BlockBeatNews

BlockBeats News, MoonPay acquires Sodot entirely with stock, valued at approximately $100 million. Sodot specializes in MPC and TEE, safeguarding over 10 million wallets and over $50 billion in transactions, with clients including eToro and BitGo. After the deal is completed, Sodot's infrastructure will become the core of MoonPay's institutional business, serving traditional financial clients. MoonPay appoints former CFTC Acting Chair Caroline D. Pham as CEO of Moon Global Markets, leading the newly established MoonPay Institutional. The company states that institutional demand is rapidly increasing and introduces stablecoin trading volume data.

Visa announces the expansion of its stablecoin settlement pilot, adding Base, Polygon, Canton Network, Arc, and Stripe's Tempo, now covering nine chains, previously supporting Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Stellar. The project's annualized scale reaches $7 billion, a 50% year-over-year increase, allowing card issuers and acquirers to settle directly with stablecoins, bypassing traditional banking systems. The company states that in a multi-chain landscape, a unified settlement layer is needed to enhance cross-chain liquidity and coordination.

Tillis stated that he is ready to move the "Clarity Act" to the committee for line-by-line revision, and after the reassembly, he asked the chair to arrange for formal review. Regarding the controversy over stablecoin yields, he said that most banks' concerns have been heard and addressed, and he welcomes good-faith discussions, with the bill text and preview version to be published 4-5 days before the formal review. Additionally, he generally supports Lummis's push for software developer responsibility and the impact of 1960s criminal laws on enforcement.

Adrian Fritz said that spot Bitcoin ETFs have attracted nearly $200 million in inflows. Institutions and hedge funds are getting involved, and BTC is increasingly becoming an institutional-grade asset, with daily trading volume and liquidity improving. If geopolitical tensions ease, net inflows continue, and a short squeeze stacks on top of that, by the end of the year it could reach $100k; if oil prices rebound to $100, risk assets may face pressure. In the future, capital will focus on projects with genuine cash flow, and Hyperliquid is drawing even more attention.

BlockBeats News, April 29 — MegaETH announced on the X platform that its native token MEGA will officially go live on April 30, Beijing time, including:

On-chain launch time: 6:00 PM Beijing time (6:00 AM Eastern Time);
Off-chain launch time: 7:00 PM Beijing time (7:00 AM Eastern Time).

The Senate Banking Committee approved the nomination of Jerome Powell as the next Federal Reserve Chair with 13 votes in favor and 11 votes against, showing a clear partisan divide. The Republican Party unanimously supported, while all Democrats opposed, marking a rare partisan vote in recent years. The market expects Powell to be approved under Republican control of the Senate, with his term ending on May 15.

BlockBeats message, April 29 — According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States’ latest weekly net crude oil imports fell to negative values, hitting a historical low. U.S. weekly crude oil exports rose to a record high of more than 6 million barrels per day.

U.S. crude oil inventories unexpectedly and sharply declined, and crude oil futures briefly rose before falling. (Jin10)

Rogo announced the completion of its $160 million Series D funding round, led by Kleiner Perkins with participation from Sequoia and others, bringing total funding to over $300 million; it also launched its personal finance agent platform, Felix, which supports task-delegated collaborative workflows covering multi-step processes such as modeling, financial report research, and creating PPTs, and has been used by 35,000 professionals from more than 250 top institutions.

BlockBeats News, April 29 — IPO documents show that only voting through the stock class controlled by Musk can exempt him from his board seat or executive role at SpaceX. (Jin10)

Squads has completed a $18 million strategic financing round led by Solana Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, L1D, and others, bringing the total funding to $42.9 million. The new funds will be used to expand the stablecoin financial platform Altitude, which uses a self-custody wallet, holds funds in stablecoins, offers 24/7 global payments and fund management, and integrates sanctions screening, AML, transaction monitoring, and KYB, with access to MoonPay. Since launch, Altitude has processed over $200 million in payments, serving clients including exporters, remote cross-border teams, crypto-native companies, and global agencies.

BlockBeats news, April 29, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee voted to submit Worsh's nomination for Federal Reserve Chair to the full Senate.(Jin10)

According to CNN reports, after Trump rejected the previous peace proposal, Pakistan's mediators said Iran will submit a revised proposal, possibly as early as today or delayed until Friday. The delay is seen as a sign of difficulty in contacting Khamenei. Sharif told the cabinet that the Iranian Foreign Minister promised to respond after negotiations in Islamabad, with public urging drawing attention, and the White House saying patience has run out.

White House officials say Trump met with oil company executives, and if necessary, will blockade the Strait of Hormuz for months. The news suppressed Treasury bond prices, Brent crude oil surged to intraday highs, and the Treasury market came under pressure. CTA covered gains and then shorted again, with algorithmic trading dominating as support levels on the yield curve were broken. U.S. Treasury yields continued to rise, with the 2-year yield reaching 3.90%, the highest since March 30.

BNP Paribas' latest outlook states that if oil prices rise to $200 per barrel combined with supply chain disruptions and monetary tightening, the global economy could enter a recession. Even if oil prices stay around $100 per barrel, global growth may fall below the ten-year average to about 3%, with a global recession defined as growth below 2.5%. Risks include disruptions to Hormuz shipping and high inflation, and prolonged conflicts could also drive up costs for helium, rubber, fertilizers, and other commodities.

BlockBeats News, April 29 — U.S. storage concept stocks surged across the board: first-quarter performance exceeded expectations, with Silicon Motion Technology rising over 32%; Seagate Technology increased over 15%, both hitting new highs; other storage concept stocks also followed the rally, Western Digital rose nearly 10%, SanDisk rose nearly 7%, and Micron Technology increased nearly 4%.

BlockBeats News, April 29 — Crude oil continues to rise, with WTI crude oil up over 5% intraday, currently at $106.58 per barrel. Brent crude oil broke through $109.10 per barrel for the first time since March 23, gaining 4.90% intraday.

BlockBeats News, April 29 — According to AI Aunt Monitoring, Justin Sun's address has withdrawn all 93.41 million USDT from the Spack platform's USDT deposit pool. This amount once accounted for 9.89% of the total USDT single pool deposit TVL. After being withdrawn half an hour ago, it has all been recharged into HTX.
It is worth noting that Justin Sun also withdrew a "small amount" of 10,417.

U.S. stocks opened slightly weaker on Monday: Dow Jones up 0.04%, S&P down 0.07%, Nasdaq down 0.28%. NXP Semiconductors surged 21.7% on strong Q2 guidance, driving ON Semiconductor up 6.4% and Microchip Technology up 4.8%. Crypto-related stocks all declined, with MSTR down 1.8%, COIN down 6.98%, CRCL down 2.48%, SBET down 2.60%, BMNR down 1.91%.