Layerzero Discloses RPC Poisoning Incident Linked to $292M KelpDAO Hack

Tech  Layerzero Discloses RPC Poisoning Incident Linked to $292M KelpDAO Hack  Layerzero Labs issued a candid apology for a three-week communication silence following a security breach involving the Lazarus Group. According to an official update, the attackers poisoned the source of truth for internal Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) used by the Layerzero Labs Decentralized Verifier Network (DVN).  This sophisticated hit coincided with a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against the firms external RPC provider. The fallout, according to the report, was contained to a small fraction of the ecosystem. Layerzero noted that the incident impacted a single application, representing 0.14% of total apps and 0.36% of the total value locked on the protocol.  Since April 19, the team detailed that it has been working with external security partners to finalize a comprehensive post-mortem report. The team further admitted to a significant oversight in allowing their DVN to act as a solo verifier for high-value transactions. Layerzero also acknowledged that they failed to police what their DVN was securing, which created a “single point of failure” risk.  To rectify this, the lab is now educating developers on safe configurations and will no longer service 1/1 DVN setups. The disclosure also addressed a bizarre security lapse

05-10Industry

Crypto markets predict Ethereum price for May 31, 2026 

Prediction market traders are increasingly positioning for Ethereum (ETH) to remain above the $2,200 level by the end of May 2026.  The market titled “What price will Ethereum hit in May?” on shows that the highest probability outcome currently points to Ethereum reaching or remaining above $2,200 by May 31.  That price target holds an implied probability of 68%, making it the dominant expectation among traders.  Meanwhile, the second most likely outcome is Ethereum climbing to at least $2,600, which carries a 33% probability despite a recent decline in trader confidence.  Expectations for Ethereum surpassing the psychologically important $3,000 level remain more limited, with the market assigning just a 3% probability to that scenario.  Bullish expectations beyond $3,200 fade significantly. In this line, probabilities of the cryptocurrency hitting $3,400, $3,600, or $3,800 before the end of May each stand at roughly 1%, indicating traders currently see a major breakout as unlikely in the remaining weeks of the month.  On the downside, the market still reflects some concern over potential weakness. Ethereum falling to $2,000 carries a 22% probability, while a drop to $1,800 carries a 6% probability.  More severe declines toward $1,600, $1,400, or $1,200 are viewed as low-probability outcomes, each holding near 1% to 3%.  Trading activity

05-10Industry

Emerging-market users are treating crypto exchanges like banking apps, Binance says

Emerging markets accounted for 77% of Binance users in 2026, up from 49% in 2020, as users in those countries increasingly used the exchange for savings, payments and investment access, the exchange said.  Binance Researchs latest report frames crypto adoption as a financial-access story rather than a trading story. Binance said 83% of users engaging with two or more products on the platform are based in emerging markets, while users in those markets show savings rates more than twice as high as users in developed markets.  About 36% of emerging-market Binance users with balances of at least $10 hold at least half of their portfolio in stablecoins, according to the report, which points to the pattern as “consistent with savings-oriented usage.” Globally, 28% of users meet that threshold, up from 4% in 2020.  The data points to growing use of crypto platforms as substitute financial infrastructure in markets where banking access remains limited.  The World Bank says 1.3 billion adults still lack access to financial services, while 900 million unbanked adults own a mobile phone and 530 million own a smartphone.  Binance said 4.7 billion adults lack access to credit or loans, 3.6 billion adults in low- and middle-income countries do not use digital payments

05-10Industry

Trump Media takes $406 million hit from Bitcoin and equity losses

Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which runs Truth Social and other Trump-branded media and technology platforms, posted a net loss of approximately $406 million for the first three months of 2026, according to a new SEC disclosure.  The steep drop was driven largely by non-cash unrealized losses, including nearly $244 million in digital assets, chiefly Bitcoin, along with about $108 million in equity securities and investments.  Trump Media reported no change in its Bitcoin position, ending the quarter with 9,542 coins worth approximately $767 million at current market prices. This places it as the 13th largest corporate holder of the crypto asset.  The company also holds 756 million Cronos tokens, acquired through a purchase agreement with Crypto.com last year. Those tokens are now valued at around $53 million.  Beyond direct crypto holdings, the company carried $554 million in equity securities, down from $722 million at the end of 2025. Those positions generated another $162 million in unrealized losses, partially offset by $37 million in gains from options trading and $17 million in realized derivative profits.  The company generated around $18 million in positive operating cash flow during the quarter, its fourth consecutive quarter of doing so. Revenue rose 6% year-over-year to $871,000, coming mainly

05-10Industry

Stablecoin execs warn on hard part ahead

Executives from MoonPay, Ripple, and Paxos said at Consensus Miami 2026 that stablecoin regulation has accelerated institutional adoption but that major infrastructure and privacy gaps still block mainstream use.MoonPay VP Richard Harrison said the GENIUS Act gave firms a regulatory permission slip, accelerating traditional finance entry into stablecoins.Ripple SVP Jack McDonald argued that institutional adoption depends on regulated products, trusted custody, and utility beyond market capitalisation.Paxos engineer Brent Perrault warned that unresolved privacy issues on public blockchains remain a significant barrier to enterprise-scale stablecoin payments.  Top executives at three of the most active stablecoin companies told the Consensus Miami 2026 audience on May 8 that new US regulation has fundamentally changed the competitive landscape for dollar-pegged tokens, bringing traditional financial institutions into a market that was previously difficult for them to enter. The shift, however, has exposed a new set of problems the industry has yet to solve.  Richard Harrison, MoonPays vice president of banking and payment partnerships, said the passage of the GENIUS Act gave firms across traditional finance a regulatory framework to operate within. “What GENIUS brought us was clarity,” Harrison told the panel, noting that traditional finance firms are now entering stablecoins at a faster pace because compliance is

05-10Industry

Anthropic claims it shut down Claude’s blackmail risk

Anthropic announced on Friday that Claude no longer engages in blackmail during its core safety assessment for AI agents.  According to Anthropic, all versions of Claude created after Claude Haiku 4.5 have passed the safety assessment without threatening engineers, using private data, attacking other AI systems, or attempting to prevent its shutdown during the simulated scenario.  This is after an unfavorable performance by Claude during a test last year, where Anthropic tested various AI models from different organizations using simulated ethical dilemmas that resulted in very misaligned behavior by some AI agents when subjected to extreme conditions.  Anthropic says Claude 4 showed a safety problem that regular chat training failed to fix  Anthropic stated that this problem occurred during the training of Claude 4. It was the first instance where the company conducted a safety audit when training was still ongoing in the group. According to the company, agentic misalignment is just one of the many behavioral problems observed, prompting Anthropic to modify its safety training following the testing of Claude 4.  The two reasons considered by Anthropic include the possibility that post-base model training could be rewarding the inappropriate behaviors or that the behaviors were already present within the base model, yet not effectively

05-10Industry

GTAO Gains Ground: Grayscale Reopens Private Placements as Bittensor Hits Solana

Meanwhile, GTAO‘s numbers are starting to reflect that shift. The trust’s market price now sits at $9.06 while NAV per share stands at $5.97. Back when TAOs recovery rally first started accelerating earlier this year, GTAO market price hovered near $6.08 and NAV per share sat around $4.39.  Grayscale GTAO Assets Continue Growing Steadily  The Grayscale Bittensor Trust launched publicly on December 12, 2025, and now manages roughly $13.06 million in assets under management with 2.1 million shares outstanding. Of course, investors are still paying Grayscale-style fees, with the trust carrying a 2.50% total expense ratio.  But lets be real, institutional investors rarely chase convenience for free. The bigger story here is access.  Institutional Demand For TAO Keeps Building  GTAO remains one of the few investment vehicles offering exposure to Bittensors TAO token through a traditional security structure without requiring direct custody or storage of crypto assets.  Now, with Solana integrations expanding liquidity and Grayscale reopening private placement access, the market is starting to treat TAO less like an obscure AI token and more like a serious institutional crypto narrative. For now, Grayscale GTAO appears to be riding that wave.

05-10Industry

Binance reports 77% of users in emerging markets treat exchanges like banking apps

Binances user base has undergone a quiet but dramatic demographic shift. The exchange now counts 77% of its users from emerging markets, up from 49% in 2020.  The numbers behind the banking shift  73% of stablecoin savers on Binance are located in emerging markets. In English: nearly three out of four people using the platform to store dollar-denominated value live in countries where the local currency might lose purchasing power faster than you can refresh a price chart.  The engagement metrics go deeper. 24% of active users now utilize two or more services on the platform, while 14% use three or more. Of that most-engaged cohort, 83% are from emerging markets.  Why traditional banking lost the race  Globally, 1.4 billion adults still lack access to basic financial services. Traditional banks never solved this problem because the economics didn‘t work. Opening branches in rural Nigeria or remote Indonesia costs money. Maintaining compliance infrastructure for small-balance accounts costs more money. The result: banks simply didn’t show up.  Binances pitch is straightforward. A smartphone app with 24/7 access, no minimum balance requirements, and cross-border functionality baked in.  Regulatory tightrope and market integrity concerns  Binance has faced persistent scrutiny over illicit fund flows and market manipulation practices across its platform. The exchange

05-10Industry

MarsCat and Conflux Network Partner to Pioneer Privacy-First Web3 Infrastructure

MarsCat provide more robust network connections between both ecosystems; and create new/secure forms of payment.  The partnership aims to build an improved, secure, and user-operated digital ecosystem, with additional goals of user privacy (currently lacking) and scalability of the foundation for Web3. The partnership is a great opportunity to create a much larger digital presence.  Strengthening the Decentralized Communication Layer  MarsCat Global is establishing itself as a platform for application hosting and development with privacy as a major focus. A key function of the company will be to create a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) network that does not require centralized servers for both application developers and end-user app usage. MarsCat will also look to utilize Conflux Networks capabilities to help develop its own decentralized communication protocols further enhancing its goal of providing user experiences completely free of centralized servers and unaffected by censorship.  Conflux‘s current rapid international growth makes this partnership all the timelier, as demonstrated by a recent large-scale event held in Hong Kong focused on Real-World Asset (RWA) Tokenization and PayFi (Payment Finance). Conflux’s unique “Tree-Graph” consensus will allow MarsCat to expand the reach of its privacy-preserving platform to an extensive geographic and demographic audience. Furthermore, technology will support real-time transaction processing in

05-10Industry

Crypto industry cheers Senate Clarity Act markup date as market structure push resumes

The will meet on Thursday, May 14, to consider the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, putting the crypto market structure bill back on the calendar after a January postponement.  The notice follows months of talks over regulatory jurisdiction, consumer protections, developer protections and stablecoin rewards. CoinDesk reported last week that crypto firms had backed a stablecoin yield compromise meant to unlock the bill.  Cody Carbone, CEO of The Digital Chamber, said the notice marks “a major step” toward clarity for more than 70 million Americans who use cryptocurrencies..  Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger called the markup notice “an important step toward establishing clear rules for digital asset markets.”  “This work reflects months of serious engagement on difficult questions, from SEC-CFTC jurisdiction to consumer protection and developer protections,” Mersinger said. “Clear statutes are what American consumers, businesses, and innovators deserve.”  Kristin Smith, president of the Solana Policy Institute, called the markup “a make or break moment for American leadership in financial markets.” Miller Whitehouse-Levine, the groups CEO, said the date is “the first step” toward giving builders and financial institutions certainty to build onchain in the U.S.  Ji Hun Kim, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, said “the momentum is real, and the time

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