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

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.

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.

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.

With Q1 2026 now complete, this ranking shows which prediction markets posted the strongest volume growth in 2026, with Limitless ranking first. While absolute size still matters, quarter-over-quarter growth offers a clearer view of where momentum is building fastest.

Ink is starting to look like more than a standalone Layer 2. The bigger story is that Kraken appears to be building a full on-chain stack around it, linking exchange distribution, wallets, infrastructure, DeFi apps, and now a reward layer that begins on Kraken Pro itself. Ink’s own docs describe the network as an OP Stack Layer 2 with 1-second block times and a mission to bring Kraken’s security, UX, and privacy principles on-chain.

That is why the launch of Ink Points matters. According to Kraken’s support documentation, points are earned through trading, holding assets, staking, and broader platform engagement on Kraken Pro, with existing clients collecting from April 6 and points added every Monday. In other words, Kraken is no longer presenting Ink only as a chain to explore, but as part of a wider user journey that now begins inside its exchange products.

The strategic angle is clear. Most new chains have to fight for attention first and liquidity later. Kraken is trying a different route: start with existing distribution, then route that flow into an ecosystem where users can trade, hold assets, bridge, and eventually interact with a growing on-chain app layer. Ink’s docs already show official support across wallets, RPC providers, and block explorers, reinforcing the idea that this is being built as a real operating environment rather than a thin-chain launch.

Kraken also announced earlier that $INK is intended to unify users, protocols, and builders across the ecosystem. At the same time, Ink’s public FAQ still says there is no token or TGE information to share, so the public documentation does not appear fully synchronized yet. Even with that caveat, the broader direction is becoming clearer: Kraken wants Ink to serve as the on-chain layer that ties together its exchange reach and a growing DeFi environment.

Today’s points rollout does not complete that vision, but it does make it more tangible. Ink is no longer just a chain with ecosystem ambitions. It is starting to look like Kraken’s first real attempt to turn centralized distribution into a lasting on-chain flywheel.

Digital asset investment products recorded $1.1B in inflows, the strongest level since January, supported by moderating inflation and easing macro risks.

Bitcoin led with $833M in inflows, while Ethereum ETFs attracted $187M. Meanwhile, Strategy continued accumulation, acquiring an additional 13,927 BTC ($1.00B), and Bitmine added 71,524 ETH ($156M)

GENIUS trading starts today at 11:00 UTC, backed by $6.0M in private funding. This board compares potential FDV scenarios using benchmarks from other DEXs / Trading Terminals like Banana Gun, Jupiter, 1inch, and Infinex.

Tether has introduced QVAC SDK, an open-source, cross-platform toolkit designed to let developers build and run AI directly on local devices without relying on cloud infrastructure.

QVAC will help developers to build applications that run consistently across environments while improving performance, privacy and reliability, especially in low-connectivity or offline scenarios.

The SDK allows AI models to run, train and be fine-tuned locally across iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux using a single codebase, removing the need for platform-specific implementations.

Supported capabilities include:

 • text generation and embeddings

 • speech-to-text and text-to-speech

 • translation and OCR

 • vision and multimodal processing

👉 x.com/qvac/status/2042279032461431151?s=20

OFC trading starts today at 10:00 UTC, backed by $307M in private funding. This board compares potential FDV scenarios using benchmarks from other SocialFi projects like MEET48, Zora & Chiliz.