OKX Ventures

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino shared the latest data from Memento Research on X, showing that monthly spending via crypto payment cards has surged to $600 million, a 6x year-on-year increase, highlighting strong industry growth momentum. To date, crypto payment cards have recorded $7.2 billion in cumulative on-chain transaction volume, across 24 million transactions and 1.36 million wallet addresses. Data shows that around 90% of transactions are processed through Visa, making it the core distribution channel for real-world crypto payments. On the settlement side, 62.5% of transactions are completed in USDT, reinforcing stablecoins as the foundational layer for everyday payments. On-chain data also indicates that the Solana ecosystem contributed $348 million in transaction volume, while Jupiter Global recorded a 660% month-over-month increase, signaling strong growth momentum from emerging blockchains and payment service providers. OKX Ventures believes three key trends stand out: 1. Integration, not replacement: With ~90% of transactions running through Visa, crypto payments are accelerating adoption by integrating with existing financial rails 2. Stablecoins at the core: USDT accounts for over 60% of settlements, becoming critical payment infrastructure 3. High-performance chains driving growth: Ecosystems like Solana and players such as Jupiter Global are seeing rapid expansion Overall, crypto payments are evolving from “usable” to “seamless,” and are accelerating toward becoming part of mainstream financial infrastructure.

2026 May Industry Highlights Are Here! Let's see what's coming this month！

According to The Block, data from DeFiLlama shows that the number of security incidents in the crypto industry reached a record high in April, with more than 20 vulnerability-related events in a single month. Stacy Muur counted that as of Wednesday, there had already been 24 hacking attacks, causing losses exceeding $600 million. Among them, the attack on KelpDAO, amounting to approximately $292 million, was the largest single incident. It was followed by the roughly $280 million attack on Drift Protocol, which it described as a “structured intelligence operation” lasting about six months. In addition, Hyperbridge lost $2.5 million due to forged cross-chain messages. On-chain analyst Wazz also pointed out that a large number of long-dormant wallets on Ethereum were drained by the same address, suggesting a potential new vulnerability. OKX Ventures stated that this concentrated outbreak of security incidents reflects a shift in attacks from short-term profit-seeking to long-term, organized operations. Combined with the systemic risks brought by cross-chain architectures and complex protocols, the industry has entered a phase of “high-intensity confrontation.” In the future, security will no longer be just a basic feature, but a core capability in protocol design and competition. Projects with continuous monitoring, risk isolation, and system-level protection capabilities will have greater long-term value.

Key Takeaway April showed prediction markets breaking through on three fronts: scale (Kalshi's $3.91B weekly ATH, parlay volume tripling in 2 months), product expansion (both platforms launching crypto perps on the same day, competing head-on with Coinbase/Deribit), and the regulatory battle (CFTC vs 37 states, potentially heading to the Supreme Court).

Both Platforms Launch Perpetual Futures 1. On April 21, Kalshi and Polymarket announced crypto perps within hours, entering the derivatives market against Coinbase/Deribit. 2. Kalshi launched BTC perps on April 26 under its CFTC license with margin trading approval. 3. Polymarket opened early access for BTC, NVDA, etc., up to 10x leverage, 24/7 trading. 4. Prediction markets are expanding from binary event options into full-spectrum derivatives platforms, merging boundaries with crypto exchanges.

April was a milestone month for prediction markets. Kalshi hit a record $3.91B in weekly volume, leading Polymarket by nearly $2B. Both platforms announced crypto perpetual futures on the same day, directly challenging Coinbase and Deribit.

GM Miami 🌴 Something big is headed your way on May 4. Registrations opening soon. Limited spots available.

来自 @RootDataCrypto 的 OKX Boost Q1 数据出来了——23个项目，激励超 1100 万美元，「毕业率」达到45%。 真实用户与创新项目之间的连接，数据在说话。查看报告全文⬇️

#MegaETH Chain activity is cooking #mega 24h Tx Volume: 2.31M transactions 24h Active Addresses: 5,804 (571 fresh wallets) Live TPS: 23.3 (24h peak 40.7 | All-time peak 44,143) Block Time: 10ms (true sub-10ms latency) Gas Fees: Basically free (simple transfer ≈ $0.0002 | swap ≈ $0.0015) #DEX 24h Volume: $538K (7d total $13.83M) #Perps 24h Volume: $4.77M (7d +23.34%)

Weekly Crypto Brief is live 📊 Market insights. Key trends. Strong signals. All in one place — everything that shaped last week in crypto. Dive into the poster👇

According to Cointelegraph, data from DeFiLlama shows that the market value of active RWA has surged from $4.1 billion to $25.2 billion in just over a year, marking roughly a fivefold increase, mainly driven by tokenized funds, commodities, and private credit. OKX Ventures believes that the rapid expansion of RWA is pushing on-chain finance into a deeper phase of institutionalization. As asset scale grows, market demand for compliant custody, fund security, and capital efficiency is rising in tandem. Infrastructure innovations such as the separation of trading and custody will provide greater certainty and flexibility for institutional participation. Looking ahead, as underlying risk management and settlement systems continue to mature, RWA is poised to become a key bridge between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem.

SOL ETF Fund Flows 1. Spot SOL ETFs recorded 5 consecutive days of net inflows, totaling $35.17M last week. 2. SOL ETFs have been in the green for 7 consecutive months, with cumulative inflows approaching $1B. 3. In Q1, SOL-linked ETPs saw $208M in net inflows, while Ethereum-linked products recorded net outflows over the same period.

RWA & Institutional Adoption 1. Tokenized RWA value on Solana crossed $2B, with 1,831 assets and 182,203 holders. 30-day RWA transfer volume hit $3.24B. 2. State Street ($5T AUM) plans to launch tokenized liquidity fund SWEEP on Solana, seeded with $200M from Ondo Finance. 3. On March 17, joint SEC-CFTC interpretive guidance classified SOL as a digital commodity, explicitly excluding protocol staking from securities regulation. 4. Mastercard, Worldpay, and Western Union named as early users of the Solana Developer Platform.

Solana has now topped the dApp revenue chart for 5 consecutive weeks, recording $16.94M over the past 7 days — ahead of Hyperliquid ($14.18M) and Ethereum ($13.55M). But the real story isn’t just the revenue numbers; it’s the structural shift behind them.

A huge thank you to Prof. @malekanoms for the sharp, data-driven dialogue — especially the "throat to choke" regulatory framing that defines the real ceiling for DeFi institutional adoption. And to all @Columbia_Biz students, alums & faculty who joined us — see you at the next one 🙌 #OKXVentures #Web3Academy #Columbia #DeFi #Crypto

On DeFi vs. CeFi — an inconvenient truth: 💬 Jeff Ren: "DEX is a very capital-efficient platform for big sharks like hedge funds and market makers — not for smaller fish like retail traders. You always get front run." CeFi accountability + DeFi yields = the convergence already happening.

🎓 Last week, OKX Ventures Board Director & Co-Founder Jeff Ren sat down with Adjunct Professor Omid Malekan at @Columbia_Biz for a fireside chat on the future of crypto, DeFi & Web3. Here are the highlights 🧵👇