Synthetix founder threatens SNX stakers with ‘the stick’ to fix SUSD depeg
Synthetix founder Kain Warwick has threatened SNX stakers with “the stick” if they don’t take up a newly launched staking mechanism to help fix the protocol’s ongoing sUSD (SUSD) depeg.Warwick said in an April 21 post to X that it has now implemented a sUSD staking mechanism to address the depeg, but admitted it is currently “very manual” without a proper user interface. However, once the UI goes live, Warwick said, if there isn’t enough momentum, then they may have to “ratchet up the pressure” on the stakers in the sUSD 420 pool.The sUSD 420 Pool was a new staking mechanism introduced on April 18 by Synthetix that would reward participants with a share of 5 million SNX tokens over 12 months if they locked their sUSD for a year in the pool. “This is very solvable and it is SNX stakers responsibility. We tried nothing which didn’t work, now we have tried the carrot and it kind of worked but I’m reserving judgement,” he said.“I think we all know how much I like the stick so if you think you will get away with not eating the carrot I’ve got some bad news for you.”Source: Kain WarwickSynthetix sUSD is a crypto-collateralized stablecoin. Users lock up SNX tokens to mint sUSD, making its stability highly dependent on the market value of Synthetix (SNX).Synthetix’s stablecoin has faced several bouts of instability since the start of 2025. On April 18, it tapped $0.68, down almost 31% from its intended 1:1 peg with the US dollar. As of April 21, it’s trading at around $0.77, according to data from CoinGecko.SNX stakers are the key to fixing depeg“The collective net worth of SNX stakers is like multiple billions the money to solve this is there we just need to dial in the incentives,” Warwick said.“We will start slow and iterate but I’m confident we will resolve this and get back to building perps on L1.”A Synthetix spokesperson told Cointelegraph on April 18 that sUSD’s short-term volatility was driven by “structural shifts” after the SIP-420 launch, a proposal that shifts debt risk from stakers to the protocol itself. Other stablecoins have depegged in the past and recovered. Circles USDC (USDC) depegged in March 2023 due to the stablecoin issuer announcing $3.3 billion of its reserves were tied up with the collapsed Silicon Valley Bank.Related: How and why do stablecoins depeg?In recent times, Justin Sun-linked stablecoin TrueUSD (TUSD) fell below its $1 peg in January after reports that holders were cashing out hundreds of millions worth of TUSD in exchange for competitor stablecoin Tether (USDT).Stablecoin market capitalization has grown since mid-2023, surpassing $200 billion in early 2025, with total stablecoin volumes reaching $27.6 trillion, surpassing the combined volumes of Visa and Mastercard by 7.7%. Magazine: Uni students crypto ‘grooming’ scandal, 67K scammed by fake women: Asia Express
Users being polite to ChatGPT is costing OpenAI millions — Sam Altman
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says users sending “please” and “thank you” messages to ChatGPT is costing the company tens of millions of dollars.“Tens of millions of dollars well spent — you never know,” Altman said on April 16 after being asked to estimate the cost on X.Source: Sam AltmanAltman’s response sparked discussion about what drives users to interact with AI models in a polite manner.Some AI users say they interact politely with the bots in case AI becomes sentient and starts treating people based on how they interacted with it in the past.Source: ZvbearOthers, such as engineer Carl Youngblood, claim they’re motivated to treat the AI well for personal development:“Treating AIs with courtesy is a moral imperative for me. I do it out of self-interest. Callousness in our daily interactions causes our interpersonal skills to atrophy.”A December 2024 survey by Future found that 67% of American users are polite to AI assistants, with 55% doing so because it’s the right thing to do, and the other 12% doing so out of fear that mistreating the bots could come back to haunt them.Debate over ChatGPT’s electricity consumptionA September 2023 research paper from Digiconomist founder and Bitcoin mining critic Alex de Vries states that a single ChatGPT query requires around three watt-hours of electricity.However, data analyst Josh You from AI research institute Epoch AI argues the figure is an overestimate, and is closer to 0.3 watt-hours due to more efficient models and hardware compared to 2023. One responder to Altman’s post wondered why ChatGPT doesn’t have a solution to save electricity costs on courtesy words like please and thank you.Altman recently stated that the cost of AI output has been falling tenfold every year as AI models become more efficient.Related: AI tokens, memecoins dominate crypto narratives in Q1 2025: CoinGeckoMeanwhile, OpenAI expects to more than triple its revenue this year to $12.7 billion, despite an uptick in competition from the likes of China’s DeepSeek and others making rapid progress.OpenAI does not expect to be cash-flow positive until 2029, when it expects its revenue to top $125 billion.Magazine: Your AI ‘digital twin’ can take meetings and comfort your loved ones
Bybit CEO: Two-thirds of Lazarus-hacked funds remain traceable
Crypto exchange Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou says more than two-thirds of the digital assets stolen from the platform in February by North Korea’s Lazarus Group still remain traceable. In an executive summary on hacked Bybit funds posted on X on April 21, Ben Zhou said that of the total $1.4 billion hacked, 68.6% “remains traceable,” 27.6% has “gone dark,” and 3.8% has been frozen.The untraceable funds primarily flowed into mixers, then through bridges to peer-to-peer and over-the-counter platforms, he added. In February, hackers associated with the Lazarus Group exploited vulnerabilities in Bybit’s cold wallet infrastructure, stealing $1.4 billion in the largest crypto exchange hack to date.“Recently, we have observed that the mixer mainly used by the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] is Wasabi,” Zhou said before stating that following the Wasabi washing of BTC, “a small portion of it entered CryptoMixer, Tornado Cash, and Railgun.”Zhou confirmed that 944 Bitcoin (BTC) worth around $90 million went through the Wasabi mixer. Multiple crosschain and swap services were carried out through platforms such as THORChain, eXch, Lombard, LI.FI, Stargate, and SunSwap before the loot eventually entered P2P and OTC services, he added. Another 432,748 Ether (ETH), around 84% of the total worth roughly $1.21 billion, has been transferred from Ethereum to Bitcoin via THORChain. Around two-thirds of that — around $960 million worth of Ether — has been converted into 10,003 BTC across 35,772 wallets, he added. Around $17 million worth of Ether remains on the Ethereum blockchain across 12,490 wallets, Zhou reported. Around $1.2 billion worth of stolen crypto is still being tracked. Source: Lazarus BountyBybit pays around $2.3 million in bountiesZhou also revealed that only 70 of 5,443 bounty reports received over the past 60 days were valid. Bybit launched the Lazarus Bounty program in February, offering a total of $140 million in rewards for information leading to funds being frozen.To date, it has paid out $2.3 million to 12 bounty hunters. Most of this went to one entity, the Mantle layer-2 platform, whose efforts resulted in $42 million worth of frozen funds. Related: Lazarus Group’s 2024 pause was repositioning for $1.4B Bybit hack“We welcome more reports, we need more bounty hunters that can decode mixers, as we need a lot of help there down the road,” Zhou said. On April 17, the eXch crypto exchange announced it would cease operations on May 1 after reports alleged the firm was used to launder funds from the Bybit hack.Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest
Bitcoin whales, pundits continued to stack throughout April, data shows
The number of addresses holding more than a thousand Bitcoin has surged in April as whales continue to accumulate. More than 60 new wallets holding over 1,000 Bitcoin (BTC) have appeared since early March, a signal of increasing whale activity. The number of these whale wallets has increased from 2,037 in late February to hit a four-month high of 2,107 on April 15, according to Glassnode. This has returned the metric to levels seen in two spikes in whale addresses in November and December, when crypto markets were surging following the election of US President Donald Trump. The all-time high for Bitcoin whale addresses was in February 2021, when it came just short of 2,500.Number of addresses with a Bitcoin balance of over 1,000 BTC. Source: Glassnode The number of addresses holding over 100 BTC has also climbed marginally this year, reaching 18,026 on April 20, according to Glassnode. However, smaller holders with less than 10 coins have been in decline over the past few months. Whales continue stackingOn April 18, Cointelegraph reported that Bitcoin whales were absorbing the asset at record rates of over 300% of the yearly issuance while exchange balances were falling. Bitcoin whales holding over 10,000 coins remain in strong accumulation territory as the dip buying continues, according to Glassnode. “Whales are accumulating massive amounts of Bitcoin, they know what comes next,” said Bitcoin trader ‘Mister Crypto’ on April 20.Bitcoin whale position change. Source: Mister Crypto Related: Bitcoin price falls toward range lows, but data shows ‘whales going wild right now’Meanwhile, Bitcoin prices appear to be breaking out of a sideways channel that began in early March. The asset climbed more than $3,000 on the day to reclaim $87,400 on April 21 for the first time since March 28. Bitcoin’s breakout from a multimonth falling wedge chart pattern signals a potential bullish reversal that could drive its price back toward six figures by May, according to analysts. Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest
Debate as Solana briefly flips Ethereum in staking market cap
The Solana network briefly surpassed Ethereum in total staked value of their respective native tokens, SOL and ETH, sparking debate over whether it is actually bullish or bearish for Solana. More than $53.9 billion worth of SOL is now staked on the Solana network from 505,938 unique wallet holders, who are making an 8.31% annualized return, blockchain data shows.The figure briefly overtook the staked ETH market cap on April 20, which now has $53.93 billion worth of value secured from 34.7 million staked tokens, Beaconcha.in data shows.Source: Alex SvanevikA contributing factor behind the flippening has been SOL’s strong price performance relative to ETH over the last two years, which has seen the SOL/ETH price ratio rise nearly tenfold from 0.0088 to 0.0866 since June 12, 2023, CoinGecko data shows.High SOL staking return is stifling Solana DeFi, pundits sayHowever, the “risk-free” 8.31% return for SOL stakers at the network level — significantly higher than ETH’s 2.98% — may be attracting Solana users away from DeFi activities, such as providing liquidity to automated market makers and lending protocols in exchange for token rewards.“Solana having 65% of its marketcap staked means there’s no other use of it’s token, it’s actually bearish,” Builda Protocol developer and X user “JC” said.DefiLlama data shows that there are $21.5 billion worth of liquid staked ETH tokens on Ethereum compared to just $7.22 billion of liquid staked SOL on Solana.Multicoin Capital managing partner Tushar Jain previously said that Solana DeFi has been stifled because it’s not rational to make an investment in something that produces a lower return than the “risk-free” investment.“It doesn’t make sense for you to provide liquidity on a SOL/USDC AMM when that might earn you 5% but staking earns you 7%.”Ethereum also dominates in terms of DeFi total value locked at $50.4 million compared to Solana’s $8.85 billion.Industry pundits also pointed out that there are still far more validators securing the Ethereum network at 1.06 million compared to Solana’s 1,243.Solana staking isn’t really staking, Ethereum researcher arguesOne Ethereum researcher said Solana staking isn’t really securing the Solana network because there isn’t a mechanism to penalize bad actors for malicious behavior.“It’s very ironic to call it ‘staking’ when there is no slashing. What’s at stake?” Dankrad Feist said in an April 20 X post. “Solana has close to zero economic security at the moment.”Solana Labs said slashing is already possible, but it’s not automatic, and the attacker’s assets can only be slashed by restarting the entire network.Related: Ethereum price in ‘cursed’ downtrend which could continue well into 2025 — AnalystSolana is looking to roll out a more comprehensive slashing solution later this year, according to Multicoin Capital Managing Partner Kyle Samani.Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko said he’s pushing for a “correlated slashing” mechanism, where the penalty would be equal to the square of the difference between a validator’s faulty stake in an epoch and the median network staked validator.Source: Anatoly YakovenkoMeanwhile, Ethereum developers and researchers have been exploring ways to decentralize Ethereum staking. Many Ethereum stakers have resorted to liquid staking protocols over the last few years due to the high 32 ETH ($50,750) minimum needed to run an independent validator. However, this shift has led to the Lido protocol capturing an 88% share in Ethereum’s liquid staking market, adding another layer to Ethereum’s staking centralization concerns.Magazine: Comeback 2025: Is Ethereum poised to catch up with Bitcoin and Solana?
Bitcoin 'breaking out' as it retakes $87K after early April slump
Bitcoin prices appear to be breaking out of an extended period of consolidation as the asset climbs to its highest level since late March. Bitcoin (BTC) surged above $87,400 on April 21, its highest price since March 28, according to TradingView. It has climbed by more than $3,000 from an intraday low of just over $84,000 on April 20. The asset has now gained 16% since its 2025 low of just below $75,000 on April 9, and the distance from its peak price has been reduced to 20%. While a 2.4% daily gain is not out of the ordinary for Bitcoin, it has moved the asset to the upper bounds of a range-bound channel that began in early March. “Bitcoin is breaking out,” while Nasdaq futures are down 1%, observed Scott Melker, aka “The Wolf Of All Streets.” BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingviewBitcoin and gold correlation strengthens“The narrative in both gold and Bitcoin is aligning for the first time in years,” commented the Kobeissi Letter on X, observing gold’s recent all-time high and Bitcoin’s breakout. “Gold has hit its 55th all-time high in 12 months and Bitcoin is officially joining the run,” it stated before adding: “Gold and Bitcoin are telling us that a weaker US Dollar is more uncertainty is on the way.”The US dollar Index (DXY), which is a measure of the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, has declined 10% since the beginning of this year as global trade tensions escalate. Related: Bitcoin gets $90K short-term target amid warning support ‘isn’t safe’The move was also observed by “Geiger Capital,” which also observed the decline in tech futures and the USD, adding that Bitcoin was “decoupling.”- Tech futures down- Dollar down- Gold new ATH- Bitcoin breaking out/decouplingRealize where we are. pic.twitter.com/XqZRlEHj39— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) April 21, 2025Some analysts had predicted a fall to $83,000 over the Easter weekend, citing exchange order books, but BTC appears to have defied them. On April 19, analyst ‘Rekt Capital’ observed that Bitcoin hasn’t just broken the downtrend, it “successfully retested it as support for the first time since downtrend formation.”Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest
Blocksquare, Vera Capital ink deal to tokenize $1B in US real estate
Ethereum-based real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform Blocksquare has partnered with a Florida-based real estate company to offer fractional ownership in a pipeline of US commercial properties valued at over $1 billion. Announcing the deal on April 18, Blocksquare and Vera Capital said a marketplace would launch in the coming weeks to enable global investors to buy tokenized shares in “dozens of properties” located across seven US states. The first tokenized properties that will be up for grabs are part of Vera Group’s existing holdings, which include a three-storey office building in Fort Lauderdale and a retail plaza in Dania Beach, according to two properties listed on Vera Capital’s website.Source: Vera Capital“All our assets are already part of the group, so with the Vera Fund they’ve already been purchased, and they are owned by us, managed by us and we are only improving them,” Vera Group CEO Nick Polyushkin said.Vera Capital is a subsidiary of Vera Group, which also runs a South Florida real estate agency, real estate management company, and a real estate investment fund with over $100 million invested through commercial property acquisitions, land development and residential developments.Polyushkin said the $1 billion figure comes from the company’s roadmap, which includes tokenizing existing assets and raising funds for development projects. He said future properties the company plans to tokenize include two unit complexes valued at between $70 and $100 million.“This is ambitious numbers if you’re looking at this from the perspective of residential use in investments, but from a commercial standpoint, this is a very realistic number and not just achievable, it’s over-achievable,” he said.Related: RWAs rise to $17B all-time high, as Bitcoin falls below $100KTokenized real estate still needs legal clarity in US To date, Blocksquare has been used to tokenize around 150 properties in 28 countries, at a value of over $145 million. The platform launched an EU-compliant framework in February 2025 to enable property owners to tokenize economic rights tied to real estate through notarized agreements. Blocksquare CEO Denis Petrovic said once the Vera Group partnership was in progress, Blocksquare started to research to “see if the framework we have from Luxembourg will also be applicable for the US.”“There’s always the option obviously of launching tokens directly without the Luxembourg entity getting involved, but just having it there it’s an additional convenience for a marketplace based out of the US like Vera Group,” he said.Magazine: Have your stake and earn fees too: Tushar Aggarwal on double dipping in DeFi
NFT project plans crowdfund purchase of Cold War nuclear bunker
A doomsday-themed Solana NFT project is looking to sell 100,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to buy a Cold War-era nuclear bunker in Rutland, England.Dead Bruv, the creators of the narrative-driven NFT project Meatbags, plan to mint 100,000 NFTs, with Meatbags holders being airdropped 10,000. The the rest will be sold off starting April 21, starting at $14 a pop, according to a post on the Meatbags X account. Holders will gain entry into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), called the Billionaire Bunker Club, a “fully decentralized, community-governed real-world asset onchain,” which will vote on what happens with the bunker if the effort to buy it is successful. Source: MeatbagsA few ideas floated by the NFT project include a “members-only survival resort with Doomsday DJ,” a location to hold end-of-the-world festivals, or “an Airbnb with caviar tastings and canned bean room service.” UK online auctioneer SDL Property Auctions has the bunker Dead Bruv is hoping to buy listed for a guide price of 650,000 British pounds ($862,257), and an auction date scheduled for April 24. The real estate listing says the bunker is located on 1.4 acres near a former reservoir and has permission to convert into a house. The bunker was built in 1960 to act as a monitoring post during the Cold War and was decommissioned in 1968. It was one of 1,500 tasked with reporting any nuclear bursts and monitoring any radioactive fallout, according to SDL Property Auctions.Cointelegraph contacted SDL Property Auctions for comment. Nuclear bunker buy began as a jokeRobert, the pseudonymous co-founder of Dead Bruv, said in an April 18 statement to X that the initiative was about trying to “make NFTs fun again” and was sparked by a joke that turned into a “lightbulb moment.” “There’s not much to compare this to, but these are the kinds of things that made me fall in love with NFTs in the first place. Taking risks. Getting creative. Pushing the boundaries of what this tech can do to create something completely new, absurd, and incredible,” he said. “When something comes from a place of, this is completely insane, we gotta do it, that’s when I know we’re onto something,” Robert added. Source: RobertThis isn’t the first time a DOA has turned to crowdfunding to buy an expensive item. ConstitutionDAO managed to raise about $47 million in Ether (ETH) in 2021 to purchase an original copy of the United States Constitution, which was going under the hammer at auctioneer Sotheby’s. Related: NFT sales plunge 63% in Q1, but Pudgy Penguins, Doodles buck trendUltimately, they were unsuccessful. The winning bid was $43.2 million, and the DAO was limited to a bid of $43 million by Sotheby’s to factor in taxes and the costs required to protect, insure and move the Constitution. Meanwhile, LinksDAO secured the winning bid to purchase Scotland-based Spey Bay Golf Club in May 2023. The DAO claims it added the US-based Hillcrest Country Club to its holdings in February. Magazine: Altcoin season to hit in Q2? Mantra’s plan to win trust: Hodler’s Digest, April 13 – 19