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Truth Terminal founder Andy Ayrey's X account was hacked. The attacker promoted a scam token that quickly gained hype, reaching a $25M market cap and netting the hacker $600k, before a mass sell-off caused the token's value to plummet. Ayrey has regained access to his account, which he claims was compromised through a SIM swap attack, but suspicious activity continues to appear on his profile.
Consensys is laying off 20% of its workforce to streamline operations due to macroeconomic and regulatory challenges. The company hopes these cuts will help it remain agile and competitive in the evolving web3 landscape. Consensys remains committed to decentralization and innovation, focusing on expanding MetaMask's functionality and advancing the Linea network while transitioning towards a decentralized “Network State” model.
Lido has integrated Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) to enable Direct Staking across L2 networks like Arbitrum, Base, and Optimism. This allows users to stake ETH and receive wstETH in a single, streamlined transaction. The innovation simplifies cross-chain staking, improves liquidity for wstETH, and improves the accessibility of liquid staking within the multi-chain DeFi ecosystem.
The Nakamoto upgrade on Stacks introduced Bitcoin finality, aligning Stacks' security with Bitcoin's and setting the stage for sBTC. sBTC is a programmable Bitcoin asset that unlocks new decentralized app opportunities on the Bitcoin network. The upgrade also brings faster blocks and higher Stacking rewards. Upcoming developments will further improve performance and support for Bitcoin builders as they prepare for the sBTC launch.
Stanford Crypto has raised concerns about Uniswap's unexpected launch of Unichain, which was deployed without prior DAO delegate consultation. There have been worrying governance precedents and a lack of transparency in the decision-making process, particularly regarding the choice of Optimism's stack over Arbitrum Orbit. The controversy has sparked broader discussions about the actual extent of decentralization in Uniswap's governance.
Stablecoins have emerged as a transformative force in global finance, reaching a market cap of $164 billion in October 2024 and processing transaction volumes nearly double that of Visa in Q2. The rapid adoption is evidenced by stablecoin issuers becoming major holders of US Treasury bonds and surpassing countries like Germany and Mexico in holdings. Stripe's acquisition of Bridge signals institutional interest in stablecoins as they target the trillions of volume in dollar-based trading and payments.
The recent shift from building crypto infrastructure to focusing on user experience demonstrates that in today's market, success stems from creating direct value for users rather than complex underlying infrastructure. This marks a transition from “picks and shovels” to owning the “gold” itself.
Visa and Coinbase have announced a partnership that will enable real-time account funding and withdrawals for Coinbase users through Visa Direct. It will allow customers with eligible Visa debit cards to instantly fund their Coinbase accounts, buy crypto, and cash out to bank accounts – a process significantly faster than the current 1-3 day waiting process. This expands Coinbase's Visa relationship beyond its co-branded debit card.
dYdX Trading has laid off 35% of its staff.
The Royal Government of Bhutan recently transferred 935 BTC (~$67M) to Binance.
Coinbase's CEO says that the next SEC chair should drop all unnecessary cases and apologize to rebuild public trust in the agency.
Kraken's Ink L2 decided to build on the OP Stack after it was given over $40 million in OP tokens.
The ai16z fund, an AI-powered venture capital fund on Daos.fun modeled after Marc Andreessen, surged to a market cap of nearly $100 million after an endorsement by Andreessen. It has since dropped to $50 million amid ongoing volatility. The fund operates on community-driven investment suggestions, where the AI weights advice based on members' token holdings and past performance. The project aims to eventually automate trade execution.
Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) plans to grant more licenses to digital asset exchanges by the end of 2024 following a rigorous inspection period that saw slow approvals due to regulatory concerns. Licensed exchanges will undergo a third-party review before expanding operations. The SFC will establish a consultative panel in early 2025 to enhance collaboration within the crypto sector.
Infinex has successfully completed a $67.7 million Patron Sale with backing from major players across the crypto ecosystem, including founders, funds, and foundations. This funding aims to fuel Infinex's vision for a “post-CEX era” that shifts away from centralized exchanges, with supporters now able to access their Patron tokens on Magic Eden, Blur, and OpenSea.
A new proposal suggests enhancing Ethereum's fee mechanism by implementing local fee markets that apply multipliers to transactions involving frequently accessed addresses consuming more than 1/16th of a block's gas. It would build upon EIP-1559 by introducing dynamic fee multipliers that compound when addresses exceed the threshold. While it aims to improve network fairness and congestion management, potential challenges include implementation complexity and resistance from popular applications.
Maple aims to revolutionize the institutional lending landscape by 2030, using blockchain to create transparent, efficient, and accessible credit markets that democratize access to capital for sectors like AI, space exploration, and sustainable infrastructure. With the launch of the SYRUP token, Maple hopes to facilitate $100B in annual loan volume, establish decentralized bond markets, and integrate yield opportunities across fintech applications, positioning itself as a global leader in onchain credit.
The crypto market is seeing renewed momentum in Q4 2024 driven by the emergence of AI and crypto integrations and Base's dominance of the L2 space. Notable developments include Solana's expanding DeFi ecosystem led by Jupiter and Kamino, the revival of DeFi 1.0 protocols like Aave and Uniswap, and a notably bullish market sentiment as evidenced by onchain metrics and Stripe's acquisition of Bridge
Unichain is a great example of the modern crypto infrastructure stack. It owns the application and protocol layer, leaving only the L1 as an outsourced resource for settlement. Over time, more apps and protocols will become independent since they have a greater moat than a general-purpose platform. Uniswap resembles a platform where they have control over key components, but leave room for external composability and bases to build things on top.
Ethereum's “Purge” initiative aims to address the challenge of blockchain bloat, with proposals focusing on history expiry, state expiry, and feature cleanup. Full nodes currently require 1.1 terabytes for execution data and several hundred gigabytes for consensus data. Key solutions include EIP-4444, which aims to limit historical data storage to one year, and transitioning to a distributed storage model. More complex expiry proposals require address format changes. There are significant technical challenges around backwards compatibility and maintaining Ethereum's permanence guarantees.
Despite high trading volumes, memecoins make up less than 3% of crypto's market cap.
OpenSea is partnering with Art Blocks on generative digital art.
Robinhood has just launched presidential election contracts for customers.
Solana's Phantom wallet experienced some downtime, causing some users to see inaccurate account balances during the anticipated GRASS token airdrop.
Stripe's acquisition of Bridge allows it to tap into the $120 trillion B2B payment market, leveraging stablecoin infrastructure to bypass traditional banking fees and delays. By integrating Bridge's technology, Stripe can reduce transaction costs, enhance speed, and expand its payment offerings — potentially challenging banks' dominance in large-scale business transactions.
The Department of Justice is probing Tether for violating sanctions and anti-money laundering rules. The news plunged the market by around 2%, though Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said there is no indication Tether is under investigation.
Coinbase's Developer Platform (CDP) has announced the Based Agent: a framework to create autonomous onchain agents with full access to any onchain interaction. With OpenAI's GPT-4o model, users can have a fully functional agent that can work in chat or autonomous mode in less than three minutes. Users can easily add any functionality to the Python-based bot, including posting its thoughts on Twitter.
LRT2 is a tokenized staking emissions product. When AVS' go live, restakers will receive tokens in various cryptos, typically in small amounts. LRT2 wraps all these tokens into a single token, facilitating greater value alignment and easier access for holders. With all underlying assets staked, the token will become interest-bearing.
Ethereum's Verge portion of the roadmap aims to drastically reduce node operation requirements, enabling full verification on lightweight devices like mobile phones and smartwatches. It accomplishes this optimization through stateless verification and validity proofs. Key decisions remain, like how to consider quantum resistance versus performance. In this post, Vitalik Buterins outlines plans for implementing validity proofs for EVM execution and consensus and making a much more cryptographically robust protocol.
Web3 foundations were set up to handle token issuance offshore to legally and financially separate token operations from the development company to minimize founder liability and avoid regulatory constraints in places like the U.S. or Singapore. Two main structures exist — the Panama Private Interest Foundation and Cayman Foundation Company — each designed to obscure or eliminate the founders as ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs), thus preventing direct tax and legal implications. However, this requires careful setup to avoid pitfalls, with independent governance often achievable only in the costlier Cayman model.
ZachXBT is an anonymous crypto investigator who traced a massive $243 million Bitcoin theft from a single victim, leading to the arrests of two suspects. Known for his relentless blockchain sleuthing, ZachXBT has disrupted countless crypto scams, often racing against traditional law enforcement and aiding in criminal investigations, all while staying anonymous to avoid retaliation.
Sumit Gupta, co-founder of CoinDCX, advocates for the coexistence of CBDCs and cryptocurrencies in India, suggesting they serve complementary roles: CBDCs provide centralized financial control and policy implementation, while cryptocurrencies support self-sovereignty and decentralized finance. Gupta says that balanced regulation and tax relief are crucial to foster India's Web3 innovation and that CBDCs will not undermine personal financial autonomy.
A hacker who stole around $20 million from a U.S. government-controlled crypto wallet holding seized funds from the 2016 Bitfinex hack returned most of the funds — $19.3 million — within a day.
This tweet explains many popular projects on Solana in one sentence.
Base led all blockchains in daily stablecoin transfer volume for the first time on October 26, processing over $18.1 billion — primarily in USDC — and capturing more than 30% of the day's total stablecoin transactions.
Virtual Protocol allows users to create and deploy their own AI agents, each with its own token, in just minutes.
Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan positions Polymarket as a tool for market-based forecasting rather than political betting.
Pennsylvania's House of Representatives has passed House Bill 2481 with strong bipartisan support, establishing regulatory clarity for digital assets. The bill protects self-custody rights, ensures Bitcoin payment capabilities, and provides explicit tax guidelines. The Satoshi Action Fund created the bill as part of a wider national effort. The bill will move to the Senate after the election. 12% of Pennsylvania's population owns digital assets.
Microsoft shareholders will vote on investing in Bitcoin during its annual shareholder meeting in December. The board of directors has recommended that shareholders vote against it.
Kraken, the sixth-largest crypto exchange, has announced its plans for Ink, an Ethereum L2 built using Optimism's OP Stack technology. Set to launch in early 2025, with a testnet going live in 17 days, Ink joins a growing list of companies like Sony and Coinbase to build L2s using Optimism's technology. The OP Stack now powers 43 rollups with $18 billion in TVL across its Superchain.
Pulse is launching a crypto-native health network and wearable to enable users to encrypt health data onchain and monetize access to it. The health data market is expected to reach $540 billion in the next 10 years, with established players like Whoop and Oura not offering users monetization of their data. Pulse plans to support an ecosystem of apps leveraging user health data. It will initially release 10,000 genesis devices.
Major DeFi protocols like Ethena, Hyperliquid, and Uniswap are launching general-purpose chains and L2s focused on their strengths. Ethena uses USDe for capital efficiency, Uniswap capitalizes on its DEX dominance and MEV capture, and Hyperliquid utilizes its derivatives trading ecosystem. Vertical integration suggests that apps, not chains, control user relationships, potentially threatening traditional general-purpose without clear differentiation. App-centric chains may be better positioned to capture more value from their existing user bases than undifferentiated L1s.
This post outlines a vision for the convergence of crypto and AI centered on the emergence of an “Agentic Web” where AI agents operate with crypto rails and become the primary drivers of economic activity. There are two core segments – decentralized AI that brings crypto to AI infra and onchain AI that uses AI to enhance crypto apps – and four layers: compute, data, middleware, and applications. Crypto is predicted to become the preferred payment rail for agent-to-agent commerce.
This post highlights the top-performing crypto deals from 2022-2024, identifies the lead and follow-on investors in those rounds, and analyzes their hit rates to gauge investment success. It also shares a dynamic matrix ranking investors.
BeerMe is a global payments app that enables users to send money through platforms they already use using USDC.
OnchainKit simplifies crypto payments for merchants with fast integration using Coinbase Commerce, offering tools for trend tracking, reporting, and receipt generation.
Around $20 million in US government-linked crypto assets were moved to new addresses and are suspected to have been stolen.
The $TestME event will run from 10/29 to 10/31, allowing users to test the mobile claim experience ahead of the official $ME token claim.
Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky will return to court on November 13 to address his motion to dismiss fraud and market manipulation charges. Mashinsky faces multiple felony counts related to manipulating the price of Celsius' CEL token. He will also have a pretrial conference on January 16, with his jury trial set to begin on January 28. His co-defendant Roni Cohen-Pavon has pleaded guilty and will be sentenced on December 11.