It was a bruising week for DeFi. North Korea’s Lazarus Group is suspected of draining $290 million from KelpDAO in one of the year’s largest exploits, pushing April’s total hack losses to $606 million
Meanwhile, Justin Sun filed a federal lawsuit against Trump’s World Liberty Financial after claiming his $75 million token position was secretly frozen. And a U.S. Special Forces soldier now faces charges for allegedly betting on a covert military operation using Polymarket.
Read the full recap for everything that moved markets this week.
HBAR Faces Perfect Storm of Bearish Pressure
Hedera is trading at $0.0915, down 77% from its 2025 peak, with more pain potentially ahead. A record 3.7 billion tokens are set to unlock this quarter, threatening to flood supply, while ETF inflows have dried up and network activity remains weak. Analysts see potential for a drop to $0.050.
U.S. Soldier Charged After Betting $32K on Maduro Capture, and Pocketing $400K
A U.S. Special Forces sergeant who helped plan the January operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro has been charged with insider trading after allegedly betting on the outcome using Polymarket. Staff Sgt. Gannon Van Dyke reportedly cleared up to $436,000. Polymarket cooperated with investigators and referred the account to the DOJ.
TON Slashes Fees Sixfold, Plans to Make Most Transactions Free
Toncoin is cutting transaction fees to a fixed $0.0005, with plans to eventually eliminate charges for most operations. The move follows Catchain 2.0, which boosted network throughput tenfold. With Telegram’s 950 million users as a backdrop, the economics look compelling, but TON’s price is still down 57% this year.
Zcash Jumps 10% After Robinhood Lists ZEC for U.S. Retail
Zcash surged over 10% to a session high of $347.78 after Robinhood listed ZEC on its platform, including New York, a notoriously restricted jurisdiction. Trading volume climbed 50% to $553 million. Analysts see $380 as the next key level if momentum holds.
Wisconsin Sues Kalshi, Coinbase, and Robinhood Over Sports Betting Claims
Wisconsin’s attorney general has sued Kalshi, Coinbase, Robinhood, Polymarket, and Crypto.com, accusing them of offering illegal sports betting disguised as prediction market contracts. The state argues the binary-payout products are functionally identical to sports wagers and is seeking court injunctions to ban them from operating in Wisconsin.
JPG Store Closure Adds to Cardano’s Growing List of Problems
JPG Store, one of Cardano’s top NFT marketplaces, is shutting down on May 23 after six years, the latest sign of deepening trouble for the network. NFT sales have collapsed to just $12,000 daily, DeFi TVL sits at $130 million, and no assets have been tokenized on-chain.
Crypto Industry Pushes Senate to Fast-Track Market Structure Bill
Over 120 crypto firms, including Coinbase, Ripple, and Kraken, have formally urged the Senate Banking Committee to schedule a vote on long-stalled market structure legislation. The industry wants clear SEC/CFTC oversight boundaries and uniform federal rules, warning that continued regulatory uncertainty is driving crypto innovation offshore.
SUI Dips After $3.5M Exploit, But Analysts Still Eye $1.75
A $3.5 million hack on Sui-based liquid staking platform Volo Protocol pushed SUI down over 3% to $0.93, just as the network’s TVL crossed $1.2 billion. Despite the setback, analysts point to three months of tight consolidation as a bullish signal, with price targets of $1.10 and $1.75 if Bitcoin holds steady.
Justin Sun Sues Trump-Backed WLFI Over Frozen $75M Token Position
Tron founder Justin Sun has filed a federal lawsuit against World Liberty Financial, alleging the Trump-backed crypto project secretly added a blacklist function to its token contract and used it to freeze 595 million of his WLFI tokens. Sun, the project’s largest investor, is seeking a court order to unfreeze his position.
Venice Token Surges 930% as User Base Tops 2 Million
Venice Token has rallied nearly 1,000% from its January low, climbing to $9.55 and approaching its all-time high of $10. Growth is driven by a rising user base, strong token burn activity, and AI sector momentum. Analysts warn the token looks overbought and could pull back sharply in the near term.
ZachXBT Flags Multiple Tokens for Manipulation After RaveDAO Crashes 96%
RaveDAO collapsed from $28 to under $1 in a matter of days, wiping out billions. On-chain sleuth ZachXBT flagged the drop as market manipulation, pointing to suspicious wallet activity and unusually low liquidations. He also warned about MemeCore, Siren, River, and Pippin, citing inflated market caps relative to paper-thin trading volumes.
NVIDIA Stock Eyes $250 as Technicals and Growth Story Align
NVIDIA stock has surged for five straight days, approaching its all-time high of $213 and breaking above key technical indicators. Analysts project 78% revenue growth this year, while its forward PEG ratio sits at just 0.64, well below sector norms. A potential Trump visit to China could also unlock a $50 billion annual market.
DeFi Hacks Surge to $1.7 Billion, Draining Industry Trust
Crypto hacks have hit $606 million in April alone, the worst month since February 2025. The biggest hits: a $293 million exploit of Kelp via a LayerZero bridge vulnerability, and a $285 million social engineering attack on Solana’s Drift exchange. DeFi’s total locked value has since fallen from $166 billion to $89 billion.
North Korea’s Lazarus Group Suspected in $290M KelpDAO Exploit
KelpDAO was drained of roughly $290 million on April 18 after attackers, likely North Korea’s Lazarus Group, compromised RPC nodes and exploited a single-verifier cross-chain setup to mint 116,500 unbacked rsETH tokens. LayerZero, whose messaging infrastructure was used, says its core protocol was not at fault.
