Cardano’s mood music has flipped. Even as ADA has rebounded about five percent from its late-August lows, on-chain analytics firm Santiment says the asset’s typically optimistic retail crowd has swung to its most negative stance in five months.

In an X post accompanying its sentiment chart, the firm wrote: “Cardano has quietly seen its normally optimistic crowd start to turn bearish. After the lowest sentiment recorded in 5 months, $ADA’s price is +5%. Patient holders and dip buyers during this three week downswing should root for this trend of bearish retailers to continue.”

Santiment framed that shift in classic contrarian terms. “Prices typically move the opposite direction of the crowd’s expectations. When small traders sell off their bags out of impatience and frustration, it is generally the key stakeholders who accumulate and drive up prices again,” the post added.

Related Reading

The graphic shared by the firm plots ADA’s price against a running ratio of bullish versus bearish social commentary and annotated three distinct phases over the past month: an early-August “greed” spike where the bullish-to-bearish ratio surged to roughly 12.8:1 and was followed by a pullback; a mid-August “fear” pocket near 2.0:1 that preceded a rally; and, most recently, the most bearish reading in five months around 1.5:1, coinciding with ADA’s +5% bounce.

The sequencing in Santiment’s chart supports the firm’s message that outsized crowd optimism or pessimism frequently appears near short-term inflection points. The short-term price path into that rebound has been marked by a three-week downswing that began around August 14.

Cardano Faces Decision Zone

Independent market analyst Quantum Ascend ties the bounce to a clearly defined higher-time-frame structure. Posting a daily ADA/USD chart, the analyst wrote: “ADA Respecting a channel on the high time frame dating back to early June. Higher Highs, Lower Lows. Short-term decline dating back to August 14 channeling as well. Price Currently sitting atop the .382 Fib at $0.82. Cardano’s decision point appears near, but we still need to be looking to the Macro. Regardless, I’m very bullish long-term.”

Related Reading

In Quantum Ascend’s view, ADA is tracking an ascending channel that has contained price action since mid-June. The short, blue corrective channel from August 14 sits inside that broader up-channel and has carried price back to the lower end of the channel as well as a Fibonacci retracement cluster derived from the June–August advance.

The analyst’s chart places the 0.382 retracement near $0.821, which has acted as first support and the immediate “decision point.” Below that, the same mapping highlights the 0.309 retracement around $0.762 and the 0.236 near $0.702 as deeper pullback areas inside the macro structure.

Overhead, the analyst’s levels mark successive checkpoints at the 0.5 retracement near $0.879, the 0.618 near $1.043, the 0.702 around $1.083, the 0.786 near $1.151, and the 1.0 extension around $1.326—levels that also align with prior supply pockets and the upper boundary of the ascending channel later in the quarter.

At press time, ADA traded at $0.8177.

Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is defending the bank’s controversial plans to charge fintech companies such as PayPal and Coinbase fees for access to customers’ account information.

In an earnings call for the second quarter of 2025, Dimon said that the fintech-fee decision was made to protect its customers when asked about the new policy.

“So, this is very important. So forget pricing for a second, we are in favor of the customer, but we think the customer has the right to if they want to share their information. What we ask people to do is, what do they – do they actually know what’s being shared? What is actually being shared? It shouldn’t be everything. It should be what their customer wants. It should have a time limit because some of these things went on for years. It should not be re-marketed or resold to third parties. And so, we’re kind of in favor of all that, done properly.

And then the payment, it just costs a lot of money to set up the APIs and stuff like that to run the system’s protection. So, we just think it should be done and done right. And that’s the main part. It’s not like you can’t do it.”

The fintech companies use the information to make it easier for their customers to send, receive and trade money. JPMorgan is reportedly poised to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for the service.

Alex Rampell, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and co-founder of the buy now, pay later business Affirm, is slamming JPMorgan’s move, warning it will make it more difficult to move money into crypto.

“This isn’t about a new revenue stream. It’s about strangling competition. And if they get away with this, every bank will follow…

If it suddenly costs $10 to move $100 into a Coinbase or Robinhood account – maybe fewer people will do it.”

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of crypto platform Kraken, is criticizing JPMorgan for “asserting ownership over data that is generated by users but stored inside infrastructure the bank controls.”

“We should not be optimizing for defensibility through restriction. We should be leveraging our position and profitability to build better access, more open architecture and more composable systems. That means investing in protocols, not just platforms. It means participating in shared infrastructure, not just extracting value from it.”

Follow us on X, Facebook and Telegram

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Check Price Action

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

&nbsp

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Generated Image: Midjourney

OKX CEO Star Xu has responded to accusations from Tron founder Justin Sun, who claimed the exchange failed to act on a law enforcement request to freeze stolen funds linked to a hack of Tron’s official X account.

Sun alleged that OKX ignored a “freeze notice” from law enforcement following the May 3 breach, during which Tron’s X account was compromised.

The attacker reportedly posted a malicious smart contract address, sent direct messages, and engaged with unfamiliar accounts.

Justin Sun Says OKX Ignored Freeze Request

In a now-deleted post, Sun stated that the exchange had been contacted via official email but had not responded, leaving him with “no other way” to reach OKX’s compliance team.

“These stolen funds do not belong to me; I’m acting to protect the community,” Sun claimed.

Star Xu dismissed the allegations. “OKX has a consumer protection policy governed by law,” Xu wrote on X.

“We can’t freeze a customer’s funds based on your personal X post or oral communication. As the CEO of HTX, I think you should understand this.”

Xu added that OKX’s law enforcement (LE) cooperation team reviewed its email accounts, including spam folders, and found no official request related to the case.

“Our LE cooperation team just checked the email, including the spam box; we haven’t received any request related with this case,” he said.

Xu also posted a screenshot of Sun’s original deleted message and challenged him to share evidence of the alleged freeze notice, including the time and source of the request.

The incident adds to a growing list of social media hacks in the crypto space.

On March 15, Yu Hu, founder of crypto AI platform Kaito, had his account hijacked to spread false warnings about compromised wallets—shortly after attackers opened a short position in KAITO tokens.

Similarly, on Feb. 26, the Pump.fun X account was compromised to promote a fake governance token.

In another instance, UK MP Lucy Powell’s X account was hacked on April 15 to promote a scam token.

Crypto Hacks Surge in 2025 as Losses Top $1.74 Billion in Four Months

Hackers stole over $92.4 million from crypto projects in April 2025 alone, according to blockchain security firm Immunefi.

The figure represents a 27.3% year-over-year increase and more than double the losses reported in March.

April’s attacks occurred across 15 incidents, with two major exploits accounting for the bulk of the damage.

UPCX, an open-source platform, lost $70 million in a single attack, while decentralized exchange KiloEx was hit for $7.5 million.

Other affected projects included Loopscale, ZKsync, Term Labs, and Bitcoin Mission, each experiencing losses exceeding $1 million.

Cumulatively, the first four months of 2025 have already seen $1.74 billion in crypto losses—more than all of 2024, which totaled $1.49 billion.

Immunefi previously noted that Q1 2025 was the worst quarter for hacks in crypto history, driven largely by massive breaches of centralized exchanges Phemex and Bybit.

The post OKX CEO Defends Exchange Amid Justin Sun Freeze Dispute appeared first on Cryptonews.

Facepalm: Signal likes to present itself as the most private and secure messaging service around, but the nonprofit likely didn’t design the app for sharing classified plans regarding imminent military action. Yet earlier this month, senior U.S. government and military officials did just that. Signal’s president later defended the service amid renewed comparisons to WhatsApp.

Signal president Meredith Whittaker reiterated the messaging service’s commitment to secure encryption and privacy after top government officials reportedly discussed a classified military operation using the platform. The conversation, which included highly sensitive information, was leaked when the U.S. national security advisor accidentally invited The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief into the chat.

Jeff Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, said he didn’t believe he’d been invited to an online meeting about upcoming attacks on the Houthis in Yemen – until the strikes occurred just hours after being mentioned in the chatroom.

I wouldn’t say that Will and I are battling but I do disagree. Because there are big differences between Signal and WhatsApp.

Signal is the gold standard in private comms. We’re open source, nonprofit, and we develop and apply e2ee and privacy preserving tech across our system… https://t.co/ZU60z2vVHy

– Meredith Whittaker (@mer__edith) March 25, 2025

During the exchange, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other senior officials reportedly discussed specific targets, weaponry, and other sensitive details. Goldberg declined to publish those specifics, citing concerns about endangering military and intelligence personnel. A national security spokesperson later confirmed the authenticity of the message chain.

Beyond the sensitive information shared, the messages also revealed candid insights into the officials’ private opinions and communication styles. Vice President Vance reportedly expressed disagreement with President Trump over the strikes, arguing that they benefited Europe more than the U.S

After the operation, several officials celebrated with emojis, including a fist, a flexed bicep, an American flag, and a flame.

While U.S. officials often use Signal for routine communication, the app is not authorized for transmitting classified information. Such discussions are typically conducted on secure devices within protected facilities. Legal experts suggested that sharing classified details over Signal – particularly with the service configured to erase messages – may have violated the Espionage Act.

President Trump later defended the use of Signal, saying it was the best tool available at the time, as accessing secure facilities can be cumbersome.

In response to comparisons with WhatsApp, Whittaker emphasized Signal’s end-to-end encryption and privacy-first approach. The company also minimizes the amount of data it can disclose under subpoena.

By contrast, she pointed out that while WhatsApp uses Signal’s encryption technology under license, it does not protect metadata, contact lists, user IDs, or profile photos. Despite Signal’s encryption safeguards, devices using the app remain vulnerable to hacking and theft. The incident with Goldberg also highlights the persistent danger of human error.

Despite a volatile past two weeks, driven by Donald Trump’s proposed trade tariffs and higher-than-expected January 2025 inflation data in the US, Ethereum (ETH) has successfully defended the $2,380–$2,460 demand zone. Now, analysts are eyeing a potential move toward $3,000 for the digital asset.

Ethereum Defends Key Demand Zone Amidst Volatility

According to an X post by crypto analyst Ali Martinez, ETH has managed to hold above the critical $2,380 – $2,460 demand zone. With no major supply barriers ahead, the cryptocurrency could be on track to reach the $3,000 price target.

For the uninitiated, a demand zone in trading is a price area where buying pressure is significantly strong, often leading to price reversals or upward movements. It is identified by historical price action, where demand previously exceeded supply, causing prices to rise.

Related Reading

Crypto trader Daan Crypto Trades shares a similar outlook on Ethereum’s recent price momentum. According to the trader, while ETH has successfully remained above the $2,500 level, the key hurdle to overcome is the $2,800 price level. They noted:

The key level for continuation, and for me to say that this correction is over, would be a retake of that $2.8K level. Flips the market structure locally and has been at an important high timeframe level during this cycle.

From a technical perspective, fellow crypto trader Merlijn The Trader highlighted the formation of a ‘textbook double bottom’ on the 5-day Ethereum chart. They further pointed out that ETH’s multi-year trendline remains intact, suggesting that the price structure is primed for an upward breakout.

Similarly, seasoned crypto influencer Crypto Rover has identified a potential triple-bottom formation on the weekly Ethereum chart. If this pattern plays out, the $4,000 resistance level will be a crucial barrier for ETH to break before it can attempt a new all-time high (ATH).

Is ETH About To Surprise The Market?

Ethereum’s below-average price performance over the past year has drawn significant attention in the crypto market. Compared to peers like Solana (SOL), XRP, and SUI, ETH has failed to deliver substantial returns to its holders since reaching its current ATH of $4,878 in November 2021.

Related Reading

This lackluster performance has fuelled an unprecedented level of bearish sentiment around ETH. A recent report revealed that ETH short positions have surged by 500% since November, highlighting dwindling investor confidence in the asset.

However, this excessive bearish sentiment could set the stage for a surprise move. If ETH manages to trigger a short squeeze, it could force the liquidation of numerous short positions, fuelling a sharp upside rally. At press time, ETH trades at $2,740, up 4.1% in the past 24 hours.

Featured image from Unsplash, Charts from X and TradingView.com