Amazon to Add Up to $25B More to Anthropic; SEC Floats "Innovation Exemption" for Tokenized Securities

Compiled by ChainCatcher Key updates - BNB Plus said it has been notified by Nasdaq that it is out of compliance with continued listing standards after its share price fell below the $1 minimum. The company has requested a hearing and said it is evaluating strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value. - Arbitrum's Security Council took emergency action to secure 30,766 ETH tied to the KelpDAO exploit. - Bitcoin miner Core Scientific plans a $3.3 billion private placement of senior secured notes to refinance credit facility borrowings. - A security researcher alleged Claude Desktop silently writes a browser backdoor file across Chromium-based browsers. - SpaceX filings show Starlink operating revenue of $4.42 billion and cash reserves above $22.8 billion. - Amazon will invest up to an additional $25 billion in Anthropic; Anthropic is committing to spend more than $100 billion on AWS over the next decade. - SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency plans an "innovation exemption" to enable compliant onchain trading of tokenized securities. Top stories in the past 24 hours AI16Z and ELIZAOS creators hit with federal class action Burwick Law filed a class action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Walters and other defendants tied to AI16Z and ELIZAOS, alleging consumer protection violations, false advertising, and unjust enrichment. The complaint says the team leveraged the Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) brand to market the project, issued the AI16Z token on Solana on Oct. 24, 2024, and later renamed it ELIZAOS. Plaintiffs allege the project claimed to run autonomous AI investing agents but was operated manually and generated no revenue during the period cited. The token reportedly peaked around $2.47 on Jan. 2, 2025, reaching a market cap above $2.6 billion before a sharp selloff; onchain data cited in reports suggests the most profitable traders netted roughly $39 million. Core Scientific plans $3.3B secured notes for refinancing Core Scientific said its wholly owned subsidiary Core Scientific Finance intends to issue $3.3 billion of senior secured notes in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers, maturing in 2031. The company expects to use part of the proceeds to fully repay the delayed draw term loan under its existing 364-day credit facility, including accrued interest and fees. The notes will be fully guaranteed by five Core Scientific subsidiaries and secured by a first-priority lien on substantially all assets of the relevant subsidiaries. SEC Chair outlines token framework, "innovation exemption," and Project Crypto In remarks marking his first year in the role at the Economic Club of Washington, SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the agency is advancing an "ACT" strategy focused on modernizing rules, clarifying boundaries, and rebuilding the regulatory framework for digital assets. Atkins said the SEC has issued a crypto token classification framework that splits digital assets into five categories, four of which are not securities. He said the SEC will soon propose an "innovation exemption" designed to give market participants a limited pathway to conduct compliant, onchain transactions in tokenized securities. He also highlighted Project Crypto as an effort to update securities rules for capital markets moving onchain. Separately, Atkins said the SEC signed an MOU with the CFTC last month to harmonize key definitions, clarify jurisdictions, and coordinate oversight, including on digital assets, adding that prior U.S. regulatory posture pushed innovation offshore. DoorDash explores stablecoin payouts with Tempo Tempo, a blockchain project backed by Stripe and Paradigm, has launched a stablecoin advisory service aimed at helping enterprises and financial institutions adopt stablecoins, including identifying use cases and deploying engineers for integration. Fortune reported DoorDash is working with Tempo to explore paying delivery workers in stablecoins. Stripe, Coastal Community Bank, and ARQ are building stablecoin infrastructure on Tempo, while Visa, OnePay, Felix, Fifth Third Bank, and Howard Hughes Holdings are integrating payment services with the network. Nasdaq-led group urges EU to fast-track DLT pilot review Bloomberg reported that 39 signatories, including Nasdaq, the Stuttgart Stock Exchange Group, and multiple national fintech associations, urged EU institutions to review the DLT pilot regime as standalone legislation and decouple it from broader packages to speed progress amid U.S. competition. The group called for removing asset-class restrictions, raising the total transaction cap to €150 billion, and eliminating license time limits. The letter also cited U.S. momentum in tokenized assets, noting the U.S. has established a stablecoin framework through the Genius Act. The European Commission is pushing for swift resolution of the full package as part of the Capital Markets Union, and Financial Services Commissioner Maria Luis Albuquerque has previously urged parallel adoption of proposals. U.S. market structure bill seen slipping past April The Block reported that Sen. Thom Tillis, a key Republican negotiator on the Senate Banking Committee, said the committee does not expect to hold an April hearing to revise and vote on the crypto market structure bill. A central dispute is how to treat stablecoin rewards: the current draft would ban rewards on idle stablecoin accounts while allowing earnings tied to trading activity. Banking groups argue rewards could pull deposits from traditional banks; crypto firms say restrictions would curb innovation. Tillis suggested pushing consideration to May. Sen. Bernie Moreno previously warned that if the bill does not pass before May, digital asset legislation may stall for the foreseeable future. SpaceX filing details Starlink growth and balance sheet Reuters reported that a SpaceX prospectus shows Starlink generated $4.42 billion in operating revenue last year, up from $2 billion in 2024 and $469 million in 2023. The filing also indicates Elon Musk and a small group of insiders would retain voting control after an IPO via a dual-class share structure. SpaceX cash holdings rose from about $11.4 billion at the end of 2024 to more than $22.8 billion, with total assets of roughly $92 billion and total liabilities of about $50.8 billion as of end-2025; cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet were $24.8 billion. The filing also notes xAI's operating loss widened to $6.4 billion last year. Strategy CEO highlights STRC bitcoin buying versus ETFs Phong Le, CEO of bitcoin treasury firm Strategy, said on X that the company's perpetual preferred stock STRC has purchased roughly 10 times the amount of bitcoin acquired by all bitcoin ETFs combined since the start of 2026, pointing to accelerating corporate adoption. Vercel: third-party AI tool breach led to limited exposure Vercel said a compromised third-party AI tool, Context.ai, used by an employee enabled attackers to take over the employee's Google Workspace account and access certain environment configuration data. Vercel said a small number of environment variables not marked as "sensitive" may have been exposed and advised affected users to rotate credentials. It said it has found no evidence that sensitive data or supply chains, including npm packages, were altered. Vercel is working with Mandiant and other security groups, has notified law enforcement, and said platform operations remain normal. The company recommended enabling multi-factor authentication, rotating potentially compromised variables, and reviewing account and deployment logs. Amazon boosts Anthropic backing to as much as $33B total Amazon said it will invest up to an additional $25 billion in Anthropic, maker of Claude, including $5 billion immediately and up to $20 billion in milestone-based tranches. Amazon previously invested $8 billion; the new commitment would bring total investment to $33 billion. Anthropic agreed to spend more than $100 billion on AWS over the next decade and aims to deploy about 1 gigawatt of compute by year-end using Trainium2 and Trainium3 chips, with a longer-term target of 5 gigawatts. Amazon shares rose about 2.7% in after-hours trading following the announcement. Separately, Amazon earlier this year said it would invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, underscoring a strategy of backing multiple leading AI developers to reinforce its cloud infrastructure position. Researcher alleges Claude Desktop writes browser backdoor file SlowMist CISO @im23pads said on X that installing Claude Desktop silently deposits a special file into all Chromium-based browsers on a machine. The file is described as a pre-authorized backdoor that, paired with a specific browser extension, could allow full control of a user's browser. BNB Plus faces Nasdaq delisting risk; explores strategic alternatives BNB Plus said Nasdaq notified the company it no longer meets continued listing standards because its share price fell below $1. Due to a reverse split within the past year, it is not eligible for a standard grace period. The company has requested a hearing and said its shares will continue trading pending a decision. BNB Plus also said its board approved a review of strategic alternatives, including potential mergers, reverse mergers, asset sales, joint ventures, financings, and other transactions. It put the value of its crypto treasury assets at about $12.2 million. MemeCore CEO: trust matters more than hype MemeCore CEO Jun said on X that long-term value is built on trust rather than short-term attention or headline valuations. He said the project's goal is to strengthen its ecosystem and contribute to a healthier market, noting the industry has seen too many speculation-driven "pump and dump" cycles. Onchain investigator ZachXBT previously questioned Kraken's review process for listing the Memecore (M) spot pair, citing anomalies in related fund flows. Data cited in the report shows M's market cap briefly jumped by nearly $6 billion last week and has since pulled back to around $4.7 billion. Arbitrum Security Council secures 30,766 ETH tied to KelpDAO exploit Arbitrum's Security Council said it executed an emergency rescue of 30,766 ETH held at an Arbitrum One address associated with the KelpDAO vulnerability. With law enforcement assistance, it identified the attacker and said no Arbitrum users or applications were affected. The council said it implemented a technical solution to move funds to a secure location without impacting other chain state or users. As of 11:26 p.m. ET on April 20, the funds were transferred to an intermediate frozen wallet; further movement will require Arbitrum governance authorization and coordination with relevant parties. Yi Lihua: $85,000 bitcoin rebound in view; one last major dip possible Yi Lihua, founder of Liquid Capital (formerly LD Capital), said he is watching for a rally rather than a reversal, with $85,000 as a potential target though timing is uncertain. He said traders should take profits based on their own expectations and risk management. From a cycle and trading perspective, he expects one more major correction that could be a final high-quality buy-the-dip opportunity. Potential triggers cited include a pullback from U.S. equity highs, synchronized declines across risk assets, surging oil prices, and inflation data that could force the Fed to abandon rate cuts or consider hikes. Meme token trend lists (as of April 22, 09:00) - Ethereum: LINK, PEPE, UNI, Mog, SPX - Solana: TROLL, Punch, Ani, neet, LOL - Base: SKITTEN, PEPE, BASED, B3, SKYA Recommended reads - "Consumer Crypto Global Survey: Users, Revenue, and Market Segment Distribution": argues consumer crypto users number in the tens of millions, concentrated outside major U.S. hubs, and that revenue and user metrics can diverge sharply. - a16z Crypto: "Why AI Agents Must Be Combined with Blockchain": makes the case that wallets, stablecoins, and public ledgers provide identity, permissions, and auditability for AI agents as economic actors. - "DeFi is trapped in its most dangerous prisoner's dilemma": discusses fallout from the KelpDAO incident and the debate over responsibility among protocols, L2s, and crosschain bridges.