Pudgy Penguins&#8217; token, PENGU, has jumped to its highest level since February, rallying by more than 25% amidst a consistent rise in its NFT floor price over the past month. On May 8, the Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) token is leading…

PENGU rallies over 25% ahead of Pudgy Penguins NFT boom

Smart contract platform Rootstock, the home of decentralized finance (DeFi) on 
Bitcoin, saw a sharp increase in network security and mining engagement in the 
first quarter of 2025, even as activity cooled.
Merged mining participation surged to an all-time high of 81%, up from 56.4% 
in Q4 2024, driven by the integration of major mining pools Foundry and 
SpiderPool, according to Messari&#8217;s first &#8220;State of Rootstock&#8221; report for 2025, 
shared with Cointelegraph.
The heightened miner interest boosted Rootstock&#8217;s hash power to over 740 
exahashes per second, surpassing the total Bitcoin network hashrate recorded 
in October 2024. As a result, the network is now considered to be in a &#8220;mature 
phase&#8221; of merged mining growth.
The increased security coincided with a 60% reduction in transaction fees, 
improving user experience and positioning Rootstock more competitively within 
the Bitcoin layer-2 ecosystem.
&#8220;As BTCFi continues to grow, Rootstock is well-positioned for broader adoption 
through core upgrades like a 60% reduction in transaction fees, alongside 
sustained investment in builder education and incentive programs,&#8221; Messari 
analyst Andrew Yang said.
_Rootstock overview for Q1 2025. Source: Messari_
 _**Related:**__**Is this the end of Bitcoin DeFi?**_
## Rootstock&#8217;s DeFi TVL drops
Despite the mining milestone, Rootstock&#8217;s DeFi ecosystem experienced a decline 
in total value locked (TVL) during Q1 2025, with Bitcoin (BTC)-denominated TVL 
dropping 7.2% and US dollar-denominated TVL falling by 20% quarter-over- 
quarter to $179.9 million.
Although TVL briefly peaked at $244.6 million in January during a Bitcoin 
price rally, it trended downward from March, reflecting broader market 
cooling.
For perspective, Ethereum-based DeFi TVL also saw a sharp 27% decline in Q1, 
hit hard by macro uncertainty and the $1.4 billion Bybit exploit, according to 
a report by DappRadar.
The stablecoin market on Rootstock also underwent notable changes. USDt (USDT) 
remained the leading stablecoin by value, holding $3.8 million and a 27.5% 
market share. However, its dominance fell significantly from 41.3% in Q4 2024.
By the end of Q1, no single stablecoin commanded over 30% of Rootstock&#8217;s 
stablecoin market.
Active addresses dropped by 26.5%, and new addresses plunged by 54.7%, 
although daily transactions rose slightly by 4.3%, reaching an average of 
11,524 per day.
_Active addresses drop on Rootstock. Source: Messari_
 _**Related:**__**Bitcoin yield demand booming as institutions seek liquidity 
&#8212; Solv CEO**_
## Rootstock sees progress on development front
On the development front, the platform activated its Lovell 7.0.0 upgrade, 
enhancing Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility and smart contract 
performance.
Rootstock also expanded its ecosystem through integrations with LayerZero and 
Meson Finance and launched developer-focused initiatives, including a new 
hackathon and enhancements to its governance platform, RootstockCollective.
On May 1, Alexei Zamyatin, the co-founder of the Bitcoin layer 2 Build on 
Bitcoin, said that the first DeFi company to launch a user-friendly suite of 
products on Bitcoin would &#8220;win the entire market&#8221; of the blockchain&#8217;s 300 
million users.
_**Magazine: **__**ZK-proofs unlock trillions in Bitcoin for DeFi &#8212; 
BitcoinOS and Starknet**_

Bitcoin DeFi sees surge in mining participation despite drop in TVL

Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of BitMEX and principal of Maelstrom Capital, 
contends that the US Treasury—rather than the Federal Reserve—is the true 
engine of the current bull market in risk assets, Bitcoin foremost among them. 
Speaking in a live-streamed one-on-one interview Wednesday evening, Hayes 
argued that traders should “ignore Powell” and instead parse every word and 
data table that comes out of the Treasury’s quarterly refunding announcement. 
“Powell hasn’t really mattered for many years,” Hayes insisted, dismissing the 
Fed chair’s decision to leave the federal-funds rate at 4.25 % to 4.50 % for a 
third consecutive meeting. “The real show is at the Treasury Department. […] 
Listen to Bessent. Ignore Powell. He’s irrelevant.” Hayes’s thesis rests on a 
liquidity dynamic that first surfaced in the third quarter of 2022. Then- 
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, he said, spotted “two-and-a-half trillion 
dollars of excess money sitting in the Fed’s reverse repo facility” and 
shifted issuance toward short-dated Treasury bills. That maneuver, by Hayes’s 
calculation, siphoned dormant cash out of the Fed and “injected it into the 
global money markets,” seeding a broad rally that lifted equities, bonds, gold 
and—most forcefully—crypto. “Powell didn’t matter in 2022 under a Democratic 
regime,” he said. “He doesn’t matter today under the Republican regime.” 
Related Reading: Bitcoin Poised To Retest All-Time High If This Level Holds, 
Says Bitfinex Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s newly minted authority to 
conduct buybacks is, in Hayes’s view, the next accelerant. Buybacks would 
allow the Treasury to recycle on-the-run securities and absorb supply shocks 
without forcing the Fed to expand its balance sheet overtly. “Bessent has 
tools,” Hayes noted, citing an April 11–12 Bloomberg appearance. “Powell will 
sit back and say ‘I’m going to look at data,’ but he’s a sideshow.” Bitcoin’s 
Macro Logic Hayes reduces the trading implications to a single variable: the 
quantity of fiat dollars in circulation. “If there is a bigger quantity of 
fiat dollars in the world than there were yesterday, Bitcoin and crypto will 
do well,” he said. Price-stability debates, exchange-rate gyrations and even 
the trajectory of the US Dollar Index (DXY) are secondary. “Bitcoin doesn’t 
care. All we care about is: Is there more dollars in the system today than 
yesterday?” That framework underpins his long-running forecast that Bitcoin 
can reach $1 million before 2028. The target is deliberately round—“We’re 
humans, we’re dumb, let’s just pick a round number that’s big”—yet Hayes 
grounds it in compounding fiscal pressures. Related Reading: Raoul Pal: 
Bitcoin Could Hit $450,000 In Liquidity-Driven Supercycle Interest on the US 
national debt was the fastest-growing line item in the most recent Treasury 
Borrowing Advisory Committee presentation; Social Security, Medicare and 
defense costs, he argued, will only push borrowing needs higher. “There’s just 
no way the US government is going to stop spending money,” he said, adding 
that he expects “an acceleration of money printing and fiscal debasement” once 
Powell’s term expires in May 2026. Asked how he is allocating capital, Hayes 
said about 60%–65% of his liquid portfolio is in Bitcoin, 20% in Ether, with 
the remainder in a handful of what he called “quality shitcoins.” He 
highlighted three projects—Pendle, EtherFi and Ethena—as examples of what he 
calls “fundamental season,” protocols that generate real revenue and share it 
with token-holders. The timing of a broader rotation into altcoins, he added, 
will depend on Bitcoin dominance. “I think we need to get above 70% before we 
start seeing a rotation back into alts,” a threshold he tentatively places in 
the $110,000–$150,000 BTC price range. Hayes was skeptical that the US–China 
tariff confrontation will meaningfully shrink the bilateral trade gap. Both 
sides, he said, need a “face-saving announcement” for domestic audiences, but 
the United States will continue importing Chinese goods, whether directly or 
through third-countries. Over time, he expects Washington to rely less on 
tariffs and more on capital-account measures—such as user fees on Treasuries 
held by foreigners—to re-engineer trade flows without asking US consumers to 
“buy less stuff.” A weaker dollar, in his model, is a by-product of those 
adjustments, not a centrally planned objective. “If foreigners sell less 
things in dollars and those dollars are not invested in the financial markets, 
the dollar will go down in value,” he said. That, again, feeds the Bitcoin 
bid. At press time, BTC traded at $98,827. Featured image created with DALL.E, 
chart from TradingView.com

Bitcoin Soars Toward $100,000 As Treasury, Not Fed, Drives Liquidity: Expert

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Sweat, a move-to-earn platform that rewards users for physical activity, has 
launched a personalized AI agent and expanded its multichain infrastructure. 
The update is designed to improve user onboarding by offering interactive 
guidance and simplifying asset management across blockchains.
The AI agent, named Mia (short for Movement in Action), is powered by Near.AI 
&#8212; an open-source AI model platform with crosschain capabilities. Integrated 
into the Sweat wallet, Mia helps users to bridge, swap and manage their crypto 
rewards without needing deep crypto knowledge..
Sweat is rolling out support for Base, Ethereum, Arbitrum and BNB Chain. 
Within the app, users can now bridge assets and swap native tokens across 
networks, with the option to pay gas fees in Sweat (SWEAT) tokens.
Sweat co-founder Oleg Fomenko told Cointelegraph: &#8220;We&#8217;ve shifted to 
championing the Movement Economy &#8212; an expansive, multichain ecosystem where 
movement is not only rewarded but also unlocks access to financial tools, 
health experiences and self-sovereign identity.&#8221;
_Mia in Sweat wallet Source: swe.at_
 _**Related:**__**Near &#8216;s crosschain AI Assistant will soon book flights and 
order takeout for you**_
## Personalized AI agents aim for a simpler interface
Move-to-Earn is an emerging model that rewards users for physical activity by 
combining movement with technology. Apps like StepN, Plena and Sweat are now 
exploring ways to integrate AI to enhance their platforms. StepN, for example, 
employs AI to improve anti-cheating mechanisms, while Sweat focuses on using 
AI to streamline the user experience and enable multichain decentralized 
finance (DeFi) functionality.
Sweat uses the move-to-earn model, rewarding users for every 1,000 steps 
taken. Users can exchange their token rewards for products, donate them, or 
convert them into a currency of their choice.
Fomenko told Cointelegraph that Mia is more like &#8220;a helpful friend&#8221; than a 
technical dashboard. It focuses on &#8220;guiding users through tracking how steps 
convert into Sweat tokens, earning staking rewards, or performing onchain 
actions like swapping or bridging tokens.&#8221;
According to Sweat, the wallet currently has 20 million users and over 19 
million tokenholders. Mia will also personalize in-app recommendations based 
on each user&#8217;s behavior and preferences, including surfacing relevant offers, 
setting reminders, or explaining new wallet features.
## Privacy and security remain priorities
As AI-driven tools become more integrated with crypto wallets, concerns around 
data privacy and misuse have grown. Fomenko told Cointelegraph that the risks 
are addressed through &#8220;a combination of GDPR [General Data Protection 
Regulation]-compliant data handling practices, secure anonymization protocols 
and frequent external audits&#8221;.
&#8220;By aligning with the highest privacy standards and prioritizing user 
sovereignty, Sweat ensures that AI serves as a helpful, secure, and 
trustworthy assistant in the Web3 journey,&#8221; Fomenko added.
However, as AI agents scale, the risk of AI-driven phishing attacks increases, 
with bots sending personalized messages that closely mimic legitimate 
communications. To address these concerns, Fomenko said, &#8220;Mia operates 
transparently, providing clear, explainable prompts where users remain in 
control &#8212; they can accept, reject, or override suggestions at any time.&#8221;
_**Magazine:**__**Crypto AI tokens surge 34%, why ChatGPT is such a kiss-ass: 
AI Eye**_

Sweat wallet adds AI assistant, expands to multichain DeFi

With Bitcoin heading closer to the $100k mark after breaking its bearish 
pattern, altcoins and especially memes have been flying at record levels. Pepe 
is also witnessing some bullish momentum, but for how long can this continue? 
Let’s find out…