Law and Ledger is a news segment focusing on crypto legal news, brought to you

Sonic is redesigning its blockchain architecture to ease the transition to quantum-resistant cryptography. The approach avoids complex signature aggregation used by most proof-of- stake networks.

Itau Unibanco, through its VC arm Itau Ventures, has made an undisclosed investment in Minter, a company that installs mobile data centers and bitcoin mining operations across Brazil. Minter’s approach allows it to take advantage of surplus energy that would otherwise be wasted.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a Financial Stability Institute report in April 2026, warning that the largest crypto platforms now operate as financial intermediaries without the capital buffers, deposit insurance or central bank access that apply to traditional banks.

Hong Kong is embedding digital assets deeper into mainstream finance, with tokenization and stablecoins gaining stronger regulatory backing as market infrastructure. The push signals a broader effort to expand regulated blockchain use cases and attract global firms to the city.

Tokenized real-world assets are becoming core infrastructure for institutional portfolios as on-chain asset-backed credit and Treasury products scale faster than retail segments. That momentum matters now because it is reshaping capital markets distribution and accelerating product strategy decisions.

Bitcoin ETF inflows have turned positive across all tracked periods, signaling renewed institutional demand for bitcoin exposure. Sustained inflows matter because they can influence bitcoin’s near-term price direction and broader crypto market momentum.

Zondacrypto is facing allegations of fund misappropriation, as its CEO, Przemysław Kral, claims the exchange lost access to a wallet containing over 4,500 BTC. Kral stated that the wallet was sold to the exchange, but its former owner disappeared before delivering the private keys.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who profited over $400K with bets placed on Polymarket, one of the largest event market platforms, was allegedly involved in the operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, back in January, and his wife, Cilia Flores.

The KelpDAO exploit allowed an attacker to siphon unbacked rsETH tokens and deposit them into Aave, triggering one of the sharpest liquidity contractions in recent DeFi history, according to the latest Cryptoquant report dubbed the “ DeFi Contagion.”

On Thursday, April 23, Bitcoin’s hashprice stood at $36.46 per petahash per second, and every one of the 14 top-ranked ASIC miners tracked in current profitability data is generating positive daily returns for operators paying $0.04 per kilowatt-hour.

Following a breach by suspected North Korea-backed hackers, KelpDAO’s liquid restaked token, rsETH, depegged from ether. Flare CPO Filip Koprivec argues that the rsETH incident proves bridge security must be treated as a core component of collateral risk management.

Bitcoin extended its inflow streak with significant volume and a $336 million inflow, while ether’s inflow run hit its 10th day. XRP edged higher, and solana saw no inflows for the second day in a row.

Gordon Liao, Circle’s Chief Economist, submitted a governance proposal on April 22, 2026, calling on Aave to raise USDC borrow rates sharply on its V3 Ethereum Core market after a $292 million exploit against KelpDAO left the pool functionally frozen for four consecutive days.

Bitcoin’s momentum stalled on Thursday as the asset retreated from a peak of $79,500 to consolidate around $78,000. This 1.2% dip marked the cryptocurrency’s first 24-hour loss in several days, resulting in a $10 billion decline in total market capitalization.