Kokomo Finance Developers Accused of $4M 'Exit Scam'

Send Time：2024-04-16 22:00:13

Trading volume for Blur has increased by 1,240% in the past 24-hours after it was listed on Upbit. The magnitude of the rally represents a shift in sentiment from three weeks ago when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) went on the offensive against altcoins that it labelled securities. With Bitcoin trading comfortably above $30,000, traders are beginning to flock to lower liquidity trading pairs. Arbitrum, meanwhile, has surged by 33.2% in the past 12-days as activity on the layer 2 blockchain continues to mount. Total value locked (TVL) on Arbitrum-based platforms like GMX and Radiant has increased by 12.5% and 9.3% in the past seven days, according to DefiLlama. Open interest, which is a metric that assesses the amount of open derivatives positions on a specific asset, is resting at a yearly high on bitcoin cash (BCH) markets, suggesting that investors are backing the recent rally with leverage.The much-awaited Aptos rival, Sui, launched its mainnet on Wednesday with hundreds of millions in VC funding. The blockchain, founded by ex-Meta Platforms employees, boasts fast transaction speeds and a growing ecosystem of projects. However, the network faces challenges in decentralization and token distribution. The token trades at $1.33, with a market capitalization of $687 million, according to CoinGecko. The network has over 200 projects in its directory and is expected to increase as it gains traction. Sui developers promised fast transaction speeds, which gradually increased as the network gained its footing on launchday. Speeds averaged around four transactions per second minutes after the launch, but increased to 18tps six hours later. Aptos, by comparison, is pushing out at speeds of 9tps. However, the network faces challenges in decentralization, with most nodes concentrated in Germany and the US. The distribution of token holders remains unclear. Sui's success in securing VC funding pre-launch has invited comparisons to Aptos, another relatively young blockchain with a large VC backing. Both blockchains were designed by teams from Diem, Meta's failed stablecoin project, and are undergirded by Move, a Rust-based programming language developed at Meta. Tokenomics tussle Critics have blasted Sui for its tokenomics in recent weeks. In April, Sui disappointed some community members by announcing it would forgo an airdrop. Instead, SUI, the platform's native token for governance and gas, became available for 3 cents per token in an early sale on three exchanges. There was a later token sale for 10 cents per token capped at 10,000 tokens per person. Binance added support for SUI to BNB and TUSD holders through its bootstrapping portal, Launchpad, earlier this week. Users in the US were not eligible for the early sale program. UPDATE: Provides information about transactions per second on Sui six hours after the mainnet's launch.A proposal to split Rook's nearly $50 million crypto treasury between Rook Labs and a new community-run entity called Incubator DAO is gaining traction, with the token price surging ahead of the vote. The proposal aims to divorce the project's tech from its governance token, and would see Incubator DAO inherit the old DAO's unique representative democracy structure. The move has been praised as a win-win for both Rook Labs and token holders, with the former gaining sufficient capital to develop products while the latter receives a return of value. The token itself has nearly tripled in value since late March, and the debate over the project's future has attracted investors of many stripes. Some have voted with newly-acquired bags, and the single-largest 'yea' position in the poll to create Incubator DAO was voted by a wallet controlled by insiders at crypto yield project TempleDAO. However, the TempleDAO wallet has already started selling some of its ROOK tokens on decentralized finance (DeFi) exchanges.Multichain, one of the largest bridging protocols in the crypto ecosystem, has suspended cross-chain routes due to the unavailability of its CEO Zhaojun. The team has been unable to contact Zhaojun, who has not responded to CoinDesk via Telegram since last week, despite their best efforts to maintain the protocol. The suspension affects cross-chain bridges for Kekchain, PublicMint, Dyno Chain, Red Light Chain, Dexit, Ekta, HPB, ONUS, Omax, Findora and Planq. The team has revealed that without server access, they are unable to keep the bridges online. The development has confirmed rumors of at least one key team member going AWOL. Multichain's native token MULTI has lost nearly half its value in the past seven days, trading at around $4.11 at press time.

At least four wallets from bitcoin’s early days have seen signs of activity in the past few days, sparking conversations on Crypto Twitter about the possible reasons behind the activity. The investors are known as 'whales' because they hold large amounts of tokens in their digital wallets and can influence the price or sentiment around a token. One such wallet, which was last active in 2012, moved more than 400 bitcoins ($11 million) over the weekend. Another whale wallet moved 279 bitcoins earlier in April after over 10 years of inactivity. The identities of these whales are unknown, and none of them has said publicly why they are making the moves. The silence has spurred speculation on Crypto Twitter, with possible reasons ranging from developers of the dark web site Silk Road getting access to the whales' wallets to insiders in the know moving tokens ahead of bad news. Some have speculated that the holders' wallet passwords have been cracked. Old wallets have repeatedly been the target for hackers and online thieves, and earlier this month, a massive 'wallet draining operation' affected whales and early holders of ether. The movement of these whales comes on the back of several other whales moving large quantities of bitcoin and ether in the past few weeks.A rise in open interest shows more participation from crypto traders and a bullish market sentiment, a trading firm said.Open interest in bitcoin (BTC) across crypto derivatives exchanges has surged to $10 billion, a five-month high after leverage subsided in the wake of FTX's collapse in November, according to data from Coinalyze.A rise in open interest, which is a metric that assesses the value of all unsettled derivatives positions, alongside an increase in price is often used to confirm the legitimacy of a move. At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at around $30,000 after it surged to a 10-month high of $30,540 on Tuesday.Zahreddine Touag, head of trading at Woorton, a crypto trading firm and liquidity provider, said that bitcoin broke out in a 'global risk-on environment,' with the Nasdaq also rising by 10% in the last 30 days.'We think this move is driven by technicals, BTC broke a major resistance at $28.5k and rebounded on its 2023 bullish trendline,' Touag said.'We noticed futures open interest has been moving up vertically which shows more participation from crypto traders and a bullish market sentiment,' he added.'For now, we do not see signs of extreme exuberance; indeed, the fear and greed index is at 61, funding rates are still negative on many exchanges for BTC while short-sellers did not capitulate yet. We will monitor these metrics to predict a potential trend reversal.'It's worth noting that an increase in open interest means that whilst short-sellers have added to their shorts in this region, traders betting on long trades are doing so with leverage that may unwind if price begins to reverse.A total of $98 million in crypto derivatives positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours as bitcoin momentarily slipped below $30,000, according to CoinGlass.UPDATE (April 10, 2023, 20:03 UTC): Updates quote attribution.Edited by Parikshit Mishra.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.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.

After the frenzied Arbitrum airdrop day, nearly 240,000 addresses still need to claim their governance tokens worth roughly $596 million. According to blockchain analytics firm Nansen, 61% of eligible crypto wallets have already claimed their ARB, leaving 37% of the total 1.1 billion ARB allocated for the airdrop unclaimed. These tokens have yet to enter the market, and eligible addresses have 184 days left to claim their tokens. The airdrop's initial redemption rate was artificially restricted due to the collapse of the claims website due to heavy traffic, which affected the token supply and caused ARB to soar to as high as $14 on some venues before settling out around $1.42 once more wallets had claimed their allocations. The effect that token supply can have on emerging markets was on full display Thursday morning. The unclaimed tokens represent a significant amount of value that could potentially enter the market, which could impact the price of ARB and other cryptocurrencies. The lack of claiming could also indicate a lack of interest in the project or a lack of understanding of the airdrop process. The situation highlights the importance of proper communication and education for a successful airdrop and the potential impact of token supply on emerging markets.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.Solana-based decentralized exchange Raydium is proposing the creation of a bug bounty program worth 10 million RAY tokens (about $2.3 million) to squash bugs affecting the protocol's core smart contracts. The program would target Raydium's Concentrated Liquidity Market Maker smart contracts and would be managed through bug bounty platform Immunefi. The proposal is part of a broader effort to boost community participation in protocol governance. Raydium's liquidity pools held over $37 million in total value locked, with its native token RAY worth 23 cents Thursday, according to CoinGecko. The proposal is part of a wider effort to boost community engagement on Solana, which is not as strong as on other blockchain platforms. The program would reward white hat hackers as much as $505,000 or as little as $5,000 in RAY tokens depending on the severity of the detected bug.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 total crypto market capitalization rose, with dogecoin (DOGE) leading gains among major tokens. Hopes surrounding a potential U.S. Bitcoin ETF filing by investment giant BlackRock fueled a bullish sentiment among some traders early Friday. Bitcoin regained the $25,500 level to erase declines of the past two days, when it fell to as low as $24,860. The move provided some respite to major tokens such as Polygon Network’s MATIC and Cardano’s ADA, which eased some losses from a two-day slide. Dogecoin (DOGE) led gains among major tokens with a 4% move in the past 24 hours; litecoin added (LTC) added 3.3%. On Thursday, CoinDesk reported that BlackRock planned to offer a Bitcoin ETF with crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) serving as custodian. This was confirmed later after a filing showed the company’s iShares fund management unit filed paperwork for the formation of a spot bitcoin (BTC) ETF. 'An estimated 20% of Americans have now owned bitcoin at some point. BlackRock’s proposed ETF potentially offers the other 80% an option that is altogether more familiar and accessible,' said Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks, in an email to CoinDesk. 'BlackRock’s increasing engagement shows Bitcoin continues to be an asset of interest for some of the world’s largest financial institutions.' As such, the market strength of bitcoin impacted shorts – or bets against the currency – the asset with BTC-tracked futures seeing over $16 million in short liquidations in the past 24 hours. This figure was smaller than usual due to large declines in the past week, causing some traders to risk less capital than they normally would. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has previously rejected other attempts by fund managers at listing a spot bitcoin ETF, including those from Grayscale, VanEck, and WisdomTree. However, the stature of BlackRock could make it difficult for the SEC to reject this application – which some say could fuel an outsized bitcoin rally if approved.

Aerodrome, a product by Velodrome in collaboration with Base developers, has attracted over $150 million from users just a day after going live on Base. The platform hopes to act as a 'business development protocol' for the Base ecosystem, supporting projects as they launch, onboarding new projects and tokens, and generating liquidity for the ecosystem. Aerodrome rewards its AERO tokens to platform users who provide liquidity, conduct swaps, or participate in governance. The platform's creators hope to emulate the apparent success of Velodrome, one of Optimism network's most used platforms which holds over $288 million in locked value. The approach seems to be working so far, with Velodrome generating platform revenues of over $3 million in the past month. Aerodrome's features create a flywheel of liquidity, as users are attracted to rewards, purchase more AERO, and keep the platform running by continually voting on which project's tokens to support, add, and further reward. The platform's locked veAERO are represented as NFTs, which can then be traded on different NFT marketplaces. Users can use the veAERO tokens to take part in platform governance and help set the reward levels of trading pools offered on the platform. In return, these voters receive 100% of all fees and bribes received by the specific pools that they voted for.New zkSync-based decentralized exchange Merlin was exploited for over $1.8 million during a public sale of its mage (MAGE) tokens. The attack occurred despite Merlin touting an audit conducted by blockchain security firm CertiK. On-chain data reveals that $1.82 million in total had been stolen, with the funds being bridged back to the Ethereum network before being converted to ether. The project garnered hype among Crypto Twitter users for its attractive yield offered on deposits. Merlin developers did not issue any statement regarding the funds drain on Wednesday at press time. CertiK's Twitter response to the loss of funds included plans for compensation, but the company has since deleted the tweet. The exploit was not a complex or sophisticated one, as blockchain data suggested that an entity with control of the liquidity pool was able to drain the funds easily. The total amount raised during the public sale will determine the final price of tokens for all users, developers said Tuesday. Arkham Intelligence provided on-chain data that revealed the funds were bridged back to the Ethereum network before being converted to ether.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.Investors in the Hector Network, a stablecoin project, are demanding that the group's leaders kill it faster after the project suffered major losses from the Multichain bridge's collapse. The community is angry over the timeline for liquidation, which could take six to twelve months, and the fact that the project's remaining $16 million treasury may be whittled away by legal fees and other expenses. The situation highlights the messiness of operating a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and the complexity of unwinding such a project. The article also mentions that the DAO never approved the creation of a corporation, and that the project's leaders plan to proceed with liquidation in the British Virgin Islands. The community is crying foul over the lack of transparency and the fact that they were bamboozled. The article quotes a former employee of the group and a prominent figure in the Hector community, who say that the project's ambitions were too broad and that infighting and delays drained the treasury. The article also mentions that investors had identified Hector as a risk-free value trade and that some had already been pushing for a rage quit before the announcement of liquidation.Crypto exchange aggregator 1inch is considering a governance shakeup that would reduce the voting power of insiders, including core contributors, investors, and other token holders. The proposed changes would treat v1inch tokens, a derivative token redeemable for 1inch, exactly like the protocol's staked tokens (st1inch) for voting purposes, granting greater sway to the broader community of token holders. The move aims to weaken the voting power of insiders who have received their full allotment of v1inch tokens, while v1inch tokens that remain locked up for two years or longer would retain 100% of their voting weight. The proposal has not yet gone to a vote. 1inch's governance token was trading at 56 cents at press time Friday, having slid just under 2% in the past 24 hours.The recent slide of layer 1 blockchain Canto highlights the fickle nature of crypto investors and the current state of the DeFi sector. Canto's TVL has fallen 35% over the past month, with liquidity continuing to dry up across the sector. Despite its capabilities and offerings, Canto has suffered multiple 60% corrections and periods of consolidation. The issue may not be with the blockchain itself, but rather the lack of appetite from crypto investors as hype recedes. The overall total value locked on DeFi protocols has shrunk from $53 billion to $48 billion since April 15, with liquidity getting sucked into meme coin rug pulls and derivatives markets. To make a comeback, DeFi will need to innovate and offer unique offerings that lure fragile crypto liquidity away from 'get rich quick' schemes. The recent lack of innovation has resulted in copycat lending protocols, and DeFi developers need to think outside the box to attract liquidity.The Algorand Foundation, along with several other major creditors, has indicated a preference for liquidation over restructuring for troubled Singaporean crypto lender Hodlnaut. According to a court filing, the creditors have claims worth $228 million Singaporean dollars (US$170 million). The Algorand Foundation declared $35 million in exposure to Hodlnaut in September. The decision to oppose restructuring comes as Hodlnaut's judicial managers have stated that there is no 'white knight investor' for the lender, leading to an absence of fresh capital. Creditors initially indicated a preference for liquidation in January, with the Algorand Foundation stating that liquidation would 'maximize the company's remaining assets available for distribution.' The Algorand token (ALGO) is currently trading at 18 cents, having dropped by 3.34% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data.A white hat hacker who targeted decentralized-finance (DeFi) platform Tender.fi has returned $1.6 million that was stolen on Tuesday, receiving a 62.15 ether (ETH) bug bounty worth $850,000 instead. The attack occurred after Tender.fi upgraded its price feed to relay data from a Chainlink pricing oracle as opposed to a time-weighted average price (TWAP). Tender.fi's code, which was audited by PeckShield, contained an error and returned a number with too many zeros behind it, allowing the attacker to deposit one GMX token, worth around $70, effectively tricking the system into allowing infinite borrows. The hacker left an on-chain message, 'It looks like your oracle was misconfigured. Contact me to sort this out.' Tender.fi reached out and agreed to pay the white hat hacker the bug bounty. The protocol plans to deploy a new rewritten oracle contract before unpausing borrowing and has vowed to repay any unpaid debt left behind by the hacker. The TND token, which plunged by 34% on Tuesday, was recently trading at $1.87 and has increased by 2.4% in the past 24-hours against its ethereum pair but remains down by 7.6% against its U.S. dollar pair following a crypto market rout.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.