DAO token RAVE rallied to an all-time high of $19.85 this month before dumping down to $11.80 and allowing a patient trader to short a large amount at $19.

Incredibly, however, after the token declined 23% in his favor below $15, his profit and loss figure still read -3,963%.

The trader, who goes by the name “Meekdonald” on X, shared the screenshot of his leveraged ByBit trade on April 15. It showed a 12x leveraged short on RAVE/USDT with an entry price of $19 and a then-current price of $14.70.

Commentators described the token’s rally, which Meekdonald timed to nearly the “pico top,” as a coordinated scheme to lure and liquidate short sellers.

Three wallets held roughly 90% of the token’s total supply.

Nevertheless, shorting it proved incredibly difficult and expensive.

A winning crypto short became a 3,900% loss

The culprit was the astronomical funding rate on ByBit’s perpetual futures contracts.

In perpetual futures, funding rates are periodic payments between longs and shorts and keep the contract price anchored to spot.

When short interest dominates, the rate turns negative, meaning shorts pay longs. The more crowded the short side becomes, the higher the cost.

During RAVE’s squeeze above $19, funding rates on major exchanges reached annualized levels as high as 4,800%. On Binance, the hourly rate hit -2%.

A short seller owed 2% of notional position value every hour, or 48% per day.

Amplify those 48% daily payments by the leverage ratio, and the losses start to make more sense.

At a 12x leverage on a cross-margin position, a -2% hourly funding rate on that notional value could drain roughly 24% of his collateral per hour.

The spot price fell from $19 to $14.70, rewarding his prediction that RAVE would decline in value. However, the cumulative funding payments overwhelmed the unrealized profit anyway, pushing ROI to nearly -4,000%.

The price moved in his direction but short funding rates moved even faster.

Social media platform X on Tuesday launched Cashtags, a feature that surfaces live price charts and related posts for stocks and crypto tokens directly in users’ timelines.

The feature, currently available only on iPhone in the U.S. and Canada, was announced by Head of Product Nikita Bier, who said the platform influences billions of dollars in investment decisions daily based on what users read in their feeds.

Cashtags work by letting users type a dollar-sign ticker or paste a contract address into a post or search bar. X then suggests matching assets so users can select the right one. Tapping a cashtag opens a dedicated view that shows the asset’s price chart alongside posts that mention it, all without leaving the app. Supported assets include major equities, cryptocurrencies, and memecoins using contract addresses on networks such as Solana and Base.

X has actually offered expanded cash tag functionality before, through partnerships with eToro in 2023 and TradingView in 2022, but this version goes further by adding on-chain asset support and, for the first time, a direct brokerage integration.

That integration comes via a pilot with Wealthsimple, Canada’s largest online brokerage. Canadian users who tap a cashtag will see a button that routes them to a pre-filled trading screen on Wealthsimple, creating what the company describes as a one-tap path from conversation to order entry.

The move fits squarely into a broader race among fintech and crypto platforms to build so-called super apps. As The Defiant has reported, U.S. crypto and fintech firms, including Coinbase and Robinhood, are chasing Asia’s super app model, bundling trading, payments, and social features into single platforms.

Rather than building a brokerage from scratch, X is layering financial infrastructure onto what is already one of the world’s most active venues for real-time market commentary. The company holds money transmitter licenses in more than 40 U.S. states, and its separate X Money payments product has completed internal testing.

Bier added that web and Android versions of Cashtags are coming soon, along with a global rollout of the feature.

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

Legal & General Asset Management announced Wednesday that it placed the more than 50 billion pounds (roughly $68 million) in liquidity funds that it manages onchain through a new distribution channel built by Calastone.

“We are thrilled to make our liquidity funds available on the Calastone Tokenized Distribution Network,” said Ross McDonald, liquidity investment specialist at L&G. “Tokenized distribution provides meaningful enhancements in efficiency and reach.”

The U.K.-based firm said it now offers its money-market style funds as tokenized shares on the Calastone Tokenized Distribution Network, which uses blockchain infrastructure to handle issuance, trading and settlement.

The funds operate in U.S. dollars, euros and pound sterling and aim to provide capital preservation, same-day settlement and yield, the firm’s statement adds.

Calastone’s system manages token creation, order routing, trade aggregation and reconciliation while linking to existing fund administration systems. L&G said its investors are now allowed to buy, hold and transfer tokenized units within a permissioned network designed for regulated access.

L&G also explained that their tokenization of liquidity assets expands how investors can access short-term funds, especially through digital platforms that require faster settlement and continuous availability.

Tokenized versions of the funds will launch on Ethereum and compatible blockchains, with more networks planned, the firm said.

Simon Keefe, head of digital solutions at Calastone, said the launch shows how tokenization can apply to established fund structures “to enhance distribution, improve efficiency and broaden access within a controlled, regulated framework.”

Iran nuclear deal bitcoin implications are coming into focus as the US has proposed a 20-year pause on Iran’s nuclear program as part of ongoing peace negotiations, a concession that, if accepted, could bring oil below $80 a barrel and trigger the largest crypto rally since October 2025.

Iran nuclear deal bitcoin markets are now pricing a specific proposal for the first time. The US tabled a 20-year freeze on Iran’s nuclear activities as the core term in ongoing peace negotiations, while Iran countered with a five-year suspension. The gap is wide, but the fact that both sides are now negotiating specific timelines marks the most substantive progress since the conflict began on February 28.

WTI crude sits at $92 a barrel. Before the war, it traded near $65 to $70. The difference between those two levels is the entire macro burden currently suppressing Bitcoin, equities, and risk appetite globally.

The 20-year versus 5-year gap is not just a policy detail. It is the central variable that will determine whether this conflict ends in months or years, and whether oil returns to pre-war levels or stays structurally elevated. Iran’s nuclear program is the core US demand in these talks, as Vance stated clearly after the Islamabad session collapsed on April 13: “the nuclear issue was the only point that really mattered.”

If Iran accepts even a modified version of the 20-year proposal, the Strait of Hormuz blockade ends, shipping resumes, and the energy inflation narrative that has kept the Federal Reserve from cutting rates dissolves rapidly. The IMF has already cut its 2026 global growth forecast to 3.1% from 3.3% directly because of energy costs. That revision reverses with oil at $70.

What the Ceasefire Template Tells Us

When Trump agreed to the two-week ceasefire on April 7, oil surged lower by 13% to $94.76 a barrel on Brent and BTC rose 6.7% to $72,379 within hours. That was a temporary pause, not a deal. A genuine nuclear agreement would be categorically larger in market terms.

The pre-war BTC price was in the $97,000 range in mid-January before the conflict began. The path from $74,000 back toward that level runs directly through the oil market. Analysts at 24/7 Wall St. have outlined $100,000 by year-end as achievable under a full peace deal scenario with oil returning to the $65 to $70 range.

Why the Gap May Narrow

Iran’s counter of five years versus the US’s 20 suggests both sides are negotiating from fixed positions rather than walking away. The original Islamabad talks lasted 20 hours before breaking down specifically on this question. The fact that both sides put specific numbers on the table means a compromise figure, 10 to 15 years, is mathematically available even if politically difficult.

Bitcoin was at $126,000 in October 2025. It is at $74,000 today. The 20-year nuclear question may be the single variable standing between those two price levels.

World Liberty Financial’s freshly posted governance proposal to unlock 62.3 billion WLFI tokens drew an immediate broadside from TRON founder Justin Sun, who published a lengthy rebuttal onX, calling the plan “World Tyranny, Not World Liberty Financial.”

Sun, who invested $75 million in the Trump family-backed DeFi venture, accused the team of engineering the vote so that dissenters are punished, as holders who vote against the proposal see their tokens locked indefinitely with no unlock path, while large holders like himself have been frozen out of the process entirely.

“I personally hold approximately 4% of the voting power, yet my tokens have been frozen and I am forced out of this voting process,” Sun wrote. “The outcome was determined before the vote even began.”

The proposal, announced by WLFI on Tuesday, would place early supporter tokens on a two-year cliff followed by a two-year linear vest. Founders, team members, and advisors would face a longer five-year schedule, with 10% of their allocation permanently burned on passage. Holders who do not opt in remain locked indefinitely. WLFI called the plan “one of the strongest long-term governance alignment signals in DeFi.”

Sun sees it differently. He called the vote “a performance where the police have already barricaded the doors of parliament” and pointed to what he described as a deeper structural problem: the WLFI smart contracts are ultimately controlled by a 3-of-5 anonymous multisig and a single anonymous guardian address that can blacklist any wallet. Voters, meanwhile, must complete identity verification to participate.

“Your voters must register, submit to scrutiny, and be vetted — while your dictators won’t even show their faces,” Sun wrote.

Feud Erupts Into Open War

The response caps a week of escalation between the two sides. Tensions boiled over on Sunday after Sun accused WLFI of embedding a hidden blacklisting function in the token contract and called the team’s actions illegitimate. WLFI fired back, threatening legal action. “See you in court pal,” the project’s official X account posted.

Sun demanded that whoever was operating the account identify themselves. “As the largest investor in this project, I demand that those responsible come forward by name, instead of hiding in the shadows.”

The clash followed days of scrutiny over WLFI’s treasury operations. The Defiant previously reported that WLFI deposited 5 billion of its own governance tokens into Dolomite, a lending protocol co-founded by WLFI’s chief technology officer, and borrowed roughly $75 million in stablecoins, some of which were routed to Coinbase Prime.

Sun’s wallet containing more than 500 million WLFI tokens has been frozen since September 2025, when the project blacklisted his address after on-chain analysts flagged transfers routed through HTX, his crypto exchange. WLFI alleged Sun breached his investor agreement. Sun has maintained that the freeze was unjustified.

Token in Freefall

WLFI was trading around $0.08 on Tuesday, down roughly 75% from its all-time high and near its all-time low of $0.077 hit last week. The token’s market cap has fallen to approximately $2.5 billion.

Sun closed his statement by calling on all WLFI holders to “see this proposal for what it truly is” and to “reserve all legal rights of recourse.”

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

Another political action committee (PAC) aligned with the cryptocurrency industry announced its endorsement for a candidate in Ohio’s Senate race, signaling a move that could mirror the 2024 US election.

In a Wednesday notice, Sentinel Action Fund, a group that claims to be the “only conservative Super PAC advancing pro-crypto candidates and supporting pro-crypto innovation,” said it would be supporting Republican Jon Husted in this year’s race to represent Ohio in the US Senate. 

Husted was appointed by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in January 2025 to replace JD Vance, who was elected vice president alongside US President Donald Trump in his 2024 election win. He still faces a field of Republican candidates ahead of a May 5 primary in Ohio, where former Senator Sherrod Brown will also face off in the Democratic primary against Ron Kincaid.  

Sentinel Action Fund President Jessica Anderson specifically cited Brown as having “stood in the way of pro-innovation policies when it comes to digital assets” in the PAC’s endorsement of Husted. 

Although filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as of Tuesday showed no disbursements supporting Husted in 2026, the PAC and its sister organization, Right Vote, pledged to spend more than $8 million in the Buckeye state. The Sentinel Action Fund reported about $9 million raised from January 2025 through March 2026, including $750,000 in contributions from the digital asset advocacy organization Solana Policy Institute and $250,000 from crypto investment company Multicoin Capital.

The PAC’s move into the Ohio race could serve as a bellwether for how money from crypto-aligned interest groups will respond to the upcoming US elections. In 2024, crypto-backed PACs spent more than $40 million in the US State to support Republican Bernie Moreno’s run to unseat Brown, who had made many public statements criticizing crypto.

Related: Coinbase-backed crypto advocacy group unveils 2026 election plan

Despite having lost his seat, Brown announced in August that he would run again for Senate. Moreno’s seat won’t be up for grabs until 2030.

Ohio Senate race isn’t the only one in the state focused on crypto

Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican candidate for US President and one of the backers for Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company Strive, has also thrown his hat into Ohio’s gubernatorial race.

Launching his campaign in February 2025 following his departure from Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Ramaswamy supported efforts to create a strategic BTC reserve in Ohio.

However, many critics have pointed to the Republican candidate’s financial disclosures filed on April 6 as examples of conflicts of interest. 

Ramaswamy reported a 10% stake in Strive and could benefit from the value of the company’s Bitcoin holdings increasing in response to Ohio’s treasury investing in the cryptocurrency, which he would have significant influence over as governor. Strive reported holding about 13,768 Bitcoin as of Wednesday, worth more than $1 billion.

Disclosure: A member of the immediate family of Staff Editor Robert Lakin has contributed to the campaigns of Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton and Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown in amounts less than $200.

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