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The decentralized finance sector has experienced a sharp decline in total value locked following the 293 million dollar exploit involving KelpDAO. Over the past 24 hours, TVL across multiple blockchain networks has fallen significantly.

Data from DeFiLlama shows that at least 126 tracked networks recorded losses, with Cosmos Hub suffering the most severe impact, losing more than fifteen times its total value within that period.

Widespread Decline Across Leading Networks

A pseudonymous analyst known as Vet highlighted that TVL has been dropping across the top twenty DeFi chains, noting that capital is leaving the market as participants reassess the balance between risk and reward.

The downturn has been broad, although not uniform. Ethereum, which remains the largest DeFi network with over 1700 protocols, recorded nearly an eleven percent drop in TVL within one day. Solana performed somewhat better, declining just over four percent in the same timeframe, although its monthly decrease exceeded nineteen percent.

Other major networks also saw declines. Arbitrum fell by about ten percent, Base dropped close to six percent, and Avalanche declined by more than six percent. In contrast, Bitcoin, Tron, and BNB Smart Chain showed relative stability, each recording losses of less than two percent.

Among the top ten networks, Hyperliquid experienced the steepest drop, losing over twelve percent of its total value and bringing its TVL down to approximately 1.44 billion dollars.

Beyond the top tier, declines were even more pronounced. Mantle fell nearly forty two percent after being identified as highly exposed to bad debt linked to the exploit by 0xngmi. Other notable losses included Taiko with a twenty two percent drop, Monad down over thirteen percent, and Berachain declining by more than seventeen percent.

Some Smaller Networks Record Gains

Despite the overall market retreat, not all networks were affected equally. A few smaller chains managed to post strong gains during the same period. Q Protocol surged by 477 percent in just one day, while Oasys and Shibarium rose by over ninety percent and eighty five percent respectively.

The KelpDAO incident stands as the largest DeFi security breach so far this year. Reports indicate that the protocol lost more than 293 million dollars after an attacker exploited a vulnerability in its bridge contract. Cross chain messaging protocol LayerZero later stated that the attack was carried out by the Lazarus Group through its TraderTraitor unit.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic

Bitcoin is currently trading around 75,000 dollars, marking a 24 percent rise from its recent bear market bottom. This recovery has been driven by a mix of institutional demand and geopolitical developments.

Despite the upward movement, on chain data suggests a more complex picture. Weaker market participants are selling their holdings, while large investors known as whales are increasing transfers to exchanges. This raises concerns about whether the rally signals a true market reversal or simply a temporary bounce within a broader downtrend.

Massive Buying by Strategy Fails to Push Bitcoin Higher

Analyst JA Maartunn noted that Strategy’s rapid capital raise of about 2.7 billion dollars last week played a major role in boosting Bitcoin’s price. The firm also made one of its largest purchases in years, acquiring more than 34,000 BTC for roughly 2.5 billion dollars.

Even with this strong buying pressure, Bitcoin has struggled to remain above the 77,000 to 78,000 dollar range. Market observer Ted Pillows highlighted this resistance level as a key barrier.

Maartunn explained that selling pressure from two groups is limiting further gains. Short term holders have moved around 60,000 BTC to exchanges while selling at a loss, as indicated by their SOPR reading below one. At the same time, whales are increasing their exchange inflows, suggesting they are also selling into the current price levels.

There is, however, a more positive trend developing. Over the past month, long term holders have increased their Bitcoin supply by 354,000 BTC. This indicates a shift from reactive investors to those with a longer investment horizon, which can help stabilize the market. Still, Maartunn urges caution, questioning whether this demand is strong enough to drive prices significantly higher. For now, he believes the movement resembles a bear market rally, though a decisive breakout could quickly change the outlook.

Geopolitical Tensions Add Volatility to the Market

Global events continue to influence Bitcoin’s price swings. The asset briefly climbed to 78,400 dollars after Iran’s foreign minister announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and US President Donald Trump expressed optimism about potential peace talks.

However, Iran later dismissed those claims, and renewed hostilities between the two countries pushed Bitcoin below 74,000 dollars.

At present, Bitcoin has recovered above 75,000 dollars, reflecting a 6 percent gain over the past week and nearly 9 percent over two weeks. Even so, it remains down more than 11 percent over the past year and is still about 40 percent below its all time high of over 126,000 dollars.

Pillows emphasized that 72,000 dollars is a crucial support level. If Bitcoin falls below it, the asset could erase the gains driven by the recent geopolitical optimism.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic

Strategy has significantly accelerated its accumulation of Bitcoin, following two consecutive purchases each exceeding one billion dollars. Its latest acquisition, revealed moments ago, marks the company’s biggest single purchase in several years.

The firm, known as the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, spent more than two point five billion dollars to acquire thirty four thousand one hundred sixty four BTC at an average price of seventy four thousand three hundred ninety five dollars per coin. This brings its total holdings to eight hundred fifteen thousand sixty one BTC, acquired for a combined sixty one point fifty six billion dollars at an average cost of seventy five thousand five hundred twenty seven dollars.

With Bitcoin recently pulling back after failing to sustain momentum above seventy eight thousand four hundred dollars last Friday, the company is currently holding a slight unrealized loss. However, the difference has narrowed compared to the lows recorded in February.

The company, founded by Michael Saylor, had previously invested around one billion dollars in Bitcoin during a purchase announced last Monday. Even so, the current two point five four billion dollar acquisition stands as its largest since November 2024, when it bought fifty five thousand five hundred BTC for five point four billion dollars at prices near one hundred thousand dollars.

Shares of Strategy, traded under MSTR, surged alongside broader financial markets last week, gaining thirty two percent over five days and closing above one hundred sixty six dollars on Friday. Despite this strong performance, the stock has slipped by more than two percent in pre market trading and may face increased volatility once trading resumes on Wall Street.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic

The fallout from the two hundred ninety three million dollar exploit involving KelpDAO on April eighteen has left Aave, rsETH holders, and the broader decentralized finance space facing a major financial gap with no clear resolution.

On Sunday, 0xngmi, co founder of DeFiLlama, presented three practical scenarios and analyzed the potential impact of each.

Three Imperfect Options on the Table

The first approach involves distributing the losses among KelpDAO users. Under this model, users would face an estimated eighteen point five percent reduction in holdings. Around six hundred sixty six thousand sETH is currently deployed across Aave, with many positions operating near their maximum loan to value ratio, meaning they are close to liquidation.

Eliminating all equity in these positions would result in roughly two hundred sixteen million dollars in bad debt. Aave’s Umbrella ETH coverage could absorb about fifty five million dollars, while its treasury might cover another eighty five million dollars. This would still leave a shortfall of approximately seventy six million dollars. To bridge that gap, Aave could either take on debt or sell part of its treasury holdings, including AAVE tokens valued at about fifty one million dollars.

The second option presents a more severe outcome, as it would involve imposing losses on rsETH holders on layer two networks. This scenario would leave Aave with around three hundred fifty nine million dollars in rsETH supply. If those positions are fully leveraged, it could generate as much as three hundred forty one million dollars in bad debt across lending markets. Since Umbrella coverage would not apply here, Aave would need to decide which markets to support and which to abandon, with networks like Arbitrum, Mantle, and Base likely facing the heaviest impact.

The third option is technically appealing but difficult to execute. It would involve reverting to a state before the hack and compensating only directly affected users. This would require repaying about one hundred twenty four million dollars taken from Aave and an additional eighteen million dollars from Arbitrum. However, tracking and isolating funds has become complicated due to how assets have moved across multiple pooled protocols since the incident.

Adding another perspective, Yishi, founder of OneKey, proposed negotiating with the attacker. He suggested offering a bounty of ten to fifteen percent in hopes of recovering most of the funds before taking more drastic measures. If negotiations fail, he argued that LayerZero should bear a significant portion of the losses due to its role and long term interest in maintaining the ecosystem.

How the Attack Unfolded

Meir Dolev, founder of Cyvers, reconstructed the timeline of the attack using on chain data. The attacker’s wallet was funded through Tornado Cash about ten hours before the exploit.

At seventeen thirty five UTC on April eighteen, two key transactions occurred in quick succession. The first involved a verification step on LayerZero, followed just twenty four seconds later by a second transaction that drained one hundred sixteen thousand five hundred sETH, worth approximately two hundred ninety three point five million dollars.

KelpDAO responded at eighteen twenty three UTC by blacklisting the attacker’s address, successfully preventing a second attempt that could have drained an additional one hundred million dollars.

According to Dolev, the root cause was a weak bridge configuration. KelpDAO’s bridge between Unichain and Ethereum required only a single verification to release funds. By forging that verification, the attacker was able to move the entire amount.

LayerZero later stated that the attack was linked to the Lazarus Group and its TraderTraitor unit. The company emphasized that its protocol functioned as intended but pointed to KelpDAO’s use of a single verification setup as the key vulnerability, noting it had previously advised partners to adopt more secure configurations.

Security researcher Andy criticized the design choice, describing it as highly irresponsible given that the protocol held around one point five billion dollars in user funds. He also warned that many other projects are currently operating with similar setups, exposing them to comparable risks.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic

The cryptocurrency market has entered another volatile phase, with Bitcoin experiencing sharp price swings over the past twelve hours as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East continue to escalate following the weekend’s events.

Among alternative cryptocurrencies, several large cap assets have recorded noticeable declines in the last day, with HYPE leading losses after falling about five percent to just above forty dollars.

Bitcoin Slips Below Seventy Four Thousand Dollars

Bitcoin’s recent upward momentum began last Monday after earlier peace negotiations broke down. The asset surged from below seventy thousand five hundred dollars to seventy five thousand dollars, then climbed further to over seventy six thousand dollars the following day. At that point, it lost momentum and spent several days moving within a range between seventy three thousand five hundred and seventy five thousand six hundred dollars.

A stronger breakout attempt occurred on Friday after Iran’s foreign minister announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. This pushed Bitcoin up to seventy eight thousand four hundred dollars, marking its highest level in ten weeks, supported further by optimistic comments on potential peace talks from Donald Trump.

However, those claims were later rejected by Iran, triggering a pullback. Bitcoin dropped to around seventy six thousand four hundred dollars over the weekend. As tensions escalated on Sunday evening, including renewed strikes between the two sides, the price fell further to about seventy three thousand seven hundred dollars earlier today.

Since then, Bitcoin has regained roughly one thousand dollars and is now trading close to seventy five thousand dollars. Its market capitalization has dipped to just under one point five trillion dollars, while its dominance over alternative cryptocurrencies stands at approximately fifty seven point four percent.

XRP Seen Preparing for a Significant Move

Most alternative cryptocurrencies have remained unstable but are currently trading near their levels from twenty four hours ago. Ethereum is priced around two thousand three hundred dollars, BNB is holding above six hundred twenty dollars, and Solana is close to eighty five dollars. XRP is also trading near yesterday’s level, though analysts suggest it may be on the verge of a significant move that could shift its price by as much as thirty five percent in either direction.

Among the larger altcoins, ZEC and HYPE have recorded the biggest losses. On the gaining side, CC has risen about three percent to around zero point fifteen dollars, while SKY has increased by more than four percent. Meanwhile, MNT has dropped by roughly seven percent over the day.

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization remains relatively unchanged at about two point six trillion dollars, although it is down by more than one hundred billion dollars compared to its peak on Friday.#cryptp#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic

ZachXBT reported that a cofounder of RaveDAO failed to respond before the token’s collapse, while blockchain data pointed to connections with exchange wallets.

RAVE experienced a dramatic سقوط over the past two days, dropping more than sixty percent within twenty four hours on Monday. This followed an earlier crash of roughly ninety five percent on Sunday, when the price fell from twenty six dollars to nearly one dollar, based on data shared by ZachXBT.

The decline came after a series of public warnings and exchange reactions that began on April eighteen. ZachXBT urged Binance, Bitget, and Gate.io to examine suspected market manipulation tied to the token. He initially offered a ten thousand dollar reward for information, later increasing it to twenty five thousand dollars the same day.

Details Behind the Collapse

Bitget responded publicly within hours, followed later by Binance and Gate.io. Meanwhile, RaveDAO denied any involvement in the suspected activity. ZachXBT revealed that he had reached out on April thirteen and fourteen to RaveDAO cofounder Yemu Xu regarding his concerns but did not receive any reply.

His analysis showed that RAVE, which launched in December 2025 on Binance Alpha with a total supply of one billion tokens, had a highly concentrated ownership structure. A cluster of wallets tied to the initial distribution reportedly controlled about ninety five percent of the total supply.

He also identified unusual activity on centralized exchanges during April involving wallets linked to the project. These included transactions connected to deposit addresses on Bitget and Gate.io. According to ZachXBT, the scale of the price drop did not match the recorded liquidations. Around six billion dollars in market value disappeared on approximately fifty two million dollars in liquidations within twenty four hours, suggesting a fragile and potentially unstable market structure.

In a later update, he noted that a multisignature wallet associated with the initial distribution moved about twenty three million RAVE tokens, valued at roughly twenty three million dollars, to two Bitget deposit addresses. Shortly after this transfer, the token’s price fell below sixty cents.

ZachXBT added that similar patterns have appeared in other tokens such as SIREN, MYX, COAI, M, PIPPIN, and RIVER. He clarified that he held no trading position in RAVE and confirmed that the reward for verified information remains available.

Concerns Over Coordinated Trading Activity

Another token attracting attention is BinanceLife. The asset rose to a market capitalization of about three hundred million dollars after a significant portion of its supply was withdrawn from Binance, according to on chain data.

Analytics firm Bubblemaps reported that fifteen wallet addresses withdrew approximately thirteen point eight percent of the total supply within two days. Many of these transactions occurred within closely matched timeframes, and the wallets involved had no prior transaction history, raising concerns about possible coordination.

BinanceLife, which launched in October 2025 as a meme token inspired by a joke from Yi He, had previously experienced short lived price spikes before losing momentum. The latest surge has drawn scrutiny due to the concentration of supply movements and speculation that a single entity could be behind the activity.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic

Although XRP has continued to record lower lows in its price, its Relative Strength Index has been forming higher lows, a signal that selling pressure may be weakening.

For several months, XRP has traded within a tight range, but that phase may be nearing its end. Two widely followed analysts have identified a multi month symmetrical triangle forming on the daily chart, suggesting that once the price breaks out, it could lead to a move of about thirty five percent.

Triangle Formation Builds as Traders Anticipate a Breakout

In a recent post on X, analyst Ali Martinez, also known as Ali Charts, noted that XRP is consolidating within a symmetrical triangle, which could lead to a significant price move.

Another analyst, ChartNerd, shared a similar view and explained that the price compression is continuing toward the apex of the pattern. He highlighted the importance of the twenty day and fifty day exponential moving averages, stating that these levels must hold to avoid a drop toward support.

At the time of writing, XRP was trading close to one dollar forty, reflecting a weekly gain of nearly six percent. However, it remained down more than three percent over the past month and was still about sixty one percent below its all time high reached in July 2025.

A third analyst, Arthur, pointed to a bullish divergence where price action is forming lower lows while the RSI is producing higher lows. This type of divergence often indicates that bearish momentum is fading ahead of a potential upward move. He also observed that XRP had moved above a horizontal resistance level near one dollar forty, describing the overall setup as increasingly compelling.

From a volume perspective, data from Arab Chain showed that XRP’s cumulative volume delta remained around negative seven point eighteen million. This suggests that sell orders have continued to outweigh buy orders even as prices stabilized. At the same time, the thirty day correlation between price and cumulative volume delta improved to around zero point sixty one, indicating that the two metrics are gradually realigning, though market direction remains uncertain.

Additional insight from CryptoQuant contributor PelinayPA reinforced this view. Large transactions exceeding one hundred thousand XRP have been inconsistent, pointing to a lack of strong directional conviction from major holders.

Broader Developments Support XRP’s Outlook

Beyond technical indicators, several recent developments have supported XRP’s outlook. Spot XRP exchange traded funds recorded their strongest week in three months, attracting fifty five point thirty nine million dollars in inflows over five trading days, according to data from SoSo Value. On April fifteen alone, these products saw their largest single day inflow in ten weeks at seventeen point eleven million dollars, bringing total cumulative inflows to approximately one point twenty seven billion dollars, close to the all time high.

This marks a notable recovery from March, when the funds ended the month with net outflows of thirty one million dollars. The improvement coincided with easing geopolitical tensions, although mixed signals over the weekend have raised questions about how sustainable that trend may be.

In another development, the Solana ecosystem introduced WXRP, a one to one backed wrapped version of XRP created through a collaboration between Hex Trust and LayerZero. This new asset can already be used across several Solana decentralized finance platforms, including Jupiter Exchange and Phantom.

These positive developments briefly pushed XRP to nearly one dollar fifty, its highest level in almost a month, before it faced resistance and moved back toward its current range.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic

Oil prices surged sharply, climbing by as much as ten dollars per barrel after Iran once again shut down the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend.

The weekend was filled with intense developments as both sides in the conflict issued conflicting and unclear statements about the ceasefire, the possibility of peace negotiations, and what lies ahead. Tensions escalated further just hours ago when both countries restarted military strikes against each other.

Renewed Military Action

In an initial update, Donald Trump announced on social media that a United States Navy guided missile destroyer, the USS Spruance, intercepted a 900 foot Iranian flagged cargo ship named Touska and warned it to stop. According to him, the crew ignored the warning, prompting the destroyer to disable the vessel by targeting its engine room.

He added that United States Marines have taken control of the ship, which is now under sanctions by the US Treasury due to what he described as a history of illegal activities.

Soon after, Iran claimed it had launched drone attacks on United States military vessels in response to the earlier strikes and the seizure of the cargo ship.

These incidents capped off a turbulent weekend. After reopening the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, Iran shut it down again just hours later, citing the continued presence of a United States naval blockade. While the United States indicated that peace talks would resume on Monday, Iran rejected that claim. Earlier, Iran had also dismissed several statements made by Trump, including assertions that it had agreed to abandon its uranium enrichment program.

Market Reactions

Because cryptocurrency markets operate continuously, they reacted immediately to the unfolding events. Bitcoin experienced noticeable volatility, initially rising to seventy eight thousand four hundred dollars on Friday before dropping below seventy four thousand dollars after the renewed attacks.

United States stock futures opened lower overnight, declining by about one percent. Meanwhile, oil markets moved in the opposite direction. Both WTI crude and Brent crude jumped by more than eight percent, with USOIL rising roughly ten dollars from seventy nine to eighty nine.

Further market instability is likely in the days ahead as the ceasefire approaches its expiration. The latest wave of attacks has intensified the situation, and there are still no clear signs of diplomatic negotiations.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic

A musician lost nearly $450,000 in Bitcoin after unknowingly downloading a fraudulent Ledger app that closely mimicked the real one in both branding and interface.

Crypto commentator Scott Melker revealed that his friend, Garrett Dutton, also known as G Love, lost 5.92 BTC that he had been accumulating since 2017 as part of a long term financial safety plan.

Sophisticated Scam App Leads to Major Loss

Melker shared details of the incident on social media, explaining that the fake app was nearly identical to the legitimate one, making it extremely difficult to detect. Even experienced users struggled to spot the difference.

After installing the app, Dutton was prompted to enter his 24 word seed phrase. This allowed the attackers to capture the information, recreate his wallet, and drain the funds.

Blockchain investigator ZachXBT later tracked the stolen Bitcoin, revealing that it had been funneled through KuCoin and distributed across multiple addresses.

The exchange flagged the suspicious transactions and temporarily froze the identified accounts for seven days while its compliance team investigated.

Key Lessons From the Incident

Melker described the loss as devastating but emphasized that it offers important lessons for the broader crypto community.

He stressed the importance of verifying applications through official sources before downloading, especially when dealing with financial tools. Relying solely on app store listings can be risky if malicious apps slip through review processes.

He also highlighted the critical role of seed phrases. These recovery keys should only ever be entered directly into a hardware wallet and stored offline. Entering them into any app, website, or internet connected device exposes users to potential theft.

Additionally, he noted that self custody comes with full personal responsibility. Without third party protection or recovery systems, users must take extra care to secure their assets.

Melker concluded by warning that while hardware wallets are generally considered secure, the environment in which they are used can introduce vulnerabilities.

He advised users to slow down, verify every step, and treat all interactions with private keys as irreversible.

This incident follows earlier attempts by attackers to target Ledger users. A recent data breach involving an e commerce partner exposed customer information, which was later used in phishing campaigns falsely claiming a partnership between Ledger and Trezor.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic

Solana held its position as the leading blockchain for decentralized exchange spot trading in the first quarter of 2026, capturing a 30.6 percent market share, according to CoinGecko. However, its total trading volume declined by 26.5 percent during the same period, signaling growing pressure from competitors.

Competition Heats Up Among Blockchains

The landscape began to shift in March when Ethereum briefly moved ahead of Solana, securing a 27 percent share compared to Solana’s 26 percent. Over the full quarter, BNB Chain ranked second with a 24.5 percent share, slightly ahead of Ethereum at 23.7 percent.

Despite its strong position, BNB Chain experienced a sharper drop in trading activity, raising the possibility that it could fall to third place in the next quarter.

At the same time, Monad has been gaining steady traction since launching its mainnet in November 2025. It has climbed to become the tenth largest blockchain by spot trading volume, surpassing networks such as Unichain and Optimism.

Solana also led by a wide margin in overall network activity during the quarter. It processed approximately 25.3 billion transactions, far ahead of BNB Chain with 1.7 billion and Tron with 978 million. Polygon and Aptos followed with around 700 million transactions each, while other major blockchains recorded fewer than 500 million.

In February 2026, Solana recorded a surge in stablecoin usage, reaching about $650 billion in transaction volume within a single month, according to The Kobeissi Letter. This marked a record high and was nearly three times greater than January’s figures.

This growth was supported by new products such as Western Union’s USDPT and Jupiter’s JUPUSD, which helped draw more users to the network. JUPUSD also attracted attention for offering yield generating features within its ecosystem.

SOL Price Shows Late Week Recovery

Solana’s price experienced notable volatility over the past week. It began around $84 and fluctuated early on before dropping sharply to near $82 around April 12 and 13.

Selling pressure eased by midweek, allowing the asset to recover above $84 starting April 14. Positive momentum continued into the latter part of the week, pushing Solana’s price close to $89.86.#crypto#cryptonews https://coinsignals.net https://t.me/coinsignalpublic