The Lido Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), the entity that governs the Lido liquid staking protocol, has initiated an emergency vote to rotate a compromised oracle — a bridge that connects real-world data to blockchain systems.

According to members of the Lido DAO, an address belonging to the Chorus One oracle was compromised, and the Ether (ETH) balance associated with that oracle was drained in an incident still being investigated.

Lido Finance emphasized that the issue is restricted to the Chorus One oracle and is not system-wide. The team also said the problem was not due to a coding problem in any particular blockchain oracle or software.

Source: Lido Finance

Chorus One added that the exploit was likely attributable to a hot wallet private key leak but is also setting up a new machine to ensure security moving forward.

The incident highlights the need for robust cybersecurity measures in decentralized finance (DeFi) as the world’s monetary, trade, and business systems move onchain in ever more complex digital systems that have large attack surfaces.

Related: Mobius Token smart contracts on BNB Chain exploited, $2.1M drained

Cybersecurity remains a critical issue for crypto and DeFi

Hacks, cybersecurity exploits, and other malicious attack vectors remain a major problem for crypto. As digital finance expands to encompass more services, attack methods become more sophisticated.

Cybersecurity firm Hacken released a report outlining the damage done by hacks, scams, and cybersecurity exploits in Q1 2025 and found that over $2 billion in crypto was lost due to malicious activity.

The vast majority of the stolen funds were attributed to the $1.4 billion Bybit hack in February 2025, which skewed the findings of the report.

A graphic breaking down the crypto lost to hacks, cybersecurity exploits, code vulnerabilities, and scams in Q1 2025. Source: Hacken

According to the cybersecurity firm, crypto hacks were responsible for $357 million in losses in April 2025, a significant increase from losses incurred in March.

Hacken CEO Dyma Budorin told Cointelegraph at Token2049 that the crypto industry needs to adopt more robust cybersecurity and code auditing measures to stem the tide of hacks and exploits plaguing the asset sector.

Cybersecurity threats in crypto have become so pronounced, particularly from hacking groups associated with the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea (DPRK), that G7 countries could discuss the impact of the hackers and how to neutralize these threats at the next G7 Summit.

Magazine: Crypto-Sec: Evolve Bank suffers data breach, Turbo Toad enthusiast loses $3.6K

Key takeaways:

Ether has rebounded from key parabolic and triangle support levels, reviving the case for a $10,000 breakout.

Historical fractals and RSI recovery mirror past pre-rally setups seen in 2016 and 2020.

Altseason signals and strength against rivals like SOL and XRP boost Ethereum’s potential to outperform.

Ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native token, has soared over 44% in just three days to surpass $2,600 on May 11, fueling fresh speculation of a run toward $10,000 in the coming months.

A mix of fractal setups as well as Ether’s potential to outperform its top-ranking rivals, Bitcoin (BTC), Solana (SOL), and XRP (XRP), are serving as some catalysts behind the five-figure price prediction.

ETH’s “up band” target is around $10,000

Ether’s long-term price action continues to follow a parabolic curve that has defined its major market cycles since 2015.

As of May 2025, ETH has rebounded from the curve’s lower boundary near $2,100 — a historically significant support zone that has previously triggered major rallies.

ETH/USD monthly price chart. Source: TradingView

If this parabolic trajectory holds, Ethereum’s next move could be toward the upper boundary of the curve, which currently intersects near the $10,000 level.

Supporting this view, analyst MilkyBull Crypto highlights a similar setup on Ethereum’s monthly chart, noting that ETH’s rally to $10,000 “can’t be ruled out technically.”

Source: MilkyBull Crypto

Combined with RSI recovery from a multi-year support zone near 40, the setup adds further weight to the five-figure price target.

ETH looks set to outperform top crypto rivals

The bullish outlook for Ethereum is gaining traction as analysts anticipate an altcoin season in the coming months.

Chartist Mister Crypto, for instance, argues that altcoins like ETH may rally 40% in a single day amid capital rotation from Bitcoin.

Source: Mister Crypto

The Altcoin Season Index, which has broken out of a downtrend just below the 29 level, signals a potential shift away from Bitcoin dominance. While still in “Bitcoin Season” territory (below 25), the breakout suggests altcoins like ETH may soon begin to outperform.

Additionally, Ethereum’s top blockchain rival, Solana, is painting a rising wedge pattern against Ether, furthering its potential to decline in the coming weeks.

Related: Solana lacks ‘convincing signs’ of besting Ethereum: Sygnum

SOL/ETH weekly and XRP/ETH three-day performance chart. Source: Wolf/TradingView

The same picture can be seen against XRP, suggesting that more capital may flow toward Ethereum from rival altcoins in the coming days or weeks.

Ether symmetrical triangle hints at above $10,000

As of May, Ether is reclaiming the lower trendline of its multi-year symmetrical triangle after a brief breakdown in March, while bouncing off its 200-2W exponential moving average (200-2W EMA; the blue wave) support.

ETH’s rebound confirms a bullish rejection, validating the ongoing consolidation structure.

ETH/USD two-week price chart. Source: TradingView

This setup closely resembles ETH’s past macro consolidations, namely the 2016 bull flag and the 2018–2020 falling wedge, both of which preceded major breakouts to new all-time highs.

A breakout above the current triangle consolidation could follow a similar trajectory, increasing the probability of ETH reaching the $10,000 mark — and even $20,000 if the breakout pans out per the rules of technical analysis.

ETH/USD weekly price chart. Source: TradingView

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Opinion by: Sean Li, co-founder of Magic Labs

Crypto markets run 24/7. Human traders don’t. As AI agents begin to manage liquidity, optimize yield, and execute trades at all hours, they’re quickly becoming essential infrastructure for decentralized finance’s (DeFi) future. While AI agents are evolving from niche tools for quant traders into mainstream financial operators, they’re rapidly outpacing the wallets meant to secure them. 

Advancements in account abstraction and smart contract wallets have emerged, but most DeFi platforms still predominately rely on externally owned account wallets that require manual approvals at every step. Early-stage programmable solutions exist but remain fragmented, costly on layer-1 networks and adopted by only a tiny fraction of users.

As AI agents increasingly operate in DeFi, this infrastructure limitation becomes critical. We need standardized infrastructure that allows for secure, cost-effective automation with verifiable guardrails across multiple blockchain ecosystems. 

Automation needs guardrails, not guesswork

The rise of autonomous agents opens new possibilities: hands-free DeFi strategies, real-time portfolio optimization and crosschain arbitrage. Without programmable permissions and onchain visibility, however, delegating control to AI can expose users to catastrophic risk. Malicious bots, hallucinating agents and poorly designed automation can drain wallets before a human notices.

We’ve already seen what happens when agent infrastructure fails. In September 2024, users of the Telegram-based trading bot Banana Gun lost 563 Ether (ETH) (approximately $1.9 million) through an exploited oracle vulnerability that allowed attackers to intercept messages and gain unauthorized access to user wallets. More recently, attackers breached Aixbt’s dashboard and issued commands to transfer funds directly, resulting in the loss of 55.5 ETH worth over $100,000. These aren’t isolated incidents — they are warning signs of systemic vulnerability in our automation infrastructure. 

Legacy wallets can’t support autonomous agents

Despite years of wallet innovation, the architecture remains static mainly: sign a transaction, broadcast it, repeat. Most wallets aren’t built to understand “intent,” verify that automation matches user-defined rules, or restrict activity by time, asset type or strategy. 

This rigidity creates an all-or-nothing dynamic: either you maintain manual control and miss out on fast-moving opportunities or you hand over access entirely to opaque third-party systems. For AI-powered DeFi to scale securely as it builds more utility, we need programmable, composable and verifiable infrastructure. 

Programmable permissions are the new trust layer

As smart contracts encode logic into DeFi protocols, wallet infrastructure must encode logic into user control. That means enabling session-based permissions, cryptographic verification of agent actions and the ability to revoke access in real-time.

Recent: AI and blockchain — A match made in heaven

With these features in place, users can delegate trading, rebalancing or strategy execution without giving up complete control. This approach doesn’t just mitigate risk — it expands access. Advanced DeFi strategies could become accessible to users without technical knowledge and managed securely by agents operating within verifiable constraints. 

Programmable infrastructure makes DeFi scalable

Programmable wallet infrastructure doesn’t just make DeFi safer — it makes it scalable. Fragmentation across chains and protocols has long been a barrier to automated strategies. A universal keystore protocol that syncs permissions across networks can streamline crosschain delegation and open the door for interoperable agent ecosystems. 

As institutional interest in DeFi grows, secure automation will be non-negotiable. Most firms won’t allow AI agents to interact with capital without verifiable guardrails. Just as zero-knowledge proofs are becoming essential to privacy and compliance, programmable wallet permissions may become standard for agent-based security. 

The future of DeFi

Some may argue that AI can’t be trusted with financial autonomy, but traditional markets have already adopted algorithmic trading and black box automation. DeFi isn’t immune — it’s simply unprepared. 

If crypto is to maintain its transparency and user sovereignty principles, it must build infrastructure that keeps AI agents in check. That starts with rebuilding wallets as interfaces and operating systems for the autonomous, multichain economy. 

DeFi is on the edge of an automation revolution. The question isn’t whether agents will participate. Whether we give them the rails, they need to act in service of users, not in spite of them.

Opinion by: Sean Li, co-founder of Magic Labs.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.