Category: Business

Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT wrote on Sunday that the team behind RaveDAO is at least aware of who manipulated the price of its token, which saw an impossible 11,000% surge in price followed by a near immediate collapse.

“I found suspicious CEX (centralized crypto exchanges) activity on April 26 tied to RaveDAO team addresses onchain, which potentially contradicts their recent statements,” the blockchain investigator said.

In a separate post, ZachXBT flagged a transfer from a $RAVE address used for “initial distribution” by RaveDAO from which roughly $23 million worth of tokens were transferred to two Bitget deposit addresses causing the price to drop 40% from $1 to $0.6.

RaveDAO posted a six-part X thread on Saturday, previously reported by CoinDesk, stating “we are aware of the rumors and accusations circulating regarding $RAVE and the RaveDAO team. We want to be clear: RaveDAO team is not engaged in, nor responsible for, recent price action.”

However, ZachXBT said, “given the supply concentration, the team at minimum knows who is responsible for this price action.”

In a separate X post, the investigator said, “you expect the community to believe $RAVE went $60M -> $6B mkt cap organically in nine days with little to no utility? Considering your team handled the initial distribution with a low float it’s unlikely you do not know the party responsible for it.”

The RaveDAO token, which increased by nearly 11,000% in nine days from about $0.25 to $27.33, then plunged by over 90%, losing roughly $5.7 billion in market capitalization in just 48 hours. Its price currently hovers around $0.67.

The sleuth also said $RAVE is not the only token with manipulation “we have seen on major centralized exchanges. It’s just the most blatant.” He also said it was highly unlikely the CEXs did not spot the massive $RAVE token price movements.

Reabold Resources, an investment company focused on developing European gas projects, said it is considering establishing a gas-powered bitcoin mining station in northern England.

The London-based company is exploring the potential to deploy a small power plant as a pilot for future target=”_blank”>it said in a statement on Monday.

Bitcoin production from the company’s West Newton A well site will be used to demonstrate the ability to use the gas to fuel target=”_blank”>Telegraph article criticizing the plan at a time when the country could face gas shortages because of the war between Iran and the U.S. and Israel.

Concerns of potential gas shortage are unfounded according to a U.K. government statement in late March, which said gas supply will not be affected.

“Only about 1% of the U.K.’s gas supply in 2025 came from Qatar. We have no reason to expect it would be significantly different in 2026,” it said.

The Telegraph’s article said Reabold’s West Newton gas field is so large it could theoretically power the creation of 50,000 bitcoin tokens.

“A private gas supply means we can run a data centre to mine bitcoin relatively cheaply,” said Sachin Oza, the co-CEO of Reabold Resources, which has a drilling license by the Environment Agency.

“Initially, this would help fund the further development of the gas field and prove the concept – meaning it could become the precursor to a far larger data center.”

But, the firm said, “the significant onshore natural gas resource at the West Newton site in Yorkshire has and will continue to be progressed for the benefit of U.K. energy security, which is particularly important at this time of significant geopolitical uncertainty.”

Reabold’s plan for a bitcoin mining operation to broaden into a data center comes bitcoin mining is undergoing a transformation, with many companies diverting into high-performance computing and support for the AI industry.

The popular Spiderman meme showing three identical superheroes pointing fingers at each other is having its crypto moment today.

Kelp DAO is set to push back on LayerZero’s post-mortem of Sunday’s $290 million exploit, which essentially blames Kelp, a L2 source familiar with the matter told CoinDesk. Kelp plans to dispute the cross-chain messaging firm’s claim that it ignored repeated warnings to move away from a single-verifier setup. CoinDesk has reviewed and verified the memo Kelp plans to publish.

Kelp is a liquid restaking protocol that takes user-deposited ether, routes it through a yield-generating system called EigenLayer, and issues a receipt token, rsETH, in exchange.

LayerZero is the cross-chain messaging infrastructure that moves rsETH between blockchains, using entities called DVNs (decentralized verifier networks) to verify whether a cross-chain transfer is valid.

On Saturday, attackers drained 116,500 rsETH, worth about $290 million, from Kelp’s LayerZero-powered bridge by poisoning the servers that LayerZero’s verifier relied on to check transactions.

Kelp, the source said, is planning on saying the DVN that was compromised via what it calls a “sophisticated state-sponsored attack” was LayerZero’s own infrastructure, not a third-party verifier.

Attackers compromised two of LayerZero’s own servers that check whether cross-chain transactions are legitimate, then flooded the backup servers with junk traffic to force LayerZero’s verifier onto the compromised ones.

All of that infrastructure was built and run by LayerZero, not Kelp, the sourceclaimed.

The source contested LayerZero’s framing of the “1/1 configuration” as a fringe choice made against guidance. LayerZero’s post-mortem said KelpDAO chose a 1-of-1 DVN setup despite expressing recommendations to configure multi-DVN redundancy.

A “1/1 configuration” means only a single validator must sign off on a cross-chain message for the bridge to act on it, leaving the system with no second check to catch a compromised or forged instruction. A multi-validator configuration (such as 2/3, 3/5, etc.) ensures there is no single point of failure that can approve a forged message on its own.

They added that, through a direct communications channel with LayerZero, which has been open since July 2024, they produced no specific recommendation for Kelp to change the rsETH DVN configuration.

LayerZero’s own quickstart guide and default GitHub configuration point to a 1/1 DVN setup, the source told CoinDesk, adding 40% of protocols on LayerZero are currently using the same configuration.

The configuration Kelp ran also appears in LayerZero’s own V2 OApp Quickstart, where the sample layerzero.config.ts wires every pathway with one required DVN and no optional DVNs. That’s the same 1/1 structure.

Kelp’s core restaking contracts were not touched, and the exploit was isolated to the bridge layer, they added. Its emergency pause, 46 minutes after the drain, blocked two follow-up attempts that would have released an additional ~$200 million in rsETH.

CoinDesk reached out to LayerZero for comment on the story and didn’t hear back by the time of publication.

‘Deflecting responsibility’

Security researchers are also not buying LayerZero’s isolated framing, which pinned the blame on Kelp.

Kelp is a liquid restaking protocol. Its core competency is staking infrastructure, EigenLayer integration, and liquid staking token management. When integrating with LayerZero, Kelp relied on LayerZero’s documentation, their defaults, and their team’s guidance to make configuration decisions, the source claimed.

Yearn Finance core team developer Artem K, who is popularly known as @banteg on X, posted a technical review of LayerZero’s public deployment code and said that the reference setup ships with single-source verification defaults across every major chain, including Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Arbitrum and Optimism.

That deployment also leaves a public endpoint exposed that leaks the list of configured servers to anyone who queries it.

Banteg flagged in his analysis that he can’t prove which configuration Kelp used, but noted that LayerZero usually asks new operators to use its default setup, which its post-mortem criticized.

Chainlink community manager Zach Rynes put it bluntly on X, alleging that LayerZero was “deflecting responsibility” for its own compromised infrastructure and accused the company of throwing Kelp under the bus for trusting a setup LayerZero itself supported.

As such, LayerZero has said it will no longer sign messages for any application running a single-verifier setup, forcing a protocol-wide migration.

Read more: ‘DeFi is dead’: crypto community scrambles after this year’s biggest hack exposes contagion risk

Binance says users and funds are safe after Vercel’s $2m data breach, spotlighting how a single SaaS compromise can ripple across Web3 front ends.

Vercel, a widely used cloud hosting and front‑end deployment platform in the crypto ecosystem, disclosed a “limited” security incident after attackers gained unauthorized access to some internal systems and began offering alleged internal data for sale for $2 million. According to incident summaries, the dataset advertised on underground forums purportedly includes internal databases, access keys, source code, employee accounts, API keys, NPM tokens, and GitHub tokens, with hackers claiming it could be used for “global supply chain attacks.”

Vercel said services remain operational and that only “a limited subset” of customers appears affected, but it has urged teams to rotate secrets and is working with law enforcement and external incident response specialists. The company traced the intrusion to a compromised Google Workspace OAuth application belonging to a third‑party AI tool, turning what began as an upstream SaaS breach into a downstream infrastructure problem for any project depending on Vercel.

Binance, which relies on Vercel for some front‑end components, moved quickly to calm users’ nerves as details of the breach circulated through the market. According to Binance’s security update, the exchange’s “platform and user assets were not impacted” by the Vercel incident, and its security team launched an emergency response to assess potential exposure across “all Binance front‑end products.” The exchange said it contacted Vercel directly to validate the scope of the breach and completed an internal risk assessment while continuing to monitor for any signs of compromise.

Vercel chief executive Guillermo Rauch emphasized that the firm had “analyzed our supply chain” and that core open‑source projects such as Next.js and Turbopack remain safe for developers, even as investigations into the internal systems breach continue. Nonetheless, with Vercel sitting behind front ends for many DeFi protocols, exchanges and Web3 infrastructure providers, security researchers warn the episode is likely to trigger a wave of secret rotations, credential audits and deployment reviews across the sector as teams reassess how much trust they place in shared hosting providers.

With attackers explicitly marketing Vercel’s alleged internal data as a springboard for supply‑chain attacks, the incident highlights how a single compromised SaaS integration can ripple across dozens of crypto projects at once. For now, no major blockchain platforms have publicly confirmed direct impact, but exchanges and protocol teams are being pushed into a live‑fire test of their own incident‑response playbooks and assumptions about third‑party risk.

Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) is working with Bybit, one of the largest crypto trading platforms, to explore ways to tokenize, custody and distribute assets such as U.S. public and pre-IPO stocks, a person familiar with the plans told CoinDesk.

The talks, which are ongoing, do not involve any sort of stake acquisition or similar deal for Bybit to enter the U.S., said the person, who asked to remain anonymous because they are directly involved in the discussions, dismissing a report of an investment publicized last month.

It makes sense for Bybit to partner with an American company, the person said, because the U.S. is home to certain assets that global users want. Bybit is international, while Coinbase is U.S.-focused.

Working together, the two can bring U.S. assets to a wider market in, for example, Asia, according to the person. Within five years, tokenization will bring any asset to users globally through a single app.

“Even if Coinbase becomes a super app in the U.S., they are still only in the U.S,” the person said.

The two companies’ explorations into tokenized stocks come as other market participants explore similar link-ups. Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, in March announced it was taking a stake in crypto exchange OKX. Just last week, Deutsche Boerse, made a $200 million strategic investment into Kraken.

Bybit’s plan to enter the U.S. market does involve a local partner, but it’s not Coinbase, the person said.

The new U.S.-focused joint venture, said to be spearheaded by former Bybit co-CEO Helen Liu, will involve an unidentified “local partner who is going to provide license and compliance.” Bybit will to provide tech, product and liquidity.

Bybit and Coinbase both declined to comment.

Continuing its weekly purchases, Strategy completed its weekly Bitcoin ($BTC) purchase and announced that it bought 34,164 $BTC last week.

Accordingly, Strategy purchased 34,164 $BTC, worth $2.54 billion, at an average price of $74,395.

Strategy founder Michael Saylor announced the news via a post on his X account.

“Strategy purchased 34,164 $BTC for approximately $2.54 billion, at approximately $74,395 per Bitcoin, and achieved a 9.5% $BTC return by YTD 2026.”

As of April 19, 2026, we hold 815,061 $BTC, purchased for approximately $61.56 billion at approximately $75,527 per Bitcoin.

This purchase is one of the largest the company has made recently, and with this latest acquisition, the amount of Bitcoin held by the company has exceeded 800,000 $BTC.

Based on Bitcoin’s fixed supply, the amount held by the company represents more than 3.8% of the final total of 21 million, and at current prices, this translates to a loss of approximately $400 million.

It was also stated that the recent purchases were made using proceeds from sales of Class A common shares (MSTR) and perpetual Stretch preferred shares (STRC) at market price.

Michael Saylor once again hinted at the company’s latest purchase. This time, Saylor gave his usual Sunday hint, updating Strategy’s Bitcoin purchase announcement by saying, “Think bigger.” This announcement suggested a larger purchase than the previous week’s 13,927 $BTC.

*This is not investment advice.

Digital asset investment products pulled in $1.4 billion last week, their strongest weekly haul since January and the third consecutive week of positive flows, according to CoinShares’ new report.

The result was driven by recovering risk sentiment tied to US-Iran ceasefire extension talks and Bitcoin’s mid-week move above $76,000, its highest level since February, the report notes.

Total assets under management reached $155 billion, with weekly flows representing 0.91% of AUM, the highest weekly intensity recorded year-to-date.

March CPI data, which came in at 3.3% year-on-year with a benign core reading of 2.6%, appeared to have little dampening effect on investor appetite.

Bitcoin and Ethereum led inflows, as altcoins diverged

Bitcoin drew $1.116 billion in inflows, lifting year-to-date totals to $3.1 billion, as its break above $76,000 marked a meaningful technical development following two months of range-bound trading.

Short-Bitcoin products saw just $1.4 million in inflows, indicating limited but residual hedging demand.

Ethereum attracted $328 million, its best weekly performance since January, bringing year-to-date flows to $197 million.

XRP and Solana recorded outflows of $56 million and $2.3 million, respectively, even as Bitcoin and Ethereum surged.

Regional flows show mixed signals

The regional breakdown is uneven. The US dominated with $1.5 billion in inflows and Germany chipped in $28 million, but Switzerland saw $138 million in outflows, the largest Swiss exit since November.

Market updates

Bitcoin traded at $75,249 at press time, up about 6% over the past seven days, while Ethereum gained more than 5% over the same period to top $2,300, per CoinGecko. Total crypto market capitalization stood at $2.6 trillion.