Base Protocol's native token CAS has surpassed a $16 million market capitalization, with a 24-hour price increase of 220%.

April 29: Visa announced it has officially integrated Polygon into its Global Stablecoin Settlement Program. Issuing and acquiring banks partnering with Visa can now settle transactions via the Polygon network. Polygon claims it’s the world’s largest USD stablecoin payment network, citing data from Allium and Dune: - 34% of USD stablecoin transfers occur on Polygon—more than twice BNB Chain’s share - 54% of USDC transfers are on Polygon, beating the total of all other chains combined - 36% of global USDC transactions take place on Polygon - Polygon has roughly 3.19 million weekly active stablecoin users - On-chain stablecoin supply hit a record $36.2 billion - 178.1 million USD stablecoin transactions were recorded in March Visa added its stablecoin settlement program’s annualized transaction volume reached $7 billion this quarter—up 50% from three months ago. Polygon emphasized its network offers sub-cent fees, ~4-second transaction finality, and has been used for re

April 29: Bitcoin’s daily spot trading volume has fallen below $8 billion—its lowest level since October 2023, well below February’s peak of over $25 billion. On-chain data firm Glassnode says low volume typically signals reduced market depth, making prices more sensitive to large capital flows. Analysis notes that shrinking buy-sell order book depth means a handful of large orders could trigger sharp price swings, suggesting the current low-liquidity environment may actually boost BTC volatility. Yet the options market is betting on a "low-volatility" scenario: Volmex’s BVIV index (measuring BTC’s expected 30-day volatility) has dropped below 42% annualized, hitting a nearly three-month low. CoinDesk cites Marex analysts as saying the market is in a state of "superficial calm yet underlying caution" ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision, with thin liquidity. The next round of market drivers is more likely tied to macro factors than the crypto industry’s internal

April 29 — Per a Financial Times report, Christopher Harborne, a cryptocurrency industry billionaire and Tether shareholder, provided roughly ￡5 million in funding to UK MP Nigel Farage ahead of the 2024 UK general election. Farage later decided to resume his role as leader of the UK Reform Party, a right-wing political party in the country. The report notes Harborne has been actively engaged in both the crypto industry and conservative political donations, and he previously had ties to the UK Brexit movement. This significant donation has once again sparked concerns about the influence of crypto capital on British politics.

On April 29, Coinbase announced it will list several U.S. stock perpetual contracts, including: AMD-PERP (Advanced Micro Devices) ARM-PERP (ARM) INTC-PERP (Intel) MU-PERP (Micron) SNDK-PERP (SanDisk) Coinbase noted the perpetual contract markets will officially go live for trading subject to meeting market liquidity conditions, and will be available to retail and institutional users in supported regions.

April 29th — As stablecoin use grows and regulatory frameworks become clearer, cryptocurrency point-of-sale (POS) terminals are speeding up adoption in offline retail settings. Sectors like hotels, restaurants, luxury goods, and cross-border retail are starting to test digital asset payments in physical stores. Recent reports note that the recent partnership between WalletConnect and Ingenico marks a key example of crypto payments in physical retail. The solution lets consumers pay with crypto assets, while merchants don’t need to hold the digital assets directly—cutting down on operational complexity. Stablecoins are emerging as a key driver of offline payment adoption, the article notes. Unlike volatile cryptocurrencies, stablecoins are better suited for retail payments because they cut down on price swings during settlement and give merchants an experience closer to traditional fiat currency payments. Regulatory clarity is also fueling industry growth, moreover. The EU’s Mi

On April 29, cross-chain protocol ZetaChain revealed details of a $334,000 exploit—after previously dismissing a bug bounty researcher’s report of the underlying issues as “intended behavior.” Per its official post-incident report, the attack exploited three seemingly independent, low-risk design flaws: - The Gateway contract allowed anyone to send arbitrary cross-chain instructions - Receivers could call nearly any contract, with overly narrow blacklist restrictions - Some wallets had long-unrevoked unlimited approvals The attacker leveraged these gaps to direct the Gateway to transfer tokens directly to their controlled address. The exploit spanned 9 transactions across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and BSC; stolen funds came from ZetaChain-controlled wallets, and user assets were unaffected. The official statement emphasized the attack was premeditated: the attacker deposited funds via Tornado Cash three days prior, pre-deployed a dedicated Drainer contract, and exec