Deutsche Börse invests $200M in Kraken parent

Deutsche Börse has made a $200M strategic investment in Payward Inc., the parent company of Kraken, marking a major move by a traditional exchange operator into crypto infrastructure.

The investment supports closer integration between traditional market systems and digital asset services, as institutional players continue expanding into crypto.
The deal values Kraken at ~$13.3B, down from $20B five months earlier when it filed for a US IPO, reflecting a shift in market expectations.

Recent updates from Kraken include the launch of the INK Points system on Kraken Pro and the rollout of Nado, a perp DEX on Ink L2, both tied to a future INK token launch expected in Q2–Q3 2026.

👉 x.com/CoinDesk/status/2043999552458387663?s=20

Paxos Labs Secures $12M, Launches Amplify for Onchain Finance

Paxos Labs has raised $12M in a strategic round led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from Robot Ventures, Maelstrom, and Uniswap. The funding supports the launch of its flagship product, Amplify.

About. Amplify is a modular stack enabling fintech and crypto platforms to integrate onchain financial products via a single SDK. It includes three core modules (Earn, Borrow, and Mint), allowing yield generation, crypto-backed lending, and branded stablecoin issuance.

The platform operates on a revenue-sharing model, where both Paxos Labs and its partners benefit from user activity. Liquidity management, counterparty vetting, and compliance controls are handled by Paxos behind the scenes.

Early adopters including Aleo, Hyperbeat, and Toku are already live, with Hyperbeat surpassing $510K in AUM shortly after launch.

👉 theblock.co/post/397348/paxos-labs-raises-12-million-amplify-onchain-financial-products

Printr Introduces PoB Staking to Fix Memecoin Trust Crisis

Printr has rolled out Proof-of-Belief (PoB) staking, a new mechanism allowing token holders to earn trading fees by locking assets for 7 to 180 days. The model directly incentivizes long-term holding, targeting the short lifecycle and low trust common in memecoin markets.

PoB staking improves transparency by showing exactly what share of supply is locked onchain, helping address “multi-walleting” and hidden selling from creators. Printr V2 also introduces “anti-vamp protection,” enforcing a 48-hour cooldown on identical tickers and visuals to prevent copycat tokens from disrupting launches. This aims to reduce noise and manipulation during early-stage token trading.

Beyond memecoins, Printr positions tokens as a broader primitive for use cases like AI agents, gaming, and utility projects. The team, composed largely of former Axelar contributors, has raised ~$4.5M and is exploring a future token generation event.

👉 theblock.co/post/397357/omnichain-token-launchpad-printr-rolls-out-v2-aiming-for-greater-flexibility

​​A Look Inside Bittensor’s Subnet Economy

Bittensor’s economy is built around subnets that compete for emissions by producing and validating useful AI-driven work. The map shows how TAO, alpha pools, miners, and validators connect inside a network that now spans 100+ active subnets.

Mintlify has closed a $45M Series B funding round

Mintlify is a documentation and knowledge platform that helps companies build developer docs, knowledge bases, and help centers. It focuses on making information structured, searchable, and easier for AI agents and LLM-based workflows to understand and use.

Mintlify says it powers documentation for more than 20,000 companies, with its content reaching 100M+ people annually.

👉 mintlify.com/blog/series-b

S. Korean payments provider NHN KCP builds its own Layer 1

NHN KCP signed an agreement with Ava Labs to build a payment-focused Layer 1 network on Avalanche. The project will use Ava Cloud infrastructure and is aimed at real-world payment use cases,

NHN KCP is a major Korean payments company handling large-scale transaction volume and providing payment processing infrastructure for e-commerce and merchants.

👉 x.com/avax/status/2044068214452240691?s=20

Kraken has confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO

Kraken originally announced in November 2025 that parent company Payward had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the U.S. SEC, with the number of shares and pricing still undisclosed.

The IPO focus comes just as Deutsche Börse invested $200M in Payward through a secondary share purchase, taking a 1.5% diluted stake in the company. The disclosure revives attention around Kraken’s IPO plans after Reuters reported in March that the company had paused its IPO timeline due to market conditions.

👉 techinasia.com/news/crypto-exchange-kraken-files-ipo

​​DePIN Annual Revenue leaders. Ranking the top protocols

DePIN sector is one of the most active areas in Web3, connecting crypto with real-world infrastructure and services. Protocol revenue remains one of the clearest ways to separate narrative from execution, and this list highlights projects generating real activity.

eToro Acquires Zengo Wallet in $70 Million Deal

eToro has agreed to acquire crypto wallet provider Zengo in a deal valued at ~$70M, as it moves to add self-custody and expand its presence in onchain finance.

The acquisition gives eToro direct control over wallet infrastructure, enabling it to connect trading with onchain services and build a more integrated product stack beyond brokerage.

This opens the door to new offerings, including tokenized assets, DeFi access, prediction markets and perpetual trading, as the company shifts toward a full-stack crypto platform.

Zengo, which uses multi-party computation (MPC) instead of seed phrases, brings a user base of over 2M users and a strong security track record.

👉 x.com/eToro/status/2044340746405220661?s=20

​​BNB Chain has completed 35th BNB Quarterly Burning!
1,569,307 BNB (~$1.02B) has been burned!

👉 x.com/BNBCHAIN/status/2044371823488286767?s=20

OpenGradient raises $9.5M ahead of its OPG launch

Backed by a16z crypto, Coinbase Ventures and SV Angel, OpenGradient has raised $9.5M to build a network for verifiable AI execution, where model outputs can be cryptographically verified.

About. The platform allows AI models to be run, audited and trusted across applications, with early traction including 2M+ users, 2M+ inferences processed and over 500K proofs generated, alongside a growing ecosystem of models and developers.

The raise comes ahead of the OPG token launch on April 21, with airdrop registration opening April 15 and 4% of supply allocated to the community.

👉 x.com/OpenGradient/status/2044080860278993011?s=20

Tether backs $134M raise in stablecoin infrastructure

Tether Investments has joined a $134M funding round for Stablecoin Development Corporation (SDEV), alongside Framework Ventures, reinforcing its push into stablecoin infrastructure.

The move underscores Tether’s strategy to extend stablecoins beyond trading, strengthening their role in payments, cross-border transfers, and seamless digital dollar movement across platforms.

With circulation exceeding $300B and transaction volumes surpassing traditional networks, the company is doubling down on the systems that support everyday usage.

SDEV is building a public-market vehicle designed to provide exposure to stablecoin activity, focusing on payments, liquidity flows, and reducing friction in how users access and move funds across apps.

👉 x.com/tether/status/2044386971846402110?s=20

0G App Introduces Decentralized Prompt-to-App Infrastructure

0G has unveiled 0G App, a decentralized AI platform designed to turn natural language prompts into fully functional apps, agents, and soon tokens. The product removes reliance on centralized providers, positioning itself as a trustless alternative for building in the AI era.

At the core is verifiable inference powered by TEE hardware enclaves (Intel TDX + NVIDIA H100/H200), ensuring that every prompt and output is cryptographically secured and tamper-resistant. This addresses growing concerns around data privacy and opaque AI execution.

The platform’s Launcher Hub acts as the main gateway. The App Launcher enables instant prompt-to-app generation with live previews, while the Claw Launcher lets users deploy up to 12 specialized AI agents with one click. A Token Launcher is also in development, expanding functionality toward on-chain monetization.

👉 x.com/0G_labs/status/2044342056370270294?s=20

​​Binance Futures has launched USD ai (CHIP) Pre-Market trading

USD ai is a synthetic dollar protocol focused on financing physical AI infrastructure, especially GPU-based compute, through onchain credit markets. Current Pre-Market Price is $0.036. Max Leverage is 5x. Total Value Locked is $301M.

👉 binance.com/enannouncement/detail/chip-listing

Plasma (XPL) launches its Card and Neobank in June 2026

Plasma One is designed to make stablecoin payments feel more like using a digital bank. It is currently in private beta, with the team actively improving the product ahead of broader early access.

Plasma is a Layer 1 built specifically for stablecoin payments, especially USD₮, with a focus on fast transfers, low or zero fees on certain routes, and full EVM compatibility.

👉 x.com/Plasma/status/2044415663691780443?s=20

Ether fi has completed its migration to OP Mainnet

Ether fi went live on OP Mainnet, bringing $220M+ in TVL, 300K+ accounts, and 70K+ active cards to the network. The migration marks one of the largest TVL events history and expands Optimism’s footprint in crypto payments.

In March, ether fi Cash card processed $63M in volume, ranking among the leading crypto card programs and recorded +17.7% month-over-month growth.

👉 x.com/ether_fi/status/2044413488827863132?s=20

OpenSea Rolls Out Early Access to OS Mobile

OpenSea has started granting early access to its OS Mobile app for beta testers, marking the first step toward its mobile-native experience.

The team is onboarding testers 1-by-1 through live sessions and collecting real-time feedback, with engineers directly observing usage and iterating on features before a broader release.

Alongside the rollout, OpenSea has launched a 60-day 0% fee promotion on token trading via OS2, running through the end of May.

👉 x.com/opensea/status/2044122024281342028?s=20

Binance has launched Binance Chat, a new in-app feature

Binance unveils a Binance Chat, an integrated social hub for messaging and crypto transfers. The product enables users to engage in real-time market discussions, share trade-related content, and move assets without leaving the app.

What’s new in Binance Chat:
-One-tap access from the homepage or Binance Square
-Real-time market discussions within chatrooms
-Trade Cards and Red Packets for interactive sharing
- Instant crypto transfers directly inside conversations

👉 x.com/heyibinance/status/2044427941652639867?s=20

​​Top DeFi Protocols by 30 days Total Value Locked growth

Among the top performers are SuperEarn, a yield-earning DeFi protocol, Paimon, a BSC-based RWA and DeFi protocol, and Sierra Protocol, an issuer of SIERRA, a liquid yield token designed to combine RWA-backed and DeFi-backed yield.

​​Global Fundraising in Q1 2026. Record Quarter Powered by AI

AI continued to dominate private markets in Q1 2026, powering a record quarter for global fundraising. The scale of concentration was extreme: OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI together made up roughly 57% of all capital raised.