their intent to create the foundation in September 2025. By placing the protocol under the Linux Foundation’s governance, x402 aims to function as an AI commerce equivalent to SSL, the encryption standard that has become foundational to secure web browsing.
This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.
Bitcoin’s (BTC) range-bound trading within the $60,000 to $73,000 range is impressive, especially when considering the macroeconomic backdrop of Brent crude oil rising to levels not seen since 2008, a hot war between the US, Israel and Iran, and a volatile stock market where the S&P 500 index trades at a 3.95% year-to-date loss.
Despite these intensifying headwinds, Bitcoin buyers have shown a steady appetite for buying the price drops to $60,000, and while the level currently holds as support, the risk of lower prices is not zero.
Bitcoin’s 1-day chart shows a bearish continuation pattern, with one pattern confirmed on Jan. 20 as BTC price entered a correction to $60,014, and a second bear flag currently in play. Every price rally to the flag’s overhead trendline has been rebuffed since Feb. 8, and technical analysis stresses the importance of a rally and multi-day candle close above $76,000 to negate the pattern.
Ideally, a rally to $76,000 would hold through a 2- to 3-day consecutive-candle close, followed by a retest of the trendline at $75,000 to confirm a support-resistance flip, where a former resistance level is now confirmed as support.
Analysis by chartered market technician Aksel Kibar predicts a potential price drop to $52,500. Referencing analysis from March 18, Kibar said that a,
“Breakdown of the lower boundary will be the signal for a possible move toward $52,500.”
Related: Bitcoin traders forecast short-term downside even as BTC price chases $68K
Data from Velo highlights the relatively flat market demand across Bitcoin’s spot and futures markets. Although traders appear to view instances where BTC’s funding rate turns negative as a buying opportunity, their confidence is largely absent during rallies into the bear flag’s trendline resistance.
Evidence of this is seen in Bitcoin’s aggregated open interest remaining pinned below $20 billion, a level not seen since Feb. 2 when BTC traded near $79,000.
Regarding Kibar’s $52,500 price prediction and its alignment with Bitcoin’s futures markets, Hyblock liquidation heatmap data shows a large number of leveraged long positions at risk of liquidation if BTC falls into the $63,000 to $65,000 range.
Below this is a liquidity gap, and the next block of open margin long positions starts in the $57,500 to $56,000 range.
The current price action essentially reflects a market that trades sideways and consolidates as traders search for capital flow or narrative-related factors that would push them into larger directional bets.
Until such a catalyst emerges, it’s likely that Bitcoin will continue to trade within its $10,000 range, with $60,000 as the lowest key support and $70,000 as the most challenging level of resistance.
This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research before making any decisions. Cointelegraph makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information presented, including forward-looking statements, and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from reliance on this content.
Summary
- The Central Bank of Nigeria has launched a supervisory pilot for virtual asset providers, selecting KuCoin alongside five local fintech and crypto firms.
- The program focuses on AML, CFT and CPF compliance in line with FATF standards, requiring detailed reporting and upgrades to governance, monitoring and Travel Rule controls.
- KuCoin’s inclusion underscores its push to align with national regulatory frameworks in major emerging markets, rather than operating purely offshore.news.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has launched a pilot supervisory program for Virtual Asset Service Providers and selected a first cohort of six entities, with KuCoin standing out as the only global crypto exchange on the list. According to local press coverage, the initial phase includes Nigerian payment and crypto players cNGN, Flutterwave, Juicyway, KoinKoin and Paystack, alongside KuCoin, which serves a global user base but has significant volumes in Africa’s largest crypto market.
The pilot is designed to test how selected VASPs perform under direct central bank oversight on issues such as anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing and counter-proliferation financing, all framed against the Financial Action Task Force’s Recommendations 15 and 16. CBN statements cited by outlets including Leadership and AInvest describe the program as a structured effort to understand VASP business models, risk controls and data flows, and to push participants toward full FATF-aligned compliance.
Under the arrangements, participating firms must engage in regular, structured regulatory communications with the central bank and other agencies. They are required to submit periodic data on AML/CFT/CPF performance, undergo audits of customer onboarding and KYC, sanctions screening, transaction monitoring, and demonstrate credible plans to track cross-border flows under the Travel Rule for crypto transfers.
The pilot, which is expected to run for six to nine months, does not itself confer licenses or formal approval, but it does bring KuCoin and the local platforms into what the CBN calls a “controlled and structured environment” for supervision. Authorities say the goal is to move from fragmented restrictions to a risk-based regime that can both weed out bad actors and keep Nigeria’s $92.1 billion annual crypto flows inside a more stable, transparent framework.
For KuCoin, being named in the first batch alongside domestic fintech leaders is a signal that Nigerian regulators see the exchange as a core liquidity node worth pulling into the official perimeter. Analysis from regional outlets notes that the pilot engages “Nigeria’s most visible VASPs,” suggesting KuCoin’s role in local crypto activity made it unavoidable for the CBN’s initial supervisory experiment.
The selection also fits KuCoin’s broader narrative of improving its compliance posture across emerging markets, as regulators from Africa to Asia tighten rules for offshore exchanges after years of largely unregulated growth. If KuCoin can meet Nigeria’s demands on governance, monitoring and Travel Rule adherence, it will strengthen the case that large global platforms can operate under domestic oversight rather than being pushed out of key markets.
Crypto World
Crypto market structure bill release pushed back as industries view revised stablecoin yield compromise this week
Representatives of the crypto and banking industries are meeting with legislative staffers on Thursday and Friday to review revised compromise language on stablecoin yield provisions in the market structure bill, three people familiar with the plans told CoinDesk.
Industry representatives first viewed the compromise language, spearheaded by Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), last week. At the time, the proposed compromise banned yield based solely on stablecoin balances, but did allow companies to pay out yield based on activities. The crypto industry had some issues with the language.
Politico first reported that the meetings were taking place earlier Thursday.
The text was originally expected to be released this week, but that is now unlikely. Crypto in America first reported that the text release would be delayed on Wednesday.
An individual familiar told CoinDesk earlier this week that portions of the language were still being negotiated. Another person told CoinDesk late last week that some of the crypto industry’s desired changes were largely technical tweaks to clarify details, rather than substantive changes around the treatment of yield.
It was not clear as of press time what actual changes were made, or when the text may be released to the general public.
Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said last month that she expected a markup hearing — where lawmakers will debate the bill, possible amendments and vote on whether to advance the legislation to the full Senate — later in April. Under the Senate Banking Committee’s rules, the bill must be published at least 48 hours before the hearing.
While stablecoin yield and rewards are the most prominent issues holding up passage of the market structure bill, other concerns remain outstanding. These include how exactly decentralized finance (DeFi) might be defined and regulated in the bill and whether it will address U.S. President Donald Trump’s family’s involvement with various crypto projects.
Li Xiong, 41, the former chairman of Huione Group and a core member of what Chinese authorities call the Chen Zhi criminal syndicate, was escorted off a China Southern Airlines flight in Beijing on April 1 – shaven-headed, handcuffed, flanked by officers from China’s Ministry of Public Security.
The real story is what his extradition confirms: Beijing is systematically dismantling the leadership layer of what the US Treasury identified as the world’s largest illicit crypto marketplace, and Cambodia is cooperating.
Huione Group processed over $89 billion in cryptoassets through what Elliptic researchers described as the largest illicit online marketplace ever identified – a number that dwarfs most legitimate crypto exchanges by transaction volume.
- Who Was Extradited: Li Xiong, 41, former chairman of Huione Group, extradited from Phnom Penh to Beijing on April 1, 2026, at China’s request following a joint Sino-Cambodian investigation.
- Alleged Role: Li is accused of multiple crimes as a core figure in the Chen Zhi syndicate, which allegedly ran cross-border gambling, fraud, and crypto laundering operations across Southeast Asia.
- Network Scale: Huione Group’s marketplace processed over $89 billion in cryptoassets, serving pig-butchering scam centers and facilitating laundering linked to North Korean state-sponsored cyber heists.
- Enforcement Context: Li’s extradition follows Chen Zhi’s arrest in January 2026 and the US Treasury’s May 2025 designation of Huione as a primary money-laundering concern – part of a coordinated multi-jurisdiction squeeze.
- Compliance Signal: FinCEN directed US banks to sever all accounts and payments tied to Huione Group in October 2025; the extradition reinforces active enforcement risk for any institution with residual Huione exposure.
- What to Watch: Chinese authorities have indicated ongoing investigations and additional syndicate arrests – further asset seizures and indictments targeting Prince Group subsidiaries are the next likely enforcement move.
Discover: Top Crypto Presales to Watch Before They Launch
What the Huione Extradition Actually Covers – and Why the Sequencing Matters
China’s Ministry of Public Security confirmed the operation via WeChat, describing Li as a “core key member” of the Chen Zhi syndicate suspected of “multiple crimes” tied to a “major cross-border gambling and fraud syndicate.”
Cambodian authorities arrested Li separately at Beijing’s formal request before transferring custody – a distinction that matters, because it signals Cambodia is now acting on specific Chinese extradition requests rather than conducting broad regional sweeps.
Huione Group operated as a subsidiary of Prince Group, the holding entity controlled by Chen Zhi. The structure was deliberate: Prince Group provided corporate legitimacy while Huione ran the payment infrastructure that funneled proceeds from pig-butchering scams – elaborate long-con investment frauds targeting victims globally – into the broader financial system via crypto.
The US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network designated Huione a “primary money-laundering concern” in May 2025, citing its role processing over $4 billion in traceable illicit transactions between August 2021 and January 2025 – including proceeds from North Korean cyber heists.
That North Korea connection is not incidental. It elevated Huione from a regional enforcement problem to a sanctions-tier national security concern, which accelerated US pressure on Cambodia to act. Li’s extradition, three months after Chen Zhi’s, follows the pattern: leadership arrests are running top-down through the syndicate hierarchy.
Explore: Best Crypto Projects With High Growth Potential in 2026
The post Alleged Huione Group Money Laundering Boss Extradited to China appeared first on Cryptonews.
Crypto World
Hyperliquid Price Surge as Futures Volume Blows Out, Golden Cross Standard Breakout to $44
Hyperliquid prices soar as the futures trade activity expands. Open interest has risen to about 1.61 billion in the past 24 hours, signaling increased participation in the futures market.
Daily trading volumes have surged to record levels of over 2.4 billion, indicating strong demand for perpetual contracts and growing trader confidence in further upside.
The rise in open interest and volume suggests market participants are not leaving the market but are actively pursuing gains, supporting the current bullish trend.
Key Insights
- The derivatives participation and greater market conviction were shown by open interest exceeding 1.6 billion.
- Daily trading volumes exceeded 2.4 billion, boosting token burn mechanisms and increasing demand.
- Bullish technicals, such as a flag formation and a possible golden cross, point to a rise to 44 if momentum continues.
Futures Trading Pushes the Price
The recent price run-up is closely linked to rising derivatives trading activity. Market data show open interest around 1.61 billion in the past 24 hours, indicating more traders engaging in the futures.
Daily volumes have soared beyond 2.4 billion, signaling strong demand for perpetual contracts and growing trader confidence in further upside movement.
The increase in open interest and volume indicates market participants remain active, supporting the bullish trend.
Diversification to Real-World Assets
The platform’s move into physical assets trading has increased activity. With HIP-3, perpetual contracts based on commodities like gold, silver, and crude oil are now tradable.
This enables traders to gain exposure to conventional assets in a crypto-native setup. In March, daily volumes in crude oil contracts reached over $1 billion at the peak amid geopolitical tensions.
Moreover, the 24/7 trading feature provides a competitive edge, especially as event contracts enhance engagement.
Hyperliquid has added event-based contracts, adding another layer of participation for traders. These tools let users speculate on real-life results while managing futures exposure.
Consequently, trading activity has risen, contributing to higher fee generation. This supports token buybacks and burn facilities, which gradually reduce supply and promote price stability.
The mix of new products and increased user interaction continues to strengthen the platform’s ecosystem.
Bullish Technical Set Up Develops
Technically, Hyperliquid’s price action shows signs of a bullish continuation pattern. A flag formation formed after a sharp rise, suggesting consolidation before a potential breakout.
Additionally, the token is approaching a milestone: a potential golden cross as the 50-day moving average crosses above the 200-day moving average. This is typically viewed as a bullish signal upon confirmation.
If a breakout occurs, the next major resistance zone is around the 44 level, which analysts in traditional markets are watching in response to global events in real time.
Risks and Key Support Levels
Despite the optimistic forecast, there are downside risks. The 200-day moving average sits near 34.8 and serves as a critical support zone.
A break below this level could undermine the current setup and shift the mood to the downside. Traders will monitor price action around this region to confirm continuation or reversal.
Prognosis: Derivatives Activity Is Still Important
Derivatives trading is likely to remain a major driver of Hyperliquid’s short-term trajectory. Open interest and volumes are expected to grow, reflecting trader confidence.
Additionally, token burns tied to platform charges and product diversification contribute to liquidity and demand.
If these trends persist, Hyperliquid may continue its upward trajectory, with technical confirmations and the possibility of an upward price target near the $44 level.
Bitcoin fell below $67,000, and Ether dropped over 4% as oil surged on renewed geopolitical tensions.
Crypto markets slumped on Thursday as a fresh wave of risk-off sentiment swept across global markets following President Donald Trump’s pledge to continue military strikes against Iran.
Bitcoin (BTC) is trading at around $66,900, down 1.7% over the past 24 hours. ETH slipped 4% to $2,050, and SOL plunged 6% to $79 in the wake of the Drift exploit. Meanwhile, Ripple (XRP) dropped 3.3%.
Total crypto market capitalization decreased by 1.7% to $2.38 trillion, according to Coingecko.
The rout was triggered after Trump said Wednesday evening that the U.S. would continue strikes on Iran, reversing hopes for a diplomatic resolution that had buoyed markets earlier in the week.
The risk-off mood extended to institutional products. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded a net outflow of $173.7 million on April 1, while spot Ethereum ETFs posted a $7.1 million withdrawal, according to SoSoValue.
Big Movers
Almost all of the Top 100 digital assets posted losses over the last 24 hours.
Algorand (ALGO) and MemeCore (M) outperformed, rallying 5%. Lighter (LIT) surged 10% after unveiling a collaboration with Wallet in Telegram.
Uniswap (UNI) and Solana (SOL) are today’s biggest losers, down 13% and 6%, respectively.
Around 185,000 leveraged traders were liquidated for $441 million in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. Bitcoin accounted for $103 million, while ETH made up $93 million.
Investors tried to pull $13 billion out of private credit funds this quarter. They got less than half. For many crypto investors, if the collapse of private credit continues, half could end up being a good outcome.
Seven private credit giants capped investor withdrawals this quarter, including Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Apollo, Blue Owl, Cliffwater, Blackstone, and Ares. Oaktree almost joined that group, although it technically fulfilled its 8.5% in withdrawal requests by having parent Brookfield buy 1.7% of shares at the eleventh hour.
Private credit funds package up illiquid loans inside vehicles that typically go up, except during rare times of crisis, such as during a major war or mass job losses.
They also typically limit quarterly withdrawals to 5%, which is not a problem until many people want out, like they do now.
When more than 5% want to withdraw, everyone gets a haircut on their withdrawal request. At Apollo and Ares, 11% wanted out. Those funds returned less than half.
Crypto started joining the private credit bandwagon years ago, selling similar products in a different wrapper. Many stablecoin and altcoin treasury managers invest in private credit directly.
‘A quasi run on the bank’
Michael Saylor delivered a keynote at the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit on March 26, the same week Apollo and Ares gated withdrawals. He pitched his company’s dividend-paying stocks as competitors to private credit.
Saylor even called the multi-trillion dollar private credit crisis this year “a quasi-run on the bank.”
Worse, the same companies gating traditional private credit withdrawals are tokenizing private credit on blockchains. Apollo launched ACRED, a tokenized feeder into Apollo’s Diversified Credit Fund. A few months after that launch, Apollo’s partner Securitize had built sACRED, a derivative to goose yields even higher through risky decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
Holders can buy ACRED, deposit it into DeFi vaults, borrow stablecoins, buy more ACRED, and loop. Yields after looping, which are tantamount to risk, soared.
Securitize initially advertised daily redemption rights for ACRED holders, which was quite curious given that most private credit funds limit quarterly redemptions to 5%. Then, after crypto publication Unchained asked about the mismatch with the fund’s quarterly 5% cap, Securitize quietly removed daily liquidity rights.
Easier to buy, just as hard to sell
In other words, crypto tokenization changed the speed at which people could buy and add leverage. It did not change the speed at which they could sell.
Nor did crypto improve the most important characteristic of private credit: the deteriorating credit qualities of US borrowers who are suffering higher fuel prices, AI-induced job layoffs, wartime uncertainty, inflation, and rising costs of living.
Crypto sold versions of the same illiquid debt that investors cannot exit quickly in any environment, let alone the current “quasi run on the bank” reality.
By one analyst’s count, tokenized private credit surged from $25 million to $6 billion over the last year.
Read more: Bitcoin mortgages debut with 60% haircut and no margin calls
Using blockchain for private credit instruments merely extends leverage and the rehypothecation chain that amplifies losses in a market downturn.
Goldfinch, a DeFi protocol for undercollateralized real-world lending, has already suffered three defaults totaling $18 million. The most recent default wiped out more than 7% of its active loan book.
A bad loan is still a bad loan, even if a smart contract wraps it in a token.
Billions queued up to leave private credit
Apollo Debt Solutions, valued at about $15 billion, received redemption requests for 11.2% of its shares. It enforced a 5% cap and returned $730 million of $1.5 billion requested. Ares Strategic Income Fund faced 11.6% in requests and did the same.
Blackstone recorded a record 7.9% in requests totaling nearly $4 billion. It raised its cap to 7% and injected $400 million of its own capital. BlackRock’s $26 billion fund received $1.2 billion in requests. Cliffwater’s $33 billion fund saw the worst: 14% demanded back.
Across roughly a dozen funds, about $4.6 billion in investor capital remains trapped.
Blue Owl Capital is the poster child of the current crisis in private credit. The company permanently halted redemptions from its retail-focused Blue Owl Capital Corp II in February. Its stock has declined 42% since the start of the year and 60% over the past twelve months.
Smelling blood, a shark investor launched a tender offer for 6% of Blue Owl Capital Corp II at about 65 cents on the dollar.
“All you need is for the snowball to start rolling down the hill, and it has begun,” the investor said at a recent investment conference.
Crypto credit risks
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell addressed private credit on March 30 at Harvard University. He called it a correction, not a systemic event.
Nonetheless, Powell’s contentious reassurance arrived the same week that DZ Bank, Germany’s second-largest lender, warned that private credit could trigger a chain reaction with severe negative effects for the US economy.
A record 63% of fund managers surveyed by Bank of America identified private equity and private credit as the most likely source of the next wave of systemic bankruptcies.
Default rates would tend to agree. The private credit default rate reached 5.8% through January 2026, the highest since Fitch’s index launched. Morgan Stanley forecasts it will climb to 8%, more than triple the historical average. UBS has warned that severe AI disruption to software borrowers could push defaults to 13%.
Software exposure is the fault line. About 26% of direct lending loans went to software companies. Many built business models on costly subscriptions that AI is now undermining. Blackstone’s flagship BCRED fund posted its first monthly loss in three years in February after marking down loans.
Wall Street spent years pitching private credit as institutional-grade yield, and crypto wanted to democratize and decentralize it. What they actually democratized and decentralized was the purchase of opaque, illiquid loans by retail investors with 5% quarterly redemption limits whose fund managers choose the valuations of their own assets with broad discretion.
As Protos has previously reported, this type of opacity in financial products is a feature, not a bug. Now those investors want their money back. The funds are returning less than half.
Powell says it is not systemic. About two thirds of private fund managers disagree.
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Polymarket is expanding its predictive markets beyond purely cryptocurrency-related events, adding contracts tied to traditional assets. The new offerings rely on price data from the Pyth Network to determine outcomes for daily contracts, including up/down bets and closing price contracts for major equity indices, commodities such as gold and oil, and a range of US-listed stocks. Settlements are automated, with contracts resetting at the end of each trading session.
In its announcement, Polymarket notes that the expanded lineup includes more than a dozen US-listed stocks, featuring blue-chips such as Tesla, Nvidia and Apple, alongside commodity and index-based markets. By adopting Pyth as the resolution layer, Polymarket is moving away from manual or exchange-specific references toward a standardized data feed that aggregates prices from multiple market participants.
Key takeaways
- Polymarket launches traditional-asset markets (stocks, indices, commodities) using Pyth Network for automatic, real-time settlement.
- The new markets include daily up/down and closing price contracts for major US-listed stocks (e.g., Tesla, Nvidia, Apple), plus gold and oil, settled via Pyth feeds with daily resets.
- Polymarket also introduced Pyth Terminal, a live data interface showing the reference values used to settle contracts and a continuously updating price-to-beat tracker for traders.
- ICE’s investment signals strategic backing: ICE completed a $600 million cash investment in Polymarket last week and may acquire up to $40 million more in shares as part of a broader commitment to the platform.
- Oracle networks are expanding beyond crypto, with government and traditional finance applications increasingly relying on on-chain price and economic data.
Polymarket’s bridge to traditional markets
The rollout marks a notable shift for Polymarket, which has historically focused on event-driven markets—ranging from elections and sports to financial and weather outcomes. By anchoring settlement to Pyth’s real-time price feeds, the platform can offer automated outcomes for assets that trade outside the typical crypto-native hours, broadening the potential audience of traders who want to speculate on or hedge exposure to conventional markets.
The inclusion of US-listed equities, including Tesla, Nvidia and Apple, alongside commodity and index contracts, positions Polymarket at the intersection of prediction markets and traditional financial markets. The Reuters-style mechanics of “daily up/down” and “closing price” contracts enable end-of-day settlement that mirrors conventional price discovery, while still leveraging the transparency and programmability of blockchain-backed markets. The Business Wire release emphasizes that Pyth’s data is the reference used to resolve these bets, replacing ad hoc or venue-specific price references.
Pyth Terminal and the changing face of on-chain data
Concurrently, Pyth Network introduced Pyth Terminal, a data interface designed to give users a transparent view of live price feeds and the reference values underpinning Polymarket settlements. The terminal provides a continuously updating price-to-beat line, allowing traders to monitor how shifts in real-time data could affect contract outcomes. This level of visibility is meant to enhance trust and operational clarity for users participating in cross-asset markets on the platform.
Pyth’s broader push into traditional finance data aligns with a growing trend among oracle networks to serve not just crypto protocols but also financial infrastructure and prediction markets. The same trend is evident in other collaborations—Chainlink, RedStone and Kalshi integrations, and shifts toward 24/5 pricing data for tokenized assets—reflecting a broader push to tether decentralized markets to official or widely accepted data feeds.
Oracles, finance, and the regulatory backdrop
The expansion of oracle networks into real-world data has taken on additional significance as governments and financial firms increasingly rely on on-chain information. Notably, Chainlink and Pyth have been cited by US government agencies as sources for publishing on-chain economic data, including GDP and inflation metrics. The market response to these developments has been tangible: the PYTH token surged more than 70% on the day of the announcement, lifting its market capitalization above $1 billion.
These developments sit within a broader ecosystem where oracles are being integrated into both traditional finance and regulatory-compliant data pipelines. For example, Kalshi’s integration via RedStone across multiple blockchains demonstrates how regulated, exchange-traded event contracts can leverage cross-chain data feeds. Meanwhile, data providers continue to compete for share in a market that DeFiLlama currently indicates remains highly concentrated, with Chainlink accounting for roughly two-thirds of total value secured, and RedStone and Pyth each representing a smaller slice.
Strategic backing from ICE and implications for users
Intercontinental Exchange, Polymarket’s backer, disclosed last week a $600 million cash investment in Polymarket and an option to acquire up to $40 million more in shares as part of a broader multibillion-dollar commitment to the platform. ICE’s involvement underscores a deepening convergence between traditional exchange operators and crypto-based prediction markets. For Polymarket, the arrangement could unlock new liquidity channels and potential product expansions, while ICE gains exposure to a novel form of event-based market activity that sits at the convergence of data, finance and user-generated insights.
From an investor and trader perspective, the move expands the set of tools available to hedge or speculate on real-world events. The use of a single, standardized data source like Pyth to settle a wide array of assets could simplify risk management for participants and may encourage more institutional participation that relies on consistent, auditable price feeds. For developers and platform builders, the integration demonstrates a viable pathway for connecting traditional assets to decentralized marketplaces without sacrificing transparency or speed of settlement.
As the ecosystem evolves, readers should watch how these traditional-asset markets perform in terms of liquidity, user adoption and regulatory compliance. The synergy between Polymarket’s user-driven contracts and ICE’s financial infrastructure could shape how predictive platforms scale beyond niche audiences, potentially influencing how everyday investors interact with real-world assets on-chain.
Overall, the fusion of Polymarket’s prediction market model with Pyth’s enterprise-grade price data signals a meaningful step toward broader applicability of oracle-powered settlement. The coming months will reveal how well these traditional-asset markets attract liquidity, how robust the data feeds prove under volatile conditions, and what regulatory and market structure developments might accompany this cross-asset expansion.
What remains unclear is how this model will fare across different asset classes during periods of stress, and whether further collaborations between traditional exchanges and on-chain data providers will accelerate the adoption of tokenized or blockchain-anchored versions of equities and commodities. Traders and builders alike should keep an eye on the next wave of product updates, market depth, and any regulatory clarifications that could affect the trajectory of cross-asset prediction markets.
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