Metaplanet, popular as Japan’s MicroStrategy, announced its decision to issue its 13th Series of Ordinary Bonds, and raise a total of $25 million for fresh Bitcoin purchases. Through its EVO FUND, the company has been periodically issuing bonds by drawing a leaf from Michael Saylor’s Bitcoin playbook. The announcement led to a quick 12% surge in the stock price during today’s trading session, moving closer to 500 JPY.
Metaplanet Prepares for Massive Bitcoin Purchases
Via its ordinary bonds, Japanese firm Metaplanet announced raising $25 million at 0% earmarked for the acquisition of Bitcoin. Redemption of the bonds will be funded through proceeds generated from the exercise of the 15th to 17th Series of Stock Acquisition Rights, reported the firm.
Furthermore, company CEO Simon Gerovich announced the company’s latest Bitcoin acquisition, revealing the purchase of 555 BTC for approximately $53.4 million at an average price of $96,134 per coin.
This addition brings the firm’s total Bitcoin holdings to 5,555 BTC, acquired at a cumulative cost of around $481.5 million, averaging $86,672 per Bitcoin. Since the beginning of 2025, Metaplanet has been on an aggressive BTC acquisition spree, moving fast and close to its target of having 10,000 BTC in treasury by the end of 2026.
Additionally, the firm is quick in its overseas expansion, opening a Miami office last week. Today’s announcement of Bitcoin purchases has led to a 12% surge in the Metaplanet stock price, which is already up by 33% since the beginning of 2025.
Ripple has identified a critical supply chain attack on the XRP Ledger. This vulnerability doesn’t impact the entire Ledger, only DeFi wallets using the official xrpl.js package from NPM (Node Package Manager).
It’s unclear how much user money was compromised in this sophisticated attack, but Ripple claims that it deprecated the compromised packages. Several major DeFi wallets didn’t download this package, and no huge thefts have been reported yet.
Security Breach on the XRP Ledger
This XRPL breach was first identified by Aikido, a blockchain security firm. It found five suspicious updates to the xrpls.js package on Ripple’s NPM.
This is Ripple’s official software development kit, featuring more than 140,000 downloads weekly. Hackers installed a sophisticated backdoor into this package, enabling private key theft and wallet access.
A breach of this nature represents a dire threat to XRP, to the extent that Ripple CTO David Schwartz posted official warnings about it. Mayukha Vadari, a senior software engineer with the firm, also went into greater detail about the nature of this vulnerability.
The XRP Ledger itself is unaffected by this. The malware packages only affect services that use xrpl.js and upgraded to the malicious versions that were published less than 24 hours ago. Github remains safe, only npm was compromised.
At first, this might seem like a small issue, as the breach didn’t directly harm the XRP Ledger (XRPL). However, this hack was propagated through Ripple’s official channels, exposing many users to harm.
To get a sense of the scale, DeFi wallets on XRPL currently hold about $80 million in user deposits. Accessing a tiny chunk of this sum would indeed be a huge theft.
NPM is the distribution system, and compromising a high-trust package in it creates a powerful attack vector—a supply chain attack targeting developers and infrastructure rather than end-users directly.
A compromised NPM package can affect thousands of apps. When an attacker injects malicious code, like a backdoor, into a popular NPM package, any application or developer that installs or updates that package unknowingly introduces the malware into its own environment.
The XRP Ledger Foundation confirmed that several major DeFi wallets were not exposed and further stated that it deprecated the compromised xrpl.js versions. It also plans to publish a full postmortem analysis.
Also, hackers managed to compromise the official library for DeFi protocols that wish to interact with XRP. A sophisticated operation like that could have consequences.
Ethereum, the world’s leading blockchain platform, will deploy the Pectra upgrade on its mainnet, scheduled for rollout on May 7, 2025.
The Pectra upgrade enhances the network’s performance and scalability and introduces groundbreaking features, particularly with EIP-7702, making Ethereum more user-friendly and secure.
Ethereum Pectra Upgrade Timeline Confirmed
Tim Beiko, a key figure in Ethereum’s development team, announced on X that the Pectra upgrade will officially launch on the mainnet on May 7, 2025, at epoch 364032. Initially planned for April 30, the upgrade was delayed due to technical issues on the testnet.
This cautious approach shows Ethereum’s commitment to stability and security, ensuring seamless network operation post-upgrade. Coinbase has also begun preparations to support the upgrade, ensuring necessary updates are implemented promptly after Pectra’s launch.
Pectra is Ethereum’s most significant upgrade, incorporating 11 Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs). It builds on major upgrades like Dencun (March 2024), focusing on improving Layer 2 (L2) scalability, optimizing validator experiences, and enhancing user-friendliness.
These changes solidify Ethereum’s leadership while laying the groundwork for decentralized applications (dApps) to thrive.
Tim Beiko: Key Highlights of the Pectra Upgrade
Tim Beiko tweeted an overview of the upcoming Pectra update, with some notable highlights. One of Pectra’s standout features is EIP-7702, which extends standard Ethereum accounts (EOAs) with smart contract functionality.
“EIP-7702 enables use cases like transaction batching, gas sponsorship, or social recovery, all without migrating your assets” Tim tweeted.
Pectra also introduces several improvements for validators. Validators can increase their effective balance up to 2048 ETH, allowing them to accrue staking rewards directly without creating additional validators. Large validators can consolidate balances, reducing bandwidth strain on the P2P network.
“It also removes the pre-merge PoW follow distance, shortening the delay to process validator deposits, and introduces execution-layer triggerable withdrawals, which enable more trustless staking constructions.” Tim shared.
The Pectra upgrade will double the average number of blobs per block, from 3 to 6. This increase will enable L2 solutions to scale faster, meeting growing market demands. It’s a critical step in Ethereum’s scalability roadmap, especially as L2 platforms like Arbitrum and Optimism continue to grow.
“Raising this limit was in part possible due to another EIP (7623), which bounds the worst-case block sizes on the network!’ Tim tweeted.
Significance for the Ethereum Ecosystem
Pectra is a strategic leap forward for Ethereum to maintain its dominance in the blockchain space. By increasing blob capacity and improving validator efficiency, Ethereum can handle more transactions per second, fostering dApp growth and attracting new users.
These changes will better position Ethereum to meet future demands while providing an infrastructure for developers.
The Pectra upgrade has garnered positive feedback from the Ethereum community. In Tim Beiko’s announcement, some X users expressed excitement. However, one user noted the need for better public education, stating, “Too bad 99% of people have no idea what that means.”
XRP is down over 5% in the past 24 hours but is currently attempting a rebound, trying to push above the $2 level. After touching deeply oversold RSI levels earlier today, the token is showing early signs of recovery amid shifting macro headlines.
Despite a bearish setup on the Ichimoku Cloud, a short-term bounce is not off the table if momentum builds. However, strong resistance zones remain overhead, and whether XRP can sustain this rebound will depend on both technical breakouts and broader market sentiment.
XRP RSI Is Going Up After Touching Oversold Levels
If the RSI continues to climb and breaks above 50, it could indicate growing strength and potential price recovery. However, if it stalls or turns lower, XRP may continue to struggle for direction in the short term.
XRP Ichimoku Cloud Shows a Bearish Setup, But A Recovery Could Be On The Horizon
The Ichimoku Cloud chart for XRP shows a bearish structure. The price is trading well below the Kumo (cloud), indicating strong downward momentum.
Both the Tenkan-sen (blue line) and Kijun-sen (red line) are sloping down and currently positioned above the price, acting as dynamic resistance levels.
The cloud ahead is red and wide, suggesting continued bearish pressure and little immediate sign of a trend reversal.
However, the recent bullish candle pushing toward the Tenkan-sen hints at a possible short-term bounce or relief rally.
For a true trend shift, XRP would need to break above both the Tenkan-sen and Kijun-sen and eventually enter or surpass the cloud—a scenario that remains distant given the current formation.
Overall, the Ichimoku setup reinforces the broader weakness, with any upside likely facing strong resistance from the cloud and key lines.
Could XRP Break Above $2.20 Soon?
XRP price recently broke below the $1.80 mark for the first time since November 2024, reflecting heavy market pressure and a sharp sell-off. However, the asset has shown signs of recovery in the past few hours, attempting to regain momentum.
If this rebound gains strength, XRP could push toward resistance at $2.02, and a successful breakout may open the path to higher levels around $2.23.
