Santiment stated that investors showed strong interest in altcoins such as Delysium (AGI), Tether (USDT), Bitcoin (BTC), USD Coin (USDC), Solana (SOL), and Bittensor (TAO).
25.03.2026 - 10:16
Update: 25.03.2026 - 10:16
Bitcoin and altcoins are struggling to recover amidst the turbulent days of the US-Iran conflict.
While Bitcoin struggles to hold above $70,000, cryptocurrency analytics company Santiment has revealed the most popular altcoins in the cryptocurrency world in its latest post.
According to Santiment, investors showed strong interest in altcoins such as Delysium (AGI), Tether (USDT), Bitcoin (BTC), USD Coin (USDC), Solana (SOL), and Bittensor (TAO).
AGI led the trending cryptocurrencies in the last 24 hours, surprisingly followed by USDT, BTC, USDC, SOL, and TAO.
The most popular cryptocurrencies in the crypto sector and the reasons why are listed below: Delysium: AGI is trending thanks to NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s striking statements about artificial general intelligence.
USDT: Trending due to Tether’s announcement that it has contracted with one of the Big Four accounting firms for the first fully independent audit of its USDT reserves (reported at approximately $180-192 billion).
Bitcoin: BTC is trending due to massive institutional accumulation. The institutional accumulation process continues to dominate the headlines, particularly with spot ETF inflows spearheaded by giants like BlackRock and Fidelity.
USDC: Reports indicate Circle has frozen USDC balances in 16 hot wallets in connection with a US legal case, and regulatory discussions surrounding USDC’s decentralization are trending.
Solana: SOL is trending due to the launch of the Solana Developer Platform (SDP) by the Solana Foundation.
Bittensor: TAO is trending due to Grayscale’s spot ETF application and the halving process on the network. Investors are showing interest in TAO.
*This is not investment advice.
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Rubio: US and Iran to continue technical consultations at the end of this month
Multiple foreign media outlets reported on the 24th that US Secretary of State Rubio said technical teams from the United States and Iran will hold further talks in Switzerland by the end of June. (Xinhua News Agency)
6 hours ago
Over the past 24 hours, total crypto market liquidations hit $606 million, with more than 130,000 traders liquidated.
According to Coinglass data, the global cryptocurrency market recorded $606 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, including $542 million in long-position liquidations and $68.22 million in short-position liquidations. A total of 135,785 traders worldwide were liquidated in the same period, with the largest single liquidation order occurring on Binance’s BTCUSDT trading pair, valued at $12.0111 million.
6 hours ago
Bitcoin falls below $60,000
According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has fallen below $60,000, with a 4.3% drop in the past 24 hours.
6 hours ago
US Treasury Secretary: AI boom may boost productivity and help curb inflation.
US Treasury Secretary Bessent told CNBC in an interview that he hopes the Federal Reserve will remain "open-minded" about the inflation pattern after the reversal of Iran-related energy price hikes. Bessent noted that the U.S. could enter an economic environment marked by high GDP growth without a corresponding rise in traditional inflation. He cited that in the 1990s, Alan Greenspan foresaw that office modernization and the internet could drive non-inflationary growth, and allowed the economy to keep expanding. Bessent believes the U.S. has a strong chance of seeing a similar scenario again. When asked whether the Fed still needs to worry about potential inflation and whether interest rate cuts are possible this year or next, Bessent declined to comment. However, he argued that it is necessary to stay open-minded about the price or inflation impacts from the Iran conflict, and monitor inflation performance after those effects subside. Bessent also said an open mind is needed, as the AI boom could boost productivity and deliver disinflationary effects, helping inflation return to the Fed’s target level. He added that he believes Kevin Warsh will choose the optimal path that meets both the Fed’s inflation and growth mandates. Bessent also noted that Warsh previously took a hawkish stance on inflation.
6 hours ago
US stocks' intraday storage sector sees broad declines, with Western Digital and Seagate Technology both falling over 4%.
According to Bitget data, during U.S. stock trading hours, the storage sector saw broad declines: Western Digital (WDC) fell 4.47%, Seagate Technology (STX) dropped 4.17%, SanDisk (SNDK) declined 2.31%, and Micron Technology (MU) edged down 0.96%. Most optical communication concept stocks rose, with Corning (GLW) leading the gains at 9.75%, followed by Ciena (CIEN) up 3.24%, Coherent (COHR) rising 2.93%, Lumentum (LITE) gaining 2.61%, and Nokia (NOK) advancing 1.82%. Additionally, Marvell Technology (MRVL) fell 2.59% and Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) declined 1.90%.
6 hours ago
During intraday trading in U.S. stocks, crypto-related concept stocks fell broadly, with MSTR dropping more than 7%.
According to Bitget market data, the three major U.S. stock indexes rose broadly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.94%, the S&P 500 increased 0.60%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.63%. Crypto-related stocks fell across the board, with declines as follows: Strategy (MSTR) down 7.33%; Circle (CRCL) down 4.35%; Bitmine (BMNR) down 3.97%; Coinbase (COIN) down 3.73%; Robinhood (HOOD) down 3.70%; Gemini (GEMI) down 3.27%; Bullish (BLSH) down 3.25%; Sharplink (SBET) down 3.19%.
Sonic’s Total Value Locked (TVL) reached an ATH of $257.24 million this week on January 28, 2025. The surge is an indicator of robust activity on the blockchain.
Major protocols fueling Sonic TVL’s growth The top 10 protocols contributing to Sonic’s TVL are Silo Finance, Beets, Avalon Labs, Swapx, WAGMI, ICHI, Beefy, Shadow Exchange, Equalizer Exchange, and Uniswap.
Silo Finance, a decentralized lending protocol, emerged as the top contributor with a $112 million TVL on the Sonic network. This massive TVL suggested that Silo Finance is significantly benefiting from its decentralized lending platform that enables users to borrow virtual assets using collateral.
Beethoven (BEETS), another major decentralized exchange, followed a TVL worth $72.3 million. This is a testimony that the DEX continues to attract users to engage in staking and yield farming using BEETS and other virtual coins.
Avalon Labs secured the third position with $49.5 million TVL. Its impact on Sonic’s TVL comes from its Bitcoin-focused DeFi ecosystem. Its CeDeFi lending platform enables investors to borrow against their BTC holdings.
SwapX secured the fourth position with its $21.8 million contribution to Sonic’s TVL. SwapX plays a crucial role as it offers innovative DeFi solutions that go beyond ordinary token swapping. These involve trading services such as staking, yield farming, and other advanced DeFi offerings.
WAGMI, a prominent decentralized exchange, registered a $20 million TVL, making it the fifth-largest protocol on the Sonic network. It operates on numerous EVM-integrated protocols, thus enabling users to access various assets and trading opportunities across varied ecosystems.
ICHI took the sixth spot with $18.8 million TVL. It supports Sonic’s TVL through its DeFi liquidity manager. Crypto investors use its yield IQ Vaults to deposit tokens and earn yields through compounded interest created by liquidity pools on apps like Uniswap V3.
Moving down, Beefy, a yield aggregator, was the seventh-largest protocol on the Sonic network. It is a renowned yield aggregator that allows users to maximize the power of compounded interest and yield farming opportunities across numerous DeFi platforms.
Shadow Exchange clinched position eight with its $7.56 million TVL. Its advanced DEX plays a crucial role in the Sonic ecosystem. Lastly, Equalizer Exchange and Uniswap gained visibility with their impressive TVLs of $4.34 million and $2.18 million respectively.
Equalizer Exchange is a DEX that allows users to earn passive income on their tokens through different staking and yield farming opportunities on the Sonic network. On the other hand, Uniswap contributes an important role in the Sonic network through its innovative DeFi trading and advanced automated market markers.
Sonic price updates The Sonic network saw its TVL surged above $250 million, on January 28, fueled by the rising investor interest after its recently concluded rebranding process. The increase in TVL happened after the project rebranded its trademark name as “Sonic” and abandoned the previous one “Fantom.”
Despite the increase in its TVL, the value of its primary virtual currency has declined. The asset has been down 24.3% in the past month. The downtrend suggests that sellers are prevailing. It appears that Sonic holders are offloading their tokens for profit-taking or are forced to liquidate for other reasons.
However, the current low prices are creating a buying opportunity for savvy investors who know that Sonic is an asset with growth potential. Its market cap is currently trading at $1.38 billion, placing it at number 69 in the entire crypto ecosystem.
AUTHOR
Nicholas Otieno is a fintech writer specializing in cryptocurrency markets. Since 2019, he has written articles to educate readers about cryptocurrency and its substantial positive impact on global prosperity. Nicholas is a Bitcoin holder, believing firmly in its fundamentals. His work has been featured in publications such as Finance Magnates, Blockchain.News, Bitcoin Magazine, Coincub, and among others. When he's not writing, Nicholas enjoys performing domestic tasks, spending time with friends, listening to music, and watching football.
The promise of decentralized finance (DeFi) was nothing short of revolutionary: democratizing financial services by bringing sophisticated banking capabilities to anyone with an internet connection and a crypto wallet.
This vision of accessible, permissionless finance captured the imagination of millions, driving DeFi’s total value locked to unprecedented heights back in 2019 and now again this year.
However, as the ecosystem has matured, a stark reality has emerged – many of DeFi’s core promises remain unfulfilled, particularly in one of traditional finance’s most fundamental services: lending.
Enter Silo Finance, a protocol that’s flipping the script on DeFi lending. Instead of forcing users into a one-size-fits-all system, Silo is building a lending ecosystem that’s as flexible as it is secure, tackling the industry’s most persistent challenges head-on and bridging the gap between DeFi’s potential and its practical implementation.
What is Silo Finance? While traditional banking has mastered the art of risk-managed lending over centuries, DeFi lending protocols have struggled to replicate this efficiency.
The challenges are multifaceted: protocols suffer from inefficient liquidity distribution that leaves many assets underserved, interest rate mechanisms that fail to compensate lenders for their capital fairly, and risk pools that force lenders to share exposure with unrelated assets.
These limitations have created a lending ecosystem that, despite its technological sophistication, falls short of both traditional finance’s reliability and DeFi’s core promise of democratization.
At its core, Silo is a non-custodial DeFi marketplace that addresses the fundamental problems with traditional lending protocols. The protocol does this by creating Silos, which are isolated lending pools consisting of two assets. These pools can be accessed by borrowers who then pay interest on the borrowed funds, with that interest being distributed among the lenders who provide liquidity to the pool.
By approaching lending through isolated lending pools limited to two assets, Silo Finance ensures that all risks are contained and all the distribution of interest generated by borrowing transactions is transparent and fair.
This also makes the protocol increasingly scalable and performant as any two assets can be paired to create new lending markets, bringing DeFi lending capabilities to a wider range of crypto assets on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
Silo v1, the first iteration of the protocol, has gained immense popularity ever since its launch. Despite this, the team has now launched Silo v2, which, unlike its predecessor, introduces programmable lending markets that vastly increase the features offered to users, bringing a new wave of innovation to the DeFi lending space and safeties like protection against system-wide insolvency, hacks, etc.
Silo Finance’s Evolution Silo Finance was born during the ETHGlobal Hackathon in September 2021, where the team introduced their concept of “isolated lending markets” as an alternative to existing DeFi lending solutions. This innovative approach to DeFi was more than enough to allow the team not only to win the hackathon but also to raise 7,500 ETH by the end of the year.
The first public version of the project, Silo v1, was launched in September 2022. Since then, Silo has grown significantly, now managing over $130M in Total Value Locked (TVL) across more than 50 isolated lending markets, with thousands of daily users across mainnet and four Layer 2 networks.
Silo v2 was announced in 2024 as an upgrade to the previous iteration, bringing additional features and capabilities. This version had its architecture simplified, which translated to additional security, lower deployment and usage costs, and the most efficient integration, as well as unmatched modularity.
Over the years, Silo has also been audited by important firms like ABDK, Quantstamp, Certora, and Immunefi. All of these audits have been accompanied by a bug bounty program designed to continuously improve the security of the protocol.
How Does Silo Work? The key innovation behind Silo comes in the form of programmable lending markets, which reached their full potential with Silo v2.
While traditional lending protocols force users to adapt to rigid, standardized systems, Silo v2 allows lending markets to be tailored to specific user needs. This means markets can automatically put idle capital to work in other DeFi applications to generate yield, solving the liquidity inefficiency problem common in DeFi lending.
The platform works through two main components. First, isolated lending markets protect users from system-wide problems like hacks or insolvency, addressing one of DeFi’s biggest risks. Second, Silo Vaults act as a permissionless liquidity optimization layer that manages funds across different Silo markets and DeFi protocols, ensuring segregated funds don’t lead to inefficiency.
The platform is governed through the $SILO token, which gives users the power to vote on important protocol decisions, including treasury management and how protocol-owned liquidity is used.
This ensures the platform stays true to its main goal: providing lending and borrowing services that offer both strong risk protection and optimal returns while letting users control their risk and yield exposure.
What Sets Silo Apart? At its core, Silo is built on a simple yet revolutionary idea: lending shouldn’t force users into a one-size-fits-all system riddled with hidden risks.
Instead, it should be flexible, transparent, and tailored to individual needs. This philosophy seems to drive every aspect of Silo’s design, setting it apart as a true innovator in decentralized finance.
The cornerstone of Silo’s approach is its risk-isolated lending markets. Unlike traditional platforms like Aave, where lenders are exposed to the collective risks of every asset in a shared pool, Silo creates separate markets for each base asset. This means lenders only take on the risk of the specific asset they choose to deposit.
It’s a game-changer for DeFi, offering both enhanced security and the freedom for users to make informed decisions about their exposure.
But Silo doesn’t stop there. Its architecture is designed to support lending markets for virtually any token, even niche or unconventional assets like Curve LP tokens or Pendle PT tokens.
While other platforms struggle to add new assets without introducing systemic risk, Silo’s permissionless market creation opens the door for a wider range of tokens to participate in DeFi lending. This inclusivity not only broadens opportunities for lenders and borrowers but also fosters a more dynamic and resilient ecosystem.
What makes Silo stand out, however, is the level of control it gives users over their risk exposure. When depositing assets, lenders can choose exactly which Silo markets to participate in, effectively defining their own risk parameters.
This is a stark contrast to shared-pool platforms, where depositors are automatically exposed to the risks of all listed tokens. By putting risk management directly in the hands of users, Silo embodies the decentralized ethos of DeFi, empowering individuals to take charge of their financial decisions.
Adding another layer of innovation, Silo introduces modular interest rates that adapt to the risk profile of each asset. Unlike traditional platforms that offer a one-size-fits-all rate, Silo tailors interest rates on a per-Silo, per-token basis. This means lenders earn higher returns for taking on riskier assets, creating a fairer and more equitable system.
It’s a win-win: lenders are incentivized to provide liquidity, while borrowers gain access to a more efficient and transparent lending market.
Conclusion Silo Finance’s approach to DeFi lending marks a meaningful step forward, addressing long-standing inefficiencies while staying true to decentralization’s core principles. Silo isn’t just fixing DeFi’s problems—it’s reinventing the wheel. Risk isolation? Check. Customizable exposure? Done. Tailored interest rates? Nailed it.
This is especially impactful for risky or niche tokens, which have often been sidelined in traditional lending systems. Silo’s model gives lenders the tools to manage risk effectively while earning fair, risk-adjusted returns. Borrowers, meanwhile, gain access to a more flexible and inclusive market, where even unconventional assets can unlock liquidity.
For DeFi to fulfill its promise, it needs solutions that balance innovation with practicality. Silo’s focus on user control, transparency, and scalability shows how lending can evolve into a powerful tool for individuals and institutions alike. It’s not just about building a better system anymore but about making DeFi work for everyone.
In today’s crypto market, Drift Protocol ($DRIFT) is the clear leader. According to Phoenix, a prominent crypto media outlet, Drift saw a remarkable increase of +96.4%. This surge positions Drift as the biggest gainer of the day. It highlights the growing demand for its decentralized trading platform.
Cats ($CATS) Soars by +88.8%, Fueling Meme-Crypto Surge Other tokens are also soaring higher. Cats ($CATS) rose by +88.8% as investors continue to flock to meme-based cryptocurrencies. Likewise, X Empire ($X) skyrocketed with an increase of +87.0% as investors backed blockchain gaming platforms. Interestingly, both tokens are trending in the positive direction.
Furthermore, Vectorspace AI ($VXV) was up by +59.1%. Due to its AI features, Vectorspace is gaining popularity as AI technology is becoming more prominent in the crypto market. This growth shows that the value of AI-driven projects continues to grow in blockchain environments.
Stargate Finance ($STG) and Marinade ($MNDE) were also up significantly. Stargate increased by 35.6% while Marinade increased by 34.5%. These tokens are integral parts of the DeFi space, where Stargate helps to provide cross-chain liquidity and Marinade offers the staking services. As for the impact of the market, both projects are currently enjoying their existence in the form of DeFi.
Crypto Market Outlook Remains Bullish with Promising Developments Ahead Kamino ($KMNO), Parcl ($PRCL), Swell ($SWELL), and Orderly Network ($ORDER) completed the top performers. Kamino increased by +34.3%, and Parcl by +31.7%. Swell was up by +27.6% and Orderly Network, by +22.3%. These projects represent the range of industries that are defining the dynamics of the crypto market.
Overall, today’s market is good and promising. The public is still bullish and investors are keen on upcoming projects in many fields to ensure future developments in the crypto market.
AUTHOR
Crypto journalist with years of experience providing in-depth analysis and news on blockchain and decentralized finance. With a keen eye for detail, Shahzaib delivers insightful articles that explore the latest trends, market movements, and innovations within the crypto and blockchain ecosystem. His work focuses on educating readers while offering expert commentary on the evolving landscape of digital assets, DeFi protocols, and the broader impact of blockchain technology.
Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, has disclosed plans to delist several tokens in a few weeks.
In a press release today, the exchange confirmed that the tokens scheduled for removal are Unifi Protocol DAO (UNFI), Ooki Protocol (OOKI), Keep3rV1 (KP3R), and Rupiah Token (IDRT).
This move follows the company’s routine asset reviews, aimed at ensuring all listed tokens meet their high standards.
The delisting will take place on Nov. 6 at 03:00 UTC. At that time, all trading pairs associated with these tokens, including UNFI/BTC, OOKI/USDT, KP3R/USDT and others, will cease trading.
Binance explained that their decision is based on factors such as the project’s development activity, the stability of their networks, and adherence to regulatory requirements. They noted that these steps are meant to protect users and ensure a healthy crypto trading environment.
Users holding these tokens are encouraged to take action before key deadlines. Trading on spot markets will close on Nov. 6, but Binance has outlined several earlier milestones related to margin trading, futures contracts, and other services.
For instance, isolated margin borrowings for these tokens will be suspended on Oct. 25, with further closures of positions set for Oct. 31. Users are advised to settle their positions and transfer any assets to avoid losses.
After the delisting, deposits of the tokens will not be credited starting from Nov. 7. However, Binance will support withdrawals until Feb. 6, 2025. The exchange also mentioned the possibility of converting the delisted tokens into stablecoins, but there is no guarantee on this yet.
The delisting comes after a similar trend in the crypto market, where assets removed from the Binance exchange often see price volatility.
Past delistings by Binance have led to massive price drops for some tokens, such as TrueUSD and Tornado Cash’s TORN and Monero. However, there have also been cases where tokens surged despite a Binance delisting, as seen with Reef Finance.
In a riveting turn of events, cryptocurrency exchange behemoth Binance announced plans to delist four crypto on Wednesday, raising eyebrows among market participants globally. The digital asset exchange highlighted plans to delist the Rupiah Token, Keep3rV1, Ooki Protocol, and Unifi Protocol DAO cryptocurrencies shortly ahead. Simultaneously, IDRT, KP3R, OOKI, and UNFI prices slipped 0.5%-46% in tandem with the announcement.
Market enthusiasts speculate whether the coins’ prices could witness further dips in light of the discontinued support by one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges.
Binance To Delist IDRT, KP3R, OOKI, and UNFI Raising Market Concerns According to an official Binance release dated October 23, the cryptocurrency exchange giant will delist IDRT, KP3R, OOKI, and UNFI crypto on November 6. “The exact trading pairs being removed are: KP3R/USDT, OOKI/USDT, UNFI/BTC, UNFI/TRY, UNFI/USDT, USDT/IDRT,” the announcement spotlighted.
Notably, the exchange will cease trading and remove all trade orders in each respective trading pair on the mentioned date. This implies that the aforementioned tokens’ valuation will not be available in users’ wallets after the delisting process concludes.
Also, the exchange clarified that deposits of these tokens will not be credited to any user’s account after November 7. Simultaneously, withdrawals for the same will not be supported by the exchange after February 6, 2025, starting 03:00 UTC. The usual stablecoin conversion process may be applied after February 7, the next year, for a seamless delisting process for users. However, the announcement clarified that this mover is still not guaranteed, and the digital asset trading platform will notify its users if this were to happen.
Simultaneously, Binance Simple Earn will delist the four tokens after November 4 this year, per the announcement. Moreover, the UNFIUSDT USD-Margined perpetual contract will cease as of October 30 at 09:00 UTC. The cryptocurrency exchange also announced discontinued support for KP3R, OOKI, and UNFI Cross and Isolated Margin pairs, among other things. Overall, the announcement has reverberated bearishness for these four digital assets across the broader industry.
Meanwhile, it’s also worth mentioning that the exchange is delisting these tokens in an attempt to meet a high level of standard and industry requirements.
How Are The Crypto Performing? At press time, KP3R price witnessed a 41% crash in value and is currently trading at $31.47. The coin’s intraday low and high were $32.53 and $54.08, respectively.
Simultaneously, IDRT price traded at $0.00006377, down nearly 0.5% at press time. The coin’s 24-hour low and high were $0.00006374 and $0.0000641, respectively.
UNFI price crashed 42% intraday and is currently sitting at $1.57. Its intraday low and high were $1.60 and $2.78, respectively. Lastly, OOKI price tanked 46% over the past day and is now trading at $0.0007154. The coin’s intraday low and high were $0.0007115 and $0.001373, respectively. Notably, the mentioned crypto witness a price crash primarily mirroring a bearish market sentiment in light of Binance’s discontinuation of support.
On the other hand, the cryptocurrency exchange also recently ‘listed’ Simon’s Cat, conversely sparking CAT price gains. Collectively, the abovementioned chronicles underscore the digital asset firm’s remarkable influence across the broader sector.
In the fast-paced world of crypto trading, meme coin and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms are generating curiosity among investors. Three tokens that have been making waves Sunday are Baby Pengu, Shoggoth, and Strips Finance.
While Baby Pengu has experienced a dramatic surge of over 331%, fueled by its charming baby penguin branding, Shoggoth has captured attention with its unique nod to H.P. Lovecraft’s eerie creations — all while riding a wave of more than 126% growth.
Meanwhile, Strips Finance is carving out a niche in the DeFi space, providing a platform for users to hedge and speculate on interest rate derivatives.
Here’s a closer look.
Baby Pengu (BABYPENGU) operates on the Base blockchain. As of Dec. 22, it has experienced significant price volatility, with a notable increase of over 331% at last check Sunday, reaching approximately $0.29 per token.
The token’s total supply is capped at 1 billion, with about 186 million tokens currently in circulation, resulting in a market capitalization around $54 million, according to Coinbase.
Trading activity is primarily conducted on decentralized exchanges, with Uniswap V2 (Base) being a notable platform for BABYPENGU transactions.
The meme coin seemingly got its name and logo from the illustration of a cartoon baby penguin. See the chart below.
Courtesy of CoinGecko Shoggoth Shoggoth (SHOGGOTH) is up by more than 126% at last check on Sunday.
The coin’s market cap currently hovers at around $56.7 million.
A meme token on the Solana blockchain, Shoggoth was named after the fictional creature found in author H.P. Lovecraft’s stories. It was first launched on the Pumpfun platform, and has a circulating supply of 1 billion tokens.
Shoggoth trades actively on decentralized exchanges like Raydium and, as of Dec. 22, it has a daily trading volume of approximately $6,340.
Despite its niche appeal and satirical undertones, Shoggoth has seemingly captured the imagination of crypto traders. See the chart below.
Courtesy of CoinGecko Strips Finance Strips Finance (STRP) is a decentralized platform focused on interest rate derivatives, allowing users to hedge and speculate on interest rate movements.
Operating on the Arbitrum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) networks, Strips Finance offers decentralized exchange services for interest rate swaps and fixed-income products.
Its native token, STRP, is up over 81% at last check Sunday. It’s currently trading around $1.03, with a market capitalization just below $33 million and a circulating supply of 30 million tokens.
STRP can be traded on exchanges such as Sushiswap and Gate.io, with the STRP/USDC.E pair seeing the most activity.
Rubio: US and Iran to continue technical consultations at the end of this month
Multiple foreign media outlets reported on the 24th that US Secretary of State Rubio said technical teams from the United States and Iran will hold further talks in Switzerland by the end of June. (Xinhua News Agency)
6 hours ago
Over the past 24 hours, total crypto market liquidations hit $606 million, with more than 130,000 traders liquidated.
According to Coinglass data, the global cryptocurrency market recorded $606 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, including $542 million in long-position liquidations and $68.22 million in short-position liquidations. A total of 135,785 traders worldwide were liquidated in the same period, with the largest single liquidation order occurring on Binance’s BTCUSDT trading pair, valued at $12.0111 million.
6 hours ago
Bitcoin falls below $60,000
According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has fallen below $60,000, with a 4.3% drop in the past 24 hours.
6 hours ago
US Treasury Secretary: AI boom may boost productivity and help curb inflation.
US Treasury Secretary Bessent told CNBC in an interview that he hopes the Federal Reserve will remain "open-minded" about the inflation pattern after the reversal of Iran-related energy price hikes. Bessent noted that the U.S. could enter an economic environment marked by high GDP growth without a corresponding rise in traditional inflation. He cited that in the 1990s, Alan Greenspan foresaw that office modernization and the internet could drive non-inflationary growth, and allowed the economy to keep expanding. Bessent believes the U.S. has a strong chance of seeing a similar scenario again. When asked whether the Fed still needs to worry about potential inflation and whether interest rate cuts are possible this year or next, Bessent declined to comment. However, he argued that it is necessary to stay open-minded about the price or inflation impacts from the Iran conflict, and monitor inflation performance after those effects subside. Bessent also said an open mind is needed, as the AI boom could boost productivity and deliver disinflationary effects, helping inflation return to the Fed’s target level. He added that he believes Kevin Warsh will choose the optimal path that meets both the Fed’s inflation and growth mandates. Bessent also noted that Warsh previously took a hawkish stance on inflation.
6 hours ago
US stocks' intraday storage sector sees broad declines, with Western Digital and Seagate Technology both falling over 4%.
According to Bitget data, during U.S. stock trading hours, the storage sector saw broad declines: Western Digital (WDC) fell 4.47%, Seagate Technology (STX) dropped 4.17%, SanDisk (SNDK) declined 2.31%, and Micron Technology (MU) edged down 0.96%. Most optical communication concept stocks rose, with Corning (GLW) leading the gains at 9.75%, followed by Ciena (CIEN) up 3.24%, Coherent (COHR) rising 2.93%, Lumentum (LITE) gaining 2.61%, and Nokia (NOK) advancing 1.82%. Additionally, Marvell Technology (MRVL) fell 2.59% and Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) declined 1.90%.
6 hours ago
During intraday trading in U.S. stocks, crypto-related concept stocks fell broadly, with MSTR dropping more than 7%.
According to Bitget market data, the three major U.S. stock indexes rose broadly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.94%, the S&P 500 increased 0.60%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.63%. Crypto-related stocks fell across the board, with declines as follows: Strategy (MSTR) down 7.33%; Circle (CRCL) down 4.35%; Bitmine (BMNR) down 3.97%; Coinbase (COIN) down 3.73%; Robinhood (HOOD) down 3.70%; Gemini (GEMI) down 3.27%; Bullish (BLSH) down 3.25%; Sharplink (SBET) down 3.19%.
Rubio: US and Iran to continue technical consultations at the end of this month
Multiple foreign media outlets reported on the 24th that US Secretary of State Rubio said technical teams from the United States and Iran will hold further talks in Switzerland by the end of June. (Xinhua News Agency)
6 hours ago
Over the past 24 hours, total crypto market liquidations hit $606 million, with more than 130,000 traders liquidated.
According to Coinglass data, the global cryptocurrency market recorded $606 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, including $542 million in long-position liquidations and $68.22 million in short-position liquidations. A total of 135,785 traders worldwide were liquidated in the same period, with the largest single liquidation order occurring on Binance’s BTCUSDT trading pair, valued at $12.0111 million.
6 hours ago
Bitcoin falls below $60,000
According to HTX market data, Bitcoin has fallen below $60,000, with a 4.3% drop in the past 24 hours.
6 hours ago
US Treasury Secretary: AI boom may boost productivity and help curb inflation.
US Treasury Secretary Bessent told CNBC in an interview that he hopes the Federal Reserve will remain "open-minded" about the inflation pattern after the reversal of Iran-related energy price hikes. Bessent noted that the U.S. could enter an economic environment marked by high GDP growth without a corresponding rise in traditional inflation. He cited that in the 1990s, Alan Greenspan foresaw that office modernization and the internet could drive non-inflationary growth, and allowed the economy to keep expanding. Bessent believes the U.S. has a strong chance of seeing a similar scenario again. When asked whether the Fed still needs to worry about potential inflation and whether interest rate cuts are possible this year or next, Bessent declined to comment. However, he argued that it is necessary to stay open-minded about the price or inflation impacts from the Iran conflict, and monitor inflation performance after those effects subside. Bessent also said an open mind is needed, as the AI boom could boost productivity and deliver disinflationary effects, helping inflation return to the Fed’s target level. He added that he believes Kevin Warsh will choose the optimal path that meets both the Fed’s inflation and growth mandates. Bessent also noted that Warsh previously took a hawkish stance on inflation.
6 hours ago
US stocks' intraday storage sector sees broad declines, with Western Digital and Seagate Technology both falling over 4%.
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Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.
Fresh Ripple USD stablecoins (RLUSD) amounting to 150,000,000 RLUSD, which were recently minted at the Treasury, have been traced to Gemini Exchange. According to XRPL validator Vet, the minting came just after the exchange redeemed 128 million RLUSD on XRP Ledger.
Liquidity testing or demand surge behind RLUSD activity?Notably, the fresh minting by the Ripple Treasury was done in two batches of 92.3 million RLUSD and 58.2 million RLUSD. The successful minting and transfer to Gemini confirms that the exchange maintains 1:1 USD reserves in a Ripple-controlled account for minting.
Vet could not explain the reason Gemini exchange initially redeemed the 12 million RLUSD before the recent 150 million RLUSD. It is possible that the exchange was engaging in liquidity testing to assess the mint and burn infrastructure and how quickly Ripple could respond to its requests.
Now Gemini minted 150,000,000 $RLUSD on the XRP Ledger with Ripple.
This means Gemini has 1:1 the USD liquidity in a Ripple controlled bank account, to mint this amount.
I can't tell exactly the motivation or goal behind this sequence of events.
But Ripples mint/redeem engine… https://t.co/q2gF9LpHDK pic.twitter.com/WYVYNHBs84
— Vet (@Vet_X0) April 1, 2026 Additionally, Gemini might have experienced a demand surge shortly after burning the initial 128 million RLUSD previously.
In any case, Vet noted that the transaction confirms that "the Ripple mint/redeem engine for RLUSD works great." The XRPL validator acknowledged that funds are swiftly sent to distribution accounts to fund customers.
The development suggests that institutions are actively interacting with RLUSD infrastructure because of its efficiency. For their part, liquidity providers like Gemini are testing the blockchain infrastructure, while XRPL is being used for stablecoin settlement.
Overall, it signals bullish infrastructure growth for the Ripple, which has sparked mixed reactions among community members. While some consider this a confirmation of "Ripple's stablecoin infrastructure firing on all cylinders," others are not impressed.
A user, Evelyn Anderson, observed that minting 150 million RLUSD does not prove strength; rather, it is evidence of capacity. She argues that without real demand, the minted RLUSD is just numbers on the blockchain.
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Although the reason for Gemini’s initial burn of 128 million RLUSD remains unknown, it is consistent with Ripple’s overall strategy.
Over the last 16 months since the launch of RLUSD, Ripple’s USD stablecoin desk has been maintaining a strict supply control and balance. It has regularly conducted burn and mint exercises, only to repeat the entire process again.
This strategy supported its break into the top 100 crypto assets less than 10 months after it hit the market. It also ensured that RLUSD maintained an average of about $150 million in daily volume at the time.
The growth trajectory of RLUSD continues to impress market observers as it has set its sights set on hitting $2 billion in market cap soon.
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Polkadot (DOT), an open-source sharded multichain protocol, was exploited after an attacker minted 1 billion tokens and dumped them for 108.2 ETH ($237K), crashing the bridged DOT price from $1.22 to near $1.
Multiple exchanges, including Upbit, suspended DOT deposits and withdrawals in response.
How The Polkadot (DOT) Exploit HappenedOn April 13, 2026, the attacker sent a fake proof to a vulnerable contract on Ethereum. This proof looked real to the system, so it passed the security checks and triggered an important function in the bridge.
That single action caused two major problems. First, it gave the attacker full control of the bridged DOT token contract by changing the admin to their own wallet. This meant they now had the power to manage and create tokens.
After gaining control, the attacker minted 1 billion DOT tokens out of thin air and sent them to a new wallet. This was around 2,805 times more than the actual supply at that time.
They then dumped all the tokens into Uniswap V4 in a single move, draining about 108.2 ETH (around $237,000) from the liquidity pool.
The attacker routed the funds through Odos Router V3 and sent them back to their wallet, while the fake supply crashed the token value.
Why This Happened: HyperBridge Security FailureThe exploit was possible due to a flaw in how the bridge verified cross-chain messages. This happened because the system trusted a fake proof.
Hyperbridge developers built the system to remove human control and rely only on cryptographic proofs for cross-chain verification. But the attacker managed to create forged proof that the system mistakenly accepted as valid.
Once that fake proof passed, the contract automatically executed it, giving the attacker control and allowing them to change permissions and mint tokens.
The impact was felt almost instantly; the DOT token price crashed from around $1.22 to nearly $1 in the same transaction block.
Some platforms have already reacted quickly. Upbit temporarily suspended DOT deposits and withdrawals as a precaution.
Developers are now working to investigate the exploit and fix the vulnerability. Exchanges may continue adding more restrictions until teams fully understand the issue and assess ongoing risks.
Hyperbridge and Polytope Labs have not released any official detailed statement on mitigation steps, recovery plans, or system pauses yet.
Story Ends Here
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As hacking incidents continue to increase in the cryptocurrency market, the latest news comes from Ethereum (ETH).
According to blockchain security firm PeckShield, a cyberattack occurred on the Ethereum (ETH) network in which a large amount of Polkadot (DOT) was minted without authorization.
Hackers reportedly minted approximately 1 billion Polkadot (DOT) tokens without authorization on the Ethereum network and sold them on the market.
Analyses suggest that a security vulnerability on the Polkadot Bridge may be the cause.
Analysts note that the losses experienced in DOT are relatively small due to the limited and low liquidity of the token.
According to the data, DOT continues to trade at $1.18, down approximately 3.6%, while South Korean exchanges Upbit and Bithumb have suspended DOT deposits and withdrawals.
Polkadot has not yet made an official statement.
*This is not investment advice.
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13 April 2026 | 10:37 The Hyperbridge cross-chain gateway connecting Polkadot to Ethereum was exploited on April 13.
Key Takeaways
Hyperbridge exploit minted 1 billion DOT on Ethereum. Attacker minted tokens worth $1.1B at prior market rates, realized only 108.2 ETH. Bridged DOT collapsed from $1.22 to near zero within one hour of the dump. Native DOT on Polkadot relay chain unaffected – down ~4% in sympathy. What Happened The Hyperbridge cross-chain gateway, a bridge connecting Polkadot to Ethereum, was exploited on April 13, 2026. The attacker identified a vulnerability that allowed them to seize admin privileges over the DOT token contract on Ethereum, transfer control to a malicious address, and forge gateway messages to authorize minting. One billion DOT were created and immediately dumped into available liquidity pools.
The timing is the most damaging contextual detail. In March 2026, six weeks before this exploit, the Polkadot community implemented a hard supply cap of 2.1 billion DOT through governance. The decision was designed to give DOT, which recently got its first spot ETF on Nasdaq, monetary credibility through enforced scarcity.
BRIDGED POLKADOT JUST GOT EXPLOITED
An attacker exploited a third-party bridge to mint 1 Billion DOT tokens on Ethereum. They sold them straight into the liquidity pool, removing over $240K in ETH across multiple transactions.
Track the attacker on Arkham using the link below: pic.twitter.com/2glmVWsDjS
— Arkham (@arkham) April 13, 2026
According to Yahoo Finance, the exploit minted tokens equal to nearly 48% of that entire capped supply in a single transaction. The governance mechanism that was supposed to make DOT scarcer was bypassed entirely through a cross-chain contract that operated on different infrastructure.
The native Polkadot relay chain was not affected. The supply cap on the native chain remains intact. The exploit targeted only the bridged representation of DOT on Ethereum, but for holders of that bridged asset, the distinction is academic.
Current Status Security firms PeckShield and CertiK have flagged the exploit and are tracking the movement of the 108.2 ETH the attacker realized. Upbit suspended all DOT deposits and withdrawals immediately, the first exchange action, and a signal that the industry is treating the bridged asset as compromised regardless of what the Polkadot team says officially.
Efforts are underway to isolate the compromised Hyperbridge contract to prevent further unauthorized minting. Users are warned not to interact with bridged or wrapped DOT on Ethereum until a new secure contract is deployed. As of reporting, neither the Web3 Foundation nor the Hyperbridge team has issued a formal statement.
The Liquidity Number That Tells the Whole Story The exploit mechanics explain how it happened. The $237,000 figure explains what it actually meant for the market.
The attacker minted tokens with an apparent market value of $1.1 billion at prior rates and walked away with 108.2 ETH, approximately $237,000. The gap between those two numbers is not a quirk of the execution. It is the precise measure of the actual liquidity depth of the bridged DOT market on Ethereum. Available liquidity in the pools the attacker dumped into was approximately $237,000. The asset that was supposedly worth $1.1 billion could absorb that much selling before the price collapsed to near zero.
The bridged DOT on Ethereum did not have $1.1 billion worth of real market depth. It had $237,000. Everything above that figure was price discovery built on the assumption that the bridged asset was redeemable for native DOT. Once that assumption was broken, the apparent value evaporated instantly.
If the apparent value was never real liquidity, reimbursing holders means replacing something that was never fully backed, and the treasury cannot do it even if the community wanted to.
The Reimbursement Problem The community that just voted for monetary scarcity is now being asked to consider inflating supply by 48% to fix a bridge it did not build. That tension has no clean resolution, and it is the first thing any reimbursement proposal will have to confront.
The Polkadot Treasury currently holds approximately 44 million DOT. The exploit involved 1 billion DOT, more than 22 times the treasury balance. Full reimbursement through a standard treasury spend is mathematically impossible. Any meaningful compensation would require either minting new tokens, directly undermining the supply cap governance decision made six weeks ago, or some unprecedented protocol-level intervention the community has not previously used.
If a proposal is eventually submitted, it must pass through Polkadot’s on-chain governance system, OpenGov, under the Big Spender or Wish for Change tracks. These require a lead-in period of several days before voting begins, conviction voting where holders lock tokens to increase their influence, and an enactment delay before any funds move. The governance process is designed for deliberation. It is not designed for emergency response at this scale.
The most likely outcome is not full reimbursement. It is partial compensation directed at the most affected liquidity providers, funded through a combination of whatever treasury allocation the community will approve without triggering the inflation question, and a separate accountability process aimed at the Hyperbridge team, which built and maintained the contract that was exploited.
The Polkadot governance system did not create this vulnerability. The bridge did. That distinction will matter in how the community frames any response.
The supply cap survived the exploit. The bridge did not. And the treasury cannot cover the difference.
The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Coindoo.com does not endorse or recommend any specific investment strategy or cryptocurrency. Always conduct your own research and consult with a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
Author
Kosta has reported on cryptocurrency markets and blockchain infrastructure since 2020, bringing over six years of hands-on experience in the crypto industry built through daily tracking of markets, trends, and emerging blockchain developments. Specializing in Bitcoin on-chain analysis, institutional ETF flows, and digital asset price action, his work at Coindoo has been cited by other news agencies and consistently covers market developments with a focus on data-driven reporting across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP. Over the years, Kosta has contributed to multiple crypto media outlets in different regions, authoring over 6,000 articles across the sector. His reporting spans cryptocurrency markets and the broader fintech industry, tracking not only price action but also the technological and regulatory forces shaping the ecosystem. To support his analysis, Kosta actively leverages on-chain data and metrics from leading platforms such as Santiment, Glassnode, and CryptoQuant, enabling deeper, evidence-based market insights. He believes in the power of transparency and the data that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. His academic background in Marketing Management from Denmark further complements his analytical approach, adding a strong understanding of communication strategy and content positioning to his work.
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Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.
The cryptocurrency market is experiencing one of the most dynamic moments of the year as Bitcoin has surpassed the psychological $78,000 mark for the first time in two months. This breakout is accompanied by a strong inflow of liquidity; on the Solana blockchain alone, 500 million USDC were issued within a short period of time, according to Whale Alert.
The main catalyst for growth was a sharp positive shift in geopolitics. The market reacted to news of a possible deescalation in the Middle East. Statements from the parties about opening the Strait of Hormuz for commercial shipping triggered a drop in oil prices below $80 for WTI and a sharp rise in risk assets — first of all BTC.
BTC/USD price chart with Whale Alert post, Source: TradingViewUSDC printing press: 500 million “in the moment”Against this backdrop, the Whale Alert system recorded the creation of two batches of 250,000,000 USDC, worth a total of $500 million in Circle’s treasury. The majority of the new issuance was deployed on the Solana network, bringing the weekly stablecoin issuance volume on this chain to a record $3.25 billion in 2026.
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Historically, such large USDC issuances precede phases of active buying or are used by institutions to collateralize margin positions amid rising volatility.
Despite the euphoria, experts from Glassnode and JPMorgan warn of a “sell wall” and potential profit-taking. Support is now located in the $75,000-$76,000 range. The ceiling for BTC in this rally is marked at $86,796, where the 200-day moving average is currently stretching.
At 17:35 UTC on Saturday, April 18, 2026, someone minted 116,500 rsETH on Ethereum mainnet that had no backing behind it. That’s roughly 18% of KelpDAO’s entire circulating supply, worth about $292 million at the time the forged LayerZero packet cleared. Within minutes it was sitting as collateral on Aave, borrowing WETH against itself. Within an hour it had produced the largest single DeFi extraction of 2026 so far.
This piece was written in the first evening after the drain. KelpDAO and LayerZero have both promised post-mortems; final numbers on bad debt, compensation, and any supply migration will shift over the coming days. Treat the specific figures below as the best on-chain and analyst estimates available as of April 18–19, 2026.
The restaking contracts didn’t fail. The EigenLayer delegations are still intact. Mainnet rsETH is still backed by the legitimate user deposits sitting in KelpDAO’s node delegators. The core product was fine. What broke was the bridge — a LayerZero OFT adapter running on a one-of-one validator stack, which let a single forged signature instruct the adapter’s mainnet escrow to release tokens that shouldn’t have moved. Everything downstream is composability fallout.
Here is what happened, what broke, and who actually pays.
What KelpDAO Is, and Why the Bridge Mattered KelpDAO is one of the larger liquid restaking token (LRT) protocols built on EigenLayer. Users deposit ETH or a whitelisted LST, the protocol delegates to a set of EigenLayer operators, and users receive rsETH: a token representing a claim on the restaked position plus accrued yield. By April, rsETH had crossed $1 billion in TVL and was integrated as collateral across most of the major lending markets and yield venues in DeFi.
rsETH lives natively on Ethereum, where the restaking contracts sit. But its utility depends on being everywhere: Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, Unichain, Linea, and roughly a dozen other L2s and sidechains. KelpDAO uses a LayerZero OFT (Omnichain Fungible Token) adapter to move rsETH across chains. The adapter is the bridge. When rsETH leaves Ethereum, it’s locked in an escrow contract on mainnet, and a matching amount is minted on the destination chain. When a cross-chain message comes back, the escrow releases.
That escrow release is what got spoofed.
The Attack: A Single Forged lzReceive Call The entire drain happened in one transaction:
The call landed on LayerZero’s EndpointV2 contract at 0x1a44076050125825900e736c501f859c50fE728c with a forged origin packet claiming to come from source Endpoint ID (EID) 30320. The endpoint passed the payload to KelpDAO’s rsETH OFT adapter at 0x85d456B2DfF1fd8245387C0BfB64Dfb700e98Ef3. The adapter, trusting the message, released 116,500 rsETH from escrow into attacker address 0x8B1b6c9A6DB1304000412dd21Ae6A70a82d60D3b. One Transfer, one OFTReceived, one PacketDelivered. Roughly $292 million.
The forgery worked because the adapter’s security stack was configured to accept the attestation of a single verifier. LayerZero’s OApp configuration model lets the application developer choose how many “DVNs” (Decentralized Verifier Networks) must sign off on an incoming message before it’s delivered, plus any optional verifiers. For the rsETH OFT, both sender-side and receiver-side configs read the same way:
requiredDVNs: [LayerZero Labs] requiredDVNCount: 1 optionalDVNs: [] optionalDVNCount: 0 The sender-side DVN contract (0x282b3386571f7f794450d5789911a9804fa346b4) and the receiver-side DVN (0x589dedbd617e0cbcb916a9223f4d1300c294236b) both ran a one-of-one validator stack operated by LayerZero Labs. One forged signature was enough to make any cross-chain message look real. An entirely legitimate rsETH transaction had settled through the exact same DVN two days earlier, so this wasn’t a dormant testnet artifact; it was the live production setup.
On-chain analyst @senamakel was the first to post the OApp config publicly, roughly three hours after the drain. A follow-up reply from researcher @BranchM in the same thread clarified something important: the compromise wasn’t Unichain-specific. The DVN contract and its signing keys sit on Ethereum, so the attacker could have spoofed any source chain the adapter trusted. Changing the source EID from Unichain to Arbitrum would have produced the same outcome. The DVN itself was the single point of failure; the source chain was cosmetic.
LayerZero’s protocol wasn’t broken. The configuration KelpDAO (and whoever advised them) deployed was. A multi-DVN stack, typically two-of-three or three-of-five in production deployments handling significant value, would have required the attacker to compromise multiple independent verifier networks simultaneously. They only had to compromise one.
The Cashout: Unbacked Collateral Meets a Ready Lending Market The attacker didn’t try to sell 116,500 rsETH into DEX liquidity. That would have crashed the price inside the first block and capped the extraction at whatever the curves could absorb. Instead, they did the thing every post-2024 exploit playbook describes: they used the tokens as collateral.
According to on-chain accounting compiled by Chaos Labs and cross-checked against the adapter events:
On Aave V3/V4 Ethereum, the attacker supplied rsETH and borrowed 52,834 WETH. On Aave V3/V4 Arbitrum, they bridged a portion of the stolen supply and borrowed 29,782 WETH plus 821 wstETH. Smaller positions were opened on Compound V3 and Euler before those markets were frozen, adding an undisclosed additional slice of WETH/ETH borrows on top of the Aave numbers. Total extracted value sits in the $200M–$236M range depending on exact execution prices and the wstETH mark. That’s the money that actually left the attacker’s address as borrowed liquidity. A portion of the borrowed funds was then routed through Tornado Cash (ZachXBT flagged the first mixer-bound hops within twenty minutes of the drain), while the rest sits in wallets on-chain sleuths are actively tracking.
KelpDAO’s operations multisig paused the rsETH contracts on Ethereum and every L2 where the adapter was deployed within 46 minutes of the initial mint. That pause stopped any follow-up forgery and prevented the attacker from minting a second tranche. It didn’t, and couldn’t, reverse the positions already opened on third-party lenders.
The Blast Radius: Who Actually Got Hit The exploit was tightly contained at the smart-contract layer. Core EigenLayer pools, rsETH’s underlying backing, and LayerZero’s non-Kelp traffic were untouched. But rsETH had been so thoroughly composed into DeFi that the forced pause rippled outward immediately.
Aave took the brunt. rsETH was an accepted collateral asset across V3 and V4 instances on both Ethereum and Arbitrum. Within hours, Aave’s risk team froze every rsETH market and pushed a public message urging WETH suppliers to pull their liquidity while the situation was being scoped. Marc Zeller and Chaos Labs both confirmed the exploit itself didn’t touch any Aave contract. The risk is purely that the collateral backing the attacker’s ~$200M in borrows is now known to be worthless. The AAVE governance token traded off roughly 10% in the hours after the news broke, reflecting market uncertainty about how much of the deficit lands on token holders versus Umbrella stakers.
SparkLend, Fluid, and Upshift froze or paused rsETH positions on the same timeline. Compound V3 and Euler paused new rsETH borrows after the first attacker positions were opened.
Yield venues and structured products cut exposure the moment the news hit X:
Ethena paused rsETH usage in its vaults. Yearn froze any vault with rsETH allocations. Pendle paused its rsETH PT/YT markets to stop mispriced trading during the chaos. Beefy froze rsETH-denominated strategies. Lombard Finance preemptively paused unrelated LayerZero LBTC routes “out of caution,” which tells you something about the current level of trust in OFT configurations industry-wide. The knock-on damage runs deepest on the roughly 20 L2s and sidechains where rsETH was bridged. Because the minted supply on Ethereum is now partially unbacked, every wrapped derivative downstream is structurally impaired. Holders of rsETH on Arbitrum, Base, Mantle, Linea, and the other bridged chains are sitting on tokens that can no longer be confidently redeemed against a 1:1 claim on Ethereum escrow. Withdrawals are paused, liquidity has evacuated DEX pools, and any lending market on those chains that accepted wrapped rsETH as collateral is running into the same bad-debt math Aave is running into on mainnet, just at smaller scale.
Untouched: stETH, wstETH, rETH, cbETH, and every other major LST/LRT outside of KelpDAO. There is no systemic restaking contagion here. The failure is specific to one adapter, one DVN, one trust model.
The $177M Bad Debt vs a $56M Umbrella The Aave bad debt number being quoted by every serious on-chain analyst is roughly $177 million, sitting in the WETH reserves across V3 and V4 on Ethereum and Arbitrum, plus a small wstETH slice on Arbitrum. The range from different sources runs $177M–$196M depending on exactly how partial liquidations and wstETH marks are accounted for. $177M is the median figure from Chaos Labs’ real-time reporting, and the one most post-mortems will anchor to.
That deficit is what Aave’s Umbrella module was built for. The awkward part is that Umbrella currently only runs on Ethereum mainnet.
Umbrella is the on-chain risk backstop that replaced the old Safety Module in mid-2025. The old Safety Module required a governance vote to slash stakers, which meant that in practice it had never actually been slashed. It was a theoretical insurance fund. Umbrella is different by design:
Per-asset, per-network isolation. Stakers deposit into a specific asset vault on a specific network. The WETH vault on Ethereum covers WETH deficits on Aave Ethereum and nothing else. USDC and GHO stakers are untouched. Ethereum-only, for now. Umbrella launched on mainnet in mid-2025 and has not yet been deployed to Arbitrum, Base, or any other network. Bad debt recorded on a non-Ethereum Aave instance falls back to legacy cover-of-last-resort: the DAO Collector first, then AAVE token issuance via governance, then pro-rata socialization onto suppliers if those prove insufficient. Automated slashing. UmbrellaCore monitors realized bad debt in the corresponding Aave reserve. When the recorded deficit crosses a configurable threshold (the “deficit offset,” currently 100,000 units of the base asset, absorbed by the DAO Collector first), UmbrellaCore permissionlessly calls slash() on the relevant StakeToken contract. No governance vote, no delay. Pro-rata dilution. Slashing burns a proportional share of the vault’s underlying assets and sends them to the Collector, which repays the pool. Every staker’s share value drops by the same percentage. 20-day cooldown. You can’t exit instantly. Once you request withdrawal, you remain fully exposed (and fully rewarded) for 20 days. This is the structural reason bank-run dynamics can’t short-circuit the backstop. Minimum assets floor. The contract refuses to drain the vault below a minimum level, and slashing is capped at the actual recorded deficit. The Ethereum WETH Umbrella vault was carrying roughly $56M in TVL heading into the weekend. The attacker’s borrows split roughly 52,834 WETH on Ethereum versus 29,782 WETH and 821 wstETH on Arbitrum, which maps the $177M deficit to something like ~$113M on Ethereum WETH, ~$64M on Arbitrum WETH, and a few million in Arbitrum wstETH. The Ethereum slice alone is roughly twice the size of the Umbrella vault standing against it.
The slash math is therefore brutal and simple. Umbrella gets fully drained — the entire $56M vault slashed down to its minimum-assets floor — and still leaves roughly $55M of residual WETH bad debt on Ethereum uncovered. The Arbitrum deficit, roughly $67M combined across WETH and wstETH, has no Umbrella backstop at all and flows directly to DAO-level mechanisms. Net shortfall against Aave’s existing Umbrella capacity lands somewhere around $120M even after the Ethereum vault is wiped to the floor.
The DAO’s $100K deficit offset is a rounding error at that scale. The Collector balance helps, but not enough. That leaves two real levers for the residual: governance-authorized AAVE issuance (minting tokens, selling them, and pushing the proceeds into the Collector — the classic MakerDAO-style dilution playbook), or direct haircuts on WETH suppliers on the affected instances. AAVE issuance is the politically easier path and the one governance chatter is converging on, but the dilution burden shrinks meaningfully only if KelpDAO socializes a portion of the loss on its side, most likely by haircutting wrapped rsETH on bridged chains rather than touching the mainnet token.
The Hierarchy of Pain Strip away the dashboards and there’s a clean ranking of who actually absorbs the $292M.
Tier 1: Aave Umbrella WETH stakers on Ethereum. They signed up to be the first-loss backstop in exchange for extra yield on top of the aWETH supply rate. That trade-off is now live, and not partially — the Ethereum WETH deficit is roughly twice the size of the vault, so the entire $56M gets slashed down to its minimum-assets floor. Loss is immediate, pro-rata, automatic, and close to total. Umbrella stakers in other assets (USDC, GHO) are untouched because of per-asset isolation.
Tier 2: AAVE token holders. Once Umbrella is exhausted, the ~$120M combined residual (Ethereum WETH remainder plus the entire Arbitrum deficit, which has no Umbrella backstop) has to come from somewhere. Governance is already discussing AAVE issuance as the primary cover mechanism, which dilutes existing holders. The ~10% AAVE drop in the hours after the exploit is the market pricing in exactly this scenario.
Tier 3: rsETH holders on bridged chains. An 18% supply inflation at the Ethereum layer translates to structurally impaired wrapped rsETH everywhere else. The recovery plan analysts are modeling, which KelpDAO has not yet officially committed to, is a selective socialization that haircuts the bridged-chain float while leaving Ethereum mainnet rsETH as close to whole as possible. The math and the legal optics both favor pushing losses onto the smaller, more diffuse holder base rather than the mainnet holders sitting on the largest pools and the loudest megaphones. Rough modeling puts a haircut on bridged positions somewhere around the 15–20% range, with the exact number depending on whether KelpDAO chooses to top up partial compensation from treasury.
Tier 4: Leveraged rsETH loopers. The standard LRT trade through April was borrowing WETH against rsETH on Aave or Spark to loop into more rsETH, earning the spread between staking yield (~2.5% blended) and ETH borrow rates. With rsETH frozen and ETH borrow rates spiking into the 8–9% range on the utilization crunch, these positions are burning equity by the hour and can’t be unwound without manual intervention. Some will end up undercollateralized during the unwind and generate secondary bad debt on whichever lender they sit on.
Tier 5: Aave WETH suppliers on Arbitrum. This is the tier Aave’s risk team was most worried about when they pushed the “withdraw” message on Friday. Arbitrum has no Umbrella backstop, so the DAO response determines whether suppliers there get made whole via AAVE issuance or forced to share the loss pro-rata. The longer governance takes, and the smaller KelpDAO’s socialization ends up being, the higher the probability that some portion of the Arbitrum hit lands on suppliers directly. Ethereum WETH suppliers face the same risk at a smaller scale only if AAVE issuance proves politically unworkable.
Tier 6: Everyone else. KelpDAO the DAO will likely spend treasury on partial compensation. LayerZero will eat reputational damage and is under obvious pressure to tighten its default DVN recommendations in the aftermath. Competing LRT protocols (Ether.fi, Renzo, Puffer) are not directly exposed, but the whole category is going to see users reassess bridge security, with an advantage to issuers already running multi-DVN or alternative messaging layers.
The Uncomfortable Questions Why was a $1B protocol running a 1-of-1 DVN? LayerZero’s own security model gives applications full control over their verifier stack precisely so they can match it to the value they’re securing, and multi-DVN setups have been standard recommendation for any OFT handling significant value. Somebody at KelpDAO, at an advising firm, or at an integrator signed off on a single-DVN production config for a token that had grown to over $1B in TVL. That decision is now the story, not LayerZero’s protocol design.
Were the DVN keys actually compromised, or was the attestation logic bypassed some other way? Both KelpDAO and LayerZero have promised a root-cause post-mortem. The forensic question that matters for every other OFT in production is whether the LayerZero Labs DVN key material leaked, a signer was socially engineered, or a signature-forging bug existed upstream. The answer determines whether every other 1-of-1 OFT on LayerZero is currently exposed. And there are many.
How did audits miss this? They probably didn’t. The bridge adapter code is standard LayerZero OFT boilerplate; there’s nothing wrong with the contract. The fault is in the deployment configuration, which sits outside the usual scope of a Solidity audit. Config reviews are a much newer discipline, and this exploit is going to accelerate that market considerably.
What does Aave do about LRTs as collateral going forward? This is the second time in 2026 that an LRT collateral accepted on Aave has produced a nine-figure incident downstream of a non-Aave failure. Risk parameters will tighten, loan-to-value ratios on restaking collateral will come down, and the debate over whether LRTs should be isolation-mode-only on every major lending market is going to get louder.
What does this mean for LayerZero’s institutional pitch? LayerZero has been positioning itself as the messaging layer for traditional finance’s tokenization rollout. A production failure at this scale, in a configuration that was always within the application developer’s control rather than an inherent protocol flaw, is a setback, but it’s also a case study. If the post-mortem is clean, defaults tighten, and existing OFTs migrate to multi-DVN stacks quickly, the damage is contained. If it drags out, the institutional counterparty diligence LayerZero has spent two years building up takes a real hit.
The Lesson That Keeps Repeating Every nine-figure DeFi incident of the last two years has the same structural shape. The core protocol does what it’s supposed to do. Some privileged component on the edge, whether that’s an off-chain signer, a bridge validator, an operator key, or a configuration that was supposed to be temporary, carries more trust than the rest of the stack was aware of. Somebody figures out where that concentration sits, and the full weight of the composed system falls through it.
The Resolv USR exploit in March was a single-signer SERVICE_ROLE that could mint arbitrary amounts of a stablecoin. The KelpDAO exploit is a single-verifier DVN that could authorize arbitrary cross-chain releases. Different protocol, different token class, identical architectural shape: one key, no meaningful check beyond it, and a downstream composability layer that had already assumed the thing behind the key was sound.
The LRT category in particular has spent the last year adding more layers (more chains, more wrappers, more lending integrations, more yield vaults that lend against vaults that lend against wrappers) on top of a base that is fundamentally a three-way trust assumption between the staker, the restaker, and the bridge. Each additional layer compounds yield by a handful of basis points. Each additional layer also compounds the attack surface in ways that are hard to price. The rsETH supply on the 20 bridged chains wasn’t a feature. It was a liability that grew quietly until one forged packet turned it all into bad debt.
The practical takeaway for anyone actually using this stuff is narrow and boring: before you treat a bridged LRT as interchangeable with its mainnet counterpart, look at the bridge’s verifier configuration. Lenders integrating LRTs as collateral have to reckon with a simple fact: the counterparty isn’t the LRT issuer alone. It’s the LRT issuer plus whatever messaging stack sits between mainnet and wherever the wrapped token shows up. At the ecosystem level, the boring parts of security (key management, config reviews, multi-party attestation) are where the next nine-figure incident is going to come from too. Until someone finally makes the boring parts the default.
Aave will recover. Umbrella stakers on Ethereum will take the full hit they volunteered for, the DAO will vote AAVE issuance to cover the residual the vault couldn’t absorb, and the event will accelerate Umbrella’s expansion to every network that wasn’t covered this weekend. rsETH will either migrate to a multi-DVN stack or lose meaningful share to the LRT competitors that already run one. LayerZero will quietly tighten its defaults. And the next exploit will come from whichever protocol hasn’t yet asked the question: “what single key is currently trusted to authorize nine figures on our system?”
That’s the question every DeFi product owner should be writing down today.
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Ahmed Barakat
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Ahmed Barakat
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Ahmed Balaha is a journalist and copywriter based in Georgia with a growing focus on blockchain technology, DeFi, AI, privacy, digital assets, and fintech innovation.
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Last updated:
April 21, 2026
Tether just dropped a 1 billion USDT on Ethereum just as the memecoin scene in the chain is heating up. Arkham Intelligence flagged the event just shortly after Bitcoin pushed past $76,000. Following this, the Total USDT supply now stands at $193 billion, dominating the $320 Billion stablecoins size by 58%.
Institutional capital is moving, and Tether mints of this scale historically precede accelerated exchange inflows. The market is watching where this billion lands.
Discover: The best crypto to diversify your portfolio with
Is Tether 1 Billion USDT Mint a Reliable Liquidity Signal for On-Chain Trading?Glassnode’s USDT Holder Accumulation Ratio sits at 57.63%, above the 50% threshold that indicates net accumulation by holders. Onchain Lens noted this mint as a precursor to heightened on-chain activity, with tokens expected to flow rapidly toward exchanges and DeFi platforms once deployed.
Stablecoins, DefillamaTransaction volume data reinforces the dominance picture. USDT’s volume of $484.17 billion already surpasses USDC’s $319.2 billion, a $164.97 billion gap that reflects USDT’s stranglehold on crypto payments infrastructure. Tron’s low-fee environment (driving 50%+ USDT network dominance) makes rapid deployment operationally straightforward once Ardoino’s team activates the inventory.
Institutional momentum is building, but the question is whether deployment timing aligns with the current sentiment window.
Discover: The best pre-launch token sales
Maxi Doge Eyes Big Upside as USDT Liquidity Hunts YieldWhen $1 billion in fresh stablecoin liquidity enters the ecosystem, it doesn’t sit idle. History shows it finds its way into high-beta plays, and meme tokens with active communities tend to capture disproportionate inflows during liquidity expansion windows.
Maxi Doge ($MAXI) is positioned squarely in that window. Built on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token, the project combines meme-first marketing with structural utility: holder-only trading competitions with leaderboard rewards, a Maxi Fund treasury for liquidity and partnerships, and dynamic staking APY.
The presale has raised $4.7 million at a current price of $0.0002814. Memecoin activity on Ethereum is picking up alongside rising USDT liquidity. It’s the timing that $MAXI’s community is watching closely.
Research Maxi Doge before the next price tier moves.
At 21:21 UTC on Monday, May 18, 2026, someone minted 1,000 eBTC on Monad. At Bitcoin’s spot of roughly $77,000, that’s about $77M of unbacked wrapped Bitcoin appearing from nothing on Echo Protocol’s Monad books. The attacker converted ~$870K of it into real WBTC by depositing a slice as collateral on Curvance and borrowing against it. The other 99% of the fake supply is parked on the attacker’s wallet, because Monad’s lending and DEX depth can’t absorb more.
This piece was written in the first hour after the drain. The initial public flag came from @dcfgod on X, who linked the suspicious mint transaction and tagged the affected teams; Monad co-founder @keoneHD acknowledged the incident shortly after and said the team and external security researchers were investigating. Echo Protocol and Curvance have not yet published statements at the time of writing. Final numbers on bad debt, attacker holdings, and any recovery plan will shift as post-mortems land. Treat the figures below as the best on-chain reads available as of the evening of May 18, 2026.
The dollar amount is small. The architectural shape makes this worth writing about. The same privileged-role failure mode that produced the Resolv USR exploit in March and the KelpDAO rsETH exploit in April just produced another one, on a new chain, against a new asset class. The realized loss is roughly 30× smaller than Resolv and over 250× smaller than KelpDAO. The pattern is the same.
What Echo, Curvance, and Monad Are Echo Protocol is a Bitcoin liquidity and yield project most visible to date on Move-based ecosystems. The Monad deployment is newer and smaller, and eBTC is its wrapped Bitcoin token there. The product shape is the familiar one: deposit BTC, hold a transferable representation that can move into lending, DEXs, and yield strategies the way WBTC does on Ethereum. The identification of this exploited contract with the Echo Protocol team specifically is currently community attribution; the project itself has not yet publicly confirmed the affected deployment as of writing.
Curvance is an omnichain lending protocol that lists collateral assets and lets users borrow against them, similar in shape to Aave or Morpho. On Monad it had a fresh eBTC/WBTC market running, with eBTC accepted as collateral against real WBTC borrows. The protocol’s lending logic was not the failure point here; it treated the collateral it received as exactly what the token contract said it was, and the token contract was the problem.
Monad is a young high-performance EVM L1 that opened to a wider set of deployments earlier this year. Echo, Curvance, and most of the assets sitting on Monad lending markets right now are fresh deployments, often without the operational layers (multisig admin keys, timelocks, monitoring, paranoid role separation) that the equivalent contracts on Ethereum have accumulated over years of incidents.
The Attack: Role Takeover, Then Mint On the eBTC token contract at 0xd691b0aFed67F96CEC28Ab6308Cbe5b2C103b7e9, the attacker ran a short sequence of role-manipulation transactions: granted themselves DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE, used that admin role to self-grant MINTER_ROLE, and then revoked the admin role to clean up. With minter authority in hand, the actual mint was a one-line follow-up: mint() to the attacker’s address (0x6a0109d3c5ab56277096c75e8f5d1d1d45243415), 1,000 eBTC issued directly from the zero address. The mint transaction (Monad block 75,477,995) sits at:
How the attacker got that initial DEFAULT_ADMIN_ROLE grant is the part nobody outside the Echo team can answer yet. The plausible options are the standard ones: a compromised admin private key, a misconfigured initial deployment that left the role grantable, or a contract-level access control bug that let an unprivileged caller escalate.
The Cashout: Deposit, Borrow, Bridge The attacker did not try to dump 1,000 eBTC into a DEX. Monad’s eBTC liquidity is thin, and the slippage would have eaten most of the extraction. They used the lending path instead, the same playbook Resolv’s attacker used to convert fake USR into ETH and KelpDAO’s attacker used to convert fake rsETH into WETH.
According to on-chain accounting reconstructed from the attacker wallet’s history, the cashout sequence was:
Deposit roughly 45 eBTC into Curvance’s eBTC market as collateral. The attacker received Curvance’s wrapped collateral receipt (ceBTC) in return. Borrow against that collateral across multiple transactions, pulling out approximately 11.296 WBTC in total. The reason the borrow stopped there is some combination of Curvance’s available WBTC supply, the LTV ceiling on the eBTC market, and any borrow caps set on the asset; which of those was the binding constraint isn’t yet confirmed. Bridge the borrowed WBTC off Monad. Community researchers tracking the wallet flagged LayerZero as the likely route; the exit transaction itself has not been independently confirmed at the time of writing. Route the proceeds toward a mixer. Tornado-style obfuscation has been mentioned by multiple analysts on X, again as the most likely path rather than a confirmed on-chain fact. The attacker still holds the bulk of the minted supply: roughly 955 eBTC sitting idle in the wallet, plus a small ceBTC position on Curvance. The residual sits there because Monad simply doesn’t have anywhere for it to go — no lender on the chain has the depth to absorb another borrow at that size, and DEX liquidity on eBTC would collapse against any meaningful dump.
The Curvance market is the immediate casualty. The lender is sitting on collateral whose redemption is in dispute against an outstanding WBTC borrow of 11.296 tokens, roughly $870K at current spot. Whether that hole gets backfilled by Echo, by Curvance’s treasury, or absorbed by suppliers depends on a recovery plan that hasn’t been published yet.
The Blast Radius This incident is small and localized, and that’s worth saying clearly.
The damage is contained to Curvance’s eBTC/WBTC market on Monad. Curvance’s lending logic was not exploited; the protocol behaved correctly given inputs it had no way to verify. Other Curvance markets, on Monad and on the chains Curvance is deployed across, are not affected. Aave, Morpho, Spark, Fluid, and the rest of the major lending markets on Ethereum and the L2s have no Echo eBTC exposure.
Inside Monad, the secondary risk is anything else that listed Echo’s eBTC as collateral or held it in a vault. That list is short today because the asset is young, but it’s worth watching. Any DEX pool with eBTC liquidity is sitting next to a wallet that owns 955 of the things and has demonstrated willingness to dump them, so DEX LPs face slow-bleed risk if the attacker decides extraction-via-DEX is worth the slippage hit.
Untouched: real Bitcoin, real WBTC on every other chain, every other Bitcoin wrapper, and every other lending market that didn’t list eBTC. The failure here is asset-specific and chain-specific.
The Uncomfortable Questions How did the attacker get the admin role in the first place? This is the question Echo has to answer, and it’s the only one whose answer matters past the immediate cleanup. If a hot admin key leaked, the lesson is operational. If the deployment left the role grantable to addresses it shouldn’t have, the same template needs reviewing on any other chain Echo deployed it on. If there’s an access-control bug in the contract logic itself, the scope expands.
Why did escalating one role break the whole thing? Whatever the entry point, the contract was structured so that a single compromise produced the entire outcome: no timelock between admin role grant and minter role grant, no separate “mint authority” multisig sitting downstream of the admin, no rate limit on freshly-granted minter roles. Multisigs, timelocks, and rate-limited mint authority on wrapped Bitcoin contracts exist precisely so this kind of single compromise can’t immediately produce 1,000 fake BTC. None of those were present here.
Should Curvance have listed eBTC at all, and with what parameters? The realized bad debt is small in absolute terms (~$870K) partly because the LTV on the market appears to have been kept fairly tight (11.3 WBTC borrowed against ~45 eBTC of deposited collateral isn’t aggressive leverage) and partly because the lender’s WBTC supply on the market was modest. The harder question is whether a freshly-deployed wrapped Bitcoin token with mint authority sitting on a single admin role should have been accepted as collateral in the first place, on any LTV, by a lender that had no way to monitor for unauthorized issuance.
Will Monad’s lending markets tighten listing standards? Monad has spent its early months courting builders and shipping tokens fast. That’s the right strategy for getting an L1 ecosystem off the ground; it’s also exactly the condition that produced this incident. Whether the lending markets respond by tightening parameters on freshly-listed assets, or wait for a larger event to do that, is the question worth watching.
The Lesson, Again Strip away the specifics and this is the same exploit as Resolv and KelpDAO.
Resolv’s USR exploit was a single externally owned address that could pass arbitrary mint amounts into completeSwap(), and ~$25M of real value walked out the door. KelpDAO’s rsETH exploit was a one-of-one DVN on a LayerZero adapter, and ~$236M of real value walked out the door. Echo’s eBTC exploit was a single admin role on a Bitcoin wrapper, and ~$870K of real value walked out the door.
What recurs across all three is the architectural shape: a privileged component on the edge carrying more authority than the surrounding system understood, with a downstream lending layer already composed against the asset as if the privileged component were sound. The lender behaves correctly. The token behaves correctly within its own access-control rules. The composition fails. The trust assumption embedded in the asset turns out to be weaker than the trust assumption the lender was operating on.
The realized losses look very different across the three incidents because the lending markets sitting downstream are very different. Mature lenders on Ethereum have learned to cap their exposure to any single collateral asset, to scrutinize the access controls of anything they list, and to keep blast radius small even when an upstream component breaks. New chains and new asset issuers haven’t built those reflexes yet. Until they do, each new ecosystem gets to learn the same lesson over again at whatever scale its lending markets happen to be running at the moment.
What Happens Next The Monad team has acknowledged the incident publicly and said security researchers are reviewing the contract and the wallet history. The real outstanding answers fall to two teams. Echo has to explain the chain of custody on the admin role and what the recovery plan looks like for the unauthorized supply. Curvance has to address the listing decision and how the bad debt gets covered.
The attacker’s wallet is being tracked, and any further movement of the residual ~955 eBTC or of the bridged WBTC will be visible quickly. Whether the bad debt gets socialized to Curvance suppliers, absorbed by Curvance’s treasury, or covered by Echo as the upstream point of failure is the call Curvance has to make.
For anyone using newly-launched lending markets on newly-launched chains, the practical takeaway is narrow: before you supply real assets, look at what the borrowable collateral actually is, who can mint it, and whether anything stops them from minting more. If your lender can’t tell you which keys can produce that collateral, neither can you.
Hacking incidents in the cryptocurrency market seem never-ending. Most recently, another DeFi protocol was targeted.
Accordingly, the Bitcoin-focused DeFi protocol Echo Protocol was vulnerable today, making it the latest in a wave of DeFi attacks this year.
Echo Protocol, a Monad (MON)-based Bitcoin liquidity project, announced via its X account that a security vulnerability had occurred in its bridge.
The team stated that they are investigating the incident and announced that they have temporarily suspended all cross-chain transactions.
This announcement comes after Onchain Lens reported that Echo Protocol was exposed to a security vulnerability worth $76.7 million.
According to onchain analyst Onchain lnes, the attacker generated 1,000 eBTC, the protocol’s liquidity token, on Monad and used it as collateral to borrow WBTC.
He then bridged the WBTC to Ethereum, converting it to ETH, and sent it to the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash.
Following the hack news, the price of Echo Protocol (ECHO) fell. ECHO is listed on Binance Alpha, Binance’s pre-listing pool.
*This is not investment advice.
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A serious security breach has occurred targeting the MAP Protocol and ButterNetwork infrastructure operating within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. According to an urgent alert issued by the community, the bridge system running on the Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain (BSC) networks has been attacked.
Initial findings indicate that the attacker manipulated the “OmniServiceProxy” mechanism in the Butter Bridge V3.1 infrastructure to mint approximately 1 quadrillion counterfeit MAPO tokens. This amount is estimated to be approximately 4.8 million times the legitimate circulating supply of MAPO tokens, which is around 208 million.
The tokens in question were transferred directly to a newly created external wallet address (EOA). The attacker then reportedly sold approximately 1 billion MAPO tokens, withdrawing 52.21 ETH from the ETH/MAPO liquidity pool on Uniswap V4. Based on the current market value, the estimated loss is around $180,000.
On the other hand, it is added that the main risk continues. Because it is stated that the attacker still has approximately 999.999 billion MAPO tokens in his possession, and if these tokens are released into the market, they could pose a serious threat to both the liquidity pools of decentralized exchanges (DEX) and the centralized exchanges (CEX) that list MAPO.
MAPO’s price plummeted by 72% following the development.
The chart shows the price drop of MAPO. *This is not investment advice.
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Cover image via U.Today Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by our writers are their own and do not represent the views of U.Today. The financial and market information provided on U.Today is intended for informational purposes only. U.Today is not liable for any financial losses incurred while trading cryptocurrencies. Conduct your own research by contacting financial experts before making any investment decisions. We believe that all content is accurate as of the date of publication, but certain offers mentioned may no longer be available.
Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin has seen $0 minted so far on June 4 despite $27.5 million tokens removed from circulation.
RLUSD activity continues in June after the month began with significant minting activity. $127.4 million was minted alone on June's first day with $12 million burned.
However, this figure dropped in the days that followed with $3.7 million and $16.8 million burned on June 2 and 3, respectively.
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There is a possibility that a minting transaction might occur as the day progresses, but a similar trend in May lessens this probability.
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On May 3 and 4, $0 RLUSD was minted while over $17 million tokens were burned. Whether this is a coincidence or a deliberate trend wherein Ripple briefly pauses minting activity to strategize for the month remains unknown.
Demand for RLUSD growsOn Wednesday, Mastercard announced it was supporting settlement with Ripple's RLUSD across a range of supported blockchain networks including Arbitrum, Coinbase's Base, Canton Network's Canton, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Tempo and XRPL.
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The announcement revealed plans by the payment giant to expand settlement capabilities to include stablecoin, intraday, holiday, and weekend options, giving partners more choice in how and when transactions are settled. This provides the option to settle in fiat or regulated stablecoins and improve liquidity management for time-sensitive, cross-border flows.
Ripple reacted to this milestone, highlighting that the demand for modern, always-on settlement infrastructure continues to grow. It noted that Mastercard's support for RLUSD and the XRP Ledger reflects growing demand for trusted digital assets and blockchain infrastructure that can power faster, more flexible settlement.
Jack McDonald, SVP of Stablecoins at Ripple, described it as another major milestone for the adoption of stablecoins in mainstream payments.
The Ripple USD stablecoin marked a milestone this week, now available to institutions in Turkey through new partnerships with BiLira Kripto, Bitexen and Bitlo.
Security researcher Taylor Hornby used Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 to find a critical bug in Zcash’s Orchard pool that could have minted undetectable counterfeit ZEC, sending the token down 31%.
Posted June 5, 2026 at 3:47 am EST.
A security researcher using Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 model uncovered a critical vulnerability in Zcash’s Orchard shielded pool that could have been exploited to create unlimited undetectable counterfeit ZEC, according to adisclosure published Thursday by Shielded Labs, the nonprofit that funds Zcash development.
Independent security engineer Taylor Hornby, hired by Shielded Labs in April for an ongoing protocol review, discovered the bug on May 29 using a custom AI auditing framework paired with Opus 4.8, which Anthropic released the day before on May 28. Hornby wrote a complete exploit program that successfully generated unlimited counterfeit ZEC in a local test environment. The vulnerability had been live since Orchard’s activation in May 2022, evading years of scrutiny by some of the world’s top cryptographers. The Zcash Open Development Lab and the Zcash Foundation coordinated an emergency two-phase network upgrade, with the fix completed on June 2.
This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.
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The flaw stemmed from an under-constrained element of the Orchard circuit, which allowed arbitrary false inputs to pass through an elliptic curve multiplication check and still validate. Because Orchard hides balances and amounts using zero-knowledge proofs, any counterfeit ZEC produced through the exploit would have been indistinguishable from legitimate tokens. Shielded Labs said prior exploitation appears unlikely but cannot be ruled out cryptographically. “What makes this particularly challenging is that, due to the privacy properties of Orchard and the nature of the bug, there is no definitive way to determine using only cryptography whether such exploitation occurred,” the post said.
ZEC fell 31% in 24 hours to $409.64 by Thursday evening, with most of the decline coming in the five hours after disclosure. Arthur Hayes posted that he had dumped his entire ZEC position, writing the privacy thesis “demands perfection” and that uncertainty over supply integrity was disqualifying.
The disclosure is the cleanest counterpoint yet to the AI-attacker thesis that has dominated DeFi security discourse this spring. Former OpenZeppelin CTO Manuel Aráoz argued last week that AI gives attackers asymmetric advantage because defenders must fix every bug while attackers need only one.
Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz wrote on X that the team’s proactive use of advanced AI red-teaming and rapid patch coordination should be read as bullish for the protocol, not bearish. Shielded Labs is now preparing a follow-up network upgrade proposal that would deploy a new shielded pool with turnstile accounting on coins exiting Orchard, allowing anyone to verify the integrity of the Zcash supply.
Related Listen: Is ‘All of DeFi Unsafe’? What You Need to Know About Holding Assets Onchain
The debate over Zcash’s recently patched Orchard Pool vulnerability is far from settled. While some investors fear the worst, Dragonfly partner Haseeb Qureshi says the market may be overstating the immediate risks. He also confirmed that Dragonfly continues to hold ZEC despite the controversy.
The vulnerability remained undiscovered for years before developers patched it. In theory, an attacker could have used it to create unlimited counterfeit shielded ZEC. However, Qureshi argues that any damage would likely have stayed within the shielded pool rather than spreading across the broader ZEC market.
Why Qureshi Thinks the Threat Is LimitedQureshi explained that anyone creating counterfeit shielded ZEC would eventually need to convert those coins into transparent ZEC before selling them on major exchanges.
Because transparent ZEC remains fully auditable, the network can easily detect attempts to move excessive amounts into the visible supply. For that reason, Qureshi believes most traders and exchange users faced little direct risk. Shielded pool users would have carried the bulk of the exposure.
He also pointed to recent network data. Over the last 48 hours, the shielded pool’s share of supply fell from 31% to 30%. Qureshi says that a modest decline does not suggest panic among privacy-focused users.
Not Everyone AgreesHowever, Zcash creator Wei Dai says the situation may be more complicated.
Responding to claims that a major exploit would have resulted in obvious withdrawals from the Orchard Pool, Dai argued that a sophisticated attacker would likely avoid draining the pool entirely. Instead, he suggested the Orchard Pool itself could serve as a laundering mechanism. A hacker could potentially keep counterfeit ZEC inside the shielded ecosystem and distribute it gradually through private transactions while the pool remained active.
Dai also proposed another scenario. An attacker who discovered the bug early could have quietly opened a large short position against ZEC before the vulnerability became public. Because ZEC has liquid perpetual futures markets, such a strategy could generate significant profits while leaving few obvious traces.
Dragonfly Remains BullishDespite the ongoing debate, Qureshi remains confident in Zcash’s path forward.
The Zcash team is planning a new turnstile mechanism and a fresh shielded pool that will effectively verify whether the existing pool was inflated. Qureshi compared it to taking attendance after a field trip to ensure no extra coins slipped into circulation.
He also disclosed that Dragonfly still holds ZEC, while he personally remains invested in ZODL, signaling continued confidence even as the industry wrestles with one of the biggest privacy-coin security debates in years.
Story Ends Here
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Syscoin paused its bridge immediately and urged exchanges to freeze deposits connected to the tainted transaction trail.
An attacker exploited a validation flaw in Syscoin’s bridge system, minting about 5 billion SYS tokens without authorization and sending the token’s price into a nearly 20% freefall.
This incident was revealed by the Syscoin team in an early postmortem published on X, and it comes during a tough stretch for SYS, which was already deeply in the red across the last few weeks and months.
What Happened According to Syscoin’s postmortem, the attacker exploited a validation issue in the bridge relay path, which incorrectly accepted or interpreted a transaction proof. That error caused the system to treat a fraudulent transaction as valid and create an unauthorized output of approximately 5 billion SYS, then valued at just under $10 million.
Per the Syscoin team, the stolen funds were sent to the address sys1qgaelv…9wvcw and then split across two other wallets, one holding about 4 billion SYS and the other the remaining 1 billion.
Syscoin immediately paused the bridge and has since contacted exchanges and ecosystem partners asking them to blacklist or freeze any deposits connected to the tainted UTXO trail and its downstream transactions. The team also said that it had identified the affected validation path and had put in place a fix pending security review and implementation.
According to blockchain analytics account Hupzy, operated by Spot On Chain, the incident was a recurring structural problem. It also noted that while blacklisting by exchanges may contain the secondary damage, the reputational hit to the bridge model will persist.
A Token Already Under Pressure The exploit couldn’t have landed at a worse time for SYS holders, considering that when it happened, the token was already down more than 43% in seven days and over 82% in the last month.
You may also like: Jaredfromsubway Hacker Ignores 50% Bounty, Routes Funds to Tornado Cash Over 1,400 Liquidity Providers Hit in $7.3 Million DxSale Exploit Verus Bridge Exploiter Returns $8.5M, Keeps $2.8M as Bounty Reward A lot of that longer-term decline was already in motion after Binance delisted SYS last month alongside four other tokens following a review of its listing standards.
Shortly after the delisting news broke, the Syscoin community responded by pulling well over 300 million SYS from the exchange, with over 600 new nodes reportedly added to the network.
The attack on the Syscoin bridge is the latest in a string of cross-chain security incidents that have kept DeFi on edge. They include an $11 million exploit on the Verus network in May and the draining of $7.3 million from more than 1,400 DxSale liquidity pools on the BNB Chain.
Luckily for Verus, the hacker later returned about $8.5 million, keeping $2.8 million for themselves as a white-hat bounty.
(Editor’s note: The future prices of benchmark tracking ETFs and the headline were updated in the story.)
U.S. stock futures fell on Wednesday, as the Nasdaq 100, S&P 500, and the Dow Jones indices declined, following Tuesday’s mixed close.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 4.2% year-over-year in May, matching FactSet estimates to hit its highest mark since April 2023.
Core inflation also remained sticky, with the all items less food and energy index accelerating by 2.9% over the past 12 months, climbing past the 2.8% rate seen in April.
This came right after Trump posted early Monday that “both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate ceasefire,” shortly before Iran’s armed forces said they had ended military operations against Israel.
Meanwhile, the 10-year Treasury bond yielded 4.53%, and the two-year bond was at 4.14%. The CME Group's FedWatch tool‘s projections show markets pricing a 98.2% likelihood of the Federal Reserve leaving the current interest rates unchanged during June’s meeting.
IndexPerformance (+/-)Dow Jones-0.45%S&P 500-0.54%Nasdaq 100-0.88%Russell 2000-0.64%Stocks In FocusSuper Micro Computer Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that SMCI maintains a strong price trend in the short, medium, and long terms, with a solid growth ranking. Casey’s General Stores Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that CASY maintains a strong price trend in the long and medium terms but a weak trend in the short term, with a moderate value score. Autozi Internet Technology Autozi Internet Technology Ltd. (NASDAQ:AZI) surged 54.05% following the fulfillment of a $7 million funding commitment by its controlling shareholder, as announced by the company. Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that AZI maintains a strong price trend in the long, short, and medium terms. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that CBRL maintains a strong price trend in the medium and short terms, but a weak trend in the long term, with a poor growth score. Oracle Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) was 2.67% lower as the Wall Street expects it to post quarterly earnings of $1.96 per share on the revenue of $19.10 billion after the closing bell. Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings indicate that ORCL maintains a strong price trend in the long, medium, and short terms, with a poor value score. Cues From Last SessionHealth care, real estate, and materials stocks recorded the biggest gains on Tuesday, driving most S&P 500 sectors to close on a positive note. However, information technology and energy stocks bucked the overall market trend, closing the session lower as U.S. stocks settled mixed.
Insights From AnalystsProfessor Jeremy Siegel maintains a constructive outlook on the U.S. economy and stock market, driven by a resilient labor market and robust corporate profits.
Despite minor economic friction, Siegel observes that “the economy is not slowing in any meaningful way,” as evidenced by strong payroll gains that defy consensus expectations of a slowdown. This macroeconomic strength, alongside geopolitical tensions, means the prospect of near-term interest rate cuts has become “even more remote.”
In the equity markets, Siegel notes that the AI theme continues to dominate, with investors looking past geopolitical risks to focus on innovation. While a market trading at 21 to 22 times forward earnings is “not cheap,” he argues it remains justifiable.
He explains that “digital products can be replicated at almost no incremental cost,” which fuels the expanding profit margins of top tech franchises.
While Siegel acknowledges a recent, disappointing lag in productivity data, he remains optimistic about the long-term benefits of tech innovation.
Ultimately, he advises investors to stay the course, concluding that “until we see meaningful deterioration in the labor market or a clear breakdown in earnings growth, the primary trend remains higher.”
Upcoming Economic DataHere's what investors will be keeping an eye on Wednesday.
May Inflation Breakdown: The annualized all-items Consumer Price Index jumped 4.2% in May, matching conservative Wall Street projections but landing well above its trailing 12-month average of 2.8%. Meanwhile, annual Core CPI (excluding food and energy) ticked higher to 2.9%, up from April’s 2.8% pace. The monthly U.S. federal budget statement for May will be out by 2:00 p.m. ET. Commodities, Crypto, And Global Equity MarketsCrude oil futures were trading higher in the early New York session by 0.48% to hover around $88.62 per barrel.
Gold Spot US Dollar fell 2.10% to hover around $4,170.27 per ounce. Its last record high stood at $5,595.46 per ounce. The U.S. Dollar Index spot was 0.01% higher at the 99.9180 level.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading 2.25% lower at $61,490.33 per coin, as per the last 24 hours.
Asian markets closed mixed on Wednesday, as Australia's ASX 200 and India’s Nifty 50 indices rose, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Japan's Nikkei 225, South Korea's Kospi, and China’s CSI 300 indices declined. European markets were mostly higher in early trade.
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TLDR Jim Cramer advised a Mad Money viewer to “buy some here” on Costco shares near $968, though he’d prefer seeing a modest pullback for better value Motley Fool Asset Management expanded its Costco holdings by 20.8% during Q4, purchasing 10,429 additional shares to total 60,650 Several institutional funds expanded their Costco positions throughout Q4 and Q2, with institutions controlling 68.48% of outstanding shares The warehouse retailer’s most recent quarter delivered $70.53B in revenue, surpassing forecasts, though earnings per share fell short by $0.01 at $4.93 Wall Street analysts assign an average “Moderate Buy” recommendation with a consensus price objective of $1,060.41, significantly higher than present trading levels Costco (COST) shares began Wednesday’s session at $968.59, declining 0.6% intraday and remaining notably beneath the 52-week peak of $1,096.50.
Costco Wholesale Corporation, COST
During a recent Mad Money segment on CNBC, Jim Cramer responded to a viewer inquiry regarding the optimal timing for establishing a long-term stake. His advice was direct: purchase some shares now, while remaining hopeful for additional downside.
“I want value just like I want value at a store,” Cramer explained. He suggested the downside scenario involves the stock rallying directly to $1,025 with shareholders participating in the gains.
Cramer observed the shares currently command a 47x earnings multiple and recommended strategic patience, allowing the price to “come in a little” instead of deploying capital at a single level.
Institutional Accumulation Continues As individual investors contemplate timing, institutional capital has been flowing into the stock. Motley Fool Asset Management expanded its stake by 20.8% throughout Q4, acquiring 10,429 shares to reach a total holding of 60,650, valued at approximately $52.3 million.
The asset manager wasn’t the only buyer. Brighton Jones increased its allocation by 12.3% during Q4. Revolve Wealth Partners grew its position by 13.1%. Additional funds elevated their holdings during Q2 as well. Collectively, institutional ownership now represents 68.48% of the company.
The stock’s 50-day moving average currently rests at $1,006.30, while the 200-day moving average stands at $965.46 — indicating shares are trading near their long-term technical support.
Quarterly Results and Dividend Increase Costco disclosed quarterly results on May 28th. Revenue reached $70.53 billion, exceeding analyst projections of $70.12 billion. However, earnings per share of $4.93 fell one penny short of the $4.94 Wall Street consensus.
The retailer simultaneously announced a dividend increase from $1.30 to $1.47 per share quarterly, distributed on May 15th. The annualized dividend now totals $5.88, representing approximately a 0.6% yield.
E-commerce revenue surged more than 21% during the period, while gasoline volume reached all-time highs. Despite these operational highlights, shares declined roughly 5% following the announcement — suggesting the market prioritized valuation concerns over fundamental performance.
Costco also discreetly reduced prices across four Kirkland Signature items spanning food, household products, and sporting goods categories.
Wall Street sentiment remains predominantly bullish. Deutsche Bank elevated its price objective to $1,106 with a Buy recommendation. BTIG Research maintains a $1,125 target. Both Evercore and HC Wainwright continue advocating Buy ratings.
The consensus analyst price target reaches $1,060.41, supported by 22 Buy ratings, 11 Hold ratings, and a single Sell rating.
The stock trades at a PE ratio of 48.72, commanding a market capitalization of $429.55 billion. Analysts forecast full-year earnings per share of $20.38.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission just dropped two proposals that could fundamentally reshape how public companies report, raise capital, and interact with regulators. Announced on May 19, the Filer Status Proposal and the Registered Offering Reform Proposal represent the most ambitious attempt to modernize securities regulation in over 20 years.
Jim Moloney, who became Director of the Division of Corporation Finance in October 2025, is the architect behind these changes. His guiding principle: cut the regulatory fat while keeping investor protections anchored to financial materiality.
What the filer status proposal actually changes A company with $700 million in public float gets classified as a “large accelerated filer,” which triggers a cascade of heightened reporting obligations, faster filing deadlines, and additional compliance costs. The SEC wants to raise that bar to $2 billion. Companies between $700 million and $2 billion in public float would face reduced reporting requirements, potentially saving significant sums on audit, legal, and compliance expenses. The jump from accelerated filer to large accelerated filer triggers requirements like mandatory internal control audits under Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(b), which can cost millions annually for mid-cap firms.
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Companies would need to maintain that $2 billion public float for two consecutive years before the designation kicks in. This prevents companies from bouncing in and out of filer categories based on short-term market swings.
The registered offering reform: two decades in the making The second proposal aims to expand access to Form S-3, modernize shelf registration, and update communications protocols for companies looking to raise capital through registered offerings.
Form S-3 is the streamlined registration statement that allows eligible companies to register securities with less paperwork and faster turnaround than the full Form S-1 process. Currently, eligibility for Form S-3 is restricted to companies meeting certain size and reporting history requirements. By broadening access to Form S-3, the SEC would effectively lower the barrier for more issuers to tap public markets efficiently.
The SEC is calling this the most substantial update to registered offering rules in over two decades. The last major overhaul of securities offering regulations came in 2005. Moloney’s approach is rooted in a specific philosophy: disclosure requirements should be tied to financial materiality, not to an expanding checklist of regulatory boxes.
What this means for investors and the broader market The SEC’s press release, designated 2026-46, contains no references to digital assets or crypto tokens.
For traditional public companies, companies in the $700 million to $2 billion public float range could see meaningful cost savings if the filer status changes are adopted. Expanded Form S-3 access could unlock faster, cheaper capital raises for a broader set of issuers.
These are proposals, not final rules. The two-year consecutive threshold requirement for the filer status change is designed to mitigate gaming, but it doesn’t address the fundamental question of whether $2 billion is the right number.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
On CNBC’s Mad Money, host Jim Cramer stirred markets by labeling both Bitcoin and gold as “bad money,” claiming that market liquidity is flowing into high-growth tech stocks like Nvidia and Apple. His latest statements come at a moment when debate is intensifying over why the crypto market is lagging behind its technology sector rivals.
Cramer’s take on Bitcoin and StrategyRecently, Cramer went so far as to accuse Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor of “killing Bitcoin” after the company sold 32 BTC. In an assessment at the beginning of June 2026, Cramer argued that the market may need to rethink its traditionally Bitcoin-friendly attitude toward Strategy.
In his view, the company has long functioned as a foundational support for the Bitcoin price. While some observers identify MicroStrategy’s influence as a driving force in the crypto space, Cramer contends that such diagnoses might be too harsh or simplistic.
Mini glossary: Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, is a US-based software company distinguished by massive Bitcoin holdings on its balance sheet. Michael Saylor is a public figure best known for spearheading the company’s Bitcoin-focused treasury strategy.
Cramer noted that the pro-Bitcoin stance the market has taken towards Strategy may need to be reassessed, pointing out that the company has long served as a crucial price support for the asset.
Shifting stance and utility debateBack in February 2026, Cramer also openly questioned what real-world use Bitcoin offers. He asked what genuinely underpins the asset and rejected the view that Bitcoin serves as an effective hedge against geopolitical tensions. These comments sharply contrasted with his previously positive outlook in prior years.
Cramer had previously highlighted his early interest in crypto assets. In a 2021 interview on The Pomp Podcast, he revealed that he had invested $500,000 in Bitcoin following advice from Anthony Pompliano, expressing optimism at the time. However, his subsequent commentary has marked fluctuating positions toward the cryptocurrency.
Is liquidity shifting to AI stocks?A central theme emerging from the report is that artificial intelligence-focused stocks are attracting a growing share of market liquidity. According to this viewpoint, the underperformance of Bitcoin may stem from investors’ mounting preference for companies tied to the AI boom, rather than for crypto assets.
Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, recently advanced a similar analysis. Hayes argued that most new US dollar liquidity is channeled into the AI sector, limiting the capital that could fuel a sustained Bitcoin rally.
Arthur Hayes observed that large portions of newly created dollar liquidity are being absorbed by the AI sector, weakening the capital flows necessary to drive major Bitcoin gains.
At present, AI-linked stocks led by Nvidia have overtaken crypto markets in terms of capital inflows. This new landscape offers a fresh perspective on where investors are focusing their risk appetite and which sectors are emerging as favorites in the quest for outsized returns.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.
In an X post, Cramer posited that investors are liquidating assets to free up cash for SpaceX, expected to be the biggest stock market debut in history. But the way he described those assets raised some eyebrows.
Sign Of BTC Bottom?SpaceX Driving Sell-Offs Everywhere?Cramer has expressed concerns that growing speculation about SpaceX and its eventual inclusion in the S&P 500 could be fueling an unusual rotation out of some of the market's biggest winners, including the “Mag 7” stocks.
The assets he mentioned have indeed experienced some losses in the lead-up to the highly anticipated IPO on Friday.
A sudden rally in space stocks has also coincided with a drop in Bitcoin, which some market strategists attribute to the anticipated SpaceX IPO.
Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was exchanging hands at $61,974.63, up 1.07% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
Nvidia shares fell 0.62% in after-hours trading after closing 3.73% lower at $200.42 during Wednesday’s regular trading session. Apple shares closed 0.35% higher at $291.58.
According to Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings, the NVDA stock sustains a stronger price trend over the short-, medium-, and long-term periods, complemented by high Growth and Quality scores.
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CNBC host Jim Cramer has called Bitcoin and gold “bad money” as investors move capital toward high-growth technology names and private market opportunities.
Summary
Jim Cramer called Bitcoin and gold bad money as investors chase SpaceX, Apple and Nvidia. His latest Bitcoin comments follow criticism of Michael Saylor and Strategy’s rare 32 BTC sale. Analysts linked the June crash to Fed policy, Iran tensions, ETF outflows and excessive leverage. His comment came during a difficult month for Bitcoin. The asset recently fell near the $60,000 area before recovering to trade near $62,796 at the time of writing.
Cramer says Bitcoin and gold face selling pressure Cramer wrote on X that “Bitcoin and gold–bad money” were being liquidated for SpaceX. He also said Apple and Nvidia were “good money” but were also being sold.
Bitcoin and gold–bad money, being liquidated for SpaceX. Apple and Nvidia –good money–being liquidated
— Jim Cramer (@jimcramer) June 10, 2026 The comment placed Bitcoin in the same liquidity debate as gold and major technology stocks. Cramer’s point was that investors may be selling several assets to raise cash for new opportunities.
SpaceX has drawn fresh market attention as investors watch a potential public listing. AI-linked firms and large technology names have also attracted large amounts of capital this year.
That has made liquidity a central market topic. When investors shift money into AI, private deals or major tech stocks, fewer funds may be available for risk assets such as Bitcoin.
Strategy sale keeps Bitcoin debate active Cramer’s latest post follows his earlier criticism of Strategy and Michael Saylor. As previously reported by crypto.news, he said Strategy’s sale of 32 BTC shook market confidence.
The sale was small compared with Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings. However, traders focused on it because the company has long presented itself as a major Bitcoin accumulator.
Cramer previously said Strategy had acted as a “key trampoline” for Bitcoin’s price. He later wrote that Saylor had “murdered Bitcoin,” drawing a response from Saylor, who called the decline “just a flesh wound.”
The exchange turned Strategy’s role in Bitcoin markets into a wider debate. Some traders questioned whether one firm had too much influence on market sentiment, while others viewed the sale as minor.
AI and SpaceX rotation adds another pressure point AI capital demand has become one explanation for Bitcoin’s weaker performance. BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has also argued that AI has absorbed a large share of new market liquidity.
Some market participants linked Bitcoin’s decline to capital rotation toward Anthropic, SpaceX and OpenAI. The argument is that large fundraising needs can compete with crypto for speculative money.
A crypto.news report said SpaceX IPO interest did not directly cause the June crash. It described the AI and IPO trade as a slow-moving pressure rather than the main trigger.
That distinction matters for Bitcoin traders. Tech rotation may reduce demand over time, but sharp market moves still depend on macro news, fund flows and leverage.
Bitcoin remains tied to macro and ETF flows crypto.news reported that the June crypto crash had several causes. These included hawkish Federal Reserve expectations, US-Iran tensions, Strategy’s 32 BTC sale, ETF outflows and leveraged liquidations.
Bitcoin also faced pressure from a long ETF outflow streak. That removed a major source of institutional demand while traders were already cutting risk.
For now, Cramer’s “bad money” comment adds to the public debate around Bitcoin’s place in portfolios. It does not change the core market test.
Bitcoin still needs stronger ETF demand, calmer macro conditions and a firm hold above the $60,000 area. Without those signals, traders may keep watching whether capital continues moving toward AI, SpaceX, Apple and Nvidia.
In This Article The Inverse Cramer Record: What the Historical Data Actually ShowsWhy Cramer Called Bitcoin Bad Money: The SpaceX and AI Rotation StoryCan Bitcoin Hold $62,000, or Is the Jim Cramer Call Actually Right? On June 10, 2026, CNBC host Jim Cramer posted on X: “Bitcoin and gold, bad money, being liquidated for SpaceX. Apple and Nvidia, good money, being liquidated.” Bitcoin was trading near $62,796 at the time, having just bounced off the $60,000 level during one of the rougher weeks of this Bitcoin bear market.
The post landed in crypto communities like a starter pistol, not because traders agreed with Cramer, but because of a well-documented pattern that runs in the opposite direction.
Jim Cramer’s Bitcoin calls have historically preceded recoveries rather than confirmed declines. The Inverse Cramer phenomenon is real enough that structured products were built around it, and it is worth examining seriously, not just as a meme.
But past patterns are not guarantees, and the current macro picture has genuine complications. Here is what the historical record actually shows, what Cramer’s framing reveals about real market forces, and what the price data says right now.
The Inverse Cramer Record: What the Historical Data Actually Shows Inverse Cramer.
Whatever he says the opposite is happening.📝 https://t.co/lW4CsEZXes pic.twitter.com/LO0NEE3G2p
— Ant (@KingAnt) June 10, 2026
The Inverse Cramer trade highlights a peculiar pattern in Bitcoin’s history. In 2017, Cramer called Bitcoin “monopoly money” just before its rise to nearly $20,000. In June 2021, he sold most of his Bitcoin, citing concerns about China’s crackdown, right before the market rebounded.
By January 2024, he warned of a Bitcoin selloff ahead of the US spot ETF launch, which ended up being a major catalyst for Bitcoin. However, by November 2024, he reversed his stance, urging people to own Bitcoin and even using BTC profits to pay off his mortgage.
This pattern suggests that when a prominent financial commentator like Jim Cramer expresses peak bearishness, it often coincides with retail capitulation, indicating potential recovery points. Analysts refer to this as a Cramer bottom signal, not that Cramer is always wrong, but his strongest calls often occur at sentiment extremes.
However, it’s important to note that an Inverse Cramer ETF has returned approximately -5.56% by October 2023. Hence, while this pattern provides insights into sentiment, it should be considered alongside other market indicators rather than as a standalone strategy.
DISCOVER: Best Meme Coin ICOs to Invest in 2026
Why Cramer Called Bitcoin Bad Money: The SpaceX and AI Rotation Story Cramer’s argument regarding Bitcoin is noteworthy in its own right, as he suggests that capital is shifting away from Bitcoin toward higher-conviction investments, including a potential SpaceX IPO, Apple, Nvidia, and AI developments.
This idea resonates with other analysts, including BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, who believes that AI has taken a significant share of market liquidity this year, diverting funds from crypto.
The narrative surrounding the SpaceX IPO suggests that investor enthusiasm may be drawing speculative capital away from digital assets. Crypto.news highlighted this trend as a slow pressure rather than a crash trigger.
The June crypto crash stemmed from several factors, including Federal Reserve hawkishness, geopolitical tensions, and ETF outflows and liquidations.
Our analysis shows that significant institutional demand for Bitcoin has softened, underscoring that Cramer’s views may not fully capture Bitcoin’s long-term value, even if he’s right about short-term capital competition.
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Can Bitcoin Hold $62,000, or Is the Jim Cramer Call Actually Right? $BTC
Current Trade + My Weekly Thesis,
Price is bouncing from the HVN, and the overall structure is still intact and bullish.
Currently we are in a low risk long from 61.6k,
Our second limit got frontrunned (posted on discord earlier).
I won't take anymore longs until 60k,… https://t.co/g26sNO9G6x pic.twitter.com/WFN6EQ0z1N
— Kaz (@XBTkaz) June 11, 2026
Bitcoin’s current technical picture is genuinely contested. The $60,000 area has emerged as the key psychological support level; it held during the June selloff, but each test of that floor incrementally weakens it. Recovery to $62,796 is encouraging, but it is a recovery from stress, not a breakout from strength.
Bull case: Bitcoin holds above $60,000, ETF outflows stabilize and reverse, and the Cramer “bad money” comment serves as a textbook contrarian indicator bottom signal. A recovery above $65,000 on volume would begin to confirm this scenario. The broader Bitcoin price 2026 narrative, post-halving supply squeeze, and institutional adoption remain structurally intact. Base case: Bitcoin consolidates in the $60,000–$65,000 range for several weeks as macro uncertainty persists. Capital rotation toward AI and SpaceX continues to cap upside without triggering a breakdown. ETF flows remain choppy but do not accelerate to the downside. This is a grinding range, not a trend. Bear case/invalidation: Bitcoin loses $60,000 on a daily close with volume, confirming that the Jim Cramer call was not a sentiment extreme but an accurate read on structural capital outflows. A break below $58,000 would invalidate the current base and open the door to a deeper leg of the Bitcoin bear market. The AI liquidity argument would gain significant credibility in this scenario. Michael Saylor’s response to Cramer – dismissing the decline as “just a flesh wound”, captures the bull camp’s position. Strategy’s sale of 32 BTC was small relative to the company’s total holdings, and the market reaction likely says more about fragile sentiment than about a fundamental deterioration.
As our earlier coverage of CZ’s bottom call and ETF outflow data noted, high-profile bearish signals from prominent voices have repeatedly preceded stabilization, but stabilization still requires confirmation from flows, not just sentiment.
EXPLORE: Best Crypto Presales With Asymmetric Upside in the Current Market
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Alex Ioannou
On-Chain Journalist
Alex is a seasoned cryptocurrency trader and market analyst with over seven years of active experience in the digital asset space. Since entering the markets in 2017, Alex has specialized in identifying emerging "meta" trends and high-volatility narratives. Notably, Alex... Read More
TLDRReport Highlights Concerns Over Opening Day DemandRetail Participation And Index Demand Draw AttentionPrevious IPO Examples Remain Part Of The DiscussionGet 3 Free Stock Ebooks SpaceX set its IPO price at $135 per share. The IPO values SpaceX at about $1.77 trillion. Jim Cramer warned demand could push shares too high. Retail market orders may increase first-day volatility. Cramer said controlled trading would support a healthier debut. SpaceX has entered public trading with demand far exceeding available shares, raising concerns about sharp early price swings. The company set its IPO price at $135 per share, giving it a valuation of $1.77 trillion. Heavy institutional interest and strong retail participation have placed the offering among the most anticipated market debuts this year.
Report Highlights Concerns Over Opening Day Demand According to a report by CNBC, television host Jim Cramer said SpaceX could experience an unusually volatile first trading session. He said the stock may attract a combination of institutional buyers, retail traders, and future index-related demand.
As a result, he argued that share prices could move far beyond levels usually seen after major IPO launches. Cramer said extreme demand could temporarily push the company toward valuations rarely seen in public markets.
He explained that the strongest public offerings usually trade in a controlled manner after listing. Instead, SpaceX faces conditions that could create large price moves shortly after trading begins. Cramer said he worries about inexperienced traders placing market orders rather than limit orders. He described those buyers as “new, unguided missiles who can’t be controlled.”
Retail Participation And Index Demand Draw Attention Cramer said retail enthusiasm may combine with institutional demand to create additional buying pressure. He stated that many traders could enter positions immediately after the opening bell. If enough orders arrive simultaneously, he said the stock could briefly challenge the valuations of the world’s largest companies. However, he stressed that such moves often prove difficult to maintain.
Speaking on his “Mad Money” program, Cramer raised the possibility of a temporary valuation between $4 trillion and $5 trillion. “Can a $4 to $5 trillion stock really be at hand?” he asked. He then answered, “For a few minutes perhaps, just as long as it takes to gaffe a marlin.” Cramer added that rapid gains can disappear quickly if buyers fail to support elevated prices.
The IPO has already attracted strong interest before trading began. Reports cited by CNBC said demand exceeded available shares by roughly four times. While oversubscription often signals confidence, Cramer argued that excessive demand can also contribute to unstable trading conditions. He said a measured opening would provide a healthier path for long-term performance.
Previous IPO Examples Remain Part Of The Discussion To support his view, Cramer referred to recent public offerings that delivered strong early gains before retreating. He cited Figma, which went public in July 2025, as one example. He also mentioned Cerebras, which entered public markets in May. According to Cramer, both companies initially climbed higher before entering extended declines.
Cramer said the objective should not be an explosive first-day rally. Instead, he argued that newly listed companies benefit when prices rise gradually over time. He said orderly trading allows markets to establish sustainable valuations. “We want the deals to be under control because otherwise it can be disastrous,” Cramer said.
SpaceX begins trading with a fixed IPO price of $135 per share. That price values the company at approximately $1.77 trillion. Market participants will now watch how demand develops during its first session as a publicly traded company.
Pre-IPO Bull vs Bear Debate on SpaceX: Morning Star and the "Valuation Godfather" Deem It Overpriced, While Long-Term Narrative Enjoys Market Optimism 2026.06.12 14:46:05
June 12: SpaceX priced its IPO at $135, valuing the company at roughly $1.77 trillion. Below is how top analysts and institutions are weighing in on its post-listing performance, in line with American financial media tone: Morningstar analyst Nicholas Owens pegs SpaceX’s fair value at around $780 billion—more than 55% below its $1.77 trillion IPO valuation. He calls the stock overvalued for the near to mid-term, noting the early opening could see a brief rally due to low liquidity and its upcoming inclusion in indexes like the Nasdaq 100. Still, Owens advises investors to skip buying at the high opening price, wait for the hype to cool, and enter at a lower point for more attractive long-term returns. NYU professor and valuation guru Aswath Damodaran puts SpaceX’s equity value at $1.25 to $1.3 trillion—well below its IPO price. He says current pricing is way too high; he’s not buying, nor shorting, but forecasts a big post-listing pullback like Facebook or Uber (which both dropped more than 50% after their debuts). Damodaran recommends waiting for a better entry point, adding that SpaceX’s AI ambitions make its story more grand but also ramp up volatility and short-term pressure. CNBC’s *Mad Money* host Jim Cramer is cautiously skeptical on fundamentals, noting valuing SpaceX at around $2 trillion—about 100 times sales—feels hard to justify. He predicts the opening could see a massive surge, possibly doubling to a $4 trillion market cap, driven by retail FOMO, low liquidity, and passive index fund inflows. But Cramer warns this could be a speculative bubble that disrupts the market, strongly advising retail investors not to chase highs; he says long-term losses tied to the business could trigger a pullback. Timothy Horan, an analyst at New York independent investment bank Oppenheimer, has an Outperform rating on SpaceX vs. the broader market, with a $190 target price—meaning about 41% upside from the $135 IPO. He’s highly bullish on SpaceX’s vertical integration across rockets, Starlink, semis, and AI, expecting total market size here to hit $10 trillion by 2035. While he acknowledges volatility risk, Horan believes there will be support post-opening and significant upside, citing strong long-term growth prospects. John Blank, chief equity strategist at Chicago-based independent research firm Zacks, expects a significant post-listing decline. If SpaceX’s stock drops 40-60% within a few months, he says that would prompt downward revisions to earnings forecasts and signal a potential market top—so Blank advises investors to stay cautious and wait for clearer fundamental validation. University of Florida IPO expert Jay Ritter points to the “Elon Musk Effect” driving high volatility. He says there’s major downside risk at current valuations, noting Musk’s dual-class share structure gives him near-total control, and the company may prioritize capital for long-term projects like Mars over direct shareholder payouts. Ritter expects a correction after the debut, warning investors to watch governance and capital allocation risks closely. Daniel Newman, CEO of tech analysis firm Future Group, says investors holding SpaceX stock over a 5-year window will see strong performance. He thinks the $135 IPO price will look pricey a year from now, but cheap in five years. Newman plans to make a small initial purchase on opening day to hedge against short-term uncertainty, while expecting better entry opportunities within the first 12 months. He’s long-term bullish on Starlink and AI growth. Dan Ives, an analyst at Los Angeles-based Wade Bush Securities, calls SpaceX’s IPO a “watershed” market event and holds an overall optimistic outlook. He puts the odds of a Tesla-SpaceX merger in 2027 at over 80%, saying post-listing, the company’s AI and space ecosystem long-term narrative will drive strong retail and institutional demand, leading to promising performance.
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TLDRStrong Employment Data Erases Rate Cut ExpectationsApple’s Disappointment and SpaceX’s UncertaintyWhat This Means for Market ParticipantsGet 3 Free Stock Ebooks Cramer declares the market environment has deteriorated and recommends waiting to buy stocks Robust jobs data pushes Fed rate cut probability to near zero, with 96% chance of no June action Apple stock tumbled approximately 7% following lackluster investor response to its developer event Alphabet’s massive $80B capital raise for AI infrastructure may siphon liquidity from equities SpaceX’s highly anticipated IPO risks market disruption if shares surge then crash post-debut Jim Cramer has reversed course on his market optimism, cautioning investors that key factors supporting his previous bullish view are deteriorating. During a recent CNBC “Mad Money” segment, the veteran market commentator advocated for a wait-and-see approach.
“I am not that bullish,” Cramer stated. “My bullishness can wait. I think you will get a better time to buy than right now.”
Strong Employment Data Erases Rate Cut Expectations The primary catalyst behind Cramer’s more defensive posture is the May employment report. The economy added 172,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, exceeding consensus forecasts. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3%.
While robust job creation typically signals economic health, it presents a problem for equity markets. Solid labor market conditions eliminate the Federal Reserve’s rationale for monetary easing.
According to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, markets are pricing in a 96% probability the Fed maintains its current rate stance at the June 17 policy meeting. A Reuters economist poll revealed that 70% anticipate zero rate reductions throughout 2026.
Cramer suggested the employment strength could even justify a rate increase, though few mainstream economists share that extreme view. Regardless, the takeaway remains clear — monetary policy loosening is off the agenda.
Apple’s Disappointment and SpaceX’s Uncertainty Apple presented another concern for the market strategist. Shares declined roughly 7% during the June 4-10 period after the company’s 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference. Announcements regarding Siri’s partnership with Google Gemini left investors underwhelmed.
“Apple is a leader, maybe the leader, and I don’t want to lose the leader of this stock market,” Cramer explained.
Additionally, Alphabet recently closed an enormous $80 billion equity offering to finance artificial intelligence infrastructure expansion. Cramer expressed concern that if additional tech giants pursue similar capital-raising strategies, it could drain available investment capital from the wider market.
The upcoming SpaceX public offering introduces further complexity. The space exploration company’s IPO carries an estimated $1.7 trillion valuation. While Cramer acknowledged strong initial demand should prevent opening-day losses, he warned of potential overvaluation leading to subsequent collapse.
“What happens if it opens too high simply because there’s not enough stock to go around, and then we watch a sickening decline after that moment?” he questioned.
What This Means for Market Participants Despite the S&P 500 maintaining approximately 6% gains year-to-date, Cramer is counseling restraint. He believes more attractive buying opportunities may emerge for patient investors.
Regarding SpaceX particularly, Cramer advised that only investors with extremely long time horizons should consider participating at the IPO price — jokingly recommending limit orders “for your grandchildren.”
For the immediate future, Cramer sees the risk-reward equation tilted unfavorably for investors entering positions at prevailing market levels.
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Jim Cramer isn’t known for subtlety, and his June 12 take on Accenture was no exception. The CNBC host agreed with the thesis that the consulting giant is “being outcompeted by OpenAI and Anthropic,” pointing to growing concerns that advanced AI tools are siphoning business away from traditional consulting firms.
The timing matters. Accenture’s earnings report looms, and the stock is under pressure from a question that won’t go away: if AI can do what a $500-per-hour consultant does, why hire the consultant?
The consulting industry’s AI problem OpenAI and Anthropic aren’t just building chatbots anymore. Both companies announced large-scale enterprise AI services initiatives in 2026, raising billions in capital to place AI engineers directly with clients. In English: the AI labs are becoming consultants themselves.
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Accenture has tried to get ahead of this. In December 2025, the company expanded its partnership with Anthropic, creating a dedicated Anthropic Business Group and planning to train approximately 30,000 professionals on Claude models. Similar partnerships with OpenAI positioned Accenture as an implementation partner, helping enterprises deploy AI tools they couldn’t set up on their own.
Anthropic’s IPO and the competitive reshuffling The competitive picture got more complicated in early June 2026, when Anthropic filed confidentially for an IPO. The AI safety company, maker of the Claude model family, is reportedly following the successful public market debut of SpaceX as a signal that the IPO window is open for high-profile tech firms.
An Anthropic IPO would give the company a massive war chest to expand its enterprise services arm, potentially undercutting the very consulting firms it currently partners with. It would also create a publicly traded pure-play AI company that investors could buy instead of, or alongside, traditional consulting stocks like Accenture.
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The consulting disruption thesis has direct implications for enterprise blockchain adoption. Companies like Accenture have been among the largest consulting partners helping enterprises evaluate and implement blockchain solutions. If those firms lose market share and mindshare to AI labs, the blockchain consulting pipeline could slow, or shift to AI-native firms that have less institutional knowledge of distributed ledger technology.
For investors watching Accenture specifically, the question is whether the company’s partnership strategy amounts to genuine competitive positioning or an expensive exercise in training the people who will eventually work for its competitors. Training 30,000 professionals on Claude is impressive, but if those professionals can be replaced by Claude itself in three years, the investment thesis weakens considerably.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
Quick Overview SpaceX launched its $135 IPO on June 12, securing $75 billion in the largest public offering ever recorded, with shares climbing approximately 49% to $201.80 by June 19. CNBC’s Jim Cramer labeled SpaceX a “meme stock,” expressing concern he’d “hate to see it walked to the size of Nvidia” via rapid overnight price movements lacking seller resistance. SPCX now exceeds all established Wall Street price targets; Oppenheimer leads at $190 while Morningstar estimates fair value at merely $63. Ross Gerber noted “no one wants to talk about Tesla anymore,” though merger discussions between Tesla and SpaceX continue to circulate without confirmation. Baron Capital increased its position to approximately $25 billion while Cathie Wood’s ARK invested roughly $530 million, demonstrating substantial institutional support. When SpaceX set its IPO price at $135 per share on June 12, the company captured $75 billion — establishing a new benchmark as America’s largest initial public offering, eclipsing Saudi Aramco’s 2019 record by approximately threefold. Trading commenced at $150 and concluded near $160.95 on day one, representing roughly a 19% increase. The shares advanced to $192.50 by June 15, briefly hitting $212.19 during early June 16 trading. As of June 19, SPCX was changing hands around $201.80, marking a nearly 49% climb from the offering price.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SPCX
Retail demand proved extraordinary, with over $100 billion in purchase orders submitted before market launch. These individual investors secured approximately 30% of available shares — significantly exceeding the standard 5% to 10% allocation.
Then Jim Cramer weighed in.
The CNBC personality took to X, stating he would “hate to see a meme stock — what SpaceX has become — walked to the size of Nvidia over a series of overnight moves with no sellers.”
He expressed discomfort watching the stock jump ten points within hours, though he clarified his continued support for the underlying business. Nvidia commanded approximately $5 trillion in market capitalization at that moment, suggesting Cramer envisioned SPCX potentially doubling from current levels.
Not all observers share the meme stock characterization. Commentators at 24/7 Wall St. contended SpaceX diverges from traditional meme-stock patterns because the price movement reflects legitimate operations — orbital launches, Starlink satellite internet, and artificial intelligence initiatives — instead of social media-driven speculation.
Price Multiples Present Challenges for Bulls SpaceX disclosed $18.67 billion in 2025 revenue alongside a $4.94 billion net loss. The IPO pricing implied roughly 94 times trailing twelve-month sales. Elon Musk has projected the enterprise could achieve $1 trillion in annual revenue by decade’s end.
Current trading levels now surpass every analyst price objective on record. Oppenheimer initiated coverage with the most optimistic target at $190 — a figure SPCX has already exceeded. Morningstar calculated intrinsic value at $63.
Despite stretched valuations, significant institutional capital continues flowing in. Baron Capital expanded its SpaceX holdings to approximately $25 billion following an additional $1 billion investment, according to founder Ron Baron’s CNBC interview. Cathie Wood’s ARK portfolios accumulated around $530 million in positions.
The Tesla Connection Investor Ross Gerber introduced another dimension to the debate. In an X post, he observed: “No one wants to talk about Tesla anymore. Just SpaceX SpaceX.”
Gerber, who has characterized Tesla as “worthless” absent a SpaceX combination, previously indicated any transaction would likely resemble SpaceX acquiring Tesla rather than a partnership between peers.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives estimated the probability of a Tesla-SpaceX combination at roughly 80% last month, pointing to overlapping capabilities in artificial intelligence, robotics, semiconductors, and power systems. However, such scenarios remain purely hypothetical at present.
Since the June 12 debut, Tesla (TSLA) has declined 0.44% from that session’s closing price. SPCX has gained nearly 49.5% during the identical timeframe.
SpaceX maintains 18,712 Bitcoin valued at approximately $1.3 billion as of Q1 disclosures, and reportedly negotiated to acquire Cursor developer Anysphere for $60 billion.
