Crypto news

Strategy Inc. (MSTR) shares fell 10% to a two-year low of $92 as bitcoin dropped below $60,000, triggering a $1.1 billion liquidation cascade. CryptoQuant warned the company to halt bitcoin purchases, citing overextension. Strategy's unrealized losses are estimated at $10.6 billion, with cash reserves down 38% and dividend coverage compressed to 14 months. The company's capital model faces strain as MSTR trades at a discount to its bitcoin NAV (0.80x), constraining equity and preferred issuance. Preferred shares like STRC trade below par, hindering fundraising. With 847,363 bitcoin acquired at an average of $75,680, the gap to current prices exceeds $16,000 per coin. Critics suggest selling bitcoin to meet obligations could pressure the asset further.

Bitcoin drops toward new 2026 lows as spot BTC ETF outflows and slowing accumulation from Strategy weigh on market sentiment.

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager with $14 trillion under management, now recommends a 1-2% portfolio allocation to Bitcoin, citing its potential as a complementary diversifier that can boost returns without significantly increasing risk. Michael Gates, BlackRock's lead portfolio manager for model portfolios, stated that a modest allocation could impact returns without dominating day-to-day risk. The firm points to its own iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) as a vehicle for this allocation, which has accumulated nearly $49 billion in assets since its 2024 launch. BlackRock also recently launched a covered-call Bitcoin ETF (BITA) for yield-oriented investors and offers a Bitcoin ETP on the London Stock Exchange, signaling its view that Bitcoin is too big to ignore for institutional portfolios.

The Ethereum Foundation has cut roughly 20% of its workforce and slashed its budget by about 40% as part of a broad reorganization, even as the Ethereum network sees record user activity and growing institutional adoption. The layoffs follow a months-long review of the nonprofit's structure and spending. Ethereum's native token, ETH, has fallen over 44% year-to-date to around $1,670, despite record monthly active users and transaction counts in Q1 2026. Network fee revenue and total value locked have declined, and spot Ether ETFs have seen nearly $1 billion in outflows over seven consecutive weeks. The Foundation is restructuring into five specialized clusters focused on protocol, access, user, community, and institutional layers. It plans to pay staff in ETH and native stablecoins, prioritize privacy and MEV reduction, and scale back initiatives like the multi-client model and Devcon conference. Co-founder Vitalik Buterin favors a 'soft lean-and-done' model for Ethereum's long-term development.

Cardano advanced its scaling overhaul by launching the Musashi Dojo testnet for the Ouroboros Leios protocol, aiming to boost throughput by 5-20x. Meanwhile, the network is progressing the Van Rossem hard fork, which prepares for future upgrades. However, these technical milestones are overshadowed by ADA's decline to $0.14, a 55% drop this year, and a $2.4 million exploit at wallet provider SecondFi that affected 374 addresses. The incident exposed vulnerabilities in wallet generation code, further eroding user confidence. Despite cautious bullish positioning among traders, the ecosystem faces contractions with projects scaling back. Cardano's next challenge is converting technical progress into renewed developer and user activity to reverse market sentiment.

Cardano-based wallet SecondFi has confirmed a security breach that allowed attackers to drain user funds, identifying the root cause as an address-level issue that exposed private keys when users signed transactions. The platform estimates around 16 million ADA (approximately $2.4 million) was affected across 374 addresses. SecondFi has implemented emergency measures securing roughly 129 million ADA, transferring it to an independent third-party custodian pending user verification. The company advised users not to restore recovery phrases into new Cardano wallets, warning that migration does not mitigate the risk. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson clarified that SecondFi is not an Input Output Global product, stating IOG had no involvement in the code. The platform, which rebranded from Yoroi wallet in April 2026, was originally developed by Emurgo.

Ethereum L2 bridge Taiko warned users to immediately withdraw funds from all bridges deployed on its network after a compromise of its chain state verification mechanism. The security notice stated that the security assumptions for all bridges on Taiko could no longer be relied upon, and centralized exchanges were asked to suspend TAIKO deposits. Security firm Blockaid identified the failure as source-signal proof validation, where crafted message proofs were accepted on Ethereum L1 without corresponding legitimate events on Taiko, allowing fraudulent withdrawals from the ERC20 vault. On-chain evidence shows 649,761 USDC was moved from the vault to an exploiter address. PeckShield initially estimated losses at about $1.7 million, later updated to roughly $2.2 million. Taiko said affected users' funds are expected to be reimbursed from the protocol treasury. The project has paused affected systems, disabled permissionless inbox proving, and is working to harden message-proof handling.

SecondFi, the Cardano wallet formerly known as Yoroi, suffered an exploit that drained 16 million ADA ($2.4 million) from 374 wallets across three attacks. The vulnerability was in its proprietary wallet generation software, triggering when users signed transactions. The team secured 129 million ADA by routing funds to a third-party custodian. However, SlowMist estimates losses could exceed $20 million pending an independent audit. Affected users cannot protect by moving seed phrases and must submit claims to SecondFi.

Tether-backed mobile app Oobit has integrated Brazil's PIX payment system, enabling nearly 170 million users to deposit reais and swap for USDT stablecoin. Users can then spend USDT via PIX, with the blockchain operating in the background while maintaining the familiar PIX experience. Oobit, which raised $25 million in Series A funding in 2024 from Tether and Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, aims to provide Brazilians with easier dollar exposure. PIX, created by Brazil's Central Bank in 2020, is one of the world's most popular digital payment networks.

Blockchain infrastructure firm Chainlink has joined Project Pangea, a coalition of 37 European banks and 10 South Korean banks, to enable near-instant cross-border payments using stablecoins within a year. The initiative aims to settle foreign-exchange trades in euro- and won-pegged stablecoins via atomic payment-versus-payment mechanisms, reducing settlement time from two days to real time. Project Pangea focuses on the $150 billion Europe-South Korea trade corridor and acts as middleware, allowing banks to use existing Swift and ISO 20022 systems while settling on the Pangea L1 blockchain. Chainlink said the project targets live transactions within 12 months under a legal and regulatory framework.