[News Brief] Apr 22, morning | President Trump demands a deal with Iran within 60 days

President Trump said that Iran must reach an agreement within 60 days, warning that otherwise he may take actions Iran would not want.

According to Odaily, President Trump said that around 700 vessels are currently passing through the Strait of Hormuz. While he said he does not believe the situation will reach that stage, he noted that if such measures are taken, oil flows through the strait could be halted.

The Strait of Hormuz is a critical corridor for Middle Eastern oil shipments. If geopolitical tensions escalate, it could affect international oil prices and global market risk sentiment.

The European Union will implement revised anti-money laundering (AML) regulations starting July 10, 2027, according to PANews.

Under the new rules, crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) must apply enhanced know-your-customer (KYC) procedures to single transactions exceeding 1,000 euros. Anonymous accounts and services related to privacy coins will be completely banned.

The EU will also cap commercial cash payments within the bloc at 10,000 euros. For cash transactions of 3,000 euros or more, obligated entities such as merchants must verify customer identity and conduct due diligence before completing the transaction.

Wu Blockchain, citing Unchained, reported that Ethereum Foundation co-executive director and board member Hsiao-Wei Wang stepped down as of Thursday.

Following the earlier departure of fellow co-executive director Tomasz Stańczak, both co-executive directors of the Ethereum Foundation have now resigned. At least eight senior foundation figures have left over the past five months, drawing attention to the potential impact on the foundation’s future operations and governance.

Axelar Network said that approximately $4.67 million worth of tokens were stolen in an incident involving assets bridged to Secret Network.

According to PANews, the issue was limited to Secret Network’s ICS-20 smart contract. The contract is used for asset bridging on the Cosmos IBC connection between Axelar and Secret.

Axelar’s emergency committee said it disabled the Secret and Secret-SNIP connections immediately after confirming the incident and is contacting relevant exchanges and law enforcement agencies.

According to Common Prefix analysis, the attacker exploited an unlimited mint vulnerability in Secret Network’s modified CW20-ICS20 token contract. The attacker created a single-validator chain, relayed IBC packets, minted arbitrary wrapped assets, and then drained funds through the Axelar bridge.

Axelar said the incident was limited to assets bridged from Axelar to Secret via IBC, and that Axelar’s core protocol and other connected chains were not affected.

18.375 million LINK was deposited from a non-circulating Chainlink supply wallet to Binance.

According to PANews, Onchain Lens said the wallet sent LINK worth about $144.93 million to Binance. Large exchange deposits are generally interpreted as a signal of possible selling pressure or liquidity movement.

ENS DAO has introduced a new governance temperature check proposal to expand the ENS Foundation’s authority over operations management, grants, and long-term treasury management.

According to PANews, the proposal seeks to broaden the role of the ENS Foundation. However, ENS token holders would retain final control over the protocol and the power to remove board members.

The proposal is seen as part of efforts to streamline the ENS ecosystem’s operating structure and funding execution framework.

THORChain said via X that network recovery has entered its final stage.

The integrity of each node’s key shares is currently being verified under a new key-validation protocol. If verification is successful, the network will move all funds to a new vault.

The fund migration could take anywhere from several hours to several days. Once completed, secured assets, trading assets, liquidity provider functions, and final trading functions will be resumed in sequence.

THORChain had previously announced its recovery plan and conducted a vote among node operators following the attack incident.

According to Bitcoin Magazine, Cardone Capital, reportedly managing $5.3 billion in assets, bought 282 BTC worth about $17.7 million during the recent price dip.

The purchase is being viewed as an example of institutional dip-buying amid recent Bitcoin weakness.

Bitcoin Magazine also reported that Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF bought more than $25 million worth of BTC this week.

This stands in contrast to broader market selling pressure. Spot Bitcoin ETF flows in the United States have previously been used as a key gauge of BTC supply-demand dynamics and investor sentiment.

According to Wu Blockchain, CFTC Commissioner Mike Selig discussed on the Bankless podcast on the 15th a possible regulatory pathway for decentralized perpetual futures platforms such as Hyperliquid to enter the U.S. market.

Commissioner Selig said blockchain technology and the 24/7 trading model are changing how markets operate, and that regulators should adapt to new financial structures rather than mechanically applying old rules.

He explained that while on-chain mechanisms such as auto-deleveraging introduce new considerations, the CFTC is working on a regulatory framework suited to such products and platforms, provided that customer funds are protected and sufficient disclosure is ensured.