Bitcoin (BTC) rose 2.66% to around $75,800 on Monday after Strategy disclosed a $2.54 billion purchase, the company’s third biggest ever, and equivalent to about 2.5 months of new BTC supply.
However, several indicators suggest the rally may fizzle out.
BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView
Key takeaways:
Poor macro conditions can spark BTC price pullback if Strategy’s buying slows.
Bitcoin’s technical setup hints at a potential dip toward $67,000–$69,000.
Strategy may halt BTC purchases this week
Strategy funded most of its latest 34,164 BTC purchase through its preferred stock, Stretch (STRC), which generated over $2.17 billion through at-the-market share sales between April 13 and April 19.
Source: Strategy’s SEC Filings
That accounted for roughly 86% of the total amount spent, while sales of its Class A common stock, MSTR, added another $366 million.
STRC lets Strategy raise cash for Bitcoin when it trades at or above $100. Stronger prices mean easier fundraising and more BTC buying. In 2026, STRC enabled the purchases of 77,000 BTC, ten times more than all the ETFs combined, per River data.
Bitcoin ownership YTD change. Source: River
But STRC has been trading below its $100 par value since April 15, which may limit Strategy’s ability to keep raising cash to purchase more Bitcoin this week.
STRC weekly estimates. Source: STRC.LIVE
In past episodes, pauses in Strategy’s Bitcoin purchases have coincided with BTC price slumps.
For instance, on average, BTC’s price has dipped by roughly 30% when STRC traded below its $100 par value.
BTC/USD vs. STRC daily performance chart. Source: TradingView
A 30% dip will take Bitcoin’s price to $53,000 when measured from current levels.
Source: X
The halt appears alongside weakening risk sentiment, with US stock indexes falling amid doubts over the US–Iran peace deal.
Nasdaq, S&P 500, and Dow Jones daily performance charts. Source: TradingView
US President Donald Trump said it was “highly unlikely” he would extend the two-week truce if no agreement is reached before it expires on Wednesday.
Any signs of an extended Middle East conflict may weigh on BTC’s prices.
BTC flag pullback hints at $67,000–$69,000
Bitcoin’s current chart structure shows classic flag consolidation, with price now drifting toward the pattern’s lower boundary. This setup raises the risk of a pullback toward the $67,000–$69,000 region in April, if support gives way.
BTC/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView
At the same time, downside may remain limited as the 20-day (green) and 50-day (red) EMAs continue to act as dynamic support levels. Holding above these averages would signal underlying demand, increasing the chances of a rebound.
Related: Adam Back says current demand is ‘almost’ enough to send Bitcoin to $1M
If that happens, BTC could attempt a breakout above the flag’s upper trend line, effectively invalidating the bearish setup.
Such a move would open the door for a recovery toward the 200-day EMA (blue), currently near $82,750.
As Cointelegraph reported, breaking the resistance near $78,000 is now a top priority for the bulls.
This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research before making any decisions. Cointelegraph makes no guarantees regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information presented, including forward-looking statements, and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from reliance on this content.
In a detailed incident report, Aave service providers quantified the protocol’s exposure for the first time and outlined two scenarios depending on how Kelp DAO allocates the loss. LayerZero and Kelp continue to blame each other for the compromised bridge configuration.
Aave service providers on Monday published an incident report quantifying the protocol’s exposure to the April 18 Kelp DAO rsETH bridge exploit, outlining two bad-debt scenarios ranging from $123.7 million to $230.1 million, and recommending an immediate pause of the protocol’s Umbrella safety module.
According to the report, posted to the Aave governance forum, 89,567 of the 116,500 rsETH stolen from Kelp’s LayerZero bridge were deposited across seven attacker-controlled wallets on Aave. Those positions borrowed 82,650 WETH ($190.86 million) and 821 wstETH ($2.33 million).
The single largest position, on Aave’s Ethereum Core market, supplied 53,000 rsETH and borrowed 52,460 WETH, or $121 million, from one wallet. The remaining positions were distributed across Aave’s Arbitrum deployment. All attacker positions currently sit at health factors between 1.01 and 1.03.
Kelp subsequently recovered 40,373 rsETH by freezing a second attempted drain. That balance is the only confirmed backing for 152,577 rsETH of claims across every L2, a pro-rata backing ratio of 26.46%. Ethereum mainnet rsETH is backed separately by Kelp’s underlying ETH staking deposits.
Two bad debt scenarios
The report declined to commit to a single bad-debt figure, stating that the outcome depends on decisions outside Aave’s control — primarily how Kelp accounts for the loss and whether it updates its LRTOracle exchange rate.
Under Scenario 1, a uniform socialization across all rsETH holders on all chains, each token takes a 15.12% haircut. Total bad debt reaches $123.7 million, with the Ethereum Core WETH reserve absorbing $91.8 million, or a 1.54% shortfall. Mantle absorbs $10.4 million, or 9.54% of its WETH reserve, the most proportionally acute.
Under Scenario 2, losses are isolated to rsETH on L2s. Remote-chain rsETH is repriced to its 26.46% backing ratio, or a 73.54% haircut, while Ethereum mainnet rsETH is unaffected. Total bad debt rises to $230.1 million, all concentrated on L2s.
In this scenario, Mantle faces a 71.45% shortfall ($77.7 million), Arbitrum 26.67% ($88.4 million), Base 23.28% ($47.5 million), and Ink 18% ($13.9 million). Ethereum Core is untouched.
Umbrella covers only Ethereum Core reserves. Under Scenario 2, it would not activate.
Balance sheet disclosure
The report disclosed the Aave DAO’s financial position. As of April 20, the treasury holds $181 million — $62 million in Ethereum-correlated holdings, $54 million in AAVE tokens, and $52 million in stablecoins. The DAO generated $145 million in revenue in 2025 and $38 million year-to-date in 2026, with operating cash flow of $149 million in 2025 and $40 million year-to-date.
Aave DAO service providers are “leading an effort with ecosystem participants to address a potential bad-debt scenario,” the report said, and the effort has received “indicative commitments from various parties.” It did not identify the parties or quantify the commitments.
The report also recommended the DAO immediately pause the WETH Umbrella module. As of writing, 18,922 of the 23,507 aWETH staked in Umbrella — approximately 80% — have already entered the 20-day unstaking cooldown. A pause would block further deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and slashing. Coverage under a paused module would need to be handled manually through governance rather than automatically.
A second-order liquidation risk
The report also quantified the risk of further bad debt if ETH falls in price while Aave’s WETH reserves remain at 100% utilization. Because idle WETH balances are below $20 on every affected chain, liquidators cannot receive WETH as underlying and instead receive aWETH receipts, which keeps their capital inside the reserve and slows liquidation throughput.
At a 50% ETH price drop, Aave modeled $100.8 million of residual bad debt on Ethereum alone, with smaller amounts on Arbitrum, Base, Linea, and Mantle. Arbitrum and Base were flagged as particularly vulnerable because wstETH looping positions on those chains run at health factors around 1.03 — meaning first liquidations would trigger at ETH price drops of just 0.77% and 1.77%, respectively.
LayerZero and Kelp continue to trade blame
The Aave report did not assign blame for the underlying bridge exploit. LayerZero and Kelp DAO have continued to publicly attribute the incident to each other.
In a Sunday post-mortem, LayerZero Labs attributed the attack to the DPRK-linked Lazarus Group. The company said attackers compromised two downstream Remote Procedure Call (RPC) nodes used by its LayerZero-operated Decentralized Verifier Network (DVN), and introduced malicious software that returned forged data only to the DVN, then launched a DDoS attack to force failover to the poisoned RPC nodes.
LayerZero said the protocol itself was not exploited and attributed the attack’s success to Kelp’s use of a 1-of-1 DVN configuration.
In a rebuttal reported by CoinDesk on Monday, a source familiar with Kelp’s position said a communications channel between the two teams had been open since July 2024 and that LayerZero had not issued a specific recommendation to change the rsETH DVN configuration. The source said the compromised DVN was LayerZero’s own infrastructure and that Kelp’s core restaking contracts were not affected.
Yearn Finance core developer known on X as @banteg, published a technical review showing LayerZero’s public V2 OApp Quickstart uses a 1-of-1 DVN setup in its reference configuration across Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. CoinDesk reported approximately 40% of applications on LayerZero currently run 1-of-1 configurations.
LayerZero has said it will no longer sign messages for any application using a 1-of-1 DVN configuration.
“DeFi has spent years auditing smart contracts. Kelp is the moment the industry realises the threat doesn’t end at the code. Most protocols are completely exposed at the infrastructure layer,” said Yair Cleper, Co-Founder and CEO of MagmaDevs and contributor to Lava Network, a decentralized marketplace for blockchain data providers.
Combined market up 30%, to record US $12.2 billion, fueled by strong AI-driven IaaS growth
Demand for technology services in Europe continued to accelerate in the first quarter, driven by strong demand for the cloud-based infrastructure services needed to power AI, the latest state-of-the-industry report from Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm, shows.
Europe has turned the corner, as the region continues to embrace the power of AI to transform business. We’re seeing explosive growth in infrastructure services and steady growth in managed services, as companies take out cost to fund their AI ambitions.Share
The EMEA ISG Index™, which measures commercial outsourcing contracts with annual contract value (ACV) of US $5 million or more, shows ACV for the combined market (both managed services and cloud-based as-a-service) climbed 30 percent in the first quarter, to a record US $12.2 billion. Sequentially, the market was up 12 percent from its previous high in the fourth quarter. Over the last seven quarters, EMEA’s combined market has risen by double-digits in six of them, averaging 22 percent year-on-year growth in that span.
“Europe has clearly turned the corner, as the region continues to embrace the power of AI to transform business,” said Anthony Drake, president of ISG’s EMEA region. “We’re seeing explosive growth in infrastructure services and steady growth in managed services, as companies focus on cost optimization to fund their AI ambitions. In the first quarter, business process outsourcing was a bright spot, as AI begins to positively impact these services.
“Overall, the promise of AI is clearly outweighing the impact of geopolitical concerns,” Drake added.
First-Quarter Results by Segment
ACV in the as-a-service (XaaS) segment soared 52 percent year on year, to a record US $7.5 billion. It was the segment’s highest growth rate since the third quarter of 2021, and the eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit year-on-year growth, during which time growth averaged 36.5 percent a quarter. Sequentially, the XaaS market was up 17 percent versus the fourth quarter of 2025.
Within this segment, infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) climbed 72 percent, to US $6.1 billion—its fastest quarterly growth rate in more than seven years—while software-as-a-service (SaaS) advanced only 0.7 percent, to US $1.4 billion.
Managed services ACV in the first quarter rose nearly 6 percent, US $4.7 billion, its second-best quarter ever, and only the second time EMEA produced two US $4 billion-plus quarters in a row. There were 285 managed services contracts signed in the quarter, up 2 percent from the prior year, including three mega deals (ACV of US $100 million or more), the same as last year, but with the ACV of those deals up 22 percent year on year. New scope ACV was up 15 percent, to US $3.3 billion, only the second time the region has reached that figure.
Within managed services, IT outsourcing (ITO) slid 16 percent, to US $2.9 billion, with all areas down except for bundled infrastructure and application development and maintenance (ADM) services, up nearly 300 percent, and end user computing (EUC), up 60 percent. Business process outsourcing (BPO), meanwhile, soared 145 percent, to US $1.3 billion, versus a weak first quarter last year, but was up 25 percent sequentially. The biggest gainers were HR, facilities management and industry-specific services, all up triple digits, while call center services, the largest area of BPO, eked out a 0.7 percent increase. Engineering, research and development (ER&D) services, meanwhile, was up 4 percent, to US $399 million.
By industry, managed services ACV was sharply higher in telecommunications (up 192 percent) and retail (up 105 percent), while energy and transportation were both up about 30 percent. However, the region’s two largest sectors—banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and manufacturing—were a drag on growth, down 43 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
Geographic Performance
The region’s largest market, the U.K., posted its second consecutive US $1 billion-plus quarter, up 6 percent year on year, to US $1.2 billion. France rose 15 percent, to US $954 million, while Benelux and Southern Europe, two similar-sized markets at about US $400 million, were up 22 percent and 8 percent, respectively. DACH, however, declined 20 percent, to US $716 million, its slowest quarter in two years, and the Nordics was down 33 percent, to US $359 million, its worst quarter since the third quarter of 2024.
New ISG AI Index™ Launched
ISG last week announced the launch of its ISG AI Index™, a first-of-its-kind benchmark that measures how AI is impacting the global technology and business services sector. The initial findings were presented during the ISG Index call last Thursday. They show that infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) has seen the greatest impact from AI, up 160 percent. Software as-a-service (SaaS) has risen 53 percent while managed services is up only slightly, at 0.3 percent. On a market-weighted basis, the composite ISG AI Index was up 77 percent since inception, dating to December 2022, just after the launch of ChatGPT 3.0 and the start of the current AI era. Visit this webpage for more details.
2026 Global Forecast
ISG said it is raising its full-year forecast for XaaS revenue growth to 25 percent, up 400 basis points from its January forecast, and is holding its managed services growth forecast at 2.1 percent for the year. The forecasts reflect ISG’s view that XaaS growth will continue to accelerate on strong demand for AI, while managed services growth will remain “steady” as enterprises focus on cost takeout to fund their AI initiatives.
Crypto security is expanding beyond digital threats, with criminals increasingly targeting individuals directly through physical coercion rather than trying to exploit blockchain vulnerabilities or hack wallets.
The French case illustrates how attackers used a fake police raid and violence to force a Bitcoin transfer worth $1 million, bypassing encryption entirely by compelling the victim to authorize the transaction.
Wrench attacks are rising, with criminals using threats or force instead of technical exploits. This highlights how human vulnerability can override even the most secure cryptographic systems.
Impersonating authority figures such as police is highly effective because it combines fear, urgency and social conditioning, making victims more likely to comply without questioning the situation.
Digital defenses are no longer the only front line in crypto security. While phishing and exchange hacks have long been major threats, a growing number of thefts now bypass code entirely and target crypto holders directly.
A recent case in France highlights this shift. Attackers posing as police staged a “raid” and physically coerced a couple into transferring nearly $1 million in Bitcoin (BTC). This was not a failure of software, but a high-stakes robbery carried out through physical force.
When the victim, not the wallet, becomes the target
The incident occurred in Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt, a town near Paris, where a couple in their late 50s was allegedly assaulted inside their residence.
Here is the chronology of the incident:
Three individuals disguised as police officers gained entry to the home.
The couple was threatened at knifepoint.
The husband was forced to send Bitcoin to the attackers.
Both victims sustained injuries, and the husband was physically restrained and tied up.
The assailants fled the scene in a vehicle.
French authorities are currently investigating the matter, with charges including armed robbery and organized criminal conspiracy.
What distinguishes this case is not only the use of violence, but the specific strategy employed.
Rather than attempting to crack encryption, the perpetrators bypassed it entirely by coercing the owner into authorizing the transfer.
Why impersonating police officers is so effective
Posing as law enforcement officials is often effective because it taps into several psychological triggers:
Authority: People are socially conditioned to obey police directives.
Urgency: The appearance of an official raid creates the impression that immediate compliance is necessary.
Fear: Any resistance can seem as though it may lead to criminal consequences.
When criminals present themselves as police, victims often fail to question:
The reason for their presence.
The legitimacy of their demands.
The authenticity of the entire situation.
Under stress, the impulse to obey tends to overpower the instinct to verify or question what is happening.
In crypto, this risk is even greater because a single approved transaction can move significant funds in seconds.
Did you know? The term “wrench attack” became popular in the crypto space after an online comic joked that threatening someone physically is easier than breaking encryption. It reflects a real-world shift in which attackers bypass complex systems by targeting people rather than technology.
From simulated police raid to coerced Bitcoin transfer
Unlike conventional robberies that target cash, jewelry or other tangible items, this assault specifically targeted digital cryptocurrency holdings.
The attackers’ objective was straightforward: force the victim to carry out an immediate crypto transfer.
This form of theft can be difficult to contain for several reasons:
Stolen funds can be transferred anywhere in the world within minutes.
Blockchain transactions are generally irreversible.
Once transferred, funds can be moved quickly, which can make tracing and recovery more difficult.
When the victim retains direct control over their wallet, criminals do not need to steal hardware or break through security. They only need to force the victim to approve and send the transaction personally.
Understanding wrench attacks in the cryptocurrency space
It is often far easier to threaten a person with a wrench than to try to crack their encryption.
Rather than attempting to hack a wallet, perpetrators may use:
Threats
Physical violence
Other forms of coercion
These methods are used to force victims to reveal private keys or authorize the transfer of funds. Such attacks bypass even the strongest technical protections.
No matter how strong the encryption is, human vulnerability can make that security irrelevant.
Did you know? Some high-net-worth crypto holders now use “decoy wallets” with small balances. In a coercive situation, they can reveal these wallets instead of their main holdings, adding an extra layer of psychological and financial protection.
Why these attacks are becoming more frequent
Several underlying factors are driving this increase:
Growth in self-custody: A rising number of users now hold their own private keys and manage their assets directly, making them more immediate and accessible targets.
Visibility of high-value targets: Many cryptocurrency investors, company founders and executives maintain public profiles that make their wealth and identity relatively easy to identify.
Advances in cybersecurity: As digital wallet security improves and remote hacking becomes more difficult, criminals are increasingly turning to the softer target, the human user.
Instant global liquidity: Cryptocurrency enables near-instant transfers of value anywhere in the world without banks or intermediaries acting as gatekeepers.
In 2025 alone, documented cases of verified wrench attacks reportedly rose sharply, increasing 75% from 2024. Europe, and France in particular, stood out as a growing hotspot for such incidents. Financial losses reached $40.9 million in 2025, marking a 44% annual increase. While kidnapping remained the primary threat vector, physical assaults surged by 250%.
Why France has experienced a surge
France has recently recorded multiple high-profile violent crimes linked to cryptocurrency:
Kidnappings carried out to extort cryptocurrency ransoms.
Home invasions specifically targeting high-profile figures in the crypto industry.
Coordinated operations by organized criminal groups aimed at stealing digital assets.
These recurring incidents point to a shift in criminal behavior:
More deliberate efforts to identify individuals who hold cryptocurrency.
Increased surveillance of their physical locations and daily routines.
A growing preference for direct physical targeting over purely digital methods.
As cryptocurrency adoption continues to expand, public awareness of who owns it is also growing. Unfortunately, the physical risks associated with that visibility are rising as well.
Why criminals increasingly choose coercion over hacking
Crypto security has become increasingly strong. Hardware wallets, multisignature setups and cold storage solutions make remote hacking far more difficult.
Coercion, however, changes the equation.
Even the strongest technical protections may fail if a victim is coerced into unlocking their hardware device, revealing their credentials or authorizing a transaction.
Coercive attacks bypass cryptographic defenses entirely, target points of human access and exploit natural human reactions.
For perpetrators, this approach is often faster and more reliable than trying to break through technical defenses.
Why Bitcoin remains particularly exposed in duress situations
Bitcoin’s core architecture gives it considerable strength, but it also creates significant vulnerability when the owner is under coercion.
Its key features include:
The ability to transfer value immediately
The absence of any central entity capable of reversing transactions
Permissionless, worldwide accessibility
In a situation where the holder is forced to transfer funds, these traits can result in:
Assets being moved almost instantly
Virtually no realistic chance of recovery
Attackers rapidly moving funds across multiple addresses
The same qualities that give Bitcoin its independence and value also make stolen funds extremely difficult to recover once they are transferred under duress.
Did you know? Private security firms have started offering specialized protection services for crypto investors, including travel risk assessments, home security audits and digital footprint reduction strategies aimed at preventing targeted attacks.
How French authorities are responding
French law enforcement agencies are actively investigating the incident, with specialized organized crime units leading the effort.
Potential criminal charges under review include:
Although authorities are increasing enforcement in response to such incidents, these cases continue to present serious challenges because of:
The rapid cross-border movement of stolen assets
The pseudonymous and irreversible nature of cryptocurrency transactions
The involvement of organized and professional criminal groups
Key security takeaways for cryptocurrency owners
This incident underscores a major shift in the nature of cryptocurrency security threats.
Protecting technical systems alone is no longer enough. Safeguarding wallets, private keys and physical devices must now be paired with strong personal security measures.
Essential protective steps include:
Never publicly reveal or discuss the extent of your cryptocurrency holdings.
Keep your real-world identity separate from your wallet addresses and ownership.
Use multisignature wallets so that no single individual or compromised key can authorize transfers.
Distribute signing authority and key control across different geographic locations or trusted parties.
Cointelegraph maintains full editorial independence. Guides are produced without influence from advertisers, partners or commercial relationships. Content published in Guides does not constitute financial, legal or investment advice. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals where appropriate.
Cryptocurrency custody firm Fireblocks is handling the issuance and distribution of a euro-denominated stablecoin, backed by a group of twelve European banks, known as the Qivalis consortium.
The euro-backed token, scheduled for release in the second half of 2026, is regulated by the Dutch Central Bank through Amsterdam-based Qivalis and is compliant with the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR).
The Qivalis consortium is made up of: Banca Sella, BBVA, BNP Paribas, CaixaBank, Danske Bank, DekaBank, DZ BANK, ING, KBC, Raiffeisen Bank International, SEB, and UniCredit.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies with values pegged to an external reference such as the dollar, euro and other fiat currencies. The stablecoin market hit $305 billion in January 2026, but 99% of that volume remains dollar-denominated, with euro-pegged assets representing just $650 million.
The Qivalis consortium aims to challenge this dollar dominance with a regulated, MiCAR-compliant offering, according to a press release on Tuesday. The euro is the second-most traded currency in the world, accounting for a daily average volume of nearly $1.1 trillion.
“Qivalis demonstrates how major financial institutions can work together to plan a compliant euro-backed stablecoins at scale – with production-ready infrastructure that will meet MiCAR requirements, handle institutional volumes, and integrate seamlessly with existing banking systems,” said Michael Shaulov, Co-Founder and CEO of Fireblocks.
AI-powered wealth management platform Wealth.com has raised $65 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round joined by Google Ventures and Citi Ventures.
Editorial
This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.
Titanium Ventures, Pruven Capital, The K Fund, Dynasty Financial Partners, Charles Schwab, 53 Stations, Anthos Capital and Alumni Ventures also participated in the round.
Wealth.com has built a central intelligence layer for wealth management, unifying estate and tax planning within a single platform designed for financial advisors and their clients.
At the core of the platform is Ester Intelligence, a proprietary AI engine trained on estate planning, tax planning and advanced wealth scenarios and reporting. Embedded directly within the Wealth.com platform, Ester powers advisor workflows end-to-end, while also enabling firms to integrate its capabilities into their own AI infrastructure.
Over the past year, the company says it has seen 664% year-over-year growth in AI-powered workflows as firms increasingly replace fragmented, manual planning processes with structured data and intelligent automation.
Wealth.com has expanded rapidly across enterprise, registered investment advisory and institutional channels. In 2025, the company secured approvals from the three largest broker-dealers in the United States, unlocking access to over 50,000 financial advisors.
The new funding will be used to accelerate AI and product development, support strategic acquisitions, expand enterprise and institutional distribution, and broaden the company’s national footprint – including the opening of its New York City office in May.
“Wealth management technology is being rebuilt in real time,” says Rafael Loureiro, chief executive officer, Wealth.com. “The old model, characterized by fragmented tools, manual analysis and inconsistent advice, cannot keep up with what advisors and clients now expect.
“The next generation of firms will be defined by their ability to scale expertise with technological precision and trust. Wealth.com is building that platform, and over the past year alone, has been deployed by the nation’s largest RIA, the largest broker-dealer and the largest custodian.”
Financial health tools could unlock £5 billion in small business lending, claims the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT).
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This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.
SMEs account for over 99% of UK businesses, yet many struggle to access finance – driven by fragmented data, limited understanding of their financial health, and inefficiencies in lending processes.
CFIT brought together a coalition – including Lloyds Banking Group, Mastercard, HSBC and FXE Technologies – to investigate how this can be fixed.
The centre has now published a report with a set of practical, scalable recommendations, focused on educating SMEs about their financial data to improve lending readiness, alongside lenders enhancing their guidance and support throughout the application process.
The coalition has highlighted the role of financial health tools, and developed and tested two prototypes designed to improve SME financial visibility and readiness: a Financial Health Checker – a credit-readiness diagnostic tool – and a Small Business Coach – An AI-enabled advisory tool.
CFIT is encouraging lenders to provide access to these kinds of financial health tools before application, during application and after decline. The report’s recommendations also look to Government to support embedding these tools into lending journeys.
Anna Wallace, CEO, CFIT, says: “This report shows that a significant part of the SME lending gap is fixable. Too many viable businesses are being locked out of finance not because capital is unavailable, but because they lack the visibility and guidance needed to be finance ready.”
A chunk of the Kelp DAO haul is no longer going anywhere.
Arbitrum’s Security Council froze 30,766 ETH worth roughly $71 million on Monday night, moving funds linked to Saturday’s $292 million rsETH exploit into an intermediary wallet that can only be accessed through further Arbitrum governance action.
rsETH is a liquid restaking token issued by KelpDAO and represents a user’s position in restaked ether (ETH).
The Arbitrum Security Council has taken emergency action to freeze the 30,766 ETH being held in the address on Arbitrum One that is connected to the KelpDAO exploit. The Security Council acted with input from law enforcement as to the exploiter’s identity, and, at all times,…
The council said it acted on law enforcement’s input regarding the exploiter’s identity and executed the freeze “without impacting any Arbitrum users or applications.”
The transfer completed at 11:26 p.m. ET on April 20, according to Arbitrum’s statement on X. The stolen funds are no longer under the control of the address that originally held them.
The move recovers about a quarter of the total amount drained from Kelp’s LayerZero-powered bridge on Saturday, when attackers pulled 116,500 rsETH by exploiting compromised verifier infrastructure. LayerZero attributed the attack with preliminary confidence to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
Arbitrum is a layer-2 blockchain, meaning a network built on top of Ethereum that processes transactions more cheaply and settles them back to the main chain. Its Security Council is a group of elected signers with emergency powers to take protective action in exactly this kind of scenario. However, governance-level interventions on user funds remain rare and controversial because they introduce a degree of discretionary control over an otherwise permissionless network.
The freeze leaves Kelp with a partial recovery option, in addition to whatever else law enforcement and chain-tracing firms can claw back.
It also escalates the ongoing dispute between Kelp and LayerZero over who bears responsibility for the exploit, since any broader socialization of remaining losses now has a $71 million offset to work with before legal coordination, insurance, or treasury contributions come into play.
Kelp has said it is coordinating with ecosystem partners on a recovery fund and weighing next steps on unpausing, loss socialization, and legal coordination with affected counterparties. LayerZero has not publicly commented on the Arbitrum freeze.
Whether more stolen funds can be frozen depends on where else the attacker moved rsETH or its derivatives before consolidation, and whether other chains with similar emergency powers choose to act on their portions of the flow.
Crypto lobby Coin Center has expanded on its argument that software code is free speech and should be protected under the First Amendment of the US Constitution, amid continued uncertainty over whether crypto developers could be liable for how their inventions are used.
In a report published Monday, Coin Center Executive Director Peter Van Valkenburgh and Director of Research Lizandro Pieper said writing and publishing crypto software code is the same as writing a book or publishing a recipe.
The pair argued that the First Amendment, which protects individuals’ freedom of speech and expression, offers strict constitutional protection for developers who only publish and maintain software.
“They are speakers and inventors, not agents, custodians, or fiduciaries. Extending pre-registration or licensing requirements to this speech activity drops the historical logic of financial oversight and imposes a classic prior restraint on activities that are primarily speech and expression—which is almost always unconstitutional,” they added.
Source: Peter Van Valkenburgh
Crypto software developers have been seeking legal protections to shield themselves from criminal liability over the software they create. Last year also saw several high-profile convictions of crypto developers based on how their software was used, including the trial of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm.
Regulation applies when devs interact directly with users
Van Valkenburgh and Pieper said the paper is aimed at providing a framework for courts and regulators to distinguish between protected software publication and a developer’s professional conduct.
They argued that a developer crosses into regulatable conduct when controlling user assets, executing transactions for users or making decisions on users’ behalf.
“Lower court confusion over the distinction between conduct and speech naturally found in software publishing has fueled the development of what might be called a functional code theory of diminished First Amendment protection,” they said.
Source: Neeraj Agrawal
“Some courts have suggested that because software can be executed to produce real-world effects, it resembles conduct rather than speech,” Van Valkenburgh and Pieper added.
“We argue that such activities are pure speech and that the Supreme Court’s existing jurisprudence insists on this interpretation even if some lower courts have gone astray.”
The pair cited the 1985 case of Lowe v. SEC, in which the Supreme Court found that a publisher that does not hold assets on behalf of a client or take action on the client’s behalf is protected by free speech and does not count as practicing a regulated profession.
Crypto developers can’t be used as scapegoats
In some cases, crypto software has eliminated certain traditional middlemen, with self-custody and peer-to-peer transactions removing the need for a central authority to send funds or hold them.
Traditionally, financial institutions acting on a user’s behalf as intermediaries are regulated by governments and required to hold licenses.
Related: Coin Center urges Senate not to axe crypto developer protection bill
Van Valkenburgh and Pieper said that while it is challenging to build regulatory frameworks around new technology, declaring software developers to be middlemen for “administrative convenience” is not the answer either.
“Crypto software does not necessitate the invention of new legal doctrines or novel carveouts. It requires the faithful application of settled First Amendment principles to a new technological context,” they added.
“In the age of computers, where software is the primary means for expressing ideas and organizing economic life, those principles matter more, not less. Writing and publishing code is speech. And in a free society, speech cannot be licensed into silence.”
Storm was convicted last year on charges of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business, but his lawyers have been working on a motion to dismiss using the Supreme Court case, Cox Communications Inc. v. Sony Music Entertainment, to argue he had no intent to participate in the crimes of which he is accused
The co-founders of privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet Samourai Wallet were also found guilty on the same charge and were sentenced to between four and five years in prison.
Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?
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Altcoins have been one of crypto’s most painful stories of the past few years. The 2022 bear market broke valuations across the sector, and the recovery that followed never fully delivered on its promise. The altseason that traders had been anticipating through 2024 and into 2025 arrived in fragmented, selective bursts rather than the broad-based surge the cycle was supposed to produce. For holders of most altcoins, the wait has been long — and expensive.
The most recent chapter made things worse before they got better. According to analyst Darkfost, the October 2025 cycle top triggered another significant leg down for the altcoin sector. Total 3 — the combined market capitalization of altcoins excluding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and stablecoins — lost nearly $460 billion from that peak, a decline of roughly 38%. That is not a routine pullback. It is a wipeout that, for many tokens, extended losses that had never been recovered from 2022 in the first place.
Since February, however, the picture has started shifting. Total 3 has recovered approximately $90 billion — a meaningful rebound accomplished against a backdrop of ongoing geopolitical tension and a macroeconomic environment that continues to restrict the liquidity flows that altcoins depend on to move.
The recovery is real. Whether it is the beginning of something larger or another false start is the question the data is now building toward.
The Numbers Are Improving, But The Landscape Has Never Been More Crowded
The technical picture adds a layer of context to the $90 billion recovery. Darkfost points to the percentage of altcoins on Binance trading below their weekly 50-period moving average — a level that functions as a meaningful dividing line between assets in technical distress and those beginning to show genuine strength. In early February, 89% of altcoins on Binance sat below that threshold. Today, that figure has dropped to 67%.
The direction is encouraging. A 22-percentage-point improvement in the share of altcoins recovering above a key technical level reflects something real happening beneath the surface — not a broad market explosion, but a gradual return of selective interest after a period of widespread capitulation.
The caution, however, is structural and significant. Liquidity conditions remain constrained, which means the capital available to drive altcoin recoveries is not abundant. And the number of assets competing for that limited capital has reached a scale that is difficult to fully absorb. There are now approximately 49 million cryptocurrencies in existence — more than 22 million on Solana alone, 19 million on Base, and nearly 5 million on BNB Smart Chain.
That number reframes the recovery entirely. When $90 billion must be spread across 49 million assets, the average token receives almost nothing. The improvement in the moving average data is real, but it is concentrated. In a market this fragmented, the difference between the tokens that recover and the ones that do not will come down to selection — and the margin for error has never been smaller.
Altcoins Attempt Recovery Within a Fragile Structure
The total crypto market cap, excluding the top 10 assets, is attempting to stabilize near the $180 billion level after a prolonged period of weakness that followed the 2025 peak. The broader structure remains mixed. While the sharp decline from the $300B–$320B region has slowed, price has not yet established a convincing uptrend.
OTHERS consolidates after months of downside | Source: OTHERS chart on TradingView
From a structural perspective, the market is still operating below the 200-week moving average, which continues to slope downward and act as a macro resistance level. This is a critical detail. Historically, sustained altcoin expansions tend to occur only after reclaiming and holding above this level, which has not yet happened.
The recent bounce from the sub-$150B region shows early signs of demand returning, but the recovery remains modest relative to the prior drawdown. The current range between roughly $170B and $220B reflects a consolidation phase rather than a confirmed reversal.
Volume trends reinforce the cautious outlook. While there was a notable spike during the sell-off phase, recent activity has declined, indicating reduced participation and limited conviction behind the rebound.
For a more constructive outlook, the market would need to break above the $220B–$240B zone and sustain momentum. Until then, the current recovery appears fragile, with the structure still vulnerable to renewed downside pressure.
Featured image from ChatGPT, chart from TradingView.com
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