Crypto World
NEAR Protocol DeFi Hub Rhea Finance Loses $7.6 Million in Oracle Exploit
NEAR Protocol’s largest Decentralized Finance (DeFi) hub, Rhea Finance, suffered a $7.6 million exploit after an attacker manipulated its oracle and validation layer.
Blockchain security firm CertiK flagged the incident, confirming that assets were drained across multiple tokens.
How the Rhea Finance Exploit Unfolded
The attacker deployed fake token contracts and created fresh liquidity pools on the protocol. These pools likely distorted price feeds, misleading the oracle into validating fraudulent transactions.
According to CertiK, at least $7.6 million was extracted from Rhea Finance. Stolen funds included USDC, USDT, Zcash (ZEC), and NEAR (NEAR).
Vadim Zacodil, an ex-NEAR core contributor, confirmed the figures and warned users to monitor the situation closely.
Withdrawals are currently halted as the team works to contain further damage.
“The attacker created fake token contracts and added liquidity in fresh pools, likely misleading the oracle and validation layer,” CertiK noted.
Why This Matters for NEAR DeFi
Rhea Finance holds a dominant position in the NEAR ecosystem. Formed in early 2025 through the merger of Ref Finance and Burrow Finance, it serves as the primary DEX and lending layer on the network.
The protocol previously held over 95% of NEAR’s DeFi total value locked, making this exploit significant for the entire chain’s DeFi infrastructure.
Oracle manipulation remains one of the most persistent vulnerabilities in DeFi, with attackers repeatedly exploiting untested price feeds and thin liquidity.
The coming days will reveal the full scope of losses and whether Rhea Finance can secure affected user funds.
The post NEAR Protocol DeFi Hub Rhea Finance Loses $7.6 Million in Oracle Exploit appeared first on BeInCrypto.
TLDR
- Hyperbridge increased its April 13 exploit loss estimate to about $2.5 million after a broader review across four chains.
- The attacker extracted around 245 ETH and then minted about 1 billion fake bridged DOT tokens.
- Polkadot confirmed that only DOT bridged through Hyperbridge was affected, while native DOT remained secure.
- The exploit targeted a flaw in the Merkle Mountain Range proof verification logic in HandlerV1.
- Hyperbridge paused Token Gateway operations and is working with Binance and law enforcement on fund recovery.
Hyperbridge has raised its loss estimate from the April 13 Token Gateway exploit to about $2.5 million. The project had earlier reported losses of nearly $237,000 based on early on-chain activity. However, a broader review across four chains revealed deeper damage and a two-phase attack.
Polkadot Confirms Bridged DOT Exposure
Hyperbridge said it revised the figure after reconciling transactions across Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum. The team explained that it reviewed attacker activity in two phases and included losses from incentive pools. As a result, it increased the total realized losses to roughly $2.5 million.
Polkadot stated that the incident affected only DOT bridged through Hyperbridge to Ethereum. The network confirmed that native DOT on Polkadot remained unaffected. It also clarified that the broader Polkadot ecosystem did not face a direct impact.
Hyperbridge initially focused on the visible sell-off of bridged DOT on Ethereum. However, further investigation showed that the attacker first extracted about 245 ETH from Token Gateway. The attacker then moved into a second phase that involved minting about 1 billion bridged DOT tokens.
The attacker minted the tokens without authorization and sold them into available decentralized exchange liquidity. Consequently, the sales pressure deepened losses across supported chains. Hyperbridge confirmed that the exploit centered on its Token Gateway component.
Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum Impacted
Security researchers traced the flaw to the Merkle Mountain Range proof verification logic. The vulnerability affected Hyperbridge’s HandlerV1 path and enabled forged cross-chain messages. As a result, the attacker gained control over admin functions tied to the bridged DOT contract.
The attacker used that access to mint fake bridged DOT tokens on Ethereum. The attacker then dumped those tokens into limited liquidity pools. This sequence expanded losses beyond the initial ETH extraction.
Hyperbridge stated that the damage remained isolated to Token Gateway. It confirmed that bridged token contracts on Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, and Arbitrum were affected. However, it said that Intent Gateway and related products were not impacted.
The team said it traced a large portion of exploited funds to Binance. It added that it works with Binance’s compliance team and law enforcement to freeze and recover assets. Hyperbridge said it plans to allocate BRIDGE tokens if recovery efforts fail.
All Token Gateway bridging remains paused while the team finalizes a patch. Hyperbridge said it will complete an independent audit and add safeguards before resuming operations. It confirmed that it will publish the audit report before restoring full functionality.
TLDR
- Charles Hoskinson said Bitcoin’s quantum proposal would require a hard fork instead of a soft fork.
- He argued that the plan would invalidate existing signature schemes used by current Bitcoin users.
- Hoskinson stated that the proposal cannot recover about 1.7 million early mined bitcoin.
- He said roughly 1.1 million of those coins belong to Satoshi Nakamoto.
- The proposal suggests users could reclaim frozen funds through zero-knowledge proofs tied to BIP-39 seed phrases.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson challenged a new Bitcoin proposal that targets quantum threats. He said the plan would require a hard fork rather than a soft fork. He also argued that the change cannot recover early coins linked to Satoshi Nakamoto.
Bitcoin’s Quantum Proposal Faces Hard Fork Dispute
Bitcoin developers proposed BIP-361 to freeze addresses vulnerable to future quantum computers. They said the change would phase out old signature schemes and protect dormant funds. However, Hoskinson rejected the claim that the plan qualifies as a soft fork.
He stated, “To actually do this, you need a hard fork,” in a YouTube video. He argued that the proposal invalidates signature rules that users still rely on. Therefore, he said old software would stop working unless every participant upgrades.
Developers described BIP-361 as a rule tightening that older nodes could accept. In contrast, Hoskinson said the measure changes core validation standards. He added that Bitcoin culture has long opposed hard forks because they alter network history.
BIP-361 co-author Jameson Lopp addressed the debate on X this week. He wrote that he does not like the proposal and hopes adoption never becomes necessary. He called it “a rough idea for a contingency plan” rather than a final plan.
Satoshi-era Holdings Remain Beyond Recovery
Hoskinson said the plan cannot protect about 1.7 million early bitcoin. He stated that around 1.1 million of those coins belong to Satoshi Nakamoto. He argued that those holdings predate modern wallet standards.
BIP-361 suggests that users could reclaim frozen funds through zero-knowledge proofs. The proof would tie ownership to a BIP-39 seed phrase used in newer wallets. However, Hoskinson said early wallets did not use seed phrases.
He explained that the original Bitcoin software relied on a local key pool. That system generated private keys without a deterministic seed phrase. Therefore, he said no proof based on BIP-39 can verify those older coins.
He said, “1.7 million coins can’t do that. It’s not possible.” He added that migration would require cryptographic proof that early holders cannot produce. As a result, those coins would remain frozen under the proposal.
Lopp estimated that 5.6 million bitcoin sit dormant across the network. He argued that freezing them would prove safer than letting quantum attackers unlock them. He presented the freeze as a protective option rather than a finalized policy.
An appellate court is expected to reach a decision after hearing arguments from Kalshi and lawyers representing the state of Nevada.
Some legal experts speculated that the state vs. federal jurisdiction battle over regulating prediction markets companies could soon be headed to the United States Supreme Court.
On Thursday, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments from lawyers representing prediction markets platform Kalshi and Nevada authorities over the state’s ban on the prediction markets’ event contracts. The appeal was over a lower court decision preventing Kalshi from offering certain event-based contracts in Nevada, based on claims that the company needed a gaming license.
The appellate judge overseeing Thursday’s oral arguments and the lawyer for Kalshi acknowledged that there had been several state-level enforcement actions against the company and other prediction market platforms, including criminal charges filed in Arizona. However, last week a federal court blocked Arizona authorities from enforcing the state’s gambling laws on Kalshi’s event contracts.
“I think the body of case law does demonstrate that what we really need to avoid here is having a state and a federal court considering exactly the same issue at exactly the same time and potentially reaching different outcomes,” said Colleen Sinzdak, representing Kalshi.
Related: CFTC probes oil futures trades tied to Trump’s moves in Iran: Report
Central to Kalshi’s argument was that the platform’s event contracts were “swaps” falling under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) rather than state gaming authorities. CFTC Chair Michael Selig has backed this position in the case of Crypto.com’s prediction markets against Nevada authorities.
The appellate court did not immediately announce a decision following oral arguments. Any ruling could affect how state courts treat prediction market platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket as policymakers come to terms with the growing market, expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030.
Coinbase’s top lawyer weighs in on prediction market arguments
Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal, whose company was not a party to the Kalshi proceedings but has a stake in the prediction markets fight, speculated that the case could go the US Supreme Court.
“The questions at oral argument are an unreliable signal in predicting the leanings of a court,” said Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal in a Thursday X post following the oral arguments. “Either way, I stand by my longstanding prediction— the Supreme Court will resolve whether sports [contracts] on [Designated Contract Markets] are swaps subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the CFTC.”
The US Supreme Court gave states the authority to regulate sports gambling in its 2018 decision in Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?
Josh Stark, a key researcher and project manager at the Ethereum Foundation, the non-profit organization that stewards development of the Ethereum ecosystem, said Thursday that he is departing the organization after five years.
Stark did not provide a specific reason for his departure and said in a post on X that he has “no plans for the future.” Instead, he will take some personal time to focus on family and friends. He said:
“The Ethereum ecosystem has reliably done things the world told us were impossible. It is easy to forget how much real fear and doubt there was that Ethereum would never launch, that decentralized finance (DeFi) would never work, or that Proof of Stake would never ship.”
He is one of four people listed as “Management” on an organizational chart which shows nearly all of the Foundation’s staff reporting in. Cointelegraph reached out to Stark about his departure, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The departure of Stark from the Ethereum Foundation represents the most high-profile exit from the organization since Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced sweeping leadership changes and a new direction for the Foundation in 2025. A day earlier, another Foundation contributor, Trent Van Epps, announced that he resigned last week.
Related: Ethereum Foundation nearly reaches 70,000 staked ETH goal
The Ethereum Foundation got a shakeup in 2025
In January 2025, co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced sweeping changes to the Ethereum Foundation in response to growing criticism from the Ethereum community over the long-term direction of the ecosystem.
Bringing in “fresh” talent to the organization, greater decentralization and developing the protocol for faster transaction throughput and increased transaction speeds were among some of the goals Buterin listed for the changes.
However, the revamped Ethereum Foundation would not engage in ideological disputes, lobby US lawmakers in Washington or represent “vested interests,” Buterin added.
“These things aren’t what EF does, and this isn’t going to change. People seeking a different vision are welcome to start their own orgs,” he said.
The Ethereum Foundation officially announced new leadership in March 2025, adding Hsiao-Wei Wang, an Ethereum Foundation researcher, and Tomasz Stańczak, CEO of Nethermind, an Ethereum execution client, as co-directors of the organization.
Stańczak stepped down from his role in February 2026, while Wang remains a member of the Ethereum Foundation’s management board, according to its organizational chart.
Magazine: Back to Ethereum: How Synthetix, Ronin and Celo saw the light
Crypto World
Ethereum Price Prediction: Can ETH Reach $4,000 Again, While Pepeto Presale Looks Like ETH in 2015
The ethereum price prediction just picked up a catalyst that shifts the math. The Ethereum Foundation launched a $1 million Audit Subsidy Program on April 14, partnering with Chainlink Labs and over 20 audit firms to cut security costs for builders according to CoinDesk. ETH jumped 8% to $2,313 the same day a ceasefire headline lifted the full crypto market.
Pepeto, the presale exchange project from the cofounder who built Pepe into an $11 billion token, keeps pulling wallets that move before headlines hit. While the ethereum price prediction aims at $4,000, the 150x setup around Pepeto creates a direct fight for the same capital.
Ethereum Price Prediction Picks Up Steam as the Foundation Doubles Down on Security
The Ethereum Foundation rolled out its Audit Subsidy backed by a $1 million pool, letting builders access security reviews through Areta’s platform according to CoinDesk. The initiative introduced CROPS principles for censorship resistance, open source, privacy, and security.
ETH trades near $2,313 after rallying 8% on the ceasefire bounce according to CoinGecko. Ethereum launched in 2015 near $0.30, and early buyers who held to the August 2025 peak at $4,946 grabbed over 16,000x. That is the exact math that pulled capital into ETH before anyone knew the name.
That history is impressive, but from $2,313, the ETH outlook counts gains in low multiples.
How the Ethereum Price Prediction, Pepeto Presale, and Security Upgrades Shape April
Pepeto: The Strongest Presale Running Right Now
Most buyers discover a token only after it already ran 10x or 100x. While the ETH forecast keeps traders locked to charts, Pepeto is the exchange built to get you positioned before the rally starts, not after it ends.
The platform is a full trading hub built to protect your capital. The contract scanner screens every token for buried scam code before your wallet gets near it, flagging risks most traders only discover after the money is gone.
The exchange runs on three live tools. PepetoSwap fills trades at zero cost so your holdings build instead of bleeding. The scanner grades every contract for scam code in seconds. And the multi-chain bridge moves tokens across ETH, BNB, and SOL without taking a single fee.
The presale passed $9.04 million as the Binance listing gets closer. The cofounder who built Pepe to $11 billion is now shipping a real exchange. SolidProof reviewed the full codebase before round one went live, a former Binance team lead runs the technical side, and 183% APY staking grows positions daily at $0.0000001863.
Pepe hit $11 billion on hype alone. Reaching that cap from presale price equals over 150x, and Pepeto ships tools Pepe never had. ETH early buyers grabbed 16,000x by entering at $0.30 when nobody cared, and Pepeto sits in that same early window today. The wallets buying now are locking the positions the ETH forecast would take years to deliver, and every round that closes brings the presale closer to its end.
Ethereum (ETH) Price at $2,313 as Foundation Security Push and Institutional Flows Converge
Ethereum (ETH) trades near $2,313, sitting 52% below its all-time high of $4,946 with a market cap around $285 billion according to CoinMarketCap.
Changelly targets up to $2,618 for April, while CoinDCX projects $2,800 to $3,500 for the year. The ATH at $4,946 proves the token can reach those levels, and Standard Chartered’s $7,500 target gives the recovery real fuel.
But even the bull case at $4,000 is roughly 1.7x from here. That is solid for the second-largest crypto but not the move that changes a life. The ETH outlook pays off over quarters. The presale prints its return the day Binance opens the order book. For traders who want the best of both, the answer is clear.
Conclusion
The ethereum price prediction carries real weight. The Foundation’s security program strengthens the builder layer, and ETH’s rally history shows what early entries produce. But the biggest returns sit in a position bought at the ground floor, where a large cap at $2,313 cannot touch the multiples a presale at fractions of a cent delivers on listing day.
The Binance listing compresses that return into a short window, and wallets buying at presale pricing today hold the positions everyone else will chase once trading goes live. The Pepeto official website is where the ground-floor entry in the hottest exchange launch of this cycle is still available, but the clock is running out and this price will never come back.
Click to Visit Pepeto Website and Enter the Presale
FAQs
What is the ethereum price prediction for 2026 and can ETH reach $4,000?
Changelly targets $2,618 in April while CoinDCX projects $2,800 to $3,500 for the year. The ethereum price prediction toward $4,000 is backed by ETH reaching $4,946 in 2025, and the Foundation’s security push plus institutional ETF flows could fuel the move if macro conditions hold.
Can Pepeto beat the ethereum price prediction from presale pricing?
Pepeto at $0.0000001863 targets over 150x to the cap the same builder already reached with Pepe, a return ETH from $2,313 cannot deliver. The Pepeto official website is where that entry stays open until the Binance listing reprices everything.
Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.
Anthropic Trust has appointed Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, to Anthropic’s board of directors, making him the first pharmaceutical industry executive to join the AI lab’s governing body and tipping Trust-appointed directors to a board majority for the first time.
Summary
- Narasimhan was appointed on April 14 by the Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust, the independent body whose members hold no equity in Anthropic and exist solely to elect board directors aligned with the company’s public benefit mission.
- With his appointment, Trust-selected directors now hold a majority of seats on the seven-person board, a governance threshold written into Anthropic’s founding documents but not crossed until now.
- The appointment lands as Anthropic weighs an IPO at a reported $380 billion valuation and deepens its push into healthcare through Claude for Life Sciences and Claude for Healthcare.
Anthropic Trust appointed Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, to Anthropic’s board of directors on April 14, 2026. With his arrival, directors chosen by the Long-Term Benefit Trust now hold a majority of the seven-person board, crossing a structural governance threshold written into Anthropic’s founding charter but never previously exercised.
Narasimhan is a physician-scientist who has overseen the development and regulatory approval of more than 35 novel medicines and vaccines at Novartis, one of the world’s largest innovative medicines companies. He joins Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Yasmin Razavi, Jay Kreps, Reed Hastings, and Chris Liddell.
The Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust is a separate legal body that holds a special class of Anthropic stock whose only purpose is electing board directors. Its three trustees hold no equity in Anthropic, draw no salary from it, and are selected by each other rather than by shareholders. The current trustees are Buddy Shah of the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Richard Fontaine of the Center for a New American Security, and Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The Trust’s explicit mandate is to ensure Anthropic balances financial success with its public benefit mission of developing AI responsibly. Trust Chair Neil “Buddy” Shah said the group specifically sought someone who had stewarded breakthrough science responsibly in a highly regulated setting.
Narasimhan is the third director the Trust has placed on the board, joining existing Trust appointees Jay Kreps and Reed Hastings. Together they now constitute a majority, a shift that gives the Trust’s safety and public benefit mandate structural weight in board decisions for the first time.
The Healthcare Signal
The appointment is not random timing. Anthropic launched Claude for Life Sciences in October 2025 and Claude for Healthcare in January 2026, adding HIPAA-ready infrastructure and tools aimed at clinical, regulatory, and scientific workflows. The company has partnerships with Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Genmab to explore how AI can compress drug development timelines.
Bringing in a sitting pharma CEO with two decades of regulated-industry experience gives Anthropic direct expertise on the board as Claude’s deployment in clinical and research environments scales. Narasimhan said on LinkedIn that “speed alone isn’t the goal” in healthcare AI, and that “what matters just as much is how these tools are built, governed, and ultimately applied in the real world.”
Daniela Amodei said Narasimhan “brings something rare to our board. He’s overseen the development and approval of more than 35 novel medicines for the benefit of patients around the world in one of the most regulated industries. Getting powerful new technology to people safely and at scale is what we think about every day at Anthropic.”
IPO Context
Anthropic’s annualized revenue has surpassed $30 billion, up from $9 billion at end-2025, as demand for Claude models accelerates across enterprise. The company is reportedly weighing an IPO at a $380 billion valuation, and board composition is increasingly scrutinized by investors ahead of a public listing.
The addition of a pharma CEO to a Trust-majority board signals that Anthropic wants its safety-first positioning to translate into credibility with regulated-sector institutional buyers, not just a PR narrative. For a company preparing to access public markets, the governance architecture now matches the story.
Voters in New Jersey’s 11th congressional district are heading to the polls today in a special election that could tighten the Republican House majority to its absolute limit, pitting progressive Democrat Analilia Mejia against Republican Joe Hathaway in a district that Democrats carried by 9 points in 2024.
Summary
- The NJ special election fills the seat vacated by Governor Mikie Sherrill, who resigned from Congress in November 2025 after winning the governorship; Democrats hold a 65,000-voter registration advantage in the district.
- A Mejia win would leave House Speaker Mike Johnson able to lose just two GOP votes on party-line legislation, down from the current razor-thin margin of 218 Republican seats plus one independent.
- Mejia, backed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, ran on taxing billionaires and holding Trump accountable; Hathaway positioned himself as a moderate Republican who would not be a “rubber stamp” for the president.
New Jersey voters are deciding today which party fills the vacant House seat in the 11th congressional district, a race that has drawn national attention because of its direct impact on the GOP’s already razor-thin House majority. Progressive Democrat Analilia Mejia faces Republican Joe Hathaway in a district with roughly 65,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans.
The seat opened when Mikie Sherrill resigned in November 2025 after winning the New Jersey governorship. Cook Political Report rated the race “Solid D,” and a March GBAO poll had Mejia leading 53% to 36%.
Republicans currently hold 218 House seats plus one independent who caucuses with them. Democrats hold 213, with four seats vacant. A Mejia win would reduce the GOP margin further, leaving Speaker Mike Johnson able to lose just two Republican votes on any party-line legislation without Democratic support.
That thinning margin has already been felt in 2026. As crypto.news reported, House Republicans are currently deadlocked over FISA reauthorization and budget reconciliation, consuming legislative bandwidth at the exact moment the CLARITY Act needs Senate Banking Committee attention before midterm politics close the window. A narrower majority makes every defection more consequential.
Who the Candidates Are
Mejia, 48, is a progressive activist and former national political director for Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign. She won a crowded February primary by narrowly defeating former Congressman Tom Malinowski, whose campaign was broadly seen as damaged by a $2 million ad blitz from a super PAC aligned with AIPAC that backfired with Democratic primary voters. Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Mejia. Her platform centers on taxing billionaires, universal healthcare, holding Trump accountable, and affordability.
Hathaway, 38, is a Randolph Township councilman and former mayor. He ran as a self-described “commonsense, independent” Republican, repeatedly distancing himself from Trump. “I won’t be a rubber stamp,” he said at an April debate. Trump has not endorsed Hathaway. Hathaway raised $500,000 by end of March versus Mejia’s roughly $1 million, with 70% of his donations coming from $1,000 contributions or higher.
Broader Midterm Implications
Beyond the immediate math, the race is being closely watched as a signal of Democratic voter energy heading into November’s midterms. Special elections in recent years have shown Democrats consistently outperforming their expected margins in suburban districts, and political scientists are watching whether Mejia’s margin tracks or exceeds the district’s historical lean.
The race also tests how effective a progressive candidate can be in an affluent suburban district, with Newsweek noting that her performance could shape Democratic candidate strategy in similar districts across the country heading into the midterm cycle.
The chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Michael Selig, said he would not wait for the appointment of additional commissioners to lead the regulatory agency before moving ahead on rulemaking potentially related to digital assets and prediction markets.
In a Thursday hearing of the House Agriculture Committee, Selig responded to questions from ranking member Angie Craig, who called out the lack of leadership at the CFTC, which normally has a bipartisan panel of five commissioners. The Minnesota representative asked the chair to commit to not finalizing regulations while he is the only commissioner.
“In the interim, we cannot, for the sake of the American people, slow down in our rulemaking,” said Selig. “It’s very important that we get investor protections, consumer protections and safeguards for our markets. And so, I cannot, unfortunately, commit to not do my job that I was appointed to do by the president.”
Selig, who has served as the CFTC’s sole commissioner and chair since December, has come under scrutiny from many lawmakers for unilaterally leading the agency on rules favoring crypto and prediction markets with no bipartisan group of commissioners. As of Thursday, President Donald Trump had not publicly announced any nominations to staff the agency nor signaled he intended to do so.
“We’re going to do more through rulemaking,” said Selig in response to a question on the CFTC’s leadership from Representative Don Davis. “We can’t have the staff deciding on discretion what the rules are.”
Related: CFTC probes oil futures trades tied to Trump’s moves in Iran: Report
The CFTC chair proposed rulemaking in March that could amend or issue new regulations over event contracts on prediction markets. Selig has been outspoken about claiming that the agency has “exclusive jurisdiction” over prediction markets as the companies behind some platforms face state-level lawsuits related to sports betting laws and proposed legislation to crack down on insider trading.
CFTC’s legal fight over prediction market continues
Gaming authorities in several US states have filed lawsuits against prediction market companies like Kalshi and Polymarket, alleging the platforms offered sports betting in violation of state laws.
New Mexico Representative Gabe Vasquez questioned Selig at Thursday’s hearing with a visual aid showing that bets on event contracts and through state-level gaming “aren’t much of a difference, yet they are regulated completely differently.” He accused the CFTC of using “loopholes” to bypass state laws and requirements for prediction markets, causing some jurisdictions to miss out on revenue.
“The CFTC was not created or intended to regulate sports gambling,” said Vasquez, adding:
“Are we regulating real economic risk, or are we allowing prediction markets to steal billions of dollars in an unregulated free-for-all, with no consumer protection as Congress and the CFTC turns a blind eye?”
Companies like Kalshi have argued that they are under the sole jurisdiction of the CFTC. This argument led the company to court wins in Arizona and New Jersey, where this month judges blocked state officials from taking action against Kalshi.
Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?
Lido’s token is the only top DeFi token in the green over the past 30 days, fueled by a $20 million treasury repurchase program.
Top Ethereum liquid staking protocol Lido’s governance token has emerged as a rare bright spot in a battered DeFi sector, gaining 30% over the past 30 days while every other major token slid into the red.
LDO is trading at $0.42, up 12% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
The contrast with its DeFi peers is stark. Over the same 30-day window, AAVE fell 7%, Uniswap (UNI) dropped 15%, Curve’s CRV slipped 9%, and Etherfi’s ETHFI shed 16%. MORPHO was the closest to breakeven among top DeFi tokens, losing just 0.5%.
The catalyst behind LDO’s outperformance is a $20 million buyback program. The Lido DAO voted to spend up to 10,000 stETH ($23 million) to repurchase LDO tokens from the open market, routing purchases through centralized exchanges and market makers in 1,000 stETH batches due to thin on-chain liquidity. Each batch requires a separate Easy Track governance motion to execute. At current prices, the full program could retire roughly 8% of LDO’s circulating supply, according to the proposal.
The buyback coincides with a broader strategic pivot. In December, the DAO approved a $60 million budget to push Lido beyond its core liquid staking business. That plan began taking shape in March when the protocol launched EarnUSD, its first stablecoin vault, which allocates USDC and USDT deposits across lending markets, real-world asset integrations and structured positions.
But despite the rally, LDO remains down more than 94% from its November 2021 peak of $7.30, and Lido’s share of staked ETH has slipped to a year-to-date low of roughly 23%, according to a Dune dashboard.
The buyback proposal itself acknowledged the token’s distressed valuation, calling the gap between LDO’s price and Lido’s revenue “one of the most significant dislocations” in the project’s history.
TLDR
- CFTC Chairman Mike Selig told lawmakers that AI tools help the agency maintain oversight despite a reduced workforce.
- About 25% of the CFTC staff has left since 2025 following federal workforce cuts.
- Selig said Microsoft Copilot supports internal workflows and investigations across the agency.
- The enforcement division seeks three additional staff positions but remains below 2025 staffing levels.
- Lawmakers questioned whether the CFTC has enough resources to oversee crypto and prediction markets.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is expanding oversight of crypto and prediction markets despite fewer staff. Chairman Mike Selig told lawmakers that AI tools help maintain enforcement capacity. He said the agency continues rulemaking and investigations while operating with reduced personnel.
AI Tools Support Oversight as Workforce Shrinks
Selig told the House Agriculture Committee that AI supports surveillance and investigations. He said Microsoft’s Copilot assists staff across internal workflows and case reviews. He added that the agency runs “more efficiently and effectively” despite staff reductions.
About 25% of CFTC employees have left since 2025 under federal workforce cuts. Agency records show the enforcement division seeks three new hires next year. The request would raise staffing to 108, still 23% below the 140 positions in 2025.
Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson addressed the expanding mandate over digital assets and prediction markets. He asked Selig to request more qualified staff if operational needs rise. Selig replied, “Absolutely,” and reiterated that enforcement remains a “top priority.”
Representative Angie Craig questioned whether the workforce can meet current demands. She said the agency serves as the primary regulator of two fast-growing markets. Craig urged Congress to provide staff, funding, and statutory authority.
The commission currently operates with only Selig as a member. Federal law calls for five commissioners, including two from the minority party. Lawmakers asked whether Selig would advance major rules alone.
Selig said the agency cannot slow rulemaking for the public’s sake. He confirmed plans to proceed with regulatory actions as a single commissioner. The CFTC has started a preliminary rule process for U.S. prediction markets.
Bitcoin and Ethereum Fall Under Expanding CFTC Role
The Senate continues work on the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. The bill would assign the CFTC central authority over non-securities crypto trading. That mandate would include bitcoin at $75,158.21 and Ethereum’s ether.
Selig’s predecessor, Rostin Behnam, had argued for more staffing to oversee crypto. He said the agency lacked resources to police expanding prediction markets. Selig now leads the regulator during rapid growth in those markets.
Platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi have expanded from millions to billions in annual volumes. Selig said the CFTC claims legal jurisdiction over these prediction markets. He acknowledged “numerous investigations ongoing” but declined to share numbers.
Selig said regulated platforms serve as the first line of defense. He described the CFTC as a second line against insider trading and fraud. He warned that violators will face “the full force of the law.”
He said the agency regularly rejects contracts that fail review. He stated, “We’re actively reviewing what’s out there,” and emphasized a “zero tolerance” policy. The CFTC continues to assess hundreds of new binary event markets each day.
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