development

Solana treasury company DeFi Development Corp reported that despite an expanded loss in the first quarter, the per-share holding of SOL increased from 0.0322 to 0.0670 over the past year, a growth of 108%. As of May 13, the company holds approximately 2.2946 million SOL and equivalents.CEO Joseph Onorati stated that the company achieved growth through strategies such as internal staking, operating joint validation nodes in collaboration with Bonk, and deploying over 25% of the treasury on-chain, and believes that the strategy is a starting point rather than a ceiling. The company reported a revenue of $2.66 million in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 827%; the net loss was $83.4 million, compared to $778,000 in the same period last year, mainly impacted by the decline in SOL prices.

According to the official announcement, the digital asset trading platform Websea has reached an investment intention with a strategic investor and will officially open withdrawals on May 18 at 16:00 (UTC+8), while also announcing specific withdrawal arrangements.It is reported that this strategic investment comes from a family fund in the Middle East. Both parties have conducted multiple rounds of in-depth communication on core issues such as the platform's asset status, business structure optimization, recovery path design, and long-term development planning, ultimately reaching a consensus for cooperation. Currently, the investor is advancing the capital injection process according to procedures, while simultaneously carrying out final confirmation work such as legal review, agreement signing, and equity arrangements.Websea CMO Herbert R. Sim stated that Websea has gone through an exceptionally difficult time, but in the face of many doubts from the industry, the platform team members have been working silently and have finally welcomed new life. He believes that this test is both a challenge and an opportunity for the platform. He also mentioned that with the entry of the investor, the platform will publish proof of reserves (Proof of Reserves, POR) and conduct regular disclosures to further enhance user asset transparency and market confidence. The platform will also continue to optimize its product structure and ecological mechanisms to promote long-term stable development.

According to CoinDesk, Denis Beau, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, has publicly called for a joint effort from the European public and private sectors to promote the development of euro tokenized currency in response to the dominance of the US dollar stablecoin. This move stands in stark contrast to the position of European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, who is cautious about private stablecoins, believing that USDT, USDC, and others pose financial stability risks, and favors a central bank-led digital euro plan expected to be implemented by 2029.Beau proposed a "triple objective" for Europe: to adapt central bank currency services, to promote the issuance of pan-European tokenized private currency by regulated institutions, and to strengthen the MiCA regulatory framework. His stance is highly aligned with the Qivalis consortium, which consists of 12 major European banks including ING, BBVA, and BNP Paribas, and plans to launch a private digital euro within this year. Beau also revealed that the euro system will launch its first tokenized wholesale central bank currency service by the end of the year.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced on the X platform that TON has launched a unified smart contract toolchain called Acton. The new toolchain increases TON's development efficiency by 10 times, making the creation, testing, and deployment of smart contracts more convenient, and it is fully prepared for AI. This toolchain replaces TON's previous scattered tool stack, unifying it into a single development process.According to the introduction, Acton is an integrated command-line tool built around the Tolk language, covering the entire process of project creation, testing, debugging, dApp integration, deployment, and verification.

The Ethereum Foundation disclosed the results of a recent interoperability meeting held by core developers in the Svalbard archipelago of Norway and updated the key technical progress for the next phase upgrade, Glamsterdam. During the meeting, multiple client teams collaborated on network scalability and execution layer optimization, making progress in several directions. Developers confirmed that based on the comprehensive results of ePBS, BAL optimization, and the EIP-8037 repricing mechanism, a consensus on the "trusted path" after Glamsterdam has been reached.In terms of the execution layer, ePBS (External Proposer Separation Architecture) has been stably running in the multi-client Glamsterdam-devnet, and the external block builder process has completed end-to-end testing, covering almost all client implementations. Meanwhile, EIP-8037 has been finalized, establishing the fixed cost_per_state_byte model, and complete repricing parameter output has been achieved in bal-devnet-6. The scalability direction Hegotá has also made progress. The FOCIL-related prototype has a runnable implementation, and the scope of account abstraction (AA) requirements has been defined, with the next phase entering the multi-client development network verification stage.Current development focus remains on the final implementation of Glamsterdam while advancing the Hegotá scalability design and subsequent Strawmap route evolution. The development network is online, and functionalities such as FOCIL are expected to continue deepening in the next phase of testing. At the organizational level, this interop meeting also marks the formal initiation of leadership structure adjustments within the Protocol Cluster. The new leaders include Will Corcoran, Kev Wedderburn, and Fredrik. Will Corcoran is responsible for zkVM proof and post-quantum consensus coordination, Kev Wedderburn leads zkEVM development, and Fredrik is in charge of protocol security and the Trillion Dollar Security project.Original Protocol Cluster leadership team members Barnabé Monnot and Tim Beiko will gradually step back from management roles, and Alex Stokes is entering a leave period. The foundation stated that during its term, the Protocol has completed modular advancement and facilitated the launch of the Fusaka upgrade (December 2025), introduced PeerDAS, and enhanced mainnet gas capacity.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Data Bureau jointly issued the "Action Plan for Promoting the Bidirectional Empowerment of Artificial Intelligence and Energy," proposing to initially establish a safe, green, and economical energy security system supporting AI development by 2027, and to achieve world-leading research and application of AI-specific technologies in the energy sector by 2030.The key points of the plan include: coordinating the layout of new energy bases and computing power hubs, exploring direct connections between nuclear power and hydrogen energy to computing power facilities; promoting computing power facilities to increase the proportion of green electricity and energy efficiency, and improving carbon emission accounting; achieving synergy between computing power and electricity through market-based electricity trading; opening up high-value AI application scenarios in power grids, coal, oil and gas, and energy storage; accelerating breakthroughs in large energy models and the application of autonomous intelligent computing chips, and providing supporting support in standards, funding, talent, and other aspects.

Aptos Foundation and Aptos Labs announced that they will invest over $50 million to cover first-party products, research, protocol infrastructure, and a strategic fund for trading and AI partners.Aptos stated that Decibel has launched on the Aptos mainnet, with a cumulative trading volume exceeding $1 billion. The market capitalization of stablecoins on the Aptos network has reached $1.93 billion, and the scale of RWA has reached $1.2 billion, with asset management institutions such as BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo Global already deployed on the network. Subsequently, Aptos will advance features such as crypto memory pools, FIX and CCXT connections, multi-leader consensus, and confidential perpetual trading.

According to Globenewswire, the Nasdaq-listed Solana treasury company DeFi Development announced the launch of a $200 million ATM financing plan.The company stated that the raised funds will primarily be used to continue executing its Solana reserve strategy and that shares will only be issued when there is a positive effect on the value of each shareholder's SOL holdings, ensuring that the financing has a "accretive" nature.

Bitget announced a strategic partnership with the Web3 women's organization WIW3CH. Both parties will rely on Bitget's Blockchain4Her program to provide more systematic educational resources, industry connections, and career development support for female practitioners.This collaboration will start with a special podcast featuring Bitget CEO Gracy Chen, sharing her career growth experiences and providing more practical advice for women who have just entered the blockchain industry. The two parties will also jointly publish a series of educational articles covering Web3 technology analysis and career development paths.As a long-term project promoting women's growth, Blockchain4Her has been advancing since its launch in 2024, focusing mainly on four directions: enhancement, empowerment, education, and inclusivity. The program has funded 11 women-led startup projects through recent initiatives like the "Lady Forward" event and the "Pitch n' Slay" entrepreneurship competition, reaching hundreds of thousands of audiences through global events.

The "Ethereum Applications Guild (EAG)" has officially announced its establishment as a global non-profit collaborative organization aimed at supporting the development of the Ethereum application ecosystem, promoting its expansion from the infrastructure phase to the application layer, while operating around four main directions: promoting real-world application implementation, connecting cross-domain ecological networks, establishing a unified evaluation and development framework, and building a sustainable funding mechanism. It is reported that EAG will implement a membership contribution system based on institutional scale (such as valuation, market capitalization, or AUM), and through a staking yield donation mechanism, part of the ETH staking yield will be directed into the ecological growth fund.EAG also launched the 2026 Global Applications and Developers Program, which will expand developer education, hackathons, and research projects, and strengthen local developer community building through regional roadshows and ecological showcases.

According to official news, the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has officially released new industry guidelines, clarifying the standards and requirements for companies to comply with the current regulatory framework when using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).The new regulations also optimize the fund trading mechanism, introducing an optional direct-to-fund (D2F) model that allows investors to directly connect traditional funds with tokenized funds for transactions, significantly improving circulation efficiency. These rules were jointly formulated by the FCA and the industry, maintaining strict regulatory standards while accommodating financial innovation, helping the asset management industry reduce costs and increase efficiency, and accelerating the implementation of traditional asset tokenization.

Bitget, through the Blockchain4Her program, continues to promote the popularization of Web3 women's education and community building in emerging markets such as the Philippines. This program focuses on providing a systematic blockchain knowledge framework for women and youth, helping them participate in the long-term development of Web3 with a solid understanding and gain more substantial opportunities within the industry.To achieve this goal, Blockchain4Her has supported several grassroots initiatives led by local female advocates. These include: transforming blockchain technology into practical development opportunities for underdeveloped communities; developing exclusive learning materials titled "Young Learners' Encyclopedia" for youth; and building a learning community focused on risk control and trading discipline. These initiatives not only help local beginners avoid misinformation and establish a rational understanding of Web3 but also align closely with Bitget's partnership with UNICEF in promoting digital skills and blockchain education globally.Bitget CEO and Blockchain4Her founder Gracy Chen stated, "Our original intention is to provide a more equal and open environment for women to explore Web3. Seeing more and more outstanding women engaging in community building shows us how true industry inclusivity takes root and flourishes from the grassroots."

According to Bitcoin Magazine, SEC Chairman Paul Atkins and CFTC Chairman Mike Selig stated at the Bitcoin 2026 Conference that U.S. digital asset regulation is entering a "new phase," with both agencies working together to advance a regulatory framework for crypto assets, encouraging related businesses to develop domestically in the U.S.Both parties mentioned that the jointly released token classification guidelines have differentiated between digital commodities, collectibles, and tokenized securities, emphasizing the push for clearer, future-oriented legislative rules. Paul Atkins also stated that the SEC is preparing to launch an "innovation exemption" and plans to allow companies to test on-chain tokenization and securitization tools in a regulated environment in the coming weeks.

According to Jinshi reports, the Office of the Foreign Investment Security Review Mechanism (National Development and Reform Commission) has made a decision to prohibit investment in the foreign acquisition of the Manus project in accordance with laws and regulations, requiring the parties involved to withdraw from the acquisition transaction.

In response to the U.S. accusations of China "stealing" intellectual property from American artificial intelligence laboratories, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiaqun stated during a regular press conference on the 24th that the U.S. claims are unfounded and are a smear against China's achievements in the development of the artificial intelligence industry. China firmly opposes this. We urge the U.S. to respect the facts, abandon prejudice, stop suppressing technology related to China, and do more to promote technological exchange and cooperation between the two countries.

The Financial Secretary of Hong Kong, Paul Chan, delivered the opening speech at the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, stating, "The rise of AI agents this year is another noteworthy milestone. The intersection of AI and technologies like Web3 is changing the game. The combination of the two will elevate transaction efficiency to a new level and cover a broader range of business areas, from finance and trade to wealth management, supply chain operations, and logistics. This combination will create a multitude of new opportunities but will also pose a series of challenges, such as issues related to infrastructure payment and settlement systems and regulatory rules.Hong Kong's policy on Web3 and AI has always been clear, maintaining consistency under the principle of 'one country, two systems.' As an international financial center, Hong Kong embraces innovation, with stablecoins, tokenization, and AI becoming important components of the mainstream future. Hong Kong's regulators have a dual mission of prudent regulation and promoting market development, which requires us to encourage and support more innovative applications, improving our institutional framework based on continuous experience. I firmly believe that Hong Kong will undoubtedly become a key hub for the thriving development, widespread application, and responsible scaling of the new generation of technologies."

According to CoinDesk, Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin stated that artificial intelligence will be a key turning point in the next phase of development for the cryptocurrency industry. However, if computing power and infrastructure are controlled by a few large tech companies, it could pose systemic risks.In the future, AI agents could autonomously execute transactions, collaborate, and verify on blockchain networks, becoming the foundation of a "machine economy." Cryptographic technology and decentralized systems will ensure transparency and accountability, allowing machines to supervise each other.Additionally, he believes that traditional finance and DeFi are accelerating their integration, driving the global economy towards a more refined and programmable direction, while the risks of quantum computing are a long-term manageable issue that Ethereum developers have already prepared for.

French Finance Minister Roland Lescure stated that Europe needs more euro-denominated stablecoins and encouraged EU banks to explore tokenized deposits, a statement seen as a potential shift in the position of the French government and central bank.Lescure publicly supports the Qivalis alliance, composed of 12 European banks including BBVA, ING, UniCredit, and BNP Paribas, which plans to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in the second half of 2026 to address the dominance of the dollar in the digital payments space. He pointed out that the current scale of euro stablecoins is far lower than that of dollar stablecoins, which is "unsatisfactory," and emphasized that promoting relevant developments is "exactly what we need." In contrast, former Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire had a strong opposition to privately issued stablecoins, believing they threaten monetary sovereignty; recently, French central bank governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau also warned that stablecoins and tokenized currencies could pose risks of "monetary privatization." Analysts believe that France's latest statement may signal a more pragmatic approach in Europe regarding stablecoin and digital currency policies, attempting to seek a balance between regulation and innovation.