ZetaChain has onboarded Kimi K2.6 from Moonshot AI and Alibaba’s Qwen 3.6 Max, moving toward a vision where AI models operate natively across blockchain ecosystems. The platform positions itself as a universal layer where applications can run across chains and models simultaneously while maintaining private, persistent user memory that belongs to the user rather than the platform.
. @Kimi_Moonshot K2.6 and @Alibaba_Qwen 3.6 Max are now onboarded on ZetaChain.
The model layer is moving fast. The memory layer is just getting started.
ZetaChain enables: – Model-agnostic memory – Persistent user context – Private, user-owned data
The model layer is moving fast. The memory layer is just getting started, and that’s where the real infrastructure gap exists.
About ZetaChain & How It is Different
ZetaChain isn’t building another blockchain to chase transactions. It’s building the infrastructure so apps can work across chains and AI models without developers having to wire up each one separately.
An app on ZetaChain picks Kimi, Qwen, or whoever else is onboarded, routes the request to whichever model makes sense for the job, and does it all from one interface.
The cross-chain stuff works the same way. An app executes transactions and accesses liquidity across multiple blockchains without anyone managing bridges, wrapped tokens, or chain-specific integrations. ZetaChain handles those details. You don’t see them.
That abstraction is powerful because it removes the fragmentation that currently makes Web3 applications unnecessarily complex. Users shouldn’t need to understand which chain a liquidity pool lives on to swap assets. Developers shouldn’t need to deploy the same application separately to every blockchain. ZetaChain removes those requirements.
The Memory Layer Is the Real Feature
The model layer with Kimi and Qwen is impressive, but the memory layer is where ZetaChain is making its actual bet on what comes next. Current AI interactions are stateless. You ask a question, you get an answer, and the next conversation starts fresh with no context from what came before. That limitation creates friction for any application that depends on understanding who the user is and what they’ve done previously.
ZetaChain’s memory layer changes that by giving users persistent, private, user-owned context that AI models can access across interactions. An AI agent helping manage a crypto portfolio needs to know what positions the user currently holds, what their risk tolerance is, and what trades they’ve already executed.
Without persistent memory, the agent starts from zero with every interaction and can’t provide intelligent, contextual help.
The private, user-owned part matters as much as the persistence. Current AI services store interaction history on company servers and use that data to train models or sell insights. The memory layer is different from how every other AI service works.
The memory stays with the user. It’s encrypted. It’s theirs. The AI model can read what it needs to give smart responses, but the user owns the data. They can revoke access anytime. They can switch to a different model and their history moves with them.
How This Changes the Pricing Model
The economics are completely different from cloud AI services. Instead of paying a subscription for access to a model, users own their memory and can choose which models to interact with.
A developer building on ZetaChain doesn’t need to host infrastructure. They build the application logic, and ZetaChain handles the model routing, memory management, and cross-chain execution.
That shift moves the economic incentive from locking users into a single platform to providing the best tools and infrastructure for applications that users actually want to use. It’s the difference between renting compute and building applications that control their own infrastructure and data.
Conclusion
ZetaChain onboarding Kimi and Qwen demonstrates the model layer working. The memory layer is where the platform’s actual innovation lives. Users getting persistent, private memory across AI interactions while developers build without managing their own infrastructure represents a genuinely different approach to how AI and Web3 combine. The model layer is moving fast. The memory layer is where the real value starts to compound.
According to the series producer Anna-Klara Carlsten, the international division of U.S. studio Media Res has signed a first option on Lindqvist’s follow up book “Summer of 1986” (“Sommaren 1986-Lovisa och Melinda”) to be published in Sweden Aug. 17.
Both IPs are set in the Stockholm Archipelago over a seemingly peaceful summer holiday and deal with friendship and courage, through the stories of young characters whose lives are rocked by unexpected events.
In “Summer of 1985,” ‘the summer of Live Aid’ as Lindqvist underscores on his website https://www.johnajvidelindqvist.com/book.php?id=35, we follow seven teen boys and girls. The discovery of a drowned local boy and a mermaid on the mysterious island of Svärtan, “plunge them into a perilous world where both their friendship and their survival are at stake,” reads the logline.
Meanwhile In “Summer of 1986” – or the ‘Chernobyl summer,” according to Lindqvist – the plot turns on two younger female characters, Lovisa and Melinda.
“For Media Res International, securing a first option on “Summer of 1986” gives us an exciting opportunity to stay ahead of the curve with a story that organically expands a world which audiences have already connected with,” the banner said in a statement.
“The novel carries Lindqvist’s signature blend of the ordinary and the uncanny, and by shifting the focus to a younger set of siblings – set against a year marked by major moments in Swedish history, from the assassination of the Prime Minister Olof Palme to the aftermath of Chernobyl, it offers a fresh entry point that could meaningfully extend the life of the series.”
“I’m actually in the middle of reading the book!” admits Carlsten on a video call, sitting alongside “Summer of 1985” concept director Björn Stein and head-writer/co-director Amy Deasismont, as the three unpack for Variety the making of the series, ahead of its world premiere in Cannes, April 27.
Fifth Season“Summer of 1985,” ordered by Swedish pubcaster SVT, and co-produced by ZDF Neo and Film Stockholm, is repped internationally by Fifth Season. The six-part coming-of-age thriller with magical elements weighs in as the first Swedish series produced by “The Morning Show” and “Scenes from a Marriage”’s Media Res international production arm.
Its journey from book to screen started when Lindqvist’s literary agent offered the novel to Media Res head of international Lars Blomgren in spring 2023, who then submitted it to Carlsten a couple of months later. The latter, whose credits include the Netflix feelgood “Tore” and Viaplay YA drama “Thunder in My Heart,” was instantly drawn to the project.
“I had done a lot of coming of ages; this was familiar territory yet totally new, in the thriller-mystery genre. “There’s literally a mermaid and a dead body!”
Carlsten, who officially joined the Media Res’ Stockholm outpost in 2025 as part of the outfit’s international push, felt “Summer of 1985” was the perfect Swedish-rooted IP to draw in a large international audience. It combined Lindqvist’s brand name (attached to the earlier successful adaptations “Let the Right One In,” “Border” and “Handling the Undead”), a catchy sense of nostalgia, music from the 1980s, and picturesque setting in the Stockholm archipelago.
Head-writer Deasismont who had worked with Carlsten on “Thunder in My Heart,” was matched with rising scribe and Columbia University graduate Melina Maraki.
“I had two writers born in the 1990s. After 1985 when the story is set, I started thinking: which director aged 50+ can I bring in?” Carlsten quips. “Lars (Blomgren) had a long-standing relationship with Björn; they had worked on several projects including “The Bridge.” I felt it would be a perfect combo with him.”
Deasismont said she fell in love with the characters, the nostalgia that reminded her of her own summers with friends, “when you have all the time in the world; you grow up together and maybe share the darker parts of becoming an adult.”
A big Lindqvist fan, she was stunned by his generosity and openness when it came to sharing his literary material with her and Maraki. “When we visited him at his house, we thought we would get some answers, particularly regarding his interpretation of the mermaid, but he was like-oh, I’ll leave it to you to figure it out, which set our creativity going,” says Deasismont.
Stein for his part said he was approached by Blomgren when he was “on a completely different track, busy developing two series and a movie.” But he was quickly lured by the quality of the existing scripts and chance to dive into Lindqvist’s universe. “At the same time,” he recalls, “I literally just bumped into Tomas Alfredson and Dino Jonsätter [director and editor of ”Let the Right One In” respectively]. I said, ‘You guys put the bar pretty high. It will be difficult to live up to it. But then I embraced the challenge.”
While Lindqvist’s literary work provided the backbone to the storyline, screen references included Rob Reiner’s classic coming-of-age “Stand by Me” “for its warm portrayal of friendship,” says Deasismont, and the HBO show “Sharp Objects,” for the exploration of memory.
After a challenging casting process which involved viewing 1,300 kids, the lead role of teenager Johannes landed in the hands of newcomer Linus Rogsgård. “He was one of the few who was not stuck to his lines,” says Deasismont who enjoyed “seeing the group of amateur kids blossom as actors.”
Among the seasoned actors, Rolf Lassgård who plays one of the boys’ grand-fathers, was a natural choice. “He’s the biggest actor in Sweden and we had a really good relationship on “Whiskey on the Rocks;” it was fun to continue that collaboration,” Stein says.
Mermaid Look For the mermaid, one of the biggest visual challenges, the team opted for practical rather than CGI effects, for budget reasons but also to allow for more realistic scenes.
According to Stein, most shots were made with an actor and dancer (Rebecca Labbé) in a wetsuit, and Media Res International hired VFX geek and makeup artist Göran Lundström from EffekStudion. The two-time Oscar nominee (“Border,” “House of Gucci”) created the antithesis of Disney’s gentle Ariel – a scary creature, “more fish than human, and with six boobs”, which wasn’t our idea,” Stein quips.
For the director, Lindqvist’s mermaid embodies “the fluid coming-of-age feeling experienced differently by the kids, an expression of their subconscious.”
“She symbolizes the loss of innocence,” adds Deasismont. “She can be dangerous, like the journey into adulthood that our kids in the middle of puberty undergo.”
Filming in the Stockholm archipelago kicked off May 20, 2025 and lasted for approximately 70 days, with a five-week pause in July due to a tourist influx.
On the production side, Carlsten says SVT’s commitment was quintessential to “build trust, attract talent and financial partners including German pubcaster ZDF.”
Following the Canneseries launch, the show will land on SVT Play in July.
As the Swedish show “Summer of 1985” based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist (“Let the Right One In,” “Border”), is set to make a splash at Canneseries’ competition, its production banner Media Res International is sitting on a possible sequel, Variety has learned exclusively.
According to the series producer Anna-Klara Carlsten, the international division of US studio Media Res has signed a first option on Lindqvist’s follow up book “Summer of 1986” (“Sommaren 1986-Lovisa och Melinda”) to be published in Sweden Aug. 17, 2026.
Both IPs are set in the Stockholm Archipelago over a seemingly peaceful summer holiday and deal with friendship and courage, through the stories of young characters whose lives are rocked by unexpected events. In “Summer of 1985,” ‘the summer of Live Aid’ as Lindqvist underscores on his website https://www.johnajvidelindqvist.com/book.php?id=35, we follow seven teen boys and girls. The discovery of a drowned local boy and a mythical mermaid on the mysterious island of Svärtan, “plunge them into a perilous world where both their friendship and their survival are at stake,” reads the logline.
Meanwhile “Summer of 1986,”, or the ‘Chernobyl summer,” per Lindqvist, the plot turns on on two younger female characters, Lovisa and Melinda.
“For Media Res International, securing a first option on “Summer of 1986” gives us an exciting opportunity to stay ahead of the curve with a story that organically expands a world which audiences have already connected with,” said the banner in a statement. “The novel carries Lindqvist’s signature blend of the ordinary and the uncanny, and by shifting the focus to a younger set of siblings—set against a year marked by major moments in Swedish history, from the assassination of the Prime Minister Olof Palme to the aftermath of Chernobyl, it offers a fresh entry point that could meaningfully extend the life of the series.”
“I’m actually in the middle of reading the book!” admits Carlsten on a video call, sitting alongside “Summer of 1985” concept director Björn Stein and head-writer/co-director Amy Deasismont, as the three unpack to Variety the making of the series, ahead of its world premiere in Cannes, April 27.
Fifth Season “Summer of 1985” ordered by Swedish pubcaster SVT, and co-produced by ZDF Neo and Film Stockholm, is repped internationally by Fifth Season. The six-part coming-of-age thriller with magical elements, hails as the first Swedish series produced by “The Morning Show” and “Scenes from a Marriage”’s Media Res international production arm.
Its journey from book to screen started when Lindqvist’s literary agent offered the novel to Media Res head of international Lars Blomgren in the spring 2023, who then submitted it to Carlsten a couple of months later. The latter whose credits include the Netflix feelgood “Tore” and Viaplay YA drama “Thunder in my Heart”, was instantly drawn to the project.
Rolf Lassgard and Linus Rogsgard in Summer of 1985. Credit: Johan Paulin / SVT
“I had done a lot of coming of ages; this was familiar territory yet totally new, in the thriller-mystery genre. “There’s literally a mermaid and a dead body!”
Carlsten who officially joined Media Res’ Stockholm outpost in 2025 as part of the outfit’s international push, felt “Summer of 1985” was the perfect Swedish-rooted IP to draw in a large international audience. It combined Lindqvist’s brand name (attached to the earlier successful adaptations “Let the Right One In,” “Border,” “Handling the Undead”), a catchy sense of nostalgia, music from the 1980s, and picturesque setting in the Stockholm archipelago.
Head-writer Deasismont who had worked with Carlsten on “Thunder in My Heart” was matched with rising scribe and Columbia University graduate Melina Maraki.
“I had two writers born in the 1990s, after 1985 when the story is set. I started thinking: which director aged 50+ can I bring in?” Carlsten quips. “Lars (Blomgren) had a long-standing relationship with Björn; they had worked on several projects including “The Bridge”. I felt it would be a perfect combo with him.”
Deasismont said she fell in love with the characters, the nostalgia that reminded her of her own summers with friends, “when you have all the time in the world; you grow up together and maybe share the darker parts of becoming an adult.”
A big Lindqvist fan, she was stunned by his generosity and openness when it came to sharing his literary material with her and Maraki. “When we visited him at his house, we thought we would get some answers, particularly regarding his interpretation of the mermaid, but he was like-oh, I’ll leave it to you to figure it out, which set our creativity going,” says Deasismont.
Stein for his part, said he was approached by Blomgren when he was “on a completely different track, busy developing two series and a movie.” But he was quickly lured by the quality of the existing scripts and chance to dive into Lindqvist’s universe. “At the same time,” he recalls, I literally just bumped into Tomas Alfredson and Dino Jonsätter (director and editor of ”Let the Right One In” respectively). I said you guys put the bar pretty high. It will be difficult to live up to it. But then I embraced the challenge.”
While Lindqvist’s literary work provided the backbone to the storyline, screen references included Rob Reiner’s classic coming-of-age “Stand by Me” “for its warmth portrayal of friendship,” says Deasismont, and the HBO show “Sharp Objects” for the exploration of memory.
After a challenging casting process which involved viewing 1,300 kids, the lead role of teenager Johannes landed in the hands of newcomer Linus Rogsgård. “He was one of the few who was not stuck to his lines,” says Deasismont who enjoyed “seeing the group of amateur kids blossom as actors.”
Among the seasoned actors, Rolf Lassgård who plays one of the boys’ grand-father, was a natural choice. “He’s the biggest actor in Sweden and we had a really good relationship on “Whiskey on the Rocks;” it was fun to continue that collaboration,” Stein says.
Mermaid Look Then for the mermaid, one of the biggest visual challenges, the team opted for practical rather than CGI effects, for budget reasons but also to allow for more realistic scenes. According to Stein, most shots were made with an actor and dancer (Rebecca Labbé) in a wetsuit, and Media Res International hired VFX geek and makeup artist Göran Lundström from EffekStudion. The two-time Oscar nominee (“Border,” “House of Gucci”) created the antithesis of Disney’s gentle Ariel, a scary creature, “more fish than human, and with six boobs”, which wasn’t our idea,” Stein quips.
For the director, Lindqvist’s mermaid embodies “the fluid coming-of-age feeling experienced differently by the kids, an expression of their subconscious.” “She symbolizes the loss of innocence,” adds Deasismont. “She can be dangerous, like the journey into adulthood that our kids in the middle of puberty undergo.”
Filming in the Stockholm archipelago kicked off May 20, 2025 and lasted for approximately 70 days, with a five-week pause in July due to overtourism.
On the production side, Carlsten says SVT’s commitment was quintessential to “build trust, attract talent and financial partners including German pubcaster ZDF.”
Following the Canneseries launch, the show will land on SVT Play in July.
Another day, another exploit. The security crisis in blockchain-based decentralized finance (DeFi), once touted as a challenger to legacy infrastructure, is only getting worse.
The latest victim is Volo Protocol, a platform built on the Sui blockchain, where users deposit assets into yield-generating “vaults,” which function as pooled investments. Deposited tokens such as bitcoin, stablecoins and tokenized assets are deployed using various onchain strategies to generate returns.
Early Wednesday, the protocol confirmed a security breach that drained a total of roughly $3.5 million in digital assets from three of the vaults. Assets locked in other vaults were not affected, it said in a post on X.
“The ~$28M in TVL across all other Volo vaults is safe. The exploit was isolated to 3 specific vaults, and we have confirmed no shared attack vector exists with the remaining vaults,” the protocol said, adding that it is “prepared to absorb” the financial loss rather than pass it on to users.
The attack hit vaults holding wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), Matridock’s tokenized gold token, XAUm, and the dollar-pegged stablecoin USDC. In response, the protocol froze all vaults and began working with the Sui Foundation and onchain investigators to contain the damage and trace funds.
Since the incident, Volo has “frozen” $500,000 in assets through coordination with ecosystem partners, meaning those funds have been immobilized onchain to prevent any movement or withdrawal. Still, the majority of the stolen funds remain under investigation.
Growing unease
The breach adds to growing unease across decentralized finance, where a string of exploits has raised questions about smart contract security and protocol oversight. The timing is particularly sensitive, coming just days after the weekend’s KelpDAO exploit, in which an attacker drained millions by artificially minting unbacked liquid restaking tokens, rsETH.
The aftermath has rippled across the DeFi, triggering collateral damage in multiple protocols, including leading lending platform Aave, where users rushed to withdraw funds because of the heightened uncertainty.
To date, decentralized finance has suffered roughly $7.78 billion in hacks, according to data from DeFiLlama. Bridge protocols — which enable the transfer of assets across blockchains — account for another $2.90 billion in losses. Combined, the figure exceeds $10 billion, roughly equivalent to the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies ranked between 10th and 15th globally.
Volo says it will publish a full post-mortem once its investigation is complete and remediation steps are finalized.
But for DeFi users and investors, a broader pattern is becoming harder to ignore: while institutional adoption is accelerating, relatively little of that capital appears to be flowing into improving security, with exploits continuing to arrive in clusters.
Read more: The $13 billion DeFi wipeout in two days, and it started with KelpDAO attack
The long-standing feud between Justin Sun and $WLFI is escalating.
At this point, the final move came from Tron (TRX) founder Justin Sun.
Justin Sun has filed a lawsuit against World Liberty Finance ($WLFI), a cryptocurrency project supported by US President Donald Trump.
The Sun announced in a post from its X account that it has filed a lawsuit against World Liberty Finance ($WLFI) in a California federal court.
Sun stated in the lawsuit that the $WLFI project team froze their tokens without valid reason, stripped them of their voting rights in governance proposals, and threatened to permanently burn their tokens.
Sun also explained that he tried to negotiate to resolve the issue, but initiated legal action after the project refused to lift the token freeze and restore governance voting rights.
“…I tried to resolve this situation in good faith with the World Liberty project team without resorting to legal action.”
However, the project team rejected my requests to dissolve my tokens and restore my rights as a token holder. They left me no choice but to take legal action. My goal is to be treated the same way as other early investors.”
Sun stated that she still supports President Trump and his administration, emphasizing that her lawsuit targets specific individuals on the project team, not the president himself.
“…Unfortunately, some individuals on the World Liberty project team are running the project in a way that is contrary to President Trump’s values…”
Sun also strongly opposed a new governance proposal announced by World Liberty Finance on April 15, stating that it was disadvantageous to the community because it would require the tokens of those who voted against it to be locked indefinitely or partially burned.
Kevin Durant returned to the Houston Rockets’ starting lineup in Game 2 against the Los Angeles Lakers after missing Game 1 with a bruised right knee.
His presence was welcomed by the Rockets, but it still wasn’t enough to defeat the shorthanded Lakers.
Playing without Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves – both sidelined by injuries – the Lakers took a 2-0 series lead with a 101-94 victory against Houston on Tuesday in a first round Western Conference playoff game.
LeBron James continues to defy the effects of aging on professional athletes.
In a playoff game in 2026, the 41-year-old James led all scorers with 28 points and added eight rebounds and seven assists in 39 minutes.
He scored nine points in the fourth quarter – two on a soaring two-handed dunk that gave the Lakers a 99-92 lead with 55.3 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
James was aggressive, getting to the free-throw line 14 times.
“He brought a level of physicality, and he’s done it throughout his career,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “He’s just really comfortable playing that way whether it’s him on a back-down, getting to the basket or him drawing fouls. He forces you to match his physicality.”
After the game, James told NBC he is “super blessed, super humbled” to play that way at his age. The Lakers need it, too, without Dončić and Reaves, and will need that kind of effort from him to win the series.
2. Smart, Kennard rule in Lakers’ backcourt
No Dončić, no Reaves, no big deal.
Just add Luke Kennard and Marcus Smart to the starting lineup.
Kennard followed up his 27-point performance in Game 1 with 23 points, six rebounds and three steals, and Smart produced 25 points, seven assists and five steals.
Kennard, who led the league in 3-point shooting percentage (47.8%), and Smart were a combined 16-for-26 shooting from the field and 8-for-13 on 3-pointers – including five 3s from Smart.
“He just had a killer game tonight,” Redick said of Smart.
3. Lakers slow Durant after big first half
Durant, who sustained a bruised knee last week in practice, was a game-time decision entering Game 2 and was cleared to play after going through pregame warmups.
Durant looked good in the first half, scoring 20 points. However, he had just three points in the second half and committed nine turnovers.
The Lakers often sent two defenders to Durant when he had the basketball, forcing him into a difficult shot or pass.
“Glad to be out there, playing in high-pressure moments,” Durant said. “But bad game for me tonight.”
Durant took just 12 shots and indicated he needs to shoot more even with the double-teams. “When two, three people are on me and I shoot, we can get an offensive rebound. …I’ve got to shoot more of those and put my teammates in better position,” he said.
Redick and his coaching staff deserve credit for holding the Rockets to under 100 points in each of the first two games. Redick isn’t taking any credit.
“We’re just getting this thing started,” he said. “He’s the type of player who can take over a series. We just have to continue to have great team defense and great activity.”
4. Statistical oddities in Rockets-Lakers series
The 3-ball is playing a role in the series. Through the first two games, the Lakers are shooting 48.9% on 3s and the Rockets are at 29%. Houston had one more made 3 in Game 1, but the Lakers had six more made 3s in Game 2.
Also in Game 2, just two reserves scored – one from each team. Tari Eason scored 10 points for Houston, and Jaxson Hayes had six points for Los Angeles.
A plane carrying nearly $500m in US banknotes from Iraq’s oil revenues was blocked by the US Treasury, according to The Wall Street Journal.
By The Wall Street Journal
Published On 22 Apr 202622 Apr 2026
The United States has halted shipments of US dollars to Iraq and paused some security cooperation programmes with the Iraqi military, increasing pressure on Baghdad to curb powerful Iran-aligned groups, according to Iraqi and US officials cited by The Wall Street Journal.
The report said a recent cargo plane shipment carrying nearly $500m in US banknotes was blocked by the US Department of the Treasury. The money came from Iraqi oil revenues held in accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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The suspended transfer was the second scheduled dollar shipment to Iraq’s central bank delayed by Washington since the US-Israel war on Iran began in late February.
The move comes as Washington pushes Baghdad to move closer to the US and loosen longstanding ties with Iran during the nearly eight-week war.
It follows attacks claimed by Iran-aligned groups inside Iraq, targeting US military facilities and neighbouring countries in what they described as support for Tehran.
The US has also carried out air attacks against armed factions in Iraq aligned with Iran, including groups linked to the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) – an umbrella body of factions formally incorporated into Iraq’s state security apparatus.
In a statement on Tuesday, Iraq’s central bank did not refer directly to the halted deliveries, but said it had sufficient US currency reserves.
Iraq war legacy
Following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, Washington took control over the management of Iraq’s oil revenues by placing tens of billions of dollars in proceeds at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Although the arrangement was presented as a way to stabilise Iraq’s economy, critics said it gave the US enormous leverage over a country it had just occupied, allowing Washington to influence Iraq’s financial system and access to its own oil wealth.
Large shipments of cash were then sent back to Baghdad each year to keep the economy functioning, reinforcing Iraq’s dependence on US-controlled financial channels.
US officials told The Wall Street Journal the suspension of shipments was temporary, but did not specify what steps Iraq would need to take for deliveries to resume.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, in office since 2022, has sought US support for a second term, while also avoiding confrontation with the Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq.
Dave Mason, solo artist, a founding member of the band Traffic, writer of the classic rock songs “Feelin’ Alright” and “Hole in My Shoe” and sideman to the Rolling Stones, George Harrison and Jimi Hendrix, has died, according to an announcement from his publicist. No cause of death was announced, although ill health forced him to cancel a tour last year; he was 79.
Mason was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the other original members of Traffic in 2004. In the 1970s he enjoyed solo hits with “Only You Know and I Know” and “We Just Disagree,” and over the years he also performed or recorded with David Crosby, Graham Nash, Michael Jackson, Cass Elliot, Leon Russell and others.
A fiery guitarist and strong songwriter and singer, Mason first rose to prominence as a member of Traffic, the psychedelic-era band fronted by Steve Winwood. While he wrote some of the band’s biggest hits — notably “Hole in My Shoe” (which reached No. 2 on the British singles charts and was later covered in a novelty version by the comedy troupe the Young Ones) and the song “Feelin’ Alright,” later definitively covered by Joe Cocker — he had an on-off relationship with the band, although he contributed heavily to their first two albums, 1967’s psychedelic classic “Mr. Fantasy,” and the self-titled sophomore effort.
Born in 1946 in Worcester, England, Mason was a professional musician by his teens and released his first music as a member of the instrumental combo the Jaguars with the 1963 single “Opus to Spring.” In that band he first met future Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi, and the two later joined the Hellions, which released several singles. In early 1966, he became road manager for the Spencer Davis Group, which featured a teenaged and precociously talented Winwood and enjoyed hits with “Gimme Some Lovin’” and “I’m a Man.”
In March of 1967, Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group and formed Traffic with Mason, Capaldi, and flautist Chris Wood. While Mason’s relationship with the group was tenuous — he left and returned at least twice — Traffic was a major influence on multiple artists during the psychedelic era, and Mason contributed not only sparkling guitar playing and several of the group’s best known songs but also sitar (on the band’s classic debut single, “Paper Sun”) and other then-unconventional instruments. The flagship artist of late-1960s Island Records, Traffic were the first group among many to “get it together in the country,” workshopping their first album in a cottage in the hills of Berkshire in 1967. Traffic’s version of “Feelin’ Alright” was not a hit, but it was the rousing opening song of Joe Cocker’s landmark 1969 debut, “With a Little Help From My Friends.”
Mason left Traffic in 1968 and worked as a sort of hired gun to the stars, playing on the Rolling Stones’ “Beggars Banquet” album (as that band coped with the dissolution of founding guitarist Brian Jones) and Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland” (that’s him playing 12-string acoustic on “All Along the Watchtower” and singing background on “Crosstown Traffic”). In late 1969 he joined the sprawling touring band of American duo Delaney & Bonnie’s, which also saw Eric Clapton and George Harrison guesting on multiple U.K. and European dates. This association led to him contributing to several tracks on Harrison’s classic “All Things Must Pass” album, and in mid-1970 he was briefly a member of Eric Clapton’s group Derek & the Dominos, but had left by the time the band recorded its epochal debut, “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.”
Mason instead followed his own muse and released multiple solo albums, including one with former Mamas & the Papas singer Cass Elliot, into the 1970s and ’80s. His 1974 self-titled album (although it was actually his fifth studio effort) went gold in the U.S.; he enjoyed his biggest solo hit, a cover of Jim Krueger’s composition “We Just Disagree” and the album “Let It Flow” in 1977, although further chart success did not follow.
The most curious turn in his career came in the 1990s when he briefly became a member of Fleetwood Mac, appearing on the 1995 album “Time” and on tour along with Bekka Bramlett — the daughter of his earlier collaborators Delaney & Bonnie — during a period when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had left the group. The revised lineup found disfavor among many Fleetwood Mac fans, and Buckingham and Nicks rejoined for a reunion of the “classic” lineup two years later.
Mason’s health issues became known in 2024 when he canceled his tour for the following year, citing unspecified challenges.
Mason is survived by his wife, Winifred Wilson, and his daughter, Danielle. He was preceded in death by his son, True, and his sister, Valerie Leonard.
Capital flows into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the cryptocurrency market continue, with both Bitcoin and Ethereum-based spot ETFs recording consecutive net inflows.
According to SoSoValue data, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net inflow of $11.84 million on the April 21 US trading day, continuing a streak of positive flows for the sixth consecutive day.
The highest daily inflow was seen in the IBIT ETF managed by BlackRock. This fund recorded a net inflow of approximately $39.34 million in a single day, bringing its historical total net inflow to $64.9 billion. It was followed by the Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF offered by Grayscale, which also saw a daily inflow of $17.25 million. Conversely, Grayscale’s GBTC ETF was the product with the largest net outflow of the day, at $17.5 million.
In total, the net asset value of Bitcoin spot ETFs has reached approximately $99.08 billion, which is equivalent to 6.54% of Bitcoin’s total market capitalization. Cumulative net inflow has risen to $57.99 billion.
On the other hand, Ethereum spot ETFs also performed strongly. A total net inflow of $43.36 million was recorded on the same day, marking a nine-day uninterrupted inflow trend in this area. BlackRock’s ETHA ETF led with $37 million, while the ETHE fund experienced outflows of $12.13 million.
Ethereum spot ETFs have reached a total net asset value of $13.66 billion, with cumulative net inflows recorded at $12.05 billion. These figures indicate continued interest from institutional investors.
Dave Mason, solo artist, a founding member of the band Traffic, writer of the classic rock songs “Feelin’ Alright” and “Hole in My Shoe” and sideman to the Rolling Stones, George Harrison and Jimi Hendrix, has died, according to an announcement from his publicist. No cause of death was announced, although ill health forced him to cancel a tour last year; he was 79.
Mason was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the other original members of Traffic in 2004. In the 1970s he enjoyed solo hits with “Only You Know and I Know” and “We Just Disagree,” and over the years he also performed or recorded with David Crosby, Graham Nash, Michael Jackson, Cass Elliot, Leon Russell and others.
A fiery guitarist and strong songwriter and singer, Mason first rose to prominence as a member of Traffic, the psychedelic-era band fronted by Steve Winwood. While he wrote some of the band’s biggest hits — notably “Hole in My Shoe” (which reached No. 2 on the British singles charts and was later covered in a novelty version by the comedy troupe the Young Ones) and the song “Feelin’ Alright,” later definitively covered by Joe Cocker — he had an on-off relationship with the band, although he contributed heavily to their first two albums, 1967’s psychedelic classic “Mr. Fantasy,” and the self-titled sophomore effort.
Born in 1946 in Worcester, England, Mason was a professional musician by his teens and released his first music as a member of the instrumental combo the Jaguars with the 1963 single “Opus to Spring.” In that band he first met future Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi, and the two later joined the Hellions, which released several singles. In early 1966, he became road manager for the Spencer Davis Group, which featured a teenaged and precociously talented Winwood and enjoyed hits with “Gimme Some Lovin’” and “I’m a Man.”
In March of 1967, Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group and formed Traffic with Mason, Capaldi, and flautist Chris Wood. While Mason’s relationship with the group was tenuous — he left and returned at least twice — Traffic was a major influence on multiple artists during the psychedelic era, and Mason contributed not only sparkling guitar playing and several of the group’s best known songs but also sitar (on the band’s classic debut single, “Paper Sun”) and other then-unconventional instruments. The flagship artist of late-1960s Island Records, Traffic were the first group among many to “get it together in the country,” workshopping their first album in a cottage in the hills of Berkshire in 1967. Traffic’s version of “Feelin’ Alright” was not a hit, but it was the rousing opening song of Joe Cocker’s landmark 1969 debut, “With a Little Help From My Friends.”
Mason left Traffic in 1968 and worked as a sort of hired gun to the stars, playing on the Rolling Stones’ “Beggars Banquet” album (as that band coped with the dissolution of founding guitarist Brian Jones) and Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland” (that’s him playing 12-string acoustic on “All Along the Watchtower” and singing background on “Crosstown Traffic”). In late 1969 he joined the sprawling touring band of American duo Delaney & Bonnie’s, which also saw Eric Clapton and George Harrison guesting on multiple U.K. and European dates. This association led to him contributing to several tracks on Harrison’s classic “All Things Must Pass” album, and in mid-1970 he was briefly a member of Eric Clapton’s group Derek & the Dominos, but had left by the time the band recorded its epochal debut, “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.”
Mason instead followed his own muse and released multiple solo albums, including one with former Mamas & the Papas singer Cass Elliot, into the 1970s and ’80s. His 1974 self-titled album (although it was actually his fifth studio effort) went gold in the U.S.; he enjoyed his biggest solo hit, a cover of Jim Krueger’s composition “We Just Disagree” and the album “Let It Flow” in 1977, although further chart success did not follow.
The most curious turn in his career came in the 1990s when he briefly became a member of Fleetwood Mac, appearing on the 1995 album “Time” and on tour along with Bekka Bramlett — the daughter of his earlier collaborators Delaney & Bonnie — during a period when Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks had left the group. The revised lineup found disfavor among many Fleetwood Mac fans, and Buckingham and Nicks rejoined for a reunion of the “classic” lineup two years later.
Mason’s health issues became known in 2024 when he canceled his tour for the following year, citing unspecified challenges.
Mason is survived by his wife, Winifred Wilson, and his daughter, Danielle. He was preceded in death by his son, True, and his sister, Valerie Leonard.
Netflix‘s Hulk Hogan: Real American, Bryan Storkel’s four-part tribute to the late wrestling legend, is not a documentary for people who especially care about “good” documentaries.
It’s a documentary for people who care about Hulk Hogan — but only truly care in-depth about the admirable parts of Hulk Hogan’s mythic life and will surely be happier with a mediocre documentary that accentuates those parts, rather than a good documentary that offers substance or depth.
Hulk Hogan: Real American
The Bottom Line
A four-hour puff piece.
Airdate: Wednesday, April 22 (Netflix) Director: Bryan Storkel
Put a different way, here are three key data points regarding Hulk Hogan: Real American: Firstly, the title is wholly in earnest and not an interrogation of what it means to be Hulk Hogan and what it means to be a “real American,” for better or worse. Secondly, the documentary is produced “in association” with WWE Entertainment, which has a lucrative partnership with Netflix. Thirdly, the president of the United States appears in the documentary — a low-energy appearance that would have caused a director with journalistic instincts to ponder, “If I interview the president of the United States and he’s a dismal interview subject, is it okay to cut the president of the United States?” Instead, he’s here amply and substance-free.
The truth is that I’m probably the only Netflix subscriber to watch Hulk Hogan: Real American primarily because of Storkel’s name. The director, and wife Amy, worked together on the entertainingly silly The Pez Outlaw and the recent SXSW premiere I Got Bombed at Harvey’s, two docs that chronicled eccentric, larger-than-life characters with distinctive style and admirable empathy.
Hulk Hogan: Real American has no appreciable style to speak of and, instead of empathy, it has admiration; those aren’t the same things — at least not if you’re attempting to create a nuanced portrait of a complicated life. The fourth episode of Hulk Hogan: Real American even trots out Werner Herzog to give a thesis statement for a far better documentary that I wish Herzog had made.
“In the life of Hulk Hogan, what is reality? What is the real truth? Strangely enough, emotions are always truthful no matter how crazy and implausible the story might be. And searching for truth gives us dignity, gives us meaning,” Herzog says, in exactly the way you’d expect him to say it.
The suggestion here — and in the Netflix logline for the series that begins “Before he was Hulk Hogan, he was Terry Bollea” — is that Hulk Hogan: Real American is going to dig deeply into performativity, American celebrity and the cult of professional wrestling. Instead, Hulk Hogan: Real American mostly talks about Hulk Hogan, not the human being beneath the bandanas (Terry likes bandanas, too) and yellow tights, and leaves us with the understanding that Terry Bollea was basically Hulk Hogan with the volume turned down by 15 to 20 percent. As revelations within searches for the truth go, it’s anticlimactic.
Hulk Hogan: Real American does just fine with the easy parts of Hulk Hogan’s life and celebrity — the unprecedented rise and extended plateau, during which he was one of the most recognizable and possibly one of the most beloved men in all of popular culture.
Boasting large quantities of home movie footage and early wrestling materials, plus exhaustive access to Hogan, including the last interviews he conducted before his death in July 2025, the doc charts his journey from oversized Florida bass musician Terry Bollea to early wrestling personae including The Super Destroyer, Terry Boulder and The Incredible Hulk Hogan. (No mention is made of the legal agreement between Hogan and Marvel regarding use and presentation of the Hulk name, a footnote I’ve always found very amusing.)
I’m an ’80s boy who watched an ample amount of wrestling from that period, as well as his Saturday morning animated series Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Wrestling and his various media-saturating commercials and cameos, so I have no trouble stirring up nostalgia for The Hulkster and the rise of Hulkamania. An awful lot of the biggest names in Hogan’s sphere passed away relatively young, and it’s hard not to miss Andre the Giant and Randy Savage and Roddy Piper, among others.
A lot of Hogan’s peers make appearances, from Jesse Ventura, on his best behavior to an unconvincing degree, to Jimmy Hart and Bret Hart and Ted Dibiase, while several more contemporaries feature in an extended “People find out Hulk Hogan died and nod sadly” montage in the finale. But for all the respect people hold him in, very few of those contemporaries are all that candid or voluble about Hogan.
Linda, Hogan’s first wife, is an excitable and constant presence, as is son Nick, but daughter Brooke is nowhere to be seen. It’s one thing for the documentary to say that it wants to introduce us to Terry Bollea as a contrast to Hulk Hogan, but there are very few people here who actually know/knew Terry Bollea — and for most of its first three hours, the doc just conflates the two without qualification.
A bigger absence is anybody with the last name “McMahon,” particularly Vince. Brooke Hogan and Vince McMahon are heard in unattributed audio, exactly enough so that people who don’t pay attention will be under the impression that they participated in the documentary, even if they definitely did not. A variety of WWE figures, including Bruce Prichard and Paul “Triple H” Levesque, are on hand to talk about Hulk’s importance to the company and the brand. Levesque even gets to discuss the decision to fire Hulk in the aftermath of various mid-’10s controversies, but when he claims that he fired Terry Bollea and not Hulk Hogan, it comes across as a distinction without a difference.
At some point, it becomes remarkable how tentative the documentary is when it comes to anything genuinely problematic or troubling in Hogan’s life and image. His protracted legal tussle with Richard Belzer over an incident/assault on Belzer’s Hot Properties? Mentioned and acknowledged, but I’m not sure you’d understand why it’s notable. His testimony in Vince McMahon’s 1994 drug trial? Presented mostly as evidence of Hogan’s heroism and, owing to McMahon’s absence, raced through in a way likely to confuse anybody looking for a meaningful takeaway. A 1996 sexual assault accusation and counter-suit for extortion? Definitely not included.
Those are biographical details that would come before the formal “downfall” segment of the documentary, which is the bulk of the disjointed, heavily glossed-over 78-minute finale. That episode races through the Gawker suit in a superficial and one-sided way that features no voices from the Gawker side and never mentions the name “Peter Thiel.” The documentary has no choice but to acknowledge the “racial slurs” angle of the sex tape story, though if you’re unsure what the “slurs” actually were, nobody says and the audio isn’t played. Hulk has an entire, 10-year second marriage that the documentary mostly pretends didn’t exist, while the affair that contributed to the end of his marriage to Linda is treated as a regretful one-off, talked about less than Linda’s own retaliatory affair.
Anything dark in Hogan/Bollea’s life was cured by his third wife — as well as finding Jesus and finding Donald Trump. Those two events are treated as parallel, though the latter is more triumphant than the former; Donald Trump is a mumbling talking head here and Jesus is not.
Hogan’s death, which took everybody — including the filmmakers — by surprise, is acknowledged as at least somewhat a product of the professional wrestling lifestyle, but it also imposes a finality and a reverential tone that does the documentary no favors.
There’s something poignant about all the footage of an aging Hogan being propped up by younger wrestlers in the ring, but being unable to get out of the spotlight due to financial need and contractual obligations. There’s a version of this documentary that could take a serious look at the toll of wrestling on Hogan and his prematurely aged and deceased colleagues. Maybe that documentary would have pondered the exploitation of these men (and a couple of women) over decades and how that might not have happened if professional wrestlers had successfully unionized in the ’80s. But that would have required Hulk Hogan: Real American to admit that one of the wrestlers who allegedly opposed that unionization effort was Hulk Hogan.
There’s a smart and pragmatic documentary about Hulk Hogan, professional wrestling and the shaping of fin de siècle American identity (and the rise of Hulk’s buddy in the White House). Instead, we get this gap-filled piece of memorializing, corporate-backed hagiography. The Hulk Hogan: Real American target audience probably is happier this way.
