Written by Cointelegraph, Staff Writer. Reviewed by Bryan O'Shea, Staff Editor. Here’s what happened in crypto today
Need to know what happened in crypto today? Here is the latest news on daily trends and events impacting Bitcoin price, blockchain, DeFi, NFTs, Web3 and crypto regulation.
Today in crypto, Polish prosecutors are investigating Zondacrypto over alleged fraud and fund access issues, while local media report that CEO Przemysław Kral is in Israel, decentralized finance protocols unite to restore rsETH tied to the $293 million Kelp DAO exploit, and global retail crypto activity fell 11% in Q1 amid macro pressures, though Turkey and emerging economies showed resilience.
Zondacrypto CEO goes off radar as Poland probe deepens
Zondacrypto’s crisis deepened on Friday after Polish outlet Onet reported that CEO Przemysław Kral had gone to Israel as prosecutors investigate the exchange over alleged fraud and investor losses.
According to the report, Kral has been in Israel for about a week and holds Israeli citizenship, a factor that could complicate any potential extradition to Poland. Polish authorities opened an investigation into Zondacrypto last Friday over alleged fraud and investor losses. Cointelegraph also confirmed that Kral’s email address, previously used to communicate with him, has become unavailable.
The developments come a week after Kral admitted last Thursday that Zondacrypto’s cold wallet holding 4,500 Bitcoin (worth around $350 million) was inaccessible, marking his last publicly known communication at the time of reporting. Polish prosecutors have identified several hundred possible victims and potential losses of at least 350 million Polish zloty (around $97 million), according to Notes from Poland, citing prosecutor spokesperson Michał Binkiewicz.
The case has added pressure to one of Central and Eastern Europe's biggest crypto platforms, even as Zondacrypto is much smaller in scale than global exchanges such as Binance.
The controversy deepened this week amid resignations from the supervisory board of BB Trade Estonia OÜ, the Estonian company that operates the exchange.
In a Monday post on LinkedIn, former board member Georgi Džaniašvili said the board learned about the scale of the Zondacrypto crisis through media reports rather than internally. He also pointed to “material inconsistencies” between public statements and information available to the board.
Source: Georgi Džaniašvili
Crypto protocols pledge 43K ETH to restore rsETH backing
Decentralized finance protocols have banded together in an attempt to restore the backing of rsETH following the $293 million exploit of the Kelp restaking platform on Saturday, which has triggered a liquidity shock.
The amount pledged has now exceeded 43,500 Ether, worth over $101 million, which decentralized lending platform Aave has called the “DeFi United” relief effort. Crypto protocols involved include Lido DAO and the Golem Foundation, with the largest pledges coming from the EtherFi Foundation and Mantle at the time of writing.
“We believe ecosystem collaboration matters most in moments like this, and our priority is achieving the strongest possible available outcome for users, said Aave on Thursday.
“Multiple strong indicative commitments are now in place to join this effort toward restoring the backing of rsETH.”
Hackers stole 116,500 Kelp DAO Restaked ETH tokens on April 18 from Kelp DAO’s LayerZero-powered bridge, then used them as collateral on Aave v3 to borrow wrapped Ether, resulting in about $195 million in bad debt on Aave, which has impacted the interconnected crypto lending market.
Global crypto adoption slumps amid macro pressures, Turkey defies downtrend
Global crypto adoption declined in the first quarter as retail activity weakened under mounting macroeconomic and geopolitical pressures, underscoring the sector’s continued sensitivity to broader market conditions.
TRM Labs’ Q1 Global Crypto Adoption Index showed an 11% year-over-year drop in retail crypto volumes, to $979 billion. The decline marked a second consecutive quarterly contraction and the sharpest pullback since the 2022 bear market.
The downturn was largely driven by a stronger US dollar, higher interest rates and a broader risk-off environment, all of which weighed on retail participation, TRM said. The softer demand coincided with a 22% drop in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) during the quarter.
Bitcoin’s correction followed a late-2025 peak above $126,000, with prices trending lower through the first quarter alongside a broader decline in digital asset markets.
Bitcoin’s quarterly returns between Q4 2022 and Q1 2026. Source: TRM Labs