Crypto market updates this week centered around payment systems, stablecoin infrastructure, protocol-level upgrades, and increased institutional participation.

🔎 Recent Updates & Developments

– Tether backed Drift recovery with up to $150M after exploit, integrating USD₮ and restoring user balances through trading revenue

– Kraken filed for U.S. IPO as Deutsche Börse invested $200M, signaling continued institutional demand for crypto exchange exposure 

– Hackers minted 1B DOT via vulnerability, exploiting bridge gateway to compromise token contract on Ethereum

– Visa, Stripe and Zodia Custody joined Tempo as validators, reinforcing institutional adoption of blockchain-based payment infrastructure

– Mastercard partnered with Crossmint to enable AI agents to execute payments using cards with user authorization

– Ether fi completed migration to OP Mainnet, bringing $220M TVL and scaling onchain financial services

– USD AI (CHIP) confirmed April 21 listing after CoinList sale, with Binance Futures already launching pre-market trading