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DeFi Sector Grapples With Capital Flight As Security Vulnerabilities Expose Systemic Weaknesses : Analysis

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The decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape, long positioned as a viable and improved alternative to traditional finance, is confronting a significant retreat from investors following a string of devastating cyberattacks. Once known for its promise of transparent, intermediary-free financial services powered by smart contracts, the sector is now seeing widespread skepticism over its ability to safeguard user assets amid escalating threats.

According to analytics platform DefiLlama, approximately $14 billion has been withdrawn from DeFi protocols in recent weeks. This sharp decline stems primarily from two major incidents that exposed deep-seated weaknesses in the ecosystem’s interconnected infrastructure.

The more recent breach targeted KelpDAO, where attackers believed to be linked to North Korean operations siphoned roughly $290 million.

Exploiting cross-chain messaging protocols that enable seamless asset transfers between blockchains, the perpetrators then leveraged the compromised tokens as collateral to secure an additional $230 million in loans from Aave, the leading DeFi lending platform.

The maneuver left Aave with substantial unrecoverable debt, prompting emergency interventions by key industry players to contain potential contagion.

Just weeks prior, a separate exploit drained about $280 million from Drift, a prominent decentralized exchange operating on the Solana network.

Unlike earlier attacks that often relied on stolen private keys or exploitable code flaws, these operations demonstrated sophisticated social engineering tactics that tricked systems into authenticating fraudulent ownership claims.

Such methods highlight how the very features enabling DeFi’s borderless interoperability—bridges and messaging layers—have become prime targets for exploitation.

DeFi experienced steady growth during the 2020 “DeFi summer,” when total value locked surged from under $1 billion to nearly $180 billion by late 2021.

Today, however, the sector’s overall locked capital hovers around $86 billion, reflecting not only market cycles but also mounting risk aversion.

The latest events have amplified concerns that vulnerabilities in one protocol can cascade across the network, undermining the core narrative of DeFi as a more secure and efficient alternative to legacy financial systems.

“The fallout is severe,” noted Lucas Tcheyan, a research associate at crypto research firm Galaxy.

He emphasized that these breaches erode confidence in crypto’s purported advantages of greater transparency and reduced reliance on centralized intermediaries.

The incidents have also reignited debates about DeFi’s foundational principles.

While the sector prides itself on decentralization, the rapid coordination among influential stakeholders to stabilize Aave has drawn criticism for revealing pockets of centralized influence.

Token values for several major platforms have tumbled, signaling broader investor unease.

Traditional finance institutions, which have begun exploring blockchain integration, may now pause their enthusiasm, as the events underscore the tension between open interoperability and resilient security controls.

The pressure is unlikely to ease soon. As first reported by the FT, analysts warn that advancing technologies like artificial intelligence could empower even more advanced attack vectors, targeting smart contract logic with greater precision.

Policymakers worldwide are intensifying oversight efforts, pushing for clearer rules on investor protections and platform accountability. For DeFi to reclaim its momentum, developers and participants must prioritize fortified infrastructure and transparent risk management—otherwise, the exodus could mark a prolonged period of contraction rather than a temporary setback.



Should You Buy the Cerebras IPO? Here’s How the AI Chip Stock Stacks Up.

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Should You Buy the Cerebras IPO? Here’s How the AI Chip Stock Stacks Up.


Cerebras is expected to make its public debut on Thursday, and investors just can’t wait. After its initial public offering (IPO) filing a couple of weeks ago, the offering is 20 times oversubscribed, leading the company to increase its target share price to between $150 and $160 and increase the number of shares offered. The high end of that range would value the company at roughly $48.8 billion.

That might seem like small potatoes compared to competing AI semiconductor stocks like Nvidia (NVDA +2.33%), which is worth more than 100 times that amount. Broadcom (AVGO 0.60%) is worth nearly $2 trillion, and AMD‘s (AMD 0.67%) market cap tops $700 billion. But with Cerebras’ excellent technological capabilities and potential disruption of AI inference data centers, investors might think it has a shot at competing with the big boys. Should you buy the stock at its IPO?

Image source: Getty Images.

What’s the advantage of using Cerebras’ chips?

Cerebras designs wafer-scale chips that use an entire 12-inch silicon wafer. The result is a chip roughly 30 times the size of Nvidia’s Blackwell B200 package with 19 times as many transistors per chip, Cerebras notes in its S-1 filing.

Making chips at that scale is no easy feat, but it comes with significant advantages. Since connections between logic cores and memory capacity are etched right into the silicon, Cerebras chips can process data much more quickly while using less power. Additionally, there’s less overhead needed for networking and interconnect between chips. The result is a chip that can perform many AI inference tasks much more quickly and at lower costs than a traditional graphics processing unit (GPU) cluster setup.

That’s why Cerebras’ infrastructure has caught the attention of OpenAI and Amazon (AMZN +1.61%) Web Services (AWS). OpenAI has committed $20 billion to rent 750 megawatts’ worth of capacity directly from Cerebras between 2026 and 2028. Amazon plans to buy Cerebras’ chips to work in conjunction with its own Trainium chips in Amazon-owned data centers.

What are the risks facing Cerebras?

There are some major risks facing Cerebras as it makes its public debut.

First and foremost, investors will note that Cerebras’ backlog climbed to $24.6 billion at the end of 2025, with the majority of that attributable to its contract with OpenAI. In other words, Cerebras faces severe customer concentration risk. The AWS deal will diversify that revenue a bit, but Cerebras will likely have to prove itself before attracting more customers to its data center business.

To that end, the company faces execution risk. It’ll have to stand up 250 megawatts of computing capacity for OpenAI by the end of the year. Management has never built or operated a data center of that size before. If it encounters any issues scaling, it could negatively affect its OpenAI contract and its ability to attract additional customers.

Adding to the scaling challenge is that Cerebras’ chips are manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM +0.65%), which has seen tremendous demand for its services. Some of TSMC’s biggest customers are exploring options for secondary sources, as the largest chip manufacturer sees growing demand for its leading-edge technology. TSMC, meanwhile, is retrofitting many of its existing facilities to add capacity for its leading-edge N3 and N2 processes while reducing capacity for N7 and N5.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Stock Quote

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing

Today’s Change

(0.65%) $2.59

Current Price

$399.87

Cerebras notably uses TSMC’s N5 process for its wafer-scale chips. No other chip manufacturer can viably produce wafer-scale chips, creating a significant supply chain risk for Cerebras as it scales.

How does Cerebras stack up with other AI chip stocks?

There’s no doubt that a small company with a massive backlog relative to its current revenue deserves a premium valuation even with the risks outlined. Cerebras already has the backlog in place to grow its revenue tenfold within a few years as long as it executes. At a valuation of $48.8 billion, it would trade for roughly 96 times its 2025 sales.

To put that in perspective, Nvidia currently trades for 25 times trailing-12-month sales. Broadcom trades for 29 times sales, and AMD trades for 19 times sales. Importantly, none of those companies are expected to grow their top lines as quickly as Cerebras. Still, none of them are slouches. Broadcom and AMD are each expected to double their revenue from 2026 to 2028, and Nvidia’s expected to grow its top line 57%. What’s more, Nvidia, Broadcom, and AMD are much less risky than Cerebras.

Nvidia Stock Quote

Today’s Change

(2.33%) $5.14

Current Price

$225.92

Cerebras’ technology is compelling, but it’s not a complete replacement for the chips made by Nvidia, AMD, or Broadcom. It will remain a subset of the overall AI chip market even as that subset continues to grow quickly. The $48.8 billion price tag on Cerebras’ IPO looks like too much of a premium to pay, and investors may be better off waiting to see if the market offers a better entry point for the stock later.

Free Online Business Management Course | King's London College | Get Free Certificate

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Free Online Business Management Course | King's London College | Get Free Certificate



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Listeners engage less deeply with music labeled as AI – even when it’s actually human-made, academic study finds

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Listeners engage less deeply with music attributed to AI than with music attributed to a human – even when the music is actually human-composed, a new peer-reviewed academic study has found.

The authors say their findings suggest “truthful attribution can have real consequences for how music is perceived and understood” – landing in the middle of an active industry debate over mandatory AI music disclosure.

The peer-reviewed paper, which you can read in full here, published in the journal Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications in March, was authored by Sarah H. Wu of Stanford University and Kevin J. Holmes of Reed College.

Various music streaming services have been rolling out their own AI labeling systems in recent months.

Apple Music launched its Transparency Tags system in March, asking labels and distributors to flag AI use at the point of delivery.

Spotify followed last month with the beta launch of AI Credits in song credits, similarly relying on labels and distributors to self-disclose AI use.

In late April, Spotify went further by introducing a new “Verified by Spotify” badge, with the streaming giant saying that profiles “that appear to primarily represent AI-generated or AI-persona artists” would not be eligible for verification.

“In the AI era, it’s more important than ever to be able to trust the authenticity of the music you listen to,” Spotify said in an accompanying blog post.

Deezer has gone further still – independently detecting and tagging AI music at the platform level, and now reporting that around 75,000 fully AI-generated tracks are uploaded to its service every day, making up roughly 44% of daily deliveries.

Earlier this month, music supervisor Frederic Schindler made the case in an MBW op-ed for an industry-wide “Music Facts” disclosure protocol modeled on FDA nutrition labels, with “AI Generated” listed as one of four mandatory origin categories.

The Wu and Holmes paper was based on two preregistered studies involving 399 US participants, who listened to instrumental music clips and reported whether they imagined a story while listening – a phenomenon the researchers describe as “narrative listening”.

In the first study, participants heard six human-composed pieces – including works by Beethoven, Mozart, Debussy and Ravel – without being told who or what had composed them.

The more strongly listeners believed a given piece was computer-generated, the less likely they were to imagine a story – and the less engaging the stories they did imagine were, according to Wu and Holmes.

“FALSELY FRAMING AI-GENERATED ART AS A HUMAN CREATION MAY ELICIT A GREATER SENSE OF MEANING – BUT AT A COST TO HUMAN CREATORS, DEPRIVING THEM OF CREDIT AND COMPENSATION FOR THE WORK FROM WHICH AI PRODUCTS ARE DERIVED.”

SARAH H. WU AND KEVIN J. HOLMES

In the second study, the researchers used eight pieces – four human-composed, four generated by AI software AIVA – and labeled each one either “Composer: Human” or “Composer: AI” while it played to the participant.

The “AI”-labeled pieces elicited fewer and less engaging imagined narratives than the “Human”-labeled pieces – regardless of who or what had actually composed the music, the Stanford and Reed researchers reported.

That suppression was nominally stronger when applied to actual AI compositions – suggesting listeners were also picking up on acoustic markers of AI on top of the labels themselves, according to Wu and Holmes.

“Attributing music to AI is associated with – and can engender – an impoverished listening experience, devoid of the mental narratives that unfold as the composer’s musical choices guide the listener’s imagination,” Wu and Holmes wrote.

The authors said the label effect appeared to be driven by listeners ascribing less communicative intention to pieces marked as AI-made. “Labeling music as AI composed, truthfully or otherwise, may lead listeners to infer that the music lacks meaning or intensity,” Wu and Holmes wrote.

“Attributing music to AI is associated with – and can engender – an impoverished listening experience, devoid of the mental narratives that unfold as the composer’s musical choices guide the listener’s imagination.”

SARAH H. WU AND KEVIN J. HOLMES

Those findings land alongside parallel research from Kiel and Hamburg economists Jana Friedrichsen, Julia Schwarz, and Michel Clement.

Their three-study working paper, not yet peer-reviewed, was summarized in ProMarket last Monday (May 4), and found that listeners’ willingness to pay for AI-generated music drops when its AI origin is disclosed – an effect mainly driven by pop listeners.

“Consumers can only make informed choices if artists and music platforms are transparent about the use of AI,” Friedrichsen, Schwarz and Clement wrote.

The Wu and Holmes paper opens with a reference to The Velvet Sundown, the “band” that surpassed 1 million monthly Spotify listeners in 2025 before its operators confirmed the music was AI-generated.

The authors describe one of The Velvet Sundown‘s songs as making “for an adequate road-trip soundtrack,” adding: “Much AI-generated music may go undetected because it is designed to blur the distinctive qualities of human-composed works, yielding a kind of algorithmically curated easy listening.”

For Wu and Holmes, that under-detection comes at a cost to human creators.

“Even though AI systems can produce works that look or sound impressive, audiences may engage with them in a rather shallow way, missing the human touch that makes art feel meaningful,” Wu and Holmes wrote.

Wu and Holmes added: “By the same token, falsely framing AI-generated art as a human creation may elicit a greater sense of meaning – but at a cost to human creators, depriving them of credit and compensation for the work from which AI products are derived.”

That risk to human creators was illustrated earlier this year by the case of Murphy Campbell, a North Carolina folk musician who discovered AI-cloned covers of her songs uploaded to her own Spotify profile, before a copyright troll claimed ownership of her legitimate YouTube recordings via gamma-owned distributor Vydia.

The scale of that harm extends far beyond Campbell‘s case. Sony Music Entertainment revealed at the launch of the IFPI‘s Global Music Report 2026 in March that it had asked streaming platforms to take down more than 135,000 songs created by fraudsters using generative AI to impersonate its artists.

Dennis Kooker, Sony Music‘s President of Global Digital Business and US Sales, said the deepfakes cause “direct commercial harm to legitimate recording artists.”

In a February MBW op-ed, IFPI CEO Victoria Oakley and RIAA CEO Mitch Glazier wrote that generative AI has “industrialized” streaming fraud.

Performance rights organization ASCAP, meanwhile, has been calling for transparency around AI use in musical works since 2023, when its board adopted six AI principles including a call to distinguish AI from human-generated works.

Concluding the paper, Wu and Holmes wrote: “For music to inspire our inner storyteller, it helps to know there’s a human mind behind it.”Music Business Worldwide

35% of Homeowners Won’t Sell at Any Price—And That’s Creating a Gold Mine for Small Landlords

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Millions of homeowners are clinging to their pandemic-era mortgage rates like castaways clutching driftwood. That stubbornness is resetting the rulebook for investors.

A new survey of 1,000 mortgage holders by Best Interest Financial and Clever Real Estate found that 35% of homeowners with a mortgage rate under 6% would not give it up for any reason whatsoever. Among those with rates under 3%, the figure jumped to 52%.

Nearly half—47%—of those surveyed said that they simply couldn’t afford a mortgage at today’s rates if they had to start over. The result is a housing market that, according to Fortune, has been frozen for three years.

The Lock-In Effect Is Not Going Anywhere—Here’s What That Means

Since 2022, annual home sales have dropped to their lowest level—approximately 4.1 million—since the mid-90s, when the U.S. population was 22% smaller, according to the Wall Street Journal.

There is a desperate need for more housing. However, according to data from Intercontinental Exchange cited by the Journal, 54% of primary homeowners are sitting on rates of 4% or lower—and, as the Best Interest Financial and Clever Real Estate survey discovered, many of them do not intend to sell.

For landlords currently sitting on rentals, here’s what that means: Every family priced out of buying is another family looking for a quality rental.

The Trump administration put the housing shortage at 10 million units, while Realtor.com and Zillow had it at half that amount last year. 

It’s all about supply and demand. Demand far outweighs supply, which means landlords are sitting on one of this economy’s most prized assets: housing.

Affordability Continues to Keep Buyers Away

Said Dr. Jessica Lautz, NAR deputy chief economist, in a Realtor.com press release: 

“For many younger households, affordability challenges and limited inventory are still making homeownership difficult to achieve. Older millennial buyers are now entering middle age, and with that comes a shift. This cohort is now the highest-earning generation of homebuyers, buys the largest homes, and is most likely to have children living with them. Those traits were once more commonly associated with Gen X buyers, who are now increasingly looking toward empty-nesting and retirement.”

However, further complicating the housing supply chain is that baby boomers, those aged 61-79, are transacting most of the real estate—accounting for 42% of buyers and 55% of sellers—leveraging their considerable home equity to do deals, leaving younger buyers locked out.

Added Lautz: 

“Baby boomers are at a point in life when they have the flexibility to move, often with housing equity to help purchase their next home. In earlier years, baby boomers—like millennials today—may have moved because of a job change or the need for a larger home. Today, many baby boomers are embracing choice and moving to be closer to friends and family, to downsize, or to retire and enjoy a work-free lifestyle.”

Mortgage Interest Rates Are Keeping the Market Frozen

With interest rates still in the low-6% range with no end in sight, it seems likely prospective buyers will remain renting for a while yet.

“We forecast that mortgage rates will range between 6% and 6.5% this year, and our latest weekly data show it’s trending towards the upper end of that range,” Mike Fratantoni, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, told Bankrate.com in March.

While the Bankrate article alluded to a gradual crumbling of 3% interest rates as some owners were forced to sell due to growing families or job relocation requirements, it also quoted a report from insurance company First American that tied moving to a geographic location. Those in pricier states, such as California, were less likely to give up their low interest rates than those in less expensive locations.

The Rental Market Fundamentals Are Holding Strong

You’ve probably heard mixed reviews about the current rental market. ApartmentList.com‘s April 2026 report shows that rents are up month over month but down 1.7% year over year. This is due in part to the sharp increase in rents after the pandemic, economic complications, affordability issues, and the war with Iran.

However, it’s probably a temporary situation, given the overwhelming lack of housing, which is likely pushing rents up, as it has in the past few months.

The most recent BiggerPockets Pulse survey showed a slight downturn in optimism among landlords, as evidenced by slight rental decreases over the past year. However, long-term, with low inventory, high rates, and high prices, holding rental property remains almost inflation-proof because people will always need a place to live.

“Real estate is in a recovery mode,” Henry Chin, global head of research for commercial brokerage CBRE, told US News & World Report, but adds that the focus has shifted from price appreciation to steady income. “Investors should look at cyclical and structural points of view to pick the right assets and locations.”

Regarding the economic uncertainty posed by the Iran war, Chin said, “Developed countries are front and center of investors’ minds as occupier demand continues to recover,” adding that the “U.S. is more resilient than Europe,” which is more dependent on overseas oil than the U.S.

Other experts interviewed in the same article concurred. “Interest rates are just one piece of the puzzle, not the defining factor,” says Edward F. Pierzak, senior vice president of research at Nareit (the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts). “What matters most is the broader economic backdrop.” 

The sentiment was echoed by Roland Chow, financial planner and portfolio manager at Optura Advisors in Burlingame, California, who said, “Investors should think of real estate as a diversifier to the portfolio and, in the current higher-interest rate environment, as an income source and inflation hedge.”

Final Thoughts

With a continual housing bottleneck and homeowners reluctant to part with low rates, now is a great time to buy if you can. However, it’s not a case of blindly throwing a dart at a map of the country and picking a spot.

The U.S. housing market is not monolithic. While there are always fluctuating cities, by far the best places to invest today are generally in the Midwest and Sunbelt, according to a recent Zillow analysis—with a smattering in the Northeast—assuming you want to keep away from pricier metros such as San Jose, San Francisco, and the New York tristate area.

In the current economic climate, lower price points are a key driver. “A huge component of buyer friendliness is affordability,” Kara Ng, a senior economist at Zillow, told CNBC. ”[The Midwest] was affordable before the pandemic, and it is affordable after the pandemic.”

Did you know that a BiggerPockets Pro membership comes with over $5,000 in potential annual savings through Pro Perks, including discounts on property management, banking, renovation supplies, and investor loans and insurance. Become a Pro today!

Most Home Sellers Are Also Home Buyers: Why That’s a Problem Today

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Most Home Sellers Are Also Home Buyers: Why That’s a Problem Today


They say most home sellers are also home buyers.

In other words, they aren’t just selling their property and disappearing into thin air.

Nor are they typically renting either. Often, they are selling one home and purchasing a replacement.

As such, there’s no inventory gain. There is no benefit to the housing market other than churn, which benefits those who get paid for the transaction.

Such as real estate agents, mortgage loan originators, title and escrow companies and so on.

Sellers Don’t Want to Be Buyers Right Now

Here’s the problem.

Given the lack of affordability and dearth of supply at the moment, sellers today don’t want to be buyers (and who can blame them).

Nobody wants to be a buyer right now. It’s tough out there. This is no secret.

As such, existing homeowners, who very likely hold cheap debt, a low loan balance, a low tax basis, and all the other benefits of having bought years ago, are very much “would-be sellers.”

I’ve spoken about this before. Sure, they will sell, but only at the right price.

And chances are that price doesn’t work for many buyers today because affordability is so poor.

To add insult to injury, the existing homeowner’s price must factor in the very real cost of the seller giving up their ultra-low mortgage rate and taking on a much higher rate on an even higher purchase price.

That tricky dynamic puts even more strain on already limited for-sale supply.

We underbuilt for many years post-early 2000s housing crisis, and this simply makes it worse.

It’s why home prices continue to stay stubbornly high despite affordability telling you they should fall.

Today’s Home Sellers Demand Top Dollar to Offset Replacement Property Math

If you’re a home buyer today, you need to look at things from the home seller’s perspective.

Many current homeowners are sitting on 3% 30-year fixed mortgages. Or even sub-3% mortgage rates.

Their monthly payment feels like a steal (and is) compared to what a new buyer would face at today’s rates.

If they sell today and buy again (which as I said most plan to do), they’re not only losing that low-rate mortgage, but also taking on a new loan at rates that are double (or more) than what they currently pay.

In addition, they’re paying a much higher price for their replacement home in a still-competitive market.

The math simply doesn’t pencil for a lot of sellers unless they get top dollar on their current property.

So they list for some exorbitant price and everyone tells them they’re listing way too high.

But they don’t really care. They are happy to stay put if they don’t get their price. They are “would-be sellers” with time on their side.

This allows them to list at an aspirational price and simply bide their time.

Even in normal times, homeowners are emotionally attached to their homes. And due to mortgage rate lock-in, they’re financially anchored as well.

This Is Why Supply Stays Tight and Home Prices Stay Elevated

The end result is pretty straightforward here.

A vicious cycle of limited for-sale inventory, high home prices, and a reluctance for more existing homeowners to sell.

If fewer homes hit the market because owners don’t want to trade in their 3% mortgage and its tiny low balance for a new, much more expensive one, inventory stays tight.

Meanwhile, the few properties that do come to market are priced to compensate the seller for giving up that low rate, low balance, low tax basis, etc.

They need motivation somehow and listing for a fire-sale price ain’t it.

As such, prospective buyers who are already stretched by high interest rates and prices either can’t afford it or choose to wait it out.

Sure, new construction helps to some degree, but it can’t fully offset this strange dynamic, nor are most new builds in areas where folks want to buy (think the outskirts).

Builders face their own challenges today with high costs and tight margins, and they haven’t forgotten the early 2000s housing bust.

So they’re rather smartly not flooding the market with for-sale inventory either.

The end result is sustained high home prices on a national level, even if some markets experience weakness, namely those with a higher concentration of more recent home buyers (those with less to lose by selling or foreclosing).

The irony is that the “right price” for sellers, which is most often a “high price,” keeps the housing market from cracking in a meaningful way.

Colin Robertson
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Amazon Discount for Select Household Products: $15 Off $50+

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Amazon Discount for Select Household Products: $15 Off $50+


Amazon Discount for Household Products

This article contains Amazon affiliate links.

Amazon has a new promotion for select household products. You can get a $15 discount when you spend $50 or more on eligible products that are listed in the promotion page.

Offer Details

Spend $50+ and get $15 off. Here’s how:

  1. Add $50+ worth of items from the products listed in promotion page.
  2. When you’re done shopping, select Go to Cart.
  3. The offer will automatically be applied at checkout, if eligible.
  4. Complete payment.

You can save even more by using the right credit card. The best option is the U.S. Bank Shopper Cash Rewards Card which earns 6% cash back.  Another good option is purchasing Amazon gift cards at Staples or Office Depot with a Chase Ink Business Cash card, so you can earn 5X Ultimate Rewards. Also check out these Shop with Points discounts for even more savings.

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Keep in mind that Amazon offers free shipping on orders of $35+, or free next-day shipping on all orders with Amazon Prime (get 30-day free trial). Prime members can also share benefits with a Household member. Students and all 18-25 year olds as well as EBT/SNAP/Medicaid cardholders can get a discounted Prime membership.

Important Terms

  • Offer only applies to products sold by Amazon
  • Products sold by third-party sellers or other Amazon entities will not qualify for this offer, even if “fulfilled by Amazon.com” or “Prime Eligible”.
  • Offer does not apply to digital content.
  • Offer good while supplies last.
  • Items must be purchased in a single order and shipped at the same speed to a single address.

 

Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases made through this article. Using links on the site for Amazon purchases is the best way you can support the site as you normally can’t earn cash back for these purchases. But, you should still check shopping portals such as Rakuten, TopCashback, RebatesMe, ShopBack and others for possible cashback. Your support is always greatly appreciated!

Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that

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Despite having a $165 million net worth, Scarlett Johansson says work-life balance doesn’t exist—and the first step to success is admitting that



“I think actually admitting that there is no work-life balance is the first step to getting there in a way because it’s just not possible,” Johansson—best known for her role as Black Widow in the Marvel franchise—told CBS Sunday Morning.

The actress said there will almost always be a “deficit” somewhere, whether at work or at home—and over time, she’s learned to accept that not everything can be done perfectly.

“I’ve learned to be more kind to myself in that way. You can’t do all of these things all the time,” Johansson said. “There’s just like, ‘Is it good enough?’”

As Scarlett Johansson has taken on more roles in her life, including launching a skincare brand, raising two children (born in 2014 and 2021), and balancing a marriage—she said her definition of success has evolved. As a parent in particular, she said it means doing what’s right, even if it doesn’t always make her the “most popular.”

“Somebody once told me, ‘If you’re successful as a parent like 75% of the time, that’s good—if you’re doing 75% of it like right, then you’re winning, which is probably true,” Johansson said.

Scarlett Johansson grew up on food stamps—and now she’s one of the highest-paid Hollywood stars

Johansson was the fourth-highest paid actor in 2025, behind Adam Sandler, Tom Cruise, and Mark Wahlberg, according to Forbes. Her net worth is about $165 million, estimates Celebrity Net Worth. 

But growing up in Manhattan in a family of six, she has said money was often tight during her childhood. In a 2017 interview with Entertainment Tonight, she recalled her family relying on welfare and food stamps to get by.

By age nine, Johansson had already begun acting, landing her first role in the 1994 Rob Reiner-directed comedy, North. Her rise to stardom accelerated with films like Lost in Translation, Marriage Story, and a string of Marvel blockbusters culminating in the 2021 standalone film Black Widow.

Beyond acting, Johansson has also occasionally used her platform for public and political advocacy, including longstanding support for feminism and women’s rights, as well as canvassing against the reelection of President Donald Trump.

Her career has even pulled her into the center of debates around artificial intelligence. In 2024, Johansson publicly accused OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman of using a voice for the company’s chatbot that sounded strikingly similar to her own after she declined to participate in the project. 

Many top performers agree: work-life balance isn’t always possible

Johansson isn’t alone in questioning whether true work-life balance exists—even as it’s become a top motivator for job seekers. Many high achievers have echoed the same sentiment: succeeding at the highest level often comes with tradeoffs.

Emma Watson, best known for playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, said the intense demands of filmmaking made balance feel nearly unattainable as she grew up in the spotlight.

“I just used to completely sacrifice myself for whatever the thing was I was trying to achieve,” Watson said on the On Purpose podcast last year. 

“Making films, the hours on them are so demanding, that to have your own life alongside that, to have that balance is almost impossible.”

That same mentality extends beyond Hollywood. Emma Grede, the CEO of Good American and a founding partner of Skims, argued that extraordinary success inevitably requires extraordinary effort.

“If you are leading an extraordinary life, to think that extraordinary effort wouldn’t be coupled to that somehow is crazy,” Grede said on The Diary of a CEO podcast in 2025.

If it’s possible to have true work-life balance, she continued, “tell me who she is, and I’ll show you a liar.”

Even former President Barack Obama has admitted that having a balanced work and life will not always be possible.

Speaking on The Pivot Podcast last year, he said: “If you want to be excellent at anything—sports, music, business, politics—there’s going to be times of your life when you’re out of balance, where you’re just working and you’re single-minded.”

Are You Meeting the Needs of the People You Lead?

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The best leaders are not necessarily more charismatic or authentic. They are more attuned to what employees need, and when.

How to Invest in 2026: Don’t Fight the FED Money Printer!

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How to Invest in 2026: Don’t Fight the FED Money Printer!



How to invest NOW! Will the stock market keep going up in 2026? Where will bitcoin go? Will house prices come down soon? Gold and silver keep going up, will they continue to go up in 2026 or should I wait for the dip?
#fedratecut #stockmarket2026 #etfinvesting

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