[News Brief] Apr 22, morning | Morgan Stanley Plans Spot Cryptocurrency Trading on Wealth Management Platform in the Second Half

Morgan Stanley Plans Spot Cryptocurrency Trading on Wealth Management Platform in the Second Half

According to a PANews report citing Cointelegraph, Morgan Stanley plans to begin spot cryptocurrency trading on its wealth management platform in the second half of this year.

The bank also plans to expand integrated access to tokenized assets and cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

If implemented, the plan is expected to significantly broaden access to spot crypto investments through a major traditional finance wealth management channel.

High-Severity Bitcoin Core Vulnerability Disclosed... Could Affect About 43% of Nodes

According to panewslab.com, a high-severity Bitcoin Core vulnerability, CVE-2024-52911, has been disclosed. The flaw affects versions 0.14.1 through 28.4, and if a miner produces a specially crafted block, it could remotely crash other users' nodes or execute code on them.

The vulnerability was discovered by Cory Fields in November 2024 and responsibly disclosed. A fix was merged in December 2024 and included in version 29, released in April 2025. However, since node upgrades are voluntary, an estimated 43% of nodes are still running vulnerable older versions.

That said, an actual attack would be costly. An attacker would need to devote substantial computing power to mine an invalid block that does not earn a block reward, so the media outlet said practical exploitation is likely to remain limited.

Previously, the final vulnerable major version line, 28.x, reached end of support on April 19, 2026.

Solana Foundation and Google Cloud Launch Pay.sh, a Stablecoin Payment Service for AI Agents

The Solana Foundation has partnered with Google Cloud to launch Pay.sh, a stablecoin payment service designed for AI agents. The core idea is to allow AI agents to pay for Google Cloud and community API usage on demand using Solana-based stablecoins.

According to a May 6 PANews report citing Decrypt, Pay.sh was designed to enable pay-per-API-call billing without requiring traditional account registration or subscriptions. Through this, the Solana Foundation and Google Cloud aim to connect AI agents to backend services and support more flexible machine-to-machine payment environments.

The service operates through an API agent running on Google Cloud Platform and uses the open AI payment standard x402 protocol, developed by Coinbase and now maintained by the Linux Foundation. It also supports a machine payment protocol developed by Tempo and Stripe.

As a result, AI agents can access services such as Google Cloud, Gemini, Anthropic Claude Code, and OpenAI Codex for just a few cents per API call. It can also be used for access to blockchain infrastructure and data services including Helius, Alchemy, Dune Analytics, and Nansen.

The industry has already been paying attention to structures in which AI agents directly pay for services as a potential new source of demand. Through Pay.sh, the Solana Foundation and Google Cloud aim to provide enterprise developers with programmable payment models that are difficult to implement through traditional payment rails.

U.S. Spot XRP ETFs See $11.2766 Million in Net Inflows in One Day

Spot XRP ETFs in the United States recorded total net inflows of $11.2766 million in a single day.

On May 6, PANews, citing SoSoValue data, reported that spot XRP ETFs saw total net inflows of $11.2766 million on May 5 (U.S. Eastern Time).

The product with the largest inflow was the Canary XRP ETF (XRPC), which posted daily net inflows of $7.4987 million. Its cumulative net inflows reached $432 million.

Bitwise XRP ETF (XRP) followed with daily net inflows of $2.6822 million. Its cumulative net inflows stood at $427 million.

As of the time of reporting, the total net asset value of spot XRP ETFs was $1.089 billion, with a net asset ratio of 1.24% and cumulative net inflows of $1.306 billion.

Recent fund flow trends in U.S. spot XRP ETFs have been drawing attention as an indicator of institutional investor demand.

State Street and Galaxy Launch On-Chain Liquidity Fund SWEEP

State Street and Galaxy have launched SWEEP, an on-chain liquidity fund. Investors can convert stablecoins into yield-bearing tokenized assets for 24/7 on-chain cash management.

According to Odaily, SWEEP will initially operate on Solana and plans to expand to Stellar and Ethereum in the future. Infrastructure such as Chainlink will also be integrated.

The fund is designed for eligible investors and, similar to BlackRock's BUIDL, is structured to provide U.S. Treasury-like yield through an on-chain framework. It is seen as an extension of the growing trend of combining traditional asset management with blockchain technology.

CME Group to Launch Bitcoin Volatility Futures on June 1

CME Group will launch Bitcoin volatility futures contracts on June 1, according to @WatcherGuru.

The product appears aimed at institutional investors seeking exposure to Bitcoin price volatility or hedging tools. CME Group already offers Bitcoin futures and options, and this move will expand its related derivatives lineup.

Anchorage Digital Plans to Launch Cashless Stablecoin Reserve Model on Solana

Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered digital asset bank in the United States, plans to launch a "cashless" stablecoin reserve model on the Solana blockchain, according to PANews.

The model is designed to hold reserve assets in low-risk tokenized products capable of generating yield while still maintaining immediate liquidity to meet redemption demand. The key objective is to reduce the burden of holding fixed cash reserves while improving capital efficiency and security for institutional issuers.

Anchorage Digital will issue and manage stablecoins on behalf of institutional partners and is currently also exploring potential tokenization solutions with J.P. Morgan Asset Management to support the liquidity framework.

The plan is seen as part of the broader trend of upgrading institutional stablecoin infrastructure, drawing attention to the potential expansion of real-world asset tokenization and payment use cases on Solana.

Ripple CEO Says Next Two Weeks Are a Critical Turning Point for U.S. Crypto Legislation

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the next two weeks will be a critical turning point for the progress of U.S. cryptocurrency legislation.

According to The Block, Garlinghouse said at the Consensus Miami event that if the Senate Banking Committee does not hold a hearing within the coming weeks, the chances of the bill passing could decline sharply.

He said that if legislative discussions are delayed into the midterm election season, the issue could become more politically sensitive, lowering the chances of renewed momentum even after the election.

Earlier, Senators Angela Alsobrooks and Thom Tillis reached a compromise on the issue of stablecoin rewards, opening the door to deliberation in May. However, concerns related to former President Donald Trump's crypto-related conflicts of interest and illicit finance risks remain unresolved, the outlet said.

Garlinghouse emphasized that while the SEC and CFTC are providing some clarity through guidance and token classification, a durable regulatory framework that survives changes in administration can ultimately only come through legislation.

Blockaid: Around $1.4 Million Stolen in Attack on Ethereum-Based Ekubo Protocol

According to Blockaid, the custom extension contract of the Ethereum-based Ekubo protocol was attacked, resulting in the theft of about $1.4 million in assets.

PANews, citing Blockaid's monitoring on May 6, reported that not all Ekubo users were affected. Only users who had approved the V2 contract as a token spender were exposed to risk.

Blockaid said the vulnerability originated in the IPayer.pay callback function of Ekubo's extension contract. The payer, token, and amount values used in the token.transferFrom call were passed directly from lock payload data, allowing an attacker to manipulate them, while the contract failed to verify whether the actual lock initiator or an authorized payer was involved.

As a result, the attacker was reportedly able to abuse existing ERC-20 approvals by naming approved users as payers and setting themselves as the recipient in order to drain assets.

A related security incident had previously also been reported in Ekubo's swap routing contract, and users had been advised at that time to revoke approvals for the related address.

J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon: Up to $1 Trillion Investment in Data Centers and Chips Has Long-Term Significance

According to Odaily, J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said at Anthropic's event "The Briefing" that investments of up to $1 trillion in data centers, chips, cables, and hardware have long-term significance.

Dimon explained that returns on technology investments do not always appear in a straight line over the short term, but they often prove rewarding in the end.

His remarks came as market expectations continue around expanding investment in AI infrastructure.