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Oklo (OKLO) Stock: Top Execs Dump $21M in Shares Amid Cramer Criticism and Earnings Disappointment

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OKLO Stock Card

Key Takeaways

  • On April 1, Oklo’s leadership team—including CEO Jacob DeWitte and COO Caroline Cochran—liquidated more than $21M in company shares through pre-scheduled trading arrangements.
  • DeWitte’s selling spree dates back to January, with transactions executed at prices ranging from approximately $50 to $100 per share.
  • CNBC’s Jim Cramer expressed skepticism about Oklo’s commercial viability, stating the company has minimal near-term revenue potential.
  • The nuclear energy startup disappointed investors with a quarterly loss of $0.27 per share, significantly worse than Wall Street’s -$0.17 forecast.
  • Despite remaining nominally bullish, Wall Street analysts have trimmed their price objectives, with the current consensus target at $84.30.

Oklo’s executive leadership executed substantial stock sales totaling north of $21 million on April 1, 2026, all conducted through previously established Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangements.


OKLO Stock Card
Oklo Inc., OKLO

Chief Executive Jacob DeWitte liquidated shares at average prices spanning $48.41 to $51.20, generating proceeds of $10,069,852. Following these transactions, DeWitte maintains direct ownership of 691,533 Class A shares while controlling over 20 million additional shares through indirect holdings.

Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Caroline Cochran executed similar transactions, also totaling $10,069,852, with sale prices fluctuating between approximately $47.99 and $51.79 per share. Her remaining direct stake stands at 658,039 shares.

Chief Financial Officer Richard Bealmear participated as well, selling 16,342 shares at $51.08 each for total proceeds of $834,749. His current direct holdings amount to 386,008 Class A shares.

While all three executives utilized 10b5-1 trading plans—designed to demonstrate predetermined selling schedules rather than opportunistic timing—the transactions raise eyebrows given their magnitude and timing.

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DeWitte’s selling activity extends well beyond the April 1 transactions. Since January, the CEO has consistently offloaded shares at various price points, including sales near $112, $75, and $63. These cumulative transactions have generated tens of millions in personal proceeds during recent months.

The April 1 sale specifically involved 200,000 shares executed across two separate transactions, shrinking DeWitte’s direct ownership stake by 17.58%.

Cramer Questions Commercial Prospects

The executive stock sales coincide with harsh criticism from CNBC’s Jim Cramer. During a recent broadcast, Cramer delivered a blunt assessment: “Oklo, while not a science project, has very little prospects for making any money any time in the future that we think is important for a stock.”

This wasn’t Cramer’s first critique of the nuclear startup. Back in January, he characterized Oklo as lacking true commercial operations, suggesting that established players like GE Vernova represent superior investment opportunities in the nuclear sector despite Oklo’s technological promise.

Financial Performance Falls Short

The company’s operational results haven’t helped its case. Oklo disclosed a quarterly loss of $0.27 per share in its latest earnings report, substantially missing analyst expectations of a -$0.17 loss—a negative variance of $0.10 per share.

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Despite this disappointment, Wall Street analysts haven’t abandoned the stock entirely, though enthusiasm has clearly cooled. UBS slashed its price target from $95 down to $60 while adopting a neutral stance. Needham made an even steeper cut from $135 to $73, and Canaccord reduced its target from $175 to $125. Cantor Fitzgerald maintained an overweight recommendation with a $122 price objective.

The analyst community’s average price target currently registers at $84.30, accompanied by a “Moderate Buy” consensus rating. The breakdown includes two Strong Buy recommendations, nine Buy ratings, six Hold positions, and two Sell ratings.

Oklo’s shares have experienced significant volatility over the past year, trading within a 12-month range of $17.42 to $193.84. The stock’s 50-day moving average currently sits at $64.62, well below its 200-day moving average of $93.16.

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SEC close to putting out ‘reg crypto’ for fundraising questions, Chair Atkins says

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SEC close to putting out 'reg crypto' for fundraising questions, Chair Atkins says

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Securities and Exchange Commission is close to proposing a “regulation crypto” fleshing out its approach to overseeing the crypto industry and drawing lines between transactions that might be securities and where they aren’t, the agency’s head said Monday.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins said the commission’s new reg crypto is in front of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, meaning it’s one step away from being published. This rulemaking is focused on the Securities Act of 1933 and will address fundraising and startup exemptions, among other issues, he said Monday at an event hosted by Vanderbilt University and the Blockchain Association.

He told CoinDesk after his question-and-answer session that the SEC also intends to put out its long-awaited innovation exemption soon.

“We’d love to have reactions and everything else,” he said. “It’s not a rule as such but obviously we need to know how it’s functioning and if people have problems with it or not.”

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One aspect to this exemption, he said, is that it wouldn’t disadvantage incumbents and focus solely on startups.

“We want people really to experiment within [that] framework,” he said.

Midterm watch

At multiple points during his talk, Atkins pointed to Congress’s role, saying that his agency’s rulemaking process was well underway despite whatever Congress may do.

“I think we have enough of a runway now, even notwithstanding what may happen in the midterms — although I really still want a friendly Congress obviously — they can throw tacks on the road in front of our tires but they’re not going to really slow us down.”

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Atkins also said the audience needed “to be engaged in this upcoming election,” pointing to Senator Bernie Moreno as an example.

“To have Congress really veer off track is not going to any of us any good, and it’s going to put a lot more questions into the future because people then just have ‘oh gosh, maybe this is again a passing phase,’” he said. “We’ve got to make sure that your friends are in Congress. I think you saw how that really paid benefits in the last election.”

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Did Japan’s PM Actually Back the Memecoin Bearing Her Name?

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Japan’s SANAE TOKEN saga has entered a new phase, with fresh media reports alleging the prime minister’s office knew more than it admitted. But for crypto markets, the bigger story is what happens next in Tokyo’s legislature.

The political noise and the regulatory signal are arriving at exactly the same time.

How the Token Unraveled

SANAE TOKEN launched on Solana on Feb. 25, as BeInCrypto reported. NoBorder DAO — a community led by serial entrepreneur Yuji Mizoguchi — issued it as part of a “Japan is Back” initiative, with Takaichi’s name and likeness on the project website. The token surged over 40x on launch day before Takaichi’s March 2 denial triggered a 58% crash.

The FSA opened a probe into NoBorder DAO for operating without a crypto exchange license. The token’s operators halted issuance shortly after.

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The SANAE TOKEN website describes the token as “not just a meme, but the hope of Japan,” alongside a portrait of Prime Minister Takaichi and a timeline of her political career. Source: japanisbacksanaet.jp

Japanese Tabloid Reports Secretary’s Approval

Weekly Bunshun, a Japanese tabloid known for breaking political and celebrity scandals, says developer Ken Matsui told the magazine his team informed Takaichi’s office that the project was a crypto asset. That directly contradicts her March 2 denial. Takaichi said neither she nor her office had been told anything about the token.

The publication says it obtained audio recordings of Takaichi’s chief secretary over a period of more than 20 years, reportedly describing the project favorably. Another Japanese online media reported that Takaichi’s office had not responded to media inquiries on the matter as of Tuesday. Takaichi has held no press conference since February 18, when her second cabinet was inaugurated.

The political dimension remains unresolved. What matters for crypto is whether the scandal accelerates — or complicates — Japan’s regulatory overhaul.

FSA Bill Changes the Rules

Japan’s Financial Services Agency submitted its landmark crypto reform bill to parliament this week, Asahi Shimbun reported. The legislation moves crypto from the Payment Services Act into the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, reclassifying digital assets as financial instruments for the first time.

As BeInCrypto previously reported, the maximum prison term for unlicensed crypto sales would triple to 10 years, with fines rising from ¥3 million to ¥10 million. The SESC gains criminal investigation powers it has never held over crypto operators. The SANAE TOKEN case was explicitly cited in Nikkei’s reporting on the legislative push.

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The bill would also void transactions with unregistered operators by default, making it easier for investors to seek refunds — a provision directly relevant to the SANAE TOKEN case.

The post Did Japan’s PM Actually Back the Memecoin Bearing Her Name? appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Every 5 Minutes: Korea’s New Rule for Crypto Exchanges

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South Korea’s financial regulator has ordered all crypto exchanges to verify user asset balances every five minutes, following a massive overpayment incident that shook market confidence earlier this year.

One botched reward payout exposed systemic cracks across the entire industry.

What Triggered the Rules

In February, Bithumb accidentally sent 2,000 BTC per person instead of 2,000 Korean won ($1.40) during a promotional event. The error amounted to roughly $42 billion in misallocated crypto. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) launched emergency inspections across all five major Korean exchanges immediately after. What they found went far beyond a single human mistake.

Most exchanges were only reconciling their books once every 24 hours. Three had no automatic kill switch to halt trading when discrepancies appeared. Four lacked multi-step approval systems for high-risk manual transactions. Two exchanges hadn’t even separated their general accounts from high-risk transaction accounts — a basic safeguard.

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What Exchanges Must Now Do

The FSC announced a three-pillar reform package on April 6. Exchanges must run automated balance checks every five minutes, with alerts and automatic trading halts triggered by major mismatches. Monthly external audits replace the previous quarterly schedule, and public disclosures must now include asset-by-asset blockchain holdings rather than a simple coverage ratio.

For manual, high-risk transactions such as event payouts, exchanges must use separate accounts, deploy validity-check systems that automatically reject mismatched inputs, and require cross-verification by a third party before execution.

The FSC will also require exchanges to appoint dedicated risk management officers and establish risk management committees — standards already expected of traditional financial firms. Compliance checks move from annual to twice-yearly, with results reported to regulators.

DAXA, the industry body, will complete self-regulatory amendments this month, with systems built out by May. Key provisions will feed into Korea’s forthcoming second-phase Digital Asset Act.

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The post Every 5 Minutes: Korea’s New Rule for Crypto Exchanges appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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Chaos Labs Leaves Aave Due to Budget, Risk Disagreements

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Chaos Labs Leaves Aave Due to Budget, Risk Disagreements

Chaos Labs has parted ways with the Aave ecosystem after serving as the crypto lending protocol’s main risk service provider for three years, citing a budget dispute and disagreements over how Aave should manage risk.

“This decision was not made in haste,” Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg said in a post to X on Monday. “We worked in good faith with DAO contributors. Aave Labs was professional and supported increasing our budget to $5m to retain us. However, we are leaving because the engagement no longer reflects how we believe risk should be managed.”

Source: Omer Goldberg

Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov said that Chaos didn’t depart on bad terms, but claimed that Chaos pitched a proposal seeking to become the sole risk provider and thus force out other partners — a compromise Aave wasn’t willing to accept.

Chaos played a key role in Aave’s back-end infrastructure, from pricing loans and managing risk in the Aave V2 and V3 markets since November 2022, during which Aave’s total value locked rose fivefold to $26 billion.

Risk has been a major talking point in the Aave community after a user lost $50 million in a trade while interacting with Aave’s interface on March 12. The following week, Aave said it would introduce an “Aave Shield” protection feature to deter users from high-risk trades.

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As for Chaos’ departure, Goldberg said there became an increasing misalignment over how the parties thought risk should be managed. He noted that some Aave contributors had left, raising its workload, while also arguing that Aave V4’s expanded functionality introduced additional operational and legal risks that fell on Chaos’ shoulders.

“While Aave Labs is optimistic about a swift migration to V4, history suggests these transitions take months and even years,” Goldberg said. “Until V4 fully absorbs V3’s markets and liquidity, both systems need to be operated and managed simultaneously. The workload during the transition doesn’t halve. It doubles.”

Weighing the risk of a protocol failure, Goldberg said, “There is no regulatory framework, no safe harbor, and no settled law that answers the question of what a risk manager or curator owes when a protocol fails. If things work, the work is invisible. If things break, the blame is not.”

As such, “We are walking away from a $5 million engagement,” Goldberg said.

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Chaos wanted Aave to boot LlamaRisk, Chainlink: Kulechov

Aave Labs CEO Stani Kulechov told a slightly different story, stating that Chaos wanted to be the sole risk manager and use its price oracles instead of Chainlink’s.

Following that request would have forced Aave to push out its other risk protocol partner, LlamaRisk, and thus abandon its two-layer economic risk model.

Related: DeFi lender Aave launches on OKX’s Ethereum L2, X Layer

Kulechov added Aave was unwilling to integrate Chaos-built price oracles, citing Aave’s “track record” with Chainlink’s services, which its “users are currently more comfortable with at scale.”

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He also said Chaos was already “exploring winding down its risk consultancy services,” and that Aave had offered to double its payment to $5 million to retain them.

Cointelegraph reached out to Chaos Labs for comment.

Kulechov noted that Chaos’ departure hasn’t disrupted the Aave protocol, its smart contracts, token listings or network integrations.

Moving forward, Aave said it “will work closely with LlamaRisk to ensure a smooth transition” and maintain its two-layer economic risk model. 

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Source: LlamaRisk

Chaos’ departure comes amid a protocol-wide feud over how much funding and revenue control Aave Labs should receive versus Aave’s decentralized autonomous organization.

Despite the internal issues, Aave crossed the $1 trillion mark in cumulative lending volume in late February, marking a first in the DeFi industry.

Magazine: Animoca teams up with Ava Labs, Shrapnel on Steam: Web3 Gamer