The popular AI framework Virtuals Protocol will host an in-person meet-up in Hong Kong on Friday, January 17.

April 14th — Wintermute noted in a post that markets went through two distinct phases last week: powered by ceasefire hopes in the first half, the Nasdaq rose 4.5%, Bitcoin climbed 2.6%, and the VIX dropped below 20. Over the weekend, the Islamabad talks collapsed, the U.S. announced a full naval blockade of Iranian ports, Brent crude surged 8% in a single session to re-enter $103+, and risk assets pared earlier gains. On the macro front: - U.S. March CPI climbed 3.3% year-over-year, while core CPI rose 2.6% — slightly below forecasts. Markets view this as an isolated energy shock rather than broad-based inflation. - Asian markets edged lower overnight, with Nasdaq futures holding steady. Markets are reacting less sharply to each news item, either pricing in the worst-case scenario or growing complacent. On the crypto front: - Bitcoin finished last week up 2.6% but didn’t lead gains, trading in a $65k-$73k range for over two months. - Bitcoin spot ETFs posted a net inflow

On April 14, crypto detective ZachXBT shared on his social media channel that a fake Ledger Live app on the Apple App Store has led to over 50 suspected victims losing $9.5 million between April 7 and 13, per a community alert. The stolen funds—covering Bitcoin, EVM-compatible chains, Solana, and Ripple—were laundered through more than 150 deposit addresses on KuCoin, linked to a centralized mixing service called AudiA6 that charges steep fees to clean illicit funds. Apple removed the fake app yesterday, and the top three victims each lost a seven-figure sum.

Per Onchainlens data, a whale closed its BTC long position (opened March 8) on April 14, netting over $1.88 million in profit. The whale subsequently withdrew all funds from HyperLiquid.

April 14th — Per HyperInsight monitoring, five whales on Hyperliquid closed their long positions in the past 30 minutes, totaling $17.78 million. Of the total, 5,016.1 ETH (equivalent to $11.975 million) and 77.9 BTC (equivalent to $5.8064 million) were involved. The largest liquidation came from a whale with the address starting with 0x7e4: its 4,500 ETH long position opened this morning was fully closed, with a size of ~$10.74 million and a liquidation price of $2,382 per ETH. Full address: 0x7e4e766d0ae5ea9cded0c694669194db92800107

Innora, a security firm, released a report on April 14 stating that the Ethereum-based financial protocol Saturn has two critical vulnerabilities: - **Withdrawal Freeze Vulnerability**: Under normal operations, all user funds could be locked—for a minimum of 30 days, and potentially indefinitely in extreme cases. No hacker involvement is required; the protocol can trigger this on its own. - **Privileged Address Withholding**: The protocol’s privileged address can legally withhold up to 33.33% of funds per transaction. Current data shows a single withholding could reach roughly $157,000, with a theoretical total risk of $4.26 million. Innora noted that over 90% of Saturn’s assets are controlled by a privileged off-chain address, leaving users entirely reliant on trust. As of the report’s publication, the vulnerabilities remain unfixed.

April 14: Web 4.0 isn’t the next marketing cycle—it’s a structural shift in permissions. As AI agents gain access to wallet private keys and take over on-chain execution rights, the entire internet infrastructure, built around human cognitive limits, faces a fundamental overhaul. There are 7 days left until this thesis is put to the test. Co-hosted by Rhythm BlockBeats and Zhihu, with support from Wanxiang Blockchain and HKUST Business School, the themed event *Decoding Web 4.0: When AI Agents Take Over On-Chain Permissions* will kick off in Hong Kong on April 21. Here’s a sneak peek at the highlights: Industry-leading guests will dive deep into the true potential of the “agent autonomous economy,” the prerequisites for on-chain automation infrastructure, and how AI × Crypto forms a full-fledged economic ecosystem. Top developer teams from transaction execution, cross-border payments, and other tracks will also demo cutting-edge on-chain financial apps live—apps that are reshapin