Front-end DEX attacks, ETF inflows return, DeFi liquidity concerns, and AI’s expanding influence across media, education and government.
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A turbulent week across Web3 and AI shows how both sectors are facing pressure from markets. Major decentralised exchanges are hit by front-end compromises while news of laundering networks continues to surface. The crypto space also faces heightened scrutiny even as institutional appetite shows fresh signs of resilience.
In markets, inflows returned to Bitcoin, Ether and Solana ETFs after a bruising stretch of outflows, and Cardano endured a temporary chain split from a legacy bug. Meanwhile, new research highlighted the scale of idle liquidity across DeFi, raising questions about unused capital across leading pools.
In the AI space, startups are using strong revenue performance to win talent even as AI continues to reshape sectors from journalism to retail. Governments and institutions stepped further into AI adoption with Greece integrating ChatGPT into classrooms, and the UK’s Royal Navy rolling out an AI-powered recruitment avatar.
Get up to speed with the latest in Web3 and AI with this week’s Pasar Pulse.
Crypto and Web3
Aerodrome, Velodrome Hit by Front-End Compromise
DEXes Aerodrome and Velodrome suffered a front-end compromise early on Saturday morning. The platforms’ smart contracts were not affected, and users were urged to switch to decentralised mirrors. Dromos Labs has confirmed plans to merge the two platforms into a unified product.
BlackRock Clients Lean Into Bitcoin’s ‘Digital Gold’ Narrative
BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robbie Mitchnick, says most clients are not investing on the assumption that Bitcoin will become a global payments network. Instead, demand is driven primarily by the digital gold thesis.
Cardano Experiences Temporary Chain Split Due to Legacy Bug
Cardano suffered a temporary chain split on Friday after a malformed delegation transaction exploited an old code bug, leading to a network partition. Founder Charles Hoskinson described the event as an attack and said the FBI is investigating.
Coinbase Completes Scheduled Migration to New Wallets
Coinbase carried out a large, pre-planned internal wallet migration on Saturday, moving assets such as BTC and ETH to updated addresses. The exchange said the move was routine best practice to prevent known wallet addresses from becoming targets.
Crypto Dispensers CEO Faces Money-Laundering Charges
Chicago-based crypto ATM operator Crypto Dispensers is exploring a possible US$100 million sale after CEO Firas Isa and the company were indicted for allegedly facilitating a US$10 million money-laundering scheme from 2018 to 2025.
BTC, ETH, and SOL ETFs Rebound After Heavy Outflows
Spot crypto ETFs saw a strong rebound on Friday, with Bitcoin products pulling in US$238.4 million in net inflows. Ether ETFs ended an eight-day outflow streak with US$55.7 million in fresh inflows, and Solana ETFs continued their momentum, recording ten consecutive days of inflows.
UK Crime Network Used Crypto to Launder Cash
A UK-based criminal network moved over £1 billion by converting drug and trafficking proceeds into crypto, with some funds used to evade Russian sanctions. 128 of the group’s members were arrested by the authorities.
Report Finds Billions in DeFi Liquidity Sitting Idle
A new 1inch report highlights a DeFi liquidity crisis, revealing that between 83% and 95% of liquidity in major pools such as Uniswap and Curve remains idle and fails to generate returns. 1inch has proposed its Aqua protocol as a solution.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI Startups Leverage Revenue Strength to Attract Top Talent
AI firms are using strong revenue figures to compete in an intensifying talent war. Dependable revenue signals quality and leadership, appealing to candidates seeking a category leader.
AI Disrupts the Journalist–Audience Relationship
Traditional media dynamics are shifting as search engines display AI-generated summaries above results, causing fewer click-throughs to news sites and leading media organisations to feed content into Google and OpenAI’s models for revenue.
Asos Trials AI Stylists Following 12% Sales Decline
Asos is piloting an AI-driven styling tool designed to help reverse a 12% fall in sales over the past year. Trained on 100,000 curated outfits, the AI suggests complementary items based on customer preferences and trend data.
Google’s Gemini Capable of Producing Misinformation Images
Google’s Nano Banana Pro image generator is able to produce imagery associated with major conspiracy theories using only simple prompts. Researchers found few meaningful safety guardrails, with the system generating harmful visuals even when prompts omitted specific names or dates.
Greece Becomes an Early Adopter of AI in Schools
Greece is set to roll out AI across its education sector, beginning with training secondary-school teachers on a specialised version of ChatGPT as part of a new agreement with OpenAI. The pilot aims to support lesson planning and personalised teaching.
The UK’s Royal Navy Introduces AI Avatar for Recruitment Support
The UK’s Royal Navy has deployed a real-time AI avatar powered by an LLM to assist with the initial stages of recruitment. The system expands on a previous text-based tool that handled more than 460,000 queries.
Clifford Chance Reduces London Roles as AI Reshapes Operations
International law firm Clifford Chance is cutting around 50 business-services roles as AI adoption streamlines internal processes. White-collar roles are increasingly seen as vulnerable to automation, with AI shortening tasks such as research and contract review.
Meta Unveils WorldGen, Creating 3D Worlds from Text Prompts
Meta’s Reality Labs has launched WorldGen, a generative AI model capable of producing traversable, interactive 3D environments from a single text prompt in about five minutes. It generates both visual geometry and a navigation mesh to ensure environments are physics-ready.
That’s all for this week’s Pasar Pulse. Want more insights? Stay tuned to our site or subscribe via email!
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