EToro (ETOR) has agreed to acquire crypto wallet provider Zengo as it brings self-custody tools into its trading platform in a deal estimated at around $70 million.

The deal pairs eToro’s multi-asset investing network with Zengo’s non-custodial wallet, according to an announcement on Wednesday.

A non-custodial wallet allows users to custody their own funds by controlling the keys to the wallet directly.

Zengo uses multi-party computation, or MPC, to secure user funds without a seed phrase, a design meant to reduce common risks tied to lost or stolen keys.

EToro said the deal will help it support newer crypto use cases such as tokenized assets and decentralized markets, including prediction platforms and perpetual futures.

“As we often say, crypto downtimes are the time to build and this acquisition reflects that long-term approach,” said eToro’s co-founder and CEO Yoni Assia.

Zengo, founded in 2018, offers features including token swaps, staking and fiat onramps. It reports more than 2 million users globally. Its wallet will remain separate from eToro’s regulated services, with users interacting directly with third-party protocols, according to Wednesday’s announcement.

The acquisition is subject to closing conditions. An eToro spokesperson told CoinDesk terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed though Bloomberg reported it to be worth around $70 million.

Key Takeaways

• Wang Hao, Tesla China’s president, identified GigaShanghai as a critical facility for achieving large-scale Optimus production
• This represents the initial public confirmation from Tesla leadership regarding Shanghai’s involvement in humanoid robot assembly
• The Shanghai facility manufactured 851,000 vehicles during 2025, representing over half of Tesla’s worldwide production volume
• Tesla’s Fremont facility is simultaneously being repurposed for humanoid robot assembly operations
• Elon Musk’s compensation structure requires delivery of one million Optimus units before 2035

Tesla’s Chinese manufacturing powerhouse may expand beyond automotive production. On Tuesday, Wang Hao, president of Tesla China, revealed that the Shanghai Gigafactory possesses the capabilities to manufacture Optimus humanoid robots and could become instrumental in ramping up production volumes.

Wang described GigaShanghai as the “golden key” for overcoming mass production obstacles related to Optimus — representing the first instance of a Tesla executive publicly identifying Shanghai as a prospective robotics manufacturing location.

According to Wang, the facility can “shoulder important responsibilities in manufacturing all new products, including robots,” and he conveyed optimism about “welcoming the arrival of a new era of robots.”

Wang stopped short of clarifying whether Tesla plans to repurpose current Shanghai infrastructure or construct dedicated robotics facilities.

GigaShanghai stands as Tesla’s most expansive and efficient manufacturing operation. Throughout 2025, the plant delivered approximately 851,000 vehicles — accounting for 52% of the company’s worldwide production. During Q1 specifically, the facility’s deliveries jumped 23.5% compared to the previous year, reaching 213,398 vehicles and comprising 59.6% of Tesla’s quarterly global production.

Tesla, Inc., TSLA

The Shanghai operation currently manages both Model 3 and Model Y assembly for Chinese customers and international markets. Additionally, the facility launched Megapack battery production in the previous year, with targets set at 10,000 units per year.

Shanghai’s Strategic Manufacturing Advantages

The Chinese facility offers multiple strategic benefits for robotics production: cutting-edge automation systems, experienced labor force, and proximity to extensive supplier ecosystems. These elements align precisely with requirements for complex humanoid robot manufacturing at industrial scale.

Elon Musk has openly recognized the challenges inherent in scaling Optimus production. However, GigaShanghai’s established operational framework provides Tesla with significant foundational advantages.

Optimus represents Tesla’s vision for an accessible, functional humanoid robot — positioned at $20,000 to $30,000 price points. The robot operates on a 2.3 kWh battery system, features bipedal locomotion, reaches maximum speeds near 5 mph, and incorporates dexterous hands capable of precision manipulation.

Simultaneously, Tesla is transforming its Fremont manufacturing complex — previously the production home for Model S and Model X vehicles, both discontinued — into a specialized humanoid robot assembly center.

Musk’s recently approved compensation arrangement, potentially valued up to $1 trillion, hinges on achieving delivery of one million Optimus robots by 2035. This performance benchmark explains the accelerated push toward production scaling.

Competitive Landscape in Robotics

Musk has been candid regarding Tesla’s primary robotics competitor. During January’s earnings discussion, he identified China as “by far the biggest competition” in the humanoid robot sector, praising the nation as “incredibly good at scaling manufacturing.”

He further asserted that Tesla’s Optimus remains “much more capable than any robot we are aware of under development in China,” though recognizing advancements from competitors including XPeng, which targets 1,000 IRON robot units monthly and envisions one million yearly sales by 2030.

Government-backed manufacturers Changan and Chery are similarly pursuing humanoid robot development. Nio has adopted a more cautious approach, stating it will delay robotics investment until achieving consistent financial profitability.

Current Wall Street consensus rates TSLA as Hold, reflecting 13 Buy recommendations, 11 Hold ratings, and 6 Sell opinions across the most recent three-month period. Analysts’ average price target stands at $402.29, suggesting approximately 10.5% potential appreciation.

Key Highlights

• Taiwan Semiconductor posts Q1 2026 results April 16, prior to market open.
• Analysts project EPS at $3.30, representing 50%+ growth versus prior year, with revenue estimates at $35.35 billion.
• The chipmaker pre-announced Q1 sales of $35.76 billion, marking a 35% YoY increase and surpassing Wall Street predictions.
• Implied volatility from options indicates approximately 5% movement post-earnings.
• New street-leading target of $600 issued by Aletheia Capital, with unanimous Buy recommendations from seven monitored analysts.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) prepares to unveil its first-quarter 2026 financial results this Thursday, April 16, during pre-market hours. The announcement carries significant weight across the semiconductor industry, reflecting TSMC’s position as the globe’s dominant foundry chipmaker.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited, TSM

The foundry giant has already provided preliminary revenue data. Last Friday, TSMC disclosed first-quarter sales totaling 1.13 trillion New Taiwan Dollars—approximately $35.76 billion—representing a 35% year-over-year increase that exceeded Wall Street projections. This advance disclosure has established an optimistic backdrop for Thursday’s comprehensive earnings announcement.

Financial analysts anticipate earnings per share of $3.30, marking growth exceeding 50% compared to the same quarter in 2025. The revenue consensus stands at $35.35 billion, though the previously disclosed sales figure has already surpassed this threshold.

Wall Street Elevates Price Projections Before Results

Stefan Chang of Aletheia Capital established a fresh industry-leading price objective of $600, elevated from a previous $500 target, while reaffirming his Buy recommendation. Chang highlighted TSMC’s aggressive capacity buildout initiatives and accelerated deployment of cutting-edge chip packaging solutions. His analysis anticipates the majority of additional production capability becoming operational during 2027 and 2028, with immediate-term sequential revenue expansion projected between 8% and 10%.

Haas Liu from Bank of America similarly increased his price objective to NT$2,530 from NT$2,360, maintaining his Buy stance. Liu emphasized robust appetite for high-performance computing processors and artificial intelligence chips, forecasting Q2 revenue growth of 7% to 9% on a sequential basis.

Every analyst currently covering the stock—seven in total tracked by Visible Alpha—advises purchasing shares. The mean price target of $423.50 suggests potential appreciation of approximately 14.6% from present trading levels.

TSM shares have climbed more than 20% since the beginning of the year and have surged over 137% across the trailing twelve months.

Derivatives Market Anticipates ~5% Post-Earnings Movement

Options market activity indicates traders are preparing for TSMC stock volatility of roughly 4.83% to 5% in either direction following the quarterly disclosure. Using Monday’s closing price as a baseline, this positions the upward target near $386—approaching February peak levels—while the downside zone sits around $353.

Wedbush analysts observed Friday that the robust first-quarter sales performance reinforces sustained artificial intelligence demand trends. They additionally highlighted the figures as potentially favorable indicators for TSMC’s two largest clients, Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL).

The company’s projected first-quarter earnings stand at 20.73 New Taiwan Dollars, equating to roughly 65 cents per American depositary share.

TipRanks assigns TSMC a Strong Buy consensus rating, derived from six Buy recommendations and one Hold rating issued within the past three months.

South Korean insurance giant Kyobo Life is moving to modernize its fixed-income operations through a new partnership with Ripple to tokenize government bonds.

According to a company statement released Wednesday, the collaboration focuses on integrating Ripple Custody to manage the digital holding, transfer, and settlement of these assets. 

The move signals an effort to transition away from traditional manual bond processing in favor of a blockchain-based infrastructure. By moving these transactions onto a digital ledger, the firms expect to collapse settlement times from the standard two-day period to nearly real-time execution.

Fiona Murray, Ripple’s managing director for Asia Pacific, noted that the partnership demonstrates that institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure is “available, proven, and ready to deploy in Korea today.”

Beyond bond settlement, the two companies are exploring the use of stablecoin-based payment rails. This secondary phase would facilitate 24/7 transaction capabilities, potentially lowering counterparty risks and helping the insurer manage capital more efficiently.

Ripple has maintained a steady pace of expansion across the Asia-Pacific region, leading up to this deal. 

The firm recently moved to acquire BC Payments to obtain an Australian Financial Services License and partnered with Singapore’s central bank on the BLOOM initiative. The pilot uses the XRP Ledger and the dollar-pegged RLUSD stablecoin to test programmable cross-border trade settlements.

The utility of XRP is also seeing increased traction in the retail sector through a new integration with Japanese e-commerce leader Rakuten. 

On Wednesday, Rakuten Wallet added XRP as both a tradable asset and a functional payment method. 

Users in Japan can now convert Rakuten Points into XRP or use the cryptocurrency to fund Rakuten Cash balances for spending at various merchants. 

Despite these infrastructure developments, XRP’s market price dipped 1.5% over the last day to $1.35, maintaining its position as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of roughly $83.2 billion.

A new social engineering scheme is leveraging the Obsidian note-taking app to deploy stealthy malware targeting cryptocurrency and finance professionals.

Elastic Security Labs released a report Tuesday detailing how attackers use “elaborate social engineering on LinkedIn and Telegram” to bypass traditional security by hiding malicious code within community-developed plugins. 

The campaign specifically targets individuals in the digital asset space, capitalizing on the permanent nature of blockchain transactions. This vulnerability is particularly acute given that wallet compromises accounted for $713 million in stolen funds during 2025, according to Chainalysis data.

The infiltration begins with scammers posing as venture capital representatives on LinkedIn to initiate professional networking. These conversations eventually transition to Telegram, where the attackers discuss cryptocurrency liquidity solutions to build a “plausible business context.” 

Once trust is established, targets are invited to access what is described as a company database or dashboard hosted on a shared Obsidian cloud vault.

Opening the vault serves as the initial access vector. The victim is directed to enable community plugin synchronization, which triggers the silent execution of trojanized software. 

While the technical execution varies slightly between Windows and macOS, both paths result in the installation of a previously unknown remote access trojan (RAT) named PHANTOMPULSE. 

This malware is designed to grant attackers full control over the infected device while maintaining a low profile to avoid detection.

PHANTOMPULSE maintains its connection to the attackers through a decentralized command-and-control (C2) system that spans three different blockchain networks. 

By using on-chain transaction data tied to specific wallets, the malware can receive instructions without a central server. 

“Because blockchain transactions are immutable and publicly accessible, the malware can always locate its C2 without relying on centralized infrastructure,” Elastic noted.

The use of multiple chains ensures the attack remains resilient even if one blockchain explorer is restricted. This method allows the operators to rotate their infrastructure seamlessly, making it difficult for defenders to sever the link between the malware and its source. 

Elastic warned that by abusing Obsidian’s intended functionality, the hackers managed to “skirt traditional security controls entirely.” 

The firm suggests that organizations operating in high-risk financial sectors should implement strict application-level policies for plugins to prevent legitimate productivity tools from being repurposed as entry points for theft.

XRP volatility drives demand for alternative income models like cloud-based crypto platforms.

With increased volatility in the cryptocurrency market recently, the price of XRP has shown clear range-bound fluctuations. As market sentiment continues to shift, more and more investors are asking: in such conditions, is it possible to achieve a daily income of over $5,000?

KT DeFi’s cloud computing platform integrates green renewable energy mining facilities, intelligent computing power allocation, and a multi-asset revenue distribution system, creating an efficient and low-barrier model for participating in digital computing.

Users do not need to purchase mining equipment or bear electricity and maintenance costs, yet can easily achieve daily earnings of over $5,000.

The platform utilizes renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower to support its computing infrastructure. This helps optimize long-term operating costs while enhancing transparency and sustainability.

How to get started

1. Register an account
Visit the official KT DeFi website and complete account registration. New users can receive a $17 bonus.

2. Deposit Digital Assets
Transfer funds from a crypto wallet or exchange into the KT DeFi account. The platform supports deposits and withdrawals of major cryptocurrencies, including BTC, XRP, and DOGE.

3. Choose Smart Contracts to Start Earning
Select a suitable smart contract based on your budget. Once activated, the contract begins generating returns, which are settled every 24 hours.

Example Contracts

• New User Exclusive – 2 days – Principal + Return = $100 + $8
• Canaan Avalon A1466 – 10 days – Principal + Return = $1,000 + $141
• Bitmain Antminer L7 – 20 days – Principal + Return = $5,000 + $1,510
• Whatsminer M56 – 32 days – Principal + Return = $30,000 + $16,224
• ANTSPACE MD5 – 45 days – Principal + Return = $100,000 + $84,150

For more details, please visit the official KT DeFi website.

KT DeFi: International regulatory framework and high governance standards

As major global financial regulators strengthen oversight of digital assets, including:

• Financial Action Task Force (FATF) compliance requirements for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs)
• Increased regulation and disclosure standards from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
• The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework

KT DeFi claims full compliance with these standards. Its cloud mining business model follows international AML (Anti-Money Laundering), KYC (Know Your Customer), and risk-based management principles to align with regulatory trends across major jurisdictions.

Conclusion

In today’s complex and rapidly changing market environment, XRP investors can explore multiple strategies to generate returns. Among them, KT DeFi is presented as one of the best available options.

The US dollar remains under pressure, testing key support levels amid expectations of easing geopolitical tensions. The market continues to price in the possibility of renewed negotiations between the US and Iran, reducing demand for the dollar as a safe-haven asset and supporting riskier instruments. Against this backdrop, currency pairs are showing heightened sensitivity to news flow and expectations regarding further developments.

An additional source of pressure on the dollar is the decline in US Treasury yields, which is driving a reassessment of Federal Reserve policy expectations. Market participants are weighing the likelihood of policy easing, while upcoming US macroeconomic data — including business activity indicators, import prices, and housing statistics — could adjust current expectations and set the direction for further moves.

USD/JPY

USD/JPY is moving lower, pressured by a weaker dollar and falling US yields. Despite the yen’s safe-haven status, current price action is largely driven by dollar dynamics and rate expectations. The move towards support reflects a market balance where pressure on the dollar outweighs demand for defensive assets.

A break of key levels could extend the decline, although stabilisation in yields may trigger a corrective rebound. Technical analysis suggests a potential retest of 158.60. A sustained move above 159.40 would be needed to signal a return of buying interest in the dollar.

Key events for USD/JPY:

• today at 15:30 (GMT+3): NY Empire State Manufacturing Index (US);
• today at 15:30 (GMT+3): speech by Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael S. Barr;
• today at 20:45 (GMT+3): speech by FOMC member Michelle Bowman.

USD/CAD

USD/CAD is showing a more pronounced decline. Sellers have broken below the key 1.3800 support level, pushing the pair down towards 1.3730. A sustained move below current levels could open the way for further downside towards 1.3670–1.3700.

At the same time, profit-taking and anticipation of incoming data may lead to temporary consolidation within the 1.3730–1.3800 range. The pair remains highly sensitive to oil price fluctuations and shifting rate expectations.

Key events for USD/CAD:

• today at 15:30 (GMT+3): Canadian wholesale sales;
• today at 17:30 (GMT+3): US crude oil inventories;
• today at 21:00 (GMT+3): Federal Reserve Beige Book.

Current dynamics in USD/JPY and USD/CAD reflect a mix of geopolitical expectations, declining yields, and ongoing pressure on the dollar. Testing key support levels increases the likelihood of both continued downside in case of a break and a corrective rebound if stronger US macroeconomic data emerges.

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This article represents the opinion of the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand only. It is not to be construed as an offer, solicitation, or recommendation with respect to products and services provided by the Companies operating under the FXOpen brand, nor is it to be considered financial advice.

X is transforming its interface into a financial dashboard with the launch of “smart cashtags” for iPhone users in the US and Canada.

According to an announcement from X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, the feature allows users to select specific assets or smart contract addresses when posting tickers, which then generate live price charts and community discussions. 

This rollout serves as the initial infrastructure for Elon Musk’s “everything app,” intended to consolidate social media, peer-to-peer payments, and e-commerce into a single interface. 

As of press time, the launch is limited to iOS, but Bier has indicated that web and Android support, along with a global release, are currently in development.

The integration includes a strategic partnership with Wealthsimple, enabling Canadian users to execute stock and cryptocurrency trades directly through the app interface. 

While this trading functionality has not yet been enabled for the United States, the Canadian model provides a blueprint for how X intends to handle brokerage services in foreign markets. 

“Users in Canada will see a button on cashtags so they can trade seamlessly from X,” Bier stated, describing the current version as a small preview of the platform’s future capabilities.

The timing of this launch follows months of preparation, including a significant purge of automated accounts and “drainer links” to meet financial compliance standards. 

Polymarket partner Tat Thang noted that the hiring of specialists like Solana advisor Nikita Bier and former Base design lead Benji Taylor signals a move toward a Web3 model similar to WeChat Pay. 

Thang suggested that transaction fees from these financial services could eventually become a primary revenue driver, offering more stability than traditional subscriptions or advertising.

Musk has previously detailed plans for “X Money,” which is expected to include yield-bearing accounts and a cashback debit card as early as April. 

The introduction of cashtags aligns with this roadmap, positioning the platform to compete with other super-apps and digital wallets. 

“Cashtags are just the first step in our commitment to be the best destination for the finance and crypto community,” Bier added.