Yi Li Hua: Web3 is Essentially for the Finance Industry, Benchmarking Web2 Products is a "Misconception" on the Development Path

At the 9th BCCC Collaborative Day on April 21st, Shigetomo Shimizu—Director of the Risk Analysis Division at Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) Integrated Policy Bureau—disclosed that a bill has been submitted to the special Diet. The legislation would shift regulation of cryptocurrencies from the Fund Settlement Act to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA). The move aims to boost user protection, with key measures including: issuer information disclosure requirements; a new category for “cryptocurrency exchange businesses”; stiffer penalties for unlicensed operators; enhanced enforcement; and rules targeting insider trading plus a dedicated penalty system. Separately, three proof-of-concept (PoC) experiments are underway as part of the FSA’s Payment Interface Project (PIP)—launched in November last year. They include: 1. A joint yen stablecoin issuance by three major banks, testing cross-border settlement efficiency for large trading firms; 2. On-chain secur

On April 23, 23pds—Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of SlowMist Technology—retweeted a post from dark web intelligence account Dark Web Intelligence (@DailyDarkWeb). The post claimed the hacker group ShinyHunters had successfully breached internal systems tied to Anthropic’s Mythos model, sharing multiple screenshots including a user management dashboard, an AI experiment dashboard, and model performance and cost analysis. As of press time, Anthropic has not yet addressed the incident’s authenticity. Given numerous enterprises previously applied to test the related model, a confirmed breach could pose indirect security risks to leading tech companies and some encryption industry-related firms relying on the model.

Early on April 23 local time, former U.S. President Donald Trump retweeted multiple posts consecutively. First, he shared a post by American political activist David Bossie, which claimed that since taking office, Trump had aggressively overhauled Washington’s previously failed system and secured the border. Next, he retweeted another Bossie post urging the U.S. federal government to boost election integrity. He then shared a post by New York Post reporter Steven Nelson, noting that under Trump’s pressure, Iran’s leadership temporarily suspended domestic executions. (Iran had earlier denied Trump’s claim that executions of female prisoners had ceased.) (Jinse)

April 23rd — Bloomberg reports Polymarket, long the leader in prediction market trading volumes, is grappling with multiple challenges. Dune Analytics data shows its global trading volume has been overtaken by main rival Kalshi. On valuation: Kalshi announced last month its valuation hit $22 billion after a new funding round, while Polymarket is valued at $15 billion following a recent $600 million investment from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). Polymarket’s biggest bottleneck is a delayed official U.S. launch: its U.S. app remains in testing, with March trading volume just 1/20th of Kalshi’s. Technical hurdles from its blockchain architecture, repeated product launch delays, user backlash over recent fee adjustments, and over an hour of platform downtime continue to plague the platform. Additionally, Polymarket faces regulatory scrutiny for letting users bet on controversial topics like war and nuclear explosions. Democratic lawmakers have written to the CFTC requesting inte

April 23rd — Per GMGN monitoring (link: https://t.me/gmgnaibot?start=i_m4TE56o8), the previously hyped "Binance Life" token on BSC dropped 25% in 24 hours, as it lacked new anticipated catalysts. Market sentiment stayed subdued: the Chinese community narrative was in a vacuum, and over 90% of meme coin market caps continued to decline. Against this backdrop, the meme coin "Hakimi" emerged as a market favorite, becoming the focus of capital inflows on BSC today. Its market cap surged from $11 million to a high of $24 million, now sitting at $21 million. The token has a 66% 24-hour price gain, with $6.9 million in trading volume. During its uptrend, an address starting with 0xf3 was the largest on-chain buyer in the past 24 hours, accumulating ~10.6 million tokens at an average purchase value of $15.16 million. This position currently has an unrealized gain of $27,000 and has partially cashed out. Additionally, well-known KOL Wang Xiao Er (X: @brc20niubi) withdrew ~5.4 million tokens

On April 23, a rough calculation shows that the total current valuation of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) early-stage investment portfolio—if not disposed of or frozen in bankruptcy liquidation—could already exceed $100 billion, starkly contrasting with the roughly $8–10 billion funding gap FTX faced that year. Among these assets, the most explosive comes from the AI sector: SBF previously invested around $500 million in Anthropic, and based on current valuations, that stake may now be worth nearly $70 billion, serving as the core driver of his potential wealth growth. Additionally, SBF’s early investment in Anysphere (developer of code editor Cursor) via Alameda Research was sold for $200,000 during bankruptcy proceedings. Given Anysphere’s current valuation of roughly $60 billion, the corresponding equity value could now reach $3 billion. In crypto assets, SBF accumulated ~$60 million worth of SOL when the token traded at ~$8; its peak value was estimated at ~$21 bill