Project Progress

Polymarket's protocol upgrade introduces pUSD, a USDC-backed collateral token on Polygon, enhancing order management, reducing failed trades, and lowering gas costs. The update aims for a smoother user experience while improving trading architecture and security.

Nous Research is an open-source AI lab focused on the Hermes series of models. In 2025, it received a $50 million investment from Paradigm, valuing it at $1 billion. What makes it unique is that it develops AI technology with a crypto-native team and then integrates it with the blockchain. Its core product, the Hermes model, is designed around the goal of reducing the refusal rate, and its data sources rely mainly on synthetic data. At the same time, Psyche Network builds a decentralized AI training network on Solana, incentivizing participants through a token mechanism. Nous Research adopts an open-source and decentralized strategy, aiming to demonstrate its technical capability and feasibility.

Ondo Finance filed a request with the SEC on April 13, seeking confirmation that recording securities interests on the Ethereum mainnet in a tokenized form is compliant under certain patterns. Ondo believes that this on-chain recording can improve collateral monitoring, optimize processes, and simplify reconciliations, with the goal of operating in coordination with traditional finance.

Pi Network has taken another step forward in building its ecosystem. The project recently distributed 26.5 million PI tokens to more than 1 million KYC validators. These rewards were given to users who helped verify identities on the network. This process is important. Because it ensures that

Author: Jae, PANews Compared with the external pressure of a bear market, Aave has instead seen a “black swan” emerge internally first. Aave, which has long occupied the throne of lending agreements, is now facing the most severe ecosystem shake-up since its founding. There has been no hacker attack, no code vulnerabilities—only power gone out of control and conflicting interests. From BGD Labs, a technical cornerstone, decisively leaving, to a public break between governance pioneer ACI (Aave Chan Initiative), and then to Chaos Labs, the risk-management steward, announcing that it is parting ways— a major “service provider retreat” is unfolding. The depth of this game goes far beyond a mere cooperation dispute; it has triggered

Hyperliquid founder Jeff announced on Discord that the priority fee mechanism has been live on the mainnet in Alpha mode, including two types: Gossip and Order. Users can pay with HYPE tokens; the order priority fee cap has been reduced from 20 bps to 8 bps. Currently, it only applies to IOC orders for HIP-3 assets.

Byreal launched an on-chain AI trading assistant, RealClaw, on April 13. The tool is built on the OpenClaw framework, supports third-party skill extensions, and allows users to customize their trading strategies. It is currently in the Alpha testing stage and is only available to invited users.

Aave founder Stani Kulechov announced that the “Aave Will Win” proposal has passed, consolidating all application product revenues into the DAO, and positioning $AAVE as the single core asset. The goal is to expand the agreement’s scale to $1 trillion. This proposal ended Aave’s governance crisis, establishing new revenue streams and governance principles aimed at strengthening community trust and value.

Zcash’s core development team, ZODL, has released the latest strategic roadmap, focusing on post-quantum security, scalability, and user experience, and moving into the Zcash IV phase. The new version is now live, improving user experience and advancing key development. Meanwhile, ZODL is actively involved in industry cooperation, but due to regulatory issues it has temporarily taken down the Russian app store.

Hyperliquid founder Jeffrey Yan declined the financing after receiving an expression of interest from an investment of $100 million at an estimated valuation of about $1 billion, to maintain the neutrality of the agreement. He believes that bringing in outside capital would undermine users’ trust in the agreement, and chose to support operations with his personal funds. Hyperliquid’s four core principles emphasize extreme decentralization and an operating model with no outside shareholders, distinguishing it from other DeFi projects.

The Pi Network ecosystem is accelerating its transition, with more than 210 active applications and 23,000 developers actively participating in Pi Studio, spanning multiple areas such as payments, community engagement, education, and gaming. The ecosystem’s diversity shows indicators of healthy development, and developers’ engagement is driving ongoing application optimization. In the future, improving the usefulness of the mainnet will be a key challenge, including issues that need to be urgently addressed such as scalability, security, and user adoption rates.

Bittensor co-founder Jacob Steeves accuses Covenant AI’s Simon Dare of intentionally causing damage to the agreement, leading to a sharp drop in TAO tokens. Steeves proposes a locked-staking mechanism that uses on-chain code to enforce commitments and prevent founders from making sudden, surprise exits. Even as the crisis unfolds, Bittensor’s open-source architecture can still ensure the agreement continues to operate, and it is set to hold a meeting to introduce the new mechanism.

Ethereum Layer 2 network Scroll saw roughly 139,000 transactions have excess fees of more than $50k because the manual increase in the gas price multiplier led to higher transaction costs than expected. The actual cost was far above the forecast. The incident sparked widespread questions about its subsidy strategy, and Scroll’s TVL also fell sharply to $24 million.

Aave DAO has passed the “Aave Will Win” framework, allocating $25 million to Aave Labs, and confirming that all brand application earnings will be fully directed into the DAO treasury. It will reform its governance structure by replacing bureaucratic procedures with a results-oriented approach. Future agreement revenue is expected to reach $140 million. Funding for each specific product still requires a separate proposal review.

The Osaka/Mendel hard fork on BSC will launch on April 28, requiring node operators to update to BSC v1.7.2. The upgrade enhances block construction, transaction handling, and introduces a gas limit cap for improved network stability.

Aave founder Stani announced on a social platform that Aave will pivot to $AAVE as its core token, with all revenue flowing back to the DAO treasury. In the future, it will launch a debit card and financial technology experience, aiming to increase the protocol’s scale from $40 billion to $1 trillion, positioning it as a foundational market for traditional financial assets.

Aave DAO recently passed a proposal supporting Aave Labs with a $25 million grant, with a voting approval rate of about 75%. The proposal includes an immediate allocation of 5 million aEthLidoGHO tokens and a staged release of 20 million tokens, and it also sets aside 75,000 AAVE tokens for ecosystem support.

Sun Yuchen publicly accused World Liberty Financial (WLFI) of embedding a backdoor in its smart contract, claiming that its wallet was unlawfully frozen in 2025, and pointing out four categories of misconduct by the WLFI team: charging unreasonable fees, controlling the backdoor, freezing funds, and manipulating governance. He emphasized that this conduct violates basic investor rights and called on WLFI to restore transparency.

Cardano is preparing for the Van Rossem hard fork, set for June 2026, which will enhance performance and security. However, the 10.7.0 release faced setbacks due to memory issues, delaying its promotion to mainnet readiness, while analytics capabilities are expanding.

Aave Labs has achieved SOC 2 Type II compliance, enhancing its operational standards in security and data protection. This milestone fosters trust in DeFi, enabling institutional participation and positioning Aave for mainstream adoption. It underscores the industry's maturation and competitive edge.