NFT News by Thebittimes.Com

The integration of web3 wallet s into mainstream trading platforms heralds a new era in digital finance, blending the realms of cefi and defi while also raising concerns about increased vulnerability to crypto fraud . According to Bitrace and WuBlockchain, the integration of web3 wallets into mainstream trading platforms like OKX and Binance signals a significant shift. This fusion of centralized finance and decentralized finance is reshaping user interaction with digital assets and decentralized applications. However, this transition is not without its pitfalls, particularly regarding fraud risks. Bitrace: Beware as Trading Platforms Launch Web3 Wallets, Intensifying Cryptocurrency Fraud Risks The launch of Web3 wallets by platforms like OKX and Binance signifies the integration of Centralized Finance (CeFi) and DeFi as an industry trend. However, while breaking down the… — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) November 28, 2023 You might also like: Report reveals reason ...

ShuttleFlow will change ownership to be operated and developed by Zero Gravity. ShuttleFlow, the ecosystem multichain protocol operated and maintained by Conflux Foundation, also known as the Shanghai Tree-Graph Block chain Research Institute, will shut down after two years .  The ShuttleFlow technology stack will instead be transferred to Web3 studio Zero Gravity, which will continue to develop the protocol under a new brand. "All user funds are secure and will be migrated from ShuttleFlow to Zero Gravity," developers wrote, adding, "Users who have previously bridged through ShuttleFlow and completed the claim of their bridged assets on the destination chain do not need to undergo any additional operations for the migration." "After ShuttleFlow shuts down its bridging, users can bridge through Zero Gravity's official dApp or continue using the bridging aggregator, which will integrate Zero Gravity when launched." The ShuttleFlow decentralized a...

A panel of industry experts indicated growing, albeit cautious, adoption of crypto currencies and blockchain technology by mainstream financial institutions at the European Blockchain Convention on Wednesday. The panel consisted of Nikou Asgari, digital markets correspondent at Financial Times, Manuel Nordeste of Fidelity Digital Assets, Christopher Siedentopf of Uphold, Eliezer Ndinga of 21Shares and Anya Nova of GKS. Nordeste said the firm has seen increased interest from traditional financial institutions despite the volatility. We certainly continue to invest in this business with the view that, you know, perhaps even though we have very volatile and very sort of extreme cycles in this asset class, that there’s an upwards trajectory in terms of adoption . Manuel Nordeste However, the panelists agreed that lack of clear regulations remains a significant hurdle for wider adoption . We can’t get around regulation. So for me, that’s key. Christopher Sieden...

Euroclear has joined forces with the World Bank to unveil a novel tokenized securities issuance service, marked by a €100 million digital bond issuance, aiming to integrate DeFi technology into TradFi services and enhance efficiency, transparency and accessibility. Euroclear, a major European clearinghouse, has collaborated with the World Bank to launch a tokenized securities issuance service. This initiative was marked by the issuance of a €100 million , $106 million , digital bond, as revealed in a press release on Tuesday. Euroclear’s Digital Securities Issuance (D-SI) unit is at the forefront, facilitating the issuance, distribution, and settlement of fully digital financial assets through distributed ledgers. Distributed ledgers are unique in their structure, as they allow each participant, or node, in a network to hold and update a database independently. The World Bank Group’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) is utilizing this bond to channel ...

In a recent interactive session, Ethereum’s co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, shed light on the platform’s technical advances and celebrated emerging decentralized projects within its ecosystem. In a recent Ask Me Anything (AMA) session, Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin touched on several topics that offer a glimpse into the potential trajectory of the Ethereum ecosystem. Drawing insights from a report by Odaily news, the discourse ranged from technical advancements to acknowledgments of decentralized projects, weaving a narrative of Ethereum’s evolving landscape. Foremost, Buterin delved into the intricacies of quantum resistance—a burgeoning concern in the blockchain community given the potential of quantum computing to challenge existing cryptographic systems. He discussed the role of account abstraction, specifically through Ethereum’s proposal ERC-4337. This initiative, according to Buterin, can imbue users’ accounts with quantum-resistant propertie...

The initial impact amounted to 20 Ether, worth $31,000, while the validator involved has now been taken offline. Ethereum staking protocol Lido Finance has disclosed its protocol saw 20 slashing events due to a series of infrastructure and signer configuration issues from validators operated by Launchnodes. The incident occurred on Oct. 11 at about 3:30 pm UTC, according to Launchnodes. In an Oct. 11 post on X, Lido said the Launchnodes' validators nodes are now offline, and slashings have ceased while the root cause was being investigated. The slashing took place on the Ethereum blockchain and Lido projected the impact to be around 20 Ether (ETH), worth $31,000, as well as additional penalties while the validator s are offline for troubleshooting, along with inactivity penalties that the validator s will accumulate. 20 slashings have occurred relating to validators operated by the @launchnodes node operators as a part of the Lido protocol. Launchnodes and DAO contributors are in...

DeFi exploits resulted in losses of over $16 million in August. 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. In this week’s newsletter, Ethereum staking services have agreed upon a 22% limit on all validators to ensure fair markets. August proved to be another costly month for DeFi as several protocols were collectively exploited for $16 million. In separate exploit news, Balancer protocol lost nearly $900,000 due to a vulnerability flagged months ago. Shibarium’s second launch proved more stable as the layer-2 protocol already has over 100,000 new wallets, and USD Coin (USDC) is set to debut on Coinbase’s layer-2 platform later this week. The DeFi market had another late-week bearish decline due to an overall market fall after news dropped of a delay in the decision on approval of a spot Bitcoin’s spot exchange-traded fund (ETF). Most DeFi tok...

Yield Tokenization: The Next Big Thing? Significantly, Pendle Finance operates on a model that tokenizes yield. It differentiates yield-bearing tokens like Lido’s stETH into two separate components: the principal and the yield-bearing segment.  advertisement We're excited to announce that we'v invested in @pendle_fi! Pendle Finance is a yield derivative protocol that enables users to execute advanced yield strategies, bringing the TradFi interest derivative market to DeFi.https://t.co/CDDXCWRCbQ — Binance Labs Fund (@ Binance Labs) August 23, 2023 Recommended Articles Crypto Presale Projects For 2023 To Invest; Updated List Must Read Best Crypto Trading Bots List 2023 Must Read ...

The program will provide seed money, mentoring and support to approved applicants. The Bitcoin Frontier Fund, formerly Stacks Ventures, launched what it’s calling the first Bitcoin Ordinals accelerator program on Aug. 14. Program Information This program is led by VC @TO & is a 4-month program for builders to raise funding, connect with mentors, & be guided by the best in the industry (sneak peak below). It will help with co-founder relationships, mentors & advisors, fundraising & pitching. pic.twitter.com/MSykk2l7Dl — Bitcoin Frontier Fund (@BTCFrontierFund) August 14, 2023 According to the program ’s website, the Bitcoin Frontier Fund is offering seed money to startups innovating in the Ordinals space along with access to funding pipelines and mentorship: “We offer $100k in investment and a badass program and community to take your startup to the next level, in exchange for 2-3% equity in common shares.” Startups with no “substantial funding” will be required...

The first quarter of 2023 saw Bitcoin outperform traditional assets after a 72% quarterly gain in market capitalization. The cryptocurrency ecosystem has enjoyed a buoyant start to the year as Bitcoin (BTC) and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols surge in market capitalization through the first quarter of 2023. These are the key takeaways from the first quarterly Crypto Industry Report published by CoinGecko on April 18. BTC emerged as the best-performing asset of Q1 2023, with gains of 72.4%, outperforming the likes of the NASDAQ index and Gold which marked 15.7% and 8.4% gains, respectively. The report highlights that all major asset classes saw gains through the first quarter of the year, barring crude oil, which dropped by 6.1%. This decline was attributed to United States inflation data which cited a reduction in oil demand and ill effects of the U.S. banking crisis. Bitcoin has been the best performing asset through the first three months of 2023. Source: CoinGecko 2023 Q1 Cr...

Bridge protocols LayerZero, Celer, Wormhole, LiFi, and others have already committed to implementing the new protocol. Gnosis, the team behind Gnosis Safe multi-sig and Gnosis Chain, has launched a hash oracle aggregator for blockchain bridges, according to an announcement from the company. In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Gnosis CEO Martin Köppelmann stated that the new aggregator should make bridges more secure by requiring more than one bridge to validate a withdrawal before it can be confirmed. Multiple bridge protocols have already committed to integrating with Hashi, including Succinct Labs, DendrETH, ZK Collective, Connext, Celer, LayerZero, Axiom, Wormhole and LI.FI, according to the announcement.  Over $2 billion was stolen from bridges in 2021 and 2022, according to a report by Token Terminal. Bugs in the code have caused some bridge hacks, whereas others have been caused by the attacker taking over a multi-sig governance wallet. According to Köppelmann, Hashi can provi...

A new survival MMORPG PvP enables players to set up shop within the game and become a core part of the blockchain economy. The concept of the metaverse was conceived with the aim of providing humanity with a better life in the digital world. Today, video games are leading the way as the most active bridge for physical and digital world interactions. The same goes for blockchain-based games, as gamers who have tasted true ownership of digital assets flocked to Web3 games. Data shows that over half of active blockchain wallets were used in the GameFi space in 2022. As the blockchain gaming market gets crowded, players start to expect more from  play-to-earn (P2E) games. Users put game improvements as the top expectation for blockchain gaming in 2023. However, having a good game is not enough for gamers, either — another study showed that over 51% of users participate in GameFi to make profits. As a result, poorly designed game economies became the leading factor affecting GameFi profits...

Euler Finance became the victim of a flash loan attack where the exploiter managed to drain hundreds of millions worth of decentralized stablecoins and synthetic ERC-20 tokens. Ethereum-based non-custodial lending protocol Eurler finance faced a flash loan attack on March 13, with the attack er managing to steal millions in DAI, USDC, staked Ether (StETH) and wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). According to on-chain data, the exploiter carried out multiple transactions stealing nearly $196 million as per the last update. On-chain data analytic firm Certik data indicates the exploiter has stolen nearly 43 million in decentralized stablecoin DAI and nearly 93,800 in wrapped Ether (wETH). The ongoing attack has already become the largest hack of 2023.  The breakdown of stolen funds are as follows: Funds stolen from Euler Finance. Source: BlockSec. According to another crypto analytic firm Meta Seluth, the attack er is correlated with the deflation attack that occurred one month ago. The attack e...

An Arbitrum-based algorithmic stablecoin project has fallen prey to a smart contract exploit, seeing $2 million stolen from users. Prospective users of an Arbitrum-based decentralized finance (DeFi) project have been left out of pocket following a $2 million exploit . Web3 security firm CertiK flagged the incident on Feb. 21, following an announcement from the Hope Finance Twitter account notifying users that they had been scammed. #CommunityAlert @hope_fin have announced the community has been scammed for ~$2m making this the largest #exitscam on Arbitrum in 2023. $1.86m was transferred to @TornadoCash. Hope_fin have posted steps for user's to withdraw their staked LPhttps://t.co/hJbFXiKujt — CertiK Alert (@CertiKAlert) February 21, 2023 Details of the project are difficult to come by. The platform’s Twitter account was launched in January 2023 and outlined plans for an algorithmic stablecoin called $HOPE which dynamically adjusts its supply relative to the price of ETH....

A new suite of tools for Web3 businesses targets the safety and security of transactions, websites and smart contacts to combat exploits. A big concern for users in decentralized finance (DeFi) is its susceptibility to exploits. A report from Privacy Affairs revealed hackers stole $4.3 billion worth of cryptocurrency from January to November 2022 — a 37% increase from the previous year. Such exploits harm the integrity of companies and fuel skeptics from outside of the space in their case against cryptocurrencies. However, in a Feb. 2 announcement from Web3 Builders, the company revealed a suite of tools to combat this issue. The initial browser extension TrustCheck was created to flag Web3- related Scams before users continue to interact with them. This new suite of tools builds on that via a Web3 Builders transaction checker, website checker and smart contract checker. Ricky Pellegrini, the CEO of Web3 Builders, said this is an integral moment for the industry to prove its trust...

Following a failed short attack, DeFi exploiter Avraham Eisenberg was liquidated from Aave at a loss of $10 million. According to a new post on Jan. 26, Marc Zeller integrations lead at decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol Aave stated that the firm purchased 2.7 million Curve (CRV) tokens which would clear "excessive remaining bad debt" within the next 15 hours over a dozen transactions. The move follows the community approval of Aave Improvement Protocol (AIP) 144, which deployed a swap contract that acquires 2,700,000 units of CRV, with a USDC spend limit of $3,105,000 and max unit value of $1.15 per CRV token. The bad debt on the Aave protocol resulted from a sophisticated exploit that took place on Nov. 23. Avaraham Eisenberg, who previously drained DeFi protocol Mango Markets and caused $47 million in net damages, took on a series of heavy volume short CRV positions on Aave in an attempt to orchestrate a short squeeze and force developers to buyback his posi...

Solana’s usage data and ecosystem development do not support the recent bullish rally, raising the probability of a SOL price correction. Solana’s (SOL) recent 250% rally to $25 has shocked many investors in the crypto market. At the same time, traders who had eyes on the negative funding rate for SOL in the futures market could have anticipated the bullish move ahead of others. It’s because excessive negative funding rates, like the one in Solana displayed below, implies that the majority of traders are on the short side, providing an opportunity for buyers to run their stops. SOL funding rate for perpetual swaps. Source: Coinglass Regardless of the reason behind the price increase, if enough buyers are interested in joining the bullish move, it can turn into a medium-to-long-term bullish trend. However, Solana's fundamental and market analysis shows weakness, which will more likely cause a steep correction in the altcoin. Solana finds a worthy competitor in NFT space Solana rank...

The BitKeep team confirmed that some APK package downloads have been hijacked by attackers and installed by users. While many are still enjoying the holiday season, hackers are hard at work, draining around $8 million in an ongoing BitKeep wallet exploit.  On Dec. 26, some users of the multichain crypto wallet BitKeep reported that their funds were being drained and transferred while they were not using their wallets . In their official Telegram group, the BitKeep team confirmed that some APK package downloads have been hijacked by some attackers and have been installed with code that was implanted by hackers. They wrote: “If your funds are stolen, the application you download or update may be an unknown version (unofficial release version) hijacked.” As the hack continues, the BitKeep team urged its users to transfer their funds to a wallet that came from official sources like Google Play and the Apple App Store. Apart from this, the team also asked community members to use newly ...

"Ultimately, we must harden the business model to produce more swap volumes & generate more fees," wrote CEO Jared Grey. According to a new Twitter post by SushiSwap CEO Jared Grey, the decentralized exchange, or DEX, experienced a $30 million loss in the past 12 months on incentives for liquidity providers, or LPs. As explained by Grey, SushiSwap currently employs a token-based emission strategy to incentivize LPs, but the current rate is "unsustainable." "We commissioned Flipside to build dashboards to showcase these results; we'll make them available by EOY." Moving forward, Grey plans to rework SushiSwap's tokenomics so that LPs are no longer subsidized with emissions and redesign the entire model of bootstrapping liquidity on the exchange. " In Q1 2023, we will bring innovation to scale swap volume & prioritize TVL. As LPs experience a more profitable swap experience, others should migrate to Sushi," wrote the DEX executi...

Bitcoin proponent and author Jeff Booth is convinced that the crypto ecosystem will eventually collapse as a consequence of its centralization — except Bitcoin, that is. The downfall of FTX and a number of other CeFi platforms in 2022 has reinforced a Bitcoin maximalist narrative, according to which most of the crypto ecosystem will eventually collapse due to its centralization.   Jeff Booth, Bitcoin proponent and author of "The Price of Tomorrow", believes centralized crypto platforms such as FTX and Celsius have ended up replicating the traditional financial system with all its inherent flaws. "All of crypto is trying to rebuild a financial system that we already have based on manipulation and centralization," said Booth, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph. Even Defi platforms, which seek to provide a peer-to-peer, trustless alternative to traditional financial services, are bound to fail, according to Booth, since they are being built on protocols tha...