Autor: dot-traders

• NEAR price surged to $1.66 amid a notable volume spike.
• AI tokens bounced sharply, including Injective, Theta Network, and Akash Network.
• The near-term outlook for NEAR suggests a retest of $2 if momentum holds.

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) has traded higher in the past 24 hours as bulls eye near-term gains.

The uptick for the artificial intelligence-related token aligned with a broader AI tokens surge on Tuesday, with NEAR seeing a notable rise in trading activity.

NEAR price gains amid 32% spike in daily volume

NEAR is trading at $1.62, up about 7% over the past 24 hours and roughly 4% higher on the weekly chart despite Monday’s brief plunge beneath $1.50.

The price appreciation coincides with a 32% surge in daily volume, with intraday action putting the metric at $295 million as of writing.

Notably, that spike in activity has allowed NEAR to outpace many peers as the broader market navigates renewed downside pressure.

Likely, rotation into projects tied to on-chain compute and decentralized application ecosystems is driving the uptick.

The bounce in AI-related tokens provided additional strength to Injective, Theta Network, and Akash, each of which delivered gains of more than 5% in the past 24 hours.

Render also showed signs of eyeing a retest of a critical resistance level.

Crypto AI is trading up ahead of Nvidia’s first-quarter earnings results.

The industry heavyweight will report on May 20, and tokens across crypto are up amid broader anticipation.

Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang recently traveled to China with President Trump, with the US president meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in a key summit.

NEAR price prediction

Technical indicators suggest a short-term bullish bias for NEAR.

On the daily chart, price action is forming what appears to be a cup-and-handle pattern.

This is a consolidation structure that often precedes continuation to the upside if the handle resolves on renewed volume.

NEAR also currently trades above major moving averages, an arrangement that typically favors buyers. But that’s not all.

Momentum metrics bolster the constructive outlook, with the average directional index (ADX) on the daily frame pointing to a strengthening trend.

Elsewhere, the relative strength index (RSI) sits near 64, indicating momentum with room for further appreciation before reaching overbought territory.

The Awesome Oscillator and MACD indicators both show bullish readings that align with a buying opportunity in the near term.

Price targets and risk levels

If bullish conditions persist, NEAR could extend above the $1.70 level.

Near-term upside targets would be in the $2.00 to $2.50 range, should volume maintain its recent lift and the cup-and-handle pattern get validated.

On the flipside, the initial support band lies around $1.50. The region marks a key consolidation zone, below which could be $1.20.

The post NEAR price climbs amid 32% volume spike: what’s the near-term outlook? appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Morpho is slightly up over the past 24 hours, trading around $1.77.
• Bulls eye a rebound after the latest broader cryptocurrency market dip.
• Ecosystem growth appears to bolster a short-term uptick.

Morpho (MORPHO) price has staged a modest intraday recovery after tumbling to session lows of $1.64 earlier in the day.

The slide coincided with Bitcoin’s sharp pullback to about $76,000, which pulled most altcoins lower and sees many hovering at near-term support levels.

MORPHO, however, has since moved 3% off its intraday lows and was trading around $1.76 at the time of writing, reflecting a relief bounce as buyers stepped in.

According to CoinMarketCap data, intraday highs across exchanges stood at $1.77.

Key integrations in Morpho ecosystem

The gains cut weekly losses to 16% and monthly downturn to about 14%.

No major upward catalysts are helping buyers, but Morpho’s expanding ecosystem is worth noting.

The project recently launched its DeFi layer on Tempo, powered by RedStone oracle feeds, and went live with curated vaults managed by Gauntlet and Sentora.

Both teams selected RedStone as the primary Oracle infrastructure for the new markets.

Market participants could view the launch as a supportive development that could underpin short-term liquidity and use-case expansion.

1/ Tempo is positioned to route billions in stablecoin flows across onchain markets. With @Morpho now live on @tempo, that capital becomes productive.

Sentora is partnering with Tempo to bring structured risk management to new lending markets.https://t.co/L91qDZmTlF

— Sentora (@SentoraHQ) May 18, 2026

Morpho has also been named a launch partner for Upshift Clear, joining Superstate on the initiative.

Upshift Clear functions as an instant redemption facility for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs), beginning with USCC.

Under the arrangement, idle USDC deposited in Clear vaults is routed into Morpho markets between redemption events.

The platforms say this creates additional on‑chain capital flow into MORPHO liquidity pools.

MORPHO price analysis – relief rally or fresh momentum?

Bear dominance over the past month suggests that the drop to $1.64 and bounce to $1.77 could be a relief rebound rather than a definitive trend reversal.

The technical picture, however, shows early signs of bullishness.

Bulls holding above the $1.70 mark would be a constructive signal for short-term traders to breach the $1.80 supply zone.

If this happens, buyers could open the path toward a $2.00–$2.20 target zone.

That upside will likely depend on continued interest in Morpho’s ecosystem and broader market stability.

Notably, a recovery in Bitcoin would ease pressure across the sector, with an altcoin rally likely amid capital distribution.

Failure to sustain levels above $1.70 would, however, leave MORPHO exposed to further downside action.

The likelihood of a retest of $1.60, which stands as a key near-term support, remains.

A decisive break below this could invite deeper selling and shift the outlook back to bearish.

The post Morpho price eyes relief bounce to $2 as buyers show resilience appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Echo Admin key compromise enabled $76.7M unauthorized eBTC minting.
• The attacker used fake eBTC to borrow and bridge real crypto assets.
• ECHO token dropped sharply as panic selling hit the market fast.

The ECHO token came under severe pressure after a major security breach tied to the Echo Protocol led to the unauthorized minting of roughly $76.7 million worth of eBTC, triggering a sharp loss of confidence across the ecosystem.

The exploit centered on a compromise of privileged access controls, allowing an attacker to bypass normal minting restrictions and generate synthetic assets without collateral.

The exploit quickly escalated from a technical breach into a full-scale market disruption.

Within hours of the attack becoming known, the ECHO token recorded a steep double-digit decline as traders rushed to exit positions amid uncertainty over the protocol’s stability and the status of the inflated eBTC supply.

Admin key compromise enabled unlimited minting of eBTC

The core of the exploit was a compromise of an admin-level private key, which granted the attacker control over minting permissions inside the Echo Protocol system.

With that access, the attacker was able to mint approximately 1,000 eBTC tokens without depositing any collateral.

These tokens were not backed by real Bitcoin reserves, meaning they functioned as artificially created supply inside the system.

The sudden expansion of eBTC supply to roughly $76 million in value created immediate imbalance risks across any integrated lending or trading platforms that accepted the asset as collateral.

Once minted, the attacker began routing the assets through decentralized finance applications.

A portion of the fake eBTC was deposited into lending markets such as Curvance, where it was used to borrow wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).

From there, the borrowed funds were bridged across networks, converted into ETH, and partially routed through privacy tools, including Tornado Cash, in an attempt to obscure transaction trails.

Blockchain investigators tracking the movement of funds noted that approximately 955 eBTC remained under attacker control, representing the vast majority of the illicitly minted supply.

Only a small fraction of the stolen value was successfully converted into liquid assets during the early stages of the exploit.

ECHO token drops sharply as panic spreads across the market

As the exploit became public, the ECHO token reacted with a rapid sell-off.

The price dropped by over 11% within a short period, reflecting immediate market concern over the protocol’s security and the potential impact of the inflated eBTC supply on the broader ecosystem.

The market reacted to two key risks.

The first was the possibility of further minting or continued exploitation if access controls were not fully secured.

The second was the uncertainty surrounding potential bad debt created in lending markets where the unbacked eBTC had already been used as collateral.

Liquidity conditions tightened as participants reduced exposure to both ECHO and related assets.

The sudden exit of capital intensified downside pressure, accelerating the token’s decline and amplifying volatility across connected trading pairs.

Echo Protocol halts operations and begins investigation

In response to the breach, Echo Protocol moved to pause cross-chain operations, aiming to limit further movement of stolen funds and prevent additional exploitation pathways.

The suspension affected bridging and cross-chain functionality, which had been used by the attacker to move assets between networks during the laundering process.

The incident did not affect the underlying Monad blockchain, which continued operating normally.

The issue was isolated to Echo Protocol’s access control layer, specifically the privileged permissions tied to minting authority.

Security researchers assessing the breach have pointed to the admin key compromise as the central failure point.

Rather than a flaw in token mathematics or smart contract logic, the attack exploited centralized control privileges that allowed unrestricted issuance of synthetic assets once the key was exposed.

The post ECHO token plunges after $76M admin key exploit hits protocol appeared first on CoinJournal.