2023-12-28 00:47

SOL's price is back above $100 for the first time since early 2022. Solana (SOL) generated tremendous hype in 2021, with fans touting its ability to solve the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain's core problem. Solana, it was promised, would be a cheaper and faster place to handle transactions, a better springboard for decentralized finance, or DeFi, and other activities powered by smart contracts. Then came 2022 and all that pain. Things looked bleak for Solana (and, let's be honest, most of crypto). It didn't help that Sam Bankman-Fried was closely linked to Solana and its SOL token, which sank below $10. SOL was back in the $20s in October as SBF was on trial. Then, all of a sudden, Solana and SOL turned into just about the hottest things going. SOL is above $100 now for the first time since early 2022 and, at $47 billion, it's the fifth-biggest crypto – and it was briefly fourth-biggest earlier this week. My colleague Danny Nelson cogently summed up recent events this weekend when SOL exceeded $100: Ethereum remains the leader among layer-1 blockchains that can run smart contracts, aka the bedrock of DeFi. Ethereum has $29 billion of total value locked, a measure of money stashed in a particular blockchain's ecosystem, far exceeding Solana's $1.5 billion, according to DefiLlama data. But recent events show Solana may be a serious competitor now. Here's what else is on my mind in this holiday-shortened week: A LONG DECADE: The failure amid a hack of Mt. Gox a decade ago was a milestone for the industry, an early sign crypto would need better infrastructure to thrive or, at least, survive. Some 850,000 bitcoins were stolen in that incident, a hoard now worth about $36 billion. All these years later, it appears former customers are starting to get repaid. From CoinDesk's coverage: "The repayment could have some impact on bitcoin prices, due to the sheer volume of the tokens being released, but would not destablize the market, UBS had said in a report earlier this year." https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/12/28/solanas-scorching-rally-shows-ethereum-has-a-serious-competitor/

2023-12-27 14:13

MicroStrategy's used almost all of its recent at-the-market shares sales to buy an additional 14,620 bitcoin. MicroStrategy (MSTR), the largest corporate holder of bitcoin (BTC), added more to its holdings on Wednesday, buying 14,620 BTC for around $615.7 million. The company's Executive Chairman, Michael Saylor, tweeted that MicroStrategy bought the bitcoin at an average price of $42,110 per bitcoin. The recent purchase pushes the company's holdings to 189,150 BTC worth around $5.9 billion, which was bought at an average price of $31,168 per BTC. MicroStrategy began purchasing bitcoin in August 2020. The company's most recent purchase before Wednesday's took place last month, where it purchased 16,130 BTC, worth around $608 million at the time. In a separate filing, the company said it had raised $610.1 million from its previously announced at-the-market (ATM) shares offering of $750 million. The company was sitting on around $2 billion in profit from its bitcoin holdings as of early December. This comes as bitcoin price has been climbing over the past few months amid optimism that U.S. regulators could potentially approve exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that hold BTC, a move some experts believe will prompt a flood of investment into the cryptocurrency. Year-to-date, the shares of MicroStrategy is up nearly 315%, while bitcoin rose 200%. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/12/27/microstrategy-buys-615m-worth-additional-btc-pushing-holdings-to-59b/

2023-12-27 12:51

The figure is roughly half the estimated $4.2 billion of 2022, a year that also included $40 billion lost through the collapse of Terra, Celsius and FTX. Cryptocurrency users lost nearly $2 billion to scams, rug pulls and hacks in 2023, roughly half last year's amount. While the reduction is largely attributed to improved security protocols, the industry remains susceptible to security risks. Cryptocurrency users lost nearly $2 billion to scams, rug pulls and hacks in 2023, roughly half the amount of last year, but a sign that the industry remains susceptible to security risks, researchers at security app De.Fi said in their annual report on Wednesday. The reduction, largely attributed to the implementation of improved security protocols, increased awareness within the community and the overall decreased activity in the market, is even greater when the $40 billion lost to the collapses of stablecoin issuer Terraform Labs, crypto lender Celsius and the FTX exchange are taken into account. The drop coincides with a bear market in which some major alternative tokens slumped as much as 85% from their 2021 peaks before recovering in the past few months as conditions turned more bullish. Additionally, the recovery rate of funds improved significantly to around 10%, up from just 2% in 2022, De.Fi said. Losses by blockchains Ethereum, the biggest blockchain by active users and value locked, experienced the highest losses, with about $1.35 billion erased in an estimated 170 incidents. This figure is indicative of Ethereum's appeal to malicious actors due to its extensive ecosystem and high-profile projects. The largest exploit was July's $230 million attack on the cross-chain platform Multichain. BNB Chain also proved an attractive target, with $110.12 million lost across 213 incidents. Emerging network zkSync Era lost $5.2 million in two incidents and Solana had a loss of $1 million in a single attack. Losses on centralized platforms, such as exchanges and trading platforms, totaled some $256 million across seven cases. The largest, November's attack on Poloniex, netted $122 million. Popular methods Access control exploits were by far the most damaging, with attackers taking advantage of weaknesses in how permissions and access rights are managed within smart contracts or platforms. Such exploits often grant unauthorized access to funds or critical functionalities and resulted in losses of more than $852 million out of 29 instances. Flash-loan attacks were the second-most cash-generative method, leading to $275 million lost over 36 cases. These attacks exploit the uncollateralized loan feature in decentralized finance (DeFi), allowing attackers to borrow large amounts of cryptocurrency without upfront capital. Attackers use these borrowed funds to manipulate market prices and exploit vulnerabilities in DeFi. Exit scams accounted for $136 million over 263 cases. In such an exploit, a rogue developer simply drains all liquidity from a token they have issued or removes their online presence after raising money from unsuspecting market participants. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/12/27/crypto-users-lost-2b-to-hacks-scams-and-exploits-in-2023-defi-says/

2023-12-27 10:47

Solana ecosystem tokens have surged several multiples in the past month. Traders could now be taking profits to rotate funds into newer plays. The Solana ecosystem allure seemed to lull this week as native tokens from major projects by market capitalization snapped down from multiweek bull runs hinting at profit-taking from early investors. Data from Coingecko shows meme coin bonk (BONK) fell 13% in the past 24 hours, dogwifhat (WIF) dropped 15%, while smaller but hyped token analos (ANALOS) dropped over 50%. Tokens of decentralized exchange Orca (ORCA) slid 9%, while Jito's JTO - a governance token - dropped 6%. SOL prices slumped approximately 4% before recovering, with futures traders taking on $13 million in losses in liquidations the past 24 hours. Pullbacks were likely a sign of profit-taking from early investors in these projects, who probably made significant returns on their initial positions as prices jumped. Meanwhile, trading volumes on Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) applications remained high, with tokens worth $1.44 billion changing hands in the past 24 hours. That accounted for 26% of all DEX trading volumes across the crypto space, higher than usual players Ethereum, Arbitrum and BNB Chain. The Solana ecosystem boomed early this month as bonk tokens started a multiweek run of over 1,000%, grabbing listings on influential exchanges Binance and Coinbase. That seemingly kickstarted activity on the network, with prices of Solana's Saga phone flying to over $5,000 – despite being unable to sell out as recently as October – and SOL market capitalization quickly flipping other large tokens. Solana also became the strongest draw among on-chain traders, metrics from last week show, with trading volumes and network fees crossing those of Ethereum – usually the highest – on a seven-day rolling basis. Hype for the blockchain's speedy transactions, cheap fees, and a lottery of meme coin issuances seemingly jumpstarted the network since early December, pushing SOL token prices to nearly $120 from $38 at the start of November. Value locked on Solana applications grew in tandem, rising to $1.3 billion worth of tokens from the $400 million mark in November to reach levels previously seen in July 2022. But the quick flips on small-cap tokens seemed to have attracted hoards of new memecoin issuances, most of which last just a few days before falling as much as 90%. Rug pulls, a term for a developer erasing liquidity from a token they issued, seem to run rampant as of Wednesday, data from Birdeye shows. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/12/27/bonk-falls-13-as-solana-ecosystem-sees-profit-taking-after-memecoin-frenzy/

2023-12-27 10:37

Public officials will be provided an asset disclosure service starting next year to report crypto and other holdings, South Korea's Ethics Policy Division said. South Korea is making crypto and other asset holdings of approximately 5,800 public officials available to the public under new legislation aimed at increasing transparency. Starting next year, public officials will be provided with an integrated asset disclosure service, South Korea's Ethics Policy Division said in a post on Wednesday. While asset disclosures are currently reported in official gazettes, under the new legislation, the information will be available through the Public Official Ethics System (PETI). New laws requiring public officials to disclose their crypto holdings were passed in May following a high-profile scandal involving a lawmaker. “We expect that the transparency of the public service community will be further increased through the implementation of an integrated service for public official property disclosure and property registration of virtual assets,” Kim Seung-ho, director of personnel management, said in Wednesday's post. Starting June 2024, crypto exchanges Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax plan on having information provision systems to help track holdings, the announcement added. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/12/27/south-korea-to-make-officials-crypto-disclosures-public/

2023-12-27 10:13

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) are also planning a sandbox to provide guidance on compliance. Hong Kong financial regulators published proposals for supervising stablecoin issuers through a licensing regime and a regulatory sandbox to communicate "supervisory expectations and guidance on compliance" to prospective issuers. The jurisdiction's central bank, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), and the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) are seeking feedback by Feb. 29. Fiat-referenced stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain its value on par with sovereign currencies like the U.S. or Hong Kong dollar. Hong Kong is seeking to position itself as a regional crypto hub. It implemented a licensing regime for crypto service providers in June that recognizes retail crypto trading as a regulated activity. The jurisdiction has been planning regulations for fiat-backed stablecoins for some time. The regime will be introduced through legislation requiring issuers who meet certain conditions to obtain a license from the HKMA. Firms looking to issue a fiat-referenced stablecoin in Hong Kong, to issue a Hong Kong dollar-referenced stablecoin or to market stablecoins to the Hong Kong public will need a license to operate. "We are supportive of financial innovation and believe that it is essential to put in place the necessary regulatory guardrails and standards to enable the long-term, sustainable and responsible development of the virtual asset ecosystem," HKMA CEO Eddie Yue said in a statement. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/12/27/hong-kong-regulators-propose-mandatory-licenses-for-fiat-backed-stablecoin-issuers/