Iran has proposed measures to allow vessels to transit safely through the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz as part of its ongoing negotiations with the United States, Reuters reported.

April 16 (UTC+8) — U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga has introduced the "Act to Prevent the Theft of American AI Models," a proposal that would direct the U.S. government to identify entities in China and Russia alleged to use "query replication" techniques to extract capabilities from U.S. AI models. The bill would also authorize the Department of Commerce to add such entities to the Entity List or impose sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. The legislation is co-sponsored by Rep. John Moolenaar, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and is expected to be taken up next week by the House Foreign Affairs Committee. So-called "adversarial distillation" refers to training a new "student" model by issuing large-scale queries to an advanced "teacher" model, enabling the student to replicate the teacher's capabilities at extremely low cost. While the approach can be tolerated in some contexts, unauthorized replication of leading models typically violates service terms. Earlier this year, OpenAI told the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party that DeepSeek conducted unauthorized, large-scale queries of ChatGPT to train its own model and repeatedly adjusted its methods to evade restrictions after OpenAI implemented countermeasures. Google and Anthropic later published reports describing similar anomalous access patterns observed on their platforms. An accompanying report from the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party explicitly names DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax. It recommends the Department of Justice pursue legal action and urges the Department of Commerce to assess whether all three companies should be placed on the Entity List. The report also cites two open-source tools and three intermediaries, alleging they provide channels for Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Tsinghua University, Peking University and other institutions to bypass restrictions and access U.S. proprietary AI models. In remarks supporting the bill, Huizenga cited Anthropic's Mythos, arguing that U.S. AI models are showing "transformative network capabilities" and that preventing China from taking these advances is critical. OpenAI, Anthropic and Google have begun sharing information to detect anomalous distillation activity, and the proposal seeks to convert that private coordination into a government-led enforcement framework—raising the stakes from account suspensions to potential Entity List designations and economic sanctions. (Source: BlockBeats)

AiCoin data shows investors added a net $186 million to U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs yesterday. IBIT led the group with $292 million in single-day net inflows, while BTCO recorded $0 million. AiCoin's live "Spot BTC ETF Tracking" strategy indicates a strong positive correlation between ETF inflows and Bitcoin price moves. Users can subscribe to the indicator to enable automated trading based on fund-flow trends. Data for reference only.

BULLISH: BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF purchased 3,900 BTC valued at $291.86M on Apr. 15.

BNB Chain (@BNBCHAIN) has carried out its 35th scheduled token burn, permanently removing 1.56 million BNB from circulation. Based on available data, the burned tokens were valued at about $1.001 billion. The burn follows BNB Chain's ongoing quarterly program aimed at reducing total supply. Token burns are typically intended to increase scarcity and support long-term value.

ChainCatcher reports that Hyperinsight monitoring shows an address beginning with 0x965 opened a 40x leveraged BTC long over the past 10 minutes, with a notional value of $12.6 million at an average entry of $74,959. The position's liquidation price is $73,980. The wallet then placed an unusually tight stop-loss at $74,700, about $200 below the prevailing price. Earlier today, the same address put on two S&P 500 index long positions, each worth tens of millions of dollars, seeking to ride the rally, and it has previously opened multiple crude oil short positions. The activity points to a bet on a rebound in risk-market liquidity.

Ethereum spot ETFs logged total net inflows of $67.847 million on April 15 (U.S. Eastern Time), according to ChainCatcher citing SoSoValue data. BlackRock's ETHA led the day with $31.5064 million of net inflows, bringing its cumulative net inflows to $11.769 billion. Grayscale's Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH) followed with $24.7859 million, lifting its cumulative net inflows to $1.883 billion. At the time of writing, Ethereum spot ETFs held $13.794 billion in total net assets. Their net asset ratio—ETF market value as a share of Ethereum's total market capitalization—stood at 4.84%, while cumulative net inflows reached $11.798 billion.

Iran has reportedly proposed a mechanism to ensure safe passage for vessels transiting the Omani side of the Strait of Hormuz, aiming to mitigate the threat of attacks in the critical waterway. This offer, according to Reuters, was presented during Tehran's ongoing negotiations with the United States. The Strait of Hormuz is a vital global chokepoint for oil and gas shipments, making maritime security in the region a paramount international concern. The proposal suggests a diplomatic effort by Iran to de-escalate tensions and provide a secure corridor for international shipping, signaling a potential area of discussion within broader bilateral engagements between the two nations.

Ethereum spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded substantial net inflows of $67.847 million on April 15 (U.S. Eastern Time), marking their fifth consecutive day of positive investor interest. This data, reported by Odaily Planet Daily citing SoSoValue, highlights sustained demand for ETH-backed investment products. BlackRock's ETHA led individual funds with $31.5064 million in single-day net inflows, pushing its cumulative total to $11.769 billion. The Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH) also saw significant activity, attracting $24.7859 million. As of the reporting period, the total net asset value across all Ethereum spot ETFs reached $13.794 billion, with cumulative net inflows standing at $11.798 billion.