Raw News Items
38 itemsApril 18, 2026
- CoinDeskScore: 95
2026's biggest crypto exploit: Kelp DAO hit for $292 million with wrapped ether stranded across 20 chains
An attacker drained 116,500 rsETH, roughly 18% of circulating supply, from Kelp's LayerZero-powered bridge on Saturday, triggering emergency freezes across Aave, SparkLend, Fluid and Upshift.
- The BlockScore: 90
Kelp DAO’s rsETH bridge apparently exploited for roughly $292 million in LayerZero-based attack
Kelp's emergency pauser multisig froze the protocol's core contracts roughly 46 minutes after the successful drain, blocking two follow-up attempts.
- CoinDeskScore: 85
How a quantum computer can be used to actually steal your bitcoin in '9 minutes'
Part one explained the physics of quantum computing. This piece explains the target — how bitcoin's encryption works, why a quantum algorithm breaks it, and what Google's paper changed about the timeline.
- CointelegraphScore: 85
SEC charges Donald Basile in $16M crypto fraud tied to ‘insured’ token
The SEC has sued crypto executive Donald Basile over an alleged $16 million scheme involving false claims about an “insured” Bitcoin Latinum token.
- CointelegraphScore: 85
Spot Bitcoin ETFs attract nearly $1B in weekly inflows as risk sentiment improves
Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded nearly $1 billion in weekly inflows, their strongest performance in over three months amid improving risk sentiment.
- CoinDeskScore: 85
Bitcoin falls back to $76,000 as Iran shuts Hormuz again
One of the biggest short liquidations 2026 wiped $593 million in bearish bets overnight. Saturday afternoon as Iran reportedly reversed the Hormuz reopening.
- CryptoSlateScore: 85
US Bitcoin ETFs pull in $664M in largest daily inflow since January, because Iran reopened Hormuz for a few hours
US-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded their largest single-day capital inflow since January on April 17, as the reopening of a critical Middle Eastern shipping route sparked a broader market rotation into risk assets. According to SoSoValue data, the 12 products drew approxima...
- CryptoSlateScore: 85
Congress on verge of making regulated dollar stablecoins act almost like digital cash
Washington isn't trying to solve every crypto policy fight at once, but it appears to be carving out a workable path for one specific category of digital asset: the regulated, dollar-pegged stablecoin. The GENIUS Act established the first federal regulatory framework for payment stablecoins, and a b...
- CointelegraphScore: 85
Kelp restaking platform exploited, $293M drained in attack
The attack caused a "cross-protocol contagion" that has impacted at least nine crypto protocols, blockchain security firm Cyvers said.
- CointelegraphScore: 75
Worldcoin tanks 13% as World’s iris-scanning tech expands to Zoom, Docusign
Most of the integrations are aimed at fighting deepfakes as the rise of AI-generated content makes it increasingly difficult to distinguish humans from AI.
- CointelegraphScore: 75
Circle unveils USDC Bridge for native cross-chain stablecoin transfers
The USDC Bridge adds to Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, which often sees over $500 million worth of USDC transfers each day.
- CryptoSlateScore: 75
Bitcoin miners pivot to AI is now an immediate risk to network security – but BTC revenue will still eclipse AI by over $4B
Quantum computing has long served as Bitcoin’s most cinematic threat. It has the right ingredients for a high-drama warning, strange machines, broken cryptography, and the possibility of a future rewrite of digital trust. Yet the greater danger facing Bitcoin today looks far more ordinary and far mo...
- CoinDeskScore: 75
Stripe doubles down on blockchain and stablecoins, aiming to become 'AWS for money'
Demand is emerging fastest in the Global South and cross-border use cases, where cards fail and currencies are unstable, said Adrien Duchâteau, Stripe's crypto GTM lead.
- CoinDeskScore: 75
Binance and Biget to probe RAVE’s 4,500% token surge as claims of insider-orchestrated rally grow
Nearly 90% of RAVE's supply was concentrated in just three wallets, and millions of tokens were transferred to exchanges before the price surge.
- CryptoSlateScore: 75
Crypto to enter the US banking system through a backdoor, not through regulation
For most of its life, crypto lived outside the financial system. If you wanted to move dollars in or out of an exchange, that money still had to pass through a regular bank somewhere along the way. Most people assumed it would stay that way until Washington finally decided how to regulate it. But th...
- CointelegraphScore: 70
X's new Cashtags feature drives $1B trading volume in first two days
X’s Cashtags feature has been integrated into Canadian-based online brokerage Wealthsimple, but has not yet been adopted by a US trading platform.
- CryptoSlateScore: 70
Bitcoin now has just 4 days before ceasefire deadline risks price reversal with Hormuz closed again
Iran's Friday announcement that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened during the current ceasefire triggered one of the sharpest oil reversals of the year. Brent crude fell 12.95% to $86.52, and WTI dropped 14.26% to $81.19, both their lowest levels since Mar. 11 and the largest single-day declines s...
- The BlockScore: 70
Alcoa nears deal to sell dormant New York smelter site to Bitcoin miner NYDIG: Bloomberg
Oplinger said the transaction should close in the middle part of this year, as the aluminum giant works to offload 10 dormant US smelter sites.
- The BlockScore: 70
RaveDAO team denies role in RAVE token pump as Binance, Bitget open investigations
Onchain investigator ZachXBT alleged a pump-and-dump scheme and has offered a $25,000 bounty for whistleblowers.
- CoinDeskScore: 65
Wrapped XRP goes live on Solana, broadening DeFi access for Ripple-linked token
Wrapped XRP on Solana lets XRP holders access Jupiter, Phantom, and Meteora without selling the asset, the latest step in Hex Trust's multi-chain wXRP rollout first announced in December.
- CoinDeskScore: 65
Zondacrypto under fire as Poland's prime minister links exchange to legislative interference
The company also disclosed a 4,500 BTC wallet that it can't access due to missing private keys linked to a former CEO, who's now missing.
- CointelegraphScore: 65
Iran views BTC as a strategic asset, but USDt still dominates oil tolls: BPI
The Iranian government chose Bitcoin as a payment method for oil tolls due to its confiscation-resistant properties, but only dollar stablecoins have been used so far.
- CryptoSlateScore: 60
FSB warns of ‘triple whammy’ crisis as private credit threat to global markets worsens
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is warning that global markets could be heading toward a chain reaction in which tighter funding, war-driven volatility, and deepening cracks in non-bank finance converge into what its chair calls a possible “double or triple whammy” for financial stab...
- CointelegraphScore: 60
Poland parliament fails again to override presidential veto on crypto bill
Poland’s parliament has once again failed to overturn President Karol Nawrocki’s veto of the crypto regulation bill.
- CryptoSlateScore: 60
Why Kevin Warsh should become Bitcoin’s most impactful Fed chair yet
Kevin Warsh is set to become the first Federal Reserve chair with disclosed crypto holdings, and the first whose policy instincts could still squeeze the sector harder than his predecessors. Most Americans don't follow Fed personnel drama closely, but they feel its aftershocks every month through mo...
- CoinDeskScore: 60
From smelters to servers: Alcoa to cash in on crypto’s thirst for energy
Alcoa is in advanced negotiations to sell its dormant Massena East smelter in upstate New York to Bitcoin mining firm NYDIG.
- CointelegraphScore: 50
Stablecoins behave like FX markets as liquidity splits: Eco CEO
Stablecoins promise seamless dollar movement, but fragmented liquidity is turning large transfers into complex execution problems, says Eco CEO Ryne Saxe.
- CointelegraphScore: 50
Bitcoin mining difficulty falls, but projected to rise in next adjustment
The average block time at publication is about 9.8 minutes, falling slightly short of the 10-minute block target, according to CoinWarz.
- CoinDeskScore: 45
XRP leads majors with 8% weekly outperformance, what next after breakout
Token edges ahead of bitcoin and ether over seven days, though thinning participation keeps the move in consolidation territory.
- CoinDeskScore: 40
Former UK Prime Minister sees economy on 'very negative trajectory,' indicates support for bitcoin
Truss criticized central banking and defended her mini-budget, suggesting bitcoin and a CPAC UK conference could help push for economic reform.
- CoinDeskScore: 40
Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin warns of the dangers of AI being controlled by a few big tech firms
In an interview with CoinDesk, the Ethereum co-founder spoke also about Ethereum’s evolution through MetaMask, stablecoins and tokenization, while downplaying quantum computing as a long-term, manageable issue.
- DecryptScore: 40
OpenAI's New AI Model Rosalind Could Shave Years Off Drug Discovery. You Probably Can't Use It
GPT-Rosalind is OpenAI's first domain-specific model, built for drug discovery and life sciences—and it's not for everyone.
- CoinDeskScore: 40
AI is increasingly eating into VC fundings and here is how crypto firms are adapting
AI companies raised $242 billion (80% of global venture funding) in early 2026, with Gartner projecting total AI spending will reach $2.52 trillion this year.
- CoinDeskScore: 40
Why Michael Saylor's Strategy decided to make STRC's dividend bi-monthly
Strategy aim to reduce volatility, enable consistent bitcoin buying, and create the only bi-monthly paying preferred shares in the market.
- CointelegraphScore: 40
Solana futures open interest rose by 20% this week: Is $100 SOL next?
SOL’s steady recovery alongside the wider crypto market has traders debating whether $100 could be the next stop for the altcoin.
- CoinDeskScore: 30
The Lightning Network isn’t ‘helplessly broken’
Shell argues the network is fixable and proposes a different framing to the recent quantum debate.
- CoinDeskScore: 30
Bitcoin 'plebs eat first' mining pool Parasite finds its second BTC block
Parasite Pool, which pays 1 BTC to the block finder and splits the rest among all participants, mined block 945,601 on Friday, about 48 days after its first.
- DecryptScore: 20
GalaxyOne Head Wants Retail Investors to Stake More, Predict Less
Zac Prince, head of Galaxy’s retail platform, said he struggles to see prediction markets in diversified portfolios for long-term investors.