Weekly Editor's Picks (0418-0424)

marsbitPublished on 2026-04-25Last updated on 2026-04-25

Abstract

Weekly Editor's Picks (0418-0424) provides in-depth analysis on key developments across macro trends, crypto markets, and policy. Key topics include the oil market nearing a physical supply crisis due to shipping disruptions, even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens. In crypto, reports cover global consumer crypto adoption, a data-driven strategy for trading volatile altcoins, and the state of VC funding. Prediction markets like Polymarket are analyzed not as pure event-guessing games but as systems where understanding legalistic rules creates an edge. Major DeFi protocol Aave is criticized for poor crisis management amid a $300M exploit, while the controversial structure of World Liberty Financial is examined. Other highlights include policy updates like the CLARITY Act, Ethereum’s, airdrop opportunities, and weekly recaps of major incidents like the Kelp DAO hack and SpaceX's AI disclosures.

The information flow moves too fast, and in-depth analysis articles are easily drowned out by trending topics. The "Weekly Editor's Picks" column rescues this judgment-worthy content from the vast sea of information, filtering out the noise for you, leaving behind insights, and bringing inspiration.

Macro Situation

Crossing the Tipping Point: Price Hikes Are Just the Prelude, the Oil Market to Face "Physical Supply Disruption"

"Time mismatch" is a variable underestimated by the market.

Even if the Strait of Hormuz resumes traffic in the short term, the delays in tanker turnover caused by the initial transport disruptions will continue to erode onshore inventories for weeks to come. This means supply issues will not immediately resolve with the "resumption of navigation" but will be reflected in inventories and the spot market with a lag.

Against this backdrop, refinery behavior becomes a key amplifier. If the strait closure persists beyond April, traditional oil price frameworks will become ineffective. The market will no longer face a cyclical price increase but an extreme scenario approaching "physical shortage"—in this state, price is no longer an effective regulatory tool, and price caps lose their reference meaning.

What can truly bring the market back into balance is not the restoration of supply, but "policy-driven demand suppression" similar to the pandemic era.

Investment & Entrepreneurship

Global Census of Consumer Crypto: Users, Revenue, and Sector Distribution

The user problem in crypto is essentially a geographical problem (real, massive users are not noticed by the West); Tron is the most important consumer-grade public chain; On-chain e-commerce is not viable; Revenue and user numbers often move inversely; The battle of perpetual DEXs is over, HYPE has won.

I Used AI to Analyze 221 Meme Coins and Finally Found the Only Viable Path for Trading Them

Facing meme coins, predicting the start and "catching the top" are not feasible. The only viable strategy is: shorting after a sharp price increase retracement, and strictly executing a bounce-exit strategy. And the only effective indicator: naked K-line charts.

Enter early, hold short positions, exit fast.

VCs Sticking to the Primary Market: How Much Money Do They Have Left?

Estimates from frontline investors: Available capital for Series A and later stages is approximately $6-7 billion; available capital for seed and earlier stages is approximately $1-2 billion.

Fu Peng's 2026 Hong Kong Speech: Why Did I Join the Crypto Industry?

The future is definitely "FICC+C", meaning major asset allocation will include crypto assets. Technology drives financial change, and now is the moment new technology brings new finance. Crypto assets have matured to an era where they can be included in investment portfolios.

Also recommended: "Hong Kong Stock IPO Subscriptions, the New Battleground for Shenzhen Airdrop Hunters".

Prediction Markets

You Bet on the News, the Pros Read the Rules: The True Cognitive Gap in Losing Money on Polymarket

Polymarket has never been a market purely for "guessing events correctly"; it's more like a system that translates real-world events into legal text, and then translates that legal text into settlement outcomes.

Understanding the rules is as important as doing research. The pros' advantage often comes from a deep understanding of the rules, knowing what this system acknowledges and what the adjudication will recognize.

Whoever realizes earlier the gap between "reality" and "rules" has a better chance of profiting from the price deviations created by misreading, controversy, and emotion.

Polymarket's "2028 Presidential Election" Traffic King Is...... LeBron James???

About 70% of trading volume is concentrated on candidates with less than 1% probability. Users trading or providing liquidity on these absurd event markets can be categorized into three groups: "lottery players, bots, airdrop hunters".

Users trading on James or Kardashian in Polymarket's "2028 Presidential Election" event are neither crazy nor stupid; they are either seeking stable annualized returns or a better execution path. Their actions may seem absurd, but they are driven by rationality.

Policy & Stablecoins

Only a 50% Chance of Passing This Year, Can the CLARITY Act Successfully Navigate Before the Midterm Elections?

CeFi & DeFi

Aave Is Foolishly Ceding Its Throne as the King of DeFi Lending

Aave is foolishly sitting by, letting community panic ferment for days due to its extremely poor crisis PR strategy, thereby losing its former biggest advantage in the lending sector—hundreds of billions of dollars in deposited funds and the user mindset label of "safest DeFi".

The Truth Behind the Satirical Literature of WLFI

The core controversy of WLFI lies in its income distribution structure: "Zero investment, high fees, zero responsibility".

WLFI's risk profile can be divided into two levels:

  • Structural Risk: The 75/25 profit-sharing条款, 80% internal token concentration, and multiple overlapping identities between family and regulatory decision-makers form the institutional basis for conflicts of interest. Problems at this level are not automatically resolved by improving market conditions or partial repayments.
  • Operational Risk: The Dolomite lending incident revealed the project's lack of basic risk management awareness at the financial decision-making level, and a lack of transparent disclosure for related-party transactions. Combined with the token's low liquidity, such operations have potentially destructive effects on market stability.

Airdrop Opportunities & Interaction Guides

Popular Interaction Collection | Tether Web3 Wallet Early Registration; Nava AI Waitlist Application (April 22nd)

Ethereum & Scaling

Vitalik Speech: Perfecting Quantum Resistance, Replicating Ethereum's L2 is Meaningless | 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Festival

Weekly Hot Topics Recap

Policy & Macro Markets

Trump Announces Extension of Ceasefire, Maintains Maritime Blockade;

Iran: The Strait of Hormuz is Part of Iranian Sovereignty, Will Not Relinquish Control;

SpaceX Drops "IPO Bombshell": Space AI Technology Unproven, May Not Be Commercializable;

US SEC Chair: Advancing the Establishment of a Digital Asset Regulatory Framework and Proposing an "A-C-T" Strategy;

Singapore to Optimize Crypto Capital Regulations: Public Chain Assets May No Longer Be Universally Classified as High-Risk;

Views & Voices

Hong Kong Official Responds to "Middle Eastern Capital Inflow": Mutual Two-Way Exchange, Tokenized Funds Already Listed on Middle Eastern Wealth Management Platforms;

Dragonfly Partner: DeFi Evolves Through Failure, the System Possesses Resilience and Self-Healing Capabilities;

Justin Sun Sues World Liberty Financial;

Musk Agrees to Set ASTEROID as SpaceX Mascot (Related Meme and Backstory);

Institutions, Large Companies & Leading Projects

Polymarket Teases Upcoming Perpetual Contracts Feature (Analysis);

Security

Kelp DAO's rsETH Bridge Contract Based on LayerZero Hacked, Nearly $300 Million Lost (Retrospective, Aave, L0, Kelp三方博弈), Aave Founder Stani Announces Personal Donation of 5000 ETH to Help Resolve Current Issues;

RAVE Collapses (Full Retrospective);

Iran Opens Fire on Oil Tanker Targeted by Crypto Scam;

A User Profits $34,000 by Interfering with Polymarket Temperature Prediction Market Using a Hair Dryer......

Attached: Portal to the "Weekly Editor's Picks" series. See you next time~

Related Questions

QWhat is the main risk facing the oil market according to the 'Macro Situation' section?

AThe oil market is approaching a state of 'physical shortage' where price is no longer an effective regulatory tool. The real risk is not just price increases but a potential physical supply cut-off, which can only be rebalanced by 'policy-induced demand suppression' similar to the pandemic era.

QWhat is the core controversy surrounding the WLFI project as mentioned in the 'CeFi & DeFi' section?

AThe core controversy of WLFI lies in its income distribution structure, described as 'zero investment, high commission, zero responsibility'. It also faces structural risks from its 75/25 profit-sharing terms, 80% internal token concentration, and operational risks from a lack of transparency and poor risk management.

QAccording to the 'Investment and Entrepreneurship' section, what is the only viable strategy for trading highly volatile 'demon coins'?

AThe only viable strategy is to short the coin after a sharp price increase and subsequent pullback, and to strictly execute a rebound exit to close the position. The only effective indicator for this is the 'Naked K' line.

QWhat key insight does the article provide about the Polymarket prediction platform in the 'Prediction Market' section?

APolymarket is not just a market for guessing events; it is a system that translates real-world events into legal text and then into settlement results. Understanding the rules and how the system acknowledges and adjudicates outcomes is as important as the research, and profits can be made from the price deviations created by misreading these rules and emotions.

QWhat major security incident is highlighted in the 'Security' section of the 'Weekly Hotspot Recap'?

AThe major security incident was an attack on the rsETH bridge contract of Kelp DAO based on LayerZero, resulting in losses of nearly $300 million. In response, Aave founder Stani personally donated 5000 ETH to help resolve the issue.

Related Reads

a16z: AI's 'Amnesia', Can Continuous Learning Cure It?

The article "a16z: AI's 'Amnesia' – Can Continual Learning Cure It?" explores the limitations of current large language models (LLMs), which, like the protagonist in the film *Memento*, are trapped in a perpetual present—unable to form new memories after training. While methods like in-context learning (ICL), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and external scaffolding (e.g., chat history, prompts) provide temporary solutions, they fail to enable true internalization of new knowledge. The authors argue that compression—the core of learning during training—is halted at deployment, preventing models from generalizing, discovering novel solutions (e.g., mathematical proofs), or handling adversarial scenarios. The piece introduces *continual learning* as a critical research direction to address this, categorizing approaches into three paths: 1. **Context**: Scaling external memory via longer context windows, multi-agent systems, and smarter retrieval. 2. **Modules**: Using pluggable adapters or external memory layers for specialization without full retraining. 3. **Weights**: Enabling parameter updates through sparse training, test-time training, meta-learning, distillation, and reinforcement learning from feedback. Challenges include catastrophic forgetting, safety risks, and auditability, but overcoming these could unlock models that learn iteratively from experience. The conclusion emphasizes that while context-based methods are effective, true breakthroughs require models to compress new information into weights post-deployment, moving from mere retrieval to genuine learning.

marsbit16m ago

a16z: AI's 'Amnesia', Can Continuous Learning Cure It?

marsbit16m ago

Can a Hair Dryer Earn $34,000? Deciphering the Reflexivity Paradox in Prediction Markets

An individual manipulated a weather sensor at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport with a portable heat source, causing a Polymarket weather market to settle at 22°C and earning $34,000. This incident highlights a fundamental issue in prediction markets: when a market aims to reflect reality, it also incentivizes participants to influence that reality. Prediction markets operate on two layers: platform rules (what outcome counts as a win) and data sources (what actually happened). While most focus on rules, the real vulnerability lies in the data source. If reality is recorded through a specific source, influencing that source directly affects market settlement. The article categorizes markets by their vulnerability: 1. **Single-point physical data sources** (e.g., weather stations): Easily manipulated through physical interference. 2. **Insider information markets** (e.g., MrBeast video details): Insiders like team members use non-public information to trade. Kalshi fined a剪辑师 $20,000 for insider trading. 3. **Actor-manipulated markets** (e.g., Andrew Tate’s tweet counts): The subject of the market can control the outcome. Evidence suggests Tate’sociated accounts coordinated to profit. 4. **Individual-action markets** (e.g., WNBA disruptions): A single person can execute an event to profit from their pre-placed bets. Kalshi and Polymarket handle these issues differently. Kalshi enforces strict KYC, publicly penalizes insider trading, and reports to regulators. Polymarket, with its anonymous wallet-based system, has historically been more permissive, arguing that insider information improves market accuracy. However, it cooperated with authorities in the "Van Dyke case," where a user traded on classified government information. The core paradox is reflexivity: prediction markets are designed to discover truth, but their financial incentives can distort reality. The more valuable a prediction becomes, the more likely participants are to influence the event itself. The market ceases to be a mirror of reality and instead shapes it.

marsbit1h ago

Can a Hair Dryer Earn $34,000? Deciphering the Reflexivity Paradox in Prediction Markets

marsbit1h ago

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