Author: Monicah W

In the crypto market, a new generation of on-chain banking products is currently taking shape. Highlighting this evolution, EVAA Protocol, the first and leading DeFi protocol on TON, is hosting deFINTECH, a legendary side event of TOKEN2049 Dubai, in collaboration with TAC, the Layer 1 TON EVM network extension that connects the TON blockchain with Ethereum apps, allowing Telegram users to access popular EVM applications directly from their TON wallet.

The event is supported by key partners, including sponsor Ston.fi, the leading DEX on the TON blockchain, and media partners BeInCrypto and INCRYPTED, providing official media coverage. The curated gathering will take place on April 30, 2025, from 2 PM to 6 PM at DAOS HUB Dubai, deFINTECH’s official venue partner.

deFINTECH brings together the builders, product leaders, and fintech visionaries who are actively reimagining the future of banking on blockchain rails. The event focuses on envisioning on-chain neo-banking—financial services built natively on-chain and natively integrated into everyday platforms like Telegram. This includes exploring stablecoin payments, Telegram-native wallets, tokenized vaults, and intuitive on-chain yield tools.

Hosted by EVAA Protocol, deFINTECH highlights the platform’s dedication to DeFi accessibility and efficiency. EVAA provides liquidity market solutions and leveraged staking strategies, integrated deeply with Telegram and top-tier TON applications like Tonkeeper, Notcoin, Ston.fi, FIVA, TG Wallet, and DeDust. This creates a frictionless experience for users to borrow, lend, and earn yield on TON.

Why deFINTECH Matters

With Telegram’s crypto ecosystem gaining significant traction and stablecoins becoming a preferred medium for payments and savings, particularly in emerging markets, novel opportunities are arising at the intersection of Web3, embedded finance, and real-world adoption. deFINTECH serves as a dedicated venue for those pioneering this transformation.

The event is designed for founders and product leads building on-chain fintech solutions alongside wallet teams, L1/L2 ecosystem developers, and Web3 banking infrastructure builders. It also brings together investors, early adopters in social finance and DeFi, institutional players exploring on-chain finance, media, and strategic contributors focused on this evolving sector. With 150–190 highly relevant guests expected, the event fosters an atmosphere centered on valuable connections and substantive discussions.

One unique aspect of deFINTECH is that it moves away from traditional conference formats. Instead of stages and panels, the event prioritizes meaningful dialogue, fosters early-stage collaboration, and encourages product-first conversations. The goal is to create an atmosphere where genuine connections are made and practical solutions for the future of on-chain finance are discussed. deFINTECH offers a focused environment for meaningful connections and strategic dialogue during the busy TOKEN2049 week. Attendance at the event is by invitation only.

What To Expect

Attendees can anticipate an afternoon centered around direct interaction and collaboration. The format includes focused roundtable discussions exploring the future of neo-banking and DeFi user experience. There will also be opportunities for live demos and product showcases presented in a casual, off-stage setting.

Attendees can also expect to participate in open networking with other participants, ensuring valuable interactions without superfluous presentations. deFINTECH cultivates a culture of co-creation, inviting attendees to actively take part in shaping the conversation rather than passively consuming content. The agenda features focused discussions, including insights from venture capital, partner spotlights, and collaborative talks, all interwoven with ample networking time.

The Venue: DAOS HUB Dubai

deFINTECH will be hosted at DAOS HUB Dubai, serving as the event’s official venue partner. Located in the heart of Dubai, DAOS HUB is a purpose-built ecosystem that provides a space where Web3 builders, contributors, and innovators can collaborate and grow. Its mission is to create an ideal environment for Web3 startups to thrive through network-native connections and curated access, making it a fitting backdrop for the event’s forward-looking conversations. The event runs from 2 PM to 6 PM on April 30, 2025.

“Web3 doesn’t need another conference. It needs a product room,” said Vlad Kamyshov, CEO of EVAA Protocol.“At deFINTECH, we stop pitching dreams and start building real tools — right inside Telegram, where our users already are. We believe stablecoin payments, Telegram-native wallets, and on-chain yield tools can reimagine banking—making it open, permissionless, and composable. This isn’t just a trend — it’s a movement. Our goal is to bring together the builders and visionaries shaping the next financial layer.”

For those actively working on Telegram-based payment rails, secure yield vaults for stablecoins, or compliance-friendly DeFi applications, deFINTECH offers a unique space to connect, collaborate, and contribute to the next wave of financial innovation.

Secure your spot here.

The post deFINTECH by EVAA at TOKEN2049: Where On-Chain Builders Talk Product, Not Hype appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has announced that it will delist four tokens. These include Alpaca Finance (ALPACA), PlayDapp (PDA), Wing Finance (WING), and Viberate (VIB).

PDA, WING, and VIB witnessed a notable drop in value following the announcement. Yet, ALPACA has bucked the trend, experiencing a surge despite its impending removal from the platform.

Binance To Delist ALPACA, PDA, WING, and VIB

According to the official announcement, the delisting will take effect on May 2 at 03:00 UTC.  After May 3, users will no longer be able to deposit these tokens. 

In addition, withdrawals will be unavailable after July 4. Lastly, open positions in Binance Futures related to the tokens will be closed by April 30. 

The decision aligns with Binance’s periodic review process, which evaluates tokens based on factors such as volume, liquidity, project team activity, compliance with regulatory requirements, etc. The exchange stated that these tokens failed to meet the required criteria, prompting their removal.

“When a coin or token no longer meets these standards or the industry landscape changes, we conduct a more in-depth review and potentially delist it. Our priority is to ensure the best services and protections for our users while continuing to adapt to evolving market dynamics,” Binance noted.

The move came shortly after Binance wrapped up the second round of the “Vote to Delist” campaign. 8.2% of the total votes were in favor of delisting PDA. Meanwhile, ALPACA followed with 6.3% of the votes, and WING garnered 3.8%. VIB was not included among the 17 tokens up for community voting.

Interestingly, despite the FTX Token (FTT) leading the vote with 11.1%, Binance has excluded it from its latest list of tokens to be removed from the platform.

ALPACA’s Surge Amid Binance Delisting Sparks Concerns

Following the news, PDA, WING, and VIB plunged by double digits. BeInCrypto data showed that WING saw the highest decline. The token shed 31.8% of its value. VIB followed closely with a 29.7% downtick. In addition, PDA’s value decreased by 17.0%.

However, shortly after the announcement, ALPACA’s price surged 71.3%. Moreover, its trading volume increased by 417.2%. The rise wasn’t typical for a token up for delisting, raising concerns.

Most of the time, a delisting announcement triggers substantial drops in price, as seen in previous cases.

In the latest X (formerly Twitter) post, an analyst highlighted ALPACA’s unusual reaction, which he said was likely manipulated.

“ALPACA after a major dump showed immense squeeze. Rised to over 100%; liquidated some heavy shorters, heavy manipulation out there,” the post read.

The analyst advised users to stay cautious and avoid falling for potential “exit scams,” where prices are artificially inflated to benefit manipulators at the expense of unsuspecting investors.

The post Binance Delists Four Tokens, ALPACA Surges 71% While Others Plunge appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Over a week after the Zksync hacking incident, the exploiter agreed to a bounty and returned a significant portion of the loot.

Despite recovering stolen funds, the network’s powering token, ZK, continues to exhibit bearish sentiment.

ZKSync Hacker Returns $5.7 Million

On April 15, the Ethereum-based  Layer-2 scalability solution, ZKsync, suffered a hack. The compromised account controlled $5 million worth of ZK tokens. As BeInCrypto reported, the incident had caused a 16% price drop.

The incident was controversial after some community members noticed some concerning data. The revelations led to dire allegations, with some likening ZkSync to Mantra (OM). To some, ZKsync responded to the hack by dumping their assets at an accelerated pace.

“The ZkSync team has released 110 million tokens and sold 66 million. The price of ZK is going against the trend as the market is recovering, and it has immediately dropped by 15%. First OM, now ZK, this project seems to be heading in the wrong direction,” one user noted.

This bordered on embezzlement. However, in a recent development, the ZKsync Association revealed that the hacker returned 90% of the funds, effectively honoring the safe harbor deadline.

Through an April 21 post on X (Twitter), the ZKsync Security Council offered the hacker a 10% bounty if they returned the stolen funds, allowing a 72-hour window.

“To resolve this matter amicably in the spirit of safe harbor, we are offering a 10% bounty for your cooperation if you return 90% of the funds involved in the exploit,” ZK Nation shared on X.

As it happened, the bad actor heeded, transferring almost $5.7 million to the ZKsync Security Council across three transfers on April 23.

Specifically, they sent two transfers on the ZKsync Era blockchain. The first involved sending $1.83 million worth of Ethereum (ETH) to the ZKsync Security Council’s ZKsync Era address, and the second involved sending $2.47 million worth of ZKsync tokens.

In the third transaction, the ZKSync hacker sent 776 ETH worth approximately $1.4 million to the ZkSync Security Council’s Ethereum address.

With this, the ZKsync Association committed to publishing a final report revealing more details about the security incident.

Meanwhile, it is worth noting that the hacker followed instructions given by the ZKsync Security Council to the letter. Based on this, the case closes without further action.

It mirrors past incidents, including Ronin Bridge hackers returning $10 million worth of ETH and earning a $500,000 bounty.

Despite the turn of events, however, the ZK token continues to display bearish sentiment, down by nearly 2% in the last 24 hours. As of this writing, ZKsync’s token was trading for $0.06.

Meanwhile, not all hacking incidents honor safe harbor offers. Recently, Bybit launched a bounty program offering up to 10% of recovered funds to ethical hackers and cybersecurity experts.

This incentivized efforts to reclaim $1.4 billion in stolen assets. While some efforts to reclaim lost assets yielded results, the partial recovery was thanks to key industry players stepping in, not the exploiter.

Meanwhile, other ecosystems leverage bounty programs to bolster security. Cardano’s Charles Hoskinson recently offered a $1 million bounty for hacking the new Lace Paper Wallet, testing its security.

Similarly, Uniswap announced a record-breaking $15.5 million bug bounty targeting critical vulnerabilities in its v4 core contracts.

The post ZKsync Price Falters Despite 90% of Stolen Funds Returned Within Safe Harbor Deadline appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Bitcoin ETFs continued their inflow streak on Wednesday, raking in over $900 million in fresh capital. 

However, despite the bullish ETF demand, Bitcoin’s open interest has dipped, and its funding rates have flipped negative, a sign that short-term market sentiment may be shifting. 

Bitcoin ETFs Stay Hot

BTC spot ETFs continued to draw investor interest on Wednesday, extending their inflow streak with another $916.91 million in net inflows. 

This marked the fourth consecutive day of inflows, highlighting the growing institutional appetite for BTC exposure, especially as the coin’s price attempts to stabilize above the $90,000 level.

On Wednesday, BlackRock’s ETF IBIT recorded the largest daily net inflow, totaling $643.16 million, bringing its total cumulative net inflows to $40.63 billion.

Ark Invest and 21Shares’ ETF ARKB followed in second place with a net inflow of $129.50 million. The ETF’s total historical net inflows now stand at $3 billion.

Traders Exit Bitcoin Positions as Market Sentiment Turns Cautious

Trading activity across the crypto market has dipped over the past 24 hours, with the total market capitalization shedding $18 billion during the period. 

This pullback has contributed to a modest 1% decline in BTC’s price. The drop in momentum is evident in the coin’s falling futures open interest, which signals reduced trading participation. At press time, BTC’s futures open interest is at $64.54 billion, plunging by 5% in the past day.

When an asset’s price and open interest plummet like this, it signals that traders are closing out positions rather than opening new ones. This combination reflects weak conviction and a potential trend reversal or deeper correction in the BTC market.

Further, BTC’s funding rate has flipped negative once again, indicating that short traders have regained dominance and are now paying to maintain their positions. At press time, this is at -0.0053%. 

When BTC’s funding rate is negative, short sellers are paying long holders to keep their positions open. This indicates that bearish sentiment dominates the market and suggests that traders expect the coin’s price to decline soon.

Moreover, today’s high demand for puts in the BTC options market supports this bearish outlook. According to Deribit, BTC’s put-to-call ratio is currently at 1.36.

This indicates that more put options are traded than calls, suggesting a bearish bias among options traders. The ratio reflects growing expectations of downward price movement.

The post Institutional Inflows vs. Retail Retreat: Who’s Driving Bitcoin Now? | ETF News appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Kraken, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the United States, has officially listed BNB, the native token of the BNB Chain ecosystem developed by Binance. 

This move has captured the attention of the crypto community. Still, it is also seen as a strategic turning point, potentially paving the way for a wave of BNB listings on other US exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, and more.

Legal Landscape: From Barriers to Opportunities

US exchanges sidelined BNB for a long time due to legal concerns surrounding Binance, its parent company. In 2023, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against Binance, alleging the issuance of unregistered securities, including BNB.

This legal scrutiny made many exchanges hesitant to list the token due to potential regulatory risks.

However, a turning point came in late 2024 when Binance settled with US authorities. The exchange agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine and implement stricter compliance reforms. This resolution largely cleared the “legal hurdle” for BNB, potentially influencing Kraken’s decision to list the token.

Regulatory Clarity Boosts Altcoins

Kraken’s listing of BNB may not be an isolated event. It reflects a broader shift in the regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies in the United States. In January 2024, the SEC approved a series of spot Bitcoin ETFs—a milestone hailed as a “historic moment” that legitimized Bitcoin and other digital assets in the eyes of institutional investors.

As regulators establish clearer frameworks for digital assets, the US market is gradually opening up to altcoins, including BNB.

With positive developments under President Donald Trump’s administration following his inauguration, this could be an opportune moment for other exchanges to reassess their stance on BNB.

BNB Chain and Its DeFi Potential

Beyond being a native token, BNB powers one of the fastest-growing blockchain ecosystems—BNB Chain. According to BNB Chain’s weekly ecosystem report, in the first week of April 2025 alone, the network recorded over 3.3 million daily active users.

The total transaction value surpassed $7.1 billion. Major DeFi, GameFi, and AI projects are thriving on this platform.

Moreover, BNB Chain is implementing notable technical advancements in its 2025 roadmap. They plan to reduce block processing times to under 1 second, enabling gasless transactions and integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into decentralized applications (dApps). These factors make BNB a strategic asset for exchanges, attracting DeFi users.

Kraken’s decision to list BNB could trigger a domino effect across the industry. It signals that US exchanges may begin to recognize BNB as a legitimate and high-potential asset. This also reflects a shift in the strategy of US exchanges—from a defensive stance against legal risks to a proactive approach to leveraging the potential of the Web3 ecosystem.

The post Kraken Lists BNB: A Sign of Changing Regulatory Winds in the US? appeared first on BeInCrypto.