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Loopscale recovers $2.8M after weekend DeFi hack and bounty talks

DeFi protocol Loopscale has recovered nearly half of the funds stolen during a major exploit over the weekend, as white hat negotiations with the attacker show signs of progress.

In an April 29 update posted to X, Loopscale confirmed that approximately 19,463 Wrapped SOL (WSOL) (worth roughly $2.88 million) have been returned to its wallets since April 28.

The first two returns included 10,000 WSOL (~$1.48 million) and 4,463 WSOL (~$660,000), following an earlier recovery of 5,000 WSOL (~$740,000).

“Our pursuit of an amicable resolution regarding Saturday’s incident continues to make progress,” the team wrote.

Loopscale updating community on negotiations progress. Source: Loopscale

Loopscale offers 10% bounty for return of funds

On April 27, Loopscale’s team said it had sent an onchain message to the exploiter, offering them a 10% bounty

US DOJ requests 20-year sentence for Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky

Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of the now-defunct cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, faces a 20-year prison sentence as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) seeks a severe penalty for his role in a multibillion-dollar fraud.

The DOJ on April 28 filed the government’s sentencing memorandum against Mashinsky, recommending a 20-year prison sentence for his fraudulent actions, which led to billions of dollars in losses for Celsius customers.

The 97-page memo mentioned that Celsius users were unable to access approximately $4.7 billion in crypto assets after the platform halted withdrawals on June 12, 2022.

“The Court should sentence Alexander Mashinsky to twenty years’ imprisonment as just punishment for his years-long campaign of lies and self-dealing that left in its wake billions in losses and thousands of victimized customers,” the DOJ stated.

Mashinsky’s personal benefit was $48 million

In addition to the investor losses, the

Bitcoin in 'critical zone' as triple breakout meets $93.5K support battle

Key points:

Bitcoin has beaten out three key resistance levels in a single weekly candle.

The weekly close defended the 2025 yearly open, but a subsequent dip below it is making analysis question the strength of the BTC price breakout.

BTC/USD remains in a “critical zone” pending fresh support confirmations.

Bitcoin (BTC) has broken through three key resistance levels in a week, but its biggest reclaim battle continues.

Analysis from sources including popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital underscores BTC price acting in a critical area for bulls.

Bitcoin breaks through “triple resistance”

Bitcoin’s latest weekly candle saw a reclaim of a full three resistance lines, Rekt Capital reveals.

In addition to horizontal weekly resistance, BTC/USD broke beyond a multimonth downtrend previously discussed by Cointelegraph, as well as the 21-week exponential moving average (EMA).

“Bitcoin broke them all last week,” Rekt Capital commented in

Is the Paws Telegram mini app legit? What you need to know

What is the Paws Telegram Mini App?

Paws is a Telegram-based Mini App created by the same team behind other projects, such as Notcoin and Dogs.

If you’ve been cruising around Telegram lately, chances are you’ve stumbled upon Paws, the viral crypto Mini App that’s got everyone tapping, clicking and inviting their friends like it’s 2010 FarmVille all over again.

Originally launched in October 2024 on The Open Network (TON) blockchain, Paws exploded in popularity with its ultra-simple tap-to-earn concept. Think of it as a gamified rewards engine embedded directly in Telegram, where users rack up points by completing tasks, referring others and interacting with mini-game elements.

Within just eight days of going live, Paws pulled in over 20 million users, and within a few months, that figure soared past 80 million.

But the real twist? Paws, in March 2025, migrated from TON to Solana, a

Read More at https://cointelegraph.com/explained/is-the-paws-telegram-mini-app-legit-what-you-need-to-know?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound

1inch launches on Solana with crosschain swaps in the pipeline

Decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator 1inch has launched on Solana, marking a significant step toward its vision of a “unified multichain” decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

According to a press release shared with Cointelegraph, the integration enables users to trade over 1 million Solana-based tokens directly through the 1inch decentralized application (DApp), benefiting from maximal extractable value-protected swaps, optimized rates and open-source smart contract infrastructure.

The move brings 1inch’s Fusion protocol to Solana for the first time. Fusion enables users to define their ideal swap parameters, which are then executed by competing professional market makers, or “resolvers,” using Dutch auction mechanics.

Combined with Solana’s ultra-fast block times, the setup promises more efficient and seamless trading execution than other networks.

A 1inch representative told Cointelegraph that users could expect “minimal fees” when executing swaps on Solana. “Users may expect costs of less than one cent,” they said.

Russian ruble stablecoin: Exec lists 7 ‘Tether replica’ features

The concept of a Russian ruble stablecoin received special attention at a major local crypto event, the Blockchain Forum in Moscow, with key industry executives reflecting on some of the core features a ruble-backed stablecoin might require.

Sergey Mendeleev, founder of the digital settlement exchange Exved and inactive founder of the sanctioned Garantex exchange, put forward seven key criteria for a potential “replica of Tether” in a keynote at the Blockchain Forum on April 23.

Mendeleev said a potential ruble stablecoin must have untraceable transactions and allow transfers without Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.

However, because one of the criteria also requires the stablecoin to comply with Russian regulations, he expressed skepticism that such a product could emerge soon.

The DAI model praised

Mendeleev proposed that a potential Russian “Tether replica” must be overcollateralized similarly to the Dai (DAI) stablecoin

Abu Dhabi institutional giants team up for dirham stablecoin

A trio of major Abu Dhabi institutions, including the Emirate’s sovereign wealth fund, have teamed up to launch a new dirham-pegged stablecoin.

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ, the United Arab Emirates’ largest bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), and the massive conglomerate the International Holding Company, have partnered to launch the stablecoin, pending regulatory approval, the three companies said on April 28.

The trio said the stablecoin would be regulated by the UAE’s central bank and backed by the country’s currency, the dirham. It will also support use cases such as machine-to-machine and artificial intelligence.

Source: IHC

The goal is to place the UAE at the “forefront of global blockchain innovation,” while also strengthening the digital infrastructure, according to ADQ.

If it gets the nod from regulators, the new stablecoin will operate on the

Bankera founders used ICO funds on global property buys: Report

The founders of the crypto fintech firm Bankera used funds from the project’s 2018 initial coin offering to purchase luxury properties worldwide, according to a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The OCCRP reported on April 28, citing leaked company records and bank statements, that nearly half of the funds from Bankera’s 100 million euro ($114 million) ICO were transferred to a bank in the Pacific Island country of Vanuatu that was purchased by the project’s founders, Vytautas Karalevičius, Justas Dobiliauskas and Mantas Mockevičius.

Soon after, the Vanuatu bank reportedly began issuing millions of euros in loans to companies owned by the trio to build a luxury real estate portfolio — including a villa in the French Riviera and high-end property in Lithuania, where the project was founded.

Bankera’s three founders. Source: Bankera

The leaked records and statements reportedly show that

Zurich Uni’s secret AI experiment manipulated Redditors’ opinions

Researchers at the University of Zurich have been accused of undertaking an unauthorized four-month-long experiment on a Reddit board using artificial intelligence-generated comments to test whether AI could alter people’s opinions.

As part of the experiment, AI-powered accounts faked a variety of personas, including a rape victim, a person opposed to specific social movements and a trauma counselor specializing in abuse, moderators of the r/changemyview subreddit said in an April 26 post.

“Our sub is a decidedly human space that rejects undisclosed AI as a core value,” the moderators said. “People do not come here to discuss their views with AI or to be experimented upon.”

The researchers used AI to generate responses but attempted to personalize the replies based on information from the original posters’ prior Reddit history, such as political orientation, gender, age, and ethnicity, <a

Samourai Wallet, feds ask for time to mull dropping crypto mixer case

US federal prosecutors and the co-founders of the crypto mixer Samourai Wallet have asked a court for more time to consider potentially dismissing the case after the Justice Department rolled back its crypto enforcement.

Lawyers for Samourai Wallet CEO Keonne Rodriguez and chief technology officer William Hill said in an April 28 letter to Manhattan federal judge Richard Berman that they jointly requested with the government “for a continuance of the pretrial motions schedule by 16 days.”

The Samourai executives’ lawyers said on April 10 that they wrote to Acting Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton to request the dismissal of the case after an April 7 memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche shuttered the Justice Department’s crypto team.

“On April 24, 2025, defense counsel met with the prosecutors and their supervisors in person at the U.S. Attorney’s Office to discuss this request,” the lawyers said.

“The Defendants believe