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Brazil’s central bank has banned the use of cryptocurrencies for settlement inside regulated cross‑border payment rails, forcing banks and fintechs to use only traditional FX and real‑denominated accounts.The move, formalized in a new foreign‑exchange resolution, comes as authorities say roughly 90% of reported cross‑border crypto remittances involve stablecoins, raising concerns over tax evasion, money laundering, and monetary sovereignty.The rule does not outlaw crypto in Brazil, but it walls off virtual assets from the supervised eFX system that underpins formal remittance channels and instant‑payment integrations like the central bank’s Pix network.

Stablecoins accounted for 40% of crypto purchases on Bitso in 2025, overtaking Bitcoin at 18% for the first time.Bitso said nearly 10 million users are increasingly using dollar-pegged tokens to store value and send payments in inflation-hit economies.Bitcoin remained in 52% of portfolios in 2025, with Bitso describing it as the region’s primary long term store of value.

The five new additions join Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar, giving Visa’s issuers and acquirers nine blockchain options for settling transactions outside traditional banking rails.Visa is operating as a validator node on Tempo alongside Stripe and Standard Chartered’s Zodia Custody, making it one of the first major payment companies to run blockchain validation infrastructure directly.Visa now operates more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs across more than 50 countries, bridging digital assets with traditional merchant acceptance at global scale.

Wasabi Protocol has been exploited across multiple chains, including Ethereum, Base, Berachain, and Blast, according to several blockchain security experts.Blockaid and CertiK said a compromised admin key was used to upgrade contracts and drain funds.

Pyongyang-linked hackers drained $577 million from two DeFi platforms in April, underscoring an escalating threat to crypto markets.

Meta USDC creator payouts launched April 29 for select creators in Colombia and the Philippines, with eligible users able to link a MetaMask, Phantom, or Binance wallet and receive earnings in Circle’s USDC directly.Stripe handles the backend and provides tax reporting for the transactions. Meta emphasized it is not issuing its own stablecoin and is using Circle’s existing USDC, which has a market cap exceeding $77 billion.The move reverses Meta’s retreat from crypto payments: Libra was launched in 2019, rebranded as Diem, and shut down entirely in 2022 after regulators blocked every path to launch.

Polymarket has selected Chainalysis to power a first-of-its-kind, fully on-chain market integrity monitoring system aimed at detecting insider trading and market manipulation across its prediction markets.The rollout lands two days after Polymarket’s April 28 exchange upgrade, which introduced new smart contracts, a rebuilt order book, and pUSD, an ERC-20 collateral token on Polygon backed 1:1 by USDC.Record trading volumes — including a single-day high of $425 million and more than $7 billion in monthly volume this year — are driving the push toward institutional-grade surveillance and compliance.

No rate cuts are coming any time soon, Big Tech earnings gave AI bulls more to work with, and Meta is back in crypto payments with USDC creator payouts.

Wasabi Protocol was exploited for over $5 million across Ethereum, Base, Berachain, and Blast.Security firms said a compromised admin key allowed attackers to upgrade contracts and drain funds.Wasabi told users not to interact with its contracts while the team investigates the exploit.

Eligible creators can connect their crypto wallet to Meta payouts and receive funds they are owed, according to the company’s website.Meta warns that there are “inherent risks with the use of cryptocurrency, including stablecoins, that are not controlled by Meta.”

Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot reached a $7 billion annualized run rate as the company added five blockchains to bring its total supported networks to nine.The expansion comes as Visa supports stablecoin-linked card programs in more than 50 countries and USDC settlement with U.S. banks, according to the company.

Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta is now offering stablecoin payouts to content creators in certain countries.

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said the first prediction market ETFs could launch next week, with Roundhill’s SEC filing setting a May 5 effective date.The ETFs allow investors to take directional positions on upcoming U.S. elections through a traditional ETF wrapper.

ZetaChain’s post-mortem explained that the attacker took advantage of three vulnerabilities to drain $333,868 from team wallets.The team said the exploiter invested significant time and resources in preparation before executing the attack.

With four of five CFTC commissioner seats vacant, the decision on whether to lift Polymarket's U.S. ban rests with Chair Michael Selig alone.

Payments giant Visa scales its blockchain settlement infrastructure with five new networks as pilot program shows 50% quarterly growth.