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cointelegraph.com What are exit liquidity traps — and how to detect them before it is too late

Key takeawaysExit liquidity traps occur when new investors unknowingly provide liquidity for insiders to cash out, leaving them with devalued assets.​FOMO drives impulsive trades, often leading to costly mistakes and becoming exit liquidity for early movers.Beware of projects with exaggerated claims, low liquidity, anonymous teams or sudden price surges.Investing in high-market-cap coins, avoiding hype-driven projects and using reputable exchanges reduce the risk.Are you concerned about having bought a cryptocurrency only to later realize that your investment facilitated someone else’s profitable exit? This scenario is called an exit liquidity trap, a deceptive market dynamic where unsuspecting traders provide liquidity for insiders or seasoned investors to offload their holdings at inflated prices.By the time you recognize you have been trapped, the price crashes, leaving you with devalued tokens. But how do you spot these traps before it is too late? This guide breaks down exit liquidity traps, their warning signs and strategies to protect your crypto investments.What is exit liquidity?In traditional finance, the term refers to buyers who acquire shares from early investors or founders during liquidity events such as acquisitions, mergers or initial public offerings (IPOs). However, in the cryptocurrency market, it has taken on a more negative connotation.In the cryptocurrency market, exit liquidity refers to unsuspecting investors who purchase tokens with little or no real value, thereby providing liquidity to sellers aiming to offload their holdings.This situation often arises when traders buy digital assets that later become difficult to resell due to low demand or loss of value. Understanding exit liquidity is crucial for crypto traders to avoid being caught in schemes where their investments primarily benefit those looking to exit the market.The sheer number of tokens launched every month suggests the scale of exit liquidity traps crypto traders face. In early 2024, over 540,000 new crypto tokens were created, averaging approximately 5,300 new tokens launched daily.Did you know? In 2024, over 2 million tokens were launched. Of these, roughly 870,000 tokens, representing 42.35%, were available for trading on decentralized exchanges (DEXs).How can you end up becoming an exit liquidity for others’ profit?Unforeseen circumstances can sometimes turn your investments against you, making you an exit liquidity victim. Here are some common scenarios where this might happen:Pump-and-dump schemesPump-and-dump schemes happen when a group of individuals artificially inflates the price of a cryptocurrency by aggressively creating a buzz around it. New investors are drawn in as the price surges, believing they are riding a profitable opportunity. However, the manipulators dump their holdings, causing a sharp crash in cryptocurrency, primarily memecoins. Those who bought late end up with significant losses and illiquid assets. Project failures and scandalsA major security breach, financial mismanagement or controversy involving a crypto project can lead to a rapid decline in its token value. When panic selling begins, investors who exit early minimize their losses, while those who hold on too long become exit liquidity victims as the price crashes. Regulatory crackdownsGovernment actions against specific cryptocurrencies can suddenly shift market dynamics. If a cryptocurrency is declared illegal or subjected to strict regulations, its trading volume and liquidity can collapse, leaving investors struggling to sell.Exchange delistingsWhen a cryptocurrency is removed from major exchanges, its liquidity can dry up quickly. Finding buyers for the token becomes increasingly difficult without access to a large trading platform. Novice investors may become an exit liquidity medium for those offloading their holdings ahead of the delisting. Market manipulationCertain deceptive trading practices, such as wash trading or spoofing, can mislead investors into believing there is a strong demand for cryptocurrency. Manipulators create an illusion of price growth, encouraging new investors to buy in. Once the price reaches their target, they sell their holdings, leaving others with depreciating assets.ICOs and token sale fraudsSome initial coin offerings (ICOs) and token sales are designed to deceive investors. Project founders may sell large amounts of tokens under the promise of delivering a groundbreaking project but later abandon it or fail to fulfill commitments, leading to a steep decline in token value.Did you know? As per Chainalysis, the number of tokens launched in 2024 was 2,063,519. Among these, the number of suspected pump-and-dump tokens was 74,037.FOMO — The core reason for exit liquidity trapsFOMO, or fear of missing out, is a key factor behind crypto traders becoming exit liquidity victims. It is an emotional reaction where traders rush into perceived market opportunities, fearing they will miss potential gains. This leads to trades executed without thorough analysis, increasing the risk of losses.Trend-chasing: FOMO-driven traders enter positions based on hype rather than fundamentals, making them vulnerable to market downturns.Neglect of risk management: These traders frequently neglect risk management strategies like diversification or stop-loss orders. This leaves them exposed to sudden price drops.Focus on short-term gains: FOMO-driven traders prioritize short-term gains over sustainable investment strategies, leading to frequent, costly trades that erode overall returns. Impulsive decision-making: The traders’ heavy reliance on social media, news and peer influence further drives poor decision-making, as they react to market hype instead of conducting independent research.Factors behind FOMOSeveral factors trigger FOMO in crypto trading: Market rallies: Sharp price surges create a sense of urgency. Traders rush to buy assets without analyzing fundamentals, fearing they will miss out on quick profits. Social media hype: Social media influencers and online communities often create hype, leading traders into making risky, emotionally driven decisions. Peer pressure: Peer pressure is another factor, as seeing friends or colleagues profit from trades can push individuals to follow suit. Chasing trends: The tendency to chase trends pushes traders to neglect personal financial strategies. The fear of missed profits drives impulsive trades, which drives the trend. Regret: Watching asset prices rise creates regret in traders if they don’t hold the cryptocurrency themselves, prompting traders to act without proper analysis.News-induced anxiety: Overexposure to market news produces anxiety. Constant updates and financial reports create a sense of urgency, prompting traders to react hastily rather than sticking to a well-thought-out plan. Did you know? According to Glosten et al.’s (1993) GJR-GARCH model, neither Baur and Dimpfl (2018) nor Cheikh et al. (2020) found the FOMO effect for Bitcoin or Ether during 2013–2018. But Wang et al. (2021) discovered a FOMO effect in the Bitcoin market between 2014 and 2019.How to detect exit liquidity traps in cryptoDetecting exit liquidity traps requires diligent analysis on your part. Consider the project’s development activity, the team behind it and community engagement. Here are the red flags to spot potential exit liquidity traps:Coins without solid fundamentals and exaggerated claimsSteer clear of projects that artificially inflate the price of a coin, luring in unsuspecting investors before insiders dump their holdings for profit. Known as pump-and-dump scams, these often involve exaggerated claims, assured returns and aggressive marketing. Examine if the project has a lopsided token distribution — a high concentration of tokens among a few wallets signals manipulation.Bundled buys and developer activityBundled transactions can be used to manipulate token distributions, making a project seem more legitimate than it is. Developers may execute multiple transactions immediately after liquidity is added, securing tokens at the lowest price and later selling at a premium. For example, to identify bundled buys on Solana, use GeckoTerminal. When you search for your desired token, the right sidebar displays its GT Score. The Soul Scanner section enables you to view the “Bundled Buy %,” which reveals the number of tokens acquired through bundled buys tactics. This metric provides insight into the bulk buying activity of a specific token.Over-hyped coinsAggressively promoted coins with weak fundamentals and a low number of use cases are likely to crash eventually. Such coins often experience short-term price surges driven by influencers. Developers who actively create the buzz around these coins, allocate tokens to themselves and dump their holdings after prices shoot up. Launched in 2016, Bitconnect was marketed as a high-yield investment platform, promising substantial returns through a proprietary trading algorithm. Its multilevel marketing structure and unrealistic returns led to suspicions of it being a Ponzi scheme. In January 2018, Bitconnect abruptly shut down its lending and exchange services, causing the token’s price to plummet from an all-time high of nearly $525 to below $1, resulting in significant investor losses.Invisible teamCryptocurrency projects lacking identifiable team members present significant risks. The inability to verify developer identities prevents accountability. This anonymity enables developers to disappear with invested capital. The absence of transparency creates problems in evaluating a project’s legitimacy and progress. Moreover, the lack of visible leadership undermines trust, which is essential for any successful enterprise. Regulatory issuesIf a project faces regulatory issues regarding compliance or money laundering, consider it a red flag. Additionally, legal frameworks vary across jurisdictions, adding complexity and potential risks. Noncompliance could lead to hefty penalties or even the project’s shutdown.How to avoid exit liquidity traps in cryptoIf you are a crypto investor, you must understand how to avoid exit liquidity traps. Thankfully, there are strategies to help you avoid this situation and protect your investments. Here is a breakdown of such methods: Invest in coins with high market capitalization: Coins with high market capitalization are typically more stable and liquid. These assets attract a large number of buyers and sellers, making it easier to enter and exit positions without major price fluctuations. Low-cap coins, on the other hand, can be highly volatile and often lack sufficient liquidity, increasing the risk of being stuck with unsellable assets. Always check a coin’s market cap and trading volume before investing. Choose coins with active trading communities: A strong, engaged trading community is a key indicator of a coin’s liquidity. Coins with active investors and consistent trading activity tend to have stabler demand, reducing the risk of getting trapped in an illiquid market. Look for projects with active discussions on social media, consistent developer updates and healthy buy-sell activity on exchanges. Avoid pump-and-dump scams: Be cautious of coins that gain sudden attention without any solid fundamentals. Conduct thorough research and avoid assets that appear too good to be true. You should consider vesting periods. Sudden developer sell-offs can crash prices and leave investors with worthless assets. Use reputable exchanges: Trading on well-established exchanges like Binance and Coinbase ensures better liquidity and smoother transactions. Trustworthy platforms do their due diligence before listing projects so you can feel safer with the coins on offer. While regulatory hurdles — such as the removal of Tether’s USDt (USDT) in the European Union — or unforeseen events like the Terra ecosystem collapse in May 2022 can lead to delistings, reputable exchanges typically do not remove coins without significant reasons.Focus on the coin’s long-term viability: If you feel a coin is overly promoted, especially in the memecoin space, take it as a warning sign. Instead of following social media trends, focus on a coin’s fundamentals and community strength. Your goal should be the long-term viability of the coin and not a short-term gain.Stay informed about changing regulations: Staying informed about evolving cryptocurrency regulations is crucial for investors. Legal frameworks significantly impact market dynamics, asset valuation and investment strategies. Changes can introduce new compliance requirements, tax implications or even outright bans, affecting the stability of your portfolio.Fundamental analysis of cryptocurrencies: A robust tool to deal with exit liquidity traps Fundamental analysis is a crucial tool for investors looking to avoid exit liquidity traps. Unlike traditional assets such as stocks, cryptocurrencies lack standard valuation metrics like price-to-book ratios. But assessing a crypto asset’s actual value beyond its price movements can help identify solid investments and reduce liquidity risks. When evaluating a cryptocurrency, one of the key questions is: Will businesses adopt it? While individual and institutional investors may drive demand by holding assets, long-term value is best determined by utility rather than scarcity alone. A cryptocurrency with real-world applications and industry adoption is more likely to sustain liquidity over time. For instance, Ethereum introduced smart contract functionality, enabling decentralized applications (DApps). Despite its technological significance, issues like network congestion and high fees limited its public adoption. This highlights the importance of evaluating both innovation and practical usability when conducting fundamental analysis. Other factors to consider include developer activity, transaction volume and network security. A strong development team, consistent upgrades and a growing user base signal a cryptocurrency’s potential for long-term viability. By focusing on these elements, investors can make informed decisions, reducing the chances of being trapped in illiquid assets.Leveraging behavioral finance to avoid exit liquidity traps“The investor’s chief problem — and even his worst enemy — is likely to be himself.” — Benjamin GrahamAs Graham insightfully points out, investors often become their own worst enemy, making decisions driven by emotion rather than logic. To avoid exit liquidity traps, you need as much knowledge of behavioral finance as you do about crypto trading fundamentals. Understanding how human behavior influences financial decisions can help you recognize and mitigate irrational choices. Humans are not always rational in our decision-making — emotions such as greed, fear and hope, along with cognitive biases, often drive trading behavior. Recognizing these psychological tendencies is crucial to making informed, objective investment decisions.While honing hard skills like financial analysis and conducting due diligence on project teams is essential, it is equally important to develop behavioral skills. Practicing patience, managing FOMO and making balanced decisions can help you avoid impulsive trades and minimize risks in volatile markets.

cointelegraph.com
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blockonomi.com Bullish (BLSH) Stock Declines 5.78% as Mezo Prime Unveils Bitcoin Yield Solution for Institutions

Bullish (BLSH) stock falls 5.78% as Mezo Prime launches institutional Bitcoin yield platform with Anchorage Digital Bank's segregated custody vaults. The post Bullish (BLSH) Stock Declines 5.78% as Mezo Prime Unveils Bitcoin Yield Solution for Institutions appeared first on Blockonomi.

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cryptobriefing.com Miles Beckett: Dental insurance is failing patients, Flossy’s AI pivot is driving rapid growth, and Fiona’s tailored solutions are reshaping patient engagement | SaaS Interviews

Flossy's AI-powered platform is revolutionizing dental practices with rapid growth and industry-specific solutions. The post Miles Beckett: Dental insurance is failing patients, Flossy’s AI pivot is driving rapid growth, and Fiona’s tailored solutions are reshaping patient engagement | SaaS Interviews appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

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blockonomi.com W Group Advances European Expansion as White Tech Obtains MiCA Authorization

WHITE TECH, part of the W Group ecosystem and majority-owned by Volodymyr Nosov, Founder and CEO of WhiteBIT, has received authorization from the Croatian Financial Services Supervisory Agency (HANFA) to operate as a crypto-asset service provider (CASP) under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. Within the W Group ecosystem, WHITE TECH serves as a [...] The post W Group Advances European Expansion as White Tech Obtains MiCA Authorization appeared first on Blockonomi.

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forklog.media Paul Tudor Jones Declares Bitcoin the Best Hedge Against Inflation

Paul Tudor Jones, the founder of Tudor Investment, has declared Bitcoin the best asset for hedging against inflation. He made this statement on the podcast Invest Like the Best. My guest today is Paul Tudor Jones (@ptj_official), one of the greatest macro traders of all time.He correctly predicted the 1987 stock market crash and shorted the Japanese bubble in 1990. For over 40 years, his flagship fund has had a negative correlation to the S&P; 500. 100%… pic.twitter.com/pLu1u1BIBL— Patrick OShaughnessy (@patrick_oshag) April 28, 2026 The billionaire noted that the first cryptocurrency surpasses gold due to its limited supply. The supply of the precious metal increases by several percent annually, whereas the number of bitcoins is capped at 21 million coins. Jones drew parallels between the current state of the markets and the "dot-com bubble" of 2000. In his view, similar imbalances are present now. Besides Bitcoin, he has also bet on the growth of the dollar-yen pair. The investor also acknowledged that he had previously underestimated Warren Buffett's strategies. Market data confirms the growing interest in the asset. In the first quarter of 2026, the volume of bitcoins held by "conviction buyers" increased by 69%—from 2.13 million to 3.6 million BTC. This is the highest level since 2020. During the first quarter of 2026, the Bitcoin supply held by "conviction buyers" surged by 69%, growing from 2.13 million to 3.60 million BTC and reaching its highest level since 2020 pic.twitter.com/bbNgMca9sM— unfolded. (@cryptounfolded) April 29, 2026 Jones first invested in digital gold in 2020. At that time, he allocated up to 2% of his portfolio to the asset, later increasing the share to 5%. The investor explained that he seeks undervalued instruments during moments of regulatory missteps. Among the risks for Bitcoin, Jones highlighted cyber warfare and the development of quantum computers capable of breaking the blockchain. The 71-year-old Paul Tudor Jones is renowned for accurately predicting the stock market crash of 1987 and the collapse of the Japanese financial bubble in 1990. His flagship fund has maintained a negative correlation with the S&P; 500 index for 40 years. Back in February, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales stated that the first cryptocurrency would not devalue to zero, but as a means of payment and savings, the coin has completely failed.

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forklog.media Stanford: AI Responsible for 35% of New Websites by 2025

By mid-2025, approximately 35% of new websites will have been created entirely or partially with the help of artificial intelligence, according to researchers at Stanford University.  Before the public launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November 2022, this figure was near zero. Over a few years, the share of AI-generated content has grown to more than a third of recent online publications.  Share of websites fully generated by AI (red) and those created with neural networks (purple). Source: GitHub.  Scientists examined 33 months of archived website copies from the Wayback Machine using the Pangram v3 detector. The aim was to understand how the rise of AI-generated texts is reshaping the structure of the World Wide Web.  Key Changes  Researchers noted a decrease in semantic diversity. Pages generated by neural networks are 33% more similar to each other than texts written by humans. Different sites increasingly reiterate the same ideas in nearly identical phrases. According to the authors, the issue is not merely mass AI-driven copywriting. The problem is deeper: the diversity of expressions and ideas is gradually narrowing. Large language models (LLM) inherently choose the most "average" responses, resulting in a reproduction of formulaic discourse.  The emotional tone of publications has also changed. AI content is found to be 107% more positive than human-written content. Stanford researchers linked this to the already documented tendency of LLMs towards flattery.  During training, developers optimize neural networks for pleasant, safe, and socially acceptable responses. As a result, a significant portion of new websites creates a "sterile and friendly" informational environment. This environment has fewer sharp judgments and conflicts, but also less lively human debate. What Was Not Confirmed Several popular concerns did not find statistical confirmation. Researchers did not find a significant correlation between the rise of AI content and a decline in factual accuracy, an increase in explicit errors, or the stylistic leveling of texts to a single template. Left: correlation between AI content and hypotheses. Right: share of adult Americans agreeing with each hypothesis. Source: GitHub. Scientists specifically pointed out an effect that has mostly been discussed theoretically until now—model collapse.  If new neural networks are trained on data with a lot of AI content, the system begins to process its own averaged responses. This reduces variability, degrades quality, and threatens that in the future, LLMs will learn not from humans but from the "synthetic echo" of their predecessors. Experts, together with the Internet Archive, plan to turn the research into a system for continuous monitoring of the share of AI content on the internet.  In April, Stanford University highlighted the rapid pace of AI development. Researchers reported that neural networks are nearly matching humans in performing tasks on computers.

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blockmanity.com Robinhood’s Q1 Earnings Miss: Crypto Revenue Crashes 47% But Prediction Markets Skyrocket 320%

Robinhood’s : Crypto Revenue Crashes 47% But Prediction Markets Skyrocket 320% Robinhood made headlines with its latest earnings report. The company missed Wall Street’s expectations. Why? Crypto trading revenue dropped sharply. But there’s a bright spot. Event contracts saw huge […] The post Robinhood’s Q1 Earnings Miss: Crypto Revenue Crashes 47% But Prediction Markets Skyrocket 320% appeared first on Blockmanity.

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bitcoinist.com Bitcoin In the US Military: How BTC Could Help Strengthen National Security

Bitcoin (BTC) has moved beyond a payments network and reserve asset into a technology increasingly tied to strategic defense and cybersecurity. US military officials are now weighing its value and potential role in national security. These remarks have added to the growing discussion around how the cryptocurrency could strengthen military resilience and support national power.  […]

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news.bitcoin.com Blackrock Pulls $112M From IBIT as Bitcoin ETF Outflows Extend Cooling Phase

A second straight day of outflows in bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) points to a cooling phase in institutional demand, even as selective inflows in XRP suggest pockets of opportunistic positioning. Key Takeaways: Bitcoin ETFs saw $89.68M outflows on Apr 28, led by Blackrock IBIT’s $112.25M exit. Ether ETFs lost $21.80M as Blackrock ETHA […]

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cryptobriefing.com Mark Cuban: Businesses must adopt AI to stay competitive, the rapid evolution of AI demands quick adaptation, and understanding AI’s limitations is crucial for success | Big Technology

Businesses must embrace AI swiftly to stay competitive in a rapidly transforming technological landscape. The post Mark Cuban: Businesses must adopt AI to stay competitive, the rapid evolution of AI demands quick adaptation, and understanding AI’s limitations is crucial for success | Big Technology appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

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btcmanager.com Mezo launches institutional Bitcoin yield vaults with Anchorage Digital and Bullish, including 250 BTC anchor investment

Mezo Prime launches with Anchorage and Bullish to route institutional Bitcoin into segregated, qualified‑custody vaults that earn onchain yield and mint BTC‑backed MUSD. Bitcoin‑native finance protocol Mezo has launched Mezo Prime, a new institutional product designed to give corporate treasuries and professional…

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btcmanager.com Ethereum Foundation Q1 2026 grants double down on ZK, cryptography, and core protocol infrastructure

Ethereum Foundation’s Q1 2026 grants pour into ZK research, core clients, validator security, and public-goods infra, signaling long-term conviction in cryptography-first scaling. The Ethereum Foundation has released its latest Q1 2026 allocation report, highlighting fresh grants and ecosystem support across cryptography,…

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forklog.media Mycelium, not hierarchy

One morning many of us woke to find the world collapsing—or at least to learn that it was. Coping with pain, bereavement and horror, it turns out, is not only about antidepressants. For some, the true rescuers were fungi. No, this is not about microdosing fly agaric or swallowing capsules of ground reishi, lion’s mane, stinkhorns and the like. This essay is about how foraging, observing and studying fungi can alter our understanding of the world, stretch our frames of thought, offer new meanings, and help people keep thinking about the future and survive amid constant disruption and fragility.  Life amid the ruins For some, the metaphor “the world is collapsing” points to a very concrete political event—war; for others, it became real during the pandemic. For people with a hyper‑conservative lens, the reassessment of moral and ethical norms, the shift of values towards broader acceptance of the “other” that does not fit their idea of the traditional, is also a destruction of the familiar world. None of this cancels the global environmental crisis, sundry economic challenges and what we call technological progress, or the local man‑made disasters that crop up and, in a Europeanised consciousness, evoke apocalyptic tropes. Anthropocentrism makes people feel guilty about what is happening, and the psyche seeks relief by looking for someone or something to cast as the source of “all evil”. Patriarchy? Capitalism? The collective West, the passionate East, the Global South? Big Brother? Yes, all of them are to blame. But all of them are, in part, us. The circle is closed. The thought that fungi might foster the capacity to come to terms despite seemingly savage and tragic contradictions was prompted by watching mushroom‑foraging communities on social media. When Russia’s war against Ukraine entered its hot phase, hatred (justified though it may be) seeped into the comments under posts. The commonest curse was to wish that someone—whose place of residence or language marked him as an enemy—would eat poisonous mushrooms. Yet a year on, in mushroom groups, whether set up by people in Ukraine, Russia or elsewhere, courteous exchanges were again visible, including when a Russian‑language post drew replies in Ukrainian, and vice versa. As human ties frayed everywhere, mushroom lovers kept sharing finds and knowledge. Their drive to study these organisms and their passion for gathering proved—perhaps narrowly and situationally, but still—more important than politics, nationality and enmity, and so became a unifying force. Why do fungi “do” what neither culture nor science managed? The timing may seem odd, but the point here is to try to step away from an anthropocentric—and thus humanistic—view of the world. A caveat is in order: fungi, of course, do nothing and teach us nothing; that is merely personification, typical of a mind still prone to anthropomorphism. It is more accurate to ask what humanity can learn about the world—and change in its own thinking—by studying fungal life. Progress is an idea from the past In The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing advances the idea of accepting instability as normal, exploring the phenomenon of matsutake foraging across the world. She notes the paradox of our time: a lack of confidence in tomorrow, even among those who pin their hopes on capitalism. “Living in troubled times requires much more than attacking those who plunged us into this turmoil (although, I think, that too is useful; I do not object). One might look around and notice this strange new world and strain the imagination to grasp its contours. And here fungi come to our aid. The drive of matsutake to push through even on scorched ground lets us explore the ruins that have become home to us all,” says the researcher, drawing on a historical fact. After the bombing of Hiroshima, the first thing to sprout on charred, contaminated ground was this very mushroom. This is not about the trite “triumph of life over death”—shedding such metaphors is useful—but about reassembling an ecosystem under the constant damage wrought by capitalism and the state. In Japan, matsutake became the basis for a new niche in the economy: supply chains and human coalitions emerged that had not existed before. Today, on the transnational market, the mushroom passes through a ramified network of intermediaries—pickers, buyers, shippers, wholesalers, retailers and restaurateurs—and it is these ties that created a new economy atop degraded forests. It runs on informal communications, often on trust. It is also a product that resists the standard practices of capitalist alienation. Matsutake cannot be brought under control; it is not cultivated; its appearance is unpredictable in ways humans cannot measure. Foragers live with permanent uncertainty: they do not know if there will be food tomorrow, whether money will cover rent, whether middlemen will leave early, whether soils will dry up, whether access to the forest will be banned. In this sense, foraging for matsutake is not only survival under capitalism but a way to reassemble life amid the ruins of economy and landscape where stable jobs and social guarantees scarcely exist. In Tsing’s view the economy has become precarious the world over—a state of fragility and exposure. We should admit we are not in control; we do not even control ourselves. Old philosophical approaches have aged; the modern world shows that there is no goal in life, only life itself in its uncertainty. Humanity is neither the crown of nature nor king of the hill; our species is just one among many that can make worlds. Fungi have far more experience of that. World‑building was never humanity’s prerogative; only now have scientists begun to pay attention. So the very notion of progress loses its purchase. If we discard the simplifying, constraining narrative of linear advancement as a march forward, we can notice other temporalities beyond the merely human. Studying the entangled ties of fungal life reveals how organisms, inanimate things and landscapes enlist and are enlisted in joint activity to form intricate systems. Such curiosity enables the making of new categories, and of economic, political theories and cosmologies that account for the diversity of assemblages and worlds. Mycelium, in this sense, ceases to be a metaphor and becomes a model of thought. Its existence relies on distribution, exchange, plasticity, and the capacity to withstand damage, to grow on scorched ground, to transform and co‑ordinate crucial elements of temporary stability in concert with other organisms—both kin and those of different kinds. Artificial intelligence is no threat—but neither is it a crutch While people are afraid, they not only seek culprits and try to put life on pause; they also tend to spin conspiracies and see menace in anything new—or old but other. Does that deliver real protection or stability? No. Are you afraid AI will take your job, enslave humanity, press the nuclear button? Fear often disguises itself as concern for safety but in practice merely reproduces helplessness. The fearful person does not want to understand reality; he wants to neutralise its image at once. Hence he sees conspiracy where there is complexity, and a threat where there is otherness. AI is frightening precisely here: not only as a possible tool of substitution, manipulation or military escalation, but as a reminder that old forms of control can no longer cope with a world now too connected, too fast and not very transparent. If watching fungi lets us think order differently—not as a stable system but as a temporary coincidence of heterogeneous ties—then we can also look differently at technologies usually cast as pinnacles of human progress. Architectures built on decentralisation, be it blockchain or learning systems of artificial intelligence, turn out less a breakthrough than a belated attempt to catch up with a reality long existing beyond human models of governance. Decentralised digital systems and the development of AI‑based models are attempts to build assemblages in a technical medium. Our brains simply cannot process vast volumes of data at machine speed. In such conditions, artificial intelligence becomes a tool for pattern recognition in environments too complex for human attention. Yet we should avoid the opposite mistake of “appointing” digital agents as human “helpers”, “prostheses” or “crutches”. AI agents are better conceived as dependent yet autonomous entities with which humans interact. It is undeniable that AI affects our thinking. Many people already compose sentences after the fashion of language‑model outputs—and that is only the beginning of our co‑labour. Assemblages of humans with language models and AI can expand collective thinking. LLM can help to frame ideas faster, reconcile disagreements and work through large troves of information. In distributed interactions among many agents, shared norms and rules can emerge spontaneously—a kind of digital sociality. For people, this opens new forms of co‑operation, especially where time, expertise or linguistic access are scarce. Now let us summon the inner sceptic‑conservative to list the risks—and at once pose clarifying questions to gauge how serious they are. Risk 1: AI will start structuring social reality itself, subtly imposing models of speech, evaluation and behaviour. Why is that frightening? Television or a school textbook also imposes all of the above—and yet we muddle through. Risk 2: If AI’s autonomy grows while human control remains weak, who is responsible for a decision taken by a hybrid “human‑model‑infrastructure” loop? In such cases it is better to assess the quality of the decision than to ask in advance “who will be to blame”. Suppose you know who decided to start a war where there was none before. Does that knowledge bring relief? Risk 3: AI may entrench biases and misconceptions. Yes. But no more than other technologies have done—and still do. Risk 4: Won’t an assemblage with non‑human intelligence mean a loss of subjectivity? No. We will explain why below. Risk 5: What about a loss of agency? Yes, that can happen. But how frightening is it? Let us look more closely. Merlin Sheldrake, author of Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, argues for a humbler, more precise anthropology in which humans are not central but one participant in a vast web of relations—and goes further by questioning the value of individuality as such. Drawing on mycological research, Sheldrake contends that life runs on exchange, symbiosis, decay and redistribution, not on autonomy. His thinking helps us abandon the idea that there is a hard line between “living” and “non‑living”, “self” and “non‑self”, “organism” and “environment”. Life is better seen as a flow through which matter, energy, information and influence constantly pass. Subjectivity does not vanish—but it is nothing without interactions and interdependencies. When agency slips from human control, the shift is not only technical but philosophical: freedom ceases to mean autonomy, and responsibility ceases to be a property of an isolated subject. It becomes distributed across the assemblage in which the human may still be a participant but is no longer master of the world. The question then is not who replaced the human, but what form of life arises where action no longer belongs to one. People cling to their agency as an unquestionable value because we were reared on the illusion that there is no future without progress and that humans are responsible for the world they must bequeath. The outworn ideas of Enlightenment and modernism still loom large, with their hierarchies in which one species proclaimed itself the navel of the earth. Within that paradigm, harmful narratives of the “if not us, then who” variety will keep surfacing—to the detriment of humanity and everything else. “Progress is built into the common understandings of what it means to be human. Even under the mask of other concepts—‘agency’, ‘consciousness’, ‘intention’—we shore up the thought that humans differ from the rest of the living world because they look ahead, whereas other species live for the day and so depend on us. So long as we imagine that progress makes the human, non‑humans cannot escape these speculative frames either,” notes Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing. Perhaps we should drop human arrogance and admit that AI already outperforms us in many functions. Or that a slime mould without a brain—or anything like a central nervous system—can solve a problem faster and better than you. That is no reason to sulk or to oppose them. An assemblage of intelligences: human, slime mould, computer Sheldrake recounts a working human–plasmodium collaboration: a researcher who often could not find the exit from IKEA built a maze matching the store’s plan and let his slime moulds “search” for the quickest way out. They succeeded.  “See—they are smarter than me,” the researcher laughed. Such a conclusion is neither mere metaphor nor irony—unless one insists on measuring other beings’ intelligence by a human yardstick. The book also mentions a Japanese experiment using a map of Greater Tokyo: in a Petri dish a slime mould was offered a set of points mimicking urban hubs, and within a day it laid out paths that almost replicated the capital’s railway network. In similar trials slime moulds reproduced America’s highway grid and the ancient Roman roads of Central Europe. For designing real infrastructure, a slime mould is the dream contractor, swiftly finding and showing efficient, economical routes. Developers use the natural abilities of the single‑celled myxomycete Physarum polycephalum to control robots and as a biological processor. Biocomputers built on slime moulds have several potential advantages over silicon systems: for example, they can solve computational and adaptive tasks with far lower energy use than digital processors. For now, such assemblages of humans, unicellular organisms and machines live in labs and prototypes rather than mass products, but they have existed for some time. And cybernetics, as founded by Norbert Wiener, has from the start studied control and communication in machines and living organisms. If we abandon the picture of the world as a system striving for stability and equilibrium, and instead look through the logic of assemblages—temporary, brittle and centreless gatherings described by Sheldrake and Tsing—then fungi cease to be merely objects of observation or a soothing metaphor. They become a way to grasp how existence might be arranged: not as a whole, but as a process of constant reassembly and maintenance of ties. Fungi really do expand our minds In Sheldrake’s book is the idea that everyone needs others to live. The way lichens exist, he suggests, can force us to reconsider our views of “individuals”. Once upon a time, scientists took lichens to be a single organism; now we know their survival rests on complex relations among several organisms—two or more. The researcher of matsutake’s economy concurs. “Mycelium is a perfect conduit. It has never allowed itself to be stuffed into the ‘iron cage’ of self‑reproduction. Like bacteria, some mycelia are busy exchanging genes in non‑reproductive contacts; many also do not allow their genetic material to be defined as belonging to a single ‘individual’ or ‘species’, let alone a ‘population’. When researchers studied the mycelia of what they had considered a biological species—the costly Tibetan cordyceps—they found a mishmash of many species. Examining the strands of honey fungus (Armillaria), they discovered a genetic mosaic that does not allow an individual to be identified,” writes Tsing. Entertain the thought that individuals do not exist. The survival of human bodies depends on other organisms. Gut microbiota, skin bacteria, our need for bodily contact with other people and animals, our dietary inclinations—all point to multi‑species dependence. Are you sure the decision you made was not the product of a mood created by complex interactions among microorganisms and their influence on your biochemistry? Are you truly autonomous? Modern research is literally demolishing traditional views. The study of the life sciences anchored in heteronormative understandings of both sexual and social relations is receding—not as a cultural fad. David Griffiths, in the essay “Queer Theory for Lichens”, argues that studying lichens deconstructs such assumptions, breaks their bounds and calls the binary, heteronormative scientific tradition into question. Ecology is mutable and is best understood as a complex series of relations that dissolve borders. There is no norm—and that is the norm. The stranger, the more variegated, the more complex survive; and we cannot live without others, who are themselves in constant flux. For that lesson we can be grateful to lichens and fungi. Toby Spribille, an expert on fungal symbiosis at the University of Alberta, says there are limits to how humans study complex relations in nature: “A human binary view prevents us from asking non‑binary questions. Our constraints regarding sexuality prevent us from asking questions about sexuality and so on. We ask questions from within our cultural context. And this leads to extraordinary difficulty working with questions about complex symbioses like lichens, because we think of ourselves as autonomous individuals, which makes the path to understanding harder.” Where humans are used to erecting borders—in various senses—between self and other, living and non‑living, norm and deviation, fungal assemblages reveal the permeability of those borders in the name of co‑existence, without erasing difference and while preserving the particularities of every component. In this sense, “fungal philosophy” does not offer a new identity or a more inclusive model of the subject. It questions the very idea of the subject as an autonomous bearer of will, responsibility and value. That touches the foundations of systems that need clear borders—economy, politics, law. If the individual cannot be unambiguously singled out, it becomes harder to count, control and extract value. But that does not mean liberation. Life does not become more just or harmonious; we simply start to notice its complexity—through overlaps, dependencies and partial alignments of interest. We are unlikely to step fully outside capitalism, the state and hierarchies now, but we can already look at them from the side and refuse to accept their frames as the only possible ones.

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news.bitcoin.com KuCoin EU Strengthens Compliance Leadership With Appointment of Experienced AMLO and Expansion of AML Team

This sponsored press release was provided by KuCoin and was not written by Bitcoin.com News. Bitcoin.com News does not necessarily endorse the statements made within this announcement. PRESS RELEASE. VIENNA, Austria April, 2026 – KuCoin EU, the MiCAR-licensed digital asset platform headquartered in Vienna, today announced a significant strengthening of its anti-money laundering (AML) and […]

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forklog.media Standard Chartered Maintains DeFi Forecast Despite Kelp Hack

The $292 million hack of the Kelp protocol dealt a significant blow to the decentralized finance sector, yet it was not deemed fatal. This conclusion was reached by analysts at Standard Chartered, reports The Block. The incident occurred on April 18. The perpetrator stole rsETH tokens and used them as collateral in the largest lending protocol, Aave. This allowed the hacker to withdraw real assets, triggering panic and a mass exodus of funds from the system. According to the bank, amid concerns, users withdrew $17 billion in deposits from Aave (38% of the total volume). The number of active loans decreased by $5.5 billion. Jeffrey Kendrick, head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, described the event as a test of "antifragility." He noted that a coalition led by Aave founder Stani Kulechov allocated over $300 million to restore operations. The initiative was supported by Arbitrum, ConsenSys, Mantle, and Lido. Bank experts believe the crisis exposed systemic issues in DeFi: mismatch of asset types and liabilities within credit markets; risks of using complex collateral; vulnerability of cross-chain bridges. Analysts emphasized that the situation will accelerate the transition to the fourth version of the Aave protocol and the creation of the "Ethereum Economic Zone". These updates are expected to reduce reliance on bridges, which are frequent targets for hackers. Despite the incident, Standard Chartered maintained its forecast for the tokenized assets market. The bank expects its capitalization to grow from $30.19 billion in 2025 to $2 trillion by the end of 2028. Source: Rwa.xyz. According to Kendrick, the KelpDAO hack will only hasten the maturation of DeFi infrastructure. Earlier, Andrew Moss from Jefferies believed that a series of hacks in the DeFi sector could dampen Wall Street's interest in blockchain technologies.

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blockmanity.com Record-Shattering Hedera Africa Hackathon 2025: 13,000 Developers Chase $1M in World’s Largest Web3 Event

What Makes the the Biggest Web3 Event Ever? Imagine over 13,000 developers from around the world building the future of blockchain in one massive event. That’s exactly what happened at the . This event set a new record as the […] The post Record-Shattering Hedera Africa Hackathon 2025: 13,000 Developers Chase $1M in World’s Largest Web3 Event appeared first on Blockmanity.

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news.bitcoin.com Strategy’s STRC Becomes World’s Largest Preferred Stock in Under One Year, Saylor Says

Michael Saylor told a packed crowd at Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas that Strategy’s STRC instrument has grown to $8.5 billion in nine months, becoming what he called the largest and most liquid preferred stock in the world. Key Takeaways: Strategy’s Michael Saylor unveiled STRC at Bitcoin 2026, a digital credit instrument that reached $8.5 […]

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cryptobriefing.com Craig Newmark: Venture capital pressures lead to ‘enshittification’ of web design, the importance of building networks for impact, and why authenticity is crucial for online trust | Conversations with Tyler

Financial pressures are degrading web design quality, sparking a need for community-driven digital solutions. The post Craig Newmark: Venture capital pressures lead to ‘enshittification’ of web design, the importance of building networks for impact, and why authenticity is crucial for online trust | Conversations with Tyler appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

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cryptobriefing.com Rory Johnston: AI optimism drives equity markets, geopolitical instability threatens oil supply, and the logistics of Canadian oil trade impact pricing | Bankless

AI optimism boosts equity markets while potential Middle East crises threaten global oil supply stability. The post Rory Johnston: AI optimism drives equity markets, geopolitical instability threatens oil supply, and the logistics of Canadian oil trade impact pricing | Bankless appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

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forklog.media Bitcoin Spot Volumes Drop to Lowest Since 2023

Spot trading volumes of the leading cryptocurrency on major exchanges have fallen to levels seen in September-October 2023, marking the end of the previous bear phase. This was highlighted by an analyst known as Darkfost. 📉 $BTC Spot volumes hit lowest levels since end of Bear market.The collapse in Bitcoin spot trading volumes continued throughout the month of April.💥 Spot volumes have now returned to levels comparable to September 2023, marking the end of the previous bear market.This… pic.twitter.com/p9npEyD5DG— Darkfost (@Darkfost_Coc) April 29, 2026 According to him, the decline in activity persisted throughout April, indicating a significant reduction in investor participation. Binance was most affected, with volumes dropping by approximately $25 billion since March. On Gate, the figure halved by $13 billion, and on OKX, it fell by about $6 billion. Darkfost linked the downward trend to the macroeconomic backdrop, particularly the events surrounding the conflict in the Middle East. "Concerns about persistent inflation have intensified. In such conditions, the Fed is unlikely to have enough room to accelerate policy easing at today's FOMC meeting," he noted. Against this backdrop, many investors are hesitant to open long-term spot positions in Bitcoin: medium-term prospects remain uncertain, added Darkfost. Experts at Glassnode provided similar statistics. They noted that such periods are often accompanied by reduced market depth and increased price sensitivity to capital flows. Bitcoin spot volumes across major exchanges have fallen to their lowest levels since October 2023.Such low volume environments often coincide with reduced market depth and heightened sensitivity to flow shifts📊 https://t.co/XLo1nlsykP pic.twitter.com/Pn6xfZs4gx— glassnode (@glassnode) April 29, 2026 Weak Interest The cooling of investor interest was also pointed out by Alphractal founder Joao Wedson. According to his data, the number of Google searches for cryptocurrencies has hit a three-year low. Google searches for cryptocurrencies are at their lowest level in the last 3 years.That explains the current sentiment.This is a fragile moment, where the strong survive and the weak complain.Alphractal is a unique platform where you can explore everything from on-chain to… pic.twitter.com/QYDIuGKkO1— Joao Wedson (@joao_wedson) April 28, 2026 The expert believes that the current phase reflects the sector's vulnerable state—market participants need patience and resilience. The cryptocurrency fear and greed index further hints at investor uncertainty. As of April 29, it stands at 26 points, indicating a "fear" zone. Source: Alternative.me. Previously, amid Bitcoin's rise above $77,000, the index reached 46—the highest level since January. At the time of writing, the leading cryptocurrency is trading around $77,100. Over the past day, the asset's price has increased by 1.7%. Hourly chart BTC/USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView. Earlier, on April 28, the exchange Coinbase and analytics platform Glassnode released a joint report on the rise of optimism in the crypto market.

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forklog.media Apirone Restored Litecoin Operations Within 24 Hours After Network Reorg

Crypto payment processor Apirone resumed Litecoin (LTC) operations within a day of the April 25 network incident. User funds remained safe, according to the press release. The Litecoin network experienced a 13-block reorganization triggered by an attempted exploit of the MimbleWimble Extension Block (MWEB) protocol. An attacker submitted a block with malformed MWEB data at height 3,095,931. Upgraded nodes rejected the invalid block but encountered a bug that prevented them from continuing normal mining. Meanwhile, nodes running outdated software kept extending the invalid chain. Mining pools coordinated to overtake the bad chain and restore consensus on the valid one. The Litecoin development team released version 0.21.5.4 on the same day to fix the issue. How Apirone responded The Apirone team identified the problem and confirmed it was a network-wide event. The service posted updates across multiple channels explaining the issue, potential consequences, and recovery steps. "We updated nodes to the latest Litecoin Core version, synced with the valid chain, re-verified all incoming and historical transactions, and restored correct balance displays," the Apirone team said. During the disruption, outgoing transactions were temporarily unavailable as the network could not process them. The network kept logging incoming operations. Full LTC processing resumed within 24 hours. New notification system Following the incident, Apirone announced an upgrade to its notification infrastructure. Upcoming releases will support alerts via Email, Telegram, and Discord across several event categories: payments, receipts, security, callback errors, and technical notifications. The system is designed to keep users informed about transaction statuses, network incidents, and maintenance windows in real time. Earlier, ForkLog reported that Apirone sponsored a yacht racing team in Spain.

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blockonomi.com 8 AI Trading Bot Apps for Mobile Users in 2026 to Automate Trading Anywhere

Markets no longer wait for traders to sit in front of a desktop screen. Crypto moves through the night, forex reacts to global headlines before many users wake up, and stock traders often miss key setups because they are commuting, working, or away from their main trading terminal. That is exactly why mobile-first automation is [...] The post 8 AI Trading Bot Apps for Mobile Users in 2026 to Automate Trading Anywhere appeared first on Blockonomi.

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forklog.media Anthropic Integrates Claude with Blender, Adobe Photoshop, and Premiere

Startup Anthropic released a set of connectors enabling Claude to work directly with popular design and 3D tools: Blender, Adobe, Autodesk, Ableton, SketchUp, and others. “Claude cannot replace taste or imagination, but it can open up new ways of working—faster and more ambitious idea generation, an extensive skill set, and the opportunity for creative people to tackle large-scale projects,” the company blog states. Available options include: Ableton—relies on Claude's responses as outlined in the official documentation for Live and Push products; Adobe—bring ideas to life as images, videos, and designs using over 50 tools in Creative Cloud applications, including Photoshop and Express; Affinity by Canva—automates repetitive tasks in professional creative processes; Autodesk Fusion—enables designers and engineers with a Fusion subscription to create and edit 3D models through dialogue with Claude; Blender—provides an interface for API in Python; Resolume Arena and Resolume Wire—allow visual effects artists to manage Arena, Avenue, and Wire; SketchUp—“turns a conversation with Claude into a starting point for 3D modeling”; Splice—enables music producers to search their sample catalog directly from the Claude application. Blender developers have created an MCP connector, officially available for Claude. It allows 3D artists to analyze and adjust entire scenes or create custom scripts for batch applying changes to objects in a scene. Anthropic has joined the Blender Development Fund as a patron to support the project in further developing the Python API. Use Cases The company provided several examples of using Claude for creative work: learning to use tools—Claude acts as a personal tutor for complex software: explaining modifier stacks, synthesis methods, or unfamiliar functions; expanding capabilities through code—AI writes scripts, plugins, and generative systems for software; integrating tools into a single pipeline—Claude converts formats, restructures data, and synchronizes resources within a project; automating routine tasks—batch processing of resources, project structure setup, application of procedural changes. Anthropic collaborates with students and educators to implement educational programs. They will gain access to Claude and the new connectors. In April, Anthropic introduced an experimental product, Claude Design—a tool for AI-based design generation.

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cryptopotato.com Ethereum Price Prediction: ETH Breaks Key Downtrend—Is $2.8K Next?

Ethereum is trading at $2,340 as April closes out, having quietly done what it failed to accomplish for the better part of six months: break out of the descending channel that has defined its entire corrective structure since October 2025. The breakout is fresh, unconfirmed on higher timeframes, and happening right below the $2.4k resistance […]

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cryptobriefing.com SoFi posts record $1.1B revenue in Q1 as everything app strategy gains traction

SoFi's strategic expansion into digital assets and comprehensive financial services could significantly reshape the fintech landscape, enhancing user engagement and market competitiveness. The post SoFi posts record $1.1B revenue in Q1 as everything app strategy gains traction appeared first on Crypto Briefing.

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blockmanity.com Visa Expands Stablecoin Settlement to 9 Blockchains as Volume Surges to $7 Billion

In a major move for the crypto world, Visa is now supporting 9 blockchains in its global stablecoin settlement pilot. This expansion comes as the program’s volume has skyrocketed to an annualized $7 billion, showing huge growth in blockchain-based payments. […] The post Visa Expands Stablecoin Settlement to 9 Blockchains as Volume Surges to $7 Billion appeared first on Blockmanity.

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bitcoinist.com Litecoin’s MWEB Bug Let An Attacker Create 85,034 LTC

Litecoin developers have disclosed that a critical validation flaw in the network’s Mimblewimble Extension Block implementation allowed an attacker to create an inflated pegout of 85,034.47285734 LTC in March 2026, before a coordinated emergency response recovered the funds and neutralized the accounting imbalance. The incident, detailed in a postmortem published by Litecoin developer David Burkett […]

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news.bitcoin.com Pump.fun Burns $370 Million in PUMP Tokens and Locks 50% of Revenue Into Buybacks

Pump.fun burned approximately $370 million worth of PUMP tokens on April 29, reducing circulating supply by 36%, and committed 50% of all net platform revenue to an irreversible smart contract that will continue buying back and burning PUMP for the next 12 months. Key Takeaways: Pump.fun burned roughly $370 million in PUMP tokens on Wednesday, […]

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