Aligned Layer is pleased to announce a $20M fundraise led by Hack VC, with support from DAO5, L2Iterative, NomadCapital_io, FinalityCap, Symbolic VC, Theta Capital, J17, EVG Ventures, Decima fund, Protagonist, and other strategic partners and angels.

OKX Jumpstart will launch a new project MSN (Meson Network), and the mining activity will start at 14:00 on April 26, Beijing time, and will last for 2 days. This Jumpstart will support users to invest in ETH and BTC. The number of MSN in the two mining pools is 400,000, and a single account can stake up to 0.3 BTC or 3.5 ETH.

Fidelity Digital Assets has reported a record high of 10.6 million Bitcoin addresses containing at least $1,000 worth of BTC. This indicates a growing distribution and adoption of Bitcoin among the average person. However, Fidelity cautions that the metric may not be entirely accurate due to Bitcoin's price appreciation and address consolidation.

Despite recent negative factors such as war in the Middle East, higher Treasury yields, and a slowdown in cash entering Bitcoin ETFs, Standard Chartered predicts that Bitcoin will still reach $150,000 per coin this year. The initial wave of ETF buying may be complete, but the inclusion of ETFs in broader macro funds could drive further growth, although it may take time.

The founders of Bitcoin mixer Samourai Wallet, Keonne Rodriguez and William Lonergan Hill, have been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York stated that the cryptocurrency mixer executed over $2 billion in unlawful transactions and facilitated more than $100 million in money laundering transactions from illegal dark web markets. Samourai's server and web domain have been seized.

 Prime Intellect， an open and decentralized AI platform and protocol democratizing access to computing and intelligence, today announced a $5.5M seed round co-led by Distributed Global and CoinFund with participation from Compound, Collab+Currency and Filecoin Creator Juan Benet with Protocol Labs, as well as prominent angel investors including Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue. The funding will be used to build out the compute platform, enabling decentralized training across instances and enabling co-ownership of AI models by contributing compute, code, data, capital, or expertise.

Advocates of restoring a Satoshi-era command in Bitcoin's programming language have introduced new code that includes the number 420 as the change's purported BIP number. The code, known as OP_CAT, aims to expand the toolbox of Bitcoin developers by enabling the creation of covenants on Bitcoin, which can be used in areas like automated payments and reversible transactions. The proposal's renewed framing comes as developers push the technical envelope on Bitcoin in other ways.

The release of a draft IRS form has caused concern in the crypto industry, as it suggests that American DeFi users may have to report their self-custodial wallet addresses to the government. The form, Form 1099-DA, will become mandatory in 2025 for crypto transactions sourced from a broker. The inclusion of a box for "Unhosted Wallet Provider" on the form indicates that the IRS may classify DeFi protocols as brokerage firms, potentially compromising user privacy.

Space Nation Online, a sci-fi blockchain MMORPG with NFTs on Ethereum, is now in closed beta. The game, backed by filmmaker Roland Emmerich, offers players a glimpse into the future of the game, but server overload has made it difficult to fully enjoy. The game plans to use generative AI and a "transmedia experience" in the future.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed its decision on spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposals from Grayscale Investments and Franklin Templeton. The SEC stated that it needs more time to review the proposals. These fund managers, along with others, are seeking approval from the SEC to allow their investment vehicles to trade on American stock exchanges.