polkadot proof of stake - Polkadot Bridge Exploit, Bitcoin Surpasses $74,000, and Major Institutional Purchases of Bitcoin and ETH
Important information:
The Polkadot bridge vulnerability was exploited, resulting in the minting of 1 billion DOT on the Ethereum network, which have since been sold.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority: The timeline for the second batch of licenses has not yet been determined, and the total number of future licenses will be very limited.
Aave DAO approves $25 million grant proposal through Aave Labs
Bitcoin broke near $74,000, rising 5% in the last 24 hours;
The South Korean exchange Coinone has been ordered to suspend part of its operations for three months and fined approximately $3.56 million for violating anti-money laundering obligations.
Strategy spent $1 billion last week to acquire 13,927 bitcoins.
BitMine increased its ETH holdings by 71,524 last week, bringing its total holdings to 4.875 million ETH.
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Bitcoin has broken above $74,000, as the market increasingly bets on its growing resilience to war-related shocks;
ChainThink reports that Bitcoin rose approximately 5% on Monday to around $74,300, demonstrating unexpected resilience despite negotiations breaking down and pressures from strait blockades. Following weekend news shocks, BTC briefly dropped from $73,000 to $70,600, but on Monday, prices swiftly rebounded and reclaimed the $74,000 level after reports emerged that “the other side called.” The market believes that Bitcoin’s decline during this geopolitical shock was significantly smaller than the 12% plunge seen at the start of the war in late February, indicating that $70,000 has formed a階段性 support level. If oil prices continue to decline and expectations for rate cuts are restored, BTC still has potential for further upward movement.
The Dow swung from a loss of over 400 points to close up 301 points; the S&P recovered all of its losses since the war began.
ChainThink reports that at the opening of U.S. equities on Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average initially declined over 400 points amid pressure from deteriorating Middle East tensions over the weekend, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also weakening. However, Trump subsequently released an ambiguous signal stating, "They called us," prompting the market to quickly shift toward betting that Iran still has room for negotiations, leading to widespread short-covering. In the end, the Dow closed up 301 points, the S&P 500 rose 1.02% to 6,886.24, and the Nasdaq gained 1.23% to 23,183.74, led by technology stocks. The VIX closed at 19.12, indicating that markets are attempting to price in a scenario where "war is contained and risks are being repaired."
WTI oil prices fluctuated sharply before closing near $93, as dual blockades in the strait continue to tighten supply prospects;
ChainThink reports: On Sunday evening, fueled by news of the Strait of Hormuz being blocked, WTI crude briefly surged above $104. On Monday, as Trump hinted that Iran might still seek negotiations, oil prices retreated from their highs and closed near $93. The core challenge facing the market currently is the “dual blockade” scenario—Iran pressuring passage through the strait combined with U.S. sanctions on Iranian ports—leaving shipping and supply chain expectations still fragile. Institutions generally believe that if the strait blockade persists, the risk of Brent crude averaging over $100 for the year continues to rise.
Gold dipped slightly to $4,733 as safe-haven demand offset strength in the U.S. dollar;
ChainThink reports that despite the breakdown of Middle East negotiations and the blockade of the strait, which should have strengthened risk-off sentiment, gold only dipped slightly by 0.3% to $4,733 per ounce on Monday, remaining in a high-range consolidation. The market has not yet formed a unified directional consensus on gold, as risk-off demand supports prices while a stronger dollar suppresses them. Institutional views suggest that the future direction of gold will still depend on whether oil prices decline and the Fed’s interest rate path. If oil prices return to normal levels, gold could rebound above $5,000; if high oil prices force the Fed to adopt a more hawkish stance, gold may retest lower support levels.
Strategy spent $1 billion last week to acquire 13,927 bitcoins.
ChainThinknews, according to official reports, Strategy repurchased 13,927 BTC last week at an average price of approximately $71,900 per BTC, spending around $1 billion, with a 2026 YTD BTC yield of 5.6%.
As of April 12, 2026, Strategy holds a cumulative total of 780,897 BTC, with a total cost of approximately $59.02 billion and an average holding price of about $75,577 per BTC.
BitMine increased its ETH holdings by 71,524 ETH last week, raising its total stake to 4.04% of the total ETH supply.
ChainThinkmessage, according to PR Newswire, Bitmine today announced that its total holdings of cryptocurrency, cash, and its "Moonshot" portfolio have reached $11.8 billion. As of 3:30 PM Eastern Time on April 12, 2026, the company’s cryptocurrency holdings include:
4,874,858 ETH, 198 BTC, a $200 million investment in Beast Industries, an $85 million investment in Eightco Holdings (Nasdaq: ORBS), and $719 million in cash.
Bitmine's ETH holdings account for 4.04% of the total ETH supply (120.7 million ETH).
Circle CEO responds to controversy, citing "moral dilemma" for not freezing USDC in the Drift hacker incident
ChainThinknews, according to The Block, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that Circle will not freeze USDC wallets unrelated to legal proceedings.
At a press conference in Seoul, South Korea on Monday, Allaire responded to ongoing online criticism regarding whether the company should have frozen USDC funds during the hacking and vulnerability incidents. The controversy became more prominent earlier this month: the decentralized finance protocol Drift suffered a $280 million attack, which is believed to be linked to a six-month-long campaign involving sophisticated social engineering and potentially tied to a North Korea-affiliated hacking group.
Prominent on-chain analysts, including chain investigator ZachXBT, publicly criticized Circle for failing to freeze approximately $230 million in USDC funds, which were allegedly transferred from Solana to Ethereum via Circle’s cross-chain transfer protocol.
The Polkadot bridge vulnerability was exploited, resulting in the minting of 1 billion DOT on the Ethereum network, which have since been sold.
ChainThinknews, according to PeckShield monitoring, 1 billion DOT tokens were anomalously minted and sold on the Ethereum chain.
On-chain data shows that the attacker exploited altered admin privileges to transfer control of the contract to a malicious address, then minted 1 billion DOT and immediately sold them, causing the price to plummet from $1.22 to nearly zero.
The incident is still unfolding, and the Polkadot official team has not yet issued a response. The attack targeted bridge assets on Ethereum, not Polkadot’s native chain.
The Zcash core development team, ZODL, has released a strategic roadmap: focusing on post-quantum, secure scaling, and user experience.
ChainThinkreports that Josh Swihart, founder of the Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), the core development team behind Zcash, has shared the latest progress on Zcash, outlining a strategic direction centered on “post-quantum security, scalability, and user experience.” Drawing an analogy to the Artemis II lunar mission, he emphasized achieving seemingly impossible goals through technological breakthroughs. The ZODL team stated that Zcash is entering its “Zcash IV” phase, aiming to build infrastructure akin to a “lunar base” to support the secure scaling of the protocol and applications to billions of users, while advancing the vision of private transactions free from mass financial surveillance.
Yi Lihua: Firmly believes the war will end; if a financial crisis recurs, it will test BTC’s safe-haven properties and present a buying opportunity.
ChainThinkmessage, Yi Lihua, founder of Liquid Capital (formerly LD Capital), stated that peace negotiations typically move from divergence to consensus; under the current situation, the motivations for all parties to continue fighting are weakening, and the conflict may gradually come to an end. “War will end—neither side has any reason to keep fighting. Waiting for a rebound without taking profits, the moment an agreement is reached will be a bullish candle.”
He noted that, over the medium to long term, the market is generally anticipating a potential large-scale financial crisis, with signs of defensive positioning already emerging on the funding side—such as large capital holders maintaining high cash ratios and sovereign entities increasing their gold reserves. In this context, if a crisis were to occur again, it would become a critical test of whether Bitcoin possesses the characteristics of a safe-haven asset, while also potentially presenting important opportunities for accumulation at lower levels.
In addition, Yi Lihua believes that AI technology is creating new opportunities for outstanding entrepreneurs, enabling small teams to build global products while reducing fundraising and organizational management costs—especially experienced serial entrepreneurs should seize this “AI Age of Exploration.”
JPMorgan will expand JPM Coin to the Canton network this year via Kinexys.
ChainThinknews, according to Cointelegraph, JPMorgan will expand JPM Coin to the Canton Network this year via Kinexys, a network that currently processes over $350 billion in U.S. Treasury repo settlements daily.
ChainThinknews, according to Japan’s Kyodo News, a new company has been established by SoftBank, NEC, Honda, and Sony Group to develop artificial intelligence (AI). The report states that the company will leverage Japanese government support to build a domestically developed AI foundation model, with plans to provide the created AI to Japanese enterprises.
The company, named "Japan AI Foundation Model Development," plans to bring together approximately 100 AI developers, with a senior executive from SoftBank serving as president. In addition to these four, Nippon Steel, Kobe Steel, and three major banks—MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Mizuho Bank—have also participated in the funding. SoftBank and NEC will handle the development, while Honda will apply the results to autonomous driving. The AI development firm Preferred Networks (Tokyo) is also involved. The developed AI will be widely available to other Japanese companies beyond the investors, with future plans to expand into AI for robot control.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority: The timeline for the second batch of licenses has not yet been determined, and the total number of future licenses will be very limited.
ChainThinknews, according to Tencent News' "Inquiry," Hong Kong Monetary Authority Deputy CEO Chan Wai-man stated that the timeline for issuing the second batch of licenses has not yet been determined, as it will depend on "the operational performance of the first two licensees," and the total number of licenses in the future will be very limited.
In addition, sources revealed that Chinese-funded institutions previously involved in submitting applications have received “window guidance” from relevant authorities requesting them to temporarily hold off on participating in this stablecoin licensing application; however, some Chinese-funded institutions have continued to communicate with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority over the past few months. After excluding Chinese-funded institutions, the majority of potential applicants have relatively limited capabilities, and the number of qualified institutions that can fully meet the requirements of the Stablecoin Ordinance is quite limited.
Li Guankang, head of HSBC Payme, which has been licensed, told reporters that any Payme user can open a stablecoin account, through which users can directly transfer funds to family and friends, pay merchants, or invest in products pegged to stablecoins. Users within the HSBC app cannot open such accounts directly; they must wait until HSBC identifies eligible users who can then apply for a stablecoin account.
Payme requires users to be Hong Kong residents, while HSBC app users also include mainland users. Under Hong Kong’s existing regulatory framework, only Hong Kong residents are permitted to engage in virtual asset transactions; mainland customers, even if they are HSBC mobile payment users in Hong Kong, are not eligible to apply for a stablecoin account.
South Korean gaming giant NXC reduces its holdings of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and sells its stakes in cryptocurrency exchanges
ChainThinkreports that according to the consolidated audit report of NXC, the parent company of South Korean gaming giant Nexon, as of the end of 2025, NXC held cryptocurrency assets valued at KRW 147.6 billion, including 2,356 bitcoins and 22,400 ether, a 15.2% decrease from KRW 174 billion in the previous year. NXC has sold its shares in Bitstamp and excluded it from its subsidiaries.
In addition, in February of this year, NXC passed a board resolution to dispose of all its shares in Korbit. Meanwhile, in February of this year, NXC, through its subsidiary NXMH, acquired shares in the European industrial solutions company CLI Group to advance business diversification.
Aave DAO approves $25 million grant proposal through Aave Labs
ChainThinkreports that the Aave DAO passed the first binding proposal under the Aave Will Win framework via Aave Labs on Sunday. The proposal received 522,780 AAVE votes in favor and 175,310 AAVE votes against, representing approximately 75% support. Based on the voting results, Aave Labs will receive a $25 million stablecoin grant, including an immediate allocation of 5 million aEthLidoGHO and a stream of 20 million aEthLidoGHO to be distributed over six and twelve months.
Additionally, the Aave DAO will allocate 75,000 AAVE (approximately $6.8 million) from the ecosystem reserve, linearly unlocking over 48 months. The Aave Chan Initiative cast 166,200 AAVE votes in opposition. Votes in favor were cast by the ParaFi Capital address (190,000 AAVE), luggis.eth (123,580 AAVE), and others. Fund disbursement is scheduled for Monday afternoon, at which point funds will begin flowing to the Aave Labs-controlled address.
CFTC Chair: Predicts that regulatory oversight authority is exclusively federal, with no state authority to intervene.
ChainThinkreports that CFTC Chairman Mike Selig, in an interview, explicitly stated that the CFTC holds "exclusive regulatory authority" over prediction markets, and that states cannot override federal derivatives regulations with state laws. Mike Selig emphasized: "Regardless of whether the underlying asset involves sports, politics, or other areas, any product legally offered on a CFTC-regulated platform falls under our jurisdiction." This statement comes as the CFTC is suing the states of Arizona, Illinois, and Connecticut to reinforce its regulatory dominance over prediction markets.
Selig stated that the CFTC is clarifying regulatory details for prediction markets through its formal rulemaking process and welcomes input from all stakeholders on the evaluation process. In addition to prediction market disputes, Selig also mentioned the final guidance on digital asset classification jointly released last month by the CFTC and the SEC, which establishes clear boundaries between tokenized securities and commodities. In the future, if companies wish to self-certify digital asset futures products, regulators can directly use this classification framework to determine the nature of tokens, ensuring alignment between the two agencies.
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