The crypto and equity markets took a nosedive after a stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report dampened hopes for Federal Reserve rate cuts. BTC dropped below $90K, losing 7%, while altcoins felt even sharper pain—though XRP managed to defy the trend, surging nearly 10%.

Meanwhile, Soneium’s much-hyped Web3 launch by Sony sparked drama, with blacklisted memecoins causing outrage in the DeFi community. Critics called it centralized overreach, while others praised Ethereum’s OP stack for enabling censorship-resistant workarounds.

On the brighter side, Euler Finance is making a comeback, turning a $200M hack into a new era of innovation. Their v2 protocol is live, TVL is climbing, and the team is proving that resilience pays off.

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A recent Leviathan News newsletter highlighted how a stronger‑than‑expected U.S. jobs report triggered a sharp risk‑off move across both traditional and crypto markets, as traders scaled back expectations for near‑term Federal Reserve rate cuts. According to macro coverage, the upside surprise in employment data reinforced the view that economic conditions remain too robust for rapid monetary easing, pressuring high‑beta assets including growth equities, chip stocks and major cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin sold off and altcoins were hit even harder, though XRP was noted as a relative outlier with strong gains on the day, underlining how idiosyncratic flows and token‑specific narratives can diverge from broader macro trends. The newsletter also focused on Sony‑affiliated Soneium, an Ethereum Layer 2 chain built on the OP Stack, whose Web3 launch has drawn criticism over the decision to blacklist certain memecoins at the infrastructure level. DeFi participants and decentralization advocates framed the blocklists as evidence of heavy corporate control and a worrying precedent for censorship, while others pointed out that the open‑source OP Stack allows builders to route activity through more permissionless, censorship‑resistant deployments elsewhere in the Optimism ecosystem. In parallel, Euler Finance was spotlighted as a case study in post‑hack recovery: after suffering an exploit of around $200 million in 2023, the protocol has shipped its Euler v2 design, with total value locked beginning to climb again as the team pushes new features and seeks to re‑establish trust and innovation in its lending markets.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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