Morning Report | MoonPay acquires Solana's execution layer DFlow; Strategy releases Q1 financial report; Manta Network announces the termination of Manta staking program

整理：ChainCatcher

Important News:

• Reported that Anthropic signed a $200 billion Google Cloud contract, Google’s market value briefly surpassed Nvidia
• MoonPay acquires Solana execution layer DFlow, upgrading trading infrastructure layout
• Anchorage launches Agentic Banking, providing compliant funding access for AI
• Strategy announces Q1 financial report: net loss of $12.54 billion, holding approximately 818,000 bitcoins
• Manta Network announces the termination of the Manta staking program
• Ondo Finance completes the first tokenized U.S. Treasury cross-border interbank exchange with JPMorgan, Mastercard, and Ripple
• Moonshot AI and other Chinese companies weigh company restructuring after Meta Manus transaction reversal

What important events happened in the past 24 hours?

Y Combinator to hold interviews for crypto startups in New York for the first time, focusing on fintech and cryptocurrency

According to ChainCatcher, The Block reports that the well-known startup accelerator Y Combinator will hold interviews in New York City for the first time, focusing on fintech and cryptocurrency startups, hoping to support more companies in this field.

YC stated on Wednesday: "This is the first time YC has moved the interview process for a specific industry offline, as they are meeting with founders who are forming key ecosystems."

A YC spokesperson stated that the interviews will take place offline in New York on May 21. YC's standard investment terms for selected startups are a $500,000 investment for a 7% equity stake. Earlier this year, after YC launched this option, startups can also choose to receive funds in the form of Circle's stablecoin USDC.

The YC Winter 2026 batch includes several crypto and fintech startups, including financial infrastructure Sponge Wallet for the AI agent economy, crypto deposit service provider Unifold, unified trading platform for crypto, real-world assets, and prediction markets Sequence Markets, and cross-platform trading platform for prediction markets Valence.

Since its establishment in 2005, YC has invested in over 5,000 companies with a total valuation exceeding $1 trillion. Its portfolio includes OpenAI, Airbnb, Stripe, and Reddit. YC's first crypto investment was in Coinbase in 2012, and it has since invested in over 150 crypto and fintech companies, including prediction market platform Kalshi, DeFi trading platform Axiom, and NFT marketplace OpenSea. Last year, YC partnered with Coinbase to support startups building on-chain infrastructure, which YC referred to as "Fintech 3.0."

Crypto startup OpenTrade completes $17 million strategic financing, led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital

According to ChainCatcher, The Block reports that London-based crypto startup OpenTrade has completed $17 million in strategic financing, led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital, with participation from a16z crypto, AlbionVC, CMCC Global, among others, bringing its total funding to over $30 million.

OpenTrade offers on-chain and real-world asset collateralized lending and stablecoin yield products for institutions, planning to use this round of funding to expand its infrastructure in both licensed and unlicensed scenarios. Its products include a permissionless protocol layer and yield vault combination framework Curation+, designed to create yield strategies across RWA and on-chain assets for fintech companies, digital banks, vaults, and asset issuers. OpenTrade claims its total locked value has surpassed $200 million, processing over $250 million in transaction volume by 2025, and expects to exceed $1 billion by the end of 2026.

Manta Network announces the termination of the Manta staking program

According to ChainCatcher, Manta Network has announced the termination of the Manta staking program, citing that inflationary staking rewards (generated from the issuance of new tokens) would dilute all MANTA holders over time. Staking rewards will officially stop in two weeks, and operators can exit immediately, while delegators can unstake at any time through the dashboard, with funds being secure and controlled by users.

At the same time, Manta Network will operate the Layer 2 infrastructure of Manta Pacific completely independently, no longer relying on third-party operators. The previously announced deprecation plan for Manta Atlantic is underway.

Ondo Finance completes the first tokenized U.S. Treasury cross-border interbank exchange with JPMorgan, Mastercard, and Ripple

According to ChainCatcher, Ondo Finance has announced on its official blog that it has completed the first near-real-time tokenized U.S. Treasury fund cross-border interbank exchange in collaboration with Kinexys by J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, and Ripple.

In this pilot project, Ripple exchanged its Ondo short-term U.S. government bonds (OUSG) held on the XRP Ledger. After processing the exchange, Ondo sent fiat payment instructions through the Mastercard Multi-Token Network, with funds settlement executed by Kinexys by J.P. Morgan's blockchain infrastructure, delivering U.S. dollar funds to Ripple's bank account in Singapore through its correspondent banking network.

This project demonstrates the feasibility of public blockchain infrastructure working in conjunction with interbank settlement systems, establishing a framework for global banks to utilize tokenized assets for 24/7 real-time cross-border settlements.

Strategy announces Q1 financial report: net loss of $12.54 billion, holding approximately 818,000 bitcoins

According to ChainCatcher, Strategy has released its Q1 2026 financial report, stating that as of May 3, 2026, it holds 818,334 bitcoins, a 22% increase year-to-date, achieving a bitcoin yield of 9.4%, with the dollar value of the bitcoins gained from the increase in quantity amounting to approximately $4.97 billion. The company has raised over $11.6 billion through its market issuance program and digital credit product STRC, with STRC increasing by 189% since the beginning of the year, raising a total of $5.58 billion, reaching a market value of $8.5 billion within nine months, becoming the largest preferred stock by market value globally. STRC's average daily trading volume is $375 million, with a volatility of only 3%, and a Sharpe ratio of 2.53, and it has been held by several corporate treasuries and decentralized finance protocols.

In the first quarter, the company's total revenue was $124.3 million, a year-on-year increase of 11.9%, with a gross profit of $83.4 million and a gross margin of 67.1%. However, due to a significant drop in bitcoin prices during the period, the company recorded an unrealized loss of $14.46 billion on digital assets, leading to an operating loss of $14.47 billion and a net loss of $12.54 billion, with a diluted loss per share of $38.25. The company's cash reserves stand at $2.21 billion, slightly down from the beginning of the year.

Strategy will continue to advance its bitcoin treasury strategy, planning to increase the dividend payment frequency of STRC to bi-monthly to enhance liquidity, with future dividends expected to be treated as tax-free capital returns. The key performance indicators used by the company, such as bitcoin yield and the dollar value of bitcoins gained from the increase in quantity, aim to measure the thickening effect of bitcoin holdings per share, but these indicators do not reflect changes in the fair value of digital assets.

It is noteworthy that if future convertible debt matures without being converted into stock, the company may be forced to sell bitcoins or common stock to repay the debt, which does not reflect a proactive intention to seek profit-taking. Strategy's management stated that despite the bitcoin market being in a bear market, traditional financial institutions are still accelerating their layouts.

MoonPay acquires Solana execution layer DFlow, upgrading trading infrastructure layout

According to ChainCatcher, MoonPay has announced the acquisition of the Solana-based execution layer platform DFlow, officially entering the trading infrastructure field.

DFlow provides trading optimization services for platforms like Coinbase and Phantom, processing over $50 billion in transaction volume and approximately 10 million transactions per month. Reports indicate that the acquisition amount is around $100 million (paid in stock). MoonPay stated that integrating DFlow will enhance high-frequency trading capabilities and support a new generation of financial applications driven by "agents."
Reported that Anthropic signed a $200 billion Google Cloud contract, Google’s market value briefly surpassed Nvidia
According to ChainCatcher, CNBC reports that Google’s stock price surged significantly after hours, briefly surpassing Nvidia's market value, driven by a report that Anthropic has committed to paying $200 billion to Google Cloud over five years. If this deal is confirmed, Anthropic will contribute over 40% of Google’s future cloud revenue from contracts.

Moonshot AI and other Chinese companies weigh company restructuring after Meta Manus transaction reversal

According to ChainCatcher, Benchmark Studio reports that after the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued inquiries to multiple companies regarding overseas shareholding structures, Chinese tech startups such as Moonshot AI and DeepRoute.ai are assessing the feasibility of relocating their company registration from overseas back to China, currently discussing relevant plans with lawyers and have not made a final decision. Shanghai AI model developer StepFun has already initiated the process of dismantling its overseas shareholding structure to expedite the regulatory approval process for its Hong Kong IPO.

The direct trigger for this regulatory tightening was Meta's $2 billion acquisition of the AI agency Manus founded by Chinese individuals—relevant authorities have ordered the cancellation of this acquisition, leading to a systematic review of the "domestic operation, overseas registration" company model by regulators.

Dismantling the red-chip structure is complex, typically taking six months to a year, involving multiple steps such as repurchasing offshore equity, establishing joint ventures, and investors re-entering shares, and the lock-up period for the joint venture after listing in Hong Kong lasts up to 12 months, double that of ordinary red-chip stocks. Analysts point out that if the red-chip structure is comprehensively restricted, it will significantly weaken the ability of Chinese startups to raise dollar financing from overseas.

Drift announces user recovery plan for $295 million North Korean hacker attack

According to ChainCatcher, CoinDesk reports that Drift Protocol has announced a user recovery plan for the approximately $295 million security breach on April 1, attributed to a North Korean-backed hacking group.

The core of the recovery plan is to issue receipt tokens representing verified user losses, with each token representing $1 of verified loss, allowing holders to redeem based on the value accumulated in the recovery pool over time. The initial funding for the recovery pool is approximately $3.8 million, expected to grow through exchange revenues of up to $127.5 million, Tether support, and partner contributions of up to $20 million, until it covers the total loss of approximately $295.4 million.

Drift has frozen approximately $3.36 million USDC and initiated a public bounty to recover 10% of the assets. Drift plans to relaunch on a "security-first" exchange in the second quarter. Legal recovery efforts are still ongoing.

Anchorage launches Agentic Banking, providing compliant funding access for AI

According to ChainCatcher, Anchorage Digital co-founder Nathan McCauley announced on the X platform the launch of Agentic Banking, aimed at providing compliant and governable funding access capabilities for AI systems, covering identity verification, policy control, and settlement capabilities across crypto and traditional financial systems, allowing AI to directly participate in economic activities within a regulated framework. This system relies on its U.S. federally chartered crypto bank status, enabling it to provide a compliant "execution layer," ensuring that transactions have permission controls, real-time risk control, and auditability.

Nathan McCauley further pointed out that the financial system is entering an "autonomous era," where AI is transitioning from a decision-support tool to an entity capable of independently executing tasks, including executing workflows, participating in negotiations, and conducting operations on behalf of organizations. The current financial system is not yet prepared for "non-human participants," lacking an identity system, policy execution mechanisms, and compliant funding access methods for AI, forcing institutions to balance between automation and risk.

Previously, Anchorage had partnered with Google Cloud, which will build an "intelligent layer" to support discovery, collaboration, and decision-making among AI agents, while Anchorage is responsible for funding execution and settlement, promoting institutional-level digital asset infrastructure to the cloud, integrating capabilities such as custody, key management, transaction governance, and staking, helping financial institutions embed stablecoins and digital assets into their products.

DeepSeek valued at nearly $45 billion, China’s big fund plans to lead Series A financing
According to ChainCatcher, Reuters reports that China’s largest state-supported semiconductor investment institution—the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (Big Fund) is negotiating to lead DeepSeek's Series A financing, which may value the cutting-edge AI lab at approximately $45 billion. The report cites four informed sources indicating that negotiations are still ongoing.
Circle partners with Lighter, making USDC the default stablecoin for its exchange
According to ChainCatcher, Lighter has reached a strategic partnership with Circle, designating USDC as the default preferred stablecoin for its entire product line, covering spot and perpetual contract trading, settlement, clearing, and user onboarding processes.

Circle stated on Tuesday on X that as on-chain markets expand, trusted dollar infrastructure is becoming core market infrastructure. Lighter responded that USDC has been the foundational asset for the protocol and its traders since its launch. This collaboration comes as Lighter attempts to regain market momentum since the token generation event last December, having briefly led perpetual contract DEX trading volume in November and December last year, but has since fallen behind Hyperliquid, Aster, and EdgeX.

According to DefiLlama data, Lighter currently ranks fourth with approximately $8.7 billion in 7-day perpetual contract trading volume. Moonlight will complete $2 billion in new financing, valuation exceeding $20 billion
According to ChainCatcher, LatePost reports that Kimi (Moonlight) is about to complete a new round of $2 billion financing, with a post-financing valuation exceeding $20 billion. This round of financing is led by Meituan Longzhu, with participation from China Mobile, CPE (CITIC Industrial Fund), among others, with Longzhu alone investing over $200 million. In January and February of this year, Kimi completed three rounds of financing, raising $500 million, $700 million, and $700 million respectively. Including this latest financing, Kimi has raised over $3.9 billion in less than six months, with the latest valuation more than quadrupling from approximately $4.3 billion in November last year.

So far, Kimi's total financing has exceeded 37.6 billion yuan, making it the company with the most cumulative financing among large model startups. Including IPO fundraising, MiniMax has raised approximately 15 billion yuan, and Zhizhu has raised about 13 billion yuan. As of today’s midday market close, MiniMax's market value is approximately 210 billion yuan, while Zhizhu's is about 347 billion yuan.

Meme Popularity Rankings

According to the meme token tracking and analysis platform GMGN, as of May 7, 09:00,

The top five popular tokens on ETH in the past 24 hours are: HEX, SHIB, LINK, PEPE, mUSD

The top five popular tokens on Solana in the past 24 hours are: TROLL, swarms, PENGUIN, Punch, House

The top five popular tokens on Base in the past 24 hours are: SKITTEN, PEPE, BASED, B3, SKYA

What are some interesting articles worth reading in the past 24 hours?

Why is a16z Crypto raising another $2.2 billion to heavily invest in Web3?

On May 5, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz's crypto branch a16z Crypto officially announced the completion of fundraising for its fifth fund, Fund 5, with a total scale of $2.2 billion.

The size of this fund is significantly smaller than the record $4.5 billion Fund 4 raised in 2022. a16z crypto communications partner Paul Cafiero stated that the company intends to return to a smaller fund size because "a shorter fundraising cycle allows us to keep up with the rapidly changing crypto trends."

This choice has its practical background. Fortune magazine previously cited SEC filing data revealing that by 2025, leading crypto venture capital firms like Paradigm, Pantera, and a16z Crypto are all experiencing a contraction in management scale. Among them, the total management scale of four funds under a16z Crypto decreased by nearly 40% from 2024 to 2025, dropping to about $9.5 billion, partly because the institution has begun returning capital to LPs of earlier funds.

The payment moment for AI Agents: Who will become the Stripe of the machine economy?

Agent Payment is transitioning from PoC to the infrastructure competition stage. x402 processed 3.3 million transactions in 30 days, with an ATV of $0.46 (Visa averages around $50). The estimated real monthly transaction volume for Agent is < $30M.

TradFi giants are accelerating: Visa is launching Intelligent Commerce + Trusted Agent Protocol, Mastercard will open Agent Pay to all U.S. cardholders in November 2025, and Stripe is launching MPP in collaboration with Tempo on March 18, 2026.

M&A signals are strong: between 2025 and 2026, a total of 7 acquisitions totaling $8.05 billion were completed (Capital One's $5.15 billion acquisition of Brex, Mastercard's $1.8 billion acquisition of BVNK, Stripe's $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge). Giants are choosing to buy rather than build themselves.

Strategy should have said it does not rule out selling coins

Yesterday, Strategy announced its Q1 2026 financial report, with a net loss of $12.54 billion for the quarter, stemming from unrealized losses due to the drop in bitcoin prices. Meanwhile, Michael Saylor stated in a meeting: "We may sell some bitcoins to pay dividends, to inject a shot of confidence into the market and convey that we have achieved this goal." CEO Phong Le emphasized in the same meeting: "We will sell when it is beneficial for the company."

Saylor has completely reversed the "never sell coins" belief he adhered to in the past few years.

Following the news, MSTR plummeted over 4% in after-hours trading, and BTC also fell below $81,000. Strategy currently holds 818,334 BTC, with an average cost of approximately $75,537, totaling about $66.7 billion, accounting for about 4% of the global circulating BTC.

When this largest corporate BTC holder in the world declares that "selling coins is an option," the crypto market brings up the question that has often been raised in the past: if Saylor really starts selling coins, how will the market react?