Tag: CRYPTOS FoxBusiness.

A new development has emerged in the large-scale security breach crisis originating from KelpDAO. According to an internal memo reviewed by CoinDesk, KelpDAO is allegedly preparing to shift responsibility for the approximately $292 million rsETH breach that occurred on Saturday to LayerZero.

According to the memo, KelpDAO stated that it relied on LayerZero’s documentation, default configurations, and team guidance when building its bridging infrastructure. Therefore, it is implied that the infrastructure and integration processes used were at the root of the security breach.

As you may recall, the security breach on the rsETH bridge triggered a chain reaction in the DeFi ecosystem, leading to liquidity pressure and “bad debt” concerns in many protocols, particularly Aave. Following the incident, billions of dollars worth of assets were withdrawn from Aave, and utilization rates in some pools reached 100%.

KelpDAO’s move, which points to LayerZero, has raised potential legal and technical liability issues, but neither party has yet issued an official and detailed statement.

*This is not investment advice.

Global liquidity is set to deteriorate sharply, according to Russell Thompson, chief investment officer at crypto asset manager Hilbert Group (HILB), who said even a quick geopolitical resolution in Iran is unlikely to sustain a rally in risk assets without policy support.

Liquidity conditions have stabilized in parts of the financial sector following the rollout of the reserve maturity program (RMP), Thompson said, but a broader tightening of 20%–25% is approaching, a significant drag that could leave bitcoin struggling in the near term.

“Even with a resolution quickly in Iran, I do not believe that risk assets will rally for any sustainable time without outside help,” Thompson said in the report published last week.

Thompson said he expects U.S. policymakers to respond. He pointed to likely measures including reform of the supplementary leverage ratio (SLR), a sizable drawdown of the Treasury General Account (TGA) without offsetting Federal Reserve bill issuance, and a series of rate cuts under a potential new Fed chair.

The SLR is a banking regulation that sets how much capital large banks must hold against their total leverage. The TGA is the U.S. Treasury’s main cash account at the Federal Reserve.

When the Treasury draws down the TGA (spends money from it), liquidity is effectively injected into the financial system; when it builds the TGA, liquidity is drained.

Bitcoin’s performance over the past six months has been marked by sharp volatility, a clear shift from late-2025 exuberance to a more fragile, macro-driven market.

After hitting an all-time high above $126,000 in October 2025, bitcoin entered a sustained drawdown through the end of the year and into early 2026. By February, prices had fallen to roughly $63,000, a decline of about 50% from the peak, amid a broader crypto market sell-off and tightening financial conditions. This period was characterized by weaker demand, exchange-traded fund (ETF) outflows and a more risk-off macro backdrop, with BTC underperforming equities in some stretches.

Bitcoin is currently trading around $75,600, leaving it significantly off its peak but no longer in freefall. The last six months, in short, have seen a full cycle: from peak euphoria, to a deep correction, to a tentative stabilization phase, with macro liquidity, policy expectations and investor positioning now the dominant drivers.

Advances in crypto regulation could also provide support. Thompson said he anticipates legal clarity on key measures before the summer recess and a faster-than-expected expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet as disinflationary pressures build.

Higher oil prices, he argued, could ultimately weigh on growth, while a softening labor market and emerging stress in private credit may add to the disinflationary backdrop.

Markets remain overly focused on the Federal Reserve as the primary source of liquidity, Thompson said, but the U.S. Treasury has significant capacity to inject funds into both the real economy and financial markets. With Treasury leadership experienced in deploying such tools, he expects a more proactive approach.

The result: short-term pressure on bitcoin, but improving conditions over the medium term.

Thompson said he expects bitcoin to be “significantly higher” by year-end as liquidity dynamics evolve. Even in a more protracted scenario, he sees liquidity bottoming around 2027, a timeline that could coincide with fresh all-time highs.

Read more: U.S. crypto adoption is rebounding, bitcoin still dominates, Deutsche Bank says

Bitcoin and other risk assets have become increasingly sensitive to statements from U.S. President Donald Trump, with markets often swinging upward or downward within minutes of his social media posts or policy announcements to the news media.

This has drawn scrutiny from lawmakers, academics and market experts, as questions mount over whether those price movements have created lucrative opportunities for market manipulation or insider trading.

A recent University of Oxford Faculty of Law study found sharp swings in global markets following rapid changes in U.S. tariff policy, including a sequence in which prices across crypto and stock markets fell after new tariffs were announced, then rebounded after Trump partially rolled them back days later.

The scale and timing of those moves, the author noted, created “fantastic trading opportunities” for anyone with advanced knowledge of the decisions. Also, those back-and-forth decisions by Trump have been widely criticized and called the Trump Again Chickens Out (TACO) dynamic.

‘A great time to buy’

The issue gained further attention after Trump posted “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!! on Truth Social in April 2025 shortly before announcing a tariff adjustment that sent markets higher, prompting calls from lawmakers, including Senator Adam Schiff, for an investigationinto potential insider trading or market manipulation.

Analysts, experts and media reports have highlighted patterns of large, well-timed trades across commodities and prediction markets, in some cases placed minutes before major policy or military announcements.

“Many experts say the Trump administration has engaged in market manipulation,” according to a March episode of CBC’s Front Burner, which pointed to unusually massively profitable trades in oil futures ahead of announcements related to the war with Iran.

Democratic Congressman Stephen Lynch raised similar concerns. He said trading activity tied to major Trump announcements “raised serious concerns about insider trading and market manipulation by government officials in possession of sensitive national security information.”

There is no evidence that Trump or his administration have violated securities laws or purposely manipulated the markets for self gain, but the increasing number of unusually well-timed market moves, combined with the administration’s direct influence over policy, geopolitics and regulation, has fueled a broader debate over whether the line between political decision-making and market impact is becoming increasingly blurred.

Here are five top moments when bitcoin’s price swung either up or down due to a statement or social media post by Trump, from the “Genesis” skepticism of 2019 to the naval blockades of 2026.

The top five BTC price swings

1. July 11, 2019 — The “Not a Fan” Genesis Post. In his first direct broadside against the asset class, Trump posted on Twitter: “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money… and based on thin air.” Bitcoin dropped 7.1% within 45 minutes of the thread.

2. March 3, 2025 — The Strategic Reserve Pivot. Following a year of pro-crypto campaigning, Trump confirmed via Truth Social that his “Strategic National Crypto Reserve” would include a multi-asset basket of cryptocurrencies, most notably bitcoin. Bitcoin surged 8.2% in under 24 hours, jumping from $84,000 to over $91,000.

3. October 10, 2025 — The 100% tariffs on China. In yet another Truth Social post, Trump announced a 100% tariff on all Chinese imports to counter Beijing’s rare-earth export controls. Bitcoin plummeted 12.4% in roughly two hours, crashing from its $124,714 all-time high toward $102,000. And in 24 hours, a $19.38 billion liquidation event had taken place, marking the largest single-day wipeout in the asset’s history.

4. March 3, 2026 — The Anti-Bank “Genius Act” Post. Trump took to Truth Social once again to criticize Wall Street banks for “undermining” the Genius Act and delaying the passage of the Clarity Act over stablecoin yield provisions. Bitcoin rose 5.2% in 10 minutes to $71,000. This moment highlighted the administration’s willingness to go to war with the legacy financial system to protect the crypto sector.

5. April 14, 2026 — The Peace Talks. Following the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said that Iran had “reached out” for potential peace talks and that a deal was “very possible.” Bitcoin rose 6.2% within 30 minutes from $70,000 to nearly $75,000.

It might happen again

Bitcoin shot to a more than two-month high above $78,000 on Friday after Trump essentially announced the end of the war and the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Yet, by the end of the day, there were already questions about exactly what the U.S. and Iran had agreed to.

By Saturday morning, Iran’s military said the Strait was again closed, and there were reports of some ships making U-turns and others being fired upon. Crypto prices were quickly giving back Friday’s gains, with bitcoin sliding back below $76,000.

US President Donald Trump, in a statement regarding the extension of the ceasefire agreement with Iran, said that under the current circumstances, extending the agreement is “quite unlikely.”

Speaking ahead of the ceasefire, which is set to end Wednesday evening Washington time, Trump stated that conflict could be inevitable if an agreement could not be reached between the parties.

Trump announced that US Vice President JD Vance would be traveling to Pakistan today and that negotiations would proceed within that framework. He maintained that the Strait of Hormuz would only be reopened after a formal agreement was signed, and stated that the talks with Iran were beneficial to all parties. The US President also indicated that he might want to participate in the talks personally, but did not think it was necessary.

Markets fluctuated following Trump’s remarks. The S&P 500 index extended its losses to 0.5%, while oil prices briefly rose by $1.

On the other hand, statements from the Iranian side increased the uncertainty surrounding the negotiation process. Tasnim News Agency, known for its close ties to Iran, reported on April 20 that the Tehran administration’s decision not to participate in the talks remained unchanged. This indicated that diplomatic contacts between the parties had not yet made any concrete progress.

Assessments on the issue also came from Europe. French President Emmanuel Macron criticized both the US and Iran for their stances on closing the Strait of Hormuz, arguing that both sides were taking the wrong approach.

In addition, according to information reported by Axios, the US is preparing to host a new round of talks between Israel and Lebanon on April 23.

*This is not investment advice.

Bitmine, a crypto asset-focused investment company, attracted attention with its large-scale purchases in the past week.

The company achieved its fastest accumulation pace in the last four months, purchasing 101,627 Ethereum ($ETH) in just one week. This increase stands out as the largest weekly expansion recorded since the high-volume purchases last seen in the week of December 15, 2025.

Bitmine’s total $ETH holdings have increased to 4,976,485. This amount represents approximately 4.12% of Ethereum’s total supply. Controlling an asset of this scale makes the company one of the leading players among institutional investors.

Bitmine’s overall financial strength has also reached remarkable levels. The total value of the company’s crypto assets, cash reserves, and other investments is estimated at approximately $12.9 billion. This portfolio includes $1.12 billion in cash assets, 199 Bitcoin (BTC), a $200 million stake in Beast Industries, and approximately $107 million in investments in Eightco Holdings.

Experts say Bitmine’s aggressive Ethereum accumulation strategy demonstrates the company’s strong long-term value expectation for $ETH. The increasing interest from institutional investors points to continued confidence in the future of the Ethereum ecosystem.

*This is not investment advice.

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.