U.S. Marines successfully boarded and seized the Iranian-flagged M/V Touska following a six-hour standoff on April 20. According to NS3.AI, the operation involved Marines departing from the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli via helicopter, crossing the Arabian Sea, and boarding the vessel using fast-roping techniques. Prior to the boarding, the guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance disabled the ship's propulsion system, facilitating the Marines' operation.

Taiwan is considering a proposal to allow listed companies to distribute dividends in US dollars, marking a shift from the current requirement of payouts in the local currency. Bloomberg posted on X, citing sources familiar with the matter. This potential change aims to provide more flexibility for companies and align with international practices. The move could also attract more foreign investors by simplifying the dividend process. However, the proposal is still under discussion, and no final decision has been made. The change, if implemented, would represent a significant adjustment in Taiwan's financial regulations, reflecting the island's efforts to enhance its global financial integration.

Japan's February tertiary industry activity index showed a monthly decrease of 0.4%, according to Jin10. This decline was slightly better than the anticipated drop of 0.5%. The previous month's index had recorded a significant increase of 1.70%, highlighting a notable shift in economic activity.

A recent survey conducted by the Bank of Japan reveals that Japanese households anticipate an average inflation rate of 11.4% over the next year. According to Jin10, the median expectation for inflation stands at 10.0%. This survey highlights the growing concerns among Japanese households regarding rising prices and their potential impact on the economy. The findings come amid ongoing discussions about inflationary pressures and economic policies in Japan.

LayerZero Labs announced on the X platform that KelpDAO suffered an attack on April 18th, resulting in losses of approximately $290 million. The initial assessment identifies the attacker as Lazarus Group. The attack was achieved by poisoning the downstream RPC infrastructure upon which KelpDAO's decentralized validator network (DVN) relies. The attackers controlled some RPC nodes and, in conjunction with a DDoS attack, induced the system to switch to malicious nodes, thereby forging cross-chain transactions. Currently, all affected RPC nodes have been taken offline and replaced, and DVN has resumed operation. LayerZero emphasizes that this incident was limited to KelpDAO's rsETH application configuration and did not affect other assets or applications. KelpDAO's use of a single DVN architecture without multi-DVN redundancy mechanisms prevented it from identifying forged messages. The LayerZero protocol itself did not have any vulnerabilities, and applications with multi-DVN configurations were unaffected. LayerZero will drive the migration of all single DVN configuration projects to a multi-DVN architecture and has suspended signing and verification services for 1/1 configuration applications, while assisting law enforcement agencies in tracking stolen funds.

Crypto analyst Ansem has expressed concerns about Ethereum's position in 2026, suggesting it is less favorable than in 2023. According to NS3.AI, Ansem believes the Ethereum thesis has been weakening over the years. He attributes this to Solana's growing retail presence, Hyperliquid's dominance in perpetual futures, limited progress in rollup adoption, and the recent Aave rsETH exploit. Despite Ansem's perspective, other community members have contested his assessment, indicating differing opinions on Ethereum's future trajectory.

On April 20, LayerZero Labs released a statement regarding an attack on KelpDAO that occurred on April 18, resulting in a loss of approximately $2.9 billion. According to BlockBeats, the attack is believed to have been carried out by the Lazarus Group, specifically TraderTraitor, with ties to North Korea. The attackers compromised the decentralized verification network (DVN) by poisoning the downstream RPC infrastructure, controlling some RPC nodes, and using DDoS attacks to redirect the system to malicious nodes, thereby forging cross-chain transactions. All affected RPC nodes have been taken offline and replaced, and the DVN is now operational again. LayerZero emphasized that the incident was limited to KelpDAO's rsETH application configuration and did not impact other assets or applications. The vulnerability arose because KelpDAO used a single DVN (1/1) architecture, lacking the redundancy of multiple DVNs as officially recommended, which would have provided independent verification nodes to detect forged messages. LayerZero clarified that its protocol did not have any inherent flaws, and applications configured with multiple DVNs were unaffected, indicating no systemic contagion risk. LayerZero announced plans to expedite the migration of all projects using single DVN configurations to a multi-DVN architecture and has suspended signature and verification services for 1/1 configured applications. The company is collaborating with global law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident and assist industry partners in tracking the stolen funds. LayerZero stated that the event highlights the importance of modular security architecture and serves as a reminder to the industry about potential security risks in RPC verification pathways.

MEET48 is set to host the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival Side Event, 'Entertainment RWA Night,' today from 19:00 to 23:00 in collaboration with Hash Global and Nine Lives Society. According to Foresight News, projects such as POCHAIN, OLAXBT, TATTO, IPDEX, and Renaiss will participate in the event. Additionally, MEET48 COO Kai Xu will deliver a keynote speech at the main venue of the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival tomorrow from 10:45 to 11:00. The presentation will focus on forward-looking strategies in the entertainment industry, highlighting the integration of AI and crypto. MEET48 is an idol fan economy ecosystem built on a Web3 foundation, merging AI and user-generated content. The platform is developing a focus on virtual idols and AI-Web5 entertainment.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin outlined the future roadmap for Ethereum over the next five years during his keynote speech at the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival. According to Foresight News, Buterin emphasized Ethereum's dual core functions: serving as a 'public bulletin board' for applications to publish messages and ensuring user self-sovereignty, verifiability, and fair participation through shared digital objects controlled by code. The short-term protocol goals include five key areas: short-term scaling, the launch of ZK-EVM promotion, early post-quantum readiness, improvements in block construction pipeline, and privacy support. The next hard fork will incorporate several Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs), such as parallelized block-level access lists, gas repricing, extended block verification time for ePBS, and node state synchronization improvements. EIP-8141 (account abstraction) will treat transactions as a series of calls, natively supporting smart contract wallets, gas payment, quantum-resistant signatures, and privacy protocols. Quantum-resistant signature algorithms, existing for 20 years, face efficiency challenges, with signature sizes reaching 2–3 KB and on-chain gas consumption around 200,000 gas. Solutions include hash-based signatures and 'lattice + vectorization' schemes. Mid-term goals focus on the state layer, which is more challenging to scale than the execution layer, requiring state tree optimization and exploring solutions that do not require permanent storage of all states. Long-term protocol goals include maximizing secure consensus (tolerating 49% node failure in synchronous networks and maintaining a 33% finality safety threshold in asynchronous networks), formal verification of all content (using AI-generated mathematical proofs), comprehensive quantum resistance, maximal simplicity, and forward-looking security even without the core developer team (via the walkaway test). Lean Consensus will merge the advantages of Bitcoin-style 'available chain' and BFT-style 'finality' mechanisms, offering quantum resistance and rapid finality (expected within 1–3 slots, approximately 10–20 seconds). By 2025, ZK-EVM is expected to achieve 'sufficient speed' for real-time EVM execution proofing; by 2026, it aims for 'sufficient security' with partial node usage (e.g., independent stakers); and by around 2028, ZK-EVM will become the primary method for chain verification.

U.S. Central Command: U.S. Marines, transported by helicopter from the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli (LHA 7), crossed the Arabian Sea, boarded and seized the M/V Touska. The Marines rappelled onto the Iranian-flagged vessel on April 20 after the guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance disabled the Touska's propulsion system after the merchant ship failed to heed repeated warnings from the U.S. military for six hours. (Jin Shi)

Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange, has been named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025, earning recognition as a “disruptor” for its pivotal role in shaping crypto policy and driving mainstream adoption of digital assets.

Dan Dolev discussed the challenges and opportunities in the crypto and fintech markets, highlighting Coinbase's vulnerabilities and the potential growth in the BNPL sector.