Golden Web3.0 Daily | U.S. Military Admits to Running Bitcoin Nodes

DeFi Data

1. Total Market Value of DeFi Tokens: $54.29B

DeFi total market value Data source: CoinGecko

2. Trading volume on decentralized exchanges in the past 24 hours: $7.91B

Trading volume on decentralized exchanges in the past 24 hours Data source: CoinGecko

3. Assets Locked in DeFi: $10k

Top ten DeFi projects by locked assets and locking volume Data source: DefiLlama

NFT Data

1. Total Market Value of NFTs: $75.6k

NFT total market value, top ten projects by market cap Data source: CoinMarketCap

2. 24-hour NFT trading volume: $1.51 billion

NFT total market value, top ten projects by market cap Data source: CoinMarketCap

Headlines

U.S. Military Admits to Running a Bitcoin Node

On April 23, Lieutenant General Samuel Paparo of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command testified before the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, admitting that the U.S. military is running a Bitcoin node, but not for mining. Instead, it is used to monitor the network and conduct a series of operational tests to ensure the security of networks using the Bitcoin protocol. Paparo stated that the U.S. military is using Bitcoin nodes to protect network security. The military’s interest in Bitcoin lies in its role as a cryptographic tool, blockchain, and reusable proof-of-work mechanism, which can serve as auxiliary measures to safeguard networks and project power. He also mentioned that Bitcoin has a direct impact on national security and supports initiatives that help maintain the U.S. dollar’s global dominance.

AI Hot Topics

1. Anthropic’s Secondary Market Valuation Rises to $1 Trillion, Surpassing OpenAI

On April 23, Anthropic’s valuation on private equity trading platforms like Forge Global has risen to around $1 trillion, surpassing OpenAI’s $880 billion. It is reported that buyers are competing to purchase the decreasing secondary market shares of Anthropic, causing the startup’s valuation to soar.

2. OpenAI Plans to Invest Up to $1.5 Billion in Private Equity Joint Venture DeployCo

On April 23, OpenAI announced it is forming a joint venture, DeployCo, with multiple private equity firms. Registered in Delaware, OpenAI holds the majority stake and super voting rights. The company initially invests $500 million in equity, with an option to add another $1 billion later; TPG, Bain Capital, Advent International, Brookfield, and Goanna Capital will contribute an additional $4 billion. DeployCo aims to complete funding by early May, with a valuation of $10 billion.
Managed by former OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap, DeployCo has begun hiring its own staff, with OpenAI seconding personnel. Lightcap previously led the recruitment of dozens of “forward deployed engineers,” embedded within client companies to help implement technology—an approach pioneered by Palantir.
DeployCo’s business model involves charging portfolio companies under private equity ownership to embed AI into their workflows. PE investors commit for five years, with OpenAI guaranteeing at least a 17.5% annual return, with insiders saying “this is the baseline, and actual expectations are much higher.” Future OpenAI equity held by DeployCo could also be used for acquisitions of technology and intellectual property.
OpenAI executives describe the current situation as an “overhang of capability”: model capabilities far exceed actual usage. Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser stated in an internal email that the biggest bottleneck for enterprise AI adoption is not technology but “whether it can be deployed.” OpenAI is also collaborating with McKinsey and Accenture to promote enterprise adoption. Anthropic is negotiating similar joint ventures with Blackstone and Hellman & Friedman, planning to establish an AI deployment consulting firm.

3. ByteDance Releases Next-Generation 3D Generative Model Seed3D 2.0

On April 23, ByteDance officially launched the higher-precision next-generation 3D generative model—Seed3D 2.0. The model uses MoE architecture with sparse expert routing, increasing parameters and resolution while controlling inference computation, enabling it to generate richer textures and more accurate metal-roughness boundaries. The technical report for Seed3D 2.0 is now available, and the API has been launched on Volcano Engine.

4. OpenAI Codex Team Fixes OpenClaw Certification Vulnerability

On April 23, OpenAI Codex team focused on optimizing the experience of OpenAI models within OpenClaw. Lead engineer Tibo Sottiaux said they are working with OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger, with more updates expected next week.
Product lead Nik Pash discovered a critical issue during debugging: when configuring OpenClaw to use Codex harness with OpenAI models, the authentication process failed silently, defaulting to Pi harness, leading users to believe Codex harness was working normally when it was not. Pash submitted two PRs to fix the authentication bridging and prevent silent fallback.
The behavior of agents before and after the fix differs significantly. When using Pi harness, agents perform shallow polling: reading heartbeat files, checking Discord, returning HEARTBEAT_OK, ignoring other commands, sometimes inferring actions but not executing tools. After switching to Codex harness, agents enter a full work cycle: reading context, parsing task lists, checking repositories, executing edits, and attempting validation, with subsequent heartbeats reflecting progress rather than repeating work.
Pash said the prompt and workflow logic remained unchanged; the improvement comes entirely from switching the underlying runtime adapter (harness), i.e., the way OpenClaw communicates with the model API.

5. OpenAI Releases Images 2, Ranked First in Institutional Arena.ai Evaluation

On April 22, early morning, OpenAI CEO Altman led a 20-minute live stream, mentioning that Images 2 is the most powerful image generation model the company has developed so far. According to evaluation benchmarks, Images 2 performs excellently. The overseas large-model evaluation platform Arena.ai posted that OpenAI’s GPT-Image-2 topped all Image Arena leaderboards and outperformed Google’s Nano-banana-2 by a record 242 points in text-to-image generation.

DeFi Hot Topics

1. BitMine Stakes 75.6k ETH Again, Total Staked Reaches 3.47M ETH

On April 23, on-chain analyst Yu Jun monitored that after adding 100k ETH midday today, BitMine just deposited 75.6k ETH worth approximately $100k into Ethereum’s PoS staking. Currently, BitMine has staked a total of 75.6k ETH, accounting for about 70% of their total ETH holdings of 1928374656574839.25T ETH.

2. Kelp DAO Releases Community Update: Actively Advancing rsETH Incident Resolution, Focused on Protecting Users

On April 23, Kelp DAO tweeted that with support from partners, allies, and the community over the past few days, the team is pushing forward with incident resolution, and discussions are progressing in the right direction. User interests remain the top priority, guiding all subsequent actions. The team is working closely with various parties, making substantial progress on multiple fronts, including the Arbitrum Security Council freezing stolen funds and Security Alliance SEAL 911 participating in initial investigations. All efforts are centered on protecting users and strengthening the protocol.

3. Cardano Parent Company Cuts Community Fund Application to $46.8 Million for Network Expansion and Bitcoin DeFi Development

On April 23, Input Output (Cardano’s parent company) reduced its 2026 community treasury funding request to $46.8 million, about half of last year’s $97.5 million. This move coincides with the company gradually reducing reliance on community funds.
The nine proposals seeking support mainly revolve around a major consensus upgrade called Leios, which reportedly can boost Cardano’s throughput to over 1,000 transactions per second. It also includes Pogun, a system aimed at bringing Bitcoin-based DeFi to the network.
Approximately 1,000 elected representatives will vote until May 24, testing whether Cardano’s governance mechanism, after introducing alternative development and funding structures, will treat Input Output similarly to other grant applicants.

4. Vitalik Comments on Polymarket Wind Turbine Cheating Case: At Least Three Independent Sources Should Be Used

On April 23, Vitalik commented on the wind turbine cheating incident on Polymarket, stating that such cases should at minimum require the median of three (or more) independent sources. Previously, it was reported that a user manipulated Paris weather station data with a wind turbine to profit $34,000 from the event outcome.

5. Jupiter Launches Prediction Market Telegram Bot with Clans Teaming Feature

On April 23, official sources announced that Jupiter has launched Jupiter Prediction Bot, bringing its prediction markets to Telegram. The bot now includes a “Clans” feature, allowing traders to team up, discuss markets, and engage in social competition.

Disclaimer: As a blockchain news platform, Golden Finance’s articles are for informational purposes only and do not constitute investment advice. Please establish correct investment concepts and be aware of risks.