A rogue actor operating from an Ethereum wallet ‘BornTooLate.Eth’ has engaged in a governance attack on UMA, a decision-making oracle used by Polymarket, to attack the outcome of a Ukraine-themed contract by becoming one of the largest holders of UMA tokens.

UMA is a decentralized «optimistic» oracle protocol that resolves disputes in prediction markets by allowing UMA token holders to vote on contentious outcomes. It has faced its share of controversy for resolving disputed markets, such as Barron Trump’s involvement in a Presidential meme coin, the nature of ‘finding’ the OceanGate submarine, and Venezuela’s contested election, drawing criticism due to subjective decisions that frustrated certain market participants.

On-chain data shows that BornTooLate.eth has approximately 1.3 million UMA tokens, making them a top-5 governance staker and giving them significant sway over the resolution of UMA disputes.

In the case of this Ukraine-themed market that was attacked, the contract asked bettors to speculate on the possibility of a deal being signed involving U.S. access to the country’s rate earth resources by the end of March.

A deal is in the works, reports say, but nothing has been signed. And yet on Polymarket, it resolved to ‘yes’ after BornTooLate.Eth used his staked UMA tokens to vote ‘yes’ on the resolution.

A Very Unprofitable Trading Strategy

Curiously, this attack doesn’t seem to have netted a large payday for any of the participants.

Market data from on-chain curator Polymarket Analytics shows that the largest winner from the contract took home just over $55,000.

Likewise, the losses were quite moderate compared to other closely-watched Polymarket contracts with the biggest loser forfeiting around $73,000.

An etherscan page for BornTooLate.Eth shows that the actor began accumulating UMA tokens over a year ago. Given their holdings of over 1.3 million tokens, building that sort of treasury for the attack would have cost over $2 million.

For its part, Polymarket says no refunds will be issued because this isn’t a «market failure» and said in a statement on Discord it is working with the UMA oracle team to prevent it from happening again.

«This market resolved against the expectations of our users and our clarification,» a spokesperson posted on Discord. «We’re committed to building the future of prediction markets, which requires building resilient systems in which everyone can trust.»

Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fidelity Investments is in advanced stages of developing its own stablecoin, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.

The Boston-based financial services giant plans for the token to serve as a form of digital cash, according to the report, which cites two people close to the matter.

The token would form part of company’s strategy to enter the tokenized government bonds market. Stablecoins are a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to a real-world asset such as the U.S. dollar or gold. They provide a convenient way for crypto traders to preserve their fiat value without having to cash out of the market.

The news emerges just days after Fidelity filed paperwork to register a blockchain-based version of its U.S. dollar money market fund.

The company seeks to register an «OnChain» share class of its Treasury Digital Fund (FYHXX), which holds cash and U.S. Treasury securities and is available only to Fidelity’s hedge fund and institutional clients. A Fidelity stablecoin could fill the role of cash in this fund.

The stablecoin would enter an already crowded market dominated by the likes of Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC. The report comes a day after World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a decentralized finance protocol backed by President Donald Trump, confirmed it too has plans to offer a stablecoin.

Fidelity did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for further comment.

Bitcoin remained steady above $87,000 in Asian afternoon hours Wednesday as traders continued to monitor U.S. data releases and how the levy of U.S. tariffs will play out starting April 2, with most in wait-and-watch mode.

Majors were little-changed in the past 24 hours as Solana’s SOL, xrp (XRP), BNB Chain’s BNB, and ether (ETH) rose under 3%, while memecoin dogecoin (DOGE) outperformed with a 5.5% jump.

That was the second-straight day for gains for DOGE, alongside continued bumps in pepe (PEPE) and mog (MOG), as a tendency among these tokens to act as a “beta bet” on ether’s strength showed no signs of reverting.

Elsewhere, shiba inu (SHIB) zoomed 11%, buoyed by a rotation to riskier memes and a 228% jump in its native ShibaSwap exchange in the last 30 days. Open interest on SHIB-tracked futures has risen upward of 20% since Sunday, data shows, indicative of expectations of further volatility.

Concerns about a U.S. economic slowdown remain, however, while a rapid unwinding of momentum trades in equities has led to money managers retreating to full defensive mode, some day.

“We expect markets to continue their soft rebound from last week into month-end, with the next major catalyst being the ‘liberation day’ reciprocal tariff announcement from Trump scheduled for April 2nd,” Augustine Fan, Head of Insights at SignalPlus, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message. “Rumors of a softer tariff response will go a long way to recover some of the recent technical damage in US stocks, helping to spark a global rally along with the recent jump in EU/China stocks.”

“Crypto will remain a close proxy of equities in the foreseeable future as we don’t see a unique catalyst in the meantime, though the recent M&A announcements with Coinbase/Kraken give us faith that the long-term bull market remains alive and well,” Fan added.

Meanwhile, traders at QCP Capital said in a Tuesday broadcast that the upcoming quarter and April in particular, have historically been one of the best periods for risk assets, second only to the festive December rally.

“The S&P 500 has delivered an average annualized return of 19.6% in Q2, while Bitcoin has also recorded its second-best median performance during this stretch — again, trailing only Q4, QCP said, pointing out caution among options traders.

“Options markets remain cautious. Call skew hasn’t meaningfully shifted toward calls, with call skew only emerging from June onwards, suggesting traders are waiting to see how the tariff situation develops,” they said, adding that attention is turning to the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) data, which could become the “next key catalyst.”

The PCE index captures inflation (or deflation) across a wide range of consumer expenses and reflects changes in consumer behavior.

Released monthly, the PCE is said to influence Fed interest rate decisions. High PCE readings signal rising inflation, potentially prompting rate hikes to cool the economy, which can reduce risk appetite and pressure bitcoin prices downward as investors favor safer assets. Conversely, low PCE data suggests tame inflation, possibly leading to rate cuts or steady policy, boosting liquidity and supporting Bitcoin’s price as a speculative asset or inflation hedge.

The next release is on March 28 and could sway market sentiment, with bitcoin’s reaction tied to how the data shapes Fed expectations — volatility often follows as traders adjust positions.