Prominent crypto exchange Coinbase has emerged as the second largest ETH staking entity based on a recent scoop by Chinese reporter Colin Wu. This development comes amidst growing concerns about network centralization in regard to Lido’s dominance in the ETH staking market. Coinbase Accounts For 14.1% Of ETH Staking Activity – Report According to Wu, a report from Dragonfly data scientist hildobby, using data from Dune analytics, reveals that Coinbase presently has 3.873 million staked ETH, representing 14.1% of all staked ETH. Coinbase dominance in the ETH staking sphere is only superseded by that of the liquid staking platform, Lido DAO, which accounts for one-third of all staked ETH. Other platforms with a significant staking percentage include the Binance and Kraken exchanges, with a 4.2% and 3.0% market share, respectively. Meanwhile, the Figment staking pool comes third with a 4.9% market dominance. Notably, Coinbase experienced a 44% increase in ETH staking activity over the last six months. Coincidentally, this development falls within the period during which the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade has been active. Contrary to fears that the last Ethereum network update may induce a decline in staked ETH due to the ability to finally withdraw staked assets, the Shanghai upgrade has so far boosted stakers confidence, resulting in a net positive flow of 7.84 million ETH since its implementation in April. At the time of writing, the total amount of staked ETH stands at 27.42 million ETH, representing 22.81 of ETH’s circulating supply. Lido’s Growing Dominance Sparks Centralization Concerns In other news, Wu stated there are community concerns about centralization in regard to Lido’s ETH staking dominance. Due to the Proof-of-Stake Consensus model, a higher amount of staked ETH translates to a higher voting power during governance processes. Data from Dune Analytics shows that Lido accounts for 8.80 million staked ETH, representing 32.11% of the ETH staking market. Notably, the liquid staking platform experienced a 55% rise in staking activity over the last six months. According to information from Ethereum’s official blog, concerns about centralization are quite valid, as any validator controlling a minimum of 33% of staked ETH can prevent the network from finalizing any block, even in the presence of a 66% majority. Moreover, if a validator acquires 55% of the staked ETH, they could theoretically split the Ethereum chain into two forks. All these are speculations, as there is no evidence indicating that Lido DAO has any malicious intentions toward the Ethereum network. At press time, ETH trades at $1,620.18, with a 1.36% decline in the last day, based on data from CoinMarketCap. In tandem, the token’s daily trading volume is down by 36.41% and valued at $2.86 billion.

Altman shared his thoughts on cryptocurrency on a podcast with Joe Rogan. The CEO is a vocal opponent of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In light of the United States government’s unfavorable position against Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, OpenAI CEO and creator of the famous ChatGPT app Sam Altman has voiced his dismay and profound concern publicly. According to Altman, this persistent stance reflects a government’s desire to assert control over a global currency that falls outside of its sphere of influence. Altman shared his thoughts on cryptocurrency on a podcast with Joe Rogan. He expressed his dismay at the current political climate and his worries about the scope of government monitoring. Because of his concern that governments would be able to track and limit the buying power of their citizens, Altman was a vocal opponent of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Backing Bitcoin In contrast, he spoke with enthusiasm about bitcoin, which he saw as a major and reasonable technological breakthrough towards the goal of a decentralized global currency. Rogan agreed with Altman’s assessment that Bitcoin was the most promising candidate for widespread adoption. The U.S. government has been accused of stifling the bitcoin and cryptocurrency industries by enforcing onerous laws and tax policies. Consequently, the bitcoin price has lost some of its earlier 2023 impetus following a large increase. Nonetheless, there may be a significant increase in price before the historic halving of bitcoin next year, according to some experts. The development of a CBDC, or digital dollar, has also been discussed by U.S. legislators and regulators. But Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says that kind of technology is still further off in the future. Highlighted Crypto News Today: Hacker Restores Entire $8.2 Million Worth Stolen ETH to HTX Global

Dogecoin, which began as a meme cryptocurrency, has demonstrated that it can compete successfully in the crypto market. Although Dogecoin is still the biggest meme crypto, on-chain data points to the crypto losing steam among whale investors. According to data from IntoTheBlock, the number of Dogecoin transactions valued at $100,000 or more has declined sharply over the past few months. Data also shows that the number of daily transactions has been on a steady decline since May. Dogecoin Whale Transactions Dogecoin seems to be losing interest from whale traders. A deep dive into on-chain data from IntoTheBlock has shown Dogecoin witnessed only 651 whale transactions in the past 24 hours and 4.85k whale transactions throughout the week. This metric follows transactions above $100,000, but its current level is a pale reflection of Dogecoin’s past performance. At the height of the Dogecoin hype in 2021, whale transactions made up a sizable portion of all Dogecoin transfers, reaching as high as 39.3k transactions in one week. A metric following the number of overall transactions has shown similar results of low volume. Dogecoin recorded a staggering increase of 8,220% in daily transactions to reach 2.08 million on May 27, but this count has since fallen to just 38,000 transactions in the past 24 hours. When daily active addresses decline this rapidly, it’s usually a sign that interest in the crypto asset is waning. Dogecoin has been on a downtrend for quite some time, although it is still the 9th largest crypto in terms of market cap. At the time of writing, Doge is trading at $0.06133, down by 3.59% in a monthly timeframe. The crypto has also witnessed a 22.24% drop in trading volume in the past 24 hours. Declining Interest In Dogecoin And Other Meme Coins The value of meme cryptocurrencies is highly dependent on hype and popularity rather than real-world utility. So, declining interest and activity among users and investors can be an issue. Shiba Inu has taken the attention of the crypto industry in the past few months, as it looks to elevate itself from being just a meme crypto. Other meme coins like Dogecoin and Dogelon Mars have struggled to receive interest from investors. According to on-chain analytics firm Santiment, social media talks about meme coins are now at their lowest level since 2020. Though the drop in transaction count is worrying, Dogecoin has defied the odds before. There’s a good chance that X (formerly Twitter) could incorporate Dogecoin payments into its platform. If this is implemented, it could serve as the next catalyst for Dogecoin’s growth. Featured image from Getty Images

HTX Global received a total of 4,999 Ether (ETH) worth $8.2 million in refunds. Earlier, the Huobi hot wallet was used to communicate with the hacker in Chinese. Lookonchain, a provider of blockchain analytics and insights, claims that the hacker who broke into HTX Global (previously Huobi) has restored all of the stolen funds. HTX Global received a total of 4,999 Ether (ETH) worth $8.2 million in refunds. Last week, an unknown hacker breached the crypto exchange’s security, resulting in the loss of the stated amount of ETH. The Huobi hot wallet was used to communicate with the hacker in Chinese. In the message, the exchange asserts that it has tracked down the offender. Negotiation Successful TRON founder and HTX adviser Justin Sun assured that any damage from the attack will be compensated for as soon as possible after it occurred. In a similar vein, he said the hacking-related problems had been fixed. Sun said that the amount of money taken was a minor percentage of HTX Global’s $3 billion in assets. Simultaneously, the hacker was offered a 5% Whitehat incentive, which would be worth $400,000 if all the money was returned. The hacker was also given a job opportunity as a Whitehat security adviser in exchange for a prompt and voluntary return. In particular, Sun said that the HTX security staff discovered the vulnerability on September 24, 2023, at 6 p.m. However, onchain security company Cyvers Alerts has already learned about suspicious transactions. Mixin Network recently lost $200 million, and those funds were related to transactions that were ultimately traced back to HTX and Binance. Highlighted Crypto News Today: Shibarium Blockchain Achieves Remarkable 1 Million Blocks Feat

As CertiK pointed out in a recent tweet, the Stars Arena hack was a “reentrancy exploit.” The attacker made changes to the smart contract’s acquisition price values. In a recent announcement, Stars Arena, Friend Tech’s Avalanche-based competitor, revealed a protocol attack that led to the loss of 266,103 AVAX tokens, or almost $2.88 million. Concerns regarding the security of smart contracts and the larger blockchain ecosystem have been raised. As a result of this shocking disclosure. Stars Arena issued an apology to its customers. And revealed that the service was experiencing a distributed denial of service (DDOS) assault in a post on Twitter. The seriousness of the matter was brought into focus, however, by blockchain analytics startup CertiK, which provided clarity on the nature of the hack. Reentrancy Attack Moreover, as CertiK pointed out in a recent tweet, the Stars Arena hack was a “reentrancy exploit.” An attacker of this sort would make several calls to a susceptible smart contract throughout the course of a single transaction. Also, to steal a large quantity of AVAX tokens from Stars Arena, an attacker hacked the platform’s smart contract. The security hole in the smart contract enabled platform-native tokens (AVAX) to be sent to third-party contracts, which opened the door for reentrancy attacks. CertiK did a great job of shedding light on the attacker’s methods. The attacker made changes to the smart contract’s acquisition price values. Furthermore, this allowed them to charge an astronomically inflated amount for tokens. The address utilized, 0xa2E, has, surprisingly, been used before in similar attacks. Earlier last week, a vulnerability affecting Stars Arena was linked to this Ethereum address. Highlighted Crypto News Today: Hacker Restores Entire $8.2 Million Worth Stolen ETH to HTX Global

Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world, just released its 11th report for its reserves, and the numbers are staggering as always. According to the report, Binance’s XRP holdings, in particular, have increased in the past month. This is evident, as there have been reports of investors depositing XRP into exchanges in the past month. Binance Releases Proof Of Reserves Showing Massive XRP Holdings According to Binance’s Proof of Reserves report, the exchange holds a staggering amount of XRP to cover 104.15% of customer balances. Binance currently has over 2.738 billion XRP tokens worth more than $1.35 billion against customer deposits of 2.629 billion XRP tokens. This marks a rise of almost 50 million XRP in its reserve as compared to the previous month’s total of 2,686,407,725 XRP. As one of the first major exchanges to list XRP in 2017, Binance has been known to be one of the major places for XRP trading. Data from Coingecko shows a trading volume of $84 million of Binance’s XRP/USDT trading pair in the past 24 hours, representing over 16.9% of the total XRP trading volume. This massive XRP stash cements Binance as one of the top holders of XRP and the amount of XRP trading on the exchange. Binance’s Reserves And XRP’s Promising Outlook The latest reserve report shows Binance is fully backed on other cryptocurrencies. Based on the report, the exchange has a BTC ratio of 104.67%, ETH ratio of 107.29%, BNB ratio of 113.72%, USDT ratio of 118.45%, BUSD ratio of 106.99%, USDC ratio of 104.09%, and LTC ratio of 101.31%. The Proof of Reserves report is part of Binance’s push for more transparency. By disclosing its reserves, it aims to assure users that client funds are backed 1:1. While some have backed the reserve data to be consistent with on-chain data, regulators have expressed concerns about the legitimacy of Binance’s reserve audit. XRP has also witnessed movement into other exchanges in the past few months, as recent sporadic updates regarding Ripple have always put the cryptocurrency in the limelight. According to NewsBTC, XRP witnessed a 1,300% surge in trading volume on exchanges at some point. According to predictions from crypto analysts, XRP is set for massive gains in the near future. A new forecast by an analyst predicts that a recently formed 39-month cycle could push XRP as high as $1,000. At the time of writing, XRP is trading at $0.5228, up by 4.92% in the past month. (This site’s content should not be construed as investment advice. Investing involves risk. When you invest, your capital is subject to risk). Featured image from Pandaily

PKR has successfully migrated it’s contract from Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain to Polygon – this means lower gas fees, more secure transactions, and no bridge risks! MEXC and Bitmart will enable deposits and trading at 09:00 UTC on October 7th, and withdrawals will be enabled 09:00 UTC on October 8th. Read the announcement from MEXC here and the announcement from Bitmart here. Bittrex will be following shortly however they are currently still integrating Polygon into their platform – however they are expected to be ready to go live by mid October. At this point it will be full takeoff time with DEX announcement to come along at the same time. The timing could not be any better as the BTC halving is now just over 6 months away, and this is often the catalyst for crypto markets to rebound. As BTC block rewards are halved, the supply shock leads to an organic rise in price which is followed by a shift in sentiment around crypto. Although the past 18 months have been a difficult time for the blockchain industry, the end is in sight and great times are now only just around the corner. PKR is one of the most resilient cryptos of this bear market, with a massive price increase of over 200% in the past 90 days alone. With projects disappearing and teams giving up daily, the fact that Polker and the team are still delivering and that PKR is moving upwards is a just a small indicator of the huge potential that is yet to come. If the token can do 200% during a prolonged bear market, imagine what it will do once the bulls are back. – INSERT AS IFRAME Polker have also made a recent huge announcement regarding its game being available on the Epic Games Store which you can download and play here. Although currently still only available on Windows, the mobile versions of the game are almost ready and will be released during Q4 2023! With such strong momentum from the team at Polker the timing of the PKR token going live is a once in a lifetime event that one really should not miss out on. The future of this project looks bright and we can’t wait to see what the team deliver next!

On day four of the criminal trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Gary Wang, who co-founded the now-bankrupt crypto exchange and served as its former chief technology officer (CTO), testified. During his testimony, the former FTX executive revealed details about the connection between the cryptocurrency exchange and Alameda Research. FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Allegedly Gave Alameda Research ‘Special Privileges’ According to various reports, on Friday, October 6, Wang appeared again in court and testified that Alameda Research’s account on FTX was allowed to trade more funds than it had available. The former FTX CTO reportedly said that Sam Bankman-Fried authorized the integration of a “allow negative” feature, which afforded Alameda “special privileges” on FTX. Wang reportedly revealed that the “allow negative” feature enabled Alameda to hold a negative balance more than FTX’s revenue at some point in 2020 ($200 million against $150 million). According to reports, Wang claimed that he increased Alameda’s line of credit several times and up to $65 billion under Bankman-Fried’s instructions. When the government’s prosecutors questioned where the money came from, Wang reportedly affirmed that it came from FTX’s customers’ funds. Based on the co-founder’s testimony, Bankman-Fried claimed that the “allow negative” feature was all about FTT, a native cryptocurrency “created to act as equity in FTX.” Wang reportedly acknowledged that the customers never authorized their funds to be used by Alameda Research. “The customers did not give us permission to use their accounts like this,” the former FTX chief technology officer allegedly said. Did SBF Repeatedly Lie About Connections With Alameda? During his testimony, Wang was asked whether he remembered Bankman-Fried making public statements about Alameda’s unusual connections with the FTX exchange. “Yes, he (SBF) said they (Alameda Research) were treated equally and didn’t use FTX funds,” the FTX cofounder allegedly affirmed. Furthermore, the prosecutors showed Wang – and the court – a 2019 tweet from SBF claiming that Alameda was not using funds from FTX. Interestingly, Wang affirmed that Bankman-Fried ordered the addition of “allow negative” in the exchange’s codebase on the same day the tweet was made. It appears that is not the only time Bankman-Fried lied about Alameda’s activities on the FTX exchange. The former FTX CTO testified that Bankman-Fried subsequently claimed on Twitter (now X) and on phone calls that customer funds were kept safe. On Thursday, October 5, Gary Wang reportedly admitted to committing fraud-related crimes while at the FTX exchange alongside Sam Bankman-Fried, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, and former engineering director Nishad Singh. With the trial expected to continue till November, it remains to be seen whether or when the other former top FTX and Alameda executives will take the stand.

The number of addresses with 1,000 or more ETH has dropped to a five-year low. ETH recently found support around the $1610 area after facing severe selling pressure. Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, recently put forth ways to address issues of decentralization. He proposes a two-tiered staking mechanism with node operators and delegators as separate participant types. Buterin argued that the network and its users would benefit greatly from this approach and listed many potential advantages. From the vantage point of the network, it may be possible to reap a number of benefits. First, scalability may be considerably improved and computational overhead dropped by lowering the number of signatures per block to about 10,000. Increased difficulties for attackers seeking to hold a majority share would also improve network security and decentralization. Bearish Pressure According to statistics compiled by Glassnode, the number of addresses with 1,000 or more ETH has dropped to a five-year low, reaching only 6,010. This indicates that large investors are either liquidating their holdings or moving their ETH, which might have a detrimental impact on the price of Ethereum. At the time of writing, ETH is trading at $1641, up 0.53% in the last 24 hours as per data from CMC. Moreover, the trading volume is down 16.35%. The price recently found support around the $1610 area after facing severe selling pressure. Moreover, the price has been consolidating lately. Source: CoinMarketCap If the price manages to go past $1660 resistance level then it will likely test $1734 level. If bulls break over this level then it will likely rally all the way till the $2000 mark. However, if the price goes below the recent support of $1610 mark then it will likely head towards $1577 support level.

Shibarium had problems with Ethereum’s bridge and block creation soon after its release. The history of Shibarium is intrinsically linked to its goal of solving scalability problems. Investors have taken notice of a significant achievement by the Shibarium Network, a Layer-2 blockchain. ShibariumScan reports that the SHIB network has achieved 1 million blocks, marking a major milestone for the SHIB ecosystem as a whole. The need for effective and scalable solutions is also brought to light. The path to 1 million blocks was not easy. Shibarium had problems with Ethereum’s bridge and block creation soon after its release. This was all caused by an unanticipated spike in demand. That flooded a single block with data and forced the network into “fail-safe mode.” Solving Scalability Issues However, the Shibarium team’s tenacity and commitment ultimately paid off. Layer-2 was successfully rebuilt after a few weeks of hard labor. And it has since confirmed 1 million blocks with an outstanding average block time of under 5 seconds. The history of Shibarium is intrinsically linked to its goal of solving scalability problems. When it comes to decentralized apps (DApps) and decentralized finance (DeFi) systems, Ethereum, the second biggest crypto by market cap, has been hindered by network congestion and high gas costs. Shibarium is a Layer-2 solution that operates on top of the Ethereum blockchain to provide a more efficient and scalable alternative. This method is appealing to individuals who want to overcome Ethereum’s constraints because of its emphasis on delivering quicker transaction processing at lower costs. Highlighted Crypto News Today: Binance Introduces UK Domain Eyeing Compliance With New Laws

Solana experienced a significant surge of approximately 20% during the last few days of September and into the first week of October. This sudden price increase has piqued the interest of investors and enthusiasts alike, sparking discussions about its underlying causes. One prominent question on people’s minds is whether this uptick in SOL’s value is directly correlated with Bitcoin’s performance during the same period or if there are distinct factors driving SOL’s price rise independently of Bitcoin’s movements. Before this increase, SOL had a tough time because a U.S. court allowed the sale of $1.3 billion worth of SOL from the bankrupt exchange FTX. So, there’s curiosity about whether SOL’s recent price jump is connected to Bitcoin or if there are other factors behind it. Solana: Challenges And Market Allure The Solana (SOL) blockchain network has seen recent difficulties, however it has garnered significant attention and demand in the market. Despite the lackluster price performance of its native token, the proof-of-stake (PoS) network has utilised the bear market to improve its technological capabilities and forge important alliances with prominent entities in the realm of traditional banking. The bankruptcy court has implemented mechanisms to mitigate the potential adverse impact of FTX asset liquidation on the cryptocurrency market. These measures involve mandating the sale of assets through a financial advisor in weekly installments, adhering to predetermined regulations. At the time of writing, SOL was trading at $23.43, down a measly 0.3% in the last 24 hours, but gained sustained an 18% rally in the last seven days, data from crypto market tracker Coingecko shows. SOL Liquidity Soars With Network Stability Nansen, an on-chain analytics firm, recently published a report on Solana, highlighting its key strengths and potential. Solana is known for its cost-efficiency and high-speed transactions, earning it the nickname “The Ethereum Killer.” It boasts a transaction processing speed of over 3,000 transactions per second, which is nearly 30 times faster than Ethereum. The chain’s liquidity improved as a result of the dramatic increase in network stability. At press time, the TVL in terms of SOL was $27.12 million, more than double what it was at the start of the year. Solana’s Rise Fueled by DApps And NFTs, Targets 5th-Largest Crypto Spot The surge of SOL was further bolstered by the expansion in the adoption of decentralized applications (DApps) and the rise in nonfungible token (NFT) volumes on the Solana blockchain. The current price of SOL is now making efforts to establish a support level at $23, aiming to solidify its position as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency (excluding stablecoins) in terms of market capitalization. Meanwhile, recent updates to Solana Compass have revealed details about recent activities on the Solana network, particularly during the 512 epoch. The website that keeps tabs on SOL staking activity suggests that there were around 19.637 million SOL coins that were unstaked during this time. (This site’s content should not be construed as investment advice. Investing involves risk. When you invest, your capital is subject to risk). Featured image from iStock

Stars Arena, a decentralized social media platform built on the Avalanche network, has suffered a major security breach, resulting in the loss of a significant amount of cryptocurrency. This comes barely a day after the decentralized application (dApp) reportedly fixed a loophole in its smart contract. On Thursday, October 5, the Stars Arena team said – via a post on X (formerly Twitter) – that it has averted a security exploit, which could have led to the loss of over $1 million worth of funds. Stars Arena Loses $2.9 Million To Attack, PeckShield Reveals On Saturday, October 7, a pseudonymous X user raised the alarm about the suspicious movement of Avalanche (AVAX) tokens from the Stars Arena contract. A few minutes after this, the protocol’s team confirmed – via a post on X – that there has been a “major security breach with its smart contract.” This exploit has also been flagged by blockchain security firm PeckShield, who disclosed that around $2.9 million in AVAX has been drained from the decentralized social media application. An initial breakdown by the security company identified a reentrancy issue on the Stars Arena Shares contract. “The reentrancy is abused to update the weight when the share/ticket is issued so that 1 share can be sold at a much higher price of approximately 274,000 AVAX,” PeckShield said. As earlier noted, Stars Arena has been gaining some popularity in the past few days. In fact, the recent activity uptick on the Avalanche network has been attributed to the rise of the decentralized social application. However, this latest hack represents a significant deterrent to Stars Arena’s growth. According to data from DeFiLlama, the protocol’s total value locked has plummeted from $1.26 million to $0.47 in the past day, reflecting a 100% decline. Stars Arena went live on Avalanche C-Chain – the blockchain component specifically designed for running smart contracts on Avalanche – in late September. Although the Friend.tech-like platform experienced some traction after launch, recent security concerns seem to be stirring skepticism around its growth. $900 Million Lost To Bad Actors In 2023 Q3 This latest exploit will serve as an unfriendly reminder of the growing security concerns in the crypto space. Particularly, the cryptocurrency industry saw a significant surge in exploits and security breaches in the third quarter of 2023. According to a quarterly report by blockchain security firm Beosin, the losses incurred only in Q3 2023 were larger than the total for the year’s first half. A total of $889.26 million was lost to various attacks in the last quarter, compared to the $663 million lost in 2023’s first six months. Beosin’s report revealed that $540.1 million was lost to hacks, with decentralized finance (DeFi) accounting for 18% of this value. Notably, DeFi peer-to-peer service Mixin Network lost $200 million due to a compromise in its cloud service provider database.

Certain services will be unavailable to UK retail consumers after October 8, 2023. Given its history with the FCA, Binance’s fresh interest in the UK market stands out. Crypto exchange Binance has introduced a new UK-specific domain. This action is a major step toward meeting the requirements of the revised Financial Promotions Regime in the United Kingdom. The FCA-authorized Rebuildingsociety.com Limited is now also a partner of the exchange. The two parties are working together to ensure that Binance’s crypto-related marketing and communications materials meet the requirements of the new UK laws. Stringent Compliance Norms Services provided by the domain will include the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrencies and fiat currency, trade on the spot market, leveraging investments, and access the NFT marketplace. Binance Pay, cryptocurrency loans, and a launchpad are just some of the features that will be accessible. However, certain services will be unavailable to UK retail consumers after October 8, 2023. Some examples include referral incentives, study materials from Binance Academy, feed features, and gift cards. In light of these modifications, retail consumers will have less choice, while some types of investors will continue to have access to more options. Given its history with the FCA, Binance’s fresh interest in the UK market stands out. After Binance’s local company was designated unregulated by the FCA in the middle of 2021, regulators throughout the world issued warnings. So, in June, Binance decided to abandon its FCA registration application. However, the focus has switched, with the exchange now placing more importance on adhering to the UK’s revised Financial Promotions Regime. Highlighted Crypto News Today: Yuga Labs Announces Layoff Citing Global Economic Circumstances

According to multiple reports, iToken, formerly known as Huobi Wallet, fell victim to a crypto heist in the last week, leading to the loss of $263,000 worth of users’ assets. The incident draws much attention following recent police investigations into some of Huobi’s former staff. $263,000 Drained From Huobi Wallet – Could There Be An Internal Involvement? Providing more insight on this latest exploit, prominent security firm Peckshield reported that this event occurred on October 3, with the drainer stealing a total of $263,000 USDT and 92 TRX minted on the Tron network. Thereafter, the bad actor proceeded to swap these stolen funds for approximately 2.9 million TRX, of which 1.4 million TRX was transferred to the ChangeNOW exchange, and 1.5 million TRX was moved to Binance. Currently, there are speculations that this heist was orchestrated by the internal staff of Huobi as such development would be unprecedented. In September, the Chinese Police were reported to have arrested a former Huobi team member for implanting a Trojan horse virus that resulted in the exposure of the private keys and mnemonic phrases of some iToken users. Launched in 2018, iToken functions as a professional DeFi wallet, which enables the storage of various digital assets across multiple networks. It was initially known as the Huobi wallet, as earlier stated, but was rebranded iToken in 2022, following a $200 million investment from the Huobi Group. Growing Controversy Around Huobi? In addition to speculations of insider involvement in this recent heist, Huobi, now rebranded as HTX, has been in the news recently and not for positive reasons. On September 25, the exchange fell victim to a hack that drained 5,000 ETH worth $7.9 million. However, the exchange’s advisor and Tron founder, Justin Sun, soon came out to assure users of total asset recovery and security of the exchange’s operation. However, this week, crypto expert Dylan LeClair wrote a thread on X accusing the Tron Visioneer of creating a “web of deception.” This marks the second time in recent weeks Justin Sun has been accused of malicious dealings involving users’ assets on Huobi. According to LeClair, ever since Sun acquired a controlling stake in Huobi in late 2022, the amount of USDT held on the exchange has been gradually replaced by stUSDT, a receipt token for staking USDT. The stUSDT token is controlled by Justin Sun and is supposedly designed to invest in real-world assets such as US government bonds. However, LeClair stated that on-chain analysis and transactions show no such investment. The crypto analyst also drew attention to “worrying” transactions by Justin Sun involving JustLend, a Tron-based DeFi lending platform, and other stablecoins, including USDT and USDC, before concluding that the Tron Founder is maliciously moving USD liquidity out of the crypto space. At the time of writing, HTX’s native token, HT, hovers around $2.36 with a 0.74% gain in the last day, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, HT’s daily trading volume is up by 10.64% and is valued at $3.47 million

Following the announcement that the AMM functionality would be proposed as an amendment under the latest rippled version, many in the XRP community have continued to wonder how soon it could be implemented if passed. As a result, Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) David Schwartz has provided some answers to the community to quench speculations. How Soon The AMM Implementation Could Happen In response to a tweet asking how soon the AMM will go live on the ledger after voting, Schwartz stated that it should be enabled on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) “in about two weeks” if most validators vote yes to the proposal. The voting process kickstarted on September 7 following the announcement by Ripple’s developers. However, it seems that validators haven’t looked through the proposal yet or taken action. To the best of his knowledge, Schwartz mentioned that no validator has voted yes to the proposal yet, and 80% of validators need to vote yes for the amendment to be passed. He further gave his opinion on how the process should go, as he believes “validators shouldn’t vote yes individually.” Rather, the decision should lie with the community, with the validators voting in favor of the amendment if they “believe” the community supports it. Contrary to what many may think, the amendment process isn’t “supposed to be a governance mechanism,” according to Schwartz. Instead, the aim of the voting process is to “coordinate activation and prevent activation if a problem is discovered.” He emphasized that validators should be guided by the community’s decision, not what “they think is best.” Schwartz’s Role In Ensuring Amendment Is Passed In a subsequent tweet, the Ripple CTO mentioned that he was going to review the performance testing results in the next few days and run a “few code checks” using feedback that he had gotten from several people. If everything works out fine and no “new objections surface,” Schwartz mentioned that he will “start asking people to consider voting yes.” Meanwhile, Ripple’s developers confirmed in a tweet that they have completed the extensive performance testing of the AMM feature. If adopted, this AMM functionality will bring “automated swap, trading, and liquidity provisioning capabilities to the ledger.” Community members also have a chance to earn passive income by acting as liquidity providers (LPs) to the ecosystem. Many in the XRP community seem to have welcomed the idea of a novel AMM feature on the XRPL, as it could help improve liquidity on the network and enhance faster and seamless trading. However, the same cannot be said about the ‘Clawback feature,’ another proposed amendment under the latest rippled version. Despite Schwartz defending the feature, many in the community argue that it undermines the essence of blockchain technology and decentralization. Featured image from CoinCodex

In a recent development, Bitcoin proponent and crypto advisor to El Salvador’s President Max Keiser has made a future prediction for the Bitcoin price, joining the ranks of analysts who have made bold assertions about the flagship cryptocurrency’s trajectory. Keiser Says Bitcoin Price To $220,000 In a tweet shared on his X (formerly Twitter) platform, Keiser stated that the Bitcoin price will experience an explosive rise to $220,000 in the short term. However, he didn’t specify how soon the crypto token would see such a rally. He made this assertion in response to a CNBC article about the current decline in the financial market amid economic and inflation concerns. In a subsequent tweet, Keiser once again reiterated that Bitcoin would rise to $220,000 as he claims that “Central banks will print a wall of money visible from outer space.” His belief seems to stem from the fact that many will be looking to use Bitcoin as a hedge against rising inflation. He even alluded to the fact that the US dollar was losing its purchasing power “at a very rapid pace.” He gave an instance of how paying $100 for hamburgers years ago looked like a joke, but he had just spent “$84 for a very ordinary hamburger.” For the longest time, Keiser has been bullish on the foremost cryptocurrency. In 2011, he called Bitcoin the “currency of the resistance” and the “biggest story of the decade.” Additionally, he always touted a financial collapse as what would spark a massive rally in the Bitcoin price. Then, he stated that Bitcoin’s adoption and price will increase as banks collapse. Arthur Hayes, the co-founder of BitMEX, also shares similar sentiments with Keiser. He recently stated that the government would likely resort to money printing to save the bond market, which could lead to a meteoric rise in Bitcoin’s price and other cryptocurrencies. Is Inflation Good Or Bad For Crypto? There seem to be divergent views on how rising inflation could affect Bitcoin and the crypto market by extension. While people like Keiser and Hayes see rising inflation as bullish for Bitcoin, others like Crypto analyst Nicholas Merten believe that inflation could spell more trouble for Bitcoin’s price. According to Merten, the Federal Reserve needs to keep hiking interest rates to bring down the inflation rate as there is excess money in the system due to the “excess printing of money.” Meanwhile, Bloomberg analyst Mike McGlone warned that the rising interest rates could cause a further decline in the Bitcoin price. There also seems to be a correlation between the stock and crypto markets. As such, it doesn’t seem like Bitcoin and the crypto market exist in isolation, as any financial crisis could significantly impact it.

Remote-First-Company/MIAMI–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Coinbase Global, Inc. (the “Company” or “Coinbase”) announced today that it will publish its third quarter 2023 shareholder letter, including financial results, on its Investor Relations website at investor.coinbase.com on Thursday, November 2, 2023, after market close. The Company will hold a question and answer session to discuss its financial results at 2:30 p.m. PT that same day. Starting on October 26 at 9:00 a.m. PT, all shareholders will be able to submit and upvote questions for Coinbase management by visiting here. This Q&A platform will remain open until 24 hours before the earnings call. Shareholders can email [email protected] for any support inquiries. To register for the webcast, please use this link. A live webcast of the call will be available on the Investor Relations website at investor.coinbase.com. Following the call, a replay of the call, as well as a transcript, will be available on the same website. Disclosure Information Coinbase uses the investor.coinbase.com and blog.coinbase.com websites, as well as press releases, public conference calls, public webcasts, our Twitter feed (@coinbase), our Facebook page, our LinkedIn page, our YouTube channel, and Brian Armstrong’s Twitter feed (@brian_armstrong) as means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. About Coinbase Coinbase is building the cryptoeconomy – a more fair, accessible, efficient, and transparent financial system enabled by crypto. The Company started in 2012 with the radical idea that anyone, anywhere, should be able to easily and securely send and receive Bitcoin. Today, Coinbase offers a trusted and easy-to-use platform for accessing the broader cryptoeconomy. Contacts Press: [email protected] Investor Relations: [email protected]

ZachXBT, a crypto investigator, found evidence of funds being robbed on Galxe. The website was blocked until the problem was fixed. On the 6th of October, the Galxe website, a Web3 community platform, was down for around an hour. At 14:44 UTC, Galxe posted on Twitter that their website was offline. Forty minutes later, the company confirmed that an attack had compromised its DNS record. The website was blocked until the problem was fixed. Some twitter commenters claimed that Google blacklisted the site again once it was restored. ZachXBT, a crypto investigator, found evidence of funds being robbed on Galxe. Despite the restoration of the Galxe website, the wallet ZachXBT associated with the exploit continued to accrue funds, reaching about $160,000 at 17:15 UTC. Similar Attack The Balancer protocol was attacked on September 19, and ZachXBT suspected that the Galxe exploiter was involved. In a month’s time, it was Balancer’s second time being attacked. The second assault on Balancer resulted in losses of $238,000. The Balancer team has determined that a crypto wallet drainer known as Angel Drainer was responsible for the issue by posing as a legitimate user in order to get access to the DNS server. SlowMist, a blockchain security company, hypothesized that the attacker had ties to Russia. Recent data from the security platform Immunefi shows that losses to Web3 projects rose in the Q3 of this year compared to the same period in 2022. In Q3 2023, attacks increased from 30% to 76% year over year, and losses reached $686 million. Highlighted Crypto News Today: Canada Issues Preliminary Guidelines for Stablecoin Trading

CEO Daniel Alegre relayed the news to the team, underlining the move’s need. Yuga Labs’ worldwide staff is preparing for the possibility of structural changes. The creative studio behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks, Yuga Labs, has announced a round of layoffs across its U.S departments. CEO Daniel Alegre relayed the news to the team, underlining the move’s need during tough global economic circumstances. Consequently, the organization is getting through these tough times by concentrating on what it does best and making sure it can keep doing it forever. In addition, the internal alterations remain cloaked in secrecy, with the precise number of impacted personnel remaining unknown. Greg Solano, however, the company’s co-founder, revealed some information about the company’s activities. He assured everyone that even with the cutbacks, Yuga still has more than 120 workers supporting their creative efforts. Restructuring Efforts While the United States teams have taken the worst hit, the restructuring’s effects on the rest of the world are still being evaluated. As a result, Yuga Labs’ worldwide staff is preparing for the possibility of structural changes. Six months after taking over as CEO, Daniel Alegre saw something critical was missing. He saw that the team’s efforts were being spread thin by a number of initiatives that had good intentions but required knowledge outside of their area of competence. Thus, the reorganization choice affects the make-up of the team and represents a strategy move towards more competent project execution. In addition, Alegre’s background as president and COO of Activision Blizzard might be invaluable in dealing with these changes. Highlighted Crypto News Today: Canada Issues Preliminary Guidelines for Stablecoin Trading

Solana (SOL), a layer 1 proof-of-stake blockchain, has introduced version 1.16, which enhances user privacy through “Confidential Transfers.” This update includes encrypted Solana Program Library (SPL) token transactions, ensuring confidentiality rather than anonymity. The adoption of version 1.16 by Solana’s network of validators has reached a majority after ten months of development and an audit by Halborn, a blockchain security firm. Solana Labs Rolls Out Privacy-Enhancing Update According to the announcement made by Solana’s infrastructure provider Helius, The update has undergone rigorous testing, with v1.16 running on testnet since June 7, 2023. Volunteer and canary nodes have reportedly played a crucial role in identifying and resolving issues during the testing phase. Solana Labs has also deployed canary nodes on mainnet-beta to monitor the stability of v1.16 under real-world conditions. Solana employs a feature gate system to prevent consensus-breaking changes, ensuring that validators running older versions do not fork off the canonical chain. What’s more, Consensus-breaking changes now require a Solana Improvement Document (SIMD) and greater transparency through documentation. Confidential Transfers, introduced by Token2022, utilize zero-knowledge proofs to encrypt balances and transaction amounts of SPL tokens, prioritizing user privacy. Looking ahead, Solana Labs plans to adopt a more agile release cycle, targeting smaller releases approximately every three months. Room For Growth According to a Nansen report, Solana has witnessed a significant surge in its Total Value Locked (TVL) throughout this year, nearly doubling since the beginning of 2023, and currently boasting a TVL of 30.95 million SOL. Monthly transactions on the Solana network have remained relatively stable, with an increase in vote transactions, encompassing both vote and non-vote transactions. Furthermore, Nansen highlights that Solana has implemented innovative solutions such as state compression and isolated fee markets to address prominent issues within its tech stack. One notable solution, state compression, has substantially reduced the cost of non-fungible token (NFT) minting on Solana more than 2,000 times. State Compression Unleashes Affordable NFT Minting For instance, the cost of minting 1 million NFTs before the introduction of state compression would have amounted to approximately $253,000. In contrast, with state compression enabled, the cost is significantly reduced to just $113. In comparison, minting a similar collection size on Ethereum would cost approximately $33.6 million, and on Polygon, it would amount to around $32,800. Furthermore, the liquid staking landscape on Solana is experiencing rapid growth, with leading platforms like Marinade Finance, Lido Finance, and Jito taking the forefront. However, despite this growth, the current amount of staked SOL in Solana’s liquid staking protocols accounts for less than 3% of the total staked SOL, indicating substantial room for expansion. It is worth noting that the report by Nansen raises concerns about the uncertainty surrounding FTX/Alameda’s SOL holdings, as FTX holds over 71.8 million SOL, representing approximately 17% of the circulating supply and 13% of the total supply. While this situation may present temporary risks to Solana’s growth trajectory, it is essential to monitor its impact closely. On the other hand, the native token of the protocol, SOL, continues to exhibit substantial gains across all timeframes. The token is trading at $23.68, reflecting an increase of over 4% in the past 24 hours. Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com