Author: dfmines

Russia is all set to host the Global Blockchain Forum 2025 on April 23 & 24. With 15K+ attendees from over 100 countries, the forum will focus on topics like Web3, cryptocurrencies, investments, blockchain, trading, mining, and AI. Around 55% of the attendees are from Europe, and 29% are from Asia. North America is expected to have a healthy 11% participation as well. Russia, China, and Belarus, though, will see the highest participation. Russia, in particular, is keen on strengthening its position in the global cryptocurrency community. Keep reading to find out how this event may affect the regulatory framework around crypto investments worldwide. We’ll also suggest the top new crypto to buy now to benefit from this development. More About the Event The forum will serve as a hub for networking and a platform to exchange ideas and get actionable insights into the latest crypto trends. It’ll also feature more than 150 booths where innovation-driven companies will showcase their products and ideas. There will also lie the opportunity to meet pioneers at the forefront of technological progress in the crypto and Web3 space. Some prominent speakers on the forum include: Staphan Lutx (BitMEX) Justin Sun (TRON) Xinxi Wang (Litecoin) Tracy Jin (MEXC) Besides this, there are 100+ speakers who will share their experience and future outlook on crypto. A few interesting topics include the future of crypto payments, Bitcoin’s journey ahead, broad crypto market trends in 2025-2030, crypto geopolitics, and the regulation of stablecoins. At a time when crypto markets have been bearish, a mega event like this may just be what’s needed. It underpins the future global positive outlook and shows the confidence of market participants in crypto innovations. If you also want to benefit from the crypto’s long-term bullish outlook, here are some of the best cryptos you can invest in now for massive growth. 1. BTC Bull Token ($BTCBULL) – Best New Crypto to Buy Right Now It’s worth noting that Bitcoin is right at the heart of the wider crypto push we’re seeing right now. And why wouldn’t it be? It’s the biggest crypto (by both price and market capitalization), after all. That’s why BTC Bull Token ($BTCBULL), a Bitcoin-themed meme coin, is unabashedly one of the best cryptos to buy now. $BTCBULL isn’t just married to Bitcoin on paper, though. Instead, its roadmap is closely linked to Bitcoin’s growth. For instance, BTC Bull Token’s standout feature – free $BTC airdrops – will take place every time the OG crypto crosses a major milestone, like $150K and $200K, for the first time. Additionally, even $BTCBULL’s token burn events are set to occur at every $25K jump in $BTC’s price. Combined with a heavy focus on PR and marketing activities, BTC Bull Token’s deflationary model will ensure the crypto’s hype remains alive, even and especially after its listing. So, if you’re a Bitcoin maximalist who wants to nail the hammer on its head and grab the next crypto bull run by its horns, buy $BTCBULL now while it’s still in presale. The project has raised over $4.7M, and each token is currently available for just $0.002465. For more info, here’s how to buy $BTCBULL. 2. Solaxy ($SOLX) – Top New Crypto Presale with over $30M Raised So Far What if you could invest in a potentially revolutionary crypto project while it’s still in its infancy? Breathtaking gains! That’s exactly what Solaxy ($SOLX) brings to the table. Solaxy isn’t just another altcoin on the Solana blockchain. It has set out with a very special purpose: to solve Solana’s scalability issues. Long story short, Solana got overloaded because of the amount of investors $TRUMP and $MELANIA funneled into the network. Solaxy, however, plans to build the first-ever Layer-2 solution on Solana. It will handle a huge chunk of Solana’s transactions by offloading them onto a sidechain. Furthermore, $SOLX’s multi-chain versatility means it will be able to provide the perfect blend of Ethereum’s liquidity and Solana’s high speed and low fees. Another reason we’re pretty hyped about Solaxy’s future is the amount of investor interest in the project. It has so far raised over $30.4M and shows no signs of slowing down. You can join the next crypto to explode for only $0.001696 per token. Here’s how to buy Solaxy. 3. FirstBroccoli ($BROCCOLI) – Trending New Meme Coin with over 1,600% in Lifetime Gains Reading the pulse of the crypto market and hopping on raging trends is one of the best ways to go about investing in crypto. We’re talking about catching trending cryptos like FirstBroccoli ($BROCCOLI). Although this crypto has already generated over 1,600% returns, it’s currently breaking out of a long-drawn consolidation zone. Another reason $BROCCOLI could skyrocket further is that it recently burned over 5% of its total token supply. Its current price of $0.03688 could, therefore, serve as a great entry point. FirstBroccoli’s backstory is also quite interesting. It came into existence after the ex-CEO of Binance, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, openly announced his approval of meme coins. Next, he threw in the idea of launching a meme coin based on his pet dog, Broccoli. The rest, as they say, is history. Bottom Line Although there’s a high likelihood that a meeting between the world’s biggest crypto advocates would bear sweet fruits for the entire market, it’s ill-advised to speculate too much. Especially in crypto, where winds change directions faster than a snake. As always, we recommend a cautious approach, which includes only investing a small amount and doing your own research. Also, this article isn’t a substitute for financial advice from a professional.

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Cryptocurrency and equities markets entered a “new phase of the trade war, amid ongoing tariff escalations between the United States and China.Global trade war concerns intensified on April 15 after the White House published a fact sheet announcing that Chinese imports would be hit with tariffs of up to 245%.The penalties include a “125% reciprocal tariff, a 20% tariff to address the fentanyl crisis, and Section 301 tariffs on specific goods, between 7.5% and 100%,” according to the White House.Fact sheet on tariffs, investigation into security risks posed by US reliance on imports. Source: White HouseCrypto, tech stocks and other “expensive assets” have entered a “new phase” of the global trade war in response to the latest escalation, according to Aurelie Barthere, principal research analyst at crypto intelligence platform Nansen.“We are now in a new phase of the trade war, with the focus on high-added-value sectors, Tech (and Pharma), and the zeroing in on US-China,” the analyst told Cointelegraph, adding:“Until and IF we see a resolution of the US-China conflict (one leader picks up the phone and gives some concessions to the other), we are facing highly correlated risk assets.”“I also think this situation is negative for non-US equities,” Barthere said. US equities and crypto have been “highly correlated” since November 2024, which increased to the downside during the current market correction, as “investors de-risk, especially expensive assets,” she added.BTC, SPX, Nasdaq, gold chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewRelated: Bitcoin’s safe-haven appeal grows during trade war uncertaintyThe recovery of global equities and cryptocurrency markets hinges on the tone of global tariff negotiations, with a 70% chance to bottom by June 2025 before recovering, Nansen analysts previously predicted.China recently appointed a new chief trade negotiator, Li Chenggang, a former assistant commerce minister during the first administration of US President Donald Trump.Chenggang is characterized as a “very intense” negotiator experienced in dealing with US officials, Reuters reported on April 16, citing an unnamed source in Beijing’s “foreign business community.”Related: Trump’s tariff escalation exposes ‘deeper fractures’ in global financial systemEyes on Powell’s next moveAs tariff tensions increase alongside inflation-related concerns, all eyes are now on US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s upcoming speech during the next Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on May 6.“Markets were on edge for any signal that the Fed might delay rate cuts due to sticky inflation or heightened geopolitical risk,” analysts from Bitfinex exchange told Cointelegraph, adding that if Powell leans hawkish, risk assets like Bitcoin could see downside:“A neutral or balanced tone may calm markets more than they already have over the past week with some signficant recoveries across many risk assets and particularly crypto where many lower market cap assets have moved 30–40% off the lows.”“Crypto is reacting to macro news not because fundamentals have changed, but because positioning is thin and confidence is sensitive,” the analysts added.Magazine: Bitcoin ATH sooner than expected? XRP may drop 40%, and more: Hodler’s Digest, March 23–29

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, is facing antitrust proceedings that could limit its ability to develop AI amid a field of competitors.First filed in 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleges that Meta’s strategy of absorbing firms — rather than competing with them — violates antitrust laws. If the court rules against Meta, it could be forced to spin out its various messenger services and social media sites into independent companies.The loss of its stable of social media companies could harm Facebook’s competitiveness not only in the social media industry but also in its ability to train and develop its proprietary Llama AI models with data from those sites.The trial could take anywhere from a couple of months to a year, but the outcome will have lasting consequences on Meta’s standing in the AI race.Meta’s antitrust case and its effect on AIThe FTC first opened its complaint against Meta in 2020 when the firm was still operating as Facebook. The agency’s amended complaint a year later alleges that Meta (then Facebook) used an illegal “buy-or-bury” scheme on more creative competitors after its “failed attempts to develop innovative mobile features for its network.” This resulted in a monopoly of the “friends and family” social media market.Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had the chance to address these allegations on April 14, the first day of the official FTC v. Meta trial. He testified that only 20% of user content on Facebook and some 10% on Instagram was generated by users’ friends. The nature of social media has changed, Zuckerberg claimed.“People just kept on engaging with more and more stuff that wasn’t what their friends were doing,” he said — meaning that the nature of Meta’s social media holdings was sufficiently diverse.The FTC alleges that Meta identified potential threat competitors and bought them up. Source: FTCAt the time of the FTC’s initial complaint, Meta called the allegations “revisionist history,” a claim it repeated on April 13 when it stated the agency was “ignoring reality.” The company has argued that the purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp have benefited users and that competition has appeared in the form of YouTube and TikTok. If the District of Columbia Circuit Court rules against Meta, the global social media giant will be forced to unwind these services into independent firms. Jasmine Enberg, vice president and principal analyst at eMarketer, told the Los Angeles Times that such a ruling could cost Meta its competitive edge in the social media market. “Instagram really is its biggest growth driver, in the sense that it has been picking up the slack for Facebook for a long time, especially on the user front when it comes to young people,” said Enberg. “Facebook hasn’t been where the cool college kids hang out for a long time.”Such a ruling would also affect the pool of data from which Meta can draw to train its AI models. In July 2024, Meta halted the rollout of AI models in the European Union, citing “regulatory uncertainty.” The pause came after privacy advocacy group None of Your Business filed complaints in 11 European countries against Meta’s use of public data from its platforms to train its AI models. The Irish Data Protection Commission subsequently ordered a pause on the practice until it could conduct a review. Related: Meta’s Llama 4 puts US back in lead to ‘win the AI race’ — David SacksOn April 14, Meta got the go-ahead to use public data — i.e., posts and comments from adult users across all of its platforms — to train the model. If these firms dissolved into separate companies, with their own organizational structures and data protection policies and practices, Meta would be cut off from an ocean of data and human communication with which its AI could be improved. Andrew Rossow, a cyberspace attorney with Minc Law and CEO of AR Media Consulting, told Cointelegraph that in such an event, “companies would most likely control their own user data, and Meta would be restricted from using it unless new data-sharing agreements were negotiated, which would be subject to regulatory scrutiny and user/consumer privacy laws.”However, Rossow noted that it wouldn’t be a total loss for Meta. Zuckerberg’s firm would retain the wealth of data from Facebook and Messenger. It could continue to use “opt-in” data from consumers who allow their posts to be used for AI training, and it could also employ synthetic data sets as well as third-party and open data.Meta, the AI race and data protectionsThe race to unseat OpenAI and its ChatGPT model from AI dominance has grown more competitive in the last year as DeepSeek joined the fray and Meta launched the fourth iteration of its open-source Llama model. In addition to training new models, major AI development firms are investing billions in new data centers to accommodate new iterations. In January 2025, Meta announced the construction of a 2-gigawatt data center with more than 1.3 million Nvidia AI graphics processing units. Zuckerberg wrote in a post on Threads, “This will be a defining year for AI. In 2025, I expect Meta AI will be the leading assistant serving more than 1 billion people […] To power this, Meta is building a 2GW+ datacenter that is so large it would cover a significant part of Manhattan.”Illustration of the data map coverage. Source: Mark ZuckerbergHis announcement followed the $500-billion Stargate project, which would see massive investment in AI development led by OpenAI and SoftBank, with Microsoft and Oracle as equity partners. Related: Trump announces $500B AI infrastructure venture ‘Stargate’Amid this competition, AI firms are looking for broader and more varied sources of data to train their AI models — and have turned to dubious practices in order to get the data they need. In order to stay competitive with OpenAI when developing its Llama 3 model, Meta harvested thousands of pirated books from the site LibGen. According to court documents in a case pending against Meta, Llama developers harvested data from pirated books because licensing them from sources like Scribd seemed “unreasonably expensive.” Time was another perceived motivator for using pirated works. “They take like 4+ weeks to deliver data,” one engineer wrote about services through which they could purchase book licenses.The practice is not limited to Meta. OpenAI has also been accused of mining data from pirated work hosted on LibGen. Rossow suggested that, “to ensure lasting impact — beyond short-term profit,” Meta would do well to “prioritize investment in advanced data collection, rigorous auditing and the implementation of privacy-preserving and encryption-based technologies.”By focusing on transparency and responsible practices, “Meta can continue to genuinely advance AI capabilities, rebuild and nurture long-term user trust, and adapt to evolving legal and ethical standards, regardless of changes to its platform portfolio.”What a ruling for the FTC would meanLitigation is now hitting tech firms from all sides as they face allegations of privacy violations, copyright law infringement and stifling competition. Major cases like those facing Google, Amazon and Meta that have yet to play out will decide how and whether these firms can proceed as they have, defining the guardrails for AI development as well. Rossow said that the current antitrust case against Meta could decide how courts interpret antitrust law for tech firms, spanning tech mergers, data usage and market competition. It would also signal that courts are “willing to break up tech conglomerates” when issues of smothering competition are involved, while at the same time, “taking current precedent a step further in harmonizing it with the laws of cyberspace.”Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research

AI is having its breakthrough moment in the crypto world. Not only are more and more AI cryptos launched, but some have revolutionary features that make them stand out on the market. One is MIND of Pepe, an AI crypto agent that raised over $8 million in presale. The project is revolutionizing the cryptocurrency space…
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Solana users can now take a breath easier, as Solaxy steps in with solutions to its problems. Its ambitious goals and strong utility can significantly offer what Solana lacks. On top of that, the token is currently available at an extremely discounted price, giving early investors a head start in what is one of the…
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Bitcoin’s (BTC) price failed another attempt at breaking above resistance at $86,000 on April 16 as  Fed Chair Jerome Powell dashed hopes of early rate cuts, citing the impact of Trump’s tariffs.Since April 9, BTC price has formed daily candle highs between $75,000 and $86,400, but has been unable to produce a close above $86,000.BTC/USD daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewMany analysts and traders ask, “Where is Bitcoin price headed next?” as the asset remains stuck in a tight range on the lower time frame (LTF) of the 4-hour chart.88% chance interest rates unchangedPolymarket bettors say there is an 88% chance that the current interest rates will remain between 4.25% and 4.50%, leaving just a 10% probability of a 0.25% rate cut.Interest rate expectations. Source: PolymarketHowever, a common market belief is that any bearish price action from unchanged interest rates is already priced in.On April 16, US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated that the Fed is not rushing to cut interest rates. Speaking in Chicago, he emphasized a “wait-and-see” approach, needing more economic data before adjusting policy. Powell highlighted risks from President Trump’s tariffs, which could drive inflation and slow growth, potentially creating a “challenging scenario” for the Fed’s dual mandate of stable prices and maximum employment. “The level of the tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated,” said Powell in a speech, adding: “The same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth.”He stressed maintaining a restrictive policy to ensure inflation doesn’t persist, suggesting any immediate rate cuts despite market volatility and tariff uncertainties.Related: Bitcoin gold copycat move may top $150K as BTC stays ‘impressive’As a result, President Trump has threatened Powell with termination, arguing that he is “always too late and wrong” and that his April 16 report was a typical and complete “mess.”“Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”Meanwhile, Polymarket now says there’s a 46% chance that Bitcoin’s price will hit $90,000 on April 30, with less than 5% possibility of hitting new all-time highs above $110,000.Key Bitcoin price levels to watchBitcoin must flip the $86,000 resistance level into support to target higher highs at $90,000.For this to happen, BTC/USD must first regain its position above the 200-day exponential moving average (purple line) at $87,740. This trendline was lost on March 9 for the first time since August 2024.Above that, there is a major supply zone stretching all the way to $91.240, where the 100-day SMA sits. Bulls will also have to overcome this barrier in order to increase the chances of BTC’s run to $100,000.Bitcoin daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingViewConversely, the bears will attempt to keep the $86,000 resistance in place, increasing the likelihood of new lows under $80,000. A key area of interest lies between $76,000 and the previous range lows at $74,000, i.e., the previous all-time high from March 2024.Below that, the next move would be a retest of the US election day price of $67,817, erasing all the gains made from the so-called Trump pump.Onchain analyst James Check points out that Bitcoin’s true bottom lies at its “true market mean” — the average cost basis for active investors — around the $65,000 area. “The $75,000 zone is an area where you want the bulls to mount a defense,” check said in an interview on the TFTC podcast, adding:“If they don’t, the next step is we go back to the chop consolidation range, we find out how deep into that we go, and the flag in the sea of sand is $65,000.”Interestingly, this price level aligns closely with Michael Saylor’s Strategy cost basis, which sits around $67,500. This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Eliza Labs, the developer behind the AI agent framework ai16z, announced the launch of auto.fun, a new no-code platform allowing users to launch AI agents on Web3 applications.According to an April 17 announcement, auto.fun allows for the creation, deployment and monetization of AI agents by non-developers without programming knowledge.The platform supports the creation of AI agents that interact with social media, decentralized finance (DeFi) apps and other Web3 services.“The vision for auto.fun is to democratize access to both AI and Web3 technologies by creating agents that can execute tasks autonomously on behalf of users,” said Shaw Walters, founder of Eliza Labs and the open-source elizaOS.The animated ASCII art shown to auto.fun visitors ahead of launch. Source: auto.funWalters explained that the agents could automate yield farming strategies, manage social media accounts or trade on behalf of users. The platform is focused on X support, with DeFi, gaming and other application support promised in the future.Related: AI takes nearly 60% of global venture capital dollars in Q1: PitchbookAI agents with no coding requiredEliza Labs said auto.fun will allow users to create agentic AI systems that both respond to queries and perform tasks. Users will purportedly be able to tell their AI agents what to do with their funds in DeFi through simple commands. “Find me the best staking opportunities with at least 12% APY and automatically allocate funds.”An Eliza Labs spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the product’s focus is accessibility, with some user education in place:“While the platform makes it possible for users to spin up agents in a few clicks, key educational prompts and user experience guardrails are embedded throughout the process to help users make informed choices.“Token launch mechanicsAuto.fun also introduces what Eliza Labs calls “fairer than fair” token launches. The company is employing a bonding curve mechanism that “combines the benefits of a fair launch with enough flexibility for project teams to secure up to 50% of their tokens before market listing.”Related: Ethereum could be AI’s key to decentralization, says former core devA bonding curve is a smart contract-based algorithmic pricing model in DeFi that dynamically adjusts a token’s price based on its circulating supply. When tokens are bought or sold, the bonding curve automatically adjusts the price according to predefined mathematical relationships, ensuring continuous liquidity without relying on traditional order books.The Eliza Labs spokesperson said (RAY) purportedly allows for “a more sustainable alternative.”that traditional token launches often leave core teams with little in terms of resources and allow for easier token dumps. The hybrid bonding curve approach developed in partnership with Raydium The system allows project teams to pre-reserve up to 50% of the supply, which supposedly ensures “they have meaningful skin in the game and resources for post-launch development.” The remaining tokens are sold through a bonding curve that should limit the advantages of bot-driven purchases.Walters also highlighted that auto.fun is open source. This “ensures users can verify exactly how their agents operate and what happens with their data.”Agents that will operate on the platform include FightFi, a collection of social media agents that compete with each other with agent-specific tokens providing token-gated access to higher-level functions.Other agents include Secret, which launches Solana (SOL) tokens, and Sigma Music Agent, which connects musicians and fans with AI agents. Another agent on the platform is Astra, which manages crosschain payments between Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchains, Solana, and the Bitcoin (BTC) layer-2 Lightning Network.Magazine: ‘Chernobyl’ needed to wake people to AI risks, Studio Ghibli memes: AI Eye

Mantra’s OM token collapsed by more than 90% overnight, and the crypto world can’t agree on why. On April 13, OM’s price plummeted from over $6 to below $0.50, wiping out more than $5 billion in market cap and triggering widespread panic across the crypto industry.The sudden crash drew comparisons to Terra’s LUNA implosion as traders scrambled for answers. Unverified rumors of insider dumping, forced liquidations, mislabeled wallets and exchange manipulation quickly spread — but Mantra insists it was caught in the middle.Mantra had built a strong position in the real-world asset tokenization narrative heading into April 13, backed by a $1-billion deal to tokenize Dubai-based Damac Group’s real estate and data centers. It secured a Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) license in Dubai and launched a $108-million ecosystem fund with support from heavyweights such as Laser Digital, Shorooq, Amber Group and Brevan Howard Digital. In February 2025, the OM token hit an all-time high of nearly $9.But on April 13, that momentum was violently interrupted. The hours that followed painted a messy picture of token transfers, insider speculation and shifting blame. Here’s a detailed look at how the OM collapse played out.24 hours of the Mantra OM fiascoApril 13 (16:00–18:00 UTC)Mantra’s OM token was trading sideways throughout the day. It dropped from $6.14 to $5.52 during this two-hour window.April 13 (18:00–20:00 UTC)The token suddenly fell to $1.38 in the first hour, then to as low as $0.52 in the next — losing over 90% of its value in a single day. Social media erupted with theories, including a rug pull, insider dumping, forced liquidation or exchange manipulation.Mantra’s OM loses over 90% of its value in just a few hours. Source: CoinGeckoApril 13 (20:00–22:00 UTC)Early speculation surrounded a rug pull, sparked by a screenshot of a deleted Telegram channel. This was later debunked, as the deleted group was not Matra’s official channel. Cointelegraph has confirmed that the project’s Telegram is active at the time of writing.Mantra shared its first statement on X, but the brief update was met with immediate backlash from the community.Mantra says OM’s crash was due to “reckless liquidations.” Source: Mantra/ExyApril 13 (22:00–00:00 UTC)Mantra co-founder and CEO John Patrick Mullin posted a more detailed statement on X, claiming OM’s market action was triggered by “reckless forced closures initiated by centralized exchanges on OM account holders.”“The timing and depth of the crash suggest that a very sudden closure of account positions was initiated without sufficient warning or notice,” Mullin said.“That this happened during low-liquidity hours on a Sunday evening UTC (early morning Asia time) points to a degree of negligence at best, or possibly intentional market positioning taken by centralized exchanges.”Related: Atkins becomes next SEC chair: What’s next for the crypto industryApril 14 (00:00–02:00 UTC)In the days leading up to the crash, at least 17 wallets had deposited a total of 43.6 million OM (worth $227 million) into Binance and OKX, according to blockchain tracker Lookonchain.Two of these wallets were labeled as belonging to Laser Digital, a strategic Mantra investor, by blockchain data platform Arkham Intelligence. The label triggered further speculation and allegations against Laser Digital. At the time of writing, the accuracy of Arkham’s labels has not been confirmed, and the platform has not responded to Cointelegraph’s request to clarify.Laser Digital is still tagged on Arkham’s platform. Source: Arkham IntelligenceMeanwhile, Mullin replied to community questions under his X post, suggesting internal findings pointed to one exchange as the main cause of the collapse while stating that it was not Binance.April 14 (02:00–05:00 UTC)Both Binance and OKX responded to the situation. Binance said, “Binance is aware that $OM, the native token of MANTRA, has experienced significant price volatility. Our initial findings indicate that the developments over the past day are a result of cross-exchange liquidations.”OKX CEO Star Xu posted on X, “It’s a big scandal to the whole crypto industry. All of the onchain unlock and deposit data is public, all major exchanges’ collateral and liquidation data can be investigated. OKX will make all of the reports ready!”OKX stated, “Following the incident, we have conducted investigations and identified major changes to the MANTRA token’s tokenomics model since Oct 2024, based on both publicly available on-chain data and internal exchange data.“Our investigation also uncovered that several on-chain addresses have been executing potentially coordinated large-scale deposits and withdrawals across various centralized exchanges since Mar 2025.”April 14 (05:00–12:00 UTC)Laser Digital denied ownership of the wallets tagged by Arkham and reported by Lookonchain, calling them mislabeled.“We want to be absolutely clear: Laser has not deposited any OM tokens to OKX. The wallets being referenced are not Laser wallets,” the company said on X, sharing three token addresses to support its claim that no sales had occurred.Lookonchain also identified another wallet using Arkham data that had remained dormant for a year before becoming active just hours before the crash. The wallet was labeled as belonging to Shane Shin, a founding partner of Shorooq Partners, and received 2 million OM shortly before the collapse.Source: Lookonchain/Shae ShinApril 14 (12:00–13:00 UTC)Mullin joined Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction show and denied reports that key Mantra investors dumped OM before the collapse. He dismissed allegations that the team controlled 90% of the supply.“I think it’s baseless. We posted a community transparency report last week, and it shows all the different wallets,” Mullin said, noting the dual-token setup across Ethereum and the Mantra mainnet. Additionally, he reassured users that OM token recovery is the team’s primary concern. “We’re still in the early stages of putting together this plan for a potential buyback of tokens,” he said. Related: The whale, the hack and the psychological earthquake that hit HEXApril 14 (13:00–16:00 UTC)More theories started emerging. Onchain Bureau claimed market makers at FalconX were responsible for the price crash. They blamed it on the loan option model — a service allowing market makers to borrow tokens and execute guaranteed purchases at contract expiry.“Instead of paying the market maker with a monthly retainer fee, they had a contract signed saying that they would be able to enforce a buy of, for example, 1M tokens at $1 by contract expiry. Clearly, when the contract expired, they enforced the contract and made their bags,” Onchain Bureau said in a now-deleted X post.Shortly afterward, Onchain Bureau followed up, saying FalconX had reached out and denied being Mantra’s market maker. Mullin also responded to the post, stating that FalconX was not the project’s market maker. He described them instead as a trading partner.Meanwhile, crypto detective ZachXBT weighed in, claiming that individuals linked to Reef Finance had allegedly been seeking massive OM-backed loans in the days leading up to the crash.Source: ZachXBTWhat we know of the OM crashSeveral theories have been thrown around. Initial fears ranged from a rug pull to insider trading, which Mantra has denied in several instances by sharing wallet addresses. The team has responded to online comments and media inquiries to assure that they haven’t run away.Mantra has also denied that the price collapse was a result of an expiring deal with market maker FalconX. Some fingers were pointed toward Laser Digital, which said it is a result of mislabeling at Arkham Intelligence. Arkham Intelligence has not responded to Cointelegraph’s request to clarify its labels. However, the Laser Digital tags on Arkham are a low-confidence prediction made by an AI model, not a verified entity with a blue checkmark.Magenta-colored labels on Arkham Intelligence are low-confidence AI predictions, not verified wallets. Source: Arkham IntelligenceIn the days following the OM crash, Mullin stated that he would burn all of his team’s tokens. He later said that he would start by putting his own allocation on the line.Mullin announced that Mantra would publish a post-mortem and followed with a “statement of events” on April 16. The team reiterated that no project-led token sales occurred and that all team allocations remain locked. The statement doubled down on Mantra’s plan to introduce a token buyback and burn program but lacked new information on the cause of the crash.Mullin told Cointelegraph that Mantra has tapped an unnamed blockchain analyst to investigate the underlying cause of the crash, though details remain confidential at this time.Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research

XRP was changing hands at $2.10 on April 17, 2025, giving the ledger’s native token a market capitalization of $122 billion and $2.50 billion in 24‑hour trade volume. During the session, the price ranged between $2.07 and $2.11, a tight band that has chart watchers primed for the next decisive break. XRP In the one‑hour […]