[DigitalToday reporter Hyunwoo Choo (추현우)] South Korean brokerages are accelerating efforts to target the digital asset market. The domestic financial sector voiced a shared view that infrastructure preparations to enter the digital asset market are effectively complete, but regulatory gaps are holding them back.

• Financial sector: "Preparations to enter digital assets are complete, but regulatory gaps are an obstacle" • South Korea holds 30 percent of global coin trading volume... why its distinct love for altcoins?

Eye-catching figures also emerged in the domestic market. An analysis was released saying South Korea accounts for about 30 percent of global cryptocurrency trading volume. It said the traits of South Korean investors, who focus on altcoins more than bitcoin, are creating a structure that is clearly different from the global market. As bitcoin continues to trade sideways in a $60,000 to $70,000 range for a second month, the share of altcoin trading in South Korea, including XRP and dogecoin, remains overwhelmingly high.

Overseas, regulatory hurdles are in a similar situation. The CLARITY Act, a key lever for U.S. digital asset regulation, has been delayed again, increasing uncertainty. Deliberations on the CLARITY Act at the U.S. Senate Banking Committee have been postponed again. Passage by the end of April had been seen as likely, but the schedule slipped again as differences between industry players such as Coinbase and Circle and the banking sector have not narrowed over whether to allow interest income on stablecoins. The overlap with the confirmation hearing schedule for Kevin Warsh, a nominee for Federal Reserve chair, further reduced room for congressional review.

• CLARITY Act falters again... Ripple CEO also says confidence in April passage has fallen • Will the CLARITY Act vote be pushed back again... U.S. Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh hearing comes first • U.S. CLARITY Act stablecoin interest rules announcement delayed... not until after next week

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said this week, "We have never been this close to regulatory clarity," but he candidly said his confidence in passage within April has fallen compared with before. That amounts to him lowering his own estimate for the chance of legislation in April, which he had put at 80 percent in February. The biggest obstacle is a provision banning the provision of returns on stablecoins. Crypto firms, including Coinbase, are pushing back, saying the rule works unilaterally in favour of traditional banks, and JPMorgan described the situation as being in a "final coordination stage."

The industry sees the likelihood of the CLARITY Act passing within the year at about one-third. If the bill fails, concerns are also growing that the U.S. government could tighten control more strongly across the cryptocurrency industry.

• Elon Musk's X Money expected to launch in April... is the CLARITY Act the variable?

Meanwhile, an analysis said whether the 'X Money' payment service being pushed by Elon Musk launches in April also depends on the direction of the CLARITY Act.

• Ripple XRP officially launches on Solana • "With regulatory barriers clearing, institutional funds are flowing into XRP in earnest... it is no longer a bitcoin alternative" • XRP revaluation thesis gains traction... expectations rise for institutional participation on U.S. regulatory changes

As regulatory controversy continues, XRP appears to be turning this uncertainty into an opportunity. This week, XRP posted a weekly gain of 6 to 8 percent, outperforming major coins including bitcoin, ethereum and solana, and net inflows into spot ETFs over the past week topped $55 million, the biggest since January 2026. On April 15 alone, $17.11 million flowed in in a single day, setting a new record for the biggest daily inflow in the past 10 weeks.

A meaningful milestone was also set in terms of technical expansion. Ripple officially launched XRP on the Solana network, further strengthening cross-chain utility. It also regained fourth place by market capitalisation, while the number of addresses holding 1,000 to 100,000 coins hit a record high, broadening the base of retail investors. Experts forecast that institutional inflows will accelerate if XRP is clearly classified as a "digital commodity" under the CLARITY Act. The Ripple CEO again stressed that when the stablecoin the company is preparing is launched, it will deliver an impact on crypto mainstreaming like the "arrival of ChatGPT."

• It takes only 9 minutes to steal bitcoin... Google quantum computing paper released

The biggest news in crypto security this week was a paper by Google's Quantum AI research team. The paper included an analysis that if sufficiently powerful quantum computers emerge, they could crack bitcoin's Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) in under 9 minutes. The scenario suggests bitcoin in transit could be intercepted in less time than bitcoin's average block creation time of 10 minutes, and calculations show that, in theory, there is about a 41 percent chance funds could be stolen before a transaction is completed. It estimated that bitcoin in vulnerable addresses amounts to about one-third of total supply.

Google predicted that 2029 could be the effective start of the quantum computing era. As a result, calls are gaining strength that the digital asset ecosystem must shift to a quantum-resistant environment within 3 years. Market reaction was immediate, with quantum-resistant coin QRL surging 40 percent right after the paper was released.

• Bitcoin remains range-bound for a second month... "a completely different market led by institutions" • Investing in bitcoin and gold like... effect rises even with only 5 percent in gold

Bitcoin again failed to break out of its range this week. Analysts largely said that while futures leverage is driving price direction, inflows into institutional ETFs are supporting the downside, making a repeat of the sharp crashes seen in the past far less likely. CryptoQuant also issued a "bull trap" warning when deposits by whales to exchanges surged during a bitcoin rebound phase. Meanwhile, even though the total cryptocurrency market capitalisation fell 20.4 percent in the first quarter of 2026, the stablecoin market was assessed as reinforcing its role as a safety valve within the market by withstanding the decline in trading volume.

As geopolitical tensions intensify, an unusual phenomenon continued in which gold prices fell even though gold is a traditional safe-haven asset. This has reignited debate over whether bitcoin can establish itself as true "digital gold." From a portfolio perspective, an analysis also found that including bitcoin and gold together at around 5 percent each has a clear effect of improving risk-adjusted returns.