Tezos has successfully activated Rio, its 18th protocol upgrade, marking another milestone in the blockchain’s Tezos X roadmap. The upgrade was approved through the network’s on-chain governance process, with participation from validators and community members, and aims to enhance staking…

Tezos activates Rio upgrade, enhancing staking flexibility and L2 incentives

Although April brought modest gains to the broader crypto economy, data 
reveals a continued descent in non-fungible token (NFT) sales, which 
contracted by 39.62% over the past 30 days. Ethereum retained its status as 
the leading blockchain by NFT sales volume, yet its figures receded by 44.86% 
compared with the previous month. NFT Sector Pummeled: […]

April NFT Carnage: Sales Drop Over 39% as Market Stalls

Certik, a leading blockchain security firm, reported on April 30, 2025, that 
the crypto industry lost approximately $364 million to exploits, hacks, and 
scams in April, with $18.2 million returned, resulting in a net loss of $345.8 
million. The firm highlighted that $337 million of the total losses stemmed 
from phishing attacks, underscoring the persistent […]

Certik Reports $364 Million in Crypto Losses for April 2025, Phishing Dominates at $337 Million

Paolo Ardoino, CEO of stablecoin issuer Tether, addressed criticism over the 
company&#8217;s decision not to seek registration under the European Union&#8217;s Markets 
in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework, arguing that the regulations were risky for 
stablecoins.
Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Token2049 conference in Dubai, Ardoino 
reiterated that Tether had no plans to apply for its US dollar-pegged 
stablecoin USDt &#8212; the largest by market capitalization &#8212; to be compliant 
under MiCA in European countries, potentially forcing exchanges to delist the 
stablecoin. He added that though crypto firms had to follow regulations, there 
was a &#8220;fear of compliance&#8221; among companies in the EU.
&#8220;[&#8230;] MiCA license is very dangerous when it comes to stablecoins, and I 
believe that is even more dangerous for the small, medium banking system in 
Europe,&#8221; said the Tether CEO, adding that banks in the region could &#8220;go belly 
up&#8221; in the next few years thanks to MiCA&#8217;s requirements, such as keeping 60% 
of stablecoins reserves in insured cash deposits in European banks. Ardoino 
added:
&gt; &#8220;I decided to not apply to the MiCA license because I need to protect the 
&gt; 400 million+ users that we have around the world. They are not as lucky as 
&gt; Europeans. I love Europe, but I think that unfortunately European Central 
&gt; Bank is more interested [in pushing] the digital euro as a way to control 
&gt; people and control how they spend their money.&#8221;
_**Related:**__**Paolo Ardoino: Competitors and politicians intend to &#8216;kill 
Tether&#8217;**_
After years of planning and research, EU officials began to implement 
requirements under MiCA in December 2024. Tether, which is regulated and 
headquartered in El Salvador, is required to comply with MiCA regulatory 
requirements if offering products or services in EU member states.
Since the regulations went into effect, many crypto exchanges acted to ensure 
their platforms listed MiCA-compliant tokens. Kraken delisted 5 stablecoins, 
including USDt, and Crypto.com announced plans to delist 10 stablecoins as of 
January.
## On nations establishing crypto reserves
Speaking on its intentions for operating in the United States, Ardoino said 
the country &#8220;would require a different type of product,&#8221; given the competition 
with local stablecoin issuers. He added that the US&#8217;s and other countries&#8217; 
efforts to establish a Bitcoin (BTC) stockpile were &#8220;just inevitable.&#8221;
&#8220;In the medium to long term, the more Bitcoin education, the more companies 
will set the example […] then everyone else will follow,&#8221; said the Tether CEO. 
&#8220;It&#8217;s never too late to buy Bitcoin.&#8221;
Ardoino&#8217;s statements came the same day that Tether announced roughly $120 
billion in exposure to US Treasurys as of the first quarter of 2025. As of May 
1, USDt had a market capitalization of roughly $149 billion.
_**Magazine:**__**Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it &#8216;s becoming them in 
stablecoin fight**_

Tether CEO defends decision to skip MiCA registration for USDT

A wave of failures on a previously unimaginable scale has swept over the 
crypto market at the start of 2025, with a record 1.8 million tokens 
collapsing during the first quarter. That is almost 25% of all crypto tokens 
issued since 2021, says a report by crypto information platform CoinGecko. 
Related Reading: Code Wars: Cardano Claims The Crown From Ethereum In Core 
Development A Quarter Of All New Crypto Tokens Collapsed In First Three Months 
Of 2025 The meltdown hits a massive portion of the crypto market. According to 
CoinGecko research analyst Shaun Paul Lee, of the almost 7 million 
cryptocurrencies listed since 2021, over half (3.6 million) have ceased 
trading entirely. The mortality rate has surged significantly from earlier 
years. The first three months of 2025 experienced more token failures than any 
calendar year on record, Lee wrote in his April 30 report. The figure is 
especially noteworthy compared to the whole span from 2021 through 2023, which 
represented only 12.6% of all cryptocurrency failures in the last five years. 
Trump&#8217;s Presidency And Market Turbulence Linked To Crypto Demise As the report 
states, the recent die-off of tokens coincides with wider market volatility 
since Donald Trump&#8217;s inauguration as US President in January. As Bitcoin hit 
an all-time high during this period, it was followed by a steep decline in 
crypto markets. Things got worse in March, when both cryptocurrency and equity 
markets saw unprecedented volatility. This volatility followed Trump&#8217;s threat 
to apply sweeping tariffs, which caused shockwaves in multiple financial 
markets. Easy Token Creation Tools Caused Market Flooding The record surge in 
token failures begins back in January of 2024, when an easy token creation 
tool called Pump.fun emerged. The website allowed for it to be extremely easy 
to build new cryptocurrencies, causing a torrent of memecoins and lazy 
projects to flood the market. More than 3 million new crypto tokens were 
released in 2024 alone – almost four times the amount of 2023, which had 
slightly more than 835,000 new additions. Prior to Pump.fun, cryptocurrency 
failures were not very common, with figures in the &#8220;low six digits,&#8221; Lee&#8217;s 
analysis said. Almost All Pump.fun Tokens Fail To Graduate To Open Market The 
statistics are such that approximately 98% of tokens minted on Pump.fun do not 
live past the site. Even at the platform&#8217;s most successful week in November of 
2024, only 1.67% of memecoins managed to transition to the open market. 
Related Reading: Only XRP? Expert Claims That’s All You Need To Succeed 
CoinGecko founder Bobby Ong noted in a March report that investor demand for 
memecoins seems to have dissipated following a string of failed launches. He 
specifically cited the aftermath of the Libra (LIBRA) token launch as part of 
the reason. Although Pump.fun saw its all-time weekly trading volume after 
Trump&#8217;s memecoin launched on January 18, the volatility that followed in the 
markets seems to have subdued the excitement in the crypto sector. The report 
indicates how the marriage of simple token creation software and volatile 
market conditions has formed a perfect storm for cryptocurrency collapse, with 
no indication that the trend will be slowing down as we progress further into 
2025. Featured image from Gemini Imagen, chart from TradingView

Dead On Arrival: 25% Of New Crypto Tokens Didn’t Survive Q1 ’25

Bitcoin and most altcoins started the month well, with the total market cap of 
all coins jumping to over $3 trillion. JasmyCoin (JASMY) price jumped by 6.2%, 
while Chainlink (LINK), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Pi Network (PI) were up by over…