Project Progress

Spark's strategy chief defended maintaining high borrowing rates on SparkLend despite user migration to Aave, citing current market conditions. Aave is experiencing liquidity issues, raising concerns about potential bad debt if ETH prices drop significantly.

Tether and the LayerZero team’s all-chain stablecoin project USDT0 posted on the X platform on April 20. The USDT0 transfer function has been restored to normal, and overall system integrity has not been affected. There has been no change in risk exposure, and all transactions in progress prior to the suspension have been settled. Previously, USDT0, for precautionary purposes, paused the USDT0 OFT cross-chain bridge infrastructure during the rsETH incident investigation.

Pi Network mandates node operators to upgrade to Protocol 22 by April 27, 2026, to ensure network connectivity. The upgrade enhances stability and prepares for future smart contract features. Delaying could result in disconnection and missed opportunities.

SGB enables instant USDC minting and redemption on Solana, improving cross-border payments with real-time settlement. Service targets institutions, removing intermediaries and supporting 24/7 liquidity and treasury management. Expansion plans include more stablecoins and retail access, li

USDT0 has resumed its cross-chain bridge operations with no integrity or risk issues, following a temporary suspension during the KelpDAO rsETH investigation. All prior transactions were safely settled, and USDT0 tokens remain fully backed.

In a talk at the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin introduced Ethereum’s development plan for the next four to five years, including near-term scaling, account abstraction, and preparation for post-quantum cryptography, and proposed a three-stage roadmap for ZK-EVM, aimed at improving Ethereum’s security, general-purpose capabilities, and decentralized verification power.

Gate News update: LayerZero confirms via its blog that the LayerZero DVN is now live. LayerZero recommends that more DVN teams resume operations.

Hong Kong officials announced that they are studying the rules for the secondary market of tokenized products, and plan to release details in the first half of 2026. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has issued the first batch of two stablecoin licenses, driving the development of digital assets, while Hong Kong is also actively expanding the use of tokenized money market funds and green bonds. In addition, the flow of funds between Hong Kong and the Middle East has been increasing as well.

The metaverse platform HYTOPIA decided to pause the operation of its infrastructure because a large IRS tax refund has not yet been received. The platform plans to be offline for 1 to 3 months. A dispute over unpaid invoices between the platform and HY Foundation has also led to delays in the delivery of some tokens. HYTOPIA promises to handle this matter transparently and asks the community to be patient and wait.

Pi Network’s official announcement says there are currently more than 18 million users who have completed KYC, emphasizing that verified users matter more in transactions than other unverified accounts. The core team believes identity verification is crucial to transaction trust, and therefore has built a mainnet ecosystem with full KYC verification to ensure identities are verifiable, reduce spam, and improve overall credibility.

Curve Finance has been attacked over LayerZero infrastructure related to rsETH, and has temporarily suspended cross-chain functionality to prevent risk, impacting CRV cross-chain bridging and the fast bridging of crvUSD. Founder Egorov said the incident demonstrates the risk of “non-isolated lending,” and proposed a fully isolated mode as an alternative. Kelp DAO also suffered losses of about $292 million due to the attack, affecting lending activity on the Aave platform.

Gate News message, April 20, according to Gate market data. As of the time of writing, AAVE (Aave) is trading at $92.32. Over the past 24 hours, it is down 6.53%, with a high of $99.17 and a low of $88.71. The 24-hour trading volume is $16.9544 million. The current market cap is approximately $140.1 million. Aave is an open-source decentralized lending protocol that provides deposit and borrowing services for users. The deposit interest rates for depositors and the loan interest rates for borrowers are calculated algorithmically based on the platform’s borrowing amount and deposit amount. The platform also uses Chainlink oracles to ensure fairness in the collateral price. AAVE’s recent important news: 1️⃣ **Kelp DAO cross-chain bridge hacked, triggering a liquidity crisis** The hacker exploited a LayerZero cross-chain bridge vulnerability to steal rsETH worth $291 million, and then used the illegally obtained rsETH to provide collateral and borrow on Aave, causing the utilization rate of Aave’s core lending pool to reach 100%. The incident triggered a chain reaction: Aave’s net withdrawals totaled $6.2 billion, and total deposits fell from $45.8 billion to $35.7 billion. This event directly hit market confidence and is the main reason for the recent decline. 2️⃣ **Multiple institutions and whales panic-selling** After the incident, multiple whale addresses sold AAVE heavily on-chain, including the "smaugvision" address selling 20,015 tokens, the 0xFC5 address selling 20,000 tokens, and the 0xA2E address selling 19,665 tokens—totaling nearly 60,000 tokens. The well-known whale "ThisWillMakeYouLoveAgain" even cut losses and stopped the loss by selling 29,400 AAVE for $2.73 million, with losses exceeding $6 million. Large-scale selling further intensified downward pressure on the market. 3️⃣ **DAO governance approves a large financing plan to support long-term development** The Aave DAO passed the first grant proposal under the Aave Will Win framework with 75% support. Aave Labs will receive $25 million in stablecoins and 75,000 AAVE (about $6.8 million) unlocked linearly over four years. Founder Stani clearly laid out the strategic direction: all product revenues will flow back to the DAO treasury, with the goal of expanding the protocol’s scale from $40 billion to the trillion-level. This financing plan provides a solid foundation for the protocol’s long-term development, but in the short term the market still needs to absorb the impact of the hacker incident. 4️⃣ **Smart money addresses build positions against the trend** On-chain data shows that over the past seven days, approximately $2.9 million worth of AAVE has flowed out of exchanges. Smart money addresses are accumulating AAVE, with their holdings increasing to 359,880 tokens. The top 100 traders saw a net inflow of $2.18 million, and the leading profit-taking wallets maintained their positions without moving, suggesting that institutional investors are optimistic about Aave’s long-term prospects and providing some support for the current price. This information is not investment advice. Please note the risk of market volatility when investing.

Tools for Humanity launched World ID 4.0, enhancing its biometric verification system with key rotation and tiered options. With 18 million users, it integrates with Tinder and Zoom. The company supports expansion through funding, despite a 97% decline in WLD token value.

Curve Finance has temporarily suspended its LayerZero infrastructure due to a security incident involving rsETH. The protocol is investigating the issue, affecting certain cross-chain bridging operations while others continue as normal.

Keone Hon suggests that pooled lending protocols should implement gradual rate limits on collateral asset increases to mitigate risks during hacks. He argues this could have prevented significant losses, as seen with rsETH depositors.

SGB enables instant USDC minting and redemption on Solana, improving cross-border payments with real-time settlement. Service targets institutions, removing intermediaries and supporting 24/7 liquidity and treasury management. Expansion plans include more stablecoins and retail access, li

Morpho Association has temporarily suspended the OFT cross-chain bridge for MORPHO tokens on Arbitrum due to recent issues with Kelp DAO and LayerZero Bridge, pending confirmation of the rsETH incident's cause.

Spark Protocol's strategy of delisting low-usage assets and tightening collateral has faced initial backlash but proved wise during market turmoil. While maintaining higher interest rate caps, SparkLend ensures liquidity, unlike Aave, which now faces significant risks.

Kamino has temporarily suspended interactions with LayerZero-related tokens as a precaution, while allowing withdrawals and debt repayments. They emphasize that this measure is for risk management and that user funds are safe.

Marc Zeller of Aave announced his proposal to end the Aave-Chan Initiative Frontier project. He will exit his validator roles, return ETH to protect wETH depositors, and forgo potential income to minimize user impact. Zeller has significantly influenced Aave's incentive mechanisms and plans to exit Aave in July.