Cryptocurrency
Curve Finance to reimburse users, another DeFi hack, and ConsenSys launches L2: Finance Redefined
Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you the most significant developments from the past week.
Over two weeks after Curve Finance’s multiple pool exploits, the DeFi protocol has assured the hack victims that it is assessing each impacted user for reimbursement. This comes after the exploiter returned 73% of the stolen funds.
The DeFi ecosystem moved beyond the Curve dilemma only to face another set of exploits this past week, with Zunami Protocol seeing its stablecoins pools exploited, resulting in a net loss of over $2 million. However, the week was also filled with optimistic developments as ConsenSys completed the public launch of its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM), Linea, with $26 million worth of Ether (ETH) bridged.
In another development, Fantom-based decentralized exchange SpiritSwap was rescued from its shutdown at the last moment through a community resolution.
Curve Finance vows to reimburse users after $62 million hack
Curve Finance has officially stated its intention to reimburse users impacted by its recent hack, which resulted in $62 million in losses. According to an X (formerly Twitter) post from its official account, ongoing investigations are yielding progress, with approximately 79% of the funds successfully recovered. The platform also said it would assess each impacted user for reimbursement.
This assessment aims to ensure an equitable distribution of resources. The incident on July 30 involved malicious actors exploiting vulnerabilities within the release history of Curve Finance’s Vyper compiler.
Zunami Protocol confirms stablecoin pools attacked, $2.1 million loss estimated
Decentralized finance protocol Zunami Protocol has advised users not to buy any of its Zunami Ether (zETH) or Zunami USD (UZD) stablecoins after encountering an attack on its “zStables” pools on Curve Finance.
On Aug. 13, Zunami confirmed on X that its stablecoin pools had encountered an attack, adding that collateral remains secure as it begins an investigation into the potential exploit.
$26 million ETH bridged: ConsenSys completes public launch of zkEVM Linea
ConsenSys has completed the launch of its Ethereum scaling rollup Linea, onboarding over 150 partners and bridging more than $26 million in ETH to date.
Linea went live with select partners onboarded to the alpha mainnet in July 2023, allowing developers to migrate existing decentralized applications (DApps) from Ethereum’s mainnet or other scaling solutions. The zkEVM is a layer-2 scaling solution that provides lower transaction costs and higher throughput for DApps in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Fantom DEX rescued at the eleventh hour following a planned shutdown
SpiritSwap, a decentralized exchange (DEX) on Fantom, will no longer shut its doors in September after its treasury funds were stuck on the troubled cross-chain protocol Multichain. In an Aug. 16 community vote, SpiritSwap users passed a resolution to transfer the project to Power, a fellow nonfungible token platform and DEX based on Fantom. Power will deploy 200,000 USD Coin (USDC) into the SpiritSwap treasury.
On Aug. 9, SpiritSwap said it would wind down operations by Sept. 1 if it could not find a team to take over after the Multichain exploit drained its entire treasury. Interestingly, Power was also exposed to the Multichain fiasco but only suffered “small” losses, as its treasury assets were not bridged to Multichain.
DeFi market overview
Despite the late market turmoil, DeFi’s total value locked in DeFi protocols saw a bullish surge in the past week. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization had a bullish week; however, the late Thursday dip washed away the gains, leaving most tokens trading in red on the weekly charts. The total value locked into DeFi protocols touched $49.8 billion for the first time in five months.
Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education regarding this dynamically advancing space.
Cryptocurrency
Scam Alert: The Shiba Inu (SHIB) Team Sounds the Alarm for This Fraudulent Scheme
TL;DR
- Scammers are exploiting excitement around Shiba Inu’s TREAT token launch, scheduled for January 14, 2025.
- Fraudsters also target the SHIB community with fake giveaways, phishing emails, and forged social media accounts. Users should protect their information and report suspicious activities.
‘Stay Safe, SHIBARMY!’
Wrongdoers often target the vast Shiba Inu (SHIB) community, which consists of millions of investors, proponents, and developers. They use different methods to embezzle unsuspecting victims, often conning them with fake offers about assets part of the meme coin’s ecosystem.
The most recent scheme includes TREAT, a reward token that provides incentives for users engaging with Shiba Inu’s protocols, including the layer-2 scaling solution Shibarium. The team recently announced that its official launch will be on January 14.
While the development sparked huge enthusiasm across the community, Shibarium Trustwatch (an X account that aims to provide security) warned users to remain extra careful until that date.
The team claimed that scammers have used the ongoing excitement as an opportunity to offer fake TREAT services to people, alerting users to stay away from such dubious individuals.
“They are now using SHIB socials linked to their FAKE TREAT. Please don’t be misled by these predatory scammers. They can be called vultures, circling and looking for their next feed. We ask with heaven on our side, please do not fall for these scams.
Be clear: the TREAT launch is scheduled for the 14th of January 2025, not before. If you are unsure about anything at any time, check with us first. Stay safe, SHIBARMY,” the warning reads.
Previous Alerts
Around Christmas, Shibarium Trustwatch warned people to stay vigilant for several common crypto scams that may result in crucial losses. Some examples are fake giveaways, which offer “free” tokens, merchandise, or NFTs, and phishing emails.
The team claimed fraudsters send emails to victims, pretending to be from official SHIB-related projects, thus trying to steal their login credentials.
Other things the community should watch out for include fake social media accounts, Ponzi schemes, forgery charity appeals, and more.
“Providing personal information or falling for these scams doesn’t just put you at risk – it may lead to your data being sold on the dark web, where hackers can use it for identity theft or other malicious activities. Scammers exploit trust, kindness, and generosity, especially during the holiday season, so we must stay vigilant,” the team said at the time.
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Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin Price Taps $99K, Avalanche Jumps 4% Daily (Market Watch)
Bitcoin maintained its Friday and weekend gains and even jumped to a multi-week peak of almost $100,000 before it was stopped once again and pushed south by nearly a grand.
Most altcoins are quite sluggish on a daily scale as well, with ETH remaining above $3,600 and SOL standing above $210.
BTC Came Close to $100K
The beginning of the previous business week was anything but positive for BTC as the asset slumped to a monthly low of $91,300. Its volatile rollercoaster continued in the following days with several fluctuations worth thousands of dollars.
It pumped to over $96,000 on New Year’s Eve but was quickly pushed south to under $93,000. The bulls finally stepped up for good at that point and pushed it to over $97,000 by January 2. Following another brief retracement by about a grand, BTC shot up to $99,000 on Friday amid the growing ETF inflows.
Although the trading volumes during the weekend declined, BTC maintained its run and remained at relatively the same position. Monday began on a more favorable note, with a surge to a two-week peak of $99,800 (on Bitstamp), where it faced enhanced resistance.
As of now, bitcoin stands at around $99,000 after a minor retracement, with its market cap above $1.960 trillion and its dominance over the alts at 53.4% on CG.
AVAX on the Rise
Most larger-cap alts have failed to produce any big moves in either direction. ETH, BNB, SUI, and LINK have charted minor gains, while XRp, SOL, DOGE, and ADA are with insignificant losses.
Avalanche is the top performer from the larger-cap alts. AVAX has risen by almost 5% and now sits around $44. The other notable gainers include RNDR, FET, and FIL, with increases of around 6-7%.
The total crypto market cap has added around $30 billion overnight and is up to $3.680 trillion on CG.
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Cryptocurrency charts by TradingView.
Cryptocurrency
Is it Time to Buy XRP? This Indicator Says Yes
TL:DR;
- XRP was hit hard during the market-wide correction in late December but has gained a lot of traction since the start of the new year.
- A popular indicator now flashed green, suggesting a potential buy signal for Ripple’s cross-border token.
The indicator in question is the TD Sequential, which is a popular tool used to determine the market exhaustion in either direction. According to Ali Martinez, a crypto analyst with over 100,000 followers on X, it has now presented a ‘buy signal’ for XRP on the 4-hour chart.
The TD Sequential presents a buy signal on the $XRP 4-hour chart, anticipating a price rebound! pic.twitter.com/QitMbED2DA
— Ali (@ali_charts) January 5, 2025
Previously, the same analyst warned that XRP could drop toward $2, which might be followed by another impressive rally that could propel the asset to as high as $11.
While that eventual price target sounds a bit far-fetched now, the TD Sequential has already showcased several proper buying opportunities in the past few weeks.
During the late December broader market crash, it flashed green for BTC when its price struggled below $95,000. Although the largest cryptocurrency dipped hard a week later, it ultimately bounced off and now sits above $99,000, marking a 4.5% increase since then.
Its success is even more profound for DOGE. It presented a ‘buy signal’ on December 24, when the asset’s price dumped to $0.312. Since then, the OG meme coin has skyrocketed by more than 22% and now sits above $0.38.
It has been more modest when predicting future gains for SHIB. It flashed again on December 24 when the second-largest meme coin traded at $0.000023, but it has forecasted only a minor 3.8% increase since then, with SHIB now standing close to $0.000024.
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