DeFi Protocol 0VIX Loses Nearly $2M in Flash-Loan Exploit
Send Time:2024-04-18 07:28:29
Ethereum scaling blockchain zkSync Era has attracted over $245 million in around three weeks after launch, as investors search for the next big bets to place on newer projects building on upstart networks. Data from L2Beat, which tracks activity on layer 2 networks built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, shows over 70,000 ether (ETH), $81 million in USD coin (USDC) stablecoin, and $8 million in mute (MUTE) tokens have been locked on zkSync since March 22, when the network first launched. zkSync Era has seen an uptick in token value flowing to the network. DefiLlama data shows on-chain exchange Syncswap leads in total value locked (TVL) among Era-based services, with over $64 million. It is followed by Velocore at $25 million and Mute at $15 million. Users can earn up to 80% in annualized rewards by providing liquidity or executing trades on these platforms – which may be driving capital to Era leading to value accrual for tokens such as mute, issued by the Mute DEX. On-chain derivatives trading has not caught up among Era users so far, data suggests. Era-based Onchain Trade, a derivatives decentralized exchange (DEX), holds just over $2 million in TVL and has seen zero volumes for futures in the past 24 hours. Spot trading on the DEX, however, has racked up $600,000 in volume. Meanwhile, some meme coins fashioned after the Shiba Inu dog breed – on which popular tokens dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB) are based – are seeing cycles of brisk price surges followed by a dump, DEXTools data shows. More than 7 million transactions have been conducted on the network since launch, and the network can process 3.5 transactions per second. ZkSync is named after the so-called 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. Edited by Oliver Knight.In the first few hours of Arbitrum's governance token airdrop, entities providing liquidity to the Ethereum scaling protocol made over $500,000 in profits. The ARB tokens went live for claiming on Thursday, and the rush to claim them has resulted in significant yields for liquidity providers. According to Uniswap data, over $180 million in volume was traded on the ARB/ETH liquidity pool, netting $542,000 in fees for liquidity providers (LPs). The annualized yields on the Uniswap pool are between 90% and 100% in Asian morning hours on Friday, with the Trader Joe pool offering an even more significant 800% yield. The high yields are due to the high demand for ARB tokens, which has resulted in a significant increase in trading volume on the Uniswap and Trader Joe liquidity pools. As of Friday, over 75% of all tokens were claimed, with over 800 million ARB now held by users. The circulation supply of ARB is 1.2 billion, and the token is trading at $1.30 with a market capitalization of $1.7 billion.BNB Chain, a popular blockchain network, is set to undergo a significant upgrade on June 11 at 21:30 UTC. The upgrade, dubbed 'Luban,' will incorporate three distinct enhancements aimed at improving the network's speed and security. nnThe Luban hard fork will introduce several new features, including the 'Fast Finality' mechanism, which ensures that once a block is finalized, it cannot be reversed. This reduces the risk of chain reorganizations by malicious actors. Additionally, the upgrade will introduce 'Cross Chain Relayer Management,' which aims to mitigate potential security issues in the BSC Bridge. Finally, the 'CometBFT Light Block Validation' system will be implemented to verify specific blocks from other CometBFT-compatible blockchains and enable data transfer between them. nnThe upgrade is expected to attract investors and users to the BNB Chain ecosystem, as it will provide developers with even better features and tools to build on the network. The bnb token (BNB) will also benefit from the upgrade, as it will contribute to the value proposition for the token in the future. nnThe Luban hard fork is a significant milestone for the BNB Chain, and it demonstrates the network's commitment to improving its speed and security. The upgrade is expected to be a major boost for the blockchain ecosystem and will help to drive the adoption of the bnb token. nnIn conclusion, the Luban upgrade is a significant development for the BNB Chain, and it is expected to have a positive impact on the network's speed, security, and adoption. The upgrade will provide developers with new features and tools to build on the network, and it will contribute to the value proposition for the bnb token. The BNB Chain is set to become an even more robust and secure blockchain ecosystem with the implementation of the Luban hard fork.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.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%.
Traders who have bet on a USDC revival are in healthy profit, but downside risk remains if the stablecoin depegs again. According to DeFiLlama, there are $70.8 million in positions that can be liquidated between $1.00 and 90 cents. Two recently filled positions on Compound are worth $20.7 million and $15.4 million, respectively. If USDC hits 99 cents, the first position will be liquidated, and if it hits 93 cents, the second position will be liquidated. The immediate panic appears to be over with USDC regaining its peg on Monday, but the risk of liquidation remains. Traders using DeFi protocols to bet on a USDC revival over the weekend are at risk of eight-figure liquidations if the stablecoin loses its $1 peg again this week.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.Trading firms were quick to jump on the USD coin (USDC) long trade last weekend as the stablecoin, which was meant to be pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, fell to as low as 87 cents on news that Circle Internet Financial, the token's issuer, had exposure to Silicon Valley Bank, the bank that collapsed last Friday. The concerns prompted a wave of USDC sales across decentralized-finance platforms, with a pool on decentralized exchange Curve comprising three equally weighted stablecoins becoming unbalanced as the supply of USDC skewed. One wallet received $215 million of tether from Binance before executing 59 transactions that involved swapping USDT for USDC and the DAI stablecoin, making a profit of around $16.5 million. The arbitrage opportunity of trading tether, which retained its dollar peg, with USDC when it traded below 90 cents was huge, but not without risk. The resilience of USDC in what appeared to be a desperate situation demonstrates the risk-taking approach of crypto traders. Tether, the largest stablecoin by market cap, has suffered numerous deviations from its peg over the years, and yet it remains a critical part of crypto despite regulatory scrutiny.AllianceBlock, a blockchain-agnostic platform designed to link traditional (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), has signed a deal to add business data from Crunchbase to its ecosystem. The deal is Crunchbase's first foray into the crypto market. The firm's data, which includes funding rounds as well as information on earnings, will initially be available to AllianceBlock’s Data Tunnel users. The tunnel is a tool that lets users publish, share and consume data in a variety of formats. nnThe agreement follows AllianceBlock's recent deal with investment firm ABO Digital to offer institutional and retail investors a series of tokenized investment products. nnThe AllianceBlock token (ALBT) plunged by 51% last month after Bonq, a decentralized borrowing protocol, was struck with an exploit worth around $5 million. AllianceBlock responded by suspending trading of the token, taking a snapshot before issuing a new token to replace the legacy ALBT. nnAllianceBlock have since then resolved the issue and introduced a new token Nexera (NXRA), which has about $46 million of market-cap, according to CoinGecko data. nn'The buying and selling of data is a multibillion-dollar growth industry that shows no signs of slowing down,' said Rachid Ajaja, CEO and co-founder of AllianceBlock. 'However, until now, decentralized and centralized data providers and users have operated in siloes, unable to interact.'In hindsight, the selling pressure of ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native token, turned out to be a “non-event” following the Shanghai upgrade, which enabled staking redemptions for the first time, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm Nansen. Over a month has passed since the Shanghai upgrade that marked Ethereum’s full transition to a proof-of-stake blockchain, and ETH staking deposits have surpassed withdrawals, making the number of staked ETH climb to 19.55 million at presstime, a new all-time high. As a result, the May 8 report stated “that the elimination of unstaking risks has thus far offset selling pressure from withdrawals.” In the weeks building up to Shanghai, crypto bulls and bears debated extensively about the market’s potential response following the upgrade. The price of ETH has decreased about 8% to $1,851, since April 13 when Shanghai went live, per CoinDesk data. The CoinDesk Market Index, designed to measure the broad performance of the digital asset market, has dropped nearly 10% in the same time period. “Ultimately, withdrawals have been minimal and have thus far been matched with inflows, signaling strong overall confidence from investors in the network and the asset itself,” according to the Nansen report. Crypto exchange Kraken, which complied with regulation from the Securities and Exchanges Commission to end its crypto staking-as-a-service platform for U.S customers in February, had the most withdrawals at over 646,000 ETH, with Coinbase, a rival crypto exchange, trailing behind with more than 376,000 ETH. (Nansen Research) While roughly 73% of the ETH withdrawn from staking has been sent to centralized exchanges (CEXs) like Kraken and Coinbase, the majority of withdrawn ETH is CEXs withdrawing ETH to themselves. “This means that the majority ETH being sent to CEXs is not primarily for selling, but for the exchange’s internal operations,” according to Nansen. Edited by Bradley Keoun.
In hindsight, the selling pressure of ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native token, turned out to be a “non-event” following the Shanghai upgrade, which enabled staking redemptions for the first time, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm Nansen. Over a month has passed since the Shanghai upgrade that marked Ethereum’s full transition to a proof-of-stake blockchain, and ETH staking deposits have surpassed withdrawals, making the number of staked ETH climb to 19.55 million at presstime, a new all-time high. As a result, the May 8 report stated “that the elimination of unstaking risks has thus far offset selling pressure from withdrawals.” In the weeks building up to Shanghai, crypto bulls and bears debated extensively about the market’s potential response following the upgrade. The price of ETH has decreased about 8% to $1,851, since April 13 when Shanghai went live, per CoinDesk data. The CoinDesk Market Index, designed to measure the broad performance of the digital asset market, has dropped nearly 10% in the same time period. “Ultimately, withdrawals have been minimal and have thus far been matched with inflows, signaling strong overall confidence from investors in the network and the asset itself,” according to the Nansen report. Crypto exchange Kraken, which complied with regulation from the Securities and Exchanges Commission to end its crypto staking-as-a-service platform for U.S customers in February, had the most withdrawals at over 646,000 ETH, with Coinbase, a rival crypto exchange, trailing behind with more than 376,000 ETH. (Nansen Research) While roughly 73% of the ETH withdrawn from staking has been sent to centralized exchanges (CEXs) like Kraken and Coinbase, the majority of withdrawn ETH is CEXs withdrawing ETH to themselves. “This means that the majority ETH being sent to CEXs is not primarily for selling, but for the exchange’s internal operations,” according to Nansen. Edited by Bradley Keoun.The last bull market saw the launch of a raft of on-chain structured products, and the next bull-run will see more liquidity going into these projects, says Jordan Tonani from The Index Coop. Globally, asset management is a huge industry, with a large percentage of assets in each nation being held in ETFs, index funds, and other passive vehicles. In Europe, €28.4 trillion of assets are managed by the industry, of which 20% are held in passive strategies, about half in exchange-traded products and half in index funds. All told, passively-held assets under management have doubled since 2015, with around one fifth of European retail investors holding such products. Analysts predict that by 2027 ETFs will account for 24% of total assets in Europe, up from 12% in 2022. In the world of decentralized finance and digital assets, some commentators see the on-chain structured product market as analogous, but this sector has yet to capture much market share. On-chain structured products make up 0.07% of the crypto market overall currently, with a combined TVL of $2.46 billion across protocols. In comparison, the DeFi market is $48.29 billion, and the total crypto market is $1.18 trillion. Nevertheless, over the last several years, on-chain structured products have shown the kind of promise that led to these types of products' dominance in traditional markets. In 2020, the on-chain structured product market saw 20 projects launching, including nine projects that launched during what would come to be known as DeFi Summer. Yearn, Compound, and the Index Coop all started offering such products during this period. At the height of the 2021 bull market, Index Coop's on-chain structured products captured over $550 million in TVL. In total, 47 projects have launched in the on-chain structured product space since 2016, with the majority of projects offering index or yield-earning products. Of those, 37 are still operational. At the Index Coop, we're bullish on the long-term promise of on-chain structured products because of their advantages in transparency, security, accessibility, automation, and liquidity. Regrettably, the sector has been hampered by regulatory ambiguity, as well as nascent technology and market infrastructure. That said, some encouraging signs have emerged recently. If, as seems likely, BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF and Grayscale's spot Ethereum ETFs are approved in the U.S., that would represent a major step forward for the on-chain structured product sector. As digital asset markets mature, we expect to see more growth in the on-chain structured product market, especially as correlations reduce across digital assets. Currently, high correlation across digital assets means that different assets move together, reducing the value of a diversification strategy. As digital assets become less correlated, diversification will become a more attractive proposition. Additionally, improvements in UX and cross-chain infrastructure could contribute to growth in our space. Long-term, we expect on-chain products to prevail because of their unique advantages, enabling underlying tokens to reach wider audiences. You can learn more about the on-chain structured product space in our annual report on the state of the industry.Maple Finance, a blockchain-based crypto lending protocol, is preparing to launch a new lending pool that invests in U.S. Treasury bonds. The pool will allow accredited investors and corporate treasuries based outside of the U.S. to invest their stablecoin holdings in U.S. Treasury bonds and earn a yield. The protocol expects demand for the pool due to crypto investors looking for yields in traditional assets such as government bonds, while trust in banking facilities has decreased after recent bank implosions in the U.S. Maple is also working on additions to its lending offerings, including a new feature called Maple Prime, which will let borrowers actively manage their collateral positions. The protocol plans to expand into open-term lending, which will let borrowers open credit lines to borrow without a maturity date. The developments come as the platform is recovering from a disastrous year for crypto lending that was plagued with insolvencies of borrowers. The MPL token rallied 23% ahead of the community call. The total value locked (TVL) on the protocol dropped to $40 million from $930 million last May, per data by DefiLlama. The MPL token plummeted to as low as $4 from an all-time high of $68.2 last April.The Klaytn Foundation, a key developer and maintainer of the Klaytn blockchain, is making changes to the network's governance system and token model. The Foundation will aid the transition to a wholly permissionless validator structure, provide opportunities for the general public to participate as block validators, and introduce a communication channel for community members to participate in decision-making processes. These changes are expected to enhance Klaytn's technical capabilities, revenue sustainability, and decentralization aspects, making KLAY more valuable. The Foundation will work alongside the Klaytn Governance Council (GC) to make these changes, with the GC having expanded decision-making authority over the Klaytn blockchain business. The Foundation will also strengthen governance transparency by disclosing GC voting agendas and statuses in real-time through Klaytn Square. These measures aim to prevent governance dramas like those seen in recent weeks, where decentralized exchange Uniswap faced contention among community members over allegedly skewed voting rights. The Klaytn Foundation will present a revamped tokenomics proposal to the GC starting Monday, including a proposal for handling uncirculated KLAY tokens in response to community feedback. Finalized agendas and proposals will be made public on February 28 alongside a technical roadmap for 2023.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.
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.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.Chainlink's LINK token has seen a significant surge in value this week, with wealthy investors swapping ether for link following the release of the company's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). On-chain data shows that some whales have added upward of $6 million to their link holdings, lifting prices as much as 6%. The increased demand has helped extend weekly gains to over 25%. CCIP is designed to help build cross-chain applications and services, and is now available to all developers across five testnets. Prices of other oracle protocols, such as Band Protocol and Uma, have also risen in the past 24 hours. Oracles are blockchain-based services that fetch data from outside a blockchain, and Chainlink's CCIP is a significant development in the space. The article is well-written and provides a clear overview of the current state of the market and the impact of Chainlink's release.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.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.
Ethereum Fees Spike as Bots Front-Run Punters of PEPE, CHAD
btc price usd eth news
Trader Joe, a decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) on the Arbitrum network, has seen a surge in trader and depositor activity in the past week, with total value locked (TVL) rising by over 300% to reach $30 million on Wednesday. The jump in activity comes as the price of Trader Joe's governance token, JOE, booms, with a 11% increase in the past 24 hours and a 58% increase over the past week. The recent success on Arbitrum has nearly eclipsed Trader Joe's trading volume on Avalanche, its original home. The increase in activity is attributed to a liquidity incentives program launched by Trader Joe to boost deposits of popular tokens, particularly Arbitrum's newly airdropped ARB. Users who loaned ARB, ETH, and USDC to Trader Joe's pools received a share of 300,000 JOE tokens. The incentives program ends on April 6. The article also mentions that Bitcoin supply inactive for a year has dropped to an 18-month low, according to Glassnode, and that VanEck CEO does not think the SEC will approve Ether ETFs in May. Additionally, Eisenberg's $110M fraud trial has opened, and FSI is calling for consistency in stablecoin regulation. The article concludes by asking if Bitcoin momentum will continue after the halving.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.
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.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.
Centralization Comes to DeFi as Group Behind MIM, SPELL Tokens Mull Legal Shakeup
Aventus (AVT), the native token of a blockchain service provider of the same name, has shed 4.2% to $1.22 Wednesday morning, with volatility spiking on minimal liquidity following a decision to pause a planned token split. The move was met with disappointment among the community after a December governance vote voted in favor of the split. Although AVT trades on Coinbase, daily volume remains low at just $65,000, and market depth – a metric that assesses how much capital it would take to move an asset by a certain percentage – is minimal at around $3,000 per 2%. The AVT token was issued in 2017 and hit a record high of $6.905 at the start of 2018. It currently has a market cap of $7.3 million, according to CoinMarketCap.Aave token holders have started voting on two governance proposals in response to the systemic liquidation risk posed by Curve founder Michael Egorov's large borrowing position on the lending protocol. The proposals, authored by on-chain risk management platform Chaos Labs, aim to disable the borrowing of CRV on Ethereum and Polygon V3, as well as reduce the liquidation threshold of CRV. The votes, which end on August 12, are direct responses to the averted liquidation threat posed by Egorov's lending positions on Aave, in which he deposited 34% of CRV's total market cap to borrow upwards of $63 million. The proposals have been motivated by the recent Curve exploit, which saw the price of CRV plummet and put Egorov's assets under liquidation pressure. Despite Egorov's efforts to pay off portions of his debt through OTC deals, the potential liquidation has prompted Aave token-holders to take action to prevent further risk. The proposals aim to disable the ability to short CRV via the Aave protocol and reduce the liquidation threshold for CRV, which would prevent crypto users from borrowing CRV to dump and further impact its price. Aave is currently trading at $67.78, while the price of CRV is 61 cents, per CoinDesk market data. Chaos Labs CEO Omer Goldberg indicated in the governance vote that the motivation behind one of the proposals is to disable the ability to short CRV via the Aave protocol. The votes have been prompted by the recent Curve exploit, which exposed serious risks in the DeFi ecosystem. The outcome of the votes could have significant implications for the future of Curve and the broader DeFi market.
DeFi Protocol Synapse Rebounds 17% After Liquidity Provider Sell-Off
Crypto Whales Accumulate Millions in Pepecoin as Trading Volume Shifts to Binance
09.12.2015Two 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.
btc priceLiquity's LQTY Token Soars Amid USDC Chaos
09.12.2015Despite 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.
Ethereum newsEOS Blockchain Plans Second Innings Ahead of April’s EVM Launch
09.12.2015Investors 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.
btc price
Crypto users are bridging millions of dollars in funds to the zkSync network in anticipation of a potential token airdrop. The move comes after layer 2 network Arbitrum confirmed its native token, ARB, to users based on their prior network activity. The tokens are claimable on Thursday, but futures markets are already pricing the tokens from $1.40 to over $9 apiece.According to data from Nansen, nearly $8 million worth of tokens have flowed to the zkSync network in the past week. Additionally, DefiLlama data shows the total-value-locked metric on the zkSync-based decentralized exchange ZigZag ballooned to over $13 million on Tuesday from last week's $1.5 million, all in tether (USDT) stablecoins.The anticipation of the Arbitrum airdrop has brought renewed interest in airdrop hunting across other chains that have yet to launch a token. The confirmation of the Arbitrum airdrop also means that farming activity will shift away from Arbitrum and towards other chains.Crypto users who frequently interact with new and existing platforms will likely receive an airdrop at some stage, which has quickly spurred the narrative of 'airdrop farming' in Crypto Twitter circles. Strategies from Crypto Twitter participants for a chance to claim the tokens - if and when they are issued - include bridging to zkSync, providing liquidity on decentralized exchanges such as ZigZag, and conducting a few trades every week.zkSync is a zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup, a trustless protocol that uses cryptographic validity proofs to provide scalable and low-cost transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. In zkSync, computation is performed off-chain and most data is stored off-chain as well.The movement of funds to zkSync and the anticipation of the Arbitrum airdrop have led to a significant increase in the total value locked on the network, with the potential for more airdrops to be announced in the future. As such, crypto users are advised to keep a close eye on developments and be prepared to act quickly to claim any potential airdrops.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.