Just as Hong Kong’s HKDAP stablecoin, Tether’s new wallet, and massive flows linked to Binance have rewritten the market risk map, cryptocurrencies are also trying to dispel “extreme fear.”
The temporary easing in macro risks has led to a selective rebound across risk assets, with Gate Ventures noting that the S&P 500 index rose 3.48% for the week and the Nasdaq index rose 4.12%, even as WTI crude oil fell more than 14%. In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin rose about 2.5% and Ethereum rose 3.9%, with spot net inflows of about $786 million, according to the company’s latest weekly report. $BTC $187 million in ETFs and spots $ETH ETFs even though market sentiment remains gripped by “extreme fear.”
According to Gate Ventures on X, “Last week, the crypto market recovered; $BTC increased by 4.6%; $ETH The report highlighted Toncoin as one of the week’s standout performers, up 15.9% on the back of network upgrades, while pointing to Hong Kong’s first stablecoin license to Anchor Point and HSBC as evidence of a convergence of “capital and story” around assets with stronger fundamentals and regulatory support.
In Hong Kong, Anchorpoint Financial Technology, a joint venture backed by Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HKT and Animoca Brands, has secured a stablecoin issuer license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority under the city’s new Stablecoin Ordinance and plans to issue the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin HKDAP in Q2 2026. Anchorpoint said it is “targeting regulated issuance in Hong Kong.” “Dollar-backed stablecoin HKDAP (i.e. HKD At Par) in a phased approach starting from the second quarter of this year,” with each token backed on a 1:1 basis by high-quality, highly liquid HKD-denominated reserves that comply with HKMA regulations.
Evan Au-Yang, group president of Animoca Brands, positioned the regulated Hong Kong dollar stablecoin as a core market conduit rather than a speculative bet, arguing that “stablecoins are the bridge between native Web3 and enterprise Web3” and that “HK dollar stablecoins are needed to broadcast mainland assets to the world.” He added that such a coin would be “crucial to Hong Kong’s financial infrastructure” and would support “gaming, trade and 24/7 financial payments”, directly linking HKDAP to Web3 gaming and cross-border commerce.
Meanwhile, stablecoin issuer Tether has launched tether.wallet, a self-custodial digital wallet aimed at putting global payments and funding rails directly into the hands of users. Tether said in an announcement that the product aims to bring “global financial infrastructure directly into the hands of users,” extending its reach from back-end payments to consumer-facing tools.
Paxos Labs, a spinoff from regulated stablecoin issuer Paxos, has raised $12 million in a funding round led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Robot Ventures, Maelstrom, and Uniswap Labs to power its white-label stablecoin infrastructure. Chad Cascarilla, CEO of Paxos and CEO of Paxos Labs, said the company is focused on helping large companies “create and manage their own branded stablecoins,” suggesting that institutional demand for programmable money will remain strong even through the risk-off cycle.
On the trading side, Binance Wallet will run perpetual contract trading and “Alpha Points” campaign from April 14th to April 28th, 2026, and users whose perp volume reaches $1,000 during the event period will earn 3 Alpha Points and will be rewarded by May 12th. At the same time, on-chain watchers are tracking massive flows around Binance-linked assets, including Binance Life and Binance Coin.
On-chain analyst Yu Jin warned that the suspected Binance Life controller cluster has withdrawn 50.5 million Binance Life tokens (about $16.08 million) from Binance through six wallets, accumulating a total of 197 million tokens, or about 19.7% of the supply worth about $62.58 million. Separately, data firm Onchain Lens reported that 15 newly created wallets withdrew approximately 138.26 million Binance Coins from Binance, worth approximately $30.78 million, in three days, suggesting a sizable and concentrated positioning within the broader Binance stack, despite Gate Ventures characterizing broader market flows as cautious.
