The Plight of Hyped-Blockchain Canto Demonstrates Dreary DeFi Outlook

Send Time：2024-04-18 10:44:24

Reddit's Fortnite Token BRICK (BRICK) has surged 110% in the past 24 hours, bucking the wider cryptocurrency trend that saw bitcoin (BTC) fall back below $27,000 on Wednesday. The token, which was distributed to active members of the Fortnite subreddit, had lost over 80% of its value in the past two months before this recent rally. nnThe majority of trading volume occurred on Kraken, with the figure across all exchanges nearing $750,000, an 800% rise from the previous 24-hour period, according to CoinMarketCap. However, liquidity remains relatively thin across all exchanges, with 2% market depth on Kraken equating to around $2,500 on both the bid and ask side. nnThe sudden price increase has been attributed to a lack of clear catalyst, although it has been speculated that the recent rule change proposals on Reddit may have contributed to the rally. The token's performance has been closely watched by investors, with some speculating that it could be a sign of a potential revival of the Fortnite community. nnDespite the recent surge, the token's market capitalization is still relatively low, and the lack of liquidity in an asset that has experienced significant upside presents a risk to traders as price could cascade back down with minimal effort, potentially trapping those that bought the recent high. nnOverall, the sudden and unexplained rally in BRICK has caught the attention of investors and Reddit community members alike, and it remains to be seen if the token's performance will continue to defy the wider cryptocurrency trend.Cardano blockchain activity in the second quarter grew in both value locked and transactional metrics from the first quarter amid technical improvements and a rise in developer interest, a report by analytics firm Messari shows. While decentralized exchange Minswap showed the largest absolute growth, several new decentralized applications, or dapps, also contributed to the increase. The report, which was commissioned by Cardano developer Input Output, compared second-quarter developments against first-quarter figures. It noted that while transaction activity grew, the number of active daily users decreased 4% — the fourth drop in address activity in the past five quarters. 'The ratio of transactions to active addresses has been growing steadily over the past five quarters, suggesting that the average user is more active now than they previously were,' the report said. 'In Q2, the Transaction / Active Address ratio of 1.19 was up 6.1% QoQ and 13.2% YoY.' Blockchain load — a measure of how much data is contained in blocks over a certain period — rose to 50% from under 40% in the previous three months. It peaked at 81% in May. DeFiLlama data shows that $175 million worth of tokens are locked on Cardano as of Monday, the highest level for this year, but still about 50% below a lifetime peak of $340 million hit in May 2022. Such activity comes on the back of key Cardano upgrades since the start of this year. A change to reduce 'epoch' transitions and make the blockchain smoother for network users took effect in June. Epochs refer to the time periods on Cardano, with epoch lasting 432,000 slots and each slot being one second. ADA tokens are staked during these epochs during which new blocks on the Cardano network are produced, potentially increasing demand for the tokens as block rewards become more lucrative, based on activity. In March, a feature on Milkomeda, a network that connects blockchains to the Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM, began to allow Cardano blockchain users to gain access to EVM smart contracts with any cardano (ADA) wallet, expanding the ecosystem's usefulness. An Ethereum Virtual Machine is where all Ethereum accounts and smart contracts live, serving as a virtual computer used by developers to create dapps. The new feature will allow Ethereum application developers to build on Cardano’s network using Solidity — the computer language used to code Ethereum — without needing to install new toolkits or learn a new computer language. Such applications can then be used solely with Cardano tokens instead of ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum network, increasing the tokens' utility for holders.Some Aave version 2 (V2) users are temporarily unable to access their funds stuck on the decentralized exchange's deployment on the Polygon blockchain after a strategy containing a faulty bug went live last week. The issue is caused by a compatibility bug in the ReserveInterestRateStrategy contract, which is a core contract in Aave that helps calculate and apply interest rates to borrowed loans. The bug has affected tokens such as tether (USDT), bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and polygon (MATIC). However, a fix is already in place, and voting on the governance proposal is underway to update the faulty strategy. Other versions of Aave on Polygon continue to work smoothly as of Tuesday. AAVE tokens were up 2.7% in the past 24 hours, in line with a broader market jump.Dogecoin futures have set record highs after Twitter adopted the token's dog logo, with open interest reaching all-time highs. The surge in open interest suggests high amounts of leveraged bets on dogecoin, which could lead to steep volatility in the short term. The current move is unlikely to be sustained, as meme coin pumps may generally suggest bullishness amongst retailers but are not indicative of a long-term trend. The stablecoin-margined contracts are better suited to risk-averse traders and for hedging, while coin-margined contracts are preferred by aggressive traders during bull runs. Funding rates are periodic payments made by traders based on the difference between prices in the futures and spot markets, and participants utilize sophisticated strategies to collect funding rates while hedging losses due to token movements.Despite efforts by Solana developers to discourage spammy transactions, a majority of the network's compute is still being wasted on failed trades, according to an analysis by crypto infrastructure company Jito Labs. In one recent epoch, arbitrage transactions took up 60% of overall compute space, with 98% of attempts failing. The result is wasted blockspace and capital burnt on losing trades. The issue is attributed to Solana's infrastructure, which prioritizes the first submitted transaction, creating an incentive for arbitrage bots to submit multiple duplicate transactions. Recent changes to Solana's backend, including the introduction of priority fees and local fee markets, have not effectively addressed the issue. MEV (maximal extractable value) opportunities remain, and spam transactions will persist as long as they do. Jito Foundation is building a specialty client for the Solana network that optimizes for MEV.

Lybra Finance, a decentralized stablecoin protocol built on liquid staking derivatives, has seen its total value locked (TVL) skyrocket nearly 400% in the past two weeks, reaching nearly $100 million as of Friday. The protocol, which launched one month ago, leverages Lido Finance-issued ETH proof-of-stake and stETH as its primary components, with plans to support additional LSD assets in the future. The surge in TVL coincides with Lido upgrading to its second version on May 15, which enabled Lido users to unstake their stETH and receive ETH. The native token of the Lybra Protocol, LBR, has jumped 33.8% in the past 24 hours and 173% in the past seven days, standing at $2.23. Decentralized exchanges hold 9.61% of the total LBR supply, a steady decline from 23% two weeks ago, while smart money wallets hold 4.74% of the total LBR supply today, an increase from 0.82% on May 16. The growth of Lybra Finance highlights the increasing demand for decentralized stablecoins and the potential for liquid staking derivatives to provide a more stable and secure stablecoin experience.Ether and other alternative cryptocurrencies have surged in the past 24 hours, driven by positive sentiment around Ethereum staking-based protocols. The successful Shapella rollout on Ethereum has powered ether to 11-month highs above $2,120, heating up the 'alt season' narrative on Crypto Twitter.Governance tokens of liquid staking protocols such as Lido and Rocket Pool have seen outsized gains, with Lido's LDO and Rocket Pool's RPL surging as much as 14%. Lido's staked ether tokens (STETH) have climbed into the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization of $12 billion.Meanwhile, dogecoin (DOGE) gained for the second straight day, driven by speculations of potential adoption for use as payments on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform Twitter.Cardano's ADA also surged nearly 9% on fundamental growth in the network, such as wider support for decentralized application development.Some market observers expect the rally to continue over the next few weeks, driven by positive sentiment and deferred demand.However, some analysts warn that selling pressure is likely to increase in the coming weeks due to unlocking liquidity.Dogecoin's daily transaction volume has reached lifetime highs after the introduction of the DRC-20 token standard, which allows developers to issue tokens that take network fees in the form of dogecoin (DOGE). According to data from BitInfoCharts, the network saw over 645,000 transactions on Sunday, briefly crossing both Bitcoin and Litecoin transactions that day. This is a significant increase from the average daily transaction volume of around 20,000. The introduction of DRC-20 has added value to dogecoin and laid the path for potential decentralized finance (DeFi) services built on the blockchain. However, the token deployment has also attracted criticism, with some pointing out that it may lead to network congestion and that it moves away from dogecoin's aim of being used as an everyday currency. High fees and network congestion are valid concerns for any blockchain, as they may lead to the network becoming expensive and slow for everyday users, potentially damping adoption plans. Bitcoin's own 'Bitcoin Request for Comment' (BRC-20) standard went live in March, opening the floodgates to two-year high fees as a Bitcoin-based meme coin trading frenzy gained notoriety on the network.Decentralized-finance protocol 0VIX has lost roughly $2 million in a flash-loan exploit, according to on-chain data on Polygon's block explorer. A total of 1.45 million USDC, along with other tokens, was stolen before being bridged to the Ethereum mainnet on Stargate Finance, where it was eventually swapped for ether (ETH). The protocol had $6.4 million in total value locked before the exploit, which has now slumped to $1.7 million as investors rapidly withdrew their capital. This is the latest in a series of crypto exploits, with ZkSync-based decentralized exchange Merlin suffering a $2 million rug pull on Wednesday. 0VIX confirmed the attack on Twitter, stating that it is 'working with its security partners to look into the current situation.' Only POS has been currently affected, but zkEVM has been paused as a precaution and will likely be enabled shortly again. Read more: DEX Merlin and CertiK Plan to Compensate $2M to Users Impacted in Rug Pull.Ether and other alternative cryptocurrencies have surged in the past 24 hours, driven by positive sentiment around Ethereum staking-based protocols. The successful Shapella rollout on Ethereum has powered ether to 11-month highs above $2,120, heating up the 'alt season' narrative on Crypto Twitter.Governance tokens of liquid staking protocols such as Lido and Rocket Pool have seen outsized gains, with Lido's LDO and Rocket Pool's RPL surging as much as 14%. Lido's staked ether tokens (STETH) have climbed into the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization of $12 billion.Meanwhile, dogecoin (DOGE) gained for the second straight day, driven by speculations of potential adoption for use as payments on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform Twitter.Cardano's ADA also surged nearly 9% on fundamental growth in the network, such as wider support for decentralized application development.Some market observers expect the rally to continue over the next few weeks, driven by positive sentiment and deferred demand.However, some analysts warn that selling pressure is likely to increase in the coming weeks due to unlocking liquidity.

Meme coins have outperformed the broader crypto markets in recent days, but some say profit-taking could reverse the rally. Tokens fashioned after the Shiba Inu dog breed may see imminent selling ahead after days of outperforming the broader crypto market. On Monday, Twitter, a social-media company owned by billionaire and crypto proponent Elon Musk, replaced its popular blue bird logo with that of Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu mascot. Dogecoin (DOGE) prices surged almost immediately – with its futures markets setting a record – as some bet on the increased use of dogecoin on Twitter's platform. That rise caused several other Shiba Inu-themed meme coins to jump multifold, with the sector rising 14% on average. Tokens with larger market caps such as shiba inu (SHIB) rose up to 10%, while smaller-cap coins such as floki (FLOKI), kishu inu (KISHU) and baby dogecoin (BABYDOGE) surged as much as 25%. Meme coins on newer blockchains had their moment, as well. Some dog-themed tokens, such as zkDoge and zkShib on the zkSync blockchain, which went live in March, registered gains of as much as 100%. However, some traders warn that such moves don't indicate a broader trend. 'We do not believe that it is indicative of a long-term bull run. Quite the opposite', Guilhem Chaumont, CEO of crypto trading firm Flowdesk, said in a Telegram message. 'There is a regular pattern of crypto market uptrends with first, bitcoin going through a bull run, then major altcoins pumping, and finally, tokens with small market caps.' Since bitcoin has been experiencing a relatively stable upward trend, meme coins’ rise would indicate the third phase, the end of the cycle. But there is no need to over-interpret such momentary price changes. The sentiment for meme coins is not a new one, and this means there is a high potential that the growth will fade off as usual in a few days, Bonnie Cheung, head of strategy at crypto developer Sending Labs, said. However, there could still be long-term growth for these tokens if fundamental features strengthen in the coming months. Shiba Inu, for instance, is gaining additional traction through the launch of Shibarium, its layer-2 protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain. Dogecoin’s recognition by Twitter and the payment world is also growing, and these trends can help record more sustained growth over the long term. A testnet for Shiba Inu’s upcoming Shibarium platform has seen brisk adoption. Elsewhere, projects like Floki are actively developing games and decentralized-finance tools to cut free from the 'meme coin' tag – at least as far as developer efforts go. Meanwhile, some opine that Twitter’s move could pave the way for mainstream crypto adoption. 'Musk’s supportive tweets and the recent decision to add the Dogecoin logo to Twitter help keep both DOGE and SHIB in the public conversation', Kadan Stadelmann, the chief technology officer of blockchain network Komodo, said in an email to CoinDesk. 'Regardless of whether or not one supports meme coins, it's impossible to deny that Musk is driving mainstream adoption of crypto and creating media attention that wouldn't otherwise exist. This is certainly a net positive for the crypto space as a whole.'The rise of Bitcoin-based meme coins has led to a surge in demand for block space on the Bitcoin network, resulting in a significant increase in transaction fees. According to data from Dune Analytics, the number of non-fungible tokens (NFT) tied to the Bitcoin blockchain has surged above 3 million, with over 11,000 tokens issued and traded on the network. The Ordinals protocol, which allows users to embed data into the Bitcoin blockchain, has been a major driver of this growth. The BRC-20 token standard has also spurred the creation of digital artwork and meme tokens built on Bitcoin. However, the rapid transactional activity has caused network congestion, leading to brief problems at crypto exchanges such as Binance. Despite this, on-chain data shows that there are nearly 415,000 unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions at writing time, which is higher than anything seen during the bull runs of 2018 and 2021. Some analysts consider the rapid transactional activity as a sign of network adoption, which adds to Bitcoin's fundamental narrative. The average transaction fee on the Bitcoin network was hovering at just under $20 during European hours on Monday, a bump from last week's average $1.20 level. Such levels were previously seen in May 2021, when bitcoin prices set a then-record peak of $60,000.GMX, the most popular decentralized exchange on the Arbitrum layer 2 network, has launched version 2 of its trading platform, offering liquidity pools for riskier assets at lower fees. The new version expands the list of tradable assets to include alternative currencies such as dogecoin (DOGE) and offers annualized yields of up to 47%.nnThe initial model of GMX version 2 went live Thursday, attracting over $1.2 million for its liquidity pools in a muted launch. The platform allows users to trade spot and perpetual futures through an on-chain interface at low fees, with part of its recent popularity attributed to the rise of the Ethereum-based Arbitrum. nnThe new version of GMX will exist alongside the current platform, offering traders a service for betting on price movements of major tokens using leverage. Liquidity on V2 is provided through individual GMX Market, or GM, pools, with liquidity providers rewarded with a cut of fees earned from services such as leverage trading, borrowing, and swaps. nnInitial GM pools include solana (SOL), xrp (XRP), litecoin (LTC), dogecoin, and arbitrum (ARB) on the Arbitrum network, alongside SOL, XRP, LTC, and DOGE on the Avalanche network. A GM pool comprises long tokens, which back positions betting on higher prices, a short token, which bets on lower prices, and an index pool token. nnAs of Friday, GM pools for DOGE are paying out as much as 45% annualized, while the solana pool is paying 47%. The rates are subject to change. nnThe introduction of V2 could help GMX's prospects among traders in an increasingly competitive market. Ultimately, attractive rewards and increased revenues could drive value to GMX's namesake governance tokens (GMX). nnGMX locks up over $447 million on Arbitrum and $74 million on the Avalanche network, data from DefiLlama shows. The platform has traded over $117 billion worth of tokens and generated $184 million in fees for its Arbitrum users alone, data shows.The Mantle community has approved the creation of an economics committee to manage the layer 2 blockchain's $4.2 billion treasury. The committee will decide how to allocate the majority of the treasury, which is in the form of MNT, the governance token for Mantle. The governance proposal also authorizes Mantle LSD and an ether (ETH) staking strategy in collaboration with Lido. The allocation of 40,000 ETH from Mantle's treasury to stETH is aimed at boosting DEX liquidity and integrations across Mantle. The Mantle treasury currently holds over 264,000 ETH. The new governing body is expected to bring more liquidity into the ecosystem and further establish Mantle as a major player in the layer 2 space.Arbitrum-based asset management protocol FactorDAO has released its much-awaited staking service, days after ending a token sale on the decentralized exchange Camelot. The move comes as the project faces rumors on Crypto Twitter alleging that part of its code was 'copied' from other crypto projects. nnFactorDAO's pseudonymous founder Kurapika has hit back on the claims, telling CoinDesk that the allegations were started by an anonymous Crypto Twitter user referring to minor documentation mistakes accidentally left in Factor's technical documents. The project's code is brand-new, and the team is not sure what 'copied code' means in an open-source environment. nnDespite the tremors, Factor has focused on releasing its staking and vaults services for users in the past week. Staking refers to locking up one's tokens to participate and help maintain the security of that network's blockchain in turn for rewards. Factor will take a percentage of the deposit, withdrawal, transaction, vault management, and performance fees and redistributes 50% to FCTR stakers, and 50% to its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). nnFCTR stakers will, therefore, earn yields on staking their tokens as liquidity to the platform while the platform will use the increased liquidity to offer even more products to potential users. Users who lock tokens for up to four years will receive the highest yields, the highest percentage of governance rights, and a higher amount of vested factor (veFCTR) – a token issued to users who lock their FCTR on the staking platform. nnFCTR sees volatile trading last week, with the token launch on Camelot prompting several Arbitrum users to criticize the initial high market capitalization and overall issuance mechanism. Factor ended up raising $7.5 million from 4,000 unique wallets, but the final pool of money raised was equally distributed with the total number of issued tokens to determine the initial price of FCTR in the open market. However, these tokens were almost immediately dumped on the open market on Sunday, falling to as low as 44 cents, DEXTools data shows. Buying pressure after the initial dump saw tokens regain the pre-sale price of 75 cents on Monday morning, but have since seen a gradual sell-off to just over 58 cents at writing time on Tuesday. nnUPDATE (Feb.28, 12:11 UTC): Adds comments from Factor founder and clarifies the rumors.

Layer-2 blockchain Optimism is set to unlock $36 million worth of tokens on Sunday, with the anticipated increase in supply spurring a 3.5% slump in the price of the blockchain's native OP token on Tuesday. The previous token unlock on June 30 resulted in a 10.7% sell-off across all OP trading pairs, although the token rebounded by more than 15% over the following 24 hours. The unlock equates to 3.56% of optimism's circulating supply, with $19 million being allocated to core contributors and $17 million to investors. The token has marked a 67% gain since the turn of the year following a series of integrations with the likes of Worldcoin and Coinbase's Base protocol. Optimism is currently trading at $1.50 with a market cap of over $1 billion. Circulating supply remains at just 16% as token unlocks are scheduled incrementally until August, 2027.The Klaytn Foundation has proposed burning 5.28 billion KLAY tokens, representing approximately 48% of the total token supply, to help optimize tokenomics and develop the Klaytn blockchain into a sustainable decentralized network. The proposal includes short-term tokenomics improvements, such as enhancing transparency in information disclosures and modifying the management structure of ecosystem resources. The Foundation aims to increase KLAY demand by collaborating with major portfolio projects, fostering services within the Klaytn ecosystem, and investing in high-growth potential projects. The proposal will be voted on by the Governance Council from Feb. 22 to Feb. 28. Over 75 million KLAY has been burned to date through strategic buybacks and the burning of gas fees. Currently, around 3.073 billion KLAY is in circulation.The Klaytn Foundation has proposed burning 5.28 billion KLAY tokens, representing approximately 48% of the total token supply, to help optimize tokenomics and develop the Klaytn blockchain into a sustainable decentralized network. The proposal includes short-term tokenomics improvements, such as enhancing transparency in information disclosures and modifying the management structure of ecosystem resources. The Foundation aims to increase KLAY demand by collaborating with major portfolio projects, fostering services within the Klaytn ecosystem, and investing in high-growth potential projects. The proposal will be voted on by the Governance Council from Feb. 22 to Feb. 28. Over 75 million KLAY has been burned to date through strategic buybacks and the burning of gas fees. Currently, around 3.073 billion KLAY is in circulation.Community members are vying for a new model to bolster revenue and sustain a peg to the U.S. dollar for Terra Classic, the original network created by Terraform Labs. The proposed model relies on token buybacks, unidirectional swaps, staking, and an 'algorithmic peg divergence fee' to address the issues with the original design. The fees retained by the protocol would be used to buy back USTC and maintain the peg, and a USTC staking tool is proposed to drive capital to the token and increase its price appreciation. The community believes that a fully-decentralized token is necessary to create a decentralized economy, and hopes to bring the project back to its glory days despite its previous implosion. Edited by Stephen Alpher.Some LUNC token holders remain committed to a Terra ecosystem revival. Six engineers calling themselves the 'Six Samurai' are proposing a Terra Classic ecosystem revival plan for the blockchain as some community members try their best to break away from the shackles of disgraced founder Do Kwon and rebuild the project. Terra Classic is the original network created by Terraform Labs and has continued as an independent blockchain rather than Terra 2.0, which is a forked version that was created in the wake of Terra's collapse. Its LUNC tokens are valued at $580 million as of Monday. The engineers, co-led by 'Bilbo Baggins' and 'Solid Snake,' proposed a $116,000 three-month spend from the Terra Classic community in a governance proposal over the weekend, claiming they would work part-time on the project if approved. The proposal includes tasks such as upgrades to the network to reduce the syncing time between nodes, a terraUSD (USTC) testnet for testing financial services, an application for generating yield to token holders, and a plan to reward developers for the user activity that their applications generate. These efforts aim to eventually drive value to the Terra Classic ecosystem and, hopefully, an increase in LUNC value over time. The Six Samurai is among the few community members set on Terra Classic's revival to save the once-storied ecosystem. In discussions that started in mid-April, community member 'RedlineDrifter' described a new model for Terra Classic's UST stablecoin that relied on token buybacks, unidirectional swaps, staking, and an 'algorithmic peg divergence fee' to address the issues with the original design. UST was the token at the center of Terra's collapse that led to a 99.9% drop in LUNA token prices, a $28 billion hemorrhage in Terra-based DeFi applications, and an eventual spiral to crypto funds going bust.

Shiba Inu Plans Public Restart of Shibarium Network After Botched Launch

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ZkSync-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Merlin plans to compensate users impacted in a nearly $2 million rug pull with blockchain audit firm CertiK. A representative for CertiK told CoinDesk that the company is actively investigating the recent Merlin DEX exit scam, where rogue developers are suspected of causing the loss of around $2 million in user funds. Working closely with the remaining Merlin team, CertiK will initiate a compensation plan to cover the lost funds for affected users. Initial investigations indicate that the rogue developers are based in Europe, and CertiK will collaborate with law enforcement authorities to track them down if direct negotiation is unsuccessful. The rogue developer is urged to return 80% of the stolen funds and accept a 20% white-hat bounty. Merlin was seemingly exploited for over $1.8 million on Wednesday morning during a public sale of its mage (MAGE) tokens. The attack occurred despite Merlin touting an audit conducted by blockchain security firm CertiK. Further analysis by firms and analysts alleged the attack was conducted by a rogue developer who held private keys to Merlin's smart contracts - allowing them to withdraw all liquidity from the protocol.The metaverse market is bouncing back ahead of Apple's release as trading volume on related tokens spikes to $905 million. Cryptocurrency's virtual reality (VR) sector has surged by more than 7.9% over the past 24 hours according to CryptoSlate data, as investors anticipate Apple's (AAPL) big VR headset reveal on Monday. Hailed as Apple's first major product release in a decade, the tech giant's share price has risen by 7.4% in the past two weeks, a trend that has been matched by virtual reality and metaverse crypto tokens today. UnmuteALTAVA CMO on Bridging Fashion and Technology00:54Why Prada Is at the Forefront of Digital Fashion and Metaverse16:36What Will The Metaverse Look Like in the Future?01:22The Sandbox Wants to Make India Its Largest Market Within the Next Two Years11:34Saudi Arabia's NEOM Is Working to Build the 'City of the Future' With Blockchain, Web3: Yat SiuDecentraland (MANA) is considered the largest VR-related token with a market cap just shy of $1 billion, and is up by 5.4% over the past 24 hours despite the wider crypto market shedding 1.5% of its value over the same time period, according to CoinGecko. Five-dimensional metaverse project Wilder World (WILD) is the sector's top gainer for the day, soaring by 18.8% over the past 24 hours to cap a 119% gain over the past 30 days. Goldman Sachs noted in a research report last year Apple is one of two companies leading the way in virtual and augmented reality. The tech giant is expected to mass release a mixed reality headset in Q4 of this year, according to a recent Morgan Stanley investor note. The wider metaverse sector has suffered during the crypto winter, with several assets falling more than 80% from their all-time highs. However, the recent bounce indicates that the tide may be shifting. A total of $905 million in trading volume has been exercised on metaverse tokens over the past 24 hours, with the group's overall market cap rising to $8.65 billion, according to CoinGecko. Edited by Nelson Wang.

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GoldenTree Asset Management has moved the majority of its SUSHI token holdings, sparking fears in the Sushi community that it is exiting its position. At press time, GoldenTree's crypto wallet held just $1 million in SUSHI tokens, a precipitous drop from its nearly $7 million in exposure earlier this week. The move comes as Sushi, a decentralized exchange for trading cryptocurrencies on the Ethereum blockchain, faces fresh scrutiny from U.S. regulators. SUSHI is the governance token for Sushi DAO and gives its holders a voice in how the exchange operates. It was trading at $1.22 immediately before Tuesday's news but has fallen 11% in the days since and was around $1.08 at press time, according to CoinGecko. A GoldenTree employee who goes by MarkOKW, who last October announced the firm's SUSHI investment, didn't immediately comment. Grey declined to comment on GoldenTree's SUSHI position. On-chain activity reveals how GoldenTree has shuffled its holding in recent days. The asset manager started the week with xSUSHI tokens worth over $7 million. Then on Wednesday, it swapped 4.4 million of those tokens for 5.95 million SUSHI tokens that it had staked with Sushi. CoinDesk identified the wallets using Nansen. On Wednesday night and Thursday morning, it sent two batches of tokens valued at $5.4 million total to an address controlled by crypto trading desk Cumberland. Cumberland sent the first half to a Binance deposit address Wednesday night; the other half hadn't moved out of Cumberland's wallet at press time. Members of SUSHI's Discord server speculated the on-chain activity indicated GoldenTree had already sold its position.ZkSync-based decentralized exchange (DEX) Merlin plans to compensate users impacted in a nearly $2 million rug pull with blockchain audit firm CertiK. A representative for CertiK told CoinDesk that the company is actively investigating the recent Merlin DEX exit scam, where rogue developers are suspected of causing the loss of around $2 million in user funds. Working closely with the remaining Merlin team, CertiK will initiate a compensation plan to cover the lost funds for affected users. Initial investigations indicate that the rogue developers are based in Europe, and CertiK will collaborate with law enforcement authorities to track them down if direct negotiation is unsuccessful. The rogue developer is urged to return 80% of the stolen funds and accept a 20% white-hat bounty. Merlin was seemingly exploited for over $1.8 million on Wednesday morning during a public sale of its mage (MAGE) tokens. The attack occurred despite Merlin touting an audit conducted by blockchain security firm CertiK. Further analysis by firms and analysts alleged the attack was conducted by a rogue developer who held private keys to Merlin's smart contracts - allowing them to withdraw all liquidity from the protocol.

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GMX, the most popular decentralized exchange on the Arbitrum layer 2 network, has launched version 2 of its trading platform, offering liquidity pools for riskier assets at lower fees. The new version expands the list of tradable assets to include alternative currencies such as dogecoin (DOGE) and offers annualized yields of up to 47%.nnThe initial model of GMX version 2 went live Thursday, attracting over $1.2 million for its liquidity pools in a muted launch. The platform allows users to trade spot and perpetual futures through an on-chain interface at low fees, with part of its recent popularity attributed to the rise of the Ethereum-based Arbitrum. nnThe new version of GMX will exist alongside the current platform, offering traders a service for betting on price movements of major tokens using leverage. Liquidity on V2 is provided through individual GMX Market, or GM, pools, with liquidity providers rewarded with a cut of fees earned from services such as leverage trading, borrowing, and swaps. nnInitial GM pools include solana (SOL), xrp (XRP), litecoin (LTC), dogecoin, and arbitrum (ARB) on the Arbitrum network, alongside SOL, XRP, LTC, and DOGE on the Avalanche network. A GM pool comprises long tokens, which back positions betting on higher prices, a short token, which bets on lower prices, and an index pool token. nnAs of Friday, GM pools for DOGE are paying out as much as 45% annualized, while the solana pool is paying 47%. The rates are subject to change. nnThe introduction of V2 could help GMX's prospects among traders in an increasingly competitive market. Ultimately, attractive rewards and increased revenues could drive value to GMX's namesake governance tokens (GMX). nnGMX locks up over $447 million on Arbitrum and $74 million on the Avalanche network, data from DefiLlama shows. The platform has traded over $117 billion worth of tokens and generated $184 million in fees for its Arbitrum users alone, data shows.Cryptocurrency casino Stake appears to have been targeted by a exploit, with on-chain analyst Cyvers reporting that $16 million has been withdrawn on the Ethereum network following a 'private key leak.' Blockchain sleuth ZachXBT backed up Cyvers' claim, stating that $15.7 million had been drained on Ethereum and another $25.6 million had been lost across Polygon and the Binance Smart Chain. The stolen funds have been converted to ether (ETH) and transferred to several externally owned wallets, Cyvers said. The Stake wallet that was targeted still holds $340,000 worth of ETH and $2.1 million in various altcoins, Etherscan data shows. Withdrawals from the wallet appear to have been paused, which is also a claim made by several users on Twitter. Stake is an Australian casino and sportsbook that allows users to deposit and play with cryptocurrencies. It made $2.6 billion in revenue in 2022, according to a Financial Times report. Stake did not immediately respond to CoinDesk's request for comment.