XRP price is eyeing a bullish breakout from a symmetrical triangle pattern that could position it for a breakout above $1.50, a level it has remained below for the past 5 weeks.

According to data from crypto.news, XRP (XRP) price fell 3% to an intraday low of $1.41 on Thursday. At this price, the token is 40% below its year-to-date high of $2.36.

While the token, along with the broader crypto market remain under intense pressure from geopolitical tensions that have reduced investor appetite for risk assets, its charts tell a different story.

On the daily chart, it has steadily been forming a symmetrical triangle pattern since the beginning of February. The formation is a decisive technical setup where a breakout from the upper trendline tends to signal a continuation of the previous uptrend, while a breakdown below the lower support suggests further bearish momentum.

In XRP’s case, it is trading closer to the upper trendline, with technical indicators suggesting bulls could successfully initiate a breakout from it.

Notably, the supertrend indicator has recently flipped green for the first time since late January. When this metric turns green, it means that the prevailing market trend has shifted from bearish to bullish.

Meanwhile, the MACD lines have pointed upwards, a sign that buying momentum is increasing and a bullish crossover is likely imminent.

XRP price was also trading close to the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level at $1.42. Hence, XRP could potentially stage a bullish breakout from the triangle pattern and successively rally toward $1.61, which aligns with the next Fibonacci retracement level in the series.

On the contrary, if XRP price loses the $1.2 support, the bullish thesis would be invalidated and could lead to a deeper correction toward the psychological $1.00 level.

• Tax exemption period: 10 years – corporate income, property, and land taxes fully waived for zone residents
• Zone location: Besqala Mining Valley, Republic of Karakalpakstan – a region specifically targeted for economic revival
• Energy rules: Renewable energy, hydrogen, and grid electricity (at higher tariffs) all permitted – relaxed from prior solar-only mandate
• Revenue fee: Operators pay a monthly 1% fee on mining income to the zone directorate
• Banking requirement: All sales proceeds – domestic or foreign – must route through Uzbekistan’s banking system
• Timeline: Tax code amendments due within 2 months of April 20 activation; licensing via NAPP

Just as bitcoin BTC$77,772.40 appeared to have built momentum for a breakout above $80,000, macro uncertainty reemerged as a headwind.

The most notable development came from the Pentagon, which told U.S. lawmakers in a classified briefing that clearing mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil chokepoint, could take at least six months, and the process will begin only after the U.S.-Iran conflict ends. The briefing also warned that gasoline and oil prices may remain elevated through the midterm elections, according to the Washington Post.

Persistently high energy costs risk keeping inflation sticky, leaving the Federal Reserve with limited room to cut interest rates, a negative backdrop for risk assets. Bitcoin, in particular, remains highly sensitive to interest rates and global liquidity conditions rather than real economic activity. Rising costs for essentials like fuel and food could also reduce investors’ willingness to allocate capital to speculative assets.

These risks are already showing up in markets. WTI crude has climbed to around $95 from $79 late last week, while government bond yields are rising across major economies. The U.S. 10-year yield has increased by eight basis points to 4.32% this week, and it’s U.K. counterpart has risen by 18 basis points to 4.96%.

“Oil prices are rising alongside yields and widening volatility spreads, signaling tighter financial conditions and increasing market risks,” said Michael Kramer, founder and CEO of Mott Capital Management.

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Speaking of key indicators, U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs continue to show sustained demand, with funds seeing their fastest inflows in a month based on the seven-day moving average of net flows tracked by Glassnode.

Still, some analysts are urging caution, arguing that the rally lacks broad-based support in the spot market.

“The recent Bitcoin price increase is completely driven by demand in the perpetual futures market. Meanwhile, spot demand is still contracting (although at a slower pace). The same happened in January, when Bitcoin peaked at $98K. There are risks of a correction if traders start taking profits while spot demand continues to contract,” Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, said on X.

The market capitalization of USDT, the largest dollar-pegged stablecoin, has hit a record high of $188.88 billion. Meanwhile, speculation in non-serious tokens such as M$4.4787, is reaching fever pitch, with overcrowding in bullish bets. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”

What’s trending

Today’s signal

The chart shows fluctuations in the ratio between bitcoin’s price and gold, displayed in candlestick format. The red line represents the 50-day moving average, the white line the 100-day moving average and the yellow line the 200-day moving average.

The ratio has been steadily rising and has now topped the 100-day average. More importantly, the 50-day average could soon move above the 100-day average, confirming a bullish crossover. As the name says, it suggests a bullish shift in momentum.

That would mean continued outperformance of bitcoin relative to gold.

Pre-launch DeFi lending protocol Lotus has announced that WisdomTree’s Treasury Money Market Digital Fund (WTGXX) will serve as part of the reserve framework backing LotusUSD, its core vault token, according a press release shared with The Defiant. The DeFi protocol said the move marks one of the first instances of a money market fund being referenced within a DeFi lending protocol.

LotusUSD reserves are composed of USDC and tokenized short-duration U.S. Treasuries. According to the release, WTGXX integration is designed so that lenders earn a baseline yield even at zero utilization, sidestepping the structural problem in standard DeFi lending where returns dry up when borrowing demand is low.

WTGXX currently tokenizes over $857 million in U.S. Treasuries, primarily on Ethereum with a secondary allocation on Arbitrum, and carries a 7-day APY of 3.49%, per data from RWAxyz.

The integration is made possible in part by WisdomTree’s recently granted Securities and Exchange Commission exemptive relief permitting 24/7 instant settlement of WTGXX shares — a prerequisite for compatibility with around-the-clock DeFi infrastructure.

“We are seeing growing interest in connecting regulated financial assets, such as WTGXX, with blockchain-based infrastructure,” Maredith Hannon, head of BD for digital assets at WisdomTree said in the release. “This momentum reflects broader exploration of how tokenized traditional assets may be used within emerging digital ecosystems.”

Lotus also uses a tranched market structure, letting lenders select explicit risk profiles within a single connected liquidity pool rather than accepting uniform pool-wide exposure, per the protocol’s documentation.

The announcement comes days after the Kelp bridge exploit, which saw an attacker mint unbacked rsETH and use it as collateral on Aave to borrow nearly $200 million in real assets, and left Aave modeling between $124 million and $230 million in bad debt. Lotus founder and CEO David Reising drew a direct line between that event and the protocol’s design thesis:

“Yield in DeFi lending markets is too reliant on risky, volatile collateral. This was highlighted by this weekend’s KelpDAO exploit and the subsequent $15B Aave fallout — one of many events that have demonstrated the need for risk that’s predictable, bounded, and priced fairly.”

Reising argues the problem is structural, continuing, “The desire to lend against subprime assets, like rsETH, is a market structure issue that can be eliminated by letting people sit at a variety of risk levels in asset markets containing high-quality collateral. Collateral risk isn’t the only option to generate high returns.”

On how Lotus’s design addresses it: “When lenders earn a reliable base rate on stable assets via productive debt, opaque collateral becomes less attractive by default, and platform-level tail risk shrinks before an exploit happens.”

Lotus lists pre-deposit vaults opening in May 2026, with general availability to follow. Early access requests are open on the protocol’s launch page.

Tokenized Treasuries have seen strong DeFi adoption, with protocols like Aave’s Horizon RWA Market now accepting them as collateral — a trend Lotus is extending further into lending market design.

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

Bitcoin Toll Scam Targets Shipping Operations

Fraudsters have designed messages that imitate official Iranian communication channels and demand Bitcoin payments from ship operators. These messages claim vessels must complete verification before authorities approve transit through the Strait of Hormuz. However, security analysts have confirmed that no Iranian authority issued such instructions.

Moreover, the scam exploits confusion caused by reported plans to introduce maritime tolls during heightened regional tensions. Hackers have used this uncertainty to pressure companies into making urgent crypto payments. As a result, several shipping operators have received deceptive notices that appear structured and credible.

Meanwhile, maritime security firm MARISKS has flagged the campaign as highly coordinated and misleading. The firm identified patterns showing repeated targeting of commercial fleets operating near restricted waters. It also indicated that at least one vessel may have engaged with the fraudulent communication.

USDT Payment Requests Mirror Bitcoin Fraud Pattern

Similarly, attackers have expanded the scheme by requesting payments in USDT alongside Bitcoin to increase compliance chances. The use of stablecoins allows scammers to present a more flexible payment option to targeted shipping firms. Consequently, the fraud appears more convincing to operators familiar with digital transactions.

In addition, the fraudulent messages outline staged procedures that mimic official maritime clearance systems. These include document submission, eligibility checks, and final toll calculation before granting passage approval. Such structured messaging increases the likelihood of deception among stressed vessel operators.

At the same time, reports indicate that vessels navigating the region have faced both security threats and digital fraud attempts. Two ships encountered gunfire incidents while attempting to exit the Strait under tense conditions. One of these vessels reportedly interacted with the crypto scam before facing physical threats.

Background Hormuz Disruption Fuels Exploitation Risks

The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most critical energy transit routes, handling a significant portion of global oil shipments. However, ongoing tensions involving the United States, Iran, and regional allies have disrupted normal shipping operations. This disruption has created operational uncertainty and increased vulnerability to cyber threats.

Furthermore, discussions around implementing transit tolls have added complexity to the situation for shipping companies. Authorities have considered such measures as an alternative to a complete blockade of the waterway. Even so, the lack of clear enforcement mechanisms has opened space for fraudulent actors.

Currently, more than 20,000 vessels remain delayed or stranded near the strategic corridor due to security risks. This backlog has intensified pressure on operators seeking safe and timely passage through the region. As a result, scammers continue to exploit urgency and confusion to extract cryptocurrency payments.

MARISKS and other security groups have urged shipping firms to verify all communications through official diplomatic or maritime channels. They have emphasized that no legitimate authority has authorized crypto toll payments for transit. Therefore, companies must apply strict verification procedures before responding to any payment requests.

The situation highlights the growing intersection between geopolitical conflict and digital financial crime. As tensions persist, cybercriminals continue adapting tactics to exploit global trade vulnerabilities. This trend underscores the need for stronger coordination between maritime security and cybersecurity frameworks.

A four-star U.S. Navy admiral has told Congress the military is running a live node on the Bitcoin network and testing it for national security purposes.

Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S.-Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), made the disclosure at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday, a day after telling the Senate Armed Services Committee that Bitcoin has “incredible potential” as a tool for American “power projection.” He also said it has great potential as tool for national security.

The House comments were the first public confirmation by a sitting US combatant commander that the military is directly participating in the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network.

“We have a node on the Bitcoin network right now,” Paparo said, responding to questions from Rep. Lance Gooden. “We’re not mining Bitcoin. We’re using it to monitor, and we’re doing a number of operational tests to secure and protect networks using the Bitcoin protocol.”

A Bitcoin node is a computer that stores the full history of the blockchain and enforces the network’s rules, relaying validated transactions across the peer-to-peer network. Unlike mining, it does not earn rewards and does not require specialized hardware.

Running a node is how participants in Bitcoin verify the network state independently rather than trusting third parties. There are an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 publicly reachable full nodes on the network as of early 2026, with the real number likely higher because many operate behind firewalls.

One node out of tens of thousands poses no threat to Bitcoin’s independence or its resistance to any single party controlling it.

But a US military combatant command running that node is notable because Bitcoin’s design has long been framed as a defense against takeover attempts by powerful governments, and INDOPACOM is the command responsible for US military operations across the Indo-Pacific, including the theater of strategic competition with China.

Volo Exploit Raises Sui Ecosystem Concerns

The first significant security breach of a liquid staking protocol occurred on April 22, 2026, when Volo Protocol was robbed of about $3.5 million across three vaults. The attack on WBTC, XAUm, and USDC pools has ignited broader discussion about the robustness of the fast-growing Sui DeFi ecosystem.

The exploit of Volo has quickly become a point of interest among analysts assessing risks in the fast-growing Sui ecosystem. Volo acted quickly to assure users that the breach had occurred and that it would cover all losses. Approximately $28 million TVL in unaffected vaults remained locked and safe after the team halted protocol activity within hours of learning about the exploit.

The most important question when it comes to ongoing research on the Volo exploit is whether it was an idiosyncratic flaw in the Volo vault design or a sign of systemic vulnerabilities in the Sui DeFi ecosystem. Early statements from the team suggest the issue was vault-specific rather than protocol-wide, meaning the Volo exploit was contained by design rather than by chance.

Volo Exploit Mechanism Still Under Investigation

However, uncertainty still surrounds the exact mechanism behind the Volo exploit. The attack mechanism remains not fully disclosed, and inquiries continue into the possibilities of the attack, flaws in the smart contracts, manipulation of oracles, or systemic vulnerabilities. A formal post-mortem should help clarify the root cause, and preliminary commentary suggests a possible network-level vulnerability.

Blockchain detective ZachXBT found that the funds associated with the Volo exploit, estimated to amount to about half a million dollars after the attack, were tracked to wallets controlled by attackers soon after the incident. The Sui Foundation has also joined recovery efforts and is organizing on-chain tracking.

The swiftness with which containment measures were implemented is one of the most remarkable features of the Volo exploit. The protocol was able to identify the breach, freeze all the vaults, and notify ecosystem partners within hours, which helped limit the loss to three impacted pools. This quick response served to avert what would have been a much greater loss across the platform’s $31.5 million TVL.

$1.2B Ecosystem Tested By Exploit Incident

Remarkably, vault isolation—intended to decrease systemic risk—proved a double-edged sword: it created a single point of failure yet helped avoid a complete protocol collapse. Whether such design decisions reduce or increase impact remains a hot topic among critics.

As the Sui DeFi ecosystem expands, with over $1.2 billion in TVL reported, the Volo exploit serves as a stress test of the network’s security assumptions. The event raises larger questions about whether the scaling of decentralized finance is being matched by mature risk controls.

In the meantime, the investigation continues, and the Volo exploit remains an important warning sign and an essential data point in understanding the evolving security landscape of next-generation DeFi systems.

Conclusion

Investigations into the Volo exploit are ongoing, with analysts seeking to determine whether the breach stemmed from an isolated vault flaw or deeper ecosystem risks. While funds were partially traced and losses contained, the incident has intensified scrutiny of security practices across Sui’s rapidly expanding DeFi infrastructure.

Summary

• Volo Protocol was hit by an exploit affecting vaults.
• Cause unclear: vault flaw versus Sui ecosystem risk.
• Incident raises concerns over Sui DeFi security.

Glossary of Key Terms

• Volo Exploit: Security breach that caused losses in Volo Protocol vaults.
• Volo Protocol: Liquid staking platform on the Sui blockchain.
• Liquid Staking: Using staked crypto while still earning rewards.
• Vaults: Smart contract pools holding user deposits.
• WBTC: Bitcoin represented as a token on Ethereum/Sui.
• XAUm: Tokenized asset used in Volo vaults.
• USDC: USD-pegged stablecoin used in DeFi.
• TVL: Total value locked in a DeFi protocol.
• Sui Ecosystem: DeFi network built on the Sui blockchain.
• On-chain Tracking: Tracing funds via blockchain data.
• Sui Foundation: Organization supporting Sui blockchain growth.
• DeFi: Decentralized finance without intermediaries.

FAQs

Q1: What is the Volo exploit?
A security breach on April 22, 2026, where about $3.5M was stolen from Volo vaults.

Q2: Were user funds recovered?
Volo pledged full reimbursement and froze operations, securing about $28M in unaffected vaults.

Q3: What caused the exploit?
The cause is still unknown, with probes into smart contract or oracle-related flaws.

Q4: What is the impact on Sui ecosystem?
It raised security concerns across Sui DeFi as the network continues to grow.

TLDR:

• SBF’s 8% Anthropic stake sold for $1.3B in bankruptcy is now estimated to be worth $30 billion today
  
• Alameda’s $200K Cursor investment was sold at cost and is now valued at $3B after SpaceX’s acquisition offer
  
• FTX’s 58 million SOL tokens were auctioned at $64 each while the market price had already surpassed $174 per token
  
• Bankruptcy lawyers recovered roughly $8B total from asset sales that could have returned over $100B if retained

Sam Bankman-Fried remains behind bars while his former investment portfolio tells a different story. The assets once held by FTX and its sister firm Alameda Research have grown dramatically in value.

Bankruptcy lawyers sold those positions for a fraction of what they are worth today. Had those stakes been retained, estimates place the total portfolio value between $52 billion and $118 billion.

Missed Gains From Early Bets on Anthropic and Cursor

SBF made an early bet on Anthropic in 2021, putting in $500 million for an 8% stake. At the time, artificial intelligence had barely entered mainstream conversation. Bankruptcy lawyers later sold that stake for $1.3 billion, which seemed reasonable then.

That same 8% stake would be worth an estimated $30 billion today. That figure alone exceeds the peak valuation of FTX at its height. The timing of the sale proved costly for creditors who could have benefited far more.

Satoshi Club posted on X, noting that Alameda invested just $200,000 for 5% of Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, in April 2022.

The bankruptcy estate sold that position one year later at the same price it was purchased. Yesterday, SpaceX announced a $60 billion acquisition option for Anysphere.

That 5% stake would now carry an estimated value of $3 billion. That represents a 15,000x return on the original investment. The sale at cost stands as one of the most expensive decisions made during the bankruptcy process.

SpaceX, Solana, and Robinhood Round Out the Losses

FTX channeled $700 million to K5 Global in 2022, which then invested in SpaceX at a $140 billion valuation. SpaceX is now eyeing a valuation of $1.75 trillion ahead of a potential IPO. That exposure is now estimated to be worth around $15 billion.

FTX and Alameda also held 58 million SOL tokens at one point. Bankruptcy administrators auctioned between 25 and 30 million of them at $64 per token.

SOL was already trading at $174 when buyers received their allocations, giving Galaxy and Pantera immediate gains.

The remaining Solana holdings would be worth over $5 billion at current prices. Those gains went to outside buyers rather than creditors. SBF had also acquired 7.6% of Robinhood for $648 million in 2022 at $11.52 per share.

The DOJ seized those shares, and Robinhood’s market cap is now approaching $75 billion. That stake alone would be worth $5.7 billion today.

In total, bankruptcy lawyers raised roughly $8 billion by liquidating everything, a fraction of what the portfolio became.