Despite the broader market uptick this week, Hedera’s native token HBAR has bucked the trend, registering a 5% decline over the past seven days.
With bearish momentum building, the HBAR token now risks a return to its year-to-date low.
HBAR Slides Below Key Indicators
HBAR’s decline comes as many top cryptocurrencies post modest gains this week, reflecting its divergence from general market sentiment.
Readings from the HBAR/USD one-day chart suggest that this bearish trend could persist in the short term. For example, as of this writing, HBAR trades below the dots that make up its Parabolic SAR (Stop and Reverse) indicator.
This indicator measures an asset’s price trends and identifies potential entry and exit points. When an asset’s price trades below the SAR, it indicates a downtrend. It suggests the market is in a bearish phase, with the potential for further price dips.
Supporting this bearish outlook, HBAR’s Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) remains in the negative territory, signaling a decline in buying volume and a growing presence of sellers in the market. It currently stands at -0.07.
This key momentum indicator measures money flows into and out of an asset. A negative CMF reading, like HBAR’s, signals that selling pressure dominates the market. This means that more investors are offloading the token than accumulating it, a pattern associated with a weakening price trend.
HBAR Tests 20-Day EMA: Will It Hold or Break Toward $0.12?
The daily chart shows HBAR’s decline has pushed it near the 20-day exponential moving average (EMA). This key moving average measures an asset’s average price over the past 20 trading days, giving weight to recent changes.
When the price falls near the 20-day EMA, it signals a potential support level being tested. However, if the price breaks decisively below the EMA, it may confirm sustained bearish momentum and further downside risk.
Therefore, HBAR’s break below the 20-day EMA could lower its price to its year-to-date low of $0.12.
Tether announced the upcoming launch of QVAC (QuantumVerse Automatic Computer), a decentralized development platform for locally operating AI agents.
Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s CEO, claimed that the company is aiming for a full launch in Q3 2025. Before this happens, it will also release a few QVAC-based AI apps for general use.
Earlier this month, crypto AI agents staged a massive comeback, and the firm is now revealing its project. Tether’s QVAC is intended to keep the AI space decentralized, empowering individuals to use sophisticated protocols:
A little over a week ago, Tether teased its upcoming peer-to-peer AI platform, which now seems like a reference to QVAC. Ardoino claimed that the company aims for a Q3 2025 release, which may take longer.
Because Tether won’t be fully releasing QVAC for several months at the earliest, there aren’t many details available. However, the company’s statements describe some very ambitious goals.
QVAC will center around AI agents, specifically on developing them for local use. It will use modular architecture to create functional tools that run on personal devices.
Tether was very clear that QVAC’s agents won’t require users to remotely connect with external servers. Even where it employs collaboration, QVAC will focus on peer-to-peer contact with other small-scale developers.
The firm will also launch the first QVAC-based apps “soon,” but it has provided no further details.
This Chinese AI model boasts dramatically lower hardware requirements than its competitors, enabling users to host it locally. DeepSeek can do this for an entire LLM, so Tether hopes to employ QVAC for more niche AI agents.
Hopefully, Tether will continue releasing technical details about QVAC during Q2 before a full launch in Q3. If the company can meet this imposing challenge, it would significantly contribute to global AI development.
Bitget exchange, in collaboration with blockchain security firms SlowMist and Elliptic, has exposed the terrifying anatomy of the most advanced crypto scams in recent times.
These findings come amid rising security incidents, ranging from high-profile attacks to government involvement in crypto laundering attacks.
AI Deepfakes, Social Tactics Behind 2025 Crypto Scam Rise: Bitget Report
The report cites AI deepfakes, weaponized psychology, and social engineering. It lays bare how bad actors use synthetic videos, virtual identities, and fake crypto meetings to deceive users and dismantle trust in the Web3 ecosystem.
A key finding in the report is that in 2025, scams will go beyond stealing user keys to hijack victims’ realities. From celebrity deepfakes to Trojan job offers and fake Zoom meetings, the latest scams blend high-tech deception with low-tech manipulation.
Bitget’s report categorizes the most dangerous threats under three pillars: deepfake impersonation, social engineering scams, and advanced Ponzi schemes. The most insidious are deepfakes.
AI Deepfakes Blur the Line Between Real and Fake
In early 2025, Hong Kong police arrested 31 individuals in a deepfake scam syndicate. Perpetrators stole $34 million by impersonating crypto executives during fake investment calls. This was just one of 87 similar operations dismantled across Asia in Q1 alone.
“…attackers using AI synthesis tools to fabricate audio and video likenesses of well-known project founders, exchange executives, or community KOLs in order to mislead users. These fabricated materials are often highly realistic,” read an excerpt in the report shared with BeInCrypto.
With tools like Synthesia, ElevenLabs, and HeyGen, attackers fabricate dynamic likenesses of public figures. Named victims include Elon Musk and Singapore’s Prime Minister. Bad actors create convincing videos to promote fraudulent platforms.
These videos are often distributed on social channels like Telegram, X (Twitter), and YouTube Shorts. Based on the report, they turn off comments to maintain a façade of legitimacy.
One case involved deepfake clips of Singapore Minister Lee Hsien Loong endorsing a “government-backed crypto initiative.” The campaign reportedly ensnared thousands before it was flagged.
Zoom, but Make It a Scam
Another disturbing tactic involves impersonating Zoom. Victims receive fake meeting invites from “crypto executives,” prompting them to download Trojan-laced software.
During the meeting, scammers use deepfake avatars and fabricated credentials to trick users into sharing wallet access or approving malicious transactions.
“The people luring you to download fake Zoom for meetings are extremely persuasive, making you feel it’s unlikely to be fake. A key point is that the participants you see during the meeting are actually displayed using deepfake videos… Don’t doubt it, in the AI era, video and voice forgery can be extremely realistic…,” SlowMist founder Cos shared on X.
Once inside the system, attackers can access browser data, cloud storage, or private keys, exposing users to total account compromise. These multi-layered attacks represent a new “identity hijack” category combining technical infiltration and social trust manipulation.
Social Engineering to Exploit Human Vulnerability
Bitget’s report stresses that modern scams rely as much on psychology as code. One notable trend is the rise of “AI arbitrage bot” scams, where scammers promise effortless gains using ChatGPT-branded smart contracts.
Bad actors trick users into deploying malicious code via fake Remix IDE pages, and their funds are instantly rerouted to scammer wallets.
What’s worse? These schemes are often small-scale, targeting victims for $50–$200 at a time. While the losses are minor enough to deter pursuit, they are frequent enough to generate large cumulative profits for attackers.
Ponzi Schemes Behind Promised Yields
Beyond AI-generated scams, Bitget also warns that traditional Ponzi and pyramid schemes have not disappeared, but have mutated. Specifically, these scams have undergone a “digital evolution,” leveraging on-chain tools, rapid viral marketing, and the illusion of legitimacy through smart contracts.
Instead of opaque offshore bank accounts, modern-day fraudsters attract victims through Telegram groups, Twitter hype, and tokens with built-in referral mechanics.
Smart contracts give these scams a thin veneer of decentralization and transparency. Meanwhile, carefully obfuscated tokenomics mimic legitimate yield structures until the inevitable collapse.
A potent mix of social engineering and digital virality is fueling this transformation. Influencers and anonymous promoters often seed these scams through memes, testimonials, or even AI-generated videos posing as reputable figures.
Projects disguised as “community-driven” DAOs or staking protocols rope users in with unsustainable returns, creating a frenzy of buy-ins that mask the exit liquidity strategy.
As regulation struggles to catch up, the speed and scale at which these digital Ponzi schemes propagate make them harder to track.
A Call for Skepticism and Collective Defense
Against this backdrop, Bitget has launched a dedicated Anti-Scam Hub, integrating real-time behavioral analytics to flag suspicious activity.
It has partnered with Elliptic and SlowMist to trace illicit fund flows and dismantle phishing infrastructures across multiple chains.
The report urges users to verify all asset-related instructions across multiple channels, noting that visual and auditory credibility is no longer enough. It also encourages projects to adopt on-chain signature broadcasts and maintain a single verified communication channel.
Scam Red Flags and Protection Measures. Source: Bitget report
With scams advancing, so must user and ecosystem defenses. The crypto industry now faces a dual challenge: safeguarding assets and rebuilding user trust in a digital world where anyone can be anyone.
(@paoloardoino) 
