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Counter-Drone Defense Stocks Surge as Iran Conflict Escalates: Ondas (ONDS), BlackSky, and Iridium

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ONDS Stock Card

Key Takeaways

  • Since hostilities erupted, Iran has launched more than 500 ballistic missiles and 2,000 drones, with inexpensive Shahed drones penetrating air defenses
  • Attacks resulted in six U.S. military deaths and strikes on regional assets including the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia
  • Ondas shares have climbed more than 1,200% over the past year, with the company announcing $6 million in fresh counter-drone contracts from Middle Eastern clients
  • Oppenheimer maintains Outperform ratings on Ondas, BlackSky, and Iridium as beneficiaries of the escalating drone threat
  • Airobotics, an Ondas subsidiary, maintains a $20 million contract for autonomous perimeter defense technology

The intensifying aerial confrontation involving the U.S., Israel, and Iran is creating unprecedented demand for anti-drone solutions — and several publicly traded companies are capitalizing on the shift.

According to Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Iran has deployed over 500 ballistic missiles and more than 2,000 drones since fighting erupted last Saturday. Although most were neutralized, successful strikes inflicted significant casualties and infrastructure damage.

Six U.S. military personnel lost their lives at a Kuwaiti installation. The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia sustained damage. Qatar’s primary liquified-natural-gas facility was hit. Iran’s preferred weapon is the economical Shahed drone, designed for swarm attacks that can saturate conventional defense networks.

Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan stated that U.S. and Israeli forces had “significantly underestimated Iran’s drone capabilities.” He emphasized that the attacks are depleting interceptor inventories and exposing vulnerabilities in legacy counter-drone platforms.

Ondas has emerged as a primary beneficiary. The company manufactures the Iron Drone interceptor system, capable of neutralizing various small unmanned aerial vehicles. Oppenheimer maintains an Outperform rating with a $16 price target. Shares climbed 4.9% to $10.51 on Wednesday.


ONDS Stock Card
Ondas Holdings Inc., ONDS

On March 6, Ondas disclosed approximately $6 million in new contracts for counter-drone platforms from defense and homeland security agencies across the Middle East and additional territories. The purchase orders encompass dozens of Sentrycs Cyber-RF counter-UAS units.

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How Sentrycs Technology Works

The Sentrycs platform identifies, monitors, and hijacks unauthorized drones through protocol manipulation techniques. It can autonomously redirect hostile drones from sensitive zones or force landings in safe areas. The manufacturer emphasizes rapid deployment compatibility with existing detection infrastructure.

Ondas CEO Eric Brock highlighted “strong demand and a growing urgency among governments to find scalable solutions for defending critical infrastructure.”

The firm also posted 208% revenue expansion over the trailing twelve months and maintains a net cash position. Its current market capitalization reaches $4.72 billion.

BlackSky and Iridium Emerge as Satellite-Based Plays

BlackSky and Iridium represent complementary investment opportunities tied to the drone conflict. Both deliver satellite and communications infrastructure, increasingly critical as aerial warfare unfolds in what analysts describe as a “highly contested” communications landscape throughout the Gulf.

BlackSky shares advanced 7% to $24.30 on Wednesday. Iridium appreciated 2.1% to $24.51. Oppenheimer assigns Outperform ratings to both companies, with price targets of $31 and $34 respectively.

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Additional defense contractors with counter-drone capabilities include CACI, AeroVironment, Kratos Defense, Lockheed Martin, RTX, and Northrop Grumman — offering solutions ranging from electronic jamming to directed-energy weapons to kinetic interceptors.

Ondas subsidiary Airobotics maintains a distinct $20 million purchase agreement for an autonomous perimeter security platform under a multi-year government procurement.

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$35M Corporate Crypto Bet Crashes, CFO Gets Prison Sentence

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Nexo Partners with Bakkt for US Crypto Exchange and Yield Programs

TLDR:

  • Former CFO diverted $35M into DeFi lending platforms despite company policy requiring conservative investments.
  • Crypto investments promising 20% yields collapsed within weeks, wiping out nearly all of the company funds.
  • The software firm laid off 60 employees after the financial losses triggered a major restructuring.
  • A federal court sentenced the executive to two years and ordered repayment of the full $35,000,100.

A former chief financial officer has received a two-year prison sentence after diverting $35 million in company funds into risky cryptocurrency investments. 

U.S. federal prosecutors said the executive secretly transferred the money to a DeFi platform he controlled. The funds quickly collapsed in value after being placed in high-yield crypto lending protocols. 

The case exposes how unauthorized crypto bets can devastate corporate finances.

CFO Moves $35M Into DeFi Lending Platforms

Nevin Shetty served as chief financial officer at a private software company beginning in March 2021. The firm raised capital to support growth and product development.

Company leadership adopted an investment policy designed to protect those funds. The policy restricted investments to conservative instruments such as money market accounts.

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According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, Shetty helped draft that policy. However, he later transferred company funds into a cryptocurrency venture he secretly controlled.

Court records show Shetty launched a side company called HighTower Treasury in early 2022. The business had no outside customers.

Between April 1 and April 12, 2022, Shetty ordered wire transfers totaling $35,000,100 from a Chase branch near his home. The funds moved into HighTower Treasury accounts.

Prosecutors said Shetty then deployed the money across decentralized finance lending protocols. These platforms advertised yields exceeding 20 percent.

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HighTower planned to return a smaller fixed payment to the software company. Shetty and his partner would keep the remaining profits.

Federal prosecutors stated the arrangement allowed Shetty to personally benefit from returns generated with company funds.

Crypto Investments Collapse Within Weeks

Initial results appeared profitable. According to court filings, the strategy generated roughly $133,000 in profits during the first month.

However, the DeFi investments soon deteriorated. Crypto market losses rapidly erased the value of the positions.

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By May 13, 2022, the investment portfolio had nearly reached zero value. Almost the entire $35 million disappeared.

After the collapse, Shetty informed two fellow executives about the transfers. The company dismissed him immediately.

The financial damage forced the firm to restructure operations. Court documents state the company laid off around 60 employees after the loss.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office described the scheme as a calculated fraud carried out over several months. Prosecutors argued Shetty misled colleagues and financial institutions during the transfers.

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Following a nine-day trial, a jury convicted Shetty in November 2025 on four counts of wire fraud. Federal investigators from the FBI’s Seattle field office supported the case.

A federal judge sentenced Shetty to two years in prison and ordered repayment of $35,000,100. He will serve three years of supervised release after prison.

The court also barred him from serving as a corporate officer without approval from a probation officer.

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BTC in deep bear market, could crash by another 30%, investment firm says

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BTC in deep bear market, could crash by another 30%, investment firm says

Bitcoin is firmly in the deepest phase of the bear market and the pain may worsen, according to CK Zheng, founder of crypto investment firm ZX Squared Capital.

“Bitcoin’s price is convincingly in deep bear market territory now. We expect a further 30% price drop during 2026 as the Iran war started,” Zheng told CoinDesk in an email, citing the “four-year cycle” as one of the key catalysts.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency has already nearly halved since hitting a record high of over $126,000 in October last year, according to CoinDesk data. As of writing, it changed hands at around $68,000.

The four-year bitcoin cycle

Crypto investors often talk about the “four-year cycle” – a pattern in which prices surge, crash, and then recover, centred on the quadrennial mining reward halving.

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The halving, most recently implemented in April 2024, is a programmed event that halves bitcoin’s supply expansion rate every 4 years. As of today, 3.125 BTC are emitted as rewards for each block mined on the Bitcoin network, down from the original 50 BTC at launch after four halving events to date.

Historically, bitcoin’s price has tended to peak about 16–18 months after a halving, followed by a bear market that typically lasts about a year.

BTC topping out in October last year, roughly 18 months after the April 2024 halving, means the cycle is playing out again. So, the bear market could deepen in the near term.

Zheng said that the cycle is proving very difficult to break. According to him, the reason is simple: human psychology.

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“The “Four-year crypto cycle” momentum is gaining strength and is extremely difficult to break due to individual investors’ psychological behaviors,” Zheng said.

Individual investors tend to behave in predictable ways — buying during hype and selling during panic. That behavior reinforces the boom-and-bust four-year pattern that has defined crypto markets for more than a decade.

Because of this, Zheng said bitcoin still trades more like a speculative asset than a safe haven like gold.

He added that the institutional adoption of bitcoin remains very slow and limited in scope at this stage and warned that some firms that have purchased bitcoin as a treasury asset may be forced to sell, leading to a deeper price sell-off.

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“The total size of crypto ETFs and Digital Asset Treasury companies is only around 10% of the whole crypto market. Some Digital Asset Treasury firms may be forced to sell cryptos to meet certain debt servicing requirements during this bear market, which may create a vicious cycle,” Zheng said.

For now, Zheng’s outlook is clear: crypto’s bear market may have further to run before the next cycle begins.

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Is XRP at Risk of Falling Below $1?

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XRP Exchange Netflow


“Our long-term target is $0.9000,” one analyst stated.

Ripple’s XRP has registered a minor uptick over the past week, coinciding with the broader cryptocurrency market’s revival.

However, some analysts believe its price may decline sharply in the near future and even fall below the psychological $1 level.

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New Pullback Ahead?

Earlier this week, XRP tried to reclaim the $1.50 mark but failed and now trades at around $1.39 (per CoinGecko’s data). The asset’s market capitalization stands at approximately $85 billion, making it the fourth-biggest cryptocurrency, trailing behind BTC, ETH, and USDT.

One person who has been closely monitoring its performance is the X user TradingShot. In their view, XRP has been moving within a downward channel throughout its entire bear cycle, which, according to the chart, began in July 2025 – shortly after the price reached its all-time high of over $3.65.

TradingShot noted that the severe decline in February this year hit the previous target on the 1W MA200, suggesting the asset’s next potential pullback may lead to a further drop to the 1M MA100 support, set at under $0.90.

“This level is critical as it formed the June 2022 bottom of the previous Bear Cycle. Our long-term Target is $0.9000,” the X user concluded.

X user WealthManager also presented a bearish forecast. They believe XRP looks “very dangerous” right now, warning that a “huge drop could be imminent.”

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Meanwhile, the prominent Bitcoin educator and advocate Adam Livingston spoke sharply against Ripple’s native cryptocurrency. He said he would rather have $100,000 in FTX customer refund claims than $100,000 in XRP.

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“At least SBF might send a heartfelt apology from prison before he dies of old age,” Livingston added.

The Bullish Scenario

Despite the pessimistic views some express toward XRP, many indicators suggest its price may head north soon. Numerous market observers pointed out that large investors have purchased almost 4.2 billion tokens (worth a whopping $5.7 billion at current rates) since the October 10 crash.

This development reduces the amount of XRP tokens available on the open market, and economic principles dictate that the valuation should rise if demand doesn’t diminish. Moreover, this shows that whales are confident in the asset and view lower prices as an opportunity, a signal that could encourage smaller players to follow suit.

XRP’s exchange netflow is next on the list. Over the past several weeks, outflows have consistently exceeded inflows, indicating that investors are moving their holdings off centralized platforms and into self-custody. This shift reduces the amount of coins immediately available for sale, easing short-term selling pressure.

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XRP Exchange NetflowXRP Exchange Netflow
XRP Exchange Netflow, Source: CoinGlass

The asset’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) is also worth mentioning. It has fallen to around 30 on a weekly scale, marking oversold territory that can sometimes be a precursor to a rally. On the other hand, ratios above 70 are considered bearish.

XRP RSIXRP RSI
XRP RSI, Source: CryptoWaves
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US National Cyber Strategy Pledges Support For Crypto And Blockchain

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Cryptocurrencies, United States, AI, Donald Trump, Quantum Computing

Crypto industry executives are combing through US President Donald Trump’s National Cyber Strategy after it was released on Friday, searching for hints about what it could signal for government support of the crypto industry.

“Crypto and blockchain are explicitly named as technologies to be ‘protected and secured.’ This is a first for any US cybersecurity strategy,” Galaxy Digital’s head of firmwide research Alex Thorn said in an X post on Friday.

Crypto and blockchain were mentioned once in the six-page report:

“We will build secure technologies and supply chains that protect user privacy from design to deployment, including supporting the security of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.”

However, industry executives have also been interpreting other parts of the document to see how they relate to crypto.

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Cryptocurrencies, United States, AI, Donald Trump, Quantum Computing
Source: Mark Chadwick

Thorn pointed to a section pledging to “uproot criminal infrastructure and deny financial exit and safe haven.” “This language could easily justify crackdowns on mixers, privacy coins, and unregulated off-ramps,” he said.

Bitcoin VC points out that quantum has been taken “seriously”

Castle Island Ventures founder Nic Carter, who has been vocal about the threat of quantum computing to Bitcoin (BTC) in recent times, pointed to the section saying the government “will accelerate the modernization, defensibility, and resilience of federal information systems by implementing cybersecurity best practices, post-quantum cryptography, zero-trust architecture, and cloud transition.”

“Sure seems like they’re taking quantum seriously. Nothing to worry about, I’m sure,” Carter said in an X post.

It comes as the crypto industry continues to debate about how close quantum computing is to being a serious threat to Bitcoin. On Feb. 15, Carter said that major Bitcoin-holding institutions may eventually lose patience with Bitcoin developers for not addressing quantum computing concerns quickly enough.

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Trump points to the next generation as a priority

Trump said that the National Cyber Security outlines his priorities for “ensuring that America remains unrivaled in cyberspace.” Artificial intelligence was a key focus of the report.

“We will secure the AI technology stack—including our data centers—and promote innovation in AI security,” it said.

Related: Community banks and crypto industry ‘are allies’ in CLARITY Act debate: Exec

Trump also emphasized the importance of recruiting the next generation of workers in the cyber workforce to “design and deploy exquisite cyber technologies and solutions.”

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The US typically releases a national cybersecurity strategy every administration, outlining the government’s priorities for emerging technologies.

Magazine: The debate over Bitcoin’s four-year cycle is over: Benjamin Cowen