Arbitrum vote to release $71M in frozen Kelp exploit ETH set to pass

Kraken parent Payward agreed to acquire Hong Kong-based Reap Technologies for up to $600 million, expanding into stablecoin payments and B2B financial infrastructure. The deal, combining cash and stock at a $20 billion valuation, adds card issuance and cross-border payment capabilities to Payward Services platform. Expected to close mid-2026, this marks Payward's largest Asia infrastructure acquisition amid growing stablecoin adoption among fintech firms and businesses.

Polygon reduced its block time to 1.75 seconds, the first decrease since genesis, enabling 14% higher payment throughput and positioning the network for institutional stablecoin adoption. The upgrade supports high-frequency applications like payments and DeFi trading. Polygon also introduced privacy features for stablecoin transactions using zero-knowledge proofs and expanded Visa integration for faster settlement infrastructure.

Beneath the stalled market, advisors and long-term investors are quietly building durable crypto allocations and are becoming more comfortable investing in this asset class....