Rootstock’s merged mining hit an all-time high in Q1 2025, even as DeFi TVL dropped 20% and user activity cooled across the Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem. Smart contract platform Rootstock, the home of decentralized finance (DeFi) on Bitcoin, saw a sharp increase in network security and mining engagement in the first quarter of 2025, even as activity cooled. Merged mining participation surged to an all-time high of 81%, up from 56.4% in Q4 2024, driven by the integration of major mining pools Foundry and SpiderPool, according to Messari’s first “State of Rootstock” report for 2025, shared with Cointelegraph. The heightened miner interest boosted Rootstock’s hash power to over 740 exahashes per second, surpassing the total Bitcoin network hashrate recorded in October 2024. As a result, the network is now considered to be in a “mature phase” of merged mining growth. Read more
Romania industrial and logistic market had a strong start to the year, with a leased area of almost 260,000 square meters in the first quarter, the equivalent of a 30% increase against the same period of 2024.
The Romanian leu further depreciated versus the euro by midday Thursday (May 8) and the central bank set the official exchange rate at 5.1222 units per euro, which is 0.45% weaker than 5.0991 to the euro set on Wednesday (May 7) and 3% weaker against the euro over the last three days.
The co-founder of Sweat said he prioritizes making multichain DeFi accessible to millions through simple actions like walking and using its wallet. Sweat, a move-to-earn platform that rewards users for physical activity, has launched a personalized AI agent and expanded its multichain infrastructure. The update is designed to improve user onboarding by offering interactive guidance and simplifying asset management across blockchains. The AI agent, named Mia (short for Movement in Action), is powered by Near.AI — an open-source AI model platform with crosschain capabilities. Integrated into the Sweat wallet, Mia helps users to bridge, swap and manage their crypto rewards without needing deep crypto knowledge.. Sweat is rolling out support for Base, Ethereum, Arbitrum and BNB Chain. Within the app, users can now bridge assets and swap native tokens across networks, with the option to pay gas fees in Sweat (SWEAT) tokens. Read more