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25 May 2026, 14:43
$3 Million Drained In Two Hours: SquidRouterModule Exploit Exposes Hidden Risks In Third-Party Wallet Integrations
Within a span of two hours, attackers had siphoned almost $3 million from several wallets during a fast and coordinated DeFi exploit that has disrupted parts of the ecosystem. The firm Blockaid says the attack targeted a vulnerable wallet module for smart wallets called SquidRouterModule, used by users on Ethereum and Base networks. Overall, the attack hit 86 Gnosis Safe wallets. Within seconds after the attack, the attacker transferred funds from various checks to pools that the attacker controls on Uniswap V3 in exchange for DAI. The speed and reach of this exploit show how quickly attackers can go from discovery to exploitation once vulnerabilities are found in wallet infrastructure. In less than a blink, assets were drained, exchanged and routed through liquidity pools, scuttling countless users without offering them much time to react. Blockaid detected an ongoing exploit targeting the SquidRouterModule on Ethereum and Base. 86 Gnosis Safes drained for ~$3M in ~2 hours. All stolen tokens swapped to DAI via attacker-controlled Uniswap V3 pools. More details in — Blockaid (@blockaid_) May 25, 2026 Exposure Found In Third-Party Module, Not Core Protocol During the course of investigation, it was realised that the exploit did not originate from the core infrastructure of Squid Router. Rather, the flaw was in a module developed outside of Squid but linked with it. This contract was initially reported as the main contract being attacked, in which case it can be confusing when hearing about a report on Basescan with the name SquidRouterModule. Squid quickly explained that, despite the similar names, this module was a separate piece of functionality and not integrated. The team reiterated the importance of clarifying that even a minor change turning out to be unauthorized did not impact its official router contract, which remains secure: in a later statement shared via Squid’s Twitter Space However, user funds or approvals or integrations that directly tied with Squid’s core infrastructure remained secure. This distinction is crucial. However, despite the exploit involving substantial losses, it did not arise from issues in Squid’s protocol itself. Instead, it illustrated an inherent risk with third-party integrations, a growing aspect of modular DeFi architecture. This incident is unrelated to Squid’s core protocol and contracts. All Squid users and integrators are unaffected and no action is needed. A third-party Gnosis Safe module was exploited today across Base and Ethereum, resulting in approximately $3.2M in losses. The vulnerable… https://t.co/I3gGmdBvE9 — squid (@squidrouter) May 25, 2026 Vulnerable Validation Logic Allowed Attack At the heart of the exploit, however, was an egregious design issue in the validation logic of a third-party module. The contract used a constant string provided by the caller as proof to construct message authenticity. But this string was available publicly in the verified source code of the contract. Thus an attacker could provide anything that matched the expected string as a way to circumvent all security layers built into the software. After recovery, the contract allowed all calls without selective calldata to go through, and this gave the attacker total control to interact with any transaction from within the wallet. The affected users added this module to their Gnosis Safe as a trusted component, so the contract was allowed to perform fund transfers without additional signatures. The attack unfolded as follows: The attacker provided the string known to pass validation The contract accepted the request as a valid Arbitrary transactions were executed Moved funds out from their wallets This vulnerability shows how simple oversights in auth logic can lead to multi-million dollar losses. Trusted Module Permissions Made The Damage Bigger One of the most important elements that amplified the damage caused by this exploit was the extent of access assigned to the compromised module. Within the Gnosis Safe, trusted modules can make transactions without requiring user signatures. This architecture allows for flexibility and automation of complex workflows. But it comes with some substantial risks too, if a badly designed or malicious module. Here, it turns out users who had enabled the vulnerable SquidRouterModule were inadvertently sending the total control of their wallet assets to the contract. The attacker completely bypassed additional security layers, since the permissions were already in place at that point. What followed was a swift, massive outflow of funds with virtually no opposition. Market Impact and Fund Movement After the exploitation, the attacker had finally drowned all of their stolen assets in a false manner through DEX. By routing funds into DAI via Uniswap V3 pools, they were able to stabilize the value of the stolen assets and reduce exposure to volatility. The total losses are estimated to be between $3 million and $3.2 million, with about $3 million being drawn within less than 120 minutes. The operation’s efficiency demonstrates a very high level of preparedness and knowledge both of the targeted system, as well as DeFi liquidity mechanics. Despite the scale of the attack, its overall impact on the market was limited. The containment is primarily the result of the exploit being confined to certain wallets, rather in broad-based protocol or asset action. Clearing Up Misunderstandings About Squid’s Function Some news reports were linking the exploit to Squid’s core router due to its name as a vulnerable contract. But it is important to separate the third-party module from the official protocol in order for an accurate reading of the incident. It also did not refer instead to Squid’s own official router contract, which is architecturally different and has a separate identifier. Funds that could be traced back to its operations were not impacted and there was nothing wrong found in its code. This case highlights a long-standing issue in DeFi: the challenge of distinguishing between official infrastructure and third-party integrations. With increased connection between ecosystems, having overlapping names and branding can cause confusion around security incidents. Security and DeFi Integration Lessons For Wallets The SquidRouterModule exploit is a reminder that DeFi security goes beyond core protocols. In fact, ever-brightening primary systems can still be at risk if terminated screens or other connected components have foreseeable vulnerabilities. Several lessons emerge: First, users need to be careful when they enable third-party modules or integrations. Wallet level permissions have a broad impact. Secondly, there are many ways developers can put in place strong validation. The presence of publicly accessible constants or weak authentication can be utilized as a vulnerability. Thirdly, it is important to be transparent about ownership and responsibility. Having a clear distinction between official and unofficial components can eliminate confusion in case of incidents and help with panic control. This event also reinforces the most universal truth, security is only as strong as the weakest link in a composable ecosystem like DeFi. With the increasing interconnection between protocols, quality of every element, and not just the core, will become important. The exploit is quantifiable in millions in terms of immediate loss, but the longer-term implications may be less tangible; a shift in how users and developers formulate trust, permissioning and integration abstractions shapes their relationship with decentralized finance. Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services. Follow us on Twitter @nulltxnews to stay updated with the latest Crypto, NFT, AI, Cybersecurity, Distributed Computing, and Metaverse news !
25 May 2026, 14:37
Crypto-linked donations top $500 million in 2026 US midterms
🚨 Crypto-linked donations for 2026 US midterms have already topped $500 million. More than twice as much of this money is backing Republican candidates over Democrats. 💰 Key point: Despite industry spending, most candidates avoid mentioning $BTC or blockchain issues in their campaigns. Continue Reading: Crypto-linked donations top $500 million in 2026 US midterms The post Crypto-linked donations top $500 million in 2026 US midterms appeared first on COINTURK NEWS .
25 May 2026, 14:30
Crypto Payments Go Autonomous As AI Agents Execute 176M Transactions
The entire machine-payment ecosystem now runs almost entirely on a single stablecoin. More than 98% of all settlements made by AI agents in the past year were processed in Circle’s USDC , according to a new report from crypto investment firm Keyrock — a concentration that researchers say carries risks the industry has largely ignored. One Stablecoin To Rule Them All Keyrock researcher Ben Harvey, writing in collaboration with Coinbase and blockchain firm Tempo, said the dependence on one issuer’s infrastructure, regulatory standing, and reserve management creates a systemic exposure that nobody in the space is publicly discussing. A regulatory challenge against Circle, a de-peg event, or even a prolonged outage would leave the agent economy with no alternative settlement option. Harvey said that risk warrants serious attention as transaction volumes continue to grow. In one year, machine payments have evolved from concept to live ecosystem, with agents settling 176M transactions. Our research with @CoinbaseDev , @tempo , and featuring @virtuals_io analyses the payment stack’s evolution, how the economics work, and what stands in the way. pic.twitter.com/W6DGGYAUC0 — Keyrock (@keyrock) May 21, 2026 The numbers behind the report are striking. From May 2025 through April 2026, AI agents settled over $70 million across 176 million transactions — an average deal size of about 31 cents. That figure alone explains why traditional payment networks were never going to work here. A standard processing fee of roughly 30 cents per transaction makes anything below a dollar completely unworkable on rails built for consumer credit cards. An agent paying three cents to call a weather API cannot route through Visa. Why Traditional Rails Were Left Behind Stablecoins filled that gap not because they were chosen but because nothing else could do the job. The economics of legacy payment infrastructure simply collapse at sub-dollar volumes, and crypto rails carry no fixed per-transaction fee that would eat the entire value of a microtransaction. By the end of the first quarter of 2026, more than 104,000 agents had been registered across 15 or more directories and registries worldwide. Harvey described the shift as going from concept to a developed ecosystem in just 12 months. Incumbents appear to have taken notice — the report says more than $8 billion has been deployed in acquisitions by established players looking to stake a position in what is emerging as a new payment stack built around autonomous software rather than human users. A Market Built On One Foundation AI agents are already being used to build Web3 applications, launch tokens, trade, and interact autonomously with protocols and services. A CoinGecko survey of 2,632 crypto users conducted last April found 87% were willing to let AI agents manage at least 10% of their crypto portfolio. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire has predicted that billions of agents will operate with stablecoins on users’ behalf within five years. Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
25 May 2026, 14:07
Binance Invests in Workforce Capability as AI Reshapes the Job Market
BitcoinWorld Binance Invests in Workforce Capability as AI Reshapes the Job Market 25 May 2026 – While companies across the tech sector cut 52,050 jobs in Q1 2026 – a 40% increase year-over-year amid accelerating AI adoption – Binance continues to expand its workforce in certain areas, actively hiring across 380+ roles while building an AI-competent workforce. Some narratives frame AI as a substitute for human labor, but our approach is different. We see AI as a capability multiplier – one that helps teams operate more effectively and redirect focus toward the areas where human insight matters most. Human Intent Leads, AI Executes The idea that AI should replace human talent overlooks where AI creates the most value. Across industries, the strongest gains from AI have come from augmentation, not substitution – particularly in roles where judgment, context, and accountability matter. In fact, studies from organizations like McKinsey Global Institute and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development consistently show that AI delivers the greatest value when humans remain at the center of the workflow – guiding decisions, applying judgment, and shaping creative direction – while AI supports them by handling repetitive and rules-based tasks. True innovation emerges when AI absorbs the mechanical workload such as data processing, pattern detection, and routine execution – freeing people to focus on what machines cannot replicate: strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, and human judgment shaped by context and experience. Our philosophy for building an AI-competent company goes beyond simply deploying new tools. It centers on actively encouraging AI adoption across teams while continuing to invest in talent. This approach is also reflected in our hiring strategy, with 20% of our 2026 hires brought in specifically for AI tech and product development roles. Embracing AI Adoption, Building AI Literacy To date, we’ve already integrated proprietary tools like SAFUGPT , Hexa, and Clawbot into our internal systems for employees to use across daily workflows. Hexa is a no-code AI platform that allows teams to build scalable AI tools and assistants – such as internal knowledge chatbots or AI agents that automate operational reviews – without coding expertise, while Clawbot helps teams streamline repetitive workflows in day-to-day execution. In 2026 alone, we also rolled out eight different types of AI training spanning 28 sessions – with multiple session timings designed to accommodate our global workforce across time zones . These trainings are designed to build both foundational and advanced AI literacy, covering a broad range of AI tools and competencies. This includes two prompt engineering training tracks, four different Clawbot training programs spanning 16 sessions. Notably, the Clawbot training series achieved an 87% participation rate, reflecting strong employee enthusiasm toward embracing new skills and tools to become more AI-competent. In addition, we’ve been publishing weekly AI micro-learning pieces since last December. Each piece distills practical AI insights, tips, and knowledge into a format that can be read in under three minutes, making it easily accessible to all employees. To date, 22 editions have been released. Scaling AI Adoption Through Shared Use Cases We believe capability building extends into applied learning, where employees translate concepts into real workflows and share outcomes across the company. This is reflected in how teams across the organization have actively experimented with AI and presented their successful use cases to inspire broader adoption, including 13 live Clawbot use case sharing sessions and 3 live Hexa use case roadshow sessions in 2026. These sessions showcase how different teams are applying AI in practical, impactful ways and learning from one another in real time. From Experimentation to a Shared Playbook Building on this culture of shared learning, we have also developed structured knowledge libraries including Hexa and SAFUGPT use case catalog articles, documenting practical implementations of AI across different functions. These catalogs serve as living references for how AI is being embedded into day-to-day operations, helping teams replicate and scale successfully. Early Results, With More to Come These efforts are already translating into meaningful adoption across the organization. Clawbot has reached an internal adoption rate of approximately 72%, while Hexa has achieved around 57%, reflecting growing employee confidence in integrating AI into daily workflows. At the same time, we continue to expand our AI learning initiatives, with a fifth Clawbot training module and two additional Clawbot use case sharing sessions set to roll out next week. Scaling AI Responsibly, With Ethics at the Core As AI adoption accelerates, understanding AI ethics, governance, and responsible deployment has become increasingly important. Binance recently earned the ISO/IEC 42001 certification , an international standard for responsible AI governance. Through a Privacy by Design approach, Binance ensures data protection considerations remain central to AI deployment, while company-wide AI training, prompt engineering programs, and structured oversight practices help employees adopt AI ethically, responsibly, and with meaningful human oversight. About Binance: Binance is a leading global blockchain ecosystem behind the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and registered users. Binance is trusted by more than 310 million people in 100+ countries for its industry-leading security, transparency, trading engine speed, protections for investors, and unmatched portfolio of digital asset products and offerings from trading and finance to education, research, social good, payments, institutional services, and Web3 features. Binance is devoted to building an inclusive crypto ecosystem to increase the freedom of money and financial access for people around the world with crypto as the fundamental means. For more information, visit: https://www.binance.com For all media queries, please contact: [email protected] This post Binance Invests in Workforce Capability as AI Reshapes the Job Market first appeared on BitcoinWorld .
25 May 2026, 14:03
New research reveals the number of quantum-exposed Bitcoins
A new on-chain analysis has quantified the portion of Bitcoin ( BTC ) currently exposed to potential quantum computing risks while sitting at rest on the blockchain. In this case, approximately 6.04 million BTC, or 30.2% of Bitcoin’s issued supply, has publicly visible keys on-chain, making those coins theoretically vulnerable to future quantum attacks. The remaining 13.99 million BTC, or 69.8%, has no public-key exposure at rest, according to data published by Glassnode on May 20. The study identified two exposure categories, including structural and operational. Structural exposure accounts for 1.92 million BTC, or 9.6% of supply, covering coins inherently exposed by design, including early Pay-to-Public-Key outputs, bare multisig structures, and Taproot outputs. Bitcoin supply by quantum safety chart. Source: Glassnode Operational exposure totals 4.12 million BTC, or 20.6% of supply, stemming from practices such as address reuse, partial UTXO spending, and certain custody setups that unnecessarily reveal public keys. At the same time, cryptocurrency exchanges account for a large share of this exposure, holding roughly 1.63 million to 1.66 million BTC of the operationally exposed supply. Bitcoin quantum operational exposure Exposure levels vary across custodians, with some sovereign holdings, including those of the United States, the United Kingdom, and El Salvador, showing near-zero exposure. Operationally unsafe Bitcoin by entity. Source: Glassnode Glassnode also noted that the risk applies only to coins with publicly visible keys. While current cryptography remains secure, a sufficiently advanced quantum computer using Shor’s algorithm could theoretically derive private keys from known public keys. Coins without visible public keys are not considered exposed under the at-rest model. This distinction matters because at-rest exposure reflects Bitcoin that could be targeted without waiting for a transaction, while on-spend exposure occurs only when coins are moved. Glassnode said operational exposure can be reduced through better wallet practices, including avoiding address reuse, rotating change addresses, and improving custodial reserve management. However, structural exposure tied to older inactive coins may persist. Meanwhile, the research did not predict when quantum attacks on Bitcoin could become practical or assess the security of any exchange or custodian. Instead, it provided a data-driven snapshot of current public-key exposure across Bitcoin’s supply and highlights how improved wallet hygiene and future protocol upgrades could reduce risks. The post New research reveals the number of quantum-exposed Bitcoins appeared first on Finbold .
25 May 2026, 13:58
Bitcoin Price at Risk of Cascading Liquidations Toward $72K Zone
The Bitcoin price faces a potential drop to $73,850 as overhead supply pressure from the 20-and-50-day exponential moving average could hinder recovery momentum. Bitcoin’s aggregated liquidation levels heatmap suggests that a 6-7% decline may trigger widespread long unwinds across exchanges Crypto fear and greed index at 30% indicate a renewed bearish sentiment among market participants. The original cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, shows a slight uptick of 0.56% during the opening bell of U.S. market hours on Monday to trade at $77,393. The jump followed geopolitical developments in the middle east as Iran says talks are focused on ending the war, triggering a sharp 5% slide in crude oil prices. The move eased pressure on energy sectors and inflation fears across global markets, prompting investors to pivot back toward risk assets including cryptocurrencies. However, the liquidation setup increases the odds of a downside move in Bitcoin price due to a structural asymmetry between longs and shorts perpetual futures. Liquidation Heatmap Signals Asymmetric Risk for Bitcoin Traders The Bitcoin price is currently hovering around the $77,441 level, drawing close attention from derivative market trades. Over $14.3 billion in total liquidation exposure is clustered around current price levels, with a nearly balanced split between long and short positions. On the downside, long positions show particularly dense clusters, raising the risk of cascading liquidations. Approximately $1.61 billion in long exposure sits near $73,716. A deeper decline of ongoing correction would quickly intensify the selling pressure, as cumulative liquidation pools reached $3.85 billion at $73,281, $5.42 billion at $72,702, and $7.14 billion at $72,122. This suggests that a 6–7% drop could trigger significant long unwinds across multiple exchanges. Conversely, the exposure on the upside is more spread out. Notable clusters include $1.66 billion near $78,786, scaling to $3.68 billion at $83,422, $5.57 billion at $84,146, and $7.20 billion toward $88,202. A wider space between these potential resistance zones indicate less immediate congestion compared to the aforementioned support zones. Heatmaps from aggregated platforms’ show varying shades of these liquidation zones with brighter colour indicating the higher estimated volume. The current price action of Bitcoin indicates a compressed support zone below and more extended resistance above, which may lead to higher volatility if BTC breaks on either side. The attached chart from Alphractal provides a clear, multi-exchange view of where order flow and forced liquidations may drive momentum in the coming sessions. BTC Liquidation Levels Overall, the asymmetric pattern (dense long clusters and broad based short position) suggest that Bitcoin is likely to continue trading within a range until a significant trigger emerges. A downside breach is more likely to lead to over exaggerated volatility and stop loss chasing while prolonged buying activity may eventually drive shorts out of the market and bring in new capital. Bitcoin Price Correction May Extend Another 4.5% Support Before Hitting Key Support Over the past two weeks, the Bitcoin price has dropped from $82,458 to current value of $77,393, accounting for a 6.3% drop. The pullback pushed BTC below the 20-and-50-day exponential moving averages, and the broader crypto fear and greed index back to 30% accentuating a negative market sentiment in the near term. Even the intraday jump today shows a notable price rejection candle at $77,640 level, indicating the intact overhead supply on Bitcoin BTC 1.47% . Thus, the coin price shows a higher possibility for a 4.5% drop and challenge the bottom support trendline of a rising channel pattern at $73,850. BTC/USDT -1d Chart From the technical perspective, this retest remains a pivot level for the near-term trend in Bitcoin price as a potential breakdown will accelerate the selling pressure, while the sustainable reversal could bolster further recovery.
