The post Top 2 Memecoins Surging Right Now After ASTEROID’s Historic 68,000% Weekly Rally appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

ASTEROID’s extraordinary run changed the conversation. A token that sat at a $50,000 market cap before Elon Musk replied to a girl’s SpaceX mascot request briefly touched a $20 million market cap within hours and posted a 68,428% weekly gain according to CoinGecko data before pulling back roughly 40%.

The question traders are now asking is if ASTEROID can do that, what moves next? Two tokens are being mentioned with increasing frequency in memecoin communities: Amaterasu Omikami (OMIKAMI) and RyuJin (RYU).

The Case for OMIKAMI and RyuJin

One expert who has covered OMIKAMI over three years pointed to the ASTEROID move as evidence that the memecoin supercycle has further to run. His conviction is rooted in the longevity of both projects rather than short-term momentum.

Both tokens have been active for nearly two years with what the analyst describes as organic community growth rather than manufactured hype. The ecosystem is allegedly connected to Ryoshi, the pseudonymous figure behind Shiba Inu, though that attribution remains unverified and disputed within parts of the community.

OMIKAMI currently trades at approximately $0.007112 with a market cap of $6.73 million. RyuJin sits at $0.000000002961 with a $2.85 million market cap. Both the tokens are up by more than 13%. 

The ASTEROID Parallel

The analyst drew a direct comparison between OMIKAMI’s current position and where ASTEROID sat before its viral moment. Both had a story. Both had a community. ASTEROID had a single external catalyst that lit the fuse.

The structural difference is the nature of that catalyst. ASTEROID moved because of a verifiable two-word reply from one of the world’s most followed public figures. OMIKAMI’s anticipated catalyst is expected to come from within the ecosystem itself, potentially a new communication from Ryoshi or a product announcement tied to a planned blockchain and debit card infrastructure the project has been developing.

The Broader Macro Setup

The analyst also said that the broader market context is constructive for memecoin activity. Bitcoin is retesting a breakout level on the four-hour chart and Ethereum is approaching key resistance. Both are approaching moves that have historically preceded altcoin and memecoin cycles.

The CLARITY Act, a potential new Fed chair and stablecoin yield legislation are all cited as macro catalysts that could inject significant fresh liquidity into crypto broadly.

The post Pi Network News: Founder at Consensus 2026 as Project Hits Five Major Milestones in Four Months appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Pi Network co-founder Nicolas Kokkalis is set to speak at Consensus 2026 in Miami on May 7, joining a panel titled “How to Prove You’re Human in an AI World Without Doxing Yourself” at the Convergence Stage from 10:15 to 10:45 AM EDT.

The session addresses what Pi’s core team describes as one of the most urgent problems facing the internet: verifying real human identity online as AI systems become capable of generating convincing fake profiles and bot interactions at scale. The challenge is doing that without requiring users to expose private identity data in the process.

The Consensus appearance arrives at a moment when Pi’s development momentum is arguably stronger than at any point in the project’s history.

Five Promises, Five Deliveries

Analyst Dr. Altcoin, reviewing only official sources, documented five important execution milestones Pi has hit in the first four months of 2026 alone.

Protocol modernisation has been the foundation. Pi upgraded through multiple protocol versions, with all major nodes now running Protocol 20. Protocol 21 is rolling out with a security hard fork deployed on April 6. A publicly scheduled roadmap takes the mainnet blockchain to Protocol 26 by end of June 2026, an acceleration rather than a slowdown.

Smart contracts shipped on testnet on April 17. The first contract was deliberately focused on recurring subscriptions, designed for real businesses running streaming, e-commerce and software billing. Subscribers approve a defined budget once without resigning every billing event. The contract is under external audit and published as PRC2 on GitHub. An RPC server giving developers direct access to the blockchain shipped ten days earlier.

Mainnet migration has passed 16.5 million verified pioneers with over 119,000 completing second migrations including referral mining bonuses. Two-factor authentication is now mandatory across the network.

KYC validator rewards were distributed on April 3, paying 0.0504 Pi per validation, approximately 21 times the current base mining rate. The Pi Foundation contributed 10 million Pi to the reward pool. The distribution demonstrated at global scale that Pi can coordinate, measure and pay over one million KYC-verified humans in native token, a capability no other blockchain has demonstrated at this scale.

Ecosystem tooling is advancing with Pi App Studio moving to mainnet with live payments, Pi Launchpad live on testnet and Kraken, a tier-one regulated exchange, integrating support for PI through the KYB verification process

The post Charles Hoskinson Says Ripple Sells XRP to Fund Its Own Business While Creating No Buy Demand for XRP Holders appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Charles Hoskinson has delivered one of his most pointed critiques of Ripple and XRP’s tokenomic structure, arguing that nothing in Ripple’s business model creates organic buy demand for the XRP token and that holders are essentially funding a private company with no obligation to return value to them.

“There is nothing in the Ripple network that creates buy demand for the XRP token,” Hoskinson said during a recent discussion. “Nothing.”

The Argument

Hoskinson’s critique centres on a fundamental structural distinction between tokens that create circular economies and tokens that primarily serve as fundraising instruments for the companies behind them.

His comparison point is Hyperliquid. When users interact with the Hyperliquid ecosystem, activity generates fees that are used to buy back the underlying token. Network usage directly creates token demand. Value flows to holders as the network grows.

XRP, he argues, works differently. Ripple is a private company with independent investors and shareholders. When Ripple generates revenue, it does not buy back XRP. It sells XRP, converts the proceeds to cash and uses that cash to acquire assets for the company. The prime broker, the custody platform, the treasury management tools — all of that value sits on Ripple’s balance sheet, not in the hands of XRP holders.

“When they do make revenue and profit, there are no buybacks,” he said. “The Ripple company is not going and buying back XRP. They sell the XRP.”

The Regulatory Game Behind It All

Hoskinson extended his critique beyond tokenomics into regulatory strategy, arguing that Ripple’s aggressive push to classify all new crypto projects as securities by default is designed to cement incumbent advantages permanently.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and Cardano are all grandfathered in as commodities under existing frameworks. Every new project that launches faces security classification by default, which means it cannot get listed, cannot access liquidity and cannot broaden its ownership base enough to ever qualify as a mature blockchain commodity.

“The incumbents basically get a monopoly, an oligarchy, and they’re grandfathered in,” Hoskinson said. “The new projects never get anything. That feels like Wall Street.”

The argument is that regulatory clarity, as currently being pushed by established players, is not a rising tide that lifts all boats. It is a drawbridge being pulled up behind the projects that are already across.

The post Exclusive: Arthur Hayes Says Bitcoin Will Chop Between $60K and $90K Until the Fed Prints Money appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Bitcoin crossed $78,000 on April 17 for the first time since early February, but Arthur Hayes is not ready to call it a recovery. The BitMEX co-founder and Maelstrom chief investment officer told Coinpedia that the market is in a relief rally and that sustained upside requires one specific catalyst that has not arrived yet.

“We are going to chop around $60,000 to $90,000 until we get an enormous increase in the pace of central bank money printing, led by the Fed,” Hayes said.

Why the Fed Is the Only Catalyst That Matters

Hayes laid out two scenarios that would force the Fed’s hand. The first is consumer credit deterioration driven by AI-related job losses among knowledge workers, which would create impaired assets on bank balance sheets requiring a bailout.

The second is rising government spending tied to wartime financing needs that the market cannot absorb without printed money.

Until one of those two things happens, Hayes sees limited upside regardless of how the geopolitical situation develops.

“I believe this is a relief rally,” he said when asked whether Bitcoin’s test of important resistance was the beginning of a sustained move. “Until we get a large increase in central bank money printing, there is limited upside, even if the worst of the US-Iran war is over.”

The framing is consistent with his broader thesis that Bitcoin’s price is determined by the quantity of money in the system rather than interest rates or risk sentiment. A relief rally can push prices toward the upper end of the range. Only a genuine expansion of the money supply changes the range itself.

Highest Conviction: Still Bitcoin

Asked which asset in the current top ten commands his highest conviction, Hayes said, “The majority of my wealth is still stored in Bitcoin,” he said. “Out of the top ten, I have the highest conviction in Bitcoin.”

He did not elaborate on his views for Ethereum, Solana or XRP beyond placing Bitcoin clearly at the top of his hierarchy. His long-running position in Hyperliquid, which sits outside the top ten, remains his most notable non-Bitcoin allocation.

Hence, as for now, Bitcoin is up from its February lows and testing resistance for the first time in months. Hayes is watching one number above all others, not the Bitcoin price, but the Fed’s balance sheet.

The post XRP Trading on WhatsApp Goes Viral After Solana Labs Co-Founder Responds appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

A user on X posted what appears to be a demonstration of buying XRP directly inside WhatsApp using a Solana-based AI agent, and the post has turned heads, including a reaction from Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko.

The user, posting under the handle nxxn, shared what they described as a swap of 0.1 SOL for 5.99 wXRP executed entirely within the WhatsApp messaging app. The instruction given to the bot was straightforward: “buy 0.1 SOL worth of wXRP.”

“I just bought XRP on Solana through WhatsApp,” the user wrote. “Solana is officially ready for boomers.”

The swap was reportedly carried out through @solanaclawagent, an AI-powered trading agent that appears to have integrated with WhatsApp as a conversational interface for on-chain activity.

Also Read : Charles Hoskinson Says XRP Holders Get Nothing When Ripple Succeeds, Here’s Why

Why the Solana Co-Founder’s Reaction Mattered

Yakovenko’s response to the post gave it visibility well beyond what a typical product experiment would receive. When one of the architects of the Solana blockchain publicly acknowledges a use case, the community treats it as a signal of legitimacy rather than a novelty.

https://t.co/yrJew8MYVD

— toly (@toly) April 20, 2026

For the unversed, Hex Trust and LayerZero launched wrapped XRP on the Solana blockchain in December 2025 with over $100 million in liquidity. Adoption since then has been more measured than some expected, with the majority of wrapped XRP supply still sitting on Ethereum rather than migrating to Solana’s higher-throughput ecosystem.

The demo touches on something the crypto industry has discussed for years without delivering: making on-chain transactions accessible through interfaces that mainstream users already use daily. A WhatsApp interface for executing swaps could change that dynamic by reaching users who would never navigate a traditional DeFi front end.

Community reaction ranged from genuine excitement to playful scepticism. Whether the integration scales beyond a demo or remains a proof of concept is unclear. 

The post Ripple CTO Says RLUSD Evaluation Exposed the Same Risk That Drained $292M From Kelp DAO appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

David Schwartz, CTO Emeritus at Ripple, had a pointed observation this week after the Kelp DAO rsETH bridge was exploited for approximately $292 million.

He had seen this coming. Not this specific attack, but the conditions that made it possible.

“I evaluated a lot of DeFi bridging systems for use by RLUSD,” Schwartz wrote on X. “I was almost exclusively focused on the security and risk aspect. One thing I noticed is that most schemes were very well designed and had really strong mechanisms available to protect against exactly the type of attack the KelpDAO situation seems to have been caused by.”

The Sales Pitch That Buried the Security Features

What Schwartz described is a pattern he encountered repeatedly during his evaluation process. Bridge providers would pitch their most advanced security features prominently, then almost immediately suggest that those features were optional and that most customers chose not to use them.

“They generally in effect recommended not bothering to use the most important security mechanisms because they have convenience and operational complexity costs,” he wrote. “We were frequently pitched the simplicity and ease of adding more chains with the implicit assumption we wouldn’t bother using the best security features they had.”

“Their sales pitch was that they have the best security features but they’re easy to use and scale, assuming you don’t use the security features,” he said.

What Actually Happened to Kelp DAO

On April 19, Kelp DAO identified suspicious cross-chain activity involving rsETH and paused contracts across mainnet and multiple Layer 2 networks. Approximately 116,500 rsETH was drained through LayerZero-related contract calls, worth around $292 million at current prices.

On-chain analysis from D2 Finance traced the root cause to a private key leak on the source chain, creating a trust issue with OApp nodes that the attacker exploited to manipulate the bridge.

Schwartz offered his own hypothesis about what likely went wrong at the protocol level. “I have a funny feeling part of the problem is going to be something like KelpDAO choosing not to use key LayerZero security features out of convenience,” he wrote.

LayerZero itself offers robust security mechanisms including decentralised verification networks. The question investigators are now examining is whether Kelp DAO configured its implementation using a minimal security setup, specifically a single point of failure with LayerZero Labs as the sole verifier, rather than the more complex but significantly more secure options available.

The post XRP Price Prediction: Analyst Sees Bullish Structure Intact appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

XRP slipped below $1.46 over the weekend, a level that analysts had flagged as the most critical line for the token heading into the final stretch of April. The move was not entirely unexpected on the charts, but the catalyst that pushed it through was geopolitical rather than technical.

The important support to watch now is $1.41. As long as XRP holds that level, the analyst believes a broader bullish structure remains intact. Below that, $1.37 represents the 30-day rolling VWAP, a level that could come into play if genuinely bad news hits. A move all the way back to $1.31 is considered unlikely under current conditions.

To the upside, reclaiming $1.46 is the prerequisite for any meaningful rally. A clean break above that level would open the path toward $1.55 to $1.57. 

The Short-Term Expectation

The honest near-term outlook is one of range-bound consolidation. The analyst described the most likely scenario as XRP drifting lower within the $1.35 to $1.46 range, finding support somewhere in that band, stabilising and then potentially mounting another attempt at the upper boundary.

A breakout above $1.46 remains possible but would require a continuation of the bullish fundamentals seen last week, including strong XRP ETF inflows and improving sentiment. Negative Bitcoin funding rates and the current uncertainty environment make that combination less likely in the immediate term.

What Is Working in XRP’s Favour

Despite the short-term weakness, several factors are pointing in the right direction. XRP ETF flows came in strongly last week. The XRP to Bitcoin ratio appears to have bottomed, which the analyst described as a meaningful signal for the token’s relative strength going into May.

The fundamentals, he said, are uncertain rather than negative. That distinction matters. Uncertain conditions can resolve either way. The bias for later in April and into May remains cautiously bullish if the macro environment cooperates.

The post Aave Hit With $5.4 Billion in ETH Withdrawals After Kelp DAO rsETH Exploit appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

A nearly $300 million exploit targeting Kelp DAO’s rsETH cross-chain bridge has triggered a mass withdrawal event at Aave, with over $5.4 billion in ETH leaving the protocol as users rushed to pull funds following concerns about bad debt accumulating on the platform.

The attacker deposited rsETH into Aave to drain ETH, leaving the protocol holding exposure it cannot easily unwind. The consequence was immediate. Aave’s ETH utilization rate climbed to 100%, meaning every available ETH in the lending pool is now borrowed and the protocol has no liquidity buffer remaining.

The Whale Exodus

The scale of the withdrawal was driven by large holders acting quickly. Justin Sun alone removed 65,584 ETH worth approximately $154 million from Aave in a single move, a transaction that on its own would have been headline news on any other day.

According to on-chain tracking by Lookonchain, the broader exodus of $5.4 billion reflects a wider panic among sophisticated users who understood what bad debt at Aave means for depositors unable to withdraw at will.

What Actually Happened

Kelp DAO paused rsETH contracts across mainnet and multiple Layer 2 networks shortly after identifying suspicious cross-chain activity. The team said it was working with LayerZero, Unichain, auditors and security experts to determine the root cause.

On-chain analysis from D2 Finance pointed to a private key leak on the source chain as the root cause, creating a trust issue with OApp nodes that allowed the attacker to manipulate the bridge.

A further nuance was added by investigators following the forensics. Two possible failure paths exist. If a legitimate source transaction exists for the relevant nonce, the compromise originated from the source-side OApp key. If no source transaction surfaces, the failure is on the DVN side, compounded by Kelp’s configuration of a single point of failure using LayerZero Labs as the sole verifier.

What Comes Next

Kelp DAO’s contracts remain paused while the investigation continues. Aave’s ETH utilization at 100% creates a situation where depositors cannot withdraw until borrowed ETH is repaid or new liquidity enters the pool.

The bad debt question is the more pressing concern. If the exploited rsETH positions cannot be recovered, Aave will need to determine how losses are distributed across the protocol, a process that has historically been contentious and slow.

Full forensics and an attacker cluster map are still being compiled. Official updates are expected through Kelp DAO’s verified channels as the investigation progresses.

The post Charles Hoskinson Says XRP Holders Get Nothing When Ripple Succeeds, Here’s Why appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Charles Hoskinson was asked a straightforward question during a recent discussion: even if Ripple keeps all the business value for itself, does it not still benefit XRP holders when the headlines drive the price up during a bull market?

His answer was pointed and detailed. “You got to understand that they gave themselves somewhere between 70 to 80% of the supply,” Hoskinson said. “The game is make the headlines, make the price go up, sell the XRP to other people, and then use the cash to buy assets.”

Hoskinson’s position is that XRP holders do not have legal ownership of anything Ripple builds with the money it raises from selling XRP. The prime broker, the custody business, the treasury management platform, the acquisitions, all of that belongs to Ripple as a private company with independent investors and shareholders.

“XRP holders have no legal ownership of those assets,” he said. “They go to a centralised company. The XRP token doesn’t really have much to say or do with that. There are no staking rewards or other things connected to it.”

“It’s basically like Tether from that perspective. One company gets all the value and the holders get some instrument and some network, but they don’t actually get any price appreciation from that,” he said.

The Circular Economy Problem

Hoskinson contrasted this with what he described as a properly structured tokenomic model. Using Midnight and Hyperliquid as examples, he argued that in a well-designed system, network activity creates direct buy demand for the underlying token. The more the network is used, the more demand there is for the token. Value flows back to holders.

“There is nothing in the Ripple network that creates buy demand for the XRP token. Nothing,” he said. “Whereas you can do that with Hyperliquid and absolutely can do it in the app chain model.”

He pointed to the EOS situation as the historical precedent. Block One raised $4 billion building the EOS network, declared it had no fiduciary obligation to the ecosystem, retained the capital, and EOS holders were left with a token that went nowhere while the company’s treasury compounded.

The Bull Market Counterargument

The question put to Hoskinson acknowledged the obvious: in a bull market, headlines drive prices. XRP holders profit when price goes up regardless of the underlying structure.

Hoskinson did not deny that. His argument is about the longer-term structure rather than short-term price action. Ripple has been selling hundreds of millions to billions of dollars worth of XRP every year, as documented in SEC filings that formed the basis of the lawsuit. That selling is ongoing. The cash goes into Ripple the company, not back into XRP.

“When they do make revenue and profit, there is no buyback. The Ripple company is not going and buying back XRP. They sell the XRP,” he said.

The post RaveDAO Price Crashes 95% as Binance and Bitget Launch Investigations After Manipulation Allegations appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

RaveDAO has collapsed. A token that reached an all-time high of $27.94 just days ago is now trading around $1.50, down 95% from its peak, after on-chain investigator ZachXBT publicly accused insiders of orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme and both Binance and Bitget confirmed they had opened formal investigations.

Approximately $43.68 million in leveraged positions were liquidated in 24 hours as the allegations triggered panic selling and a cascade of forced closures across derivatives markets.

What ZachXBT Alleged

ZachXBT claimed that over 90% of RAVE’s token liquidity was controlled by a small group of insiders, a concentration that would give them the ability to manufacture price increases and sell into retail demand. He had previously attempted to contact the RaveDAO co-founder for comment and was left on read.

When Binance and Bitget confirmed investigations were underway, whatever confidence remained in the token evaporated.

On-chain data supported the concern. RAVE had approximately 12,139 holders at a point when it briefly carried a multi-billion dollar market cap, with an estimated 98% of supply concentrated in insider and early wallets. That structure made violent downside moves inevitable once selling pressure arrived.

RaveDAO Responds

The team published a six-part statement, denying involvement in the price action and framing the situation as industry noise directed at a legitimate project.

“RaveDAO team is not engaged in, nor responsible for, recent price action,” the team wrote. “We take transparency seriously and remain humbled by the attention, but our focus is on the mission: bringing mass adoption to Web3 through live events.”

The statement acknowledged plans to sell tokens to fund operations, described as being done according to a Token Release Schedule. It also announced the team is exploring performance-triggered or price-triggered lock mechanisms to align team incentives with ecosystem growth going forward.

The team closed by saying it was returning to building and would not engage further with what it called rumours.

Where RAVE Trades Now

RAVE is currently around $1.50, with the next support identified at $0.80. A recovery would require reclaiming $2.50 as support, a level that now represents significant overhead resistance.

The investigations at Binance and Bitget are ongoing. Until those conclude, analysts expect bearish pressure to continue, particularly given the overhang of insider supply that has not yet been distributed.

The token went from $0.14 to $27.94 in four months. It gave most of it back in less than 24 hours.

The post Ripple Will Be the Amazon of Payments and Banking Infrastructure by 2040, Analyst Says appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Jake Claver has an interesting answer to the question of where Ripple ends up on the global financial stage by 2040 to 2050.

“I think they will be the Goliath, the Amazon of payments and banking infrastructure,” he said. “Potentially even sooner with the acquisitions they made in 2025 and into 2026.”

The acquisitions he is referring to tell a story on their own. GTreasury for cash management. Ripple Prime, formerly Hidden Road, for clearing and prime brokerage. Rail for stablecoin issuance and managementRipple Custody, formerly Metaco and Standard Custody, which carries a trust-chartered bank and BitLicense in New York. 

Put together, Claver describes Ripple as already functioning as a global infrastructure provider for backend payments and settlement. But he argues the endgame is something bigger.

Will XRP Holders Actually Hold to $10 and Beyond?

Claver was asked directly what percentage of retail XRP holders would sell before the token reached $10. His estimate was pointed.

“Probably 30 to 50% of people holding a significant amount of XRP will likely liquidate at least a portion,” he said.

His reasoning reflects the reality of who holds the asset. Globally, approximately 250,000 people hold more than 3,000 XRP. For many of them, a $10 price would represent a life-changing sum. Taking profits at 5x or 10x is rational behaviour, not weakness.

The holders Claver works with directly understand the longer thesis and are less likely to sell early. He has also built products allowing holders to collateralise their XRP and generate returns without liquidating, removing the need to choose between holding long-term and accessing liquidity.

Ripple’s trajectory, in Claver’s telling, is not primarily a crypto story. It is an infrastructure story. The company is building the backend that every major financial institution will eventually run on, whether they acknowledge it or not.

The Amazon comparison is not accidental. Amazon built warehouses and logistics before most people understood why. Ripple is building settlement rails, custody infrastructure and liquidity direction before most banks are ready to admit they will need it.