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Eagleopolis has fallen despite Helldivers 2 players slapping up 2.5 billion squids for an opening victory in the battle for Super Earth, leaving six Mega Cities to defend

by admin May 23, 2025

Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Well, good news, Helldivers 2 managed to win the first major order of the battle for Super Earth by slaughtering over two billion Illuminate. The bad news? It’s not stopped Eagleopolis from falling.

As it turns out, not even the biggest number of Helldivers the game’s had since last spring diving in to help try and hold off the invasion of fresh Illuminate baddies was enough to stop one of Super Earth’s seven Mega Cities being reduced to ruins. It’s ok, don’t cry. Hug your SEAF buddy and watch a clip of someone surfing on a Leviathan if that’ll help.

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The previous major order, which was the Helldivers’ initial defense of Super Earth after the Illuminate invasion of their home planet began with the arrival of the Heart of Democracy update, ended this morning. Things looked good, the goal of casually killing 2.5 billion Illuminate had been achieved. Let the good times roll right?

Nope, said Arrowhead. “Eagleopolis, a venerable stronghold of Managed Democracy since time immemorial, lies in ruins,” the studio informed us all via its latest MO briefing, “Its tattered shopping centers stand in warning as to the fate that awaits the rest of Super Earth, should our mission fail.”

So, that’s one of the seven Mega Cities which make up Super Earth destroyed, but there’s still a long way to go in the battle for Super Earth, and that win has seen folks make some progress towards wiping out the entire Illuminate fleet or forcing it to retreat.

Eagleopolis, a venerable stronghold of Managed Democracy since time immemorial, lies in ruins. Its tattered shopping centers stand in warning as to the fate that awaits the rest of Super Earth, should our mission fail.

The initial wave of assault is over. The Battle for Super… pic.twitter.com/wWgL8gfaiu

— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) May 23, 2025

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“Illuminate Fleet Strength currently stands at 49%,” Arrowhead continued, “Six Mega Cities remain standing. The Helldivers must dig in, alongside their SEAF allies, and continue to fight, day and night, to defend the heart of our Federation. The surviving Mega Cities must be defended at all costs. The Helldivers must deploy to the Mega Cities as Illuminate pressure shifts among them to prevent them from falling. Once they fall, they cannot be reclaimed.”

Hence the latest order’s goal – successfull extract from missions against the Illuminate 20 million times, in order to strike a further blow to the fleet’s big invisible health bar. And, of course, to avenge Eagleopolis, which I’m sure people on the game’s subreddit would be cut up about if they weren’t too busy post fan art about loving their SEAF trooper buddies in a fashion that totally isn’t getting a bit creepy.

Are you shedding super tears for Eagleopolis? Let us know below!

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

Worldcoin rallies 10% as World Foundation raises $135M

NFT Gaming

Worldcoin and Hyperliquid to extend price rallies

by admin May 23, 2025

Worldcoin and Hyperliquid rank among the top two cryptocurrencies by weekly gains. CoinGecko data shows that WLD and HYPE gained nearly 35% in the past week. The two tokens could extend their price rally next week.

Worldcoin (WLD) has rallied for seven consecutive weeks, seen in the WLD/USDT weekly price chart. In the last 24 hours, WLD gained nearly 2% and nearly 35% in the last seven days. Worldcoin’s rally is likely driven by a series of announcements from the Sam Altman-led AI firm regarding the project’s expansion plans.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) added 7% to its value on the day, up nearly 35% in the last seven days. The project’s recent gains are attributed to HYPE accumulation and demand from crypto elites like Arthur Hayes, former BitMEX CEO and co-founder of Maelstrom.

Worldcoin and Hyperliquid price forecast

Worldcoin posted seven consecutive weeks of gains, and the rally continued this week. WLD price could extend its rally according to technical indicators on the weekly timeframe. A 32% increase could push WLD to test psychologically important resistance at $2.

RSI reads 51, crossing above the neutral level at 50 and MACD flashes consecutively green histogram bars, signaling a positive underlying momentum in WLD price trend.

In the event of a flashcrash or market-wide correction, WLD could slip to support at $0.914.

WLD/USDT weekly price chart | Source: Crypto.news

The daily price chart supports a similar thesis with WLD targeting resistance at $1.641, the lower boundary of an FVG. This marks nearly 8% climb for WLD from the current price level of $1.538.

The $0.835 support is key to WLD as the AI token continues its upward trend. RSI has crossed above 70, into the “overbought” zone and MACD signals positive underlying momentum in WLD price trend.

WLD faces resistance at $2, marked as R2 on the WLD/USDT daily price chart.

WLD/USDT daily price chart | Source: Crypto.news

HYPE is 13% away from its closest resistance, at R1, marked by $40 on the daily timeframe. HYPE started its upward trend on April 7, 2025. The token could find support at $32 in the event of a correction.

Momentum indicators on the daily timeframe support further gains in HYPE, RSI climbed towards 83 and is sloping upwards. MACD is flashing green histogram bars above the neutral line, signaling the underlying positive momentum in HYPE price trend.

The 2024 peak of $42.252 is a key target for HYPE, it comes into play once the token flips resistance at $40 into support.

HYPE/USDT daily price chart | Source: Crypto.news

WLD and HYPE on-chain analysis

Worldcoin’s on-chain indicators support a bullish thesis for WLD in the coming weeks. Network realized profit and loss, a metric that identifies the net profit/loss of all tokens moved on a given day shows consistent loss realization from traders throughout the first part of 2025.

NPL shows likely capitulation in WLD, typically followed by an increase in a token’s price. The whale transaction count in two segments, valued at $100,000 and $1 million and higher shows spikes this week.

Large wallet investors moved their WLD tokens realizing gains on their holdings, in a relatively small volume compared to the count of traders taking losses in the past few weeks. This shows selling pressure on WLD is relatively low and there is scope for price gain next week.

Worldcoin on-chain analysis | Source: Santiment

Hyperliquid’s on-chain metrics show a spike in trade volume, weighted sentiment and social dominance alongside the rally. HYPE price rallied this week, driving up the share of HYPE’s mentions across social media platforms and weighted sentiment turned increasingly positive.

While a spike is noted in social dominance and weighted sentiment, it remains relatively low when compared to the large positive spike observed in March 2025. This was followed by a correction in HYPE and the token started its upward trend in the second week of April 2025.

Hyperliquid on-chain analysis | Source: Santiment

Derivatives traders bullish on HYPE rally, WLD hype fades

Derivatives data from Coinglass shows that long/short ratio exceeds 1 for HYPE. This implies traders are bullish on gain in HYPE price, and short positions dominate liquidations in the 24 hour timeframe.

The total liquidations for the last 24 hours are $940,000, a majority of short positions paid for longs, according to Coinglass data.

Hyperliquid derivatives data analysis | Source: Coinglass

The futures open interest chart for HYPE shows that OI is at its highest level since December 2024. OI has climbed to $1.16 billion, during the ongoing price rally and this marks the total value of open derivatives contracts in HYPE.

Hyperliquid futures open interest (USD) | Source: Coinglass

Worldcoin derivatives data analysis shows nearly 50% increase in OI in the last 24 hours. Similar to HYPE, short liquidations exceed long and the total volume of liquidations stands above $7 million.

The long/short ratio is under 1 and shows derivatives traders may not be as bullish on WLD price gain and sidelined buyers should exercise caution when opening a trade in the AI token.

Worldcoin derivatives data analysis | Source: Coinglass

Catalysts driving gains in WLD and HYPE

For WLD, one of the largest catalysts is the announcement of Worldcoin’s expansion and the direct token sale to a16z and Bain Capital Crypto. News of a direct purchase of $135 million in WLD has fueled a bullish sentiment among traders.

Through its official account, the Worldcoin team said that the investment was a direct purchase of non-discounted tokens, by two of the “earliest backers” of the project.

The funding comes from two of World’s earliest backers and long-term holders — a16z and Bain Capital Crypto.
This wasn’t a venture round. It was a direct purchase of non-discounted liquid tokens.

The circulating supply of WLD has thus increased correspondingly.…

— World (@worldcoin) May 21, 2025

Hyperliquid has made several announcements about bridges built to transfer tokens to the HYPE ecosystem, new listings and partnerships. However, a recent tweet from Maelstrom co-founder Arthur Hayes has supported the social media mentions of HYPE.

Early on Friday, Messari Crypto reported that a Hyperliquid short-seller got liquidated for $23 million as the token posted nearly 90% gains.

Tether and its partner Plasma Foundation power zero-fee stablecoin transfers and the initiative was extended to the Hyperliquid exchange, adding to the list of catalysts.

The on-chain perpetual exchange’s new listings, partnerships and the arrival of zero-fee stablecoin transfers in its ecosystem are currently the largest catalysts driving gains in HYPE token.

Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Crypto Lender Ledn Goes Full Bitcoin Maxi as It Seeks to Reduce Client Asset Risk

by admin May 23, 2025

Cryptocurrency lender Ledn is removing support for ether

and will begin offering a bitcoin-only loan model starting July 1 as it looks to simplify its product and sharpen its focus around bitcoin .

The Cayman Islands-registered company may be attempting to broaden its appeal among the corners of the crypto community that say BTC is the only cryptocurrency that is needed. Such BTC advocates are often referred to as “Bitcoin Maxis.”

“With our new hyper-focus on Bitcoin-only lending, we’re going back to our roots and principles that inspired Bitcoin to begin with,” co-founder Adam Reeds said in an emailed announcement on Friday.

Ledn will also stop lending client assets to generate yield as it seeks to remove risk from its business model. Bitcoin offered to Ledn as collateral for loans will remain fully in its custody or that of its partners, Ledn said.

“Traditional finance relies on constantly reusing client assets to create leverage and, ultimately, inflation,” Reeds said. “Bitcoiners instinctively reject that model.”

Cryptocurrency lending was a major casualty of crypto winter in 2022, with the companies including BlockFi, Voyager, Celsius and Genesis going to the wall.

Ledn managed to survive and is now attempting to resurrect the BTC-backed lending sector, with its simplified product offering and helped by the friendlier regulatory approach to crypto in the U.S, co-founder Mauricio Di Bartolomeo told CoinDesk in a recent interview.

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

A Helicopter, Halibut, and ‘Y.M.C.A’: Inside Donald Trump’s Memecoin Dinner

by admin May 23, 2025

As US president Donald Trump left the stage at his golf club near Washington, DC, on Thursday night, he pointed to the crowd, brought his index finger to his temple—as if to say: You know what’s coming—then began to dance. To the beat of “Y.M.C.A” by The Village People, Trump shimmied, gyrated, and pumped his arms above his head.

Looking on were more than 200 people who had been invited to the Trump National Golf Club for a private gala dinner. They had won their seats by purchasing large quantities of Trump’s own crypto coin—TRUMP—some holding millions of dollars’ worth.

Courtesy of Sky/LuckyFuture.ai

On the menu for the evening was pan-seared halibut with a citrus reduction, a filet mignon with demi glaze—and, the attendees hoped, a chance to speak to the US president. Four of the guests agreed to tell WIRED about their experience.

By late afternoon, the dinner guests had started to filter through the gates of the golf club. By comparison to Trump’s previous banquets, thronging with DC insiders and members of the Silicon Valley elite, the crypto dinner attracted a mismatched collection of oddballs: independent traders rubbed shoulders with crypto executives, die-hard Trump fans, and even professional sports stars—former NBA player Lamar Odom towered overhead. A handful wore bowties in Bitcoin orange; others sported gold Trump sneakers.

Just after 7 pm, the dinner guests gathered at the window to watch Trump descend in Marine One, his presidential helicopter. A short while later, he appeared from behind a blue velvet curtain to whoops and applause from the crowd. Had they seen the helicopter, Trump asked. “Yeah, super cool!” somebody yelled.

From behind a lectern at one end of the dining room, backdropped by four US flags, Trump delivered a characteristically winding and digressive speech that sources say lasted around 25 minutes. At some point, he got round to crypto.

“We’ve got some of the smartest minds anywhere in the world right here in this room,” said Trump. “You believe in the whole crypto thing. A lot of people are starting to believe in it … This is really something that may be special—who knows, right? Who knows—but it may be special.”

When Trump first promoted his memecoin in January, three days before the inauguration, the limited amount released into circulation rose in value to $14 billion. The remaining 80 percent of the supply is controlled by CIC Digital LLC—a subsidiary of a conglomerate owned by the Trump family—and Fight Fight Fight LLC, formed by longtime Trump ally Bill Zanker. With little more than a social media post, Trump had added billions of dollars to his paper net worth. (The value of the circulating coins has since slumped to roughly $3 billion.)

The team behind the TRUMP coin announced the presidential dinner for the top 220 holders on April 23, promising the top 25 a close-quarters reception with Trump. The attendees would be selected based on who had held the most coins and kept them the longest between the announcement date and May 12, the website explained.

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Napoli edge out Inter Milan to win 4th Serie A title

by admin May 23, 2025

May 23, 2025, 04:48 PM ET

Napoli clinched their second Serie A title in three seasons after edging out Inter Milan thanks to a 2-0 home victory over Cagliari in a dramatic finale to the season on Friday.

It sealed a fourth Italian championship for Napoli, and a new record for head coach Antonio Conte. The Italian, 55, has become the first coach to win Serie A with three different clubs after previous titles with Inter Milan and Juventus.

Napoli led defending champions Inter by one point entering the final round and it briefly looked like the title might be staying in Milan in the first half.

Inter took the lead over Como in the 20th minute of a game being played simultaneously to Napoli’s match. But it was Conte’s two big summer signings who ensured the Scudetto headed back to Naples.

Scott McTominay went airborne to redirect a cross from Matteo Politano in the 42nd minute for his 12th goal this season after transferring from Manchester United.

Then Romelu Lukaku, who was signed from Chelsea in August, controlled a long vertical pass and dribbled by two defenders before scoring in the 51st. It was his 14th goal to go with his league-leading 10 assists.

It meant Inter’s 2-0 win at 10-man Como wasn’t enough for the Nerazzurri as Napoli claimed the title by a single point to ignite the celebrations at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, the stadium named after the man who led Napoli to their first two Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990.

After the glory days of Maradona faded, Napoli ended a 23-year wait to win the Scudetto when a team led by Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia marched to glory in 2023.

But having finished 10th last season, Conte has returned Napoli to the summit of Italian soccer.

Romelu Lukaku scored Napoli’s second goal in their win over Cagliari. ISABELLA BONOTTO/AFP via Getty Images

Conte has already won four Italian leagues. He led Juventus to the first three of their nine successive Serie A titles in each of his three seasons in charge from 2011-14, and won it with Inter in 2021.

In between them, he bagged a Premier League title with Chelsea in 2017.

While a handful of coaches have won Serie A with two teams, no one has ever done it with three. Although there is a significant asterisk.

Fabio Capello lifted league trophies with AC Milan (four times) and Roma before steering Juventus to back-to-back triumphs in 2005 and 2006, but the Bianconeri were stripped of both of those titles because of the Calciopoli refereeing scandal.

Conte inherited a team that was coming off a horrible season, having put up one of the worst title defenses in history and churning through three coaches.

Transforming the team back into title winners arguably ranks as one of Conte’s biggest achievements.

After losing an opener to Hellas Verona, Napoli won eight of their next nine games before winning seven in a row from mid-December through to the beginning of February.

Even the exit of star winger Kvaratskhelia to Paris Saint-Germain in January did not slow Napoli down, with just one defeat since his exit.

In the absence of Kvaratskhelia and Osimhen — who joined Galatasaray on loan last summer — Conte has drawn inspired form from Lukaku and McTominay, while building the most solid defence in Serie A.

Napoli have been aided by the fact they were without Europe this season and were knocked out of the Coppa Italia at the round of 16, whereas main rivals Inter reached the final of the UEFA Champions League and semifinals of the Coppa Italia.

Napoli will now return to Europe’s premier competition, with a big summer potentially ahead to bolster a thin squad.

Inter, who not long ago were dreaming of a treble, will now have to turn their focus to the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain on May 31.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

Hedge funds are betting against Metaplanet. The GameStop 2021 short squeeze scenario is possible

GameFi Guides

Hedge funds bet against Metaplanet. GameStop scenario?

by admin May 23, 2025

On May 23, 2025, Metaplanet topped the list of Japanese stocks as the most active stock. The same day, Metaplanet became the top loser, which didn’t stop it from being the biggest stock in Japan as it still leads by a large margin. The company is allegedly on the brink of a huge short squeeze similar to the GameStop 2021 situation. How did this small hotel operator become the fastest-growing stock in Japan and an international role model Bitcoin accumulator?

While currently Metaplanet poses itself as “Japan’s first and only publicly listed Bitcoin Treasury Company,” it hasn’t always been like that. The company has a rich history predating Bitcoin’s existence, and Metaplanet’s newfound Bitcoin fame is just the latest episode of a long run.

The company started in 1999. At the early stage, it had a different name and was working in various spheres. In 2010, Simon Gerovich, Metaplanet’s CEO, founded a hotel business with budget hotels in Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan.

The COVID quarantine harmed the hotel business. Around the same time, Gerovich learned about Michael Saylor’s Stratgy switch to Bitcoin.

The crucial change occurred in 2024. Here’s how the company puts it on its website:

“In 2024, Metaplanet’s management embarked on a strategic pivot, recognizing Bitcoin as the world’s most scarce monetary asset and transformed the company into a Bitcoin Treasury Company.”

Metaplanet sold all the hotels but one. Ever since, Metaplanet has been following its new plan to aggressively stack bitcoins, which are seen as a long-term reserve asset. The company is working to accrue the wealth of Metaplanet’s shareholders and harness transparency and fairness. The company’s aim is to make its stock more profitable than Bitcoin. On top of this, Metaplanet consults other companies about Bitcoin and Web3.

In 2026, Metaplanet plans to open its Bitcoin Hotel in Tokyo, blending its hotel business origins and the company’s current Bitcoin strategy.

I’m standing on top of the next Bitcoin Hotel in Japan.

365 days from now Metaplanet will transform this hotel, the Hotel Royal Oak, to the first Bitcoin Hotel in Tokyo. pic.twitter.com/c4btm151zM

— isa⚡️ (@isabellasg3) March 27, 2025

Today, Metaplanet is one of the few companies that followed the footsteps of Strategy, becoming a Bitcoin-centred company, sometimes referred to as “MicroStrategy of Asia.”

As of May 23, 2025, Metaplanet holds 7,800 BTC. It may seem that it’s a humble amount if we compare it to Strategy, with its BTC stack exceeding 576,000 units. However, Strategy’s treasury is extraordinary, and Metaplanet is actually one of the leading corporate Bitcoin holders. Its Bitcoin treasury is around $800 million in value and ranks tenth globally. To emphasize the significance of Bitcoin over fiat money, the main KPI metric used by Metaplanet is BTC Yield.

Metaplanet is Japan’s most volatile stock.
Volatility is the pulse, the flame, the fuel,
and Bitcoin is the spark that keeps it burning bright. $MTPLF pic.twitter.com/WwQZfEjAaO

— Simon Gerovich (@gerovich) May 23, 2025

Earlier this May, the company went through a strong short-seller pressure that didn’t stop it from gaining more value and continuing its exponential growth. It took only a year for Metaplanet to grow its stock price from around 40 JPY to 1,000 JPY. In 2025, the stock’s price gained over 420%.

Metaplanet’s year-to-date 291.3% return strikingly contrasts with the nearly 5% decline of the Nikkei 225, a compound index reflecting the average value of the top 225 Japanese stocks.

Short squeeze speculations and parallels with GameStop

Despite aggressive Bitcoin accumulation and speedy growth, not all the stats are bullish. According to Metaplanet CEO Simon Gerovich, Metaplanet is the most shorted stock in Japan. While Bitcoin treasuries are somewhat trendy, and this trendiness attracts retail and institutional investors, hedge funds are betting against Metaplanet and shorting its stocks in bulk. High volatility within 12 months signals an intense battle between Metaplanet bears and bulls.

High volatility and nine-digit trading volumes on the stock exchange signal a possible high-scale short squeeze of the Metaplanet stock. It loosely resembles the 2021 GameStop stock case. In 2021, hedge funds were betting against GameStop. However, the activism of hobby traders from the Reddit group who collectively started to open long positions resulted in an explosive 3,200% growth of the GME stock. Hedge funds couldn’t predict such an outcome and lost $838 million in a single day.

As of May 23, 2025, it is unclear what the future holds for Metaplanet stock and if it will repeat the GameStop trajectory. If hedge funds are not right about the future of Metaplanet, they will pay a hefty price for their mistake. However, if the Bitcoin strategy fails for Metaplanet, the company may get a serious slap.

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

You’re right: Mario Kart 8’s 200cc speed is way, way off

by admin May 23, 2025

The first time anyone jumps into Mario Kart 8’s 200cc mode can be a shock. The engine class is meant to be the hardest challenge in the game, but even so, racing in 200cc can sometimes feel egregiously punishing. There’s a reason for that: Apparently, the number does not accurately represent the jump in speed that Mario Kart 8 really throws at you.

As highlighted by the ever-great Supper Mario Broth, players have crunched the numbers behind all the engine classes only to find that 200cc is a misnomer. If 200cc feels way faster than, say, 150cc, you aren’t imagining it. 200cc is apparently 38% faster than it should be, at least compared to the speed ratio established by slower modes. Here are a couple of graphs breaking it all down. The kicker? What’s called 200cc is really 415cc, relatively speaking.

What makes this so funny, though, is that players have intuited that something was off since the release of the original Mario Kart 8 for Wii U, in 2014. For a decade now, the internet has been full of discussions where fans call 200cc “ridiculous” and “too fast,” only to be met with responses telling them to get good at the game. Some people might commiserate, but it’s also typical to see dismissive replies that tell complainers “you need to get used to it.”

Left with no other choice but to endure it, players will also typically share strategies for surviving 200cc. The most common suggestion? Learn to love braking, maybe even learn how to “brake drift,” which refers to the practice of slowing down slightly before boosting yourself. This way, players can manage corners more easily than they might at full speed. Fans also encourage one another to pick up lighter characters, which handle with more ease.

So far, it’s unclear if follow-up Mario Kart World will include 200cc, or whether or not the mode will accurately represent the speed that the game is supposed to run at. For now, players are mostly celebrating that the woes of Mario Kart 8’s 200cc wasn’t just in their heads.

“This is very vindicating,” reads the top reply to Supper Mario Broth’s X post. “Aaaaaah I knew it!!!” another exclaims.

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

AMD's and Pegatron's 128-GPU MI350X system

Product Reviews

Pegatron preps 1,177 PFLOP AI rack with 128 AMD MI350X GPUs

by admin May 23, 2025

Pegatron showcased a unique rack-scale solution based on 128 AMD’s next-generation Instinct MI350X accelerators designed for performance-demanding AI inference and training applications at Computex. The system precedes AMD’s in-house designed rack-scale solutions by a generation, so for Pegatron, this system will serve as a training vehicle to build rack-scale AMD Instinct MI450X-based IF64 and IF128 solutions that are about a year away.

The Pegatron AS501-4A1/AS500-4A1 rack-scale system relies on eight 5U compute trays, each packing one AMD EPYC 9005-series processor and four AMD Instinct MI350X AI and HPC accelerators for AI and HPC. The CPU and the accelerators are liquid-cooled to ensure maximum and predictable performance under high loads. The machine comes in a 51OU ORV3 form-factor, making it suitable for cloud datacenters relying on the OCP standards (read: Meta).

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The machine connects GPUs located in a different chassis using 400 GbE as AMD does not have proprietary switches for Infinity Fabric connections (in any case, the maximum scale-up world size of AMD’s Instinct is eight processors today). This contrasts with Nvidia’s GB200/GB300 NVL72 platform, which has 72 GPUs interconnected with the company’s ultra-fast NVLink connection. To that end, the Instinct MI350X system will barely match the GB200/GB300 NVL72 in terms of scalability.

Public Keys: Coinbase Hack Fallout, MSTR Legal Strife and Stable-Curious Wall Street

by admin May 23, 2025

In brief

Coinbase released a few more worrying details about the data breach it reported last week.
Strategy got hit with a class action lawsuit, then launched a “crown jewel” of a $2.1 billion stock offering.
A trio of banks are mulling a stablecoin contender, but it would be used on a permissioned network.

Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies.

This week:

Worrying details from Coinbase

The data breach Coinbase told users and investors about last week has gotten a little more worrying.

It’s not that more data has been stolen. But the company filed a disclosure with the Maine Attorney General that included a few key details that were missing from its SEC filing and blog post about the exploit.

The breach occurred on December 26, 2024, and wasn’t discovered until May 11, 2025. That means the company went 136 days without knowing customer data had been compromised. The only spot on Coinbase’s 8-K filing that mentions December is the boilerplate about forward looking statements.

In its blog post, Coinbase described the number of users impacted as “less than 1%” of its monthly transacting users—leaving readers to do the math on their own. But it was more explicit in the Maine filing, saying 69,461 users had data leaked.

Don’t get us wrong. The company’s stock, which trades on the Nasdaq under the COIN ticker, has shaken off the post-disclosure investor jitters. It had climbed to $271.95 by yesterday’s close. That’s the highest the price has been since February and was likely spurred along by Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high.

But, uh, is there anything else we should know about that data breach? Asking for about 70,000 friends. With the personal details, including home addresses, of potentially high-net-worth individuals in the wind, TechCrunch and Arrington Capital Founder Michael Arrington is concerned lives could be at risk.

Run that ‘Crown Jewel’ fast

Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor and his company face a new class action lawsuit from investors who allege they were misled about the risks of the company’s aggressive Bitcoin accumulation strategy.

In particular, the plaintiffs take issue with Strategy saying in its latest earnings report that ““[w]e may not be able to regain profitability in future periods, particularly if we incur significant unrealized losses related to our digital assets.”

Filed in a Virginia federal court, the suit claims MicroStrategy downplayed the volatility of Bitcoin, leading to significant investor losses.

But you know the Strategy playbook by now: Bitcoin buying will continue until prices improve. Days later, the company unveiled a “crown jewel” offering of $2.1 billion worth of Perpetual Strife Preferred Stock (STRF).

Investors seem dubious of this latest offering, though. In the same week that Bitcoin twice set a new all-time high, MSTR shares are ending it 7% lower than they were last Friday.

Stable contenders

Recent progress on the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill in D.C. has Wall Street stalwarts JPMorgan, Citi, and Wells Fargo considering a partnership to create their own dollar-pegged stablecoin, according to a report earlier this week from The Wall Street Journal.

It’s potentially big if true, but unclear just how much market share the three banks could nab from the $248 billion worth of stables already in circulation, according to CoinGecko data.

There’s one detail that gives us pause: The banks are exploring tokenized deposit products—all good so far—and permissioned blockchains. That’s where a lot of big institutions start to lose on-chain credibility. (“Permissioned” is techno-speak for “private,” which makes these kinds of networks really just blockchains in name only.)

Compliance teams are still wary of conducting business on a public network. But when you take away the permissionless part, then projects start to look like the same old systems with buzzy new technology that makes them faster and cheaper.

But going the fully permissionless route isn’t a slam dunk, either. PayPal launched its PYUSD stablecoin on none other than Ethereum in August 2023. It’s currently the 110th largest stablecoin with a $880 million market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.

And it drew the ire of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which subpoenaed the company about the stablecoin in November 2023. It recently called off an investigation into PYUSD with no action taken.

It’s gotta be said, though, that fintech payments platform PayPal doesn’t have quite the same gravitas as three Wall Street institutions. If D.C. waves the green flag, things could get interesting.

Other Keys

Mocking crypto Batman: A bad actor who’s believed to be linked to the Coinbase data breach has been mocking on-chain sleuth ZachXBT. “L bozo,” the hacker wrote Wednesday evening through an Ethereum transaction using the blockchain’s input data message feature. The message was followed by a link to a YouTube meme video showing NBA legend James Worthy smoking a cigar. Gotham needs justice.
New base unit, who dis? Square CEO and laser-eyed Bitcoin maxi Jack Dorsey has joined the chorus of developers saying that Bitcoin’s base unit should be changed from “satoshis” to “Bitcoins.” This would render sayings like “Stacking sats” meaningless. A Bitcoin is made up of 100,000,000 satoshis, or “sats,” named after the cryptocurrency’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Hyperinflation leads more people to Bitcoin

by admin May 23, 2025

When Venezuela was experiencing hyperinflation, Ledn co-founder Mauricio di Bartolomeo hedged against the collapsing local currency by shorting it in favor of the more stable US dollar. Today, he’s using a similar strategy — this time borrowing against his Bitcoin (BTC) to hedge against the crumbling US dollar.

Di Bartolomeo connected with me during Canada Crypto Week in Toronto, where he talked about the advantages of Bitcoin-backed loans and the rapid growth of collateralized BTC lending. In our interview, he made a compelling case for continuing to stack sats, even as Bitcoin’s price keeps rising.

This week’s Crypto Biz dives into our conversation with the Ledn co-founder and covers the latest business news from the blockchain world.

A lesson from hyperinflation

Before Bitcoin, di Bartolomeo’s most successful investment was shorting the Bolivar with US dollars, referring to his experience in Venezuela during the hyperinflationary 2010s.

“I was borrowing Bolivars and buying dollars with them, holding the hard dollars and having a borrow [position] on the weaker currency,” he said.

He then founded Ledn, a company that lets Bitcoin investors access dollar liquidity without parting ways with their BTC.

By borrowing against Bitcoin, “you’re basically doing the same thing, but you are in effect holding the hard money, which is Bitcoin, and taking a borrow [position] on dollars, which is a weaker currency,” he said.

Many Bitcoiners have found this to be a winning strategy. By the end of Q4, Ledn’s loan book value was valued at $9.9 billion, according to Galaxy Research.

Cointelegraph’s Sam Bourgi and Ledn’s Mauricio di Bartolomeo.

Guatemala’s largest bank integrates “invisible” crypto infrastructure

Banco Industrial, Guatemala’s largest bank, has integrated crypto infrastructure SukuPay into its mobile banking app, enabling users to receive US dollars more easily.

SukuPay said this integration is the first time a major Latin American retail bank has used a crypto-native protocol for its payment services.

Banco Industrial has more than 1,600 service locations across Guatemala and has also expanded into neighboring countries.

The “key to mainstream adoption of blockchain technology is making it invisible to the end-user,” SukuPay CEO Yonathan Lapchik told Cointelegraph.

With SukuPay’s technology, Banco Industrial app users can receive dollars from the US for a flat fee of $0.99, significantly lower than the typical 6% to 10% they currently pay, said Lapchik.

Bankers are panicking about stablecoins, NYU professor claims

America’s banking lobby sees yield-bearing stablecoins as a threat to its business model, which relies on taking deposits, paying depositors minimal interest and using those funds for higher-risk investments, according to NYU professor Austin Campbell.

In a May 21 social media post, Campbell claimed that he’s heard rumblings of “panic” over new stablecoins offering holders interest payments and other monetary rewards.

He told Democratic lawmakers that “banks want you to protect their cartel so they can keep screwing your voters.”

Although Campbell didn’t mention any stablecoin assets by name, Cointelegraph reported in February that the Securities and Exchange Commission approved the country’s first yield-bearing stablecoin security by Figure Markets. At the time of its launch, the YLDS stablecoin offered a yield of 3.85%.

Pi Protocol and Spark Protocol have also developed interest-bearing tokens.

Source: Austin Campbell

Strategy continues to stack sats

With Bitcoin back above $100,000, Michael Saylor’s business intelligence firm, Strategy, has resumed its buying spree by acquiring 7,390 BTC last week for approximately $765 million.

The latest purchase brings Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings to 576,230 BTC, with an unrealized gain of around $20 billion.

The announcement came just two days before Bitcoin surged past its previous all-time high, climbing above $109,000 for the first time since January. Like other risk assets, Bitcoin has benefited from improved investor sentiment following the suspension of tariff hostilities between the United States and China.

Source: Michael Saylor

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May 23, 2025 0 comments