Current Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell will continue to stay on the central bank’s board as Governor after his term ends in May.

Speaking at a press conference following the central bank’s decision to hold interest rates steady at 3.5%-3.75% on Wednesday, Powell voiced concerns about the legal action against the central bank, saying it is causing him to stay, even though he plans to keep a “low profile.”

“I worry that these attacks are battering the institution and putting at risk the thing that really matters to the public, which is the ability to conduct monetary policy without taking into consideration political factors,” Powell said.

When the administration of President Donald Trump closed its criminal investigation into Powell, it left room to revisit the case. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said the matter would stay under review by the Fed’s inspector general and warned prosecutors could reopen it if new facts emerged.

That statement, along with later remarks from President Donald Trump and his aides, raised concern that Powell could still face legal pressure. Powell said even though he wanted to leave, he had “no choice” but to stay.

Fed leave rates unchanged

The Fed’s rate hold came as expected, but the dissent from three Governors stood out, according to 21shares macro analyst Matt Mena. “The Fed’s decision to keep rates steady wasn’t the shocker, but those three dissenters calling for a strike on any easing guidance threw a bucket of ice on the market’s pivot party,” Mena said. The hawkish tone weighed on risk assets, with bitcoin BTC$75,451.60 slipping under the $75,000 support mark as traders brace for a retest of the $73,000 level.

Focus has also shifted to potential policy changes ahead. “Markets may begin to price a [Kevin] Warsh pivot that favors rate cuts, and more importantly, the imminent passage of the CLARITY Act,” Mena said, adding that if momentum returns, “the path to $85,000–$90,000 looks like a clear shot.”

Crypto has always been a risky space in which to put one’s money, but the current rate of hacks has even multi-cycle veterans spooked.

In 2026 alone, a grand total of $1.08 billion has been stolen in at least 68 incidents.

Three major thefts account for the vast majority of the losses, two of which came in April. It’s been a particularly rough month with 30 incidents so far, an average of more than one a day.

Just this past week, Protos has identified 13 individual losses, including three on the same day this article was written. Although these were mostly for lower amounts, they totaled over $11 million of losses.

In an attempt to keep readers up to date (not to mention staying on top of it ourselves!) Protos has put together a catalogue of crypto hacks; entries cover 2026 so far, generally with a $100,000 loss cut-off.

Protos’ hack tracker can be found on the Live section of our website.

There has been a 6 figure hack on ethereum basically every 6 hours for the last week, this is crazy

— deebeez (@deeberiroz) April 28, 2026

Read more: LayerZero among bridges Lazarus using to launder loot

Security firms struggling to keep up with crypto hacks

Facing such an onslaught of hacks, even specialist crypto security firms seem unable to keep pace. 

Team members from crypto projects Alchemix, Trading Strategy and Yearn Finance all scolded Peckshield on Wednesday for its “reckless” alerts, which implied their products were to blame for losses from insecure third-party contracts.

Read more: Crypto security firms more concerned with social media clout than the details

Even the experts aren’t exempt from falling victim to hackers. The business development manager of CertiK, a crypto audit firm whose reputation is already somewhat shaky, took to X to warn that his Telegram account had been hijacked by scammers to spread malware using “fake meeting links.”

More hacks or greater visibility?

The advent of widespread AI use is increasingly seen as a major factor in the recent perceived uptick of hacks, especially those targeting smaller and/or older contracts.

The near-constant stream of incidents may be down to a genuine uptick in activity or simply increased visibility.

As well as AI-powered tools being used to find and exploit vulnerabilities, they increase researchers’ ability to monitor and pluck out noteworthy transactions from the background noise of blockchain data.

Either way, it’s a significant amount of the overall DeFi sector, claims Pigi Finance.

It analyzed five years of hacks and estimates that 3.37% of DeFi assets are lost in protocol exploits, per year. This excludes “bridge hacks, CEX collapses, wallet drains [and] phishing,” focusing on “pure protocol-level risk.”

But as security standards harden, especially amongst projects holding significant funds, the focus for big paydays has moved elsewhere.

Neither of April’s two monster hacks, Drift Protocol’s $280 million and Kelp DAO’s $290 million losses, were smart contract exploits.

ImmuneFi’s Mitchell Amador, analyzing a similar timeframe, says “protocol security has improved dramatically.” Despite the number of loss events decreasing, both total losses and average loss per incident are down sharply from 2022 highs.

As the largest recent losses show, the juiciest crypto hack targets now involve long term social engineering and spear-phishing, with the ultimate aim to compromise privileged machines.

Got a tip? Send us an email securely via Protos Leaks. For more informed news and investigations, follow us on X, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Meta has begun rolling out stablecoin payouts for creators, marking the social media giant’s return to digital currencies four years after shelving its Libra project.

According to a Meta help page, creators in Colombia and the Philippines can now opt to receive payouts in USDC on either the Solana or Polygon networks. Recipients must connect a compatible third-party wallet, such as MetaMask or Phantom, to their Facebook payout account.

“With off-ramps in 150+ countries, our Open Money Stack expands financial access and improves how creators receive and use earnings globally,” the Polygon team wrote on X.

Stripe is handling crypto-specific tax reporting alongside Meta’s standard forms. Meta is not offering an off-ramp, meaning creators who want to cash out into local currency must move their USDC to a third-party exchange.

Post-Libra Revival

The launch lands four years after Meta wound down Diem, the rebranded version of its Libra global stablecoin project, following sustained opposition from U.S. and European regulators. The Diem Association sold its assets to Silvergate Capital for around $182 million in early 2022.

Meta’s quiet return follows the 2025 passage of the GENIUS Act, which established the first U.S. federal framework for dollar-backed stablecoins and unlocked a wave of consumer-firm integrations.

Shopify began allowing merchants to accept USDC payments, Western Union announced plans to launch its USDPT stablecoin on Solana next month, and DoorDash partnered with Tempo, the Stripe-incubated stablecoin chain, to pay merchants and Dashers across more than 40 countries.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

Polymarket is pursuing a regulatory pathway to reopen its main prediction markets platform to users in the United States, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter. The development would signal a broader US re-entry for the firm, following a limited return last year via a regulated QCEX-based setup that still blocks American users from the main exchange.

The contemplated relaunch hinges on obtaining approval from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to lift the long-standing prohibition on US-based customers. A full reinstatement would require a formal CFTC commission vote. Bloomberg noted that the process could be facilitated by four vacant commissioner seats, potentially reducing the number of votes needed to advance the matter.

The move comes against a backdrop of heightened regulatory scrutiny of prediction markets in the United States, where rivals such as Kalshi have established a stronger domestic footprint even as the sector faces ongoing enforcement and legal questions at both state and federal levels. Polymarket’s potential US comeback would, if successful, intensify competition in a market that regulators closely monitor for compliance with registration, licensing, and consumer-protection standards.

Polymarket declined to comment to Cointelegraph about the Bloomberg report.

Key takeaways

• Polymarket is seeking CFTC clearance to restore full US access to its main prediction markets platform, a move that would require a formal vote by the agency’s commissioners.
• The bid follows the 2022 CFTC settlement, which forced Polymarket to block US users and imposed a $1.4 million civil penalty for unregistered event contracts.
• A complete US relaunch would contribute to competition with Kalshi, which has gained traction domestically and holds relationships with major crypto platforms such as Coinbase.
• US enforcement activity and state actions remain a material risk for Polymarket and other prediction platforms, including ongoing lawsuits and investigations into the use of event contracts for gambling or illegal betting.
• Polymarket’s US operations have progressed only gradually, with a late-2025 comeback that began with a waitlist-based app focused on sports contracts, followed by broader market ambitions.

Regulatory backdrop and potential implications for US operations

The regulatory framework governing prediction markets in the United States rests primarily with the CFTC, which regulates commodity and derivative instruments and enforces registration and anti-fraud provisions. Polymarket’s 2022 settlement underscores the risk profile for platforms offering event-based contracts to US residents without appropriate registration or oversight. A formal CFTC vote to lift the ban would represent a significant legal milestone that could determine whether Polymarket can operate its core exchange in the United States on par with international platforms.

The transition would also intersect with broader policy considerations around digital markets, consumer protection, and financial innovation. While MiCA governs EU-based crypto-asset activities and has implications for cross-border services, the US approach remains characterized by federal agency actions and state-level enforcement. For market participants, the outcome could influence licensing strategies, KYC/AML controls, and compliance architectures required to service US customers at scale.

As regulators continue to scrutinize prediction markets, any relaunch would be weighed against enforcement history and ongoing legal challenges. Reports indicate that Wisconsin’s top law enforcement official filed a lawsuit on April 23 against Kalshi and Polymarket, alongside other firms such as Coinbase, Robinhood, and Crypto.com, alleging that these platforms facilitate illegal sports betting through event contracts. Separately, federal authorities—the CFTC and the Department of Justice—have pursued cases related to the use of event contracts in ways that may contravene US restrictions, including allegations tied to a US service member using non-public information to place bets on Polymarket’s international exchange via VPN access. These actions illustrate the current enforcement environment that any relaunch would navigate.

In practice, a successful US relaunch would necessitate robust licensing frameworks, rigorous consumer protections, and clear delineations of which markets fall under securities, commodities, or other regulatory categories. The interagency dynamics—encompassing the CFTC, the DOJ, and state authorities—would shape the pace and scope of any permitted activities. For exchanges and banks evaluating partnerships or custody arrangements, the decision to re-enter the US market would hinge on the ability to demonstrate compliant operations across borders and to manage enforcement risk effectively.

Market dynamics, performance, and enforcement risk in the US landscape

Polymarket’s position in the US prediction-market landscape has evolved alongside regulatory pressure. The platform previously accounted for the majority of activity in the field, but its dominance has come under pressure from a growing competitor base and heightened scrutiny. A Dune-derived assessment cited on Datadashboards suggested Polymarket once captured a substantial share of notional volume, though subsequent scrutiny of volume reporting has prompted questions about measurement and methodology. Meanwhile, Kalshi has expanded its domestic footprint and secured integration with major platforms, contributing to a more competitive environment for compliant prediction-market operators.

Despite higher visibility for Kalshi, Polymarket remains entangled in enforcement scrutiny that spans both federal and state channels. The Wisconsin action is indicative of a broader regulatory push against “event contracts” that resemble sports betting, highlighting the risk of civil actions that could affect platform viability and investor confidence. In parallel, ongoing investigations into cross-border activity—coupled with combatting unregistered contracts—underscore the regulatory challenges that accompany any attempt to relaunch the main US exchange at scale.

From a compliance perspective, the reintroduction of Polymarket into the US market would demand rigorous AML/KYC controls, transparent disclosures regarding contract types and settlement mechanisms, and robust risk-management measures to monitor for potential abuse or manipulation. For institutional observers, the development raises questions about licensing pathways, the consistency of state-by-state enforcement, and the potential for harmonized standards across multiple jurisdictions as digital prediction markets continue to mature.

Historical context and what a US relaunch would entail

Polymarket’s US trajectory has long been conditioned by regulatory decisions. The 2022 settlement setting a cap on the company’s US operations was a pivotal turning point, creating a permanent constraint that any broader US return must address. The company’s late-2025 comeback, characterized by a limited, waitlisted US app rolled out with sports-focused contracts, represented a cautious, incremental approach—intended to test compliance readiness while rebuilding user trust and infrastructure. A broader relaunch would require not only regulatory clearance but also scalable compliance programs, clear product classifications, and a plan to align with evolving enforcement expectations.

Against this backdrop, competition with Kalshi—already a domestic market leader and a recognized provider for major crypto exchange Coinbase—takes on strategic significance. A successful US relaunch for Polymarket could expand the range of state- and federally regulated offerings available to institutions seeking hedging tools or research data, while simultaneously increasing the regulatory and operational complexity for market participants who rely on these platforms for legitimate, compliant risk assessment.

Closing perspective

Any decision to lift the US ban and authorize Polymarket’s main exchange would represent a meaningful inflection point for the prediction-market ecosystem, with broad implications for licensing, cross-border operations, and enforcement alignment. As regulators, industry players, and market participants monitor evolving developments, the path forward will hinge on clear regulatory clarity, robust compliance infrastructure, and demonstrated adherence to applicable laws and standards. The coming months will clarify whether a formal CFTC vote materializes and how policymakers balance innovation with consumer protection and market integrity.

Former Goldman Sachs crypto executive Oliver Harris, who has returned to the TradFi world as JPMorgan’s new blockchain chief, once said he believes tokenization alone will not fix one of finance’s core challenges, warning that putting assets on blockchain rails does not automatically make them easier to trade.

“Tokenization does not equal liquidity,” Harris, who will be leading JPM’s Kinexys division, said during a panel at Consensus Toronto last year as the founder and CEO of Arda, a startup that Harris worked on for a year and a half.

The comment underscores a more cautious view of one of the industry’s biggest narratives as Harris takes over Kinexys.

In a LinkedIn post on Tuesday, Harris said his focus will be on expanding digital settlement infrastructure, advancing tokenization capabilities and strengthening partnerships across both public and private blockchain networks.

“The work sits at the foundation of the next era of market structure: how money, assets, and information moves onchain,” he wrote.

During his panel last year, Harris also reflected on his own path through the industry, noting repeated attempts to bring tokenization into mainstream finance. “I think I would call this my third hell loop,” he said, referencing roles at JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and his startup Arda. He added that this time may be different given recent progress in technology and regulation.

His broader argument is that real change will come not from tokenizing individual assets but from reworking the systems that support them. “I get more interested about global settlement layer, where you can merge money, assets and data onto one software platform,” he said.

That shift could streamline how markets operate. “You can basically rip out the back end of these incumbent legacy industries and replace them with… blockchains,” he said, describing a future where markets run continuously and assets can interact more easily.

Harris returns to JPMorgan after earlier roles at the bank and at Goldman Sachs, where he worked on tokenization efforts. He said previous waves of experimentation fell short due to immature technology and unclear regulation.

“The technology is now fit for purpose,” he said, adding that “enterprise grade regulations were really not there” before.

Before rejoining JPMorgan, Harris spent about a year and a half building Arda, a platform aimed at making real estate assets programmable and easier to trade.

He said during the panel that he now sees the industry nearing a turning point. “Now [is the] best time in history to look at real world assets,” he said.

His appointment comes as large banks increase investment in blockchain infrastructure, betting that faster settlement systems and tokenized assets could reshape how global finance operates.

Visa has broadened its stablecoin settlement pilot to incorporate Polygon and four additional blockchain networks, signaling a continued push into crypto-native settlement rails for traditional payments. The program, launched in 2023, allows partners to settle transactions using stablecoins instead of conventional banking rails. The newly added networks are Polygon, Base, the Canton Network, Arc and Tempo, joining existing supported chains such as Ethereum, Solana, Stellar and Avalanche.

Visa says the pilot is aimed at evaluating whether stablecoins can offer faster settlement, round-the-clock availability, and efficiencies in cross-border payments. The company disclosed in a press release that the initiative has reached an annualized settlement run rate of roughly $7 billion, up about 50% quarter over quarter. While that growth is meaningful, Visa notes that the volume remains a smaller portion of its broader payments business.

Key takeaways

• Visa expands its stablecoin settlement pilot to five new networks—Polygon, Base, Canton Network, Arc and Tempo—in addition to Ethereum, Solana, Stellar and Avalanche already supported.
• The pilot’s annualized settlement run rate is approximately $7 billion, representing about 50% quarter-over-quarter growth, according to Visa.
• The expansion underscores a deliberate exploration of faster, 24/7 settlement and efficiency gains in cross-border transactions as part of Visa’s broader stablecoin strategy, including related partnerships.
• Industry momentum is rising, with Mastercard enabling stablecoin-linked card spending in the United States and fintechs accelerating blockchain-based settlement workflows, such as Modern Treasury’s Polygon integration.
• Regulatory clarity around stablecoins is evolving in parallel, with legislation like the GENIUS Act shaping the environment for payment stablecoins and on-chain settlement.

Expanding the pilot and what changes

The expansion broadens the scope of Visa’s attempt to validate stablecoin settlement as a practical bridge for traditional finance to move faster and operate more continuously. By adding Polygon, Base, the Canton Network, Arc and Tempo to the existing lineup, Visa is testing a wider array of Layer 2s and cross-chain options that could influence how institutions approach on-chain liquidity and interbank settlement rails. Visa characterizes the pilot as a structured exploration rather than a mass rollout, aiming to quantify potential improvements in settlement speed, reliability, and cost.

As part of its ongoing push into blockchain-based infrastructure, Visa highlighted the broader strategic value of stablecoin settlement. The firm’s comments frame stablecoins as a potential enabler of around-the-clock settlement and cross-border efficiency, which could translate into material benefits for partners that operate at a global scale. The latest numbers—roughly $7 billion in annualized settlement—illustrate tangible progress, even as the pilot remains a small slice of Visa’s total payments landscape.

In March, Visa expanded its collaboration with Bridge, a Stripe subsidiary, to support a global card program that enables stablecoin-linked payments. The development signals a broader appetite for bridging stablecoins and traditional consumer-facing payment experiences, where on-chain settlement could reduce friction for merchants and users alike. That move complements the ongoing pilot by linking stablecoin settlement to card-based spend, a critical channel for mainstream adoption.

Industry momentum and regulatory environment

The steady growth of stablecoin settlement efforts reflects a broader industry pattern as major payments firms experiment with on-chain settlement layers. Mastercard has been active in this space as well, enabling stablecoin-linked card spending in the United States through wallet integrations, marking a parallel track in the push to normalize crypto-based settlement within everyday commerce.

Beyond card programs, fintechs are integrating blockchain-enabled settlement into their workflow. Modern Treasury, a payments software provider, announced its integration with Polygon to help businesses move stablecoin payments more quickly, a move that adds to the ecosystem’s momentum toward on-chain settlement. The U.S. regulatory landscape is also shifting gradually; the GENIUS Act provides clearer standards for payment stablecoins, a development shaping both policy and market participants’ risk and compliance planning. The balance of evolving regulation with rapid fintech innovation will influence how much-scale adoption of stablecoin settlement ultimately achieves.

On the broader market front, stablecoins continue to grow. DeFiLlama data indicates that the total value of stablecoins in circulation has surpassed $320 billion, up roughly 150% since early 2024. That expansion underscores both the demand for stable value on-chain and the potential liquidity that could underpin new settlement rails as financial institutions test and deploy cross-chain flows.

What to watch next

Investors and builders should monitor whether the expanded network support translates into measurable improvements in settlement speed, cost, and reliability for partner programs, as well as how institutional participants respond to the evolving regulatory backdrop. The coming quarters will reveal whether Visa’s pilot can scale beyond pilots and become a meaningful component of the broader payments infrastructure, alongside rising activity from competitors and fintechs pursuing similar goals.

For readers tracking the ecosystem, the ongoing integration work—both in corporate pilots like Visa’s and in third-party workflows such as Modern Treasury’s Polygon collaboration—will indicate where on-chain settlement might become a normalized option in enterprise payments. As policy clarity improves and liquidity expands, the next phase of stablecoin settlement could reveal its true potential for cross-border efficiency and around-the-clock operations.

Source: Visa press materials and industry reporting, with additional context from market coverage tracked by Cointelegraph and industry data aggregators.

April 29, 2026 – Realmint officially launches today, opening doors for retail investors to access RWAs through a smarter, data-driven platform. Backed by Injective Foundation and Cointelegraph Accelerator, the platform combines scoring, aggregation, and one-click access to tokenized assets.

Why RWA retail isn’t here yet

The market for tokenized real-world assets is growing fast, but for most users, understanding what they’re actually buying is still far from simple. The barrier isn’t access, it’s understanding.

Assets are distributed across multiple chains and platforms, forcing users to manually navigate different ecosystems before even comparing options. Two tokens can represent the same asset, such as gold, while having completely different structures, levels of transparency, and risk profiles. One might be backed by audited reserves with clear redemption terms; another might offer little more than a whitepaper. For most users, these differences are not obvious, and there’s currently no simple way to tell them apart.

Realmint

Today, Realmint goes live to fix exactly that. Backed by Injective Foundation and part of the Cointelegraph Accelerator program, the platform aggregates over 50 tokenized commodities across chains including Ethereum, Polygon, Base, and more, allowing users to discover, understand and compare RWAs through a single interface. Stocks, bonds, and other asset classes are already in the pipeline and will be added weekly.

Realmint score

Instead of presenting raw data alone, the platform evaluates each asset across six dimensions: Enforceability, Backing, Control, Exit, Liquidity, and Social. The result is a composite score from 0 to 100, so users can compare assets at a glance without needing to parse whitepapers, run due diligence, or dig through on-chain data manually.

One-click execution

Starting week 2, Realmint will integrate execution directly into the same flow. Users will be able to explore assets, compare them side by side, and buy RWAs across different chains starting from USDC on Injective, all in a single gasless transaction. No wallet setup friction either: Realmint uses Privy to let users create self-custodial wallets in seconds, without leaving the platform.

Realmint rewards

A rewards system is on the way, and early activity on the platform will matter. What you do before June counts. Early engagement with RWAs on the platform is already being tracked.

Realmint is now live. Explore, compare, and understand RWAs before you invest.

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