Strategy spends $10B to buy 13,927 BTC; Aave clears $25M grant; Coinone hit with AML penalty

Key developments from the past 24 hours: Polkadot bridge exploit triggers massive DOT mint on Ethereum Onchain security firm PeckShield flagged abnormal activity on Ethereum involving bridged Polkadot assets: an attacker gained control by abusing modified admin privileges, transferred the contract to a malicious address, minted 1 billion DOT, and rapidly sold them. The price reportedly crashed from $1.22 to near zero. The incident affects bridge assets on Ethereum rather than Polkadot's native chain. Polkadot has not issued an official response as the situation continues to unfold. Strategy adds 13,927 BTC in a $1B weekly purchase Strategy disclosed it bought 13,927 BTC last week at an average price of about $71,900 per bitcoin, spending roughly $1 billion. The company said its 2026 year-to-date BTC yield reached 5.6%. As of April 12, 2026, Strategy holds 780,897 BTC acquired for about $59.02 billion in total, implying an average cost basis near $75,577 per BTC. Coinone faces three-month partial suspension and KRW 5.2B fine over AML breaches South Korea's Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) ordered crypto exchange Coinone to partially suspend operations for three months and imposed a fine of about $3.56 million (5.2 billion KRW), according to local media Edaily. The measures run from April 29 through July 28. During the period, new customers will be restricted from virtual asset transfers (deposits and withdrawals), while existing customers can continue trading. The FIU also issued a "warning of censure" to CEO Cha Myeonghoon. The FIU cited multiple violations, including facilitating 10,113 asset-transfer transactions tied to 16 unregistered overseas virtual asset businesses; roughly 40,000 customer identity verification breaches; and around 30,000 violations related to transaction restrictions for users who had not completed identity checks. Coinone said it is implementing corrective steps and will decide whether to pursue administrative litigation after board review. BitMine ramps ETH accumulation, now holding 4.875M ETH BitMine said its combined holdings of cryptocurrency, cash, and its "Moonshot Program" total $11.8 billion, according to PR Newswire. As of 3:30 p.m. ET on April 12, 2026, it held 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. The company said its ETH position equals 4.04% of total ETH supply (120.7 million ETH). Chairman Thomas "Tom" Lee said the Iran war had entered its seventh week and remained a key market driver. He noted ETH has risen 17.4% since the outbreak, outperforming the S&P 500 by 1,830 basis points, and argued ETH is increasingly viewed as a wartime store of value. Lee also pointed to tokenization efforts on Wall Street and rising demand from agent-based AI systems for public, neutral blockchains. BitMine purchased 71,524 ETH last week, its highest weekly rate since the week of Dec. 22, 2025. Circle CEO addresses USDC freeze criticism after Drift hack Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said Circle will not freeze USDC wallets that are not tied to legal proceedings. Speaking at a Seoul press conference, he responded to online criticism over Circle's actions during recent exploit events. The debate intensified after DeFi protocol Drift suffered a $280 million attack, reportedly linked to a six-month campaign involving sophisticated social engineering and possibly a North Korea-affiliated group. Onchain investigators, including ZachXBT, criticized Circle for not freezing about $230 million in USDC allegedly moved from Solana to Ethereum through Circle's cross-chain transfer protocol. Circle and Upbit parent Dunamu sign broad cooperation MOU News1 reported that Circle, issuer of USDC, signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding with Dunamu, operator of South Korea's largest exchange Upbit. Dunamu said the partnership will explore stablecoin and broader digital-asset initiatives, including co-developing educational programs, with the stated goal of improving information access and trust in Korea's digital-asset ecosystem. Zcash core team ZODL outlines roadmap centered on post-quantum security and scaling Josh Swihart, founder of the Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL), shared a strategic roadmap focused on post-quantum security, secure scaling, and user experience. ZODL said Zcash is entering a "Zcash IV" phase aimed at building infrastructure capable of scaling to billions of users while advancing privacy-preserving transactions. ZODL highlighted ongoing releases, including wallet version 3.3.x on iOS and Android with hardware-wallet connection improvements, SDK upgrades, and other UX updates, alongside work on Keystone integration and address upgrades (ZIP 316, UIVK/UFVK). The team also cited progress on the Zallet alpha, unified address standards, and wallet interaction improvements. ZODL noted it has been temporarily removed from Russian app stores due to regulatory and network restrictions. Liquid Capital's Yi Lihua: war likely to end; a crisis could test BTC's safe-haven thesis Li Hua Yi, founder of Liquid Capital (formerly LD Capital), said motivations to continue the war are weakening and believes the conflict will gradually end. He added that markets are increasingly bracing for a potential large-scale financial crisis, pointing to defensive positioning such as higher cash ratios among large holders and increased gold reserves by sovereign entities. If a crisis returns, Yi said it would test whether Bitcoin behaves like a safe-haven asset and could create attractive accumulation opportunities at lower prices. He also argued AI is enabling small teams to build global products with lower fundraising and management costs. JPMorgan to expand JPM Coin onto the Canton Network via Kinexys Cointelegraph reported JPMorgan plans to expand JPM Coin to the Canton Network this year through Kinexys. The network currently processes more than $350 billion in U.S. Treasury repo settlements daily. Japan tech and industrial groups form new AI company Kyodo News reported SoftBank, NEC, Honda, and Sony Group have established a new company to develop AI, supported by Japanese government initiatives, to build a domestic foundation model and provide it to Japanese enterprises. The venture, named "Japan AI Foundation Model Development," plans to gather around 100 AI developers, with a SoftBank executive serving as president. Nippon Steel, Kobe Steel, and major banks MUFG Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Mizuho Bank also invested. SoftBank and NEC will lead development, while Honda will apply results to autonomous driving. Preferred Networks is also involved, with longer-term plans to expand into robot-control AI. HKMA's Chen Weimin: second license batch not scheduled; overall cap to remain tight Tencent News' "Hidden View" cited Hong Kong Monetary Authority Deputy CEO Chen Weimin as saying the timing for a second round of licenses has not been set and will depend on the operational performance of the first two licensees. He added the total number of licenses will be very limited. Sources also said Chinese-funded institutions previously involved in applications received "window guidance" advising them to pause participation in stablecoin licensing, though some have continued communicating with the HKMA. The report said many potential applicants outside Chinese-funded groups have limited capabilities, and only a small number fully meet requirements under the Stablecoin Ordinance. The report also noted HSBC PayMe head Lee Kwankong said PayMe users can open a stablecoin account to transfer funds, pay merchants, or invest in stablecoin-pegged products. HSBC app users cannot open such accounts directly and must wait for eligibility screening. Under current rules, only Hong Kong residents can engage in virtual-asset transactions; mainland customers are not eligible for stablecoin accounts even if they use HSBC mobile payments in Hong Kong. NXC trims crypto exposure and exits exchange stakes According to NXC's consolidated audit report, the parent of gaming company Nexon held crypto assets worth KRW 147.6 billion at the end of 2025, including 2,356 BTC and 22,400 ETH, down 15.2% from KRW 174 billion a year earlier. NXC sold its Bitstamp shares and removed the exchange from its subsidiaries. In February, NXC approved a board resolution to dispose of its stake in Korbit. Also in February, NXC, via subsidiary NXMH, acquired shares in European industrial solutions firm CLI Group as part of diversification. Aave DAO approves $25M stablecoin grant for Aave Labs Aave DAO passed the first binding proposal under the "Aave Will Win" framework via Aave Labs. The vote tallied 522,780 AAVE in favor and 175,310 AAVE against, about 75% support. Aave Labs is set to receive a $25 million stablecoin grant: an immediate 5 million aEthLidoGHO allocation plus a stream of 20 million aEthLidoGHO over six and 12 months. Aave DAO will also allocate 75,000 AAVE (about $6.8 million) from the ecosystem reserve, unlocking linearly over 48 months. The Aave Chan Initiative voted 166,200 AAVE against. ParaFi Capital (190,000 AAVE), luggis.eth (123,580 AAVE), and other addresses voted in favor. Disbursement is scheduled for Monday afternoon to an Aave Labs-controlled address. CFTC chair: prediction markets fall under exclusive federal jurisdiction CFTC Chairman Mike Selig said the agency has "exclusive regulatory authority" over prediction markets and states cannot override federal derivatives rules with state laws. The comments come as the CFTC sues Arizona, Illinois, and Connecticut to reinforce federal primacy. Selig said the CFTC is using formal rulemaking to clarify prediction-market details and welcomed stakeholder input. He also referenced digital-asset classification guidance issued last month jointly with the SEC that draws boundaries between tokenized securities and commodities, enabling regulators to assess self-certified digital-asset futures products under a unified framework. Meme token popularity (GMGN, as of April 14, 09:00) Top 5 most popular ETH tokens (24h): HEX, SHIB, LINK, PEPE, UNI Top 5 most popular Solana tokens (24h): TROLL, swarms, Punch, neet, Buttcoin Top 5 most popular Base tokens (24h): SKITTEN, PEPE, BASED, B3, SKYA Notable reads (24h) - "A Crypto VC's Reflections and Confusion": argues crypto VC faces a valuation reset as token premiums fade and revenue-based logic returns. - "One billion DOT tokens were minted out of thin air, but the hacker only profited $230,000": details a suspected MMR proof replay vulnerability in the Ethereum-side HandlerV1 contract tied to Hyperbridge's ISMP. - "The era of public blockchains 'spraying coins' has ended": critiques L1 grant models as structurally broken. - "Up 50x, FDV exceeding $10 billion—why RaveDAO?": examines RaveDAO's rapid token surge and market attention.