California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Friday that immediately prohibits gubernatorial appointees from using confidential, non-public information to profit on prediction markets including Polymarket and Kalshi. The directive also bars appointees from helping spouses, family members, business partners, or associates place bets using insider details obtained through official duties.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the NYSE, has made a $600 million cash investment in Polymarket, completing a structured program it first announced in October 2025. The company also said it expects to buy up to $40 million of Polymarket securities from existing holders, bringing the combined primary and secondary components toward the original plan's upper limit.

Rep. Maxine Waters sent a letter on Thursday to Kansas City Fed President Jeff Schmid seeking details on Kraken Financial's Federal Reserve master account and what services it can access. She set an April 10 deadline for explanations on Fedwire/ACH scope, restrictions, and the AML and consumer-protection reviews tied to the approval. Kraken Financial's access was granted as a one-year pilot on March 4, 2026, placing a crypto-native firm onto core payment rails.

DeFi entering 2026 is described as moving from experimentation to infrastructure, with Total Value Locked estimated at $130–$140 billion and capital increasingly concentrating in a small set of major protocols. The piece outlines four pillars—Aave-led lending, EigenLayer restaking, yield-bearing stablecoins, and evolving DEX routing—while flagging Ethereum concentration, regulatory uncertainty, and exploit losses that reached about $2 billion in 2025.

Torg Grabber, a newly identified infostealer, is being deployed to target 728 crypto wallet browser extensions across 850 add-ons. The malware is designed to steal seed phrases, private keys, and session tokens using encrypted exfiltration routes, with browser-extension self-custody users as the main exposure surface.

Startale Group has completed a $63 million Series A round with backing from SBI Group and Sony Innovation Fund, split into two tranches. The company said the funding will be used to scale its Strium Layer 1 for tokenized securities, expand its JPYSC and USDSC stablecoins, and upgrade the Startale App into a consumer SuperApp built on Sony's Ethereum Layer 2, Soneium.

The UK government has sanctioned Xinbi, a Chinese-language crypto “guarantee marketplace,” aiming to cut the platform off from what it described as the legitimate crypto ecosystem. The measures include freezing any UK-linked assets and banning UK businesses and individuals from providing goods, services, loans or investments to Xinbi. Chainalysis estimates Xinbi processed more than $19.9 billion in illicit flows between 2021 and 2025.

US Representative Maxine Waters is seeking details on the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's approval of a limited-purpose master account for Kraken Financial, after the Wyoming-chartered unit became the first crypto-native firm to obtain a Fed Master Account in March. In a Thursday letter, she asked Fed President Jeff Schmid to respond by April 10 on what services Kraken can use, what limits apply, and what anti-money laundering and consumer protection factors were reviewed.