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According to Cointelegraph, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has issued a stark warning regarding the potential consequences if U.S. President Donald Trump decides to dismiss Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Warren cautioned that such a move could severely undermine investor confidence in the integrity of U.S. capital markets, potentially triggering a financial crash. During an interview on CNBC, the Massachusetts Senator emphasized that the President lacks the legal authority to remove Powell from his position. She further argued that removing Powell would weaken the financial infrastructure of the United States. Warren stated, "If Chairman Powell can be fired by the President of the United States, it will crash the markets. The infrastructure that keeps this stock market strong and, therefore, a big part of our economy strong, and a big part of the world economy strong, is the idea that the big pieces move independently of politics." She added that if U.S. interest rates were subject to the whims of a president, it would erode the distinction between the U.S. and less stable political systems.President Trump has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with Powell, primarily due to the chairman's reluctance to lower interest rates. Trump has repeatedly called for Powell's termination, arguing that lower interest rates could serve as a positive catalyst for risk-on asset prices, including cryptocurrencies. This, he believes, could help reverse the market downturn caused by the ongoing trade war and current macroeconomic pressures. Trump's criticism of Powell intensified following an April 17 post on Truth Social, where he reiterated his desire to remove the chairman. This has fueled speculation about whether Trump will act on his threats. Senator Rick Scott has echoed Trump's sentiments, advocating for a complete overhaul of the Federal Reserve's leadership. In an opinion piece for Fox News, Scott wrote, "It’s time to clean house of everyone working at the Federal Reserve who isn’t on board with helping the American people and fighting for their best interests."The Trump administration has consistently prioritized lowering interest rates. Market analyst Anthony Pompliano recently speculated that Trump might have intentionally destabilized financial markets to pressure for lower rates. Pompliano pointed to a reduction in the yield of the 10-year U.S. Treasury Bond to 4% as evidence. However, the yield has since increased to 4.3%. The ongoing debate over interest rates and the Federal Reserve's independence continues to be a contentious issue, with significant implications for both domestic and global economies.

According to Cointelegraph, a proposal has been submitted by an Aptos community member, known as MoonSheisty, to significantly reduce the staking rewards for Aptos (APT), the network's native token. The proposal, introduced on April 18, suggests cutting the reward yields from 7% to 3.79% over a three-month period. This adjustment aims to align Aptos staking rewards with those of other layer-1 blockchains and enhance capital efficiency. The proposal has generated interest on social media platform X, though initial feedback on GitHub indicates some resistance.

A community member identified as ElagabalxNode expressed concerns that reducing staking rewards without implementing compensatory mechanisms, such as a robust delegation program, could potentially drive smaller validators out of the network. This, in turn, could weaken the decentralization and long-term resilience of the Aptos blockchain. The proposal emphasizes the importance of validators in the network and suggests that Aptos should consider establishing a community validator program to provide grants and stakes to smaller validators contributing to the ecosystem.

Aptos, founded in 2021 by former Meta engineers, currently has a total value locked (TVL) of $974 million, with $320 million attributed to the lending protocol Aries Markets, as reported by DefiLlama. While high staking rewards can encourage users to lock up tokens on Aptos, MoonSheisty argues that they may also deter participation in higher-risk, higher-reward opportunities within the ecosystem, such as restaking, DePIN infrastructure, MEV, and decentralized finance.

Staking rewards vary significantly across different blockchains. CoinLedger reports that the BNB Smart Chain offers some of the highest real returns at 7.43%, while Cardano provides one of the lowest at just 0.55%. Staking incentivizes users to lock their tokens on-chain, supports validators, and helps secure the network. The rewards function similarly to interest earned on a savings account, but instead of cash, stakers earn cryptocurrency, which can fluctuate in fiat value.

Proposals to modify staking procedures are not uncommon. In June 2024, Polkadot introduced a proposal to reduce the unstaking period to two days. In September, the Starknet community voted to implement a new staking mechanism, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed solutions to staking issues shortly thereafter. While staking provides the community with a genuine stake in the network, it also carries risks, including the potential consolidation of smaller pools into larger ones, which can undermine decentralization and weaken the blockchain's overall resilience.