Mantra CEO says OM token recovery ‘primary concern’ but in early stages

Mantra CEO John Mullin addressed key concerns from the community following the sharp decline in the OM token during an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session hosted by Cointelegraph on April 14.

Mullin reassured users that Mantra and its partners are actively working to support the recovery of the Mantra (OM) token, though he noted that details around token buybacks and potential burns are still being developed.

“We’re still in the early stages of putting together this plan for potential buyback of tokens,” the CEO said, adding that the OM token recovery is Mantra’s “preeminent and primary concern right now.”

At the time of writing, OM traded at $0.73, slightly higher than its post-collapse low of $0.52 recorded on April 13 at around 7:30 pm UTC, according to data from CoinGecko.

“Baseless allegations”

In addition to denying reports claiming that

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Bots are killing social media, but decentralization can save it

Opinion by: Leroy Hofer, co-founder and CEO at Teneo Protocol

As the old wisdom goes, nobody knows you’re a dog on the internet. Often enough, nobody knows if you’re a bot either, to the point where the dead internet theory sometimes feels disturbingly tangible. 

Bot traffic share hit its highest level in 2024, up 2% on the year before, according to the 2024 Imperva Bad Bot Report. The bot pandemic is ravaging the Web. People are taking notice — people like Chanpeng Zhao, for example, who recently urged Elon Musk to ban bots on X. He’s not the only one in the Web3 community to call for such measures, and rightly so. 

From artificially inflating engagement metrics to orchestrating scams, bots are quickly drowning out real human interactions — and it’s at a time when our lives drift more and more into the

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Bybit denies $1.4M listing fee, school promo accusations on X

Crypto exchange Bybit has denied claims that it charges $1.4 million to list a token on its platform, following allegations made by a social media user with over 100,000 followers.

On April 14, X user “silverfang88” accused the exchange of demanding millions from projects in listing fees. The user also alleged that Bybit used key opinion leaders (KOLs) to silence students who were given trial contracts through the platform’s Campus Ambassador program.

Bybit CEO Ben Zhou denied the allegations, asking the social media user to provide evidence backing the claims. Zhou added that the crypto space has been chaotic because of rumors posted without evidence. 

Source: Ben Zhou

Bybit denies $1.4-million listing fee accusation

In a statement sent to Cointelegraph, a Bybit representative clarified the requirements for listing on the crypto exchange. 

According to Bybit, the exchange requires three things from projects: a promotion budget,

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Solana rallies 20% against Ethereum, but is $300 SOL price within reach?

Solana’s SOL has rallied more than 20% against Ether (ETH) over the last seven days, and a trader is eyeing a potential breakout to $300, which would mark new all-time highs.

SOL/ETH ratio hits highest weekly close

The SOL/ETH ratio, which reflects the value of Solana in Ether, rose to 0.080 on April 13, marking the highest weekly close ever, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and Binance.

The SOL/ETH trading pair has been forming higher highs on the daily chart since April 4, suggesting an uptrend is underway.

SOL/ETH daily chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

The SOL/ETH pair gains follow a bullish week for Solana, which has increased by 35% over the last seven days, against a 13% increase in ETH price over the same timeframe.

 “The SOL/ETH chart has just flashed a

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Circle’s EURC grows as trade war pushes euro higher — Analyst

The market cap of Circle’s Euro Coin (EURC), a euro-pegged stablecoin, is growing quickly as the ongoing trade war pushes the US dollar price lower.

“In recent weeks, interest in the euro has grown tremendously” and “this interest has not escaped the Circle EURC stablecoin,” Obchakevich Research founder Alex Obchakevich wrote in a recent X post.

The euro has risen by 2.2%, reaching its highest price since February 2022 at its current price of $1.13.

Obchakevich said that amid this happening, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Aave saw €2.3 million of Euro Coin inflows in April alone. He further highlighted that EURC’s capitalization is growing at a rapid pace.

Source: Obchakevich’s

CoinMarketCap data shows EURC’s market cap rose from under $84 million at the end of 2024 to more than $198 million as of mid-April — a 136% increase

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Kraken rolls out ETF and stock access for US crypto traders

Kraken is expanding beyond cryptocurrencies by offering US-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in a move aimed at appealing to more traditional investors.

Kraken, the world’s 13th largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange by volume, announced the launch of 11,000 US-listed stocks and ETFs with commission-free trading in an effort to bring “equities and digital assets together” under one trading platform.

As of April 14, US-based users in New Jersey, Connecticut, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Idaho, Iowa, Rhode Island, Kentucky, Alabama and the District of Columbia can access these stocks and ETFs within their Kraken account, the company announced.

Kraken expands to stocks and ETFs. Source: Kraken

The exchange plans to continue expanding access to clients in other US states, marking the first part of a “phased national rollout.”

Related: Trump’s tariff escalation exposes ‘deeper fractures’ in global financial system

Both traditional and cryptocurrency

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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin: ‘Privacy is freedom’

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin said privacy should be a top priority for developers, warning that assumptions about transparency and good intentions in global politics are overly optimistic.

In an April 14 blog post, Buterin argued that privacy is essential to maintain individual freedom and protect against the growing power of governments and corporations. He criticized the idea that increased transparency is inherently beneficial, saying it relies on assumptions about human nature that are no longer valid.

“These assumptions include believing that global political leadership is generally well-intentioned and sane, and that social culture continues to progress in a positive direction,” Buterin wrote. “Both are proving to be increasingly untrue.”

Buterin claimed there was “no single major country for which the first assumption is broadly agreed to be true.” Furthermore, he wrote that cultural tolerance is “rapidly regressing,” which is reportedly demonstrable by an X post <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/search?q=%22bullying%20is%20good%22&src=typed_query&f=top"

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Crypto lending down 43% from 2021 highs, DeFi borrowing surges 959%

The crypto lending market’s size remains significantly down from its $64 billion high, but decentralized finance (DeFi) borrowing has made a more than 900% recovery from bear market lows.

Crypto lending enables borrowers to use their crypto holdings as collateral to obtain a crypto or fiat loan, while lenders can loan their holdings to generate interest.

The crypto lending market is down over 43%, from its all-time high of $64.4 billion in 2021 to $36.5 billion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, according to a Galaxy Digital research report published on April 14.

“The decline can be attributed to the decimation of lenders on the supply side and funds, individuals, and corporate entities on the demand side,” according to Zack Pokorny, research associate at Galaxy Digital.

Crypto lending key events. Source: Galaxy Research

The decline in the

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Michael Saylor’s Strategy buys $285M Bitcoin amid market uncertainty

Michael Saylor’s digital asset firm, Strategy, has purchased an additional 3,459 Bitcoin for $285.5 million, signaling continued confidence in Bitcoin even as global markets face trade-related headwinds.

Strategy has acquired 3,459 Bitcoin (BTC) for $285.5 million at an average price of $82,618 per BTC. The purchase brings Strategy’s total Bitcoin holdings to 531,644 BTC, acquired for a cumulative $35.92 billion at an average price of $67,556 per coin, achieving an over 11.4% yield since the beginning of 2025, Saylor wrote in an April 14 X post.

Source: Michael Saylor

The $285 million purchase marks Strategy’s first Bitcoin investment since March 31 when the company acquired $1.9 billion worth of Bitcoin, Cointelegraph reported.

According to data from Saylortracker, the firm is currently sitting on more than $9.1 billion in

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Bybit integrates Avalon through CeFi to DeFi bridge for Bitcoin yield

Crypto exchange Bybit has partnered with lending protocol Avalon to offer Bitcoin yield to its users.

According to an April 14 Avalon Labs X announcement, the centralized decentralized finance (CeDeFi) protocol will now be a part of the exchange’s yield product, Bybit Earn. Avalon said it will allow the platform’s users to earn yield from Bitcoin (BTC) by arbitrating on its fixed-rate institutional borrowing layer.

Source: Avalon Labs

Avalon Labs announced in March that it raised a minimum of $2 billion worth of credit with possible scaling as the need arises. The product allows institutional borrowers to access USDt (USDT) liquidity without liquidating their Bitcoin holdings at a fixed 8% borrowing cost.

In February, Avalon Labs also announced

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