Huang Renxun has left Beijing, and NVIDIA has not disclosed whether Huang Renxun met with the DeepSeek founder.

April 17th — Payward, Kraken’s parent company, announced it will acquire crypto derivatives platform Bitnomial in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at up to $550 million. The acquisition will grant Payward the three core licenses required for a U.S.-compliant derivatives business — broker, clearinghouse, and exchange licenses — significantly shortening its compliance timeline in the U.S. market. Payward’s Co-CEO noted that the derivatives market’s foundation lies in clearing infrastructure, and Bitnomial’s strengths in settlement, collateralization, and 24/7 trading are the key value drivers of this deal. On the business front, the integrated platform will combine Bitnomial’s compliance framework with Kraken and NinjaTrader’s liquidity and distribution capabilities to launch U.S. market products regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), including spot leverage, perpetual contracts, and options. Additionally, the transaction will strengthen Payward’s B2

April 17 (Bloomberg) -- SpaceX has moved up the vesting timeline for employee stock incentives to as soon as next week, shifting from the original May plan amid its impending IPO process. Insiders say the move aims to ease employees’ uncertainty about how many shares they’ll be able to sell at listing, giving them clearer liquidity expectations once the company goes public. The broader market views this adjustment as further proof SpaceX is accelerating its IPO push. Previous reports noted the company plans to file its IPO application as early as May, with pricing targeted for mid-June and a valuation target exceeding $2 trillion—potentially making it one of the largest IPOs in history. Overall, early stock unlocking is a typical pre-IPO employee incentive management step, designed to stabilize team expectations and prepare in advance for potential large-scale liquidity release.

April 17 (CNBC) — As the Iran conflict escalates, U.S. tech companies are ramping up lobbying efforts with the government to address risks including Middle East asset security, supply chain disruptions, and infrastructure damage. Sources say the firms are engaging with both U.S. domestic and Middle Eastern officials—including the White House and Pentagon—to push for policy support and craft contingency plans to reduce war-related impacts on their operations. The conflict has already hit the tech industry: In March, AWS’s UAE data center was targeted in a drone attack, causing widespread digital service outages across the region. Earlier this month, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) issued additional threats to target U.S. tech firms operating in the Middle East, including NVIDIA, Apple, Microsoft, and Google. Supply chain secondary impacts are now emerging: Conflict-related export restrictions on key chip manufacturing materials—like helium—are adding pressure to AI

April 17th — Intent-driven cross-chain protocol Owlto Finance announced today it has completed a major upgrade and officially launched its "Asset Safety Haven" initiative. In response to some public chain ecosystems growing inactive and liquidity drying up, Owlto is warning users about withdrawal restrictions or suspension risks and recommending they do a "wallet spring cleaning" as soon as possible. ### Key Upgrade Highlights: 1. **Secure Withdrawal Guidance** Urges users to move assets scattered across inactive chains to mainstream, high-liquidity ecosystems like Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Binance Chain, Solana, and Arbitrum. 2. **Large-Scale Cross-Chain Freedom** Single-transaction limit raised to over $10,000. Intelligent routing cuts repeated operational costs and gas fees for large holders moving assets. 3. **Fast, Secure Transfers** Supports 70+ mainstream networks, with an intent-driven architecture. Average transaction confirmation time shortened to 9.6

On April 17, Nasdaq-listed mining firm TeraWulf Inc. announced the completion of its previously disclosed public offering. The company issued 54.51 million shares of common stock at $19 per share — including the underwriters’ full exercise of their 7.11 million-share over-allotment option — generating gross proceeds of approximately $1.036 billion. TeraWulf noted the net proceeds will primarily fund construction of its data center campus in Hawesville, Kentucky; repay bridge loans; support future site acquisitions; and cover general corporate purposes. Morgan Stanley served as lead underwriter for the offering, with Bank of America, Citigroup, TD Cowen, and Wells Fargo acting as joint bookrunners. The firm specializes in building sustainable energy-powered high-performance computing (HPC) and Bitcoin mining infrastructure. It plans to continue expanding its low-carbon computing capacity to meet growing demand for AI and computing power.

**April 17 – Nasdaq-listed Intchains Group Limited announced its latest business updates today, disclosing its Ethereum (ETH) staking scale and AI-powered operational transformation plan.** As of April 16, the company has staked a total of 8,040 ETH: 1,000 ETH via the FalconX platform and 7,040 ETH on its in-house Goldshell Stake platform. A third party has also staked 1,363 ETH on Goldshell Stake. Intchains noted it’s pursuing a multi-platform strategy to maximize returns and diversify risk. Strategically, the firm is advancing an AI-empowered operational overhaul, focusing on chip/product development, market sales, and end-to-end business operations. The goal is to rebuild processes with automation and intelligent tools to boost decision-making efficiency. On cost control: Intchains cut its workforce by ~20% early in 2026 and plans to trim it further to a cumulative ~35%, targeting annual labor cost savings of ~20 million RMB. The adjustments stem from organizational streaml