[News Brief] Apr 22, morning | Jump Crypto’s Solana validator client ‘Firedancer’ begins mainnet operations

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is expected to resume by this summer at the latest.

According to Odaily, Secretary Wright said on Friday local time that the U.S. continues to expand natural gas exports. While the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has disrupted transportation capacity of 10 billion cubic feet per day, the U.S. is adding 2.5 billion cubic feet per day in export capacity, he said.

Wright added that an agreement could be reached within days, and that if Iran continues to pressure the global economy, the U.S. military could force the reopening of the strait.

He noted, however, that an agreement would be preferable to military action. The Strait of Hormuz is a key route for Middle Eastern oil and gas shipments, and a prolonged closure could raise energy prices and increase volatility in global financial markets.

Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala increased its holdings of BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT, while Harvard University’s endowment fully exited its spot Ethereum ETF position.

According to Odaily, sovereign wealth funds, university endowments, and banks disclosed their Q1 2026 holdings in 13F filings. Mubadala increased its IBIT holdings from 12,702,323 shares to 14,721,917 shares, bringing the total value of its holdings to approximately $660 million.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Council, under Mubadala, maintained its 8,218,712 shares of IBIT, valued at about $315.8 million.

Harvard’s endowment reported holding 3,044,612 shares of IBIT, worth approximately $117 million, down 43% from 5.35 million shares at the end of last year. Harvard had also reduced its IBIT holdings by 21% in the previous quarter.

Harvard also fully sold its BlackRock spot Ethereum ETF position worth $86.8 million that it held in the previous quarter. As a result, IBIT was removed from the endowment’s largest holdings.

Dartmouth maintained 201,531 shares of IBIT. It also shifted its position from the Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust to the Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF, and newly added 304,803 shares of the Bitwise Solana Staking ETF.

Brown University maintained 212,500 shares of IBIT, while Emory University sold part of its IBIT holdings and increased its holdings in the Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust instead.

Financial institutions also adjusted their positions. Royal Bank of Canada expanded both its direct IBIT holdings and options hedges, Scotiabank increased its IBIT holdings after disposing of Trump-related Bitcoin stocks, and Barclays disclosed both spot IBIT shares and options positions.

KB Financial Group has completed a proof-of-concept for payments, settlement, and overseas remittances using a Korean won-denominated stablecoin, Odaily reported.

The test was conducted jointly by KB Financial Group, electronic payments company KG Inicis, public blockchain Kaia, and digital asset solutions firm Open Asset. It reviewed the full process of financial services involving a won stablecoin, from issuance to offline payment, merchant settlement, and overseas remittance.

The actual payment test was conducted at an offline unmanned terminal of coffee franchise Hollys. Users could make payments via QR code without installing a separate digital wallet, while blockchain smart contracts were automatically executed during settlement.

In the overseas remittance test, won stablecoins were exchanged for dollar stablecoins through liquidity on the Kaia chain and then deposited as fiat currency through a local partner in Vietnam. The entire remittance took about three minutes, and fees were reportedly about 87% lower than traditional SWIFT transfers.

Odaily, citing The Block, reported that VanEck submitted the fifth amended registration statement for its BNB ETF to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on the 15th. Grayscale also submitted the second amended prospectus for the Grayscale BNB ETF on the same day.

Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said the simultaneous amended filings from both firms appear to be responses to SEC feedback and may signal launch preparations. He believes BNB could be the next crypto asset to gain approval for a U.S. listing following SEC review.

Meanwhile, Canary Capital separately submitted an amended proposal for a TRX staking ETF, aimed at incorporating Tron staking yields within a regulated framework.

Firedancer, the Solana validator client developed by Jump Crypto, has started operating on mainnet, producing blocks and processing tens of millions of transactions.

According to CoinDesk, Firedancer founding engineer Rich Patel said there will be no large-scale public deployment until the security audit is completed. The measure is intended to reduce risks associated with a major network upgrade.

Firedancer is software developed by Jump Crypto to diversify validator clients on the Solana network. Solana has previously faced criticism over outage history and dependence on a single client.

According to Odaily, about 70 senior officials and nominees in the Trump administration—more than 20% of the total—have held or currently hold investments related to crypto assets or blockchain.

Based on public filings, the minimum estimated value of these related assets totals $193 million. President Trump reportedly holds at least $51 million, while Vice President Vance and some cabinet members also hold crypto-related assets worth several million dollars.

The report said that as many figures from the technology and crypto industries have joined the government, developments such as the SEC halting lawsuits, efforts to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, and stablecoin legislation are moving forward.

Critics, however, argue that crypto holdings by senior government officials could lead to conflicts of interest and ethical concerns.

According to Token Terminal data, the market size of tokenized government bonds stands at about $13.7 billion.

By market capitalization, the top products are USYC at $3.0 billion, BUIDL at $2.7 billion, and IBENJI at $1.5 billion.

Token Terminal said tokenized Treasuries are becoming a core infrastructure product for stablecoin issuers.

It also projected that by the end of 2030, the stablecoin market could grow roughly tenfold, increasing the supply of on-chain dollars by about $2.7 trillion.

Japan’s SBI Securities and Rakuten Securities are pushing to sell crypto investment trust products, PANews reported citing Nikkei.

SBI Securities plans to offer ETFs and investment trust products based on highly liquid crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, developed by its subsidiary SBI Global Asset Management. Rakuten Securities also plans to develop its own crypto investment trust products in cooperation with affiliates, allowing trading through its smartphone app.

According to Nikkei’s survey of 18 major Japanese securities firms, 11 said they would consider offering such products once the regulatory framework is finalized. Major firms including Nomura are also reportedly open to launching similar products after regulations are in place.

Source: PANews. According to CoinAnk data, a total of $368 million in positions were liquidated in the crypto futures market over the past 24 hours.

Long liquidations totaled $345 million, while short liquidations amounted to $23.2539 million. Bitcoin liquidations came to $123 million, and Ethereum liquidations reached $94.7371 million.

Futures liquidation is the process by which exchanges forcibly close positions that fail to meet margin requirements due to price fluctuations.

Odaily, citing Lookonchain monitoring, reported that a whale opened a 25x leveraged ETH short position of 23,151 ETH, worth about $50.55 million.

The same whale simultaneously opened a 20x leveraged BTC long position of 323.72 BTC, worth about $25.27 million. The liquidation price for the ETH position is $2,288.33, and the liquidation price for the BTC position is $70,325.36.