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DeFi Has Seen Resolv’s $25M USR Exploit Many Times Before

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The Resolv hack wasn’t a surprise. The same structural flaw has drained hundreds of millions from Morpho, Euler, and Fluid over the past year and the industry kept building on top of it anyway.

On a quiet Sunday morning, someone turned $100,000 into $25 million in about seventeen minutes.

The target was Resolv, a yield-bearing stablecoin protocol. By the time Resolv paused its contracts, its dollar-pegged stablecoin USR had crashed to pennies. It remains deeply depegged, trading around $0.25 as of this writing, down more than 70% on the week.

The blast radius extended well beyond Resolv. Fluid/Instadapp absorbed more than $10 million in bad debt and had outflows of over $300 million in a single day, the worst outflow in its history. Fifteen Morpho vaults were hit. Euler, Venus, Lista DAO, and Inverse Finance all moved to pause USR-related markets.

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The mechanism that caused the initial hack to spread its damage – pricing a depegged stablecoin at $1 in a lending market– is not new. It happened at least four times in the past fourteen months.

How the Hack Worked

USR’s minting followed a two-step off-chain process: a user deposited USDC via the `requestSwap’ function, and a privileged off-chain signing key, the `SERVICE_ROLE’, finalized the amount of USR to issue via `completeSwap’. The contract enforced a minimum output but had no maximum. Whatever the key holder signed, the contract honored.

The attacker gained access to that key through Resolv’s AWS Key Management Service. They submitted two USDC deposits, totaling roughly $100,000–$200,000, and used the compromised key to authorize 80 million USR in return. Etherscan shows two transactions worth 50 million USR and 30 million USR, minted in minutes.

“The Resolv USR exploit wasn’t a bug — it was a feature working exactly as designed. And that’s the problem,” said on-chain analyst Vadim (@zacodil).

The SERVICE_ROLE was a regular externally owned address, not a multisig. The admin key had multisig protection, but the mint key didn’t.

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“Resolv was audited 18 times,” Vadim said. “One finding was literally called ‘Missing upper [limit]’”

The attacker exited methodically, converting minted USR into wstUSR (the staked wrapped version) to slow the market impact, then rotating through Curve, Uniswap, and KyberSwap into ETH. The attacker’s wallet holds approximately 11,400 ETH (~$24M). Resolv’s collateral pool, the ETH and BTC backing the system, survived intact even as the stablecoin crashed.

How the Contagion Spread

The Resolv hack is two incidents stacked on top of each other. The first is the mint exploit. The second is a cascading lending market failure.

When USR and wstUSR collapsed, every lending market that had accepted them as collateral faced the same problem: their oracle was still pricing wstUSR near $1.

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Omer Goldberg, founder of risk analytics firm Chaos Labs, documented the mechanism. His key finding was that “The oracle is hardcoded and thus never repriced. wstUSR was marked at $1.13 while trading at ~$0.63 on secondary markets.”

Traders bought cheap wstUSR on the open market and posted it as collateral at the oracle’s $1.13 valuation on Morpho or Fluid, then borrowed USDC against it and walked away.

At Fluid, the team secured short-term loans to cover 100% of the bad debt and committed to making every user whole. At Morpho, co-founder Paul Frambot said ~15 vaults had significant exposure, all in high-risk, long-tail collateral strategies.

Prominent curator Gauntlet said that “A few high-yield vaults had limited exposure.”

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But D2 Finance challenged that framing directly, posting onchain data showing Gauntlet’s flagship “USDC Core vault” had $4.95M allocated to the wstUSR/USDC market. Goldberg later said Gauntlet vaults accounted for 98% of lender liquidity in that market.

“I think the curator industry is poorly designed because there’s not actual curation happening,” said Marc Zeller on X.

Resolv, Gauntlet, Morpho and Fluid did not respond to The Defiant’s requests for comments by press time.

A Recurring Failure

This is not a novel attack. In January 2025, Usual Protocol’s USD0++ was hardcoded at $1 on Morpho vaults by curator MEV Capital. Usual abruptly changed its redemption floor to $0.87 without warning, leaving lenders stuck in the MEV Caital vault as utilization spiked to 100%.

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In November 2025, Stream Finance’s xUSD collapsed after curators had routed USDC deposits into leverage loops backed by the synthetic stablecoin, leaving an estimated $285M–$700M at risk across Morpho, Euler, and Silo when its oracle refused to update. Moonwell suffered back-to-back oracle failures in October and November 2025, generating more than $5 million in combined bad debt.

What It Means for the Curator Model

Morpho’s architecture outsources all risk decisions to third-party “curators” who build vaults, choose collateral, set loan-to-value ratios, and select oracles. The theory is that specialist firms have deeper expertise, competition drives better risk management, and the protocol enforces rules.

But curators earn fees on yield generated, which creates an incentive to accept riskier, higher-yield collateral, like yield-bearing stablecoins. The downside is that when those stablecoins depeg, the losses fall on depositors, not on the curator. In the Resolv case, some curators had automated bots still refilling affected vaults hours after the exploit started, deepening losses.

The reason to hardcode oracles for yield-bearing stablecoins is to prevent short-term volatility from triggering unnecessary liquidations. But that protection only works as long as the stablecoin remains stable.

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Chainalysis said in a post-mortem that real-time chain detection is needed.

“The on-chain smart contract worked perfectly. The broader system design and off-chain infrastructure apparently did not,” the analytics firm said.

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AQR Founder Argues Crypto Acts Moves With Stocks, Not Gold

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Brian Armstrong's Bold Prediction: AI Agents Will Soon Dominate Global Financial

TLDR

  • Cliff Asness said crypto currently trades like a risk-on asset rather than a safe haven.
  • He cited chart correlations showing Bitcoin moving in line with S&P 500 futures.
  • Asness rejected the idea that Bitcoin provides diversification during stock market declines.
  • He described Bitcoin as an imaginary asset and questioned extreme valuation claims.
  • Asness criticized the concept of Bitcoin yield promoted by Michael Saylor.

Cliff Asness rejected claims that cryptocurrencies function as digital gold or safe havens. He said recent market data shows crypto moving with equities. The AQR Capital Management founder argued that Bitcoin price trades like a risk asset.

Asness addressed market behavior and challenged claims that Bitcoin protects against equity downturns. He cited chart correlations between Bitcoin and S&P 500 futures during recent selloffs. He said the data shows crypto falling when stocks decline.

Crypto Acts Like a Risk-On Asset, Says Asness

Asness stated that crypto acts like a risk asset in current conditions. He said, “Crypto does not look like a store of value.” He added that it looks like “risk on” during recent trading sessions.

He pointed to chart correlations between Bitcoin and S&P 500 futures. He said both assets moved in the same direction during market stress. Therefore, he rejected the claim that Bitcoin offers diversification benefits.

He explained that crypto has not behaved like gold during volatility. He said the data shows joint declines during equity pullbacks. He maintained that current patterns contradict the haven narrative.

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Asness also dismissed claims that Bitcoin drives broader equity markets. He described Bitcoin as another volatile asset class. He said maximalist arguments overstate its market influence.

Asness Targets Bitcoin Yield and MicroStrategy Premium

Asness criticized the concept of “Bitcoin yield” promoted by Michael Saylor. He argued that the metric does not represent actual yield or total return. He said the term misleads investors about performance.

He mocked the phrase in blunt terms. He said, “Every time someone says Bitcoin yield, an angel gets their wings violently ripped off.” He used the remark to underline his rejection of the metric.

Asness directed sharper criticism at MicroStrategy’s corporate strategy. He said the company trades at a large premium to its Bitcoin holdings. He described the structure as similar to a 2x net asset value closed-end fund.

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He argued that this pricing reflects weak market efficiency. He called the structure “moronic” in public comments. He maintained that the premium lacks fundamental justification.

Asness reiterated that he views Bitcoin as an “imaginary asset.” He questioned how a digital currency could equal the value of global assets. He rejected projections that place Bitcoin at aggregate world asset levels.

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Apollo private credit fund gives investors only 45% of requested withdrawals

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Apollo private credit fund gives investors only 45% of requested withdrawals

Marc Rowan, chief executive officer of Apollo Global Management LLC, during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York, US, on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023.

Jeenah Moon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Apollo, the asset management giant, told investors in its flagship private credit fund that it will limit withdrawals this quarter to just under half of requests, the latest sign of stress in the asset class.

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In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Monday, Apollo Debt Solutions BDC said that it received redemption requests equal to 11.2% of shares outstanding in the first quarter, far exceeding the 5% quarterly cap the fund allows.

Unlike some other private credit players, Apollo is sticking with the 5% cap, an industry standard that rivals including Blackstone have recently relaxed to satisfy investor demands for their funds.

The vehicle — a non-traded business development company, or BDC — expects to return about $730 million to investors on a prorated basis, meaning redeeming shareholders will receive roughly 45% of the capital they requested. The fund has a net asset value of $15.1 billion, as of Feb. 28.

“Today’s decision reflects our ongoing commitment to long-term value creation for the Fund’s shareholders,” Apollo said. “As long-term stewards of capital, we have a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of all Fund investors, balancing the interests of shareholders seeking liquidity with those who choose to remain invested.”

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Apollo said the fund’s net asset value per share declined 1.2% over the past three months through Feb. 28, but outperformed the U.S. Leveraged Loan Index, which fell 2.2% over the same period.

The withdrawals show that Apollo didn’t avoid the rush of investor redemptions plaguing rivals, driven by concern over private credit loans to software companies. Apollo executives have sought to distance themselves from other players recently, saying the firm typically made loans to larger, more stable companies.

Software is the single biggest sector at 12.3% of loans in the Apollo Debt Solutions BDC, according to the company.

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Polymarket Tightens Insider Trading Rules

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Polymarket Tightens Insider Trading Rules

The prediction market is updating insider trading and manipulation rules days after inking an exclusive partnership with Major League Baseball.

Polymarket on Monday announced updated market integrity rules across both its DeFi platform and its CFTC-regulated U.S. exchange, amplifying requirements governing insider trading and market manipulation. The new standards appear in the DeFi platform’s Terms of Use and the Polymarket US Rulebook.

“Markets thrive on clarity,” said Neal Kumar, Polymarket’s chief legal officer, in a release.

Prohibited Behavior

The rules spell out three categories of banned insider trading conduct. First, participants may not trade on any contract if they possess confidential information about the outcome of the underlying event, where using that information would violate a preexisting duty of trust or confidence.

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Second, participants may not trade on confidential information passed to them by someone who owed a preexisting duty of trust or confidence to someone else, if they know or have reason to know that the tipper would be prohibited from trading on it themselves.

Third, participants may not trade on any contract if they hold a position of authority or influence sufficient to affect the outcome of the underlying event.

Beyond insider trading, both platforms prohibit all types of fraud and market manipulation — including spoofing, wash trading, and fictitious transactions — as well as self-dealing, front-running, information misuse, attempted manipulation, and disruptive practices.

Enforcement

On the DeFi side, Polymarket maintains a multi-layered monitoring system and partners with surveillance and technology specialists, and all trades are executed on the Polygon blockchain, providing built-in on-chain transparency. When the platform or community flags unusual activity, Polymarket said it may ban wallet addresses or refer the matter to law enforcement.

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On Polymarket US, surveillance operates at three levels: partnerships with trade surveillance specialists, a control desk conducting real-time monitoring, and a Regulatory Services Agreement with the National Futures Association to detect rule violations and investigate offenders. Sanctions on the U.S. exchange can include suspension, termination, monetary penalties, or regulatory referrals.

The rule overhaul follows last week’s announcement that MLB named Polymarket its official and exclusive prediction market exchange. The deal centers on an integrity framework that restricts markets deemed to pose manipulation risk, including contracts on individual pitches, manager decisions, and umpire performance. MLB also signed an information-sharing agreement with the CFTC, the first such deal between the derivatives regulator and a professional sports body.

Polymarket received CFTC approval to operate in the U.S. in November 2025, following a $2 billion strategic investment from Intercontinental Exchange. The platform has since begun rolling out its U.S. app, starting with sports markets.

This article was written with the assistance of AI workflows. All our stories are curated, edited and fact-checked by a human.

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TRON Scales AI Fund to $1 Billion to Build the Financial Rails of the Agentic Economy

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Brian Armstrong's Bold Prediction: AI Agents Will Soon Dominate Global Financial

TLDR:

  • TRON DAO has expanded its AI Fund tenfold, growing from $100 million to a full $1 billion commitment.
  • The fund targets agent identity systems, stablecoin payment rails, and tokenized equity as core investment areas.
  • TRON’s network processes over $21 billion daily and holds $85 billion in USDT, supporting agent-scale payments.
  • Tokenized equity is positioned as the ownership layer for AI agents managing economic interests on behalf of users.

TRON DAO has expanded its AI Fund from $100 million to $1 billion. The fund targets early-stage companies building infrastructure for the agentic economy.

It focuses on agent identity systems, stablecoin payment rails, tokenized assets, and developer tooling. This move builds on a thesis formed in 2023, when TRON predicted AI and blockchain would converge.

TRON Doubles Down on AI and Blockchain Convergence

The TRON AI Fund first launched with a clear conviction: AI and blockchain technology would eventually merge. That prediction has gained enough traction to justify a tenfold increase in committed capital.

The fund now positions itself as a strategic vehicle, not just a financial one. Its expanded mandate reflects growing market demand for autonomous financial infrastructure.

Three core theses continue to drive the fund’s investment direction. As TRON stated, “AI agents will become active participants in the global economy, requiring new financial infrastructures that combine identity, payment, and asset ownership fully onchain.”

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This makes stablecoins the most practical payment layer for agent-to-agent commerce today. The fund views this as foundational, rather than experimental, infrastructure.

Stablecoins also serve individuals and small teams augmented by AI tools. A single person running AI-powered operations no longer needs a large team behind them.

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However, they still need payment systems that are simple, low-cost, and accessible. Traditional banking onboarding and intermediary fees make that difficult to achieve.

TRON noted that “AI-augmented people can run what once required entire teams from a single laptop.” That shift changes the demand for financial tools entirely.

Tokenized equity rounds out the fund’s framework as the ownership layer for this new economy. It is divisible, programmable, and transferable around the clock, supporting autonomous asset management.

TRON’s Network Scale Positions It for Agent-to-Agent Settlement

TRON’s blockchain currently supports over 370 million user accounts across its network. Daily transaction volume on the chain exceeds $21 billion, demonstrating its capacity at scale.

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The network also holds more than $85 billion in circulating USDT supply. These numbers place TRON among the largest stablecoin liquidity sources in the blockchain space.

TRON described agent-to-agent payments as systems expected to “rely on infrastructure that is already proven at scale.” Its network meets that standard through its user base, liquidity depth, and transaction throughput.

The fund intends to extend this infrastructure further into settlement and custody for tokenized assets. That expansion aligns with the broader goal of supporting autonomous financial systems.

The fund will also pursue acquisitions alongside traditional investments. Early-stage companies building core agentic tools are the primary target.

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Consolidation in this space is expected as the sector matures. TRON sees this as an opportunity to shape the foundational layer of the agentic economy.

As AI agents take on more economic roles, demand for on-chain financial rails will grow steadily. TRON’s expanded fund positions it to meet that demand directly and at scale.

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Bitcoin Bulls Fight To Hold $70K, Derivatives Data Signals Weakness

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Bitcoin Bulls Fight To Hold $70K, Derivatives Data Signals Weakness

Key takeaways:

  • Bearish Bitcoin futures premiums and low call option odds suggest traders remain skeptical despite BTC’s brief 4% relief rally.

  • High oil prices and cautious Fed policy continue to pressure risk assets, while Bitcoin derivatives metrics signal a lack of conviction.

Bitcoin (BTC) surged 4% within minutes of US President Donald Trump announcing his intention to temporarily de-escalate the conflict in Iran and pursue negotiations. While oil prices immediately tumbled 14% to $85 per WTI barrel and the S&P 500 climbed 3%, Bitcoin derivatives metrics continued to signal skepticism and a lack of confidence in the $68,000 support level.

Bitcoin 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: Laevitas.ch

Bitcoin futures traded at a 2% annualized premium relative to regular spot markets on Monday, indicating a lack of demand for bullish leverage. Under neutral conditions, this indicator typically ranges between 4% and 8% to compensate for the longer settlement period. This lack of conviction from bulls has been the norm for the past month, even during a recent rally toward $76,000 on Tuesday.

Short-term gains fail to offset five months of Bitcoin pain

Short-term positive updates regarding the US and Israel-Iran war are unlikely to reverse the pessimism following a five-month price decline. Because the specific causes of Bitcoin’s Oct. 10, 2025, flash crash and its subsequent failure to track traditional markets remain unconfirmed, traders treat any developments with high suspicion.

S&P 500 futures (left) vs. Bitcoin/USD (right). Source: TradingView

This major sell-off occurred alongside rising US import tariffs, including a 100% levy on Chinese goods after China restricted rare earth metal exports. However, the unprecedented $19 billion in liquidations caused the most significant damage, resulting in heavy losses for market makers and traders who utilized cross-margin positions.

Bitcoin options for April 24 at Deribit. Source: Deribit by Coinbase

At the Deribit exchange, the $80,000 Bitcoin call option for April 24 traded at 0.017 BTC ($1,207). With 31 days until expiry and an implied volatility of 48%, the market is pricing in only a 20% chance of Bitcoin reaching $80,000. This low expectation for a 13% monthly gain is rare in cryptocurrency markets, where participants are generally more optimistic.

USD stablecoin premium/discount relative to USD/CNY rate. Source: OKX

USD stablecoins traded at a 1.3% premium against the official US dollar to yuan exchange rate on Monday, indicating that there is not a particular imbalance between buying and selling demand in the region. Typically, high demand for cryptocurrency pushes this premium above the 1.5% neutral range, while panic selling causes stablecoins to trade at a discount.

Federal Reserve’s choice to pause rate cuts keeps investors in fixed-income

The data shows that there is modest resilience in Bitcoin derivative markets, especially since BTC retested the $67,500 level on Monday. Gold’s historic 21% price drop over ten days proved that no asset class is safe when traders fear an economic recession and inflationary risks, especially as fuel prices impact logistics and nearly every sector of the US economy.

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Related: Bitcoin spot volumes fall to 2023 lows as BTC rallies remain news-led

Monday’s 3% relief bounce in the S&P 500 is unlikely to cause investors to exit fixed-income positions, especially as the Fed gave little indication of continuing its monetary easing policy. High interest rates reduce incentives for consumer financing and create a burden for corporate capital costs.

There is undoubtedly a significant dependence on the duration of the war for risk assets, including Bitcoin. Until oil prices revert back to $75 or lower, odds are traders will act cautiously, but additional catalysts may need to emerge for Bitcoin traders to turn bullish, especially considering the persistent lack of conviction in onchain and derivatives metrics.