Ethereum’s 2026 roadmap reveals 3 core priorities – More inside

China Increases Russian Oil Imports as India Reduces Purchases

South Korea Proposes Bill to Ban Interest on Won-Denominated Stablecoins

French Business Activity Shows Improvement Despite Manufacturing Challenges

Bitcoin steadies as Warren seeks Fed, Treasury no-bailout

Key Takeaways: Prices up, but sentiment still shaky, watch funding rates AI agent x crypto integrations hit an inflection point this week Institutions keep building on-chain despite the bear mood Several major protocol pivots reshaping the competitive landscape

Fundraises: Novig raises $75M Series B (Pantera-led) — sports betting goes on-chain. PRED raises $2.5M seed (Accel, Coinbase Ventures). YOM raises $3M for its gaming-focused L1 (Avalanche, Outlier Ventures). Tether backs Dreamcash to bring USDT0 markets to

DeFi Brief: Morpho partners with Apollo Global Management — TradFi continues its on-chain push. ZeroLend shuts down after 3 years. Jupiter votes to bring net-new token emissions to zero. 5/6

️ Major Project Updates: Base exits the Optimism Superchain to go solo. Hyperliquid launches a DeFi policy advocacy group in the US. Zora pivots to attention markets on Solana. Pump.​fun introduces Cashback Coins. Polymarket adds 5-min price prediction markets.

Narrative of the Week: AI Agents Go On-Chain DeBridge, Orderly, Phantom, and Bittensor all drop MCP integrations this week. AI agents can now trade, sign, manage positions, and deploy on-chain — across chains. OpenClaw is becoming crypto's biggest narrative. Are AI