Binance announced that it will open Balance (EPT) trading on the Binance Alpha platform at 20:00 on April 21, 2025 (GMT+8), and will launch EPTUSDT perpetual contracts at 21:00, with a maximum leverage of 20x. To celebrate the launch, all eligible Binance users will receive an airdrop of 3,500 EPT tokens in their Alpha accounts, which will be completed before 20:10 on April 21, 2025. Airdrop qualifications are limited to users who have purchased through Binance Alpha using spot or funding accounts between 00:00 on April 11, 2025 and 23:59 on April 17, 2025.

Global chain retail giant SPAR is testing cryptocurrency payments in Switzerland. The retail group, which has more than 13,900 stores in 48 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, was recently revealed to have accepted Bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network at its store in Zug, Switzerland.

Binance Wallet announced that it will hold the tenth exclusive token generation event (TGE) in cooperation with Lorenzo Protocol (BANK) through PancakeSwap from 17:00 to 19:00 Beijing time on April 18. Participants must complete a valid Binance Alpha token purchase through Binance Wallet (keyless version) or Binance Exchange within 30 days before the TGE date. An additional 84 million BANK tokens will be used for future marketing activities.

Since the first half of 2025, the crypto market has entered the "post-bull market" stage, showing the characteristics of high-level fluctuations and structural differentiation. Although Bitcoin successfully hit a new high driven by the halving cycle, it immediately entered the correction channel. Coupled with the fact that the Federal Reserve's monetary policy did not turn to easing as expected and the intensification of Sino-US trade tensions, the crypto market was once again shrouded in the shadow of macro uncertainty.

Circle has announced the launch of the Refund Protocol, introducing a non-custodial smart contract system that enables stablecoin transactions to undergo dispute resolution without relying on centralized intermediaries. The initiative aims to address a key flaw in the use of stablecoins, which is the lack of a built-in refund or chargeback mechanism. The Refund Protocol gives payment arbitrators specific permissions while limiting their ability to control funds. Arbitrators can lock funds for a period of time, authorize refunds to the payer's pre-set address, and allow early withdrawals after negotiating fees. However, arbitrators are prohibited from moving funds at will, thus maintaining the non-custodial nature of the system. The company acknowledged that custodial assets currently do not generate returns, but suggested that future upgrades could integrate lending protocols like Aave to tokenize locked funds and potentially share returns between payees and arbitrators.

Alon Cohen, co-founder of Pump.fun, wrote on the X platform: “Pump.fun will continue to experiment at the intersection of social media and tokenization. Some of these attempts (such as live streaming, by the way, have now fully resumed live streaming). Whatever we do, we will do our best to ensure that it is consistent with our core user base. That being said: don’t expect me, pump.fun, or any employee to issue tokens (there will be no “secret issuance”).”

Ali Yahya, general partner at a16z, announced on the X platform: "The company has invested an additional $55 million to purchase ZRO tokens of the cross-chain messaging protocol LayerZero, with a 3-year lock-up period." a16z has previously invested in LayerZero, including its initial investment in March 2022 and a subsequent investment during LayerZero's Series B financing in April 2023. The two companies did not disclose the valuation of the financing round.

An in-depth analysis of the Asian crypto market landscape: Learn about the differences between Asian countries, user behavior, market characteristics, and how to enter the Asian market