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The Multichain team has confirmed an exploit that impacted $130 million in user-supplied tokens, cautioning users against using its service. The exploit affected bridges on blockchain networks Fantom, Moonriver and Dogechain, with stolen tokens not yet sent to exchanges or mixing services. Fantom (FTM) and Moonriver's (MOVR) tokens have dropped 9.9% and 13%, respectively, while Dogechain (DC) tokens fell 10%. The Multichain service has been stopped and all bridge transactions are stuck on the source chains. Users are advised to suspend use of Multichain services and revoke contract approvals related to Multichain.The total value of all assets locked on decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols has surged to a three-month high of $42 billion after being at its lowest point since February 2021 just two weeks ago, according to DefiLlama data. The resurgence of the DeFi market is based on two factors: rising asset prices and fresh inflows from participants that aim to generate a yield through staking and lending. nnEther (ETH), the asset that underpins the majority of the DeFi market, has rallied from $1,590 to $1,810 over the past two weeks, while the likes of lido (LDO) and aave (AAVE) have posted 25% and 34% moves to the upside respectively. Transactional volume across DeFi protocols rose to its highest point since March, with $4.4 billion recorded on Oct. 24, according to DefiLlama. nnSolana's most extensive lending protocol, Marinade, experienced a 120% jump in total value locked (TVL) this month following the release of its native staking product, which offers yields of 8.15% APY to complement its 7.7% rate on liquid staking. Marinade's rival protocol, Jito, has risen by 190% to $168 million in TVL in the same period. On Ethereum, meanwhile, the amount of capital on Enzyme Finance, Spark and Stader have all risen by between 37% and 55%, outpacing the rise in asset prices to illustrate fresh inflows. nnRecently released layer one blockchains Sui and Aptos have also experienced positive growth this month, TVL on Sui has jumped from $34 million to $75 million. Aptos has been spurred by increased activity on lending platform Thala, with its overall TVL also hitting the $75 million mark this month. nnDespite a fruitful month, risks remain across the DeFi sector, as even the slightest slide in the price of ETH would trigger notable on-chain liquidations. Currently, there is a $76.2 million position on Aave that will be liquidated if ETH crosses $1,777, with over $100 million set to be liquidated if the price falls by 20%.Bitcoin's recent strength pushes the asset over the $30,000 mark for the first time since June 2022, causing heavy losses to traders betting on a decline. Over 87% of all future trades that were liquidated in the past 24 hours were short, amounting to losses of over $145 million. Crypto exchange Huobi had the largest liquidation order, a bitcoin/tether trade valued at $11 million. The recent strength in bitcoin can be attributed to worsening economic conditions, leading investors to shift their capital into the decentralized asset. Bitcoin's ongoing strength suggests that it is emerging from the 'crypto winter' into a new phase of strength and renewed interest from retail and institutional investors.Rocket Pool, a decentralized Ethereum-based staking service, experienced the largest daily redemption of its rocketpool ether (rETH) token this week, with one trader redeeming $12.3 million worth of the token before sending it to Binance. rETH is an ERC-20 token that traders receive in exchange for depositing ether (ETH) into Rocket Pool's staking protocol. Instead of requiring a 32 ether deposit to become a validator, Rocket Pool allows traders to stake in fractions. The trader reportedly sent the ether to Binance after redeeming staked ether on Rocket Pool. Rocket Pool currently has $1.88 billion in total value locked (TVL), making it the second largest liquid staking protocol after Lido, according to DefiLlama. Traders stake ether on Rocket Pool to receive a yield, which is currently at 3.64% APR for regular staking and 8.62% for staking 8 ether. Redemptions occur when a trader is looking to either free up liquidity or secure a better yield elsewhere. Binance's ether staking portal currently offers around 4.07% APR. Rocket Pool's native token (RPL) has endured a slight correction this month, falling by more than 25% from $38.51 to $30 since the turn of the month.GMX, the largest protocol on Arbitrum, has announced its integration with Chainlink's low-latency pricing oracles to enhance its derivatives and perpetual swap exchange. The move marks a shift towards low-latency trading in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, as trading firms and hedge funds require faster platforms to execute sophisticated trading strategies without delays. The integration follows a community vote, with over 96% of votes approving the integration and 2 million GMX tokens being used to vote. The low-latency oracles will help mitigate the risks of front-running and bring the industry one step closer to the performance level currently existing outside of it. GMX contributors have been working with Chainlink Labs since last year on the specifications of the new oracles. The total value locked (TVL) on Arbitrum is at $2.1 billion, with $567 million of that value from GMX, according to DefiLlama data. The surge in GMX's native token has seen a 78% increase since the turn of the year, as capital continues to flow to Arbitrum-based protocols.

Hector Network's community is debating whether to adopt a more centralized structure, HIP 40, which would include a management board, directors, and supervisors. The proposal is met with skepticism from some HEC token holders who fear it would dilute their influence over the DAO. The lawyer behind the proposal, Dali, argues that a professional organization with expertise in specific areas is needed for the DAO to succeed. However, some critics view the plan as antithetical to the decentralized, democratic principles of DAOs. The debate highlights the challenges DAOs face in balancing decentralization with the need for professionalism and expertise to compete with centralized corporations.Cross-chain router protocol Multichain has been exploited for nearly $130 million after an attacker siphoned capital out of numerous token bridges. The lockup assets on the Multichain MPC address have been moved to an unknown address abnormally, with the team not sure what happened and currently investigating. It is recommended that all users suspend the use of Multichain services and revoke all contract approvals related to Multichain. The unexpected outflows stripped Multichain’s Fantom bridge of nearly its entire holdings in wBTC, USDC, USDT and a handful of altcoins, worth over $130 million. On-chain sleuths described the activity as highly unusual, with Fantom Foundation CEO Michael Kong looking into it. Multichain has been under pressure for over a month due to failing tech and its AWOL CEO. The trio of unexplained outflows from Multichain’s Fantom, Moonriver and Dogecoin bridge contracts sparked fears on crypto Twitter that a hack could be afoot. Binance CEO Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao said that the exploit does not affect users on Binance itself, with assets swapped out and deposits closed a while back. Assets transferred out of the Multichain Fantom bridge include at least $20 million of altcoins going to 0x9d57, with other transfers seeing outbound moves of 1,023 wBTC ($30.9 million), 7,214 wETH ($13.6 million), and $57 million USDC between two separate addresses. Multichain’s Moonriver bridge contract has seen $6.8 million in token outflows with nearly all its wBTC, USDT, USDC and DAI going to 0x48BeAD. An address identified as Mulitchain’s Dogecoin bridge has seen over $600,000 in outflows of USDC. UPDATE (July 7, 2023, 09:17 UTC): Updates headline and adds context on the exploit throughout.Crypto markets are looking to recapture momentum following a down week, with trading volume increasing for both bitcoin and ether but trailing their 20-day moving averages. The CoinDesk Bitcoin Trend Indicator has signaled neutral again, and investors will be watching to see if both assets can recapture their average. Volume will be key to watch, as the sentiment behind any directional move will be amplified or muted by the level of trading volume. The steady decline in trading volume for the two assets implies a reluctance for new market participants to take on risk, and existing market participants to add more. The relative strength index (RSI) readings for both are nestled in a neutral range, with bitcoin's at 44.17 and ether's at 46.25. The RSI indicator ranges from 0 to 100, and is often used as a proxy for momentum; readings above 70 imply that an asset may be overbought, while readings below 30 indicate that an asset may be oversold. Since 2015, BTC and ETH's 30-day performance following similar RSI readings has been relatively mild, with bitcoin historically finishing 4.1% higher, and ETH finishing 2% lower. Absent an external catalyst, investors may read the direction of stablecoins as an indication of where prices are going next. The stablecoin supply ratio (SSR) is a bitcoin-specific metric, measuring BTC's market cap versus the market cap of a basket of stablecoins. Lower volumes indicate greater buying power while higher values indicate the opposite. In this regard, the 11% decline in the SSR since May 5, implies that additional buying strength exists within BTC markets. The aggregate supply of stablecoins on exchanges measures the total supply of stablecoins held on exchange addresses. Increases in aggregate supply are an indication of additional capital available for deployment across all cryptocurrencies. Stablecoin exchange balance is down 47% year to date, despite BTC and ETH trading 65% and 53% higher on the year. An increase in stablecoins supplied to exchanges however, could serve as a signal that prices are poised to move higher.Two major Ethereum network upgrades expected to occur simultaneously on April 12 will allow investors to withdraw their ether staked on the Ethereum blockchain. Analysts from traditional banks remain mixed on the market impact of ether (ETH) after the much-awaited Shanghai upgrade later Wednesday. An on-chain report from Glassnode estimates at least $300 million worth of selling pressure. The estimate was made based on a 50% withdrawal credential update, segmentation of depositors, and assumptions regarding investor conviction and profitability. Bulls may have little reason to fear as the selling pressure is likely to be absorbed quickly and have a smaller overall impact on ether prices. Even in the extreme case where the maximum amount of rewards and stake are withdrawn and sold, the sell-side volume still falls within the range of the average weekly exchange inflow volume. If you add potential additional selling from staked ether balances that belong to troubled entities, then the selling pressure may be larger in the coming weeks. Glassnode noted as many as 1,229 validators have already signed a voluntary exit message to signal their wish to unstake tokens after the Shapella upgrade. Banks such as JPMorgan (JPM) say ether will likely face some selling pressure from the upgrade as more than one million ether staking rewards become instantly available this week. The bank expects ether to underperform bitcoin (BTC) over the next few weeks.Some scammers are trying to defraud unsuspecting users by issuing fake PayPal USD (PYUSD) tokens on various blockchains, capitalizing on PayPal's recently launched dollar-pegged stablecoin. Over 66 fake tokens have propped up on networks such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base, and others as of Asian noon hours on Tuesday, according to DEXTools data. The majority of these have been floated on Ethereum, where the original PYUSD exists. The scammers are issuing these tokens, naming them 'PYUSD,' adding liquidity with ether or another token, and offering them to users on decentralized exchanges. This is possible as anyone can call a smart contract and issue tokens on Ethereum (or other blockchains) for a few cents, and the presence of decentralized exchanges means tokens can instantly be issued, supplied with liquidity, and traded soon after. Most of the supply of these tokens are likely purchased by their creators after issuance, giving the illusion of a trendy token while being a honeypot in reality. The hustle may yield a few thousand dollars in a few hours for such developers, making it a profitable, albeit wholly unethical, venture. However, some developers may pull all liquidity from the fake tokens hours after issuance, causing prices to drop 100% and leaving speculators holding digital dust. It's important for users to be cautious and not fall for these scams, as they can result in financial losses and damage to one's reputation.

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.Investing and trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) holds over $3 billion in bitcoin (BTC) in a single wallet, according to wallet data from Arkham Intelligence. This makes it the third-largest bitcoin holder behind crypto exchanges Binance and Bitfinex. The wallet, which was previously unknown, sparked speculations about its ownership, with some suggesting it could belong to financial behemoth BlackRock or crypto exchange Gemini. Robinhood transferred 118,300 bitcoin to the wallet from several other smaller wallets over a three-month period. The firm has not publicly commented on these holdings, but the transfers have shed light on the extent of Robinhood's bitcoin exposure despite low crypto trading volumes on its platform. Robinhood reported crypto trading revenue of just $31 million in the second quarter, down 18% from the previous quarter. The figures were 16% of the $193 million in trading revenue across all categories, which saw a 7% sequential decline. All of these holdings are held on the Bitcoin blockchain, with the first transactions made on March 8 and huge amounts of bitcoin transferred until July 14, according to data from BitInfoCharts.A meme coin frenzy has ensued on Coinbase's layer 2 blockchain, despite the network being closed to the public and lacking a two-way token bridge. The lack of a decentralized exchange (DEX) experience has not deterred crypto traders from finding their way to Coinbase's layer 2 blockchain in the hopes of unearthing a fortune. Base, built by crypto exchange Coinbase on OP Stack, launched its testnet in January and opened to builders in mid-July, but traction was scant until recently. Crypto Twitter user @cheatcoiner seemed to first tweet about meme coin bald (BALD) on Base network, stating they picked up 2% of the supply. The use of cbETH quickly gave rise to speculation among crypto trading circles about the token likely being created by someone at Coinbase. What followed was a bull market speedrun: In less than six hours, bald tokens amassed a $50 million market capitalization as their popularity picked up among trading circles. It ran up to $85 million capitalization late on Sunday, netting @cheatcoiner over $1.4 million from an initial $500 investment. From issuance to peak, the price rise was a 4,000,000% surge. BALD market liquidity quickly piled on as the developer of bald tokens kept adding more ether to a liquidity pool that traded bald against ether. As of Monday, the trading pair holds over $32 million in liquidity and has surpassed $100 million in volumes. As such, @Cheatcoiner wasn’t the only lottery winner. Blockchain sleuth Lookonchain said Monday that four crypto wallet addresses transferred a cumulative 0.534 ether, or just over $1,000, to buy 50 million BALD within 4 minutes of the token’s issuance. These addresses – likely insider wallets connected to the developer – sold 37 million $BALD for 554 ether as trading volumes picked up, netting $1 million in less than a day. How much of these gains make their way out of Base remains to be seen, however. As of Monday, there is only a one-directional way to move funds over to Base from Ethereum, with no official support for the other way.A bug in a token issued by decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Yearn Finance was exploited this morning, leading to millions of dollars in losses. The exploit occurred on Aave version 1, and the losses could total over $11 million, with the stolen assets being spread over U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins dai (DAI), tether (USDT), USD coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD), and tru USD (TUSD).nnAccording to security firm PeckShield, the exploit was caused by a misconfigured yUSDT token, which allowed the attacker to mint over 1.2 quadrillion yUSDT using a $10,000 initial deposit. This was then used to trick the Yearn Finance protocol into cashing out millions in stablecoins. nnAave developers have clarified that the protocol was not directly impacted and that the exploit was mainly due to the misconfigured yUSDT token. The current size of v1 is $18 million, and the current size of the Aave safety module is $382.50M. Version 2 and version 3 of Aave were not impacted at writing time. nnThe exploit is the latest in a series of high-profile hacks and exploits in the cryptocurrency space, with over $67 million in crypto lost to hacks and exploits in February alone, according to a report by Immunefi. nnThe incident highlights the risks associated with decentralized finance and the importance of proper security measures to protect against exploits and hacks. It also underscores the need for ongoing monitoring and updates to ensure the security of DeFi protocols and their users.Hector Network, a Fantom-based protocol and OlympusDAO fork, is considering a legal wrapper to shield its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) from regulatory scrutiny. The proposal, known as Hector Improvement Proposal 40 (HIP 40), would establish a new legal structure for the DAO, rooted in the Cayman Islands, to administer treasury and voting, and own DAO assets. However, this move has sparked criticism from the community, as it would allegedly undercut their powers and give broad powers to employees of Hector Network. The future of Hector Network is in flux, as leaders hold a vote on the plan, which ends on May 20. Other DAOs, such as SushiSwap, have also endeavored to change their legal formation in response to growing regulatory scrutiny of decentralized crypto projects. The proposal has ignited a heated debate within the Hector Network community, with some arguing that it would dilute their powers over the entity and give too much control to employees. The setup would ensure Hector’s own employees would have final say over all proposals considered by the DAO. The only non-employee, the pseudonymous Sonoro, is currently the chief of a group of “oracles,” community members who currently have the power to write HIPs but under the new setup have the right to review and comment on proposals. Lazer, a pseudonymous member of Hector’s oracle committee, said HIP 40 would give Hector “team complete power over the composition of their so-called ‘oracle group’ and therefore unilateral power to propose HIPs and further distance the community from governance.” Zeus, the pseudonymous operational lead of Hector, did not immediately comment on the setup of the steering committee. In a private message on Discord, he said “nothing will change to the token holders’ governance btw, it's just more legal protection in corporations, taxes, and possible regulatories.” Zeus said a community AMA will occur in the coming days. The proposal has sparked a heated debate within the Hector Network community, with some arguing that it would dilute their powers over the entity and give too much control to employees. The future of Hector Network is uncertain, as leaders hold a vote on the plan, which ends on May 20. Other DAOs, such as SushiSwap, have also endeavored to change their legal formation in response to growing regulatory scrutiny of decentralized crypto projects.

The price of LQTY, the secondary token for decentralized borrowing protocol Liquity, has gained massive interest following the chaos from the depegging of the second largest stablecoin by market capitalization, Circle's USDC. The price of LQTY was up nearly 20% in the past 24 hours, placing it among the best-performing crypto assets for the period. Moreover, LQTY has soared nearly 500% since the start of the year and was trading around $3.33 at presstime. The most recent price action came after investors balked at Circle's USDC stablecoin, leading to a win for Liquity, a decentralized platform for taking out loans denominated in the protocol's primary token, LUSD. Liquity's LUSD has seen the upside, with a 10% jump in wallets holding the stablecoin since March 6, indicative of a new stablecoin narrative following the depegging of USDC. Liquity allows users to deposit ether (ETH) into the protocol as collateral and take out loans denominated in U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin LUSD. Instead of charging a variable interest rate for drawing loans, Liquity has a 0% interest rate, charging users a one-time fee. With a total value locked (TVL) of $683 million, according to data aggregator DeFiLlama, Liquity has generated $30 million in lifetime revenue. As of March 11, users have borrowed almost $4.5 billion LUSD, according to a dune dashboard created by a Liquity developer. Currently, more than 52 million LQTY worth about $184 million has been staked, which represents 52% of the total supply of LQTY, per blockchain explorer Etherscan. Binance, which opened up trading for spot trading pairs LQTY/BTC and LQTY/USDT on Feb. 28, currently owns roughly 11.57% of the total LQTY supply, data from blockchain analytics firm Nansen shows.Cross-chain router protocol Multichain has been exploited for nearly $130 million after an attacker siphoned capital out of numerous token bridges. The lockup assets on the Multichain MPC address have been moved to an unknown address abnormally, with the team not sure what happened and currently investigating. It is recommended that all users suspend the use of Multichain services and revoke all contract approvals related to Multichain. The unexpected outflows stripped Multichain’s Fantom bridge of nearly its entire holdings in wBTC, USDC, USDT and a handful of altcoins, worth over $130 million. On-chain sleuths described the activity as highly unusual, with Fantom Foundation CEO Michael Kong looking into it. Multichain has been under pressure for over a month due to failing tech and its AWOL CEO. The trio of unexplained outflows from Multichain’s Fantom, Moonriver and Dogecoin bridge contracts sparked fears on crypto Twitter that a hack could be afoot. Binance CEO Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao said that the exploit does not affect users on Binance itself, with assets swapped out and deposits closed a while back. Assets transferred out of the Multichain Fantom bridge include at least $20 million of altcoins going to 0x9d57, with other transfers seeing outbound moves of 1,023 wBTC ($30.9 million), 7,214 wETH ($13.6 million), and $57 million USDC between two separate addresses. Multichain’s Moonriver bridge contract has seen $6.8 million in token outflows with nearly all its wBTC, USDT, USDC and DAI going to 0x48BeAD. An address identified as Mulitchain’s Dogecoin bridge has seen over $600,000 in outflows of USDC. UPDATE (July 7, 2023, 09:17 UTC): Updates headline and adds context on the exploit throughout.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.ApeCoin DAO has passed a community proposal that would see the launch of an Accelerator to support projects utilizing apecoin tokens (APE) and bolster the Bored Ape Yacht Club and ApeCoin ecosystems. The new AIP-209 will incubate and launch community-approved projects that focus on improving the value of the BAYC NFT collection and other projects that use ApeCoin. The 'Ape Accelerator' aims to engage the ApeCoin community as initiators, voters, and participants. Initiators can submit proposals for projects to be incubated, while voters can use their APE tokens to vote on whether the proposed projects should be launched. Participants will be able to support approved projects by purchasing NFTs and other yet-unspecified tokens. Projects which finally launch on the Accelerator will utilize apecoin, which may ultimately accrue value as they generate revenue and returns for holders. ApeCoin was initially issued as a governance token by creator Yuga Labs to holders of the popular BAYC NFT collection, which is composed of 10,000 unique images of cartoon apes that sell at $83,000 apiece as of Thursday. These tokens find use in other Yuga Labs projects, such as Otherside, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), CryptoPunks, MeeBits, and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) – all popular and influential NFT collections. The launchpad within Ape Accelerator will initially operate on the Ethereum network and feature a tiered structure for participation, based on users' APE stakes and qualifying NFT holdings.Ether (ETH) jumped to a nine-month high on Wednesday, with open interest in ether futures reaching $5.6 billion, as investors anticipate the upcoming 'Shapella' upgrade, which will allow for the withdrawal of staked ether. The development is expected to make staking more accessible to retail investors, who have been relying on liquid staking platforms to capture yields from staking ether on Ethereum nodes. Liquid staking tokens, such as LDO and RPL, have surged ahead of the upgrade, with the LSD sector jumping 6% on average. The broader crypto market capitalization rose by a relatively lesser 3%. The article highlights the growing interest in decentralized staking products and the potential for future growth in the sector.

Cross-Chain Bridge deBridge Launches App for Trading Without Liquidity Pools

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Crypto traders are turning to over-the-counter (OTC) markets to source elusive liquidity following a regulatory crackdown that has resulted in a substantial decrease in market depth on centralized exchanges. OTC demand has been steadily on the rise since the collapse of FTX in November, with subsequent spikes being attributed to the collapse of several crypto lenders last year and more recently the SEC's decision to sue Binance. Market depth is a metric that measures liquidity by assessing how much capital would be required to move an asset in either direction, typically measured at a spread of 2%. Last month, Jane Street and Jump, two prominent market makers, announced that they were at very least reducing their trading activity, compounding the liquidity woes that had been felt since FTX's collapse. As a result, the OTC market, which allows traders to conduct large transactions without needing to go to an exchange, looks to be becoming more prevalent. We've been receiving a lot more [OTC] demand, spreads are tight due to daily recurring flow we have on both sides from payment providers, brokers and algorithmic traders. This trend is eerily reminiscent of the time after Mt Gox, the largest crypto exchange at the time, got hacked and subsequently ceased operations in 2014. Despite the largest exchange falling, the demand for digital assets continued, with peer-to-peer markets on exchanges like LocalBitcoins emerging as the champions of the 2014 bear market. But as crypto continued to thrust itself into the world of traditional finance, the stature of firms getting involved in the industry began to notably increase. By 2020, counterparties would no longer be an arbitrage trader on LocalBitcoins, and publicly-listed companies like MicroStrategy dealt directly with Nasdaq-listed exchange Coinbase. This week the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, filed for a spot bitcoin ETF as it attempts to create a secure investment vehicle for funds and trading firms to gain crypto exposure. But until that is approved by the increasingly combative SEC, traders will have to turn back to OTC deals.Decentralized crypto exchange Trader Joe is set to launch an upgraded version of its Liquidity Book, which will make it more efficient for depositors to add tokens to its liquidity pools. The upgrade, scheduled for release next week, will also introduce 'auto-pools' that will automatically manage depositors' active positions in high-yield liquidity pools to mitigate risk. Additionally, a new rewards program will be introduced to distribute tokens to participants in Trader Joe's concentrated liquidity. Trader Joe has $131.78 million in total value locked and has done over $520 million in trading volume since March 26, according to DefiLlama. The price of JOE was trading at 60 cents at press time. nnThe upgrade is intended to improve the on-chain trading experience and make it easier for depositors to contribute to Trader Joe's liquidity pools. The exchange currently has three implementations on Arbitrum, BNB Chain, and Avalanche, with the largest being on Avalanche. nnThe news comes as a report by Kaiko Data found that crypto liquidity is heavily concentrated on a handful of exchanges, with Uniswap and SushiSwap accounting for the majority of liquidity. However, Trader Joe's upgrade is aimed at improving the liquidity experience for depositors and mitigating risk through the use of auto-pools. nnThe Fed's next sharp pivot could come from a liquidity crunch, according to an economist, as the central bank's balance sheet shrinks and liquidity dries up. Bitcoin holds steady above $17,000, while Celsius is 'deeply insolvent,' according to the Vermont Department of Financial Regulation. nnOverall, Trader Joe's upgrade is a positive development for the decentralized exchange space and could attract more depositors and traders to the platform. The introduction of auto-pools and a new rewards program could also help to mitigate risk and improve the overall liquidity experience for users.

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The price of Optimism (OP) tokens has fallen 7% ahead of a planned unlock of over $587 million worth of Ethereum scaling protocol tokens, leading to a significant increase in the circulating supply. The unlock, which is set to take place on Tuesday, will nearly double the current supply of OP tokens, which stands at 335 million. Early investors and contributors hold over 386 million tokens, and the move is expected to lead to significant selling pressure, with immediately available liquidity on OP token pairs across decentralized and centralized exchanges standing at under $10 million. The unlock comes as OP tokens have been on a general downturn since February, sliding from $3 to $1.5 despite gains of at least 50% for bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) in the same period. OP trades at $1.50 as of Tuesday, with a trading volume of $103 million over the past 24 hours. The move is expected to lead to a significant increase in the supply of OP tokens, potentially leading to a decrease in price.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.

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The newly launched zkSync Era blockchain is seeing brisk activity as value locked on the network crossed $100 million this past weekend amid a flurry of new token releases. Data from L2Beat shows over $69 million worth of ether (ETH) and nearly $30 million in USD coin (USDC) stablecoins have been locked on zkSync. The amount is likely distributed among several zkSync-based projects for purchasing ecosystem tokens or providing liquidity to exchanges on the network. The value locked on zkSync has climbed to over $100 million. More than 3.3 million transactions have been conducted on the network since it went live on March 24. The network can process 4.4 transactions per second. The network supports 'ZK rollups,' which are a type of blockchain scaling system based on cryptography known as zero-knowledge proofs. These features are seen as a key advance in speeding up blockchain transactions and reducing the cost of network activity. Populating the zkSync ecosystem are decentralized-finance tokens, which power lending, trading, and borrowing services, and meme coins fashioned after the popular Shiba Inu dog breed. DefiLlama data shows that decentralized exchanges SyncSwap and Mute hold over $30 million in locked tokens. Mute's native MUTE tokens have a market capitalization of $47 million. SyncSwap hasn't issued tokens as of early April. Over $19 million is locked on SyncSwap's liquidity pool for USDC and ether - which is paying annualized yields of 46%, or one of the highest figures in the crypto market as of Monday. As such, meme coins are making a mark as well. DEXScreener data shows tokens such as ZKDoge, ZKInu, and ZkSync SHIB have attracted millions of dollars in trading volumes since their recent launches. Traction on these meme-coin tokens has been tepid so far, with highly volatile prices and market capitalizations of under $5 million. Some say the zkSync launch has been muted relative to the hype, however. 'The recently launched zkSync Era mainnet is a sign that the evolutionary trend in the overall blockchain ecosystem is unimpeded; however, the low number of projects building on it is a sign that the Web3.0 world isn't fully prepared to welcome this innovation for now,' Maia Benzimra, head of institutional marketing at SpoolDAO, said in a Telegram message. Benzimra added that adoption may surge quickly as and when more innovative projects are built for users. 'The trend can change within the twinkling of an eye when innovative products building solutions that address the core needs of users are designed and launched. zkSync is notably a major upgrade for addressing the scalability of the Ethereum protocol, and in no time, it is bound to find its rhythm and carve out a functional niche for itself in the ecosystem.' Edited by Parikshit Mishra.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.