Solana exchange Stabble urged users to pull liquidity after its former CTO was alleged to be a North Korean hacker.
The firm’s total value locked dropped 62% in the wake of the request, dropping from $1.75 million to less than $663,000.
North Korean hackers allegedly completed a sophisticated scheme to exploit Drift Protocol last week for $285 million.
Solana decentralized exchange Stabble has urged users to pull liquidity from the platform, leading to a 62% drop in its total value locked (TVL) Tuesday after the firm learned its former chief technology officer was flagged as an alleged North Korean hacker.
The protocol, which was recently taken over by a new team, began the day with around $1.75 million in TVL, according to data from DeFiLlama. After publicly sounding the alarm to a potential emergency, that value is down to less than $663,000.
“EMERGENCY!” the new protocol team posted on X. “Guys, please temporarily withdraw your liquidity instantly! Better safe than sorry.”
The alert hit social media around 9:34 a.m. ET on Tuesday, about seven hours after pseudonymous on-chain sleuth ZachXBT had identified an alleged North Korean hacker, Keisuke Watanabe, who reportedly worked as the CTO at Stabble last year.
EMERGENCY ! guys please temporally withdraw your liquidity instantly !
Despite there being no disclosed exploit on the platform, the firm said it was working on audits to ensure everything is fully secure.
“We received a message and are acting on it, our primary focus is the safety of our LPs,” the new Stabble team posted. “We’re not PR people, we’re quants and early DeFi degens. We hear you, and your feedback matters.”
The platform’s hasty move to alert the public comes less than a week after leading Solana DeFi protocol Drift was exploited for more than $285 million by hackers linked to North Korea.
On Monday, the Solana Foundation launched multiple new security efforts for the ecosystem, saying that it would help secure DeFi protocols with a total value locked of at least $10 million.
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Pharos Network, a layer 1 blockchain focused on tokenized real-world assets, said it raised $44 million in a Series A round led by a mix of traditional finance and crypto investors.
Backers include Sumitomo Corporation’s venture arm, SNZ Holding, Chainlink and Flow Traders, along with unnamed financial institutions the firm described as “giants in global finance.” The funding comes as interest grows in bringing assets like bonds, energy projects and private credit onto blockchain rails.
Pharos says it is building an “asset-native” network designed to handle regulated financial activity at scale. Its system uses parallel processing to support large volumes of transactions, with compliance features aimed at institutions that need audit trails and identity checks.
The company targets a market it values at $50 trillion. While far from that figure, the tokenization space has been growing, with data showing total real-world assets onchain are now at $24.3 billion. That’s up from $14 billion at the beginning of the year.
Pharos also pointed to activity on its testnet, which it said includes millions of users and unique addresses, and a partnership with energy firm GCL tied to solar-backed assets. These figures, common in pre-launch networks, are often driven by incentives and are hard to verify independently.
The raise follows an earlier seed round where the firm raised $8 million. That round was co-led by Lightspeed Faction and Hack VC. It also comes after a recent investment from GCL New Energy (0451) that valued the firm near $1 billion.
Its mainnet is expected to debut in the near future.
The Clarity Act, considered one of the most important cryptocurrency laws in the US, has been delayed for months due to disagreements over interest payments on stablecoins. CLARITY is stalled because of disputes between banks and the cryptocurrency sector regarding interest payments on stablecoins.
While the banking sector advocates for a ban on interest payments on stablecoins, the cryptocurrency sector supports stablecoin yields.
As the debate over stablecoin interest rates continues, a White House council has released a report on stablecoin interest rates.
Accordingly, the US White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) stated that the impact of stablecoin interest payments on local banks would be minimal and limited.
According to Bloomberg, the White House Council of Economic Advisors stated that cryptocurrency companies paying interest to customers holding stablecoins would not trigger a wave of deposit outflows from banks.
White House economists believe banning stablecoin yields would only increase bank lending by 0.02%. This assessment suggests that the impact of stablecoin rewards on traditional financial institutions is minimal and alleviates concerns about potential disruptions.
CEA economists also concluded that this measure would be largely ineffective in protecting banks and could deprive consumers of competitive returns.
However, the CEA’s analysis contradicts that of the Independent Regional Banking Council (ICBC). In a recent analysis, the ICBC stated that allowing interest payments on stablecoins could lead to banks withdrawing up to $1.3 trillion in deposits and up to $850 billion in loans.
The White House appears to have sided with the cryptocurrency sector regarding stablecoin returns with its latest report.
Iran will collect crypto payments as transit fees from oil tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz during the two‑week ceasefire with the U.S., an industry official told FT.
Hamid Hosseini, spokesperson for Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union, said that crypto-denominated tolls will be charged for fully loaded vessels as the nation seeks to “monitor what goes in and out of the strait to ensure these two weeks aren’t used for transferring weapons.”
Hosseini’s comments signal Tehran’s willingness to use cryptocurrency for toll payments, highlighting the expanding real‑world use cases of digital assets in high-stakes geopolitical developments.
This isn’t new — nations at odds with the U.S. or its allies have long turned to crypto as a way to bypass traditional banking channels that leave a paper trail. Russia has indeed used cryptocurrency as part of broader efforts to evade Western sanctions, and in Iran’s case, Tehran is exploring digital payments as it looks to unlock funds for rebuilding the war-destroyed infrastructure.
The proposed framework will require tankers to notify cargo details to Iranian authorities via email, and the toll will reportedly be calculated at $1 per barrel of oil. Authorities will then instruct on how to settle the fee in digital assets, with officials citing bitcoin as a potential payment method.
Hosseini suggested that empty tankers would transit without charge, but fully laden vessels must comply with the reporting and crypto payment process before being cleared for passage.
“Once the email arrives and Iran completes its assessment, vessels are given a few seconds to pay in Bitcoin, ensuring they can’t be traced or confiscated due to sanctions,” he said.
The comments also indicated Tehran may direct traffic along the northern route of the Strait close to its coastline, a move that could raise questions about whether Western and Gulf‑linked shipping firms are prepared to navigate the risky Iranian waters.
Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust is expected to debut as early as Wednesday after the SEC flashed a regulatory green light for the exchange-traded fund.
The product faces an entrenched titan in BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, but Morgan Stanley is making things more competitive with the industry’s lowest fees.
Meanwhile, one of the largest investment banks has an “army of advisors” that could bolster the product’s adoption, Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas said.
Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin Trust is expected to face stiff competition when it debuts as early as Wednesday, but the exchange-traded fund is poised to enter a crowded field with distinct advantages, according to Bloomberg Senior ETF Analyst Eric Balchunas.
Through a combination of low fees and in-house distribution, Balchunas told Decrypt on Tuesday that the product being offered by the firm with $9.3 trillion in assets has a decent shot at pulling momentum away from BlackRock’s industry-leading alternative.
“It’s not going to knock off BlackRock and become the biggest, but I believe it will do well,” he said in reference to Morgan Stanley’s spot Bitcoin ETF. “What Morgan Stanley has going for it is a captive audience. It’s got its own army of advisors.”
With approximately 16,000 financial advisors on Morgan Stanley’s payroll, MSBT’s adoption will be bolstered by recommendations to clients, Balchunas said. He pointed out that Fidelity has some advisors—but “Morgan Stanley is on another level.”
Last year, Morgan Stanley’s Global Investment Committee recommended allocating up to 4% of investors’ portfolios to crypto for “opportunistic growth.” Among clients, those allocations could soon become further legitimized, with the SEC’s approval of MSBT’s debut on Tuesday.
Balchunas noted that Morgan Stanley’s “brand is huge,” standing in contrast with a handful of crypto asset managers that debuted their products alongside BlackRock.
As various issuers refined filings ahead of spot Bitcoin ETFs’ U.S. debut in 2024, Balchunas began using the term “Terrordome” to describe an intensely competitive environment for emerging issuers’ fees. He said Morgan Stanley hasn’t failed to show up.
ETFs charge what is known as an expense ratio, deducting fees from the fund’s assets to cover management, administrative, and operating costs. Morgan Stanley’s spot Bitcoin ETF is set to debut with a 0.14% expense ratio, undercutting BlackRock’s 0.25% fee for its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT).
Balchunas said Morgan Stanley’s target is lower than most legacy firms are willing to go, but the move likely has strategic elements when it comes to optics for advisors.
“You’ve got this product that’s cheap enough where [allocations] won’t look like a conflict of interest,” he said. “They’re literally picking the most fiduciary product if you go by fees alone.”
For a firm that’s “late to the party,” Balchunas noted that differentiation is crucial. He wagered that Morgan Stanley has done enough to separate its product from BlackRock’s, which has taken in $63.3 billion since its debut, according to CoinGlass.
Balchunas compared IBIT to basketball legend Michael Jordan. At this point, he said that BlackRock’s ETF has become entrenched as the undeniable leader in its field through robust liquidity and a massive options market.
Historically, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF’s fees have been the highest at 1.5%. Still, the asset manager debuted a “Mini” counterpart last year that has a 0.15% expense ratio, lower than almost every other alternative on the market.
The VanEck Bitcoin Trust currently charges no fees to investors. But that’s because the asset manager has implemented what is known as a fee waiver. Its expense ratio is set to remain at 0% until the end of July, unless it crosses $2.5 billion in assets beforehand.
Decrypt has reached out to Morgan Stanley for comment.
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President Donald Trump posted on Tuesday morning on Truth Social that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” unless Iran gives in to U.S. demands. He set 8 p.m. ET as the hard deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face destruction.
S&P 500 futures fell 0.4%, Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 0.6%, and Dow futures sank 142 points before the opening bell. Oil went the other direction: WTI crude is trading above $115 a barrel, Brent above $110—a more than 70% rise over the last 30 days—the direct result of a Strait of Hormuz closure that has been choking off roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply since late February.
Iran rejected a previous ceasefire proposal from the United States, and international groups such as the International Committee of the Red Cross have said Trump’s threats, if fulfilled, could amount to “war crimes.”
The escalation in rhetoric has markets on edge, and crypto is no different. Bitcoin slipped to $68,557, dropping 2% on the day, and Ethereum slipped 2.7% as traders apparently brace for further turmoil. The logic appears to be that if bombs start falling on civilian infrastructure tonight, investors will flee to safety—and Bitcoin has increasingly shown to not function as a safe haven asset during a war panic.
On Myriad, a prediction market built by Decrypt‘s parent company Dastan, traders are pricing in only a 24.1% chance that the Iranian regime falls before October. It suggests traders either expect yet another TACO move from Trump or believe the conflict will drag deep into the second half of the year, with no clean resolution in sight.
The Bitcoin chart has seen this movie before
With Bitcoin down around 2% today, the short-term movement doesn’t look catastrophic—but the long-term picture isn’t pretty.
Image: Tradingview
The daily charts show three separate attempts by buyers to recover losses after a major top, and three separate failures, since October of last year. Each recovery set a lower high. Each breakdown found a lower bottom. Bitcoin closed Q1 2026 with its worst quarter since 2018, down 22% as war, tariffs, and a hawkish Fed crushed risk appetite. The coin is now at the bottom of the third pattern, hovering above support near $65,000. If this plays out the way the previous two did, the next stop is $55,000 or worse.
The overall indicators show a bearish mood among Bitcoin traders.
The Exponential Moving Averages, or EMAs, show that the 50-day average is trading below the 200-day, which is the quintessential bearish indicator. It means the longer-term trend is still pointed down, and there’s no structural reversal in the moving averages yet. When EMAs are in this configuration, traders refer to it as a “death cross,” and rallies tend to get sold into.
The 50-day EMA has marked a solid resistance since the death cross appeared late last year.
The Average Directional Index, or ADX, is at 12.8—well below the 25 threshold that signals a real trend is forming. ADX measures trend strength regardless of direction. Below 20 means the market is choppy and directionless. The bears are in control on paper, but the trend hasn’t gone full force yet as can be seen by the sideways movement after the big drop in February.
For Bitcoin bulls, the good news is that a low ADX could point to a trend reversal. The bad news is it needs confirmation from other indicators, and that’s not happening right now.
The Relative Strength Index, or RSI, sits at 47.9—firmly neutral but slightly oversold. RSI measures buying and selling momentum; at this level, neither camp has the edge. Meanwhile, the Squeeze Momentum Indicator shows that compressed energy is building, and the current lean is negative. A squeeze release with downward momentum is a bearish setup.
Moon or doom?
The charts show Bitcoin is more likely to go down. Three identical yellow patterns. Three failed recoveries. BTC formed a lower high every single time, then broke through support and found a new floor. The descending blue trendline connecting the highs is still intact. The Ichimoku cloud above is deep red—a ceiling, not a floor.
Close below $65,000, and it’s a major confirmation for this pattern. The path to $55,000 then opens with little structural support in between.
On Myriad, traders are leaning that way too: traders say there’s a 57% chance BTC’s next major move is a dump to $55,000, compared to 43% odds on a pump to $84,000. A separate market asks whether there’s still a chance crypto will bloom this spring: 66% say no, with the market closing May 31.
There’s a real argument for the other side. Bitcoin is down more than 45% from the $126K all-time high set last October. Some analysts—including Main Management’s Kim Arthur—have called this the “bottoming phase” of a classic four-year crypto winter.
But bulls need to see real confirmation first: Bitcoin breaking past the $75,000 mark with conviction, ADX climbing above 20 to signal a genuine trend forming, and the 50-day EMA starting to curl back toward the 200-day. None of that is happening yet. Without it, any bounce seems like just another lower high in the making.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.
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Bloomberg senior commodities strategist Mike McGlone shared a noteworthy assessment of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market in general.
McGlone stated that current macroeconomic conditions are putting pressure on risky assets, and that the scenario in which the Bitcoin price could fall to the $10,000 level in the long term is becoming increasingly discussed.
“Bitcoin Will Only Stabilize If US Stocks Remain Strong”
According to McGlone, the resilience of US stock markets, in particular, plays a critical role in this scenario. The strategist argued that Bitcoin, among millions of crypto assets, could stabilize under certain conditions, but this depends on the stock markets remaining strong. However, he noted that the low volatility in US stock markets despite rising risk indicators in commodities like gold and oil is “a rare occurrence in history.”
Related NewsDevelopers of a Project Issued an Urgent Call for Their Own Cryptocurrency Platform: “Everyone Should Withdraw Their Liquidity Immediately”
On the other hand, McGlone compared the current market dynamics to the process leading up to the 2008 global financial crisis. Recalling that rising oil prices had historically paved the way for recessions, the strategist stated that a similar pattern could re-emerge. In this context, he added that movements in energy markets are critical for the global economic outlook.
McGlone also shared his “normalization” expectations for 2026. According to the analyst, possible scenarios include WTI oil prices heading towards $40, copper towards $4, US Treasury yields towards 4%, gold towards $4,000, and silver towards $50.
In his assessment of the crypto market, McGlone also referenced Michael Saylor’s past statement, “We buy Bitcoin with money we can’t afford to lose,” noting that such approaches reflect periods of excessive risk appetite. McGlone added that MicroStrategy is a pioneer in this field with its Bitcoin investments.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced it will support the network upgrade and hard fork process on the Polygon network.
According to a statement from the exchange, certain transactions will be temporarily suspended to protect user experience.
Binance announced that it will cease deposit and withdrawal operations for tokens on the Polygon network as of April 8, 2026, at 4:00 PM. This step was taken to prevent potential technical disruptions during the network upgrade.
The network update and hard fork are expected to take place around 5:00 PM on the same day, at a block height of 85,268,500.
The exchange stated that only deposit and withdrawal transactions would be affected by this process, while trading would continue uninterrupted. Users will be able to continue trading their Polygon network assets on Binance.
Binance also stated that all technical requirements for the upgrade process will be met by the platform and users will not need to take any additional action. Deposit and withdrawal operations will be reopened once the network upgrade is complete and the system is stable, although no further announcements may be made regarding this.
Experts emphasize that while these types of network updates generally provide performance improvements and security enhancements, temporary transaction restrictions should be carefully monitored by investors.
Bitcoin price started a strong increase above the $70,000 zone. $BTC is consolidating gains and might aim for more gains above the $71,500 zone.
Bitcoin gained pace for a move above the $69,500 and $70,500 levels.
The price is trading above $70,000 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
There was a break above a key declining channel with resistance at $68,800 on the hourly chart of the $BTC/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).
The pair might extend gains if it stays above the $70,250 and $69,500 levels.
Bitcoin Price Rallies 5%
Bitcoin price managed to climb higher above the $68,800 resistance zone. $BTC gained pace for a move above the $69,500 and $70,000 levels.
Besides, there was a break above a key declining channel with resistance at $68,800 on the hourly chart of the $BTC/USD pair. The pair even rallied above the $72,000 level. A high was formed at $72,728, and the price started a downside correction. There was a move below the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the upward move from the $67,734 swing low to the $72,728 high.
Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Bitcoin is now trading above $70,500 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. If the price remains stable above $70,500, it could attempt a fresh increase. Immediate resistance is near the $72,000 level. The first key resistance is near the $72,750 level. A close above the $72,750 resistance might send the price further higher. In the stated case, the price could rise and test the $73,500 resistance. Any more gains might send the price toward the $74,000 level. The next barrier for the bulls could be $75,000.
Another Decline In $BTC?
If Bitcoin fails to rise above the $72,750 resistance zone, it could start another decline. Immediate support is near the $70,800 level. The first major support is near the $70,250 level or the 50% Fib retracement level of the upward move from the $67,734 swing low to the $72,728 high.
The next support is now near the $69,500 zone. Any more losses might send the price toward the $68,800 support in the near term. The main support now sits at $67,500, below which $BTC might struggle to recover in the near term.
Technical indicators:
Hourly MACD – The MACD is now losing pace in the bullish zone.
Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for $BTC/USD is now above the 60 level.
Major Support Levels – $70,800, followed by $70,250.
