Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Zhaparov has signed a constitutional law authorizing the launch of a central bank digital currency pilot project while also giving the “digital som” — the national currency in digital form — legal tender status.

The law gives the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic the exclusive right to issue the digital som, establish the rules for its issuance and circulation, and oversee the platform on which the national currency will operate, Kyrgyzstan’s presidential office said on April 17.

However, a final decision on whether to officially issue the CBDC is not expected until the end of 2026, local outlet Trend News Agency reported in December.

If the central bank decides to adopt the digital som, it would also need to outline cryptographic protection measures to ensure the digital som remains secure and isn’t used for fraudulent transactions.

Testing of the digital som platform is expected to take place sometime this year.

Zhaparov’s sign-off comes nearly a month after Kyrgyzstan’s parliament, the Jogorku Kenesh, approved the amendment to Kyrgyzstan’s constitutional law on March 18.

CBDCs continue to be heavily criticized by some members of the crypto community, flagging concerns that they could undermine financial privacy and enable excessive government oversight, among other things.

While 115 nations have initiated CBDC projects, only four CBDCs have officially launched — the Bahamas Sand Dollar, Nigeria’s e-Naira, Zimbabwe’s ZiG and Jamaica’s JAM-DEX, data from cbdctracker.org shows.

Over 90 CBDC projects are yet to move past the research stage.

Kyrgyzstan continues to make moves in crypto

Earlier this month, former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said he would begin advising Kyrgyzstan on blockchain and crypto-related regulation after signing a memorandum of understanding with the country’s foreign investment agency.

Zhaparov said the initiative would assist with the growth of the economy and the security of virtual assets, “generating new opportunities for businesses and society as a whole.”

Source: Sadyr Zhaparov

Related: Bitcoin price levels to watch as Fed rate cut hopes fade

The mountainous, land-locked country is considered well-suited for crypto mining operations due to its abundant renewable energy resources, much of which is underutilized.

Over 30% of Kyrgyzstan’s total energy supply comes from hydroelectric power plants, but only 10% of the country’s potential hydropower has been tapped, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.

Magazine: Your AI ‘digital twin’ can take meetings and comfort your loved ones

OpenAI was reportedly in talks to buy Anysphere, the company that produces the Cursor AI coding assistant, before entering into talks with rival company WindSurf.

According to CNBC, OpenAI approached Anysphere in 2024 and again in 2025, but talks stalled both times. Failing to arrive at a deal led OpenAI to look elsewhere for potential acquisitions.

Sources familiar with the deal also say OpenAI is prepared to pay $3 billion to purchase WindSurf, which would make it the company’s largest corporate acquisition to date.

An example of OpenAI’s ChatGPT producing computer code through simple text prompts. Source: ChatGPT

OpenAI’s attempted acquisition of an AI coding assistant company follows the release of DeepSeek R1 in January 2025, which shattered long-held assumptions about artificial intelligence.

DeepSeek was reportedly trained at a fraction of the cost of leading AI models while delivering comparable performance — challenging the belief that scaling requires massive computing power, rattling financial markets, and raising questions about the billions spent by US AI giants.

Related: OpenAI to release its first ‘open’ language model since GPT-2 in 2019

OpenAI inches toward profitability but cheaper competitors still a challenge

OpenAI expects to triple its revenue in 2025 to approximately $12.7 billion by selling paid subscriptions for its leading AI models to individuals and businesses.

The company surpassed 1 million premium business subscribers in September 2024. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the AI giant might not be profitable until 2029.

According to Altman, OpenAI needs revenues of approximately $125 billion to turn a profit on its capital-intensive business.

In February 2025, Altman said that AI development costs were dropping dramatically. “The cost to use a given level of AI falls about 10x every 12 months,” the CEO wrote in a Feb. 9 blog post.

Despite this, high costs and centralization issues continue to plague large-scale corporate AI developers, who must compete with more nimble open-source counterparts.

Dr. Ala Shaabana — co-founder of the OpenTensor Foundation — recently told Cointelegraph that the release of DeepSeek solidified open-source AI as a serious contender against centralized AI systems.

Shaabana added that the lower cost of open-source systems proves that AI does not need billions of dollars to scale or achieve high-performance benchmarks.

Magazine: 9 curious things about DeepSeek R1: AI Eye

OpenAI was reportedly in talks to buy Anysphere, the company that produces the Cursor AI coding assistant, before entering into talks with rival company WindSurf.

According to CNBC, OpenAI approached Anysphere in 2024 and again in 2025, but talks stalled both times. Failing to arrive at a deal led OpenAI to look elsewhere for potential acquisitions.

Sources familiar with the deal also say OpenAI is prepared to pay $3 billion to purchase WindSurf, which would make it the company’s largest corporate acquisition to date.

An example of OpenAI’s ChatGPT producing computer code through simple text prompts. Source: ChatGPT

OpenAI’s attempted acquisition of an AI coding assistant company follows the release of DeepSeek R1 in January 2025, which shattered long-held assumptions about artificial intelligence.

DeepSeek was reportedly trained at a fraction of the cost of leading AI models while delivering comparable performance — challenging the belief that scaling requires massive computing power, rattling financial markets, and raising questions about the billions spent by US AI giants.

Related: OpenAI to release its first ‘open’ language model since GPT-2 in 2019

OpenAI inches toward profitability but cheaper competitors still a challenge

OpenAI expects to triple its revenue in 2025 to approximately $12.7 billion by selling paid subscriptions for its leading AI models to individuals and businesses.

The company surpassed 1 million premium business subscribers in September 2024. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the AI giant might not be profitable until 2029.

According to Altman, OpenAI needs revenues of approximately $125 billion to turn a profit on its capital-intensive business.

In February 2025, Altman said that AI development costs were dropping dramatically. “The cost to use a given level of AI falls about 10x every 12 months,” the CEO wrote in a Feb. 9 blog post.

Despite this, high costs and centralization issues continue to plague large-scale corporate AI developers, who must compete with more nimble open-source counterparts.

Dr. Ala Shaabana — co-founder of the OpenTensor Foundation — recently told Cointelegraph that the release of DeepSeek solidified open-source AI as a serious contender against centralized AI systems.

Shaabana added that the lower cost of open-source systems proves that AI does not need billions of dollars to scale or achieve high-performance benchmarks.

Magazine: 9 curious things about DeepSeek R1: AI Eye

Cryptocurrency exchange eXch announced it will cease operations on May 1 after reports alleged the firm was used to launder funds from a Bybit hack.

In an April 17 notice, eXch said the majority of people in its management team voted to “cease and retreat” in response to the allegations that North Korea’s Lazarus Group used the exchange to launder roughly $35 million of the funds stolen in a $1.4 billion exploit on Bybit. The exchange said it was the subject of “an active transatlantic operation” aimed at shutting it down and potentially pursuing charges.

“Even though we have been able to operate despite some failed attempts to shut down our infrastructure (attempts that have also been confirmed to be part of this operation), we don’t see any point in operating in a hostile environment where we are the target of SIGINT [Signals Intelligence] simply because some people misinterpret our goals,” said eXch.

Related: North Korean hackers target crypto devs with fake recruitment tests

The exchange initially denied reports from crypto sleuths suggesting that it had laundered digital assets for the Lazarus Group, but admitted to processing an “insignificant portion of funds” from the February hack. Individuals from eXch’s management team emphasized its focus on user privacy in announcing the shutdown, claiming that some exchanges “abus[e] customers with nonsensical policies” in their attempts to fight money laundering.

The biggest hack in crypto history

The Bybit hack, one of the largest in the history of the crypto industry, resulted in more than $5 billion in withdrawals from users, including the stolen funds. CEO Ben Zhou said on Feb. 22 that the exchange had the means to “cover the loss” if the funds were not recovered. However, the firm later announced it would shutter some of its Web3 services and close its non-fungible token marketplace.

As of April 10, Bybit had regained its market share achieved before the hack: roughly 7%. The exchange paid more than $2 million to bounty hunters providing information that could be used to freeze some of the funds traceable to other platforms, which was estimated to be roughly 89% of the $1.4 billion as of March 20.

Magazine: Your AI’ digital twin’ can take meetings and comfort your loved ones

Cryptocurrency exchange eXch announced it will cease operations on May 1 after reports alleged the firm was used to launder funds from a Bybit hack.

In an April 17 notice, eXch said the majority of people in its management team voted to “cease and retreat” in response to the allegations that North Korea’s Lazarus Group used the exchange to launder roughly $35 million of the funds stolen in a $1.4 billion exploit on Bybit. The exchange said it was the subject of “an active transatlantic operation” aimed at shutting it down and potentially pursuing charges.

“Even though we have been able to operate despite some failed attempts to shut down our infrastructure (attempts that have also been confirmed to be part of this operation), we don’t see any point in operating in a hostile environment where we are the target of SIGINT [Signals Intelligence] simply because some people misinterpret our goals,” said eXch.

Related: North Korean hackers target crypto devs with fake recruitment tests

The exchange initially denied reports from crypto sleuths suggesting that it had laundered digital assets for the Lazarus Group, but admitted to processing an “insignificant portion of funds” from the February hack. Individuals from eXch’s management team emphasized its focus on user privacy in announcing the shutdown, claiming that some exchanges “abus[e] customers with nonsensical policies” in their attempts to fight money laundering.

The biggest hack in crypto history

The Bybit hack, one of the largest in the history of the crypto industry, resulted in more than $5 billion in withdrawals from users, including the stolen funds. CEO Ben Zhou said on Feb. 22 that the exchange had the means to “cover the loss” if the funds were not recovered. However, the firm later announced it would shutter some of its Web3 services and close its non-fungible token marketplace.

As of April 10, Bybit had regained its market share achieved before the hack: roughly 7%. The exchange paid more than $2 million to bounty hunters providing information that could be used to freeze some of the funds traceable to other platforms, which was estimated to be roughly 89% of the $1.4 billion as of March 20.

Magazine: Your AI’ digital twin’ can take meetings and comfort your loved ones

Prime brokerage Hidden Road, which was recently acquired by Ripple for $1.25 billion, has secured a broker-dealer license from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) — a move that enhances its capacity in the fixed-income markets. 

As a FINRA broker-dealer, Hidden Road can further develop its fixed-income prime brokerage services and extend its capabilities in traditional markets, the company announced on April 17. This includes offering institutional clients regulatory-compliant clearing and financing services across fixed-income securities. 

Membership in FINRA is considered a significant commitment to compliance and investor protection. It also boosts registrants’ credibility in the eyes of investment bankers, according to Telos Capital Advisors, a Dallas-based investment bank.  

Hidden Road operates a prime brokerage and credit network, clearing more than $10 billion in daily transactions on behalf of more than 300 institutional clients. When it was founded in 2018, Hidden Road focused mainly on foreign exchange markets before expanding into digital assets.

These strengths positioned Hidden Road as an attractive acquisition for blockchain payments network Ripple, which ultimately purchased the company on April 8.

Ripple’s chief technology officer, David Schwartz, described the acquisition as a “defining moment for the XRP Ledger” by expanding the settlement layer’s use cases across traditional financial markets. 

Under Ripple, Hidden Road will “exponentially expand its capacity to service its pipeline and become the largest non-bank prime broker globally,” said CEO Brad Garlinghouse. 

Garlinghouse comments on the Hidden Road acquisition on April 8. Source: Brad Garlinghouse

Related: US to get its first XRP-based ETF, launching on NYSE Arca

Positive regulatory backdrop supports Ripple expansion

Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road comes on the heels of a favorable regulatory backdrop in the United States following the election of President Donald Trump. 

In January, Ripple secured money transmitter licenses in both Texas and New York, allowing the company to facilitate capital transfers within those states. 

Two months later, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped its lawsuit against Ripple, ending one of crypto’s longest legal battles and positioning the company to once again focus on expansion. 

At the time, crypto lawyer John Deaton said the decision is the “final exclamation point that [XRP tokens] are considered digital commodities, not securities.”

The SEC is about to get a pro-crypto Chair after Paul Atkins’ nomination was approved by the US Senate on April 9. Once he’s sworn in, Atkins will take the reins from Mark Yueda, who has served as Acting Chair since Jan. 20.

Related: Court grants 60-day pause of SEC, Ripple appeals case

Prime brokerage Hidden Road, which was recently acquired by Ripple for $1.25 billion, has secured a broker-dealer license from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) — a move that enhances its capacity in the fixed-income markets. 

As a FINRA broker-dealer, Hidden Road can further develop its fixed-income prime brokerage services and extend its capabilities in traditional markets, the company announced on April 17. This includes offering institutional clients regulatory-compliant clearing and financing services across fixed-income securities. 

Membership in FINRA is considered a significant commitment to compliance and investor protection. It also boosts registrants’ credibility in the eyes of investment bankers, according to Telos Capital Advisors, a Dallas-based investment bank.  

Hidden Road operates a prime brokerage and credit network, clearing more than $10 billion in daily transactions on behalf of more than 300 institutional clients. When it was founded in 2018, Hidden Road focused mainly on foreign exchange markets before expanding into digital assets.

These strengths positioned Hidden Road as an attractive acquisition for blockchain payments network Ripple, which ultimately purchased the company on April 8.

Ripple’s chief technology officer, David Schwartz, described the acquisition as a “defining moment for the XRP Ledger” by expanding the settlement layer’s use cases across traditional financial markets. 

Under Ripple, Hidden Road will “exponentially expand its capacity to service its pipeline and become the largest non-bank prime broker globally,” said CEO Brad Garlinghouse. 

Garlinghouse comments on the Hidden Road acquisition on April 8. Source: Brad Garlinghouse

Related: US to get its first XRP-based ETF, launching on NYSE Arca

Positive regulatory backdrop supports Ripple expansion

Ripple’s acquisition of Hidden Road comes on the heels of a favorable regulatory backdrop in the United States following the election of President Donald Trump. 

In January, Ripple secured money transmitter licenses in both Texas and New York, allowing the company to facilitate capital transfers within those states. 

Two months later, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped its lawsuit against Ripple, ending one of crypto’s longest legal battles and positioning the company to once again focus on expansion. 

At the time, crypto lawyer John Deaton said the decision is the “final exclamation point that [XRP tokens] are considered digital commodities, not securities.”

The SEC is about to get a pro-crypto Chair after Paul Atkins’ nomination was approved by the US Senate on April 9. Once he’s sworn in, Atkins will take the reins from Mark Yueda, who has served as Acting Chair since Jan. 20.

Related: Court grants 60-day pause of SEC, Ripple appeals case

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, announced a $55 million investment in LayerZero, a Web3 company that runs a crosschain messaging protocol. The investment was disclosed in an April 17 X post by Ali Yahya, a general partner in the firm.

A16z has made previous investments in LayerZero, including an initial investment in March 2022 and a subsequent investment during LayerZero’s Series B funding round in April 2023. The companies have not disclosed the funding round’s valuation.

Source: Ali Yahja | alive.eth

The Canada-based LayerZero was valued at $3 billion during its Series B funding round, which saw participation from 33 investors. In addition to a16z, Circle Ventures, OKX Ventures, OpenSea Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and many others participated at the time. 

In January 2025, LayerZero reached a settlement with the FTX Estate over a long-running dispute stemming from allegations that it exploited the exchange’s liquidity crisis by “negotiating a fire-sale transaction,” according to the Estate. In June 2024, LayerZero launched its own token, LayerZero (ZRO).

Related: ‘Big Sybil hunt’ and durable users helped LayerZero airdrop succeed, says CEO

Crosschain protocols, chain-agnosticism gain traction

Crosschain messaging protocols allow programs to share information across ecosystems and can be a critical function for decentralized applications (DApps) or traders who want seamless swaps across blockchains.

Some protocols competing in the same space as LayerZero include Wormhole, Stargate, Superbridge, Connext, and many others.

Related: PayPal USD links with LayerZero for transfers between Ethereum and Solana

Wormhole may be one of the largest competitors to LayerZero, having raised $225 million at a $2.5 billion valuation in November 2023. Like LayerZero, Wormhole hosted an airdrop for its token, Wormhole (W), although the airdrop attracted scammers and spoof tokens. Chainlink also has a crosschain interoperability protocol that allows for messaging between blockchains. 

More and more companies are realizing the value of being omnichain or at least chain-agnostic. Phantom, which at first was a Solana-centric wallet, now supports six major blockchains, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Magic Eden, an NFT-infrastructure company, also started as Solana-centric but has launched marketplaces for multiple blockchains now.

Magazine: X Hall of Flame: ChainLinkGod was in High School when he started the account! 

Ethena Labs, the developer of the USDe synthetic dollar (USDe), and financial technology company Securitize, released a preliminary roadmap for their upcoming Converge network, a high-throughput blockchain focused on real-world assets and decentralized finance (DeFi).

According to the announcement, a testnet will be live in the coming weeks, with a mainnet launch later in 2025.

Converge will feature a 100 milliseconds (ms) native block time, with plans to reduce block times to 50ms by Q4 2025. The developers also plan to achieve at least one gigagas of potential throughput during 2025. Gigagas is a measure of billions of gas units processed by a blockchain network in one second.

Ethena and Securitize are launching the network to support permissioned real-world tokenized applications and permissionless DeFi applications as the line between traditional and decentralized finance continues to blur.

Converge 1-year performance targets. Source: Converge

Related: Ethena Labs exits German market following agreement with BaFin

Traditional finance converging with the crypto world

Traditional financial institutions are increasingly using decentralized finance protocols and interacting with tokenized real-world assets like stablecoins and tokenized bonds.

The merging of TradFi and DeFi has drawn mixed reactions from the crypto community, with some saying it was inevitable that the two worlds came together, and others warning of institutional capture.

In a Jan. 21 interview, Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson told Bloomberg that US President Donald Trump would integrate crypto and traditional finance by establishing clear regulations.

“We need to have some sort of regulatory clarity so that you could bring these together because, fundamentally, it will drive out costs, and there is great innovation that the technology enables,” Johnson said.

Shibtoshi, the founder of the SilentSwap privacy-preserving trading platform, recently told Cointelegraph that some institutions are currently hesitant to adopt decentralized finance solutions.

The DeFi founder said that a lack of privacy, legal liability issues, and unclear regulations have stymied institutional adoption, but added that the tools to address these concerns already exist.

“Institutions have realized the benefits of a securely decentralized system. As early as 2021, reports said nearly one in three institutional investors in crypto were already using DeFi,” Shibtoshi told Cointelegraph.

Magazine: DeFi will rise again after memecoins die down: Sasha Ivanov, X Hall of Flame

Key points: 

Monetary stimulus in China and Europe increases investors’ focus on Bitcoin price.

The US Federal Reserve is under political pressure to cut rates, as the DXY weakens.

Bitcoin’s decoupling from traditional markets continues to gain attention. 

Bitcoin (BTC) traders are somewhat puzzled by BTC price jumping to $85,000, especially since the S&P 500 index has dropped 5.7% in April, and this move came after the cryptocurrency managed a 14% rebound off its trade-war induced crash to $74,400. Investors are cautiously optimistic, but multiple events and data points to further gains above $90,000.

Several metrics and events support a “decoupling,” meaning Bitcoin’s price is not closely following traditional financial instruments. However, some skepticism emerges as BTC has not matched gold’s performance. Gold reached an all-time high of $3,358 on April 16, leading to speculation that governments and central banks are increasing their gold reserves.

Global stimulus rises as US economy shows early weakness

As central banks respond to the threat of an economic recession, the chances of an increase in monetary supply are rising. While the US Federal Reserve (Fed) has held off on lowering interest rates or expanding its balance sheet, other nations have already taken such steps. This puts more pressure on the US economy, which is starting to show signs of weakness.

US Federal Reserve total assets, USD million. Source: St Louis Fed

In China, new bank loans in March rebounded more than expected to $500 billion, over 20% higher than analysts had predicted and a strong recovery from the previous month’s decline. According to Reuters, the PBOC has promised to increase stimulus measures to reduce the impact of the trade war with the United States.

On April 17, the European Central Bank cut interest rates for the seventh time in a year to support the eurozone economy. The ECB has lowered the cost of capital to its lowest level since late 2022. Several investment banks have also reduced their inflation forecasts for the region, as the tariff war could reduce the region’s gross domestic product by 0.5%, according to Reuters.

Weaker US dollar and Bitcoin miners’ long-term commitment

Further adding pressure on the US Federal Reserve to end its restrictive monetary policy is the weakening of the US dollar compared to major global currencies, as the DXY Index has dropped to its lowest level in three years. A weaker dollar usually helps exports, which can be positive for the current account balance, but this is unlikely to last during a trade war.

US Dollar Index (DXY). Source: TradingView / Cointelegraph

Investor confidence has also been hurt by US President Donald Trump’s public criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s administration. This situation makes it harder for the US Treasury to rely on issuing Treasurys to stay afloat, which further weakens the US dollar. President Trump even said that Powell’s removal “cannot come fast enough,” while also calling for lower interest rates.

However, when looking at the current macroeconomic data, there is little reason to support a more relaxed monetary policy from the US Fed, especially after the latest US jobless claims reported on April 17. Initial claims fell by 9,000 to 215,000 in the week ending April 12, according to the US Labor Department. Powell repeated on April 16 that the labor market is in a “solid condition,” according to Reuters.

Related: When gold price hits new highs, history shows ‘Bitcoin follows’ within 150 days — Analyst

Bitcoin 7-day average estimated hashrate. Source: Blockchain.com

Bitcoin miners have also shown a strong long-term commitment, as the hashrate increased by 8% compared to the previous month. Since the Bitcoin halving in April 2024, traders were worried that lower profits would cause many miners to leave, possibly leading to a sell-off, since miners reportedly hold almost 1.8 million BTC, according to Glassnode.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.