Weekly Hot Project Updates: Ethereum Stablecoin Supply Reaches Record High, Polygon Plans to Raise $100 Million for Stablecoin Payments, Across Converts to a U.S. Company, etc. (0405-0411)

1 Ethereum stablecoin supply surpasses $180 billion, reaching a record high link

Ethereum stablecoin supply surpasses $180 billion, reaching a record high, growing 150% over the past 3 years; currently, Ethereum holds a 60% market share in the stablecoin market. Token Terminal estimates that, in the most optimistic scenario, $1.7 trillion will be onboarded in the next 4 years, and even if Ethereum’s market share drops to 50%, approximately $850 billion in new funds could flow in by 2023.

2 Circle L1 Chain Arc releases quantum-resistant design and roadmap link

Circle L1 blockchain Arc releases quantum-resistant design and roadmap, proposing phased implementation of full-stack quantum resistance covering wallet authorization, private state, validator authentication, and infrastructure, with the introduction of quantum-resistant signature mechanisms on the mainnet, using an opt-in approach to avoid forced migration; the roadmap shows plans to advance quantum-resistant private state protection, infrastructure upgrades (including TLS 1.3), and validator signature reinforcement; Circle warns that quantum computing could threaten public key cryptography as early as 2030 or sooner, and warns of the “collect then decrypt” risk.

3 Polygon Labs plans to raise up to $100 million to expand stablecoin payment business link

Polygon Labs is in preliminary talks to raise up to $100 million, planning to launch a new stablecoin payment service to boost stablecoin trading volume on its blockchain; this move is rare for blockchain development organizations entering the regulated payment space; in January this year, Polygon Labs already partnered with Coinme and Sequence, aiming to compete with companies like Stripe.

4 BNB Chain wallet count reaches 800 million link

BNB Chain official tweet states that the number of on-chain wallets has reached 800 million, with millions of users, applications, and bots interacting on BNB Chain. Previously, in February, BNB Chain announced its total active addresses exceeded 2 billion.

The market cap of tokenized assets on BNB Chain reached $16.6 billion, a record high, with the top assets being stablecoins such as USDT, USYC, USD1, and USDC; the largest tokenized stock asset is CRCLon, ranking 9th in the chain’s market cap.

5 THORChain: Privacy coin Monero expected to launch mainnet within 1–2 months, Bittensor developing in parallel link

Privacy coin Monero is expected to launch its mainnet within 1–2 months, with the chain client already passing simulation tests and entering code review and testnet phases; simultaneously, Bittensor is developing in parallel, planning to launch alongside XMR, while Zcash aims to connect by the end of April. The core challenge in this integration is the observability issue of privacy chains; the team plans to address this by introducing Frost-based multi-party signatures and dedicated validator node structures.

6 TON successfully activates Catchain 2.0, block speed increases 6 times, annual inflation rate expected to rise to 3.6% link

TON Foundation announces that the Catchain 2.0 upgrade vote has passed and was officially activated at 15:00 UTC+8 on April 9. This upgrade increases block production speed by approximately 6 times, enabling near-instant transaction experience. Since block rewards remain unchanged (main chain 1.7 TON, base chain 1.0 TON), the faster block production will significantly increase validator single-epoch rewards, with TON’s annual inflation rate expected to rise from about 0.6% to approximately 3.6%. Additionally, TON will retain its burn mechanism (burn 50% of transaction fees).

7 Covenant AI announces exit from Bittensor and questions its decentralization governance link

Covenant AI founder Sam Dare issued a statement saying the company has announced its withdrawal from the Bittensor network, claiming its governance structure does not align with the “decentralization” promise; the statement disclosed that Jacob Steeves (Const) had taken measures such as pausing subnet emissions, removing community management permissions, unilaterally abandoning subnets, and applying pressure through token sales, all without transparent consensus decisions; it also pointed out that Bittensor is managed by a “three-head” multisig structure, but actual control is concentrated in Jacob Steeves, who can unilaterally deploy changes; Covenant AI states it can no longer operate on this network and will continue to promote decentralized, permissionless AI training.

8 WLFI responds to lending position doubts: claims no liquidation risk and additional collateral possible link

The family’s crypto project World Liberty Financial (WLFI) strategic reserve wallet transferred 3 billion WLFI tokens to a newly created multisig wallet in recent days, worth about $295 million, then fully collateralized with Dolomite, lending out 65.4 million USD1 and 10.3 million USDC. Among these, 40.4 million USD1 and 300k USDC have been transferred to Coinbase Prime. In previous weeks, this strategic reserve wallet had deposited 1.99 billion WLFI into Dolomite, accounting for about 5% of total WLFI supply.

As of April 10, WLFI accounts for about 55% of the $458.9 million liquidity across Dolomite’s platform, with total platform supply at $835.7 million. Specifically, in the USD1 pool, $180 million is supplied, with $167.5 million borrowed, utilization rate about 93%. Only about $12.5 million in liquidity remains available, making full withdrawal difficult for large depositors. The utilization rate once hit 100%. USD1 supply rate is 16.24%, borrowing rate is 9.18%. These rates reflect concentrated lending dominated by a single large borrower, not broad organic demand. Collateral risk is also high, as WLFI market depth is limited, with daily trading volume far below collateral scale. If prices drop sharply triggering Dolomite’s liquidation mechanism, forced sales could crash the token price before collateral is recovered, with bad debt ultimately borne by ordinary depositors unable to exit.

WLFI responded to market doubts about its lending position on WLFI Markets, stating that as a major supplier and borrower, collateralized WLFI loans into stablecoins, with no liquidation risk currently, and additional collateral can be added if needed; the project says this structure provides liquidity and yields for the platform, with USD1’s current annualized income about $159.5 million; it also plans to submit governance proposals to unlock early token holders’ locked tokens.

On April 11, WLFI repaid 25 million USD1 loans on Dolomite, restoring about $35 million in USD1 liquidity across the platform. Meanwhile, the annualized interest rate for USD1 deposits on Dolomite has fallen back to 10.43%, slightly above USDC’s 9.07% and USDT’s 7.74%. Currently, WLFI has about $162 million in borrowing balance on the platform, including 152 million USD1 and 10.31 million USDC, collateralized by about 4.99 billion WLFI tokens, worth approximately $402 million at current prices.

9 Across Protocol DAO governance passes with 91.51% support to convert protocol from tokenized DAO to US corporation link

Across Protocol DAO governance proposal has been officially approved, with 91.51% voting support to convert the protocol from a tokenized DAO structure to a US C-corp, AcrossCo. According to the proposal, ACX holders can choose to exchange tokens 1:1 for company equity or sell tokens at a price of 0.04375 USDC per token, a 25% premium over the 30-day average price before the proposal. The proposal also includes gradually shutting down the DAO structure, with the new entity taking over protocol IP, development, and commercial partnerships.

10 Lightning Labs launches prototype of Bitcoin quantum-resistant wallet rescue tool supporting no-mnemonic proof of funds recovery link

Lightning Labs CTO Olaoluwa Osuntokun has built the first working prototype of a Bitcoin quantum-resistant wallet rescue tool, designed to prevent millions of wallets from being permanently frozen when emergency quantum defense upgrades are launched in the future network. The solution allows users to mathematically prove ownership of the wallet without revealing seed phrases, thereby restoring access to funds. The prototype is currently operational, generating proofs in about 55 seconds on a high-end MacBook, with verification taking less than 2 seconds, but no formal BIP or deployment schedule has been announced.