Crypto World
South Korea Moves to Replace Government Cards With Blockchain Deposit Tokens
TLDR:
- South Korea’s Ministry of Finance will pilot blockchain deposit tokens for government expenses in Q4 2026.
- Deposit tokens allow preset spending rules, removing the need for after-the-fact transaction reviews by officials.
- Direct payments via deposit tokens eliminate third-party processors, cutting transaction fees for small businesses.
- Sejong City serves as the launch point, with a step-by-step national expansion planned based on pilot results.
South Korea’s Ministry of Finance and Economy is set to replace government purchase cards with deposit tokens. These blockchain-based digital currency tools will be tested through a pilot launching in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Sejong City will serve as the starting point for the initiative. Deposit tokens carry built-in spending rules and represent actual currency on a blockchain. This is the second government use of digital currency for treasury fund execution in South Korea.
How Deposit Tokens Will Change Government Spending Controls
The existing framework reviews spending only after transactions have already occurred. Officials must then justify any payments made outside approved guidelines.
Deposit tokens change this by setting conditions in advance of any transaction. This prevents improper use and ensures automatic tracking across all payments.
Business promotion expenses are the first category the ministry targets with this change. Under current law, these expenses must be executed through government purchase cards.
A regulatory sandbox exemption now allows deposit tokens to replace this card-based method. No changes to existing legislation are required for the pilot to proceed.
The Ministry of Finance and Economy stated, “This project is the first case of a planned regulatory sandbox directly promoted by the Ministry of Finance and Economy from the review of the system.”
Officials added that it “is meaningful in that it can systematically verify the digital currency-based fiscal execution model.”
These remarks reflect the government’s confidence in the program’s broader potential. The ministry views this not just as a test but as a foundation for future fiscal reform.
Removing intermediaries is another feature the ministry expects to benefit small businesses. Direct payments through deposit tokens bypass third-party processors entirely.
This is expected to lower transaction fees for vendors receiving government payments. The cost savings could be meaningful for smaller businesses operating within the public procurement space.
Sejong City Pilot to Guide Expansion of the Blockchain Program
The pilot project will begin in Sejong City in the fourth quarter of 2026. The ministry will finalize the scope of the demonstration and select participating businesses beforehand.
Results from the Sejong City phase will determine how the program expands further. A step-by-step rollout is planned based on what the pilot data shows.
The ministry noted that “the transparency of execution will increase by being able to preset and manage the time and industry that can be executed.”
Currently, business promotion expenses used during late nights or weekends require after-the-fact explanations. With deposit tokens, those restrictions are programmed directly into the payment system. This removes the need for manual reviews of time-sensitive transactions.
Deposit tokens differ from standard crypto assets in key ways. They are stable in value and carry programmed rules that restrict how they are spent.
These features make them more suitable for controlled public finance applications. The South Korean government sees them as a practical tool for modernizing how it manages public funds.
The regulatory sandbox framework remains central to the legal structure of this pilot. Since current regulations require purchase cards, the sandbox grants a temporary exemption for testing purposes.
The ministry will use findings from the pilot to assess whether permanent regulatory reform is needed. A positive outcome could support a broader shift toward blockchain-based government payments across South Korea.
TLDR:
- Public miners sold over 32,000 BTC in Q1 2026, breaking the previous record set during the 2022 Terra-Luna collapse..
- Hashprice sits near $33/PH/s/day, below the ~$35 breakeven, leaving roughly 20% of miners operating at a loss.
- American Bitcoin holds 7,000+ BTC with $25/PH/s production costs, choosing accumulation over selling amid the downturn.
- New West Data pays under $0.02/kWh using flared gas power, keeping older mining hardware profitable at current hashprice levels.
Public bitcoin miners have unloaded over 32,000 BTC in Q1 2026, setting a new quarterly record. This figure already surpasses total net sales for all of 2025.
Major operators including MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, Cango, Core Scientific, and Bitdeer contributed to the tally. Hashprice currently sits around $33 per PH/s per day, below the estimated $35 breakeven.
Roughly 20% of miners are now operating at a loss amid rising network difficulty and reduced block rewards.
Record Liquidations Reflect Deepening Mining Pressures
The Q1 2026 sell-off exceeds even the roughly 20,000 BTC liquidated during Q2 2022. That quarter saw market turmoil triggered by the Terra-Luna collapse.
The scale of current selling marks a sharp reversal from just over a year ago. Miners ended 2024 with a net addition of 17,593 BTC, pushing combined reserves above 100,000 BTC.
Network difficulty today stands approximately ten times higher than it did in 2021. Block rewards were also cut in half following the 2024 halving event.
Bitcoin’s price remains above its previous cycle peak despite retreating from all-time highs above $120,000. Even so, compressed margins are forcing many operators to liquidate holdings to fund daily operations.
For many miners, selling bitcoin remains the fastest way to shore up balance sheets. Meeting debt obligations in a selective financing environment has become a pressing priority.
Hashprice hovering near all-time lows leaves little room for operators with older, less efficient fleets. Those paying higher electricity costs face the sharpest margin compression.
Total BTC holdings across miners have slipped from roughly 1.86 million in 2023 to around 1.8 million today. The trend points to sustained selling pressure rather than a one-time event.
Aggressive hashrate expansion following China’s 2021 mining ban laid the groundwork for today’s difficult economics. The industry is now absorbing the consequences of that rapid, unchecked growth.
Diverging Strategies Emerge Across the Mining Sector
Not all miners are responding to the downturn by selling. American Bitcoin, the proprietary mining arm of Hut 8, has been actively accumulating.
The company held more than 7,000 BTC as of early April, up from zero a year earlier. Its all-in cash production cost was around $55,000 per bitcoin in Q4 2025, or roughly $25 per PH/s.
Meanwhile, operators with ultra-low power costs maintain a structural edge. New West Data, a Canadian firm mining with flared natural gas, pays below $0.02 per kilowatt-hour for power.
That cost level keeps even older hardware profitable at current hashprice levels. The company tripled its compute capacity in 2025 and plans to do so again this year.
Software optimization is also gaining traction as an alternative to hardware upgrades. Luxor recently launched Commander, a fleet management tool that adjusts power settings every five minutes.
The platform reportedly delivers 8% to 14% profitability gains over traditional curtailment methods. It currently manages about 5 EH/s of customer hashrate since its recent launch.
The broader industry is no longer operating as a uniform block. Power economics, balance sheet strength, and operational sophistication now separate survivors from those under strain.
What was once a scale-driven business is fragmenting into distinct strategic camps. That divergence is likely to grow more pronounced as hashprice pressure continues through 2026.
Police in Zanzibar are reportedly holding Joe McCann, the founder of crypto hedge fund Asymmetric, for questioning after the death of his fiancée, Ashly Robinson, during a vacation in the archipelago. Robinson, 31, died in hospital on April 9, after staff at a Zanzibar hotel found the couple the day before, according to a statement cited by NBC News.
Authorities have ruled the death a suicide but continue to question McCann. CBS News reported that police are holding McCann’s passport until autopsy results are complete. Hotel staff told investigators the pair had a “misunderstanding” and had been separated, with McCann moved to a different room.
Robinson’s family has disputed that account. Her sister, Alyssa Endres, told NBC News that “none of this makes sense” and that Robinson had been in good spirits after celebrating her birthday and engagement to McCann, which occurred only days before her death.
McCann is the founder of Asymmetric, a crypto venture and hedge fund that has weathered a volatile market cycle. The firm pivoted its trading strategy in July after investor backlash stemming from underperformance amid broad crypto market volatility. A plan for McCann to lead a Solana-based treasury company public in a merger was reportedly called off in August for unknown reasons. The report also notes that McCann had indicated his fund had lost about 80% so far that year. McCann could not be reached for comment.
Key takeaways
- Authorities in Zanzibar say the death of Ashly Robinson, 31, has been ruled a suicide, but Joe McCann remains in custody for questioning as investigations proceed.
- McCann’s passport has been held by police pending autopsy results, while hotel staff described a separation between the couple following a reported misunderstanding.
- Robinson’s family disputes the official account, with relatives saying the narrative doesn’t fit their understanding of her state of mind before the death.
- Asymmetric, McCann’s crypto venture, has faced performance challenges and strategic shifts, including a July pivot after investor backlash and a previously announced but scrapped merger involving a Solana treasury vehicle.
- Readers should monitor autopsy results, official statements from Tanzanian authorities, and any response from Asymmetric as the case unfolds.
Investigation and official statements
The sequence of events, as publicly described, centers on a hotel incident in which Robinson was found unresponsive and later died in hospital. Tanzanian police cited by NBC News said the death was ruled a suicide, but the investigation persists and McCann is being questioned. CBS News reported that authorities have retained McCann’s passport until autopsy results are finalized, a routine step in some investigations to ensure cooperation and to verify timelines.
Hotel staff reportedly told investigators that the couple had a misunderstanding and had been separated at one point, with McCann moved to a different room. This detail, while publicly acknowledged, remains part of a broader inquiry that is still awaiting a formal autopsy outcome and other corrobations. As with many such cases, the evolving narrative will depend on official findings and how they align with testimony from those involved.
Asymmetric and the founder’s trajectory
McCann’s role as founder of Asymmetric places the case in a broader context of crypto market activity and the pressures on fund management in a highly volatile era. Asymmetric has publicly navigated a choppy cycle, including a strategic pivot in July after investor backlash over underperformance in a year marked by sharp price swings across digital assets. The pivot, described in retrospective coverage, signaled a shift in trading approach amid ongoing volatility.
The firm’s public narrative also touched on a potential merger involving a Solana-based treasury vehicle that would have seen McCann in a leading role. Reports indicate that this merger plan was called off in August for reasons not disclosed publicly. The timing followed earlier disclosures by McCann that the fund had experienced significant losses—reported at around 80% for the year up to that point—underscoring the stressors that can accompany active crypto trading and venture strategies in unsettled markets.
While these milestones help frame McCann’s professional backdrop, they also illuminate the tensions between visibility and risk in high-profile crypto ventures. For investors, traders, and users following the space, the episode reinforces how personal events surrounding founders can intersect with firm-level risk—and how regulatory and due-diligence considerations can intersect with reputational factors in fund management.
Family perspective and unanswered questions
Beyond the police timeline and corporate background, family members have challenged the official account of events. Robinson’s sister, Alyssa Endres, told NBC News that “none of this makes sense” and emphasized that her sister had celebrated milestones in the days leading up to her death, including her birthday and engagement to McCann. The disparity between the family’s understanding and the authorities’ narrative highlights a wider quest for clarity as autopsy results and investigative conclusions emerge.
The case sits at the intersection of personal tragedy and a highly scrutinized industry. Crypto markets, regulatory scrutiny, and high-profile fund managers have all faced intense public attention in recent years, and incidents like this amplify the challenge of maintaining public trust when the personal and professional lines blur. As investigators work to piece together timelines and corroborate details, the crypto community will be watching for any new statements from Tanzanian authorities, as well as responses from Asymmetric and McCann’s representatives.
In the meantime, the broader market will be tracking how this developing story affects perceptions of crypto investment firms operating in frontier jurisdictions and how such cases might influence governance, due-diligence standards, and risk management practices among hedge funds and family offices active in digital assets.
As the case evolves, the key questions remain: what will autopsy findings reveal, what additional testimony will emerge from the investigation, and how will Asymmetric address concerns raised by investors and counterparties in light of these events?
Readers should stay tuned to official updates from Tanzanian authorities and credible media outlets for new information as autopsy results are released and the investigation progresses. The coming days and weeks will likely determine not only the outcome of the case but also the broader narrative around founder-centered risk in crypto ventures.
At least 12 DeFi protocols and crypto businesses have been attacked in just over two weeks since the $280 million Drift Protocol exploit on April 1.
Attacks aimed at crypto protocols or companies since the start of April include CoW Swap, Hyperbridge, Bybit, Dango, Silo Finance, BSC TMM, Aethir, MONA, Zerion and, most recently, Rhea Finance and the Grinex exchange.
The Drift Protocol was hit with one of the largest exploits this year on April 1, losing around $280 million in a long-running social engineering attack suspected to involve North Korean-affiliated actors.
The attacks also come amid growing concerns this month that advancing AI models, such as Anthropic’s Claude Mythos and equivalent models, could eventually make it even easier for cyberattackers in the future.
Rhea Finance exploited for $7.6 million
DeFi protocol Rhea Finance reported on Thursday that an attacker “leveraged a vulnerability in Rhea’s Margin Trading feature to execute a coordinated pool manipulation attack,” impacting the Rhea Lend smart contract.
Around $7.6 million was extracted, according to blockchain security firm CertiK.
“The attacker created fake token contracts and added liquidity in fresh pools, likely misleading the oracle and validation layer,” it explained.
Meanwhile, the Russia-linked Grinex exchange suspended operations after a $13.7 million hack on Thursday, blaming “unfriendly states” for the incursion.
Related: Stablecoin issuer Circle faces lawsuit over $280M Drift Protocol hack
Another attack this month was aimed at the Binance Smart Chain TMM/USDT liquidity pool, which suffered a reserve manipulation attack, resulting in the loss of around $1.67 million in early April, R3ACH Network analyst Jussy said on Thursday.
It followed just days after bridge aggregator Dango lost $410,000 from a smart contract bug on April 13.
In the same month, lending protocol Silo Finance lost $392,000 on April 3 from a misconfigured oracle exploit and decentralized GPU cloud computing platform Aethir lost $423,000 in an access control exploit on April 9.
DPRK ups AI social engineering attacks
The Drift Protocol and Zerion wallet exploits were two examples of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea-affiliated groups using AI and social engineering to infiltrate crypto companies to steal credentials and funds.
Malicious actors pilfered over $168.6 million in cryptocurrency from 34 DeFi protocols in the first quarter of 2026, according to data from DefiLlama.
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South Korea is moving toward a more transparent public ledger by testing tokenized deposits for day-to-day government spending in a new regulatory sandbox trial.
Summary
- South Korea will launch a blockchain-based pilot in Sejong City to handle daily government operational spending through tokenized deposits.
- The Ministry of Economy and Finance plans to replace traditional government credit cards with programmable digital payments that feature predefined limits on timing and usage categories.
- The initiative targets a full rollout by the final quarter of 2026 and forms part of a strategy to digitize one-quarter of all treasury fund executions by 2030.
According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF), the government has selected a pilot project that uses blockchain-based deposits to handle operational expenses, with a full rollout scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026.
This initiative will initially launch in Sejong City, replacing the current system where officials use government-issued credit and debit cards for official business.
Unlike traditional payments that rely on post-use reporting to catch errors, this digital framework allows authorities to pre-set spending conditions, such as specific time windows and permitted categories, to ensure funds are used exactly as intended.
These tokenized deposits act as digital versions of standard bank deposits held on a distributed ledger. Because they remain liabilities of participating commercial banks and operate within existing financial systems, they offer more stability than private stablecoins.
The MOEF confirmed that nine major banks—including KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, and Hana—are participating in the experiment to issue and manage these tokens. This infrastructure effectively links the government’s Digital Budget and Accounting System (dBrain) with the blockchain, creating a traceable path for every won spent.
By moving beyond one-off subsidies and into recurring operational costs, the ministry expects to see a significant reduction in the misuse of public funds and a decrease in settlement times.
The sandbox environment provides a legal carve-out for this trial, as current regulations typically mandate that such expenses be processed through specific physical cards.
Moving to a programmable system allows for a level of oversight that traditional banking cannot match, potentially lowering transaction fees for small businesses receiving government payments by removing traditional card network intermediaries.
“The trial will serve as a basis for evaluating new payment and settlement methods, with potential implications for fiscal operations if the model proves viable,” the ministry stated.
Integrating distributed ledger technology (DLT) aligns with a long-term strategy to digitize South Korea’s treasury. The MOEF previously disclosed a target to convert 25% of all treasury fund executions to digital currency by 2030.
Success in Sejong City will likely lead to legislative updates intended to scale this model across all branches of the national government.
The initiative builds on a previous project launched in March involving the Environment Ministry and the Bank of Korea, which utilized tokenized deposits to manage 30 billion won in subsidies for electric vehicle charging stations.
A Texas man received a 23-year federal prison sentence for running a crypto scam. The fraud drained nearly 1,000 investors of more than $20 million through a sham asset-backed token.
Robert Dunlap, 55, of Houston, sold a digital asset called Meta-1 Coin from 2018 to 2023. Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Illinois led the case.
How the Meta-1 Coin Crypto Scam worked
According to the press release, Dunlap built his pitch around fabricated reserves. He told investors that Meta-1 Coin was backed by up to $1 billion in art. The collection supposedly included works attributed to Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Vincent Van Gogh, and others.
He also claimed roughly $44 billion in gold stood behind the token. An accounting firm had audited and certified the bullion, Dunlap falsely told buyers.
“Defendant lied to investors for years telling them that he had created a safe investment for them. Over the years, defendant was unrepentant and his lies became bigger. Would-be criminals planning to engage in similar conduct need to know that such actions will be met with a serious repercussion that includes loss of one’s liberty for an extended period of time,” Assistant US Attorneys Jared Hasten and Paige Nutini argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum.
A federal jury convicted Dunlap on two counts of mail fraud in November 2025. US District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt handed down the 23-year sentence this week. She also ordered restitution for fraud victims, many of whom reported losing their life savings.
US Attorney Andrew S. Boutros and special agents from the FBI’s Chicago Field Office and IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) announced the sentence. They received assistance from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
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The post Houston Man Sentenced to 23 Years Over Fake Gold- and Art-Backed Crypto Scheme appeared first on BeInCrypto.
The Ketman Project, funded by an Ethereum Foundation stipend, identified 100 North Korean IT workers and alerted about 53 projects employing DPRK operatives.
The Ethereum Foundation said it funded a six-month project that exposed 100 North Korean operatives who had infiltrated Web3 companies under fake identities.
The foundation on Thursday shared a recap of its ETH Rangers program, which was launched in late 2024 to provide “stipends for individuals doing public goods security work” within the ecosystem.
One of the recipients used the capital to build the Ketman Project to focus on investigating “fake developers” embedded within crypto, particularly operatives from the People’s Republic of Korea.
During the six-month stipend period, the Ketman Project identified “100 different DPRK IT workers operating within Web3 organizations” and reached out to about 53 projects to alert them about having potentially employed active DPRK operatives.
“This work directly addresses one of the most pressing operational security threats facing the Ethereum ecosystem today,” the Ethereum Foundation said.
North Korean operatives have been plaguing the crypto sector, leading to billions worth of crypto stolen over the years. One of the highest-profile hacking groups from North Korea is known as the Lazarus Group.
The Ethereum Foundation did not go into detail about how the Ketman Project was able to identify the DPRK operatives. However, the project’s website has an extensive range of articles explaining the types of “tactics, behaviors and operational patterns” the operatives deploy.
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They include technical red flags such as reusing avatars and profile metadata across multiple GitHub accounts, exposing unlinked email addresses during accidental screen sharing, and displaying default language settings, such as Russian, that contradict their claimed nationality.
Alongside identifying North Korean operatives, the Ketman Project also developed an open-source detection tool to identify suspicious GitHub activity and co-authored an industry-standard framework for identifying DPRK IT workers in partnership with blockchain-focused nonprofit organization the Security Alliance.
Magazine: Nobody knows if quantum secure cryptography will even work
XRP price rose 6% to a three-week high of $1.42 on Thursday, becoming the strongest gainer among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Summary
- XRP price rose to $1.42 as easing macro tensions lifted sentiment, with the token emerging as the top gainer among major cryptocurrencies.
- Regulatory clarity via the CLARITY Act and $38.8M in ETF inflows signal growing institutional confidence.
- Expanding utility through Ripple’s RWA push and partnerships could support a move toward the $1.60 level.
According to data from crypto.news, XRP (XRP) price rallied to $1.42 on Thursday, April 16, with its market cap moving back above $87 billion and reclaiming the spot of being the 4th largest crypto asset in the market. The token still lies nearly 23% lower than where it began this year.
While hopes of de-escalation in the U.S. and Iran war have lifted the market sentiment, triggering a bounce across most crypto assets, XRP price could specifically benefit from three catalysts over the coming sessions.
First, the most significant hurdle for XRP has been regulatory ambiguity over its security status, a long-standing challenge that the CLARITY Act could solve. As such, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to mark up the bill for later this month.
The bill is important as if it clears this committee, it would formally codify XRP as a digital commodity, moving it from permitted existence to protected legality. This would effectively remove the remaining litigation discount and provide a clear legal green light for major institutions to deploy capital.
Second, XRP price stands to benefit from renewed institutional demand for the token while retail investors remain cautious.
Data from SoSoValue show that spot XRP ETFs have recorded their fourth consecutive day of inflows for the first time since March, drawing in a combined $38.86 million within the period. This brings the combined assets under management for U.S. spot XRP ETFs to over $1.25 billion.
Such steady accumulation from smart money often precedes a sharp move upwards when it absorbs the remaining supply of tokens held in exchanges, currently at multi-year lows.
Third, the token could also gain from increased network utility. Notably, Ripple is growing its presence in the RWA industry by integrating the RLUSD stablecoin and Zero Knowledge proofs into the XRP Ledger.
On April 14, Ripple announced a partnership with Kyobo Life, one of South Korea’s largest insurers, to pilot tokenized government bond settlements. The deal, along with the launch of an Institutional DeFi Portal in beta, now allows banks to settle large transactions privately and instantly on the ledger, providing a massive boost to the long-term value proposition of the ecosystem.
On the daily chart, XRP price has broken out from the upper side of a symmetrical triangle pattern. Typically, a breakout from the upper side of the pattern means that the period of consolidation has ended and a new bullish trend is beginning.
The MACD lines have pointed upwards, a sign that buyers are gaining strength and momentum is shifting in favor of the bulls.
On the contrary, the SuperTrend indicator has flashed red, which means the market could see some minor resistance or short-term pullbacks before its next leg up. This suggests that while the long-term outlook is positive, traders should prepare for some volatility in the coming days.
Hence, XRP price could continue its rally to potentially retest or reclaim its March 17 high of $1.60. On the contrary, if the price drops back below $1.40, it could indicate a false breakout and lead to a retest of lower support levels near $1.30.
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
TLDR:
- Grinex halted operations after a cyberattack drained over $13M in user crypto wallets.
- Elliptic traced rapid USDT transfers across TRON and Ethereum networks post-breach activity.
- The exchange is linked to Garantex, previously sanctioned for illicit crypto transaction flows.
- On-chain data shows $15M in suspicious transfers executed shortly after the hack incident.
Grinex suspended operations after a large-scale cyberattack drained more than 1 billion rubles, or roughly $13.1 million, from user wallets. The exchange linked the incident to what it described as a coordinated intrusion targeting its infrastructure.
Grinex also pointed to foreign intelligence services as the source of the attack. Data from Elliptic shows funds quickly moved across multiple blockchain networks after the breach.
Grinex Crypto Exchange Hack Triggers Sudden Shutdown and Fund Losses
Grinex halted all operations immediately after confirming the cyberattack and associated wallet drains. The exchange reported losses exceeding 1 billion rubles in user digital assets.
Although registered in Kyrgyzstan, Grinex maintained strong operational ties to Russia. It processed more than $6 billion in crypto transactions tied to ruble conversion flows.
Elliptic analysis indicated that compromised accounts executed outgoing USDT transfers worth approximately $15 million. These transactions occurred within hours of the initial breach.
On-chain movement shows attackers routed funds through TRON and Ethereum networks. The stolen USDT was converted into TRX or ETH to reduce freezing risk.
On-Chain Tracking of Grinex Crypto Exchange Hack Funds
Blockchain tracking from Elliptic shows rapid redistribution of stolen assets across multiple wallets. Analysts observed structured transfers designed to obscure origin points.
Grinex previously functioned as a successor to Garantex, a sanctioned exchange linked to illicit crypto flows. The platform also handled activity involving the A7A5 ruble-backed stablecoin.
Garantex had earlier faced sanctions from the U.S. Treasury’s OFAC office for alleged laundering tied to ransomware and darknet markets. Authorities previously froze tens of millions in stablecoins connected to its wallets.
The latest breach adds pressure on exchanges tied to sanctions-sensitive corridors, especially those relying on stablecoin liquidity for cross-border transfers.
President Donald Trump said Thursday that a US-Iran deal is “looking very good,” with negotiations between Washington and Tehran set to resume this weekend ahead of the current ceasefire’s expiration.
The remarks came as oil prices slipped, US equities pushed to record territory, and crypto markets posted modest gains on renewed diplomatic optimism.
US Iran Ceasefire Talks Gain Momentum
Vice President JD Vance led last weekend’s negotiations with Iranian officials in Islamabad, though those discussions ended without a formal agreement. Meanwhile, a recent ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon has added to the sense of progress, though concerns remain.
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Abas Aslani, a senior research fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies in Tehran, called the Lebanon truce a “promising” signal that a broader deal may be within reach.
“Iran has been seriously insisting on its core demand that a ceasefire needs to be inclusive, not just limited to Iran but other parts of the region, including Lebanon,” he told Al Jazeera.
However, Gulf Arab and European leaders believe a final deal could take roughly six months to negotiate, as per Bloomberg. Those officials are pushing to extend the ceasefire to cover that timeline.
They also want the Strait of Hormuz reopened immediately to restore energy flows. They are warning privately that a global food crisis could develop if the waterway remains blocked through next month.
Markets Respond With Cautious Optimism
Despite the uncertainty, experts suggest that extreme-scenario risks have eased. The markets reflect this. Oil and fuel prices declined across the board on Friday.
WTI crude fell 1.51% to $93.26, while Brent dropped 1.12% to $98.28. Gasoline eased 0.17% to $3.16, and heating oil slipped 0.43% to $3.82.
US equities opened higher, extending a rally that pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new all-time highs this week. The former index rose roughly 0.26%, while the Nasdaq gained 0.36%. The Dow Jones added 0.25%.
Crypto markets also moved higher, gaining nearly 1% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin (BTC) held near $74,650 as large-cap digital assets posted modest gains in the same timeframe.
Now, the upcoming weekend’s talks and ceasefire deadline will test whether both sides can maintain momentum toward a lasting resolution.
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The post President Trump Signals US-Iran Deal Progress as Oil Drops and Crypto Markets Rise appeared first on BeInCrypto.
Orbs is handing control of its Layer-3 trading protocol and multi-million dollar fee stream to a new DAO, betting seasonal on-chain governance can keep pace with volatile DeFi markets.
Summary
- Orbs will roll out a DAO that hands protocol governance and revenue allocation to its community.
- The Layer-3 trading network has processed more than $3 billion in volume and over $3 million in protocol revenue.
- Seasonal on-chain governance will set tokenomics, fee distribution, and network priorities.
Orbs has launched a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that will shift control over protocol decisions and revenue allocation from core contributors to its global community in the coming weeks, formalizing a move to fully on-chain governance for its Layer-3 trading infrastructure.
The Tel Aviv-based protocol, which specializes in execution-layer infrastructure for advanced onchain trading, said the DAO launch follows years of product deployment, integrations, and regulatory preparation rather than a rush to decentralize.
Orbs’ suite of live Layer-3 protocols — including dLIMIT, dTWAP, Liquidity Hub, Perpetual Hub and dSLTP — has processed more than $3 billion in cumulative trading volume and generated over $3 million in protocol revenue to date, across more than 30 decentralized exchange integrations on multiple chains and backed by over 1 billion staked ORBS tokens.
“Governance only works when there is something real to govern,” said Ran Hammer, Chief Business Officer at Orbs, arguing that the DAO is launching only once the protocol has meaningful products, revenue, and adoption.
“After years of building products, generating revenue, and scaling adoption, we are now in a position where the community can actively shape the protocol’s future with real data and real impact,” Hammer added.
The new DAO will control key levers of the protocol, including how fees generated by Orbs’ trading products are allocated, token economic parameters, network upgrades, validator oversight and ecosystem grants, placing revenue and resource allocation in the hands of token holders rather than a centralized team.
A defining feature is its seasonal governance model, where decisions are made in defined cycles so the community can revisit priorities, adjust tokenomics, and reallocate resources as market conditions evolve, in contrast to static governance frameworks adopted by some earlier DeFi protocols.
The rollout will open with two initial on-chain votes: one to ratify the DAO’s core structure, voting mechanisms and operational framework, and a second to define “Season 1” tokenomics, including how protocol revenue is split between token burns, staking incentives, liquidity provisioning and treasury reserves.
Orbs said the DAO extends its existing governance architecture of Guardians and Delegators, which currently secure the network through Proof-of-Stake and participate in decision-making, into a broader, protocol-level model for capital allocation and long-term strategy.
The move comes as more decentralized finance projects turn on revenue governance, with protocols such as Uniswap and others activating or expanding fee switches and treasury control as DeFi matures into a cash-flow generating sector scrutinized by institutional and retail investors alike.
Within this context, Orbs positions its DAO as a way to align a revenue-producing Layer-3 infrastructure network with its token holders at a time when advanced execution tools and real economic flows — not just speculative governance tokens — increasingly define competitive advantage in onchain markets.
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