Polygon Labs Eyes $100M Raise to Enter Stablecoin Payments

Polygon Labs is reportedly in early talks to raise up to $100M to launch a stablecoin payments business, signaling a strategic push into regulated financial infrastructure. The move aims to accelerate on-chain payment volume and expand real-world blockchain adoption.

This marks a rare case of a blockchain developer entering the regulated payments space, positioning Polygon to compete directly with traditional fintech players.

Back in January, Polygon partnered with Coinme and Sequence, strengthening its infrastructure stack and setting the stage to rival firms like Stripe in the global payments market.

👉 x.com/Yueqi_Yang/status/2041867835354341432?s=20

Pharos Network Raises $44M Series A to Scale On-Chain Economy

Financial Layer 1 Pharos Network has secured $44M in a Series A round backed by Sumitomo Corporation’s CVC arm, SNZ Holding, Chainlink, and Flow Traders.

About. Pharos is building a financial-grade, asset-native L1 to bridge TradFi and DeFi, targeting the RWA market with infrastructure designed for real-time, institutional-scale applications.

The project has already gained traction on testnet and is positioning itself as core infrastructure for high-value on-chain financial flows ahead of mainnet launch.

👉 x.com/pharos_network/status/2041850490078818490

Visa Introduces AI Commerce Infrastructure for Agent Payments

Visa has launched Intelligent Commerce Connect, a solution enabling businesses to integrate with AI-driven commerce and agent-based payments.

The product serves as a unified on-ramp for agentic commerce, offering a single integration through the Visa Acceptance Platform that supports secure payments, tokenization, and authentication. It is token vault-agnostic and integrates both Visa and non-Visa APIs, allowing AI agents to transact across multiple card networks.

As AI agents increasingly handle purchases, the solution also supports key agent protocols and helps businesses accept agent-driven payments, surface product catalogs within AI platforms, and streamline transaction processing at scale.

👉 markets.ft.com/data/announce/visa-opens-the-door-to-ai-driven-shopping-for-businesses

Circle Introduces Platform for USDC Payments Without Stablecoin Custody

Circle has launched CPN Managed Payments, a new platform enabling banks and fintechs to access stablecoin-powered payments without holding crypto assets.

The solution abstracts blockchain complexity by allowing partners to operate entirely in fiat, while Circle manages minting, burning, settlement, and compliance behind the scenes.

This move simplifies institutional adoption of USD Coin (USDC), offering faster cross-border payments and reduced FX costs without direct exposure to digital assets.

As part of its broader distribution strategy, Circle continues to scale USDC usage, which has surpassed $70T in cumulative onchain settlement, including ~$12T in Q4 2025 alone.

👉 theblock.co/post/396727/circle-usdc-payments-without-balance

​​The Lazarus Files: A Complete History of Digital Heists

Lazarus playbook has evolved from phishing and malware to supply-chain compromise, multisig abuse, and social engineering at massive scale. This timeline shows how crypto’s biggest heists became more sophisticated over time — culminating in billion-dollar losses.

Binance plans to delist 6 crypto assets on April 23rd

Beefy Finance (BIFI), FIO Protocol (FIO), FunToken (FUN), MDT (MDT), Orchid (OXT), and Wanchain (WAN) trading will be ceased at 3:00 UTC. Users will be able to withdraw assets until June 23rd.

Prices of respective tokens were hit significantly
– Measurable Data (MDT): -31.5%
– FunToken (FUN): -30.5%
– Beefy Finance (BIFI): -24.7%
– FIO Protocol (FIO): -19.3%
– Orchid (OXT): -13.5%
– Wanchain (WAN): -4.6%

👉 x.com/binance/status/2042121788910661957?s=20

​​Price Discovery Board: OneFootball (OFC)

OFC trading starts today at 10:00 UTC, backed by $307M in private funding. This board compares potential FDV scenarios using benchmarks from other SocialFi projects like MEET48, Zora & Chiliz.

Oh Raises $7.5M Series A to Expand its AI Infrastructure

Oh has raised $7.5M in a Series A round, bringing total funding to $12M, with the round led by Maven 11 and backed by L1D, Auros, Hashed, Maelstrom, Cadenza and others.

The company is building an adult-focused AI platform that combines consumer applications with infrastructure, including its OhChat product and API layer, while reporting hundreds of thousands of users, consistent revenue growth and a 60x increase in creators over the past year.

The funding will support expansion across consumer, infrastructure and creator tooling, as the company positions itself as a dominant player in the emerging adult AI category.

👉 x.com/ohdotxyz/status/2041823332148847035

Morpho Launches AI Agent Interface in Beta Version

Morpho has introduced Morpho Agents, a beta interface that allows AI agents to interact directly with its lending infrastructure across Ethereum and Base through a machine-readable layer.

The system combines built-in tools with simulation capabilities, enabling agents to access protocol data, test actions before execution and carry out transactions, while simplifying integration for developers building agent-based workflows.

The release also introduces dedicated components, including:
• User Agent (CLI + MCP server) for direct interaction
• Builder Agent providing structured protocol knowledge
• Contract references for easier integration
• Integration guides for developers

👉 x.com/PaulFrambot/status/2041902465528799609?s=20

Binance unveils Prediction Markets in Binance Wallet

Prediction Markets feature allows users access to probability-based markets tied to real-world outcomes. At launch, the feature connects users to markets provided by Predict Fun, an on-chain prediction market platform built on BNB Chain.

Users can trade using balances from their Spot and Funding Accounts, with both market and limit orders.

👉 x.com/binance/status/2042181226836975992?s=20

​​Coinbase Accelerator has unveiled Base Batch 003

Base Batch 003 feels like a snapshot of what early crypto startups look like in 2026. AI-native tools, social trading, embedded finance, and new consumer apps are all starting to take shape inside the Base ecosystem.

👉 blog.base.org/introducing-base-batches-003-2

Kraken Announces Ink Layer 2 Points Drop on April 13

Kraken has confirmed Ink Points drop, with distribution set for April 13. Existing users have already been accumulating points since April 6, while new users begin earning from the moment they join.

The points system is drawing attention as Ink Points are widely expected to convert into INK tokens at TGE, currently projected for Q2–Q3 2026. This positions early participation as a potential advantage ahead of the token launch.

Ink, Kraken’s Ethereum Layer 2 built on the Optimism Superchain, has scaled rapidly, growing from $7M to $460M in TVL within four months. The network has processed over 75M transactions, reached 70K daily active addresses, and recorded $243M in daily perpetuals volume via Nado.

Despite earlier sentiment cooling following Kraken’s tentative IPO delay, interest is showing early signs of recovery. The recent CoinMarketCap listing of INK has renewed its visibility, drawing attention from global users.

As a Layer 2 powered by the OP Stack, Ink connects Kraken’s 10M+ users to DeFi, enabling seamless access to DEXs, lending, and yield opportunities while leveraging Ethereum security with improved scalability.

👉 x.com/krakenpro/status/2041891984558723288

TON Achieves Sub-Second Finality with Catchain 2.0 Upgrade

TON has reduced transaction finality from ~10 seconds to ~1 second, with sub-second confirmations live on mainnet as of April 10. The upgrade, powered by Catchain 2.0, introduces 400ms block times and real-time data streaming, enabling near-instant execution.

Faster block production boosts validator rewards and staking incentives, with annual inflation expected to rise from ~0.6% to ~3.6%. This upgrade unlocks real-time use cases across Telegram’s 1B+ user ecosystem, including instant payments, low-latency trading, and fully responsive Mini Apps.

Catchain 2.0 activation is ongoing, requiring 75% validator approval across two voting rounds. The first phase is already live, with full rollout expected after final consensus.

👉 x.com/durov/status/2042247948147241072?s=20

​​Top Trending Polymarket Pools To Watch This Week

Discover the top trending Polymarket markets to watch this week. Explore key events, track sentiment shifts, and access each market below.

– What will WTI Crude Oil (WTI) hit in April 2026?
– Iran x Israel/US conflict ends by...?
– Presidential Election Winner 2028
– What price will Bitcoin hit in April?
– What price will Ethereum hit in April?

Track the inefficiency early and position before the market fully prices them in, with LIVE arbitrage opportunities via OplyScan 👉 t.me/oplyscanbot

Startale Opens Its App to the Public With 11 Live Mini Apps

Startale has opened its app to all users after onboarding more than 300,000 users during beta. The app is positioned as a gateway to the Soneium ecosystem, where users can manage assets, earn STAR Points, and access a growing set of Mini Apps.

Startale is a Web3 company/product group building onchain infrastructure and apps, best known for helping develop Sony-backed Ethereum Layer 2 Soneium.

👉 x.com/StartaleApp/status/2042212110055395503?s=20

Covenant AI Exits Bittensor, Accuses Founder of Centralized Control

Covenant AI, the team behind subnets SN3, SN39, and SN81, said it is leaving the network, arguing that Bittensor’s decentralization claims do not match how governance works in practice.

Covenant alleged that TAO emissions to its subnets were suspended, its moderation rights removed, and parts of subnet infra were deprecated, while calling the network’s “triumvirate” multisig setup “decentralization theatre.”

The team is widely reported to have sold roughly 37,000 TAO (worth approximately $10 million), sending TAO down about 15%.

👉 x.com/covenant_ai/status/2042380152831951300?s=20

OKX Ventures invests in Vietnam-based CAEX

OKX Ventures has made a strategic investment in CAEX, a Vietnam's crypto exchange, joining local partners VPBankS and LynkiD alongside HashKey Capital to support the launch of a regulated trading platform in the country.

The funding is aimed at helping CAEX reach the required ~$380M (VND 10 trillion) capital threshold needed to qualify for Vietnam’s government-backed pilot program, where only a limited number of licensed exchanges will be allowed to operate.

As part of the partnership, OKX will contribute not only capital but also infrastructure, compliance systems, risk management, and liquidity support, positioning CAEX as a fully regulated, institution-grade platform aligned with Vietnam’s tightening regulatory framework and growing demand for local crypto services.

👉 x.com/OKX_Ventures/status/2042433565804413087?s=20

Tether launches QVAC SDK for on-device AI

Tether has introduced QVAC SDK, an open-source, cross-platform toolkit designed to let developers build and run AI directly on local devices without relying on cloud infrastructure.

QVAC will help developers to build applications that run consistently across environments while improving performance, privacy and reliability, especially in low-connectivity or offline scenarios.

The SDK allows AI models to run, train and be fine-tuned locally across iOS, Android, Windows, macOS and Linux using a single codebase, removing the need for platform-specific implementations.

Supported capabilities include:
• text generation and embeddings
• speech-to-text and text-to-speech
• translation and OCR
• vision and multimodal processing

👉 x.com/qvac/status/2042279032461431151?s=20

Royco Launches First Tranched Vault on Morpho

Royco has introduced its first tranched vault on Morpho, bringing structured yield strategies onchain. The model splits risk between Senior and Junior tranches, offering protected yield for conservative users.

The Senior tranche has delivered ~5.6% APY over the past day, while the Junior side provides up to 7% loss coverage before Senior depositors are affected. In return, Junior participants earn higher yields for taking on additional risk.

The vault is currently in testing phase with a capped capacity of $241.5K, limiting early access while performance is validated. Key allocations include exposure to Aave v3, savUSD, sNUSD, and autoUSD strategies, with estimated APYs reaching up to 18.94% depending on tranche and utilization.

👉 x.com/roycoprotocol/status/2042643494745907538?s=20

​​Cryptomarket Check-In. Major Events & Headlines

Over the past week, developments across crypto markets were driven by AI & trading expansion, infrastructure upgrades, and broader adoption.

🔎 Recent Updates & Developments

– Visa introduced AI commerce infrastructure, enabling agent-based payments across global payment networks

– Circle launched managed USDC payments, allowing banks to access stablecoin rails without holding crypto

– TON achieved sub-second finality, significantly improving transaction speed and execution performance

– Ant Group launched Anvita platform, enabling AI agents to hold assets and execute autonomous transactions

– Polymarket began major platform upgrade with new order book and native collateral token

– Pharos Network raised $44M to build institutional Layer 1 infrastructure for tokenized real-world assets

– Kalshi partnered with Fox to integrate prediction data across major media platforms

​​MAJOR UPCOMING EVENTS IN APRIL!

A full list of Major Upcoming Events, to be updated
👉 https://cryptodiffer.com/events