UAE to Leave OPEC/OPEC+ From May 1; Aave Backs DeFi United Plan to Restore rsETH Backing

Author: Shenchao TechFlow Market recap Fed leadership vote scheduled The U.S. Senate Banking Committee is set to vote at 22:00 Beijing time on April 29 on the nomination of Waugh to serve as Federal Reserve Chair and as a member of the Board of Governors, according to the committee's website. UAE to exit OPEC and OPEC+ The UAE said it will withdraw from OPEC and OPEC+ effective May 1 and gradually raise oil output, according to Jinshi Data. Brent and WTI crude briefly fell by more than $2 before paring losses, last trading at $101.38 and $104.18 per barrel. Aave outlines DeFi United recovery plan Aave said DeFi United has published a technical implementation plan to restore KelpDAO's rsETH backing and liquidate the attacker's positions on Aave and Compound, pending governance approval, execution scheduling, and a final agreement. Under the plan, committed ETH will be converted into rsETH in stages and deposited into the bridged lockup contract to rebuild rsETH backing at an exchange rate of about 1.07 ETH. Aave will also pursue controlled liquidations via governance proposals on Ethereum and Arbitrum to recover excess collateral tied to roughly 107,000 rsETH and repair impacted markets. During the process, WETH and rsETH reserves on Ethereum Core, Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, and Linea will remain frozen. LayerZero Labs pledges 10,000+ ETH to DeFi United LayerZero Labs disclosed an investment of more than 10,000 ETH into the Aave-led DeFi United initiative, including a 5,000 ETH donation, an additional 5,000 ETH deposit into Aave markets to bolster liquidity, and deeper liquidity positioning for GHO. Pump.fun burns ~$370 million of PUMP; launches automated buyback-and-burn Pump.fun said it burned all previously repurchased PUMP tokens—about $370 million, or roughly 36% of circulating supply—via two onchain transactions at 20:52 UTC. The project also introduced an automated buyback-and-burn program that will allocate 50% of net revenue over the next year to repurchase $PUMP on the open market and immediately burn 100% of acquired tokens. The mechanism is governed by an irreversible smart contract and covers revenue from Pump.fun's three core products: the bonding curve, PumpSwap, and Terminal. Execution runs through four steps—fee aggregation, consolidation into an intermediate wallet, repurchase, and burn—with real-time tracking at fees.pump.fun. The remaining 50% of revenue will fund operations and ecosystem development, including hiring, strategic investments, and marketing. Pump.fun said the move is intended to address community concerns around long-term value and buyback transparency by steadily reducing circulating supply. RedStone launches RedStone Settle to bridge RWA liquidity in DeFi lending RedStone has launched RedStone Settle, a settlement-layer product designed to reduce friction in using tokenized real-world assets (RWA) as lending collateral, Cointelegraph reported. The product uses an onchain auction model: when a lending protocol triggers liquidation, liquidity providers can buy the position immediately, delivering instant liquidity to the protocol while taking on the delayed redemption risk of the underlying assets. The goal is to narrow the gap between near-instant DeFi liquidations (e.g., on Aave) and typical 60- to 180-day redemption windows for RWAs such as tokenized funds and bonds. RedStone said the approach could unlock more than $30 billion in tokenized RWA that is currently underutilized in DeFi. RWA.xyz data show the tokenized RWA market exceeds $30 billion excluding stablecoins, largely driven by U.S. Treasury exposure and private credit. Paystand launches USDb stablecoin on the Bitcoin ecosystem Paystand announced USDb, a stablecoin backed 1:1 by U.S. dollar reserves, natively issued on the Bitcoin sidechain Rootstock and compatible with both the Liquid Network and the Bitcoin Lightning Network, Businesswire reported. The company positioned USDb primarily for corporate finance workflows—accounts payable/receivable, cross-border payroll, and treasury management—rather than crypto trading. Ondo adds proxy voting for tokenized securities Ondo Finance partnered with Broadridge to enable proxy voting for holders of more than 250 tokenized securities on its platform, CoinDesk reported. Users can access Broadridge's ProxyVote system through their crypto wallets to review corporate materials and submit voting instructions. Ondo said the total value of stock and ETF tokens issued on its Global Markets platform has surpassed $700 million. It added that while these tokens do not directly grant shareholder rights, investor preferences can be considered when Ondo votes the underlying shares it holds. MARA launches foundation focused on Bitcoin network health MARA Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) launched the MARA Foundation on April 27, 2026, at the Bitcoin 2026 conference, according to Cointelegraph. The foundation will target five areas, including long-term Bitcoin network security and research into quantum computing threats. As part of its launch, the foundation is asking the community to vote on which of three Bitcoin companies should receive a $100,000 grant. MARA said initial funding will back open-source projects through community voting to support Bitcoin's health and adoption. Galaxy Digital posts $216 million net loss in Q1 2026 Galaxy Digital Inc. reported Q1 2026 results, citing an approximate 20% drop in digital asset prices during the quarter. The firm recorded a net loss of $216 million, an adjusted loss per share of $0.49, and adjusted EBITDA of $188 million. As of March 31, total equity stood at $2.78 billion, with cash and stablecoin holdings of about $2.605 billion. On the data center side, the first data hall at the Helios campus has been delivered to CoreWeave, with full delivery of 133 MW of critical IT load expected by the end of Q2 2026. ERCOT approved an additional 830 MW, taking total approved capacity above 1.6 GW. In asset management, quarter-end AUM was about $5 billion, with net inflows of $69 million. After the quarter, BlackRock selected Galaxy as the staking validator for its first reward-based crypto ETF, the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF. Galaxy also repurchased 3.2 million shares for $65 million and completed its delisting from the Toronto Stock Exchange, leaving Nasdaq as its sole listing venue. Meta may walk away from $2.5 billion Manus deal Meta is preparing to abandon its acquisition of AI startup Manus, The Wall Street Journal reported. If the deal is canceled, several former Asia-based Manus investors—including Tencent, Sequoia Capital China, and ZhenFund—plan to coordinate. The report said both sides have been required to terminate the transaction and fully restore Manus's assets in China to their original state, including withdrawing any data or technology previously transferred from Meta. Manus, a Singapore-based company with China ties, focuses on AI agents. Meta agreed to buy Manus for $2.5 billion last December and has already integrated related technology into its systems. A reversal would require disentangling integrated technologies and infrastructure. China reportedly blocked the transaction on April 27 on national security grounds. Market watchlist: recommended reading 1) Trump opposed prediction markets for two full days. A look at Trump's sharp 48-hour pivot on prediction markets, the Trump family's financial links to platforms in the sector, and potential implications tied to regulatory agency layoffs. 2) Conversation with a Dragonfly partner: Retail exits, institutions step in—what's the next crypto catalyst? An in-depth discussion of market structure, why retail participation is fading, how institutions are providing support, and what could drive the next move for Bitcoin and altcoins, including intersections with AI agents and onchain finance. The piece also examines quantum risk to Bitcoin and the prospects for low-risk-preference users entering onchain markets. 3) A CFO's extra comments on a livestream wiped out half the market cap of an NVIDIA-linked stock. POET Technologies fell 47% in one day after its CFO disclosed sensitive business information, triggering order cancellations by key customer Marvell. The article argues AI-themed stock valuations remain highly sentiment-driven, similar to past Apple supply-chain trades, and that "NVIDIA-related" names are especially vulnerable. 4) Interview with "Wood" Cathie Wood: The next bull market is coming. Cathie Wood discusses Bitcoin price outlook, stablecoins and DeFi, institutional adoption, macro and deflation narratives, the convergence of AI and blockchain, and the longer-term case for tokenized assets and Bitcoin. 5) IOSG | In-depth research on MSTR STRC: the BTC financing flywheel behind an 11.5% yield. An analysis of Strategy Company's STRC (Stretch) product, explaining how it channels fixed-income demand into Bitcoin buying pressure while introducing credit risk, and outlining failure scenarios and early warning indicators.