Crypto Industry News & Market Trends

Echo Protocol Suffers $76M eBTC Minting Attack

It was an admin private key breach, not a smart contract fault, according to blockchain developer ‘Marioo.’Twelve protocols, including THORChain, Ekubo, TrustedVolumes, Transit Finance, and the Ethereum bridge of Verus Protocol, have been hacked in the last month.　　DeFi protocol Echo Protocol, which runs on the Monad blockchain, was compromised when an attacker minted around 1,000 eBTC without authorization. On Tuesday, the hacker created 1,000 synthetic Bitcoin (eBTC) with a value of around $76.7 million; both Lookonchain and analytics platform and blockchain security company PeckShield reported this.　　Echo Protocol said on Tuesday:　　“We are currently investigating a security incident impacting the Echo bridge on Monad. All cross-chain transactions remain suspended while the investigation is underway.”　　Twelve protocols, including THORChain, Ekubo, TrustedVolumes, Transit Finance, and the Ethereum bridge of Verus Protocol, have been hacked in the last month, with this recent vulnerability being the latest in the series.　　Laundering Stolen Funds　　The perpetrator allegedly tried to conceal some of the stolen funds by funding the DeFi lending and liquidity management protocol Curvance with 45 eBTC, which is about $3.45 million, as reported by PeckShield.　　The criminal then borrowed 11.3 wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) tokens, which were valued $868,000, bridged the tokens to Ethereum, exchanged them for Ethereum, and sent

05-20Industry

HIVE soars over 35% on plans for $2.55b Toronto AI super factory

HIVE Digital is pivoting from Bitcoin mining to a CAD 3.5b, 320 MW Toronto AI “super factory” hosting 100,000+ GPUs, sending its stock up over 35% on the news.HIVE Digital plans to build a 320 MW AI infrastructure park near Toronto, pitched as one of Canada‘s largest sovereign AI “super factories,” sending its stock up more than 35% at Monday’s open.The CAD 3.5 billion (about $2.55 billion) project, advanced by HIVEs BUZZ high‑performance computing unit, is designed to host over 100,000 GPUs and begin operations in the second half of 2027.The move deepens HIVEs pivot from Bitcoin mining toward AI and high‑performance computing, following earlier GPU and data center expansions in Paraguay and Sweden.　　HIVE Digital Technologies, long known as a Bitcoin (BTC) mining company, has unveiled plans for a 320 MW AI infrastructure park in the Greater Toronto Area, a move that sent its shares up more than 35% at the open after the news broke on Monday, according to The Block. The company described the project as an AI “super factory” and said it aims to create one of Canadas largest sovereign AI campuses at a time when demand for data center power and GPUs is exploding.　　HIVE said the

05-20Industry

Echo Protocol Hack Drains $816K After Fake eBTC Mint

The Echo Protocol attacker minted 1,000 fake eBTC worth $76.6 million.The attack was a result of hackers compromising an admins private key.Security researchers estimated actual losses near $816,000 due to weak liquidity.　　Bitcoin DeFi protocol Echo Protocol suffered a major exploit after an attacker gained control of the protocols admin private key and minted 1,000 unauthorized eBTC on the Monad blockchain.　　The fake mint carried a paper value of roughly $76.64 million. Most of the tokens remain stranded in the attackers wallet due to weak liquidity across Monad-based DeFi markets.　　The exploit adds to a growing wave of DeFi attacks this month. May has already recorded at least 14 separate crypto hacks across protocols and bridges.　　Attacker Used Fake eBTC as Loan Collateral　　Blockchain investigators tracked the attackers movements shortly after the exploit surfaced. The wallet deposited 45 eBTC, worth around $3.45 million, into lending protocol Curvance as collateral. Against that position, the attacker borrowed 11.29 WBTC worth roughly $867,000.　　The borrowed Bitcoin was bridged to Ethereum, swapped into ETH, then moved through Tornado Cash. On-chain data showed 384 ETH, worth about $822,000 at the time, entering the mixer.　　The attacker still controls 955 eBTC valued at nearly $73 million on paper. Those tokens are not backed

05-20Industry

XRP as a Shock Absorber: Can Ripples Liquidity Rails Bridge the JGB Crisis Gap?

Japan‘s 30-year government bond yield surpassed 4% for the first time since the instrument’s creation in 1999, reaching approximately 4.2% in May 2026, as the Bank of Japans sustained rate normalization program continues to unwind the decades-long yen carry trade that had quietly financed risk assets like XRP across global markets.　　Japanese institutional investors sold close to $29.6 billion in US debt during the first quarter of 2026, the largest quarterly liquidation since 2022, contributing to a US 30-year Treasury yield that breached 5% in the same week, compressing liquidity conditions across mortgages, corporate credit, and sovereign debt simultaneously.　　Source: TE　　Analyst Catalina Castro, writing to a wide audience, framed the dynamic with pointed arithmetic: Japan sells American bonds, American yields rise further, mortgages rise, credit becomes more expensive, and pressure accumulates across the entire US financial system.　　This is not simply a domestic Japanese bond correction. It is a structural stress event in the global liquidity transmission chain – one that exposes a fundamental inefficiency that Ripple and XRP were, architecturally, designed to address.　　We suspect the JGB crisis will prove to be the most consequential real-world stress test that Ripples settlement infrastructure has yet encountered, not because XRP can absorb a $9 trillion

05-20Industry

ONDO Surges 16% As SEC Eyes Framework For Tokenized Stocks

Jake Simmons, a dedicated crypto journalist, has been passionate about Bitcoin since 2016 when he first learned about it. Through his extensive work with NewsBTC.com and Bitcoinist.com, Jake has become a trusted voice in the crypto community, guiding newcomers and seasoned enthusiasts alike towards a deeper understanding of this dynamic field.　　His mission is simple yet profound: to demystify Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and make them accessible to everyone.　　With a professional career in the Bitcoin and crypto scene that began right after graduating with a degree in Information Systems in 2017, Jake has immersed himself in the industry. Jake joined the NewsBTC Group in late 2022. His educational background provides him with the technical prowess and analytical skills necessary to dissect complex topics and present them in an understandable format. Whether you are a casual reader curious about Bitcoin or an investor seeking to navigate the latest market trends, Jakes insights offer valuable perspectives that bridge the gap between complex technology and everyday usage.　　Jake is not just a reporter on technological trends; he is a firm believer in the transformative potential of Bitcoin over traditional fiat currencies. To him, the current financial system is on the brink of chaos, propelled by unchecked

05-20Industry

Polymarket Insider Cluster Nets $2.4M, BNB Chain Quantum Test Cuts Throughput 40%, Standard Chartered Eyes $4T Tokenized

A cluster of nine blockchain wallets generated roughly $2.4 million in profit with a 98% win rate on Polymarket contracts tied to US military operations, on-chain analytics firm Bubblemaps disclosed in a Monday report. The accounts placed concentrated bets just before high-impact events, including the February 28 strike on Iran, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a subsequent US-Iran ceasefire agreement. Funding was routed through centralized exchanges within a tight window, and four wallets each pocketed near $400,000 on the February 28 strike contract alone. A handful of small losing trades on February 20 appear designed to mask the pattern, fueling fresh insider-trading concerns around prediction venues.　　BNB Chain published the first major proof-of-concept showing a high-throughput Ethereum-compatible network can absorb post-quantum cryptography, though at a sharp performance cost. Engineers replaced ECDSA transaction signatures and BLS12-381 validator vote signatures with quantum-resistant alternatives, pushing typical transaction size from about 110 bytes to roughly 2.5 kilobytes and block size from 130 KB to nearly 2 MB. Cross-region native-transfer throughput fell from 4,973 transactions per second to 2,997, a 40% drop driven by data bandwidth rather than verification load. Validator-side checks held up better thanks to signature compression, but ordinary

05-20Industry

Tenstorrent AI Chip Startup Attracts Acquisition Interest from Intel and Qualcomm

Tenstorrent has attracted preliminary acquisition interest from Intel and QualcommThe AI chip developer is consulting with investment banks on strategic alternativesPotential valuations for the company exceed $5 billionAdditional acquirers may emerge if the company pursues a saleThe startup is simultaneously exploring a fresh capital raise　　Tenstorrent, a developer of artificial intelligence processors, has become the subject of preliminary acquisition discussions with Intel and Qualcomm, Bloomberg reported on Monday.　　The startup has engaged in discussions with both semiconductor manufacturers and has begun consulting investment banking firms to assess strategic alternatives.　　Operating in the competitive AI chip landscape, Tenstorrent positions itself against industry leaders like Nvidia and AMD. The companys technology represents an emerging alternative to established market participants.　　Should Tenstorrent elect to pursue a sale, industry sources suggest the transaction could command a valuation exceeding $5 billion. The AI chip sector has seen heightened valuation scrutiny following Cerebras recent public market debut.　　Additional strategic buyers could potentially emerge should Tenstorrent initiate a formal sale process, according to individuals with knowledge of the situation.　　Representatives from Tenstorrent, Intel, and Qualcomm declined to provide comment to Seeking Alpha regarding the reported discussions.　　Parallel Fundraising Efforts Continue　　Despite ongoing acquisition conversations, Tenstorrent is concurrently engaged in discussions with prospective investors regarding a

05-20Industry

Akamai Stock Analysis: 151–153 Breakout Zone and Trend Outlook

AKAM — daily chart with candlesticks, EMA20/EMA50 and volume.Akamai Stock: Daily Bull Trend Intact　　On the daily timeframe, AKAM closed at 150.77, above key moving averages. EMA20 129.38, EMA50 115.64, and EMA200 97.41 are all rising and well below price. That alignment confirms an established uptrend. RSI14 69.43 signals strong momentum, yet it is near overbought where upside can slow.　　Meanwhile, MACD shows a line at 13.84 versus a 9.55 signal with a 4.30 histogram—an expanding positive spread consistent with trend continuation. Bollinger Bands center at 120.79 with an upper at 170.04 and lower at 71.53; price rides the upper half, typical of a powerful advance. ATR14 9.56 implies larger swings. The daily pivot sits at 150.76 with R1 153.01 and S1 148.51; price parked near the pivot, signaling balance before the next move.　　AKAM Hourly Chart: Momentum Pauses Near Pivot　　On the 1H chart, the regime is neutral, tempering daily strength. EMA20 151.27 sits just above spot; trading below the hourly mean hints at a pause. EMA50 146.12 remains well beneath price, so the intermediate intraday trend is still up, though stretched. RSI14 prints 49.78, a neutral tone with no directional edge. In addition, MACD shows a -0.14 line versus a 0.52 signal

05-20Industry

Elon Musk Cheers NVIDIA’s Vera Launch After SpaceX Gets First Units

NVIDIA has tapped SpaceX as one of the first customers to deploy its new Vera CPU, the chipmakers debut processor designed specifically for agentic artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.　　The collaboration drew quick public backing from SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk, who reposted the announcement on X and joked that the chip lived up to its name.　　NVIDIA Ships First Vera Units to SpaceX　　NVIDIA confirmed that early Vera silicon went directly to SpaceX, OpenAI, Anthropic, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The chipmakers hyperscale division hand-delivered the first units, framing the rollout as the start of a wider commercial deployment.　　The Vera CPU houses 88 custom NVIDIA-designed Olympus cores and supports up to 1.2 TB/s of memory bandwidth using LPDDR5X memory. NVIDIA claims the chip runs agentic sandbox workloads up to 50% faster than competing rack-scale CPUs while doubling efficiency.　　A new 256-CPU rack configuration sustains more than 22,500 concurrent agent environments at full performance, according to NVIDIA. The system is part of the broader Rubin platform revealed at GTC in March 2026.　　Musk Reacts on X　　Musk posted his reaction shortly after NVIDIAs official AI Infrastructure account thanked SpaceX for testing the chip.　　Elon Musk, Source: X　　His enthusiasm follows the recent folding of xAI into SpaceX, which now operates

05-20Industry

AI Slop Floods Bug Bounty Programs as Companies Struggle with Fake Reports

Companies running bug bounty programs report a sharp increase in low-quality AI-generated submissions.HackerOne and Nextcloud both suspended bug bounty programs after waves of fake reports.Security firms say AI tools are changing bug hunting by making it easier to submit reports at scale.　　Artificial intelligence is creating a new headache for companies that rely on bug bounty programs to uncover software vulnerabilities.　　Cybersecurity firms and open-source software projects are dealing with a surge of AI-generated bug reports, many of which are false or misleading. Thats per a report from Financial Times, which says that the growing number of low-quality submissions is forcing some organizations to pause bug bounty programs as security teams spend more time sorting real vulnerabilities from spam.　　Bug bounties have also become big business, with companies including Meta, Microsoft, Apple, and Crypto.com collectively paying at least $58 million in 2025 to researchers who find software flaws before hackers do.　　However, generative AI tools are also making it easier to exploit bug bounty programs by producing large volumes of inaccurate or low-quality vulnerability reports at scale.　　According to San Francisco-based Bugcrowd, reports submitted through its platform more than quadrupled during three weeks in March. The company, whose clients include ChatGPT developer OpenAI, said most

05-20Industry

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