News linked to both this project and an event.
According to Fortune, DeFi asset management and risk analysis company Gauntlet completed a $125 million financing round, exclusively invested by Japanese financial group SBI Holdings. The financing was completed in June this year, and the specific valuation was not disclosed. This is Gauntlet's largest financing round since its establishment in 2018, far exceeding its $24 million Series B round in 2022 led by Ribbit Capital at a $1 billion valuation. Gauntlet was founded by former Wall Street quantitative trader Tarun Chitra. It initially focused on providing stress testing and vulnerability analysis services for DeFi protocols. Later, as the DAO governance model waned, it gradually transitioned to a "treasury curation" business—assessing yield strategy risks through quantitative analysis to help institutional investors manage digital asset allocation. Currently, its clients include asset management giant Apollo, Coinbase, and stablecoin issuer Circle.
Odaily Odaily: In response to recent community discussions, the Aave CEO issued a statement clarifying that Aave will never sell AAVE tokens at a 70% discount.According to the "Aave Will Win (AWW)" proposal, 100% of the revenue generated by the Aave protocol and the GHO stablecoin belongs to AAVE token holders. This principle also applies to all product revenues, including Aave App, Aave Pro, and Swaps. As a service provider for Aave DAO, Aave Labs is solely responsible for protocol development and expansion and does not receive any protocol or product revenue.The Aave CEO revealed that Aave's current annualized revenue has reached $134 million, all of which belongs to Aave DAO. Additionally, the Aave brand and related software intellectual property rights belong to AAVE.Furthermore, the team is designing Aavenomics 3.0, which plans to introduce a new, automated, non-discretionary buyback mechanism. More details will be announced later. He stated that Aave's goal is not only to serve the crypto market but also the entire financial asset market, including Real World Assets (RWA).
Aave founder Stani Kulechov has responded to reports suggesting Kraken's parent company Payward is interested in acquiring a 15% stake in the Aave protocol, stating that AAVE is "not going to be sold at a 70% discount."Prior reports from CoinDesk indicated that Payward was in talks to acquire a 15% stake in Aave at a valuation of $385 million. If calculated at this valuation, it would represent only approximately 30% of AAVE's fully diluted valuation, significantly below the market valuation.In a post on X, Kulechov stated that the relevant reports were not entirely accurate. He did not completely deny the possibility of Aave Labs selling a portion of its held AAVE tokens, but noted that Aave Labs does have a certain allocation of AAVE, and that multiple market participants have discussed purchasing either directly or indirectly, or engaging in deeper collaboration centered around long-term partnerships.Aave is the largest decentralized lending protocol on the Ethereum ecosystem. Kulechov stated that Aave currently generates an annualized revenue of approximately $134 million, with the relevant revenue flowing to the Aave DAO. He has also previously proposed a governance plan to redirect revenue from Aave Labs, the protocol, and its products to the Aave DAO and token holders.These rumors emerge at a time when Aave is experiencing certain pressures. Following the Kelp DAO incident in April, Aave's TVL saw a significant decline. Although Aave itself was not directly attacked, the KelpDAO cross-chain bridge attacker utilized Aave to convert the stolen rsETH into other assets.
According to The Block, the DeFi lending protocol Radiant Capital has announced it will officially cease operations. The protocol suffered a hack in October 2024, losing approximately $51 million; the attacker gained unauthorized access by deploying backdoor contracts on Arbitrum and BNB Chain. Earlier in 2024, the protocol had also been hit by a flash loan attack, resulting in a loss of roughly 1,900 ETH (approximately $4.5 million). After 18 months of recovery efforts, Radiant Capital stated that it has neither recovered a significant portion of the stolen funds nor secured new financing, declaring that “the DAO has no viable path forward.” The protocol will now enter a “maintenance mode”: its frontend and smart contracts remain accessible, allowing users to withdraw funds, repay loans, and manage positions. Any funds recovered in the future will be returned to affected users.
Odaily Odaily News Gate Research recently released its "April 2026 Cryptocurrency Market Review" report, indicating that the overall cryptocurrency market saw a volatile upward trend in April, with total market capitalization significantly higher than in March. BTC and ETH ETF trading volumes maintained high volatility overall. The report shows continued divergence in activity across major public chain ecosystems. Solana's daily transaction volume remained in the range of approximately 90 million to 110 million transactions, maintaining its leading position.Regarding trending sectors, the report notes that Pokemon TCG RWA has become one of the fastest-growing on-chain RWA sub-sectors, entering a second explosive growth phase in April. Major trading platforms saw monthly trading volumes exceed $220 million, with weekly revenue briefly approaching $6 million, setting new historical records. Meanwhile, Aave experienced its most severe liquidity crisis ever in April, with TVL outflows reaching tens of billions of dollars within a few days and net outflows exceeding $9 billion for the entire month.In terms of fundraising and security incidents, the Web3 industry completed 51 financing rounds in April, totaling approximately $834 million, with capital further concentrating on leading financial and infrastructure tracks. Among these, Payward ranked first for the month with a $200 million financing round. On the security front, Web3 security incidents in April resulted in losses of approximately $306 million, a month-over-month increase of about 858%, primarily driven by a single cross-chain infrastructure attack on Kelp DAO worth approximately $293 million. The report suggests that against the backdrop of a recovering market, on-chain activity and capital liquidity are both increasing simultaneously. However, the security risks associated with cross-chain infrastructure and high-leverage protocols remain worthy of continued attention.
Odaily, Odaily reported that ILITY has announced the completion of a $2 million seed round at a valuation of $21 million, led by Animoca Brands, with participation from DAO Duck and others.The funds from this round will primarily be used to accelerate protocol development and expand ecosystem partnerships.The project aims to build a layer-1 blockchain protocol focused on private cross-chain verification, enabling trustless verification of holdings and behaviors through zero-knowledge proofs while maintaining wallet address privacy.
Lido has released an update regarding the Kelp security incident, stating that its Earn-series vaults are working with the management team to address the issue, focusing on two key risk areas: rsETH exposure and tightening liquidity in lending markets. Lido emphasizes that its core staking protocol remains unaffected, and both stETH and wstETH remain secure and stable. Currently, only the EarnETH vault holds approximately 9% of its TVL in rsETH exposure; related deposits and withdrawals have been suspended by the management team pending resolution. Of the ~$70 million in ETH stolen in the earlier attack, roughly $70 million has already been recovered; asset recovery and loss allocation efforts are ongoing. To mitigate liquidity pressure, the management team has reduced leverage and optimized position structures, significantly decreasing wETH debt exposure. Should losses ultimately materialize, EarnETH will activate its $3 million “first-loss protection mechanism,” funded by the DAO. Other vaults remain unaffected: DVV and EarnUSD are operating normally. The GGV sub-vault is currently experiencing negative yields due to a combination of recursive staking strategies and rising borrowing rates, but active adjustments are underway. Users’ previously submitted withdrawal requests will be processed at pre-incident valuations.
Odaily News daos.fun founder baoskee posted on the X platform stating that the team has ceased further development of DAO products. The reason is that the market is primarily driven by speculation, and the "degen managing a hedge fund" model has structural issues, including behaviors such as dumping after fundraising or self-buying tokens.He pointed out that daos.fun had previously promoted narratives related to DAOs, ICM, and AI, and emphasized that the team did not engage in insider trading or token sniping during operations, creating profits for users.Simultaneously, baoskee mentioned that while the whitelist mechanism is controversial, overall it still constituted an "interesting experiment." He stated he will continue to monitor the development of new projects like pumpcade and megapot, and is optimistic about the innovative potential of the Solana ecosystem in the financial gaming field.
According to an official announcement, cryptocurrency futures exchange KieDex has raised $3.5 million in funding, led by Marqel Capital. The company stated that the funds will be used to build the KieDex platform and develop a next-generation cryptocurrency futures exchange focused on fast, secure, and incentive-driven trading experiences. Supporting partners include Hidden Street Capital, Caviar, CSP DAO, Solulu Club, Rocket, TPC, Devmons, and TATATU.