Morning News | OpenAI completes $122 billion financing; SpaceX has secretly submitted IPO application; B2C2 sets Solana as the mainnet for institutional stablecoin settlement

整理：ChainCatcher

Important News:

• Hong Kong's first batch of compliant stablecoin licenses postponed, the Monetary Authority responds that it is making every effort to promote it
• Tom Lee: The market has absorbed over 90% of the selling pressure, and the stock market usually bottoms out in the first 10% phase of the war process
• OpenAI completes $122 billion financing, valuation reaches $852 billion
• Elon Musk's SpaceX has secretly submitted an IPO application
• SBI's market maker B2C2 designates Solana as the mainnet for institutional stablecoin settlements
• Uniswap Foundation 2025 financial summary: holds 15.1 million UNI and 240 ETH, total grants of $106.2 million
• Paragon stakes approximately $18.5 million HYPE and launches the HIP-3 DEX platform Para

What important events have occurred in the past 24 hours?

Elon Musk's SpaceX has secretly submitted an IPO application

According to ChainCatcher, market news indicates that Elon Musk's space exploration company SpaceX has secretly submitted an IPO application.

Insiders say the company has submitted an IPO registration draft to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is expected to go public in June, potentially becoming the first of three major super IPOs, ahead of OpenAI and Anthropic. Insiders revealed that SpaceX may seek a valuation of over $1.75 trillion in the IPO. The company previously acquired Musk's AI startup xAI, bringing the combined entity's valuation to $1.25 trillion.

Details of the listing, including the number of shares for sale and price range, are expected to be disclosed in subsequent filings. Reports suggest that SpaceX's IPO fundraising could reach up to $75 billion, far exceeding the current record holder Saudi Aramco's $29 billion from 2019.

Insiders say banks including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley will serve as lead underwriters for the IPO.

JPMorgan CEO: Considering offering predictive market services to investors, but will not venture into sports and politics

According to ChainCatcher, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon revealed in a CBS News report that the bank is considering offering predictive market services to clients.

Dimon stated that JPMorgan may launch predictive market services similar to Kalshi and Polymarket in the future, but made it clear that it will not venture into sports and politics and will strictly adhere to regulations regarding insider information.

When asked about the nature of predictive markets, Dimon believes they also have investment attributes in specific areas—participants use deep expertise to judge their predictions about outcomes as superior to their opponents.

CFTC Enforcement Director: Insider trading laws also apply to predictive markets

According to ChainCatcher, David Miller, the enforcement director of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), stated at a seminar at New York University on Tuesday that the agency will use its existing enforcement powers to combat insider trading in predictive markets.

David Miller pointed out that there is a misconception in mainstream and social media that insider trading laws do not apply to predictive markets, and he made it clear that this view is incorrect.

Bloomberg: CEO of Standard Chartered's crypto trading company Zodia Markets has left

According to ChainCatcher, Bloomberg reports that insiders revealed that Usman Ahmad, the CEO of Standard Chartered's cryptocurrency trading company Zodia Markets, has left.

Zodia Markets' official website shows that Nick Philpott, who previously served as the company's head of partnerships, has taken over as interim CEO. So far, both Zodia Markets and Standard Chartered's spokespersons have declined to comment on the matter.

Paragon stakes approximately $18.5 million HYPE and launches HIP-3 DEX platform Para
According to ChainCatcher, monitoring by MLM indicates that two days ago, Paragon (PARA) staked 500,000 HYPE (approximately $18.5 million) and launched the HIP-3 decentralized trading platform Para on the mainnet eight hours ago, having obtained trading codes TOTAL2, OTHERS, and BTCD.

SBI's market maker B2C2 designates Solana as the mainnet for institutional stablecoin settlements

According to ChainCatcher, The Block reports that SBI Holdings' institutional liquidity provider B2C2 has designated Solana as its primary network for large stablecoin settlements for institutional clients. B2C2 provides market-making services for platforms like Robinhood and collaborates with Standard Chartered, Anchorage Digital, Bitget, and others.

The company will prioritize supporting stablecoins issued on Solana, such as USDC, USDT, PYUSD, USDG, USD1, EURC, FDUSD, and future additions. Reports indicate that Solana has recently seen increased activity in stablecoin settlements, with stablecoin trading volume reaching approximately $650 billion in February, but its stablecoin market capitalization still significantly lags behind Ethereum and Tron.

Aztec Network launches Alpha mainnet, becoming the first Ethereum L2 to support privacy smart contracts

According to ChainCatcher, the privacy chain Aztec Network, supported by a16z, has officially launched its Alpha Network, becoming the first Ethereum Layer 2 with a complete environment for executing privacy smart contracts, having previously received unanimous approval from community governance votes.

Aztec integrates privacy at three levels: privacy data supports confidential transactions and RWA transfers; privacy identity allows selective disclosure to meet compliance requirements; privacy computation hides on-chain behavior, opening up space for privacy DeFi and gaming applications. Contracts are written in the Rust-style language Noir, with privacy logic executed on the user side to generate zero-knowledge proofs, settling approximately every 12 seconds on Ethereum.

However, this launch comes with a significant warning, as Aztec disclosed known severe security vulnerabilities, and auditing work is still ongoing. The team advises users to only deposit funds they can afford to lose.

Uniswap Foundation 2025 financial summary: holds 15.1 million UNI and 240 ETH, total grants of $106.2 million

According to ChainCatcher, the Uniswap Foundation released an unaudited financial summary as of December 31, 2025. By the end of 2025, the foundation holds $49.9 million in cash and stablecoins, 15.1 million UNI, and 240 ETH (valued at approximately $85.8 million at the time).

In terms of grant commitments and incentives, a total of $106.2 million has been granted. Of this, $87.5 million is for pending commitments, and $18.7 million is reserved for previously committed grants awaiting distribution. An additional $26.3 million is allocated for operational expenses and employee rewards.

In the 2025 fiscal year, the foundation incurred a total operating expense of $9.7 million, excluding 450,000 employee rewards issued in UNI tokens. The foundation also obtained 20.3 million UNI tokens (valued at approximately $114 million at year-end) from the Uniswap treasury through the Uniswap Unleashed proposal. Additionally, the foundation earned $1.7 million in interest income from its fiat holdings.

Bitcoin falls 23.8% in Q1 2026, marking the worst first-quarter performance since 2018

According to ChainCatcher, The Block reports that Bitcoin fell 23.8% in the first quarter of 2026, marking the worst first-quarter performance since 2018. In comparison, Bitcoin fell 50% in the first quarter of 2018. Combined with a 23% decline in Q4 2025, Bitcoin has dropped approximately 41.6% over the past six months.

Analysts attribute this decline to multiple factors. Bitrue's research director Andri Fauzan Adziima stated that the first-quarter decline was primarily driven by outflows from Bitcoin spot ETFs, compounded by persistently high inflation, a cautious Federal Reserve stance, and overall market risk aversion. In the first quarter, Bitcoin spot ETFs had a net outflow of $496.5 million, with $1.8 billion flowing out in the first two months, partially offset by $1.32 billion inflows in March.

Nevertheless, analysts believe that the long-term confidence in Bitcoin remains intact. Presto Research analyst Min Jung stated, "There is almost no evidence to suggest a structural change in long-term confidence in Bitcoin; institutional participation and adoption trends remain strong, indicating that this decline is more cyclical than fundamental." She noted that a trend reversal in Q2 would require greater certainty in the macro environment, especially regarding the situation in the Middle East.

LVRG's research director Nick Ruck stated, "To reverse the trend in Q2, we need ETF funds to flow back in, clear progress on crypto-friendly regulations in the U.S., and a shift towards looser monetary conditions."
Arkham: EdgeX airdrop accused of nearly half flowing to partners and LPs

According to ChainCatcher, Arkham posted on the X platform that approximately 69.5% of EdgeX's supply is stored in addresses directly transferred from the initial developer's wallet, some of which may belong to market makers and could be transferred to exchanges in the future.

Additionally, 7% of the supply remains in the airdrop wallet and has not yet been distributed, estimating the current actual circulation ratio to be only about 9.5%. EdgeX nominally airdropped approximately $195 million to users, but after on-chain analysts raised questions, the project team admitted that 14% of the total supply was actually allocated to partners and liquidity providers, amounting to approximately $94.6 million at current valuations, nearly half of the total airdrop amount.

U.S. Department of Justice: Executives and employees from four crypto market-making firms, including Gotbit, charged with wash trading

According to ChainCatcher, the U.S. Department of Justice's Northern California prosecutor's office announced that 10 executives and employees from four crypto market-making firms have been charged with artificially inflating token trading volumes and prices through wash trading, involving Gotbit, Vortex, Antier, and Contrarian.

Three defendants have been extradited from Singapore to the U.S., and two others have pleaded guilty and been sentenced. The FBI and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division even created multiple crypto tokens during undercover operations to investigate illegal volume manipulation and price inflation within the industry. Over $1 million in crypto assets have been seized so far.

Hong Kong to legislate a framework for crypto asset reporting, aiming to complete it by 2026

According to ChainCatcher, the Deputy Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, Chan Ho-lam, stated at the ACCA Hong Kong Branch's annual tax seminar for 2026 that the OECD has revised the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) to include new digital financial products such as central bank digital currencies and optimized reporting and due diligence requirements for financial institutions.

Additionally, the OECD has released a Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) to enable tax jurisdictions to automatically exchange crypto asset transaction data to enhance transaction transparency. The Hong Kong Legislative Council has supported this, with the goal of completing the legislation by 2026.

OpenClaw releases version update, adds QQ Bot integration, enhancing user-friendliness for Asia-Pacific users

According to ChainCatcher, OpenClaw announced the release of version 2026.3.31 this morning. The new version adds QQ bot integration (supporting private chat, group chat, and guild chat and media), LINE media sending capabilities, and real backend task flow management (allowing listing, viewing, and canceling tasks), enhancing automation reliability.

This version update emphasizes expansion in the Asian market, including better context, memory, and TTS support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, as well as WhatsApp emoji reactions and Matrix room history streaming, aiming to cover developer communication channels beyond Slack or Discord.

This update has received widespread praise from the community, but a few users reported excessive Exec approval prompts / Approval issues after the update, and a very small number of users reported occasional crashes or instability.

OpenAI completes $122 billion financing, valuation reaches $852 billion

According to ChainCatcher, OpenAI announced the completion of its latest round of financing, securing $122 billion in committed capital, with a post-investment valuation of $852 billion. The company stated that this round of financing will be used to expand AI capabilities and accelerate the delivery of "useful intelligence" to global users more quickly and broadly, thereby achieving rapid diffusion of technology and applications.

OpenAI emphasized that its core goal is to generate a "compounding effect" globally by enhancing accessibility, driving continuous growth in productivity and innovation.

Tom Lee: The market has absorbed over 90% of the selling pressure, and the stock market usually bottoms out in the first 10% phase of the war process

According to ChainCatcher, Tom Lee stated in an interview with CNBC: "I believe the market has absorbed 90% to 95% of the selling pressure, and the selling process may have ended, and we can start to rebuild the bottom now. We must recognize that in a war environment, the stock market often bottoms out early. We have studied every war since 1900, and the stock market always bottoms out in the first 10% phase of the war process. So if this follows the same pattern, we are currently in the early stages of that process.

At this stage, any bad news will trigger people to de-risk. But you know, this is also why positions are worth paying attention to, because at some point, when people become overly neutral, even if the situation is not that bad, the market could experience a V-shaped rebound."

Tom Lee added on social media that even if the "bottom" has not yet been reached, he believes the U.S. economy can withstand $100, or even $120 oil.

Hong Kong's first batch of compliant stablecoin licenses postponed, the Monetary Authority responds that it is making every effort to promote it

According to ChainCatcher, the first batch of issuer licenses in Hong Kong was originally scheduled to be issued in March 2026 but has not materialized as expected. A spokesperson for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority responded that it is making every effort to promote the licensing process and will announce it to the public in due course.

Regarding who will receive Hong Kong's first stablecoin licenses, the market has previously focused on two major Hong Kong dollar issuers, HSBC and Standard Chartered. HSBC has not publicly disclosed whether it has submitted a stablecoin license application. However, as early as mid-January this year, there were reports in the market that HSBC had a good chance of obtaining the first batch of licenses. Currently, there is no official disclosure as to why the issuance of stablecoin licenses has been delayed beyond the anticipated timeline.

Individuals close to the stablecoin license application revealed that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has been in close contact with the first batch of potential compliant licensees, and there are still suggestions for modifications regarding the issuance. Additionally, the second batch of compliant stablecoin licenses in Hong Kong is also in the application process. Reliable sources indicate that Futu Securities and OSL Group are strong contenders for the second batch of licenses.

Meme Popularity Rankings

According to the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of April 2, 09:00,

The top five popular ETH tokens in the past 24 hours are: HEX, SHIB, LINK, PEPE, UNI

The top five popular Solana tokens in the past 24 hours are: VDOR, swarms, Punch, 114514, neet

The top five popular Base tokens in the past 24 hours are: SKITTEN, PEPE, BASED, B3, SKYA

What are some interesting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?

Crypto exchanges kick off competition for VIP clients

Data shows that monthly cryptocurrency trading volume has declined from a peak of approximately $2.2 trillion in October 2025 to about $880 billion in March 2026, a drop of over 60%, marking the lowest trading volume since 2022.

The bear market has made exchanges' anxiety hard to hide.

On March 18, Binance announced a reduction in VIP thresholds, lowering the entry-level VIP 1 holding requirement from 25 BNB + $500,000 to 5 BNB + $100,000, a reduction of nearly 80%.

At the same time, OKX launched a special program for clients with assets over $100,000, and Bitget set the VIP threshold at $30,000, with various platforms raising interest rates on financial products.

In-depth analysis of Hyperliquid HIP-4: leveraging predictive markets and options trading to disrupt traditional finance

Currently, Hyperliquid is regarded as one of the few remaining "investable" assets in the cryptocurrency market.

While the overall market is in a downward trend, HYPE has shown remarkable stability. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is undoubtedly Hyperliquid's strong fundamentals, focus on generating revenue, and continuous use of profits for HYPE buybacks.

The crypto industry has matured relatively, yet some changes are still occurring—protocols are attempting to avoid continuing to market "crypto-first" products and are instead shifting towards a more general fintech model, where cryptocurrencies are just part of the infrastructure rather than being emphasized as a selling point.