Category: Market Insights

Radiant Capital Exploiter Moves $52M to Ethereum Network

Summary

An attacker moved $52 million in stolen cryptocurrency assets onto the Ethereum network after breaching DeFi lender Radiant Capital, perhaps to hide the money. While attempts are underway to track and freeze the monies, Radiant Capital has advised consumers to safeguard their assets.

Forensic Discovery

On October 24, blockchain analysis firm PeckShield reported that wallets linked to Radiant Capital’s attacker moved approximately $52 million worth of stolen assets, shifting the bulk of them from Arbitrum and Binance BNB Chain into the Ethereum network.

Exploit Details

The breach, which was first carried out on October 16, used a complex malware insertion in developers’ hardware wallets to target Radiant Capital’s Arbitrum network. The attack, which was described as “one of the most advanced in DeFi history,” cost 20,500 ETH in total.

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Laundering Methods

PeckShield noted that the funds could potentially be routed through crypto mixers on Ethereum, a common tactic to disguise stolen assets, which has been observed in other high-profile hacks this year.

Radiant’s Response

Radiant Capital urged users to revoke permissions to certain contracts through revoke.cash to prevent further losses. The team also stated that they are actively working with security and law enforcement professionals to recover the assets. This attack exposes a troubling pattern in DeFi, since previous September incursions at sites like as Indodax and BingX resulted in a total loss of $120 million in bitcoin hacks across the industry.

Crypto Startup Layer Secures $6M to Solve Smart Contract Limitations

A blockchain infrastructure startup, Layer, has successfully raised $6 million in a seed funding round. This project is led by 1kx and joined by Fabric Ventures, Arrington Capital and Stake Capital group. The company aims to utilize this money on advancing Ethereum’s Capability by innovating developer tools for full-stack dApps using web assembly.

Pioneering Blockchain Infrastructure

Layer, A company found by blockchain veterans Sam Cassatt, Jake Hartnell and Ethan Frey, aims to fix the limitations of contracts by forming more complex Decentralized Applications (dApps). This projects aims to solve surrounding smart contracts performance and scalability through the combination of blockchain security with off-chain services like AI agent and decentralized messaging server.

Sam Cassatt, co-founder of Layer Stated:

“We wanted to complete the full narrative arc of decentralized architecture, and give the world the tools necessary to build any application, with any performance requirements in this trust-minimized way.”

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Angel Investors and Layer SDK

Angel investors, including Sreeram Kannan from EigenLayer, Mike Silagadze from Ether.fi, and Paul Taylor, a former BlackRock executive also helped raise a funding of $6 million. These industry insiders are showing effort and support towards the release of “Layer SDK”, which will help developers to build full-stack blockchain applications with Ethereum as its base.

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Addressing Smart Contract Vulnerabilities

This project is about to be launched when concerns about vulnerabilities in smart contract are rising. Trugard Labs, a blockchain firm identified over 34,000 high-risk vulnerabilities in smart contract being used on various blockchains, including Ethereum and BNB chain.

Layer aims to minimize potential risks and improve Smart contracts functionability with enhanced security. This is a critical development in the growing decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

Bhutan Turns to Bitcoin Mining for Economic Self-Reliance

Bhutan, a small kingdom in south asia, is using bitcoin mining as a part of its strategy to obtain economic self-reliance. Bhutan famous for hydropower, has been secretly building a mining infrastucture using its renewable energy. This project has placed Bhutan on the global stage alongside El Salvador as one of the few countries officially mining bitcoin.

Hydro Power Meets Bitcoin

Hydroelectric power projects have provided Bhutan with vast energy resources, this excess energy initially used to support neighbouring country India, is now being used to mine Bitcoin. This move highlights Bhutan’s intention to secure nation’s future in digital economy.

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Significant Bitcoin Holdings

Bhutan is the fourth largest government holder of Bitcoin globally with over 13,000 BTC. Bhutan has surpassed El Salvador with an appropriate holding of 0.122 BTC per citizen. Meanwhile, Bhutan’s reserve amounts to nearly $8,000 per citizen. This tactical investment has given Bhutan a Financial support as it continous to grow its Crypto mining capabilities.

A Future Bitcoin Standard?

Experts have speculated that Bhutan could adopt a blockchain standard. This would mean pegging Bhutan’s Currency Ngultrum, to Bitcoin. This would offer a stable decentralized alternative to national currencies.

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Bhutan’s Global Economic Role

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By expanding its Bitcoin mining Infrastucture, Bhutan has put itself on a favourable position for future decentralized finances (DeFi). As the world shifts away from fiat currencies, bhutan’s Bitcoin Reserves could serve as a blueprint for other nations. This could enhance Bhutan’s economic sector despite it’s small size and population.

Over $100 million is lost by a Malaysian electricity company as a result of illicit bitcoin mining.

In brief

Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Malaysia’s national electrical provider, has disclosed losses resulting from illicit Bitcoin mining activities of approximately 440 million ringgit, or $101 million. According to Malaysia’s Criminal Investigation Department, TNB’s financial soundness has weakened significantly in recent years as a result of the ongoing fraud.

The Impact of Illicit Crypto Mining on the EconomySince 2020

TNB has lost a lot of money due to the illegal usage of electricity for Bitcoin mining; in 2023 alone, the firm lost 103 million ringgit. Losses started out at 5.9 million ringgit in 2020 but rapidly increased, reaching a high of 140.4 million ringgit in 2021 and continuing to do so until 2023.

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Rising Cost of Bitcoin Mining in Malaysia

In July, TNB highlighted that losses from unauthorized Bitcoin mining between 2018 and 2023 surpassed $755 million. Malaysia’s Deputy Minister of Energy Transition, Akmal Nasir, noted that although crypto mining represents a small fraction of total energy usage, it has a significant economic impact on TNB and the nation.

Seizures and Enforcement Actions

Authorities have seized around $500,000 worth of equipment linked to illegal Bitcoin mining and are investigating tax evasion using digital assets. TNB’s Criminal Investigation Department is looking into the causes of the increase in losses in prior years, especially in 2022 and 2023, in an attempt to remedy the ongoing issue.

Riot Platforms Draws Top-Tier Partners for AI Initiatives Despite Q3 Losses

Summary

Riot platform’s CEO showed major interest towards “blue-chip” companies that are looking to partner with Bitcoin miners on AI and especially High Performance Computing (HPC) activities. CEO Les said he wants to lock in large power deals for long term partnerships with top-tier companies.

Riot Platforms CEO, Jason Les expressed his interest from “blue-chip” companies that are looking to partner with the Bitcoin miner on AI and High Performance Computing (HPC) initiatives. At the end of October, on a monthly earning call, CEO Les explained the company has had numerous invites from offering a secure large scale power capacity. They have been flooded with messages from top-tier, financially solid companies looking to lock in large power deals, showing serious interest in long-term partnerships.

He further exclaimed how their company was well known for their large power capacity and it is not accepting any lower power deals. In fact, they will set the deal only for hundreds of megawatts worth of power, not any small amounts. Riot’s facilities hold 750 megawatt Rockdale facility and 1 gigawatt power in Corsicana mining site and they offer strategic advantages that could help advance the company’s effort in the sector.

Despite this, Riot is at an overall loss of $154.4 million, that is $0.54 per share compared to an $80 million loss last year. Higher Bitcoin pricing and increased operational production drove a 65% increase in overall income to $80 million, which coincided with this increasing loss.

Nevertheless, even with these losses, its overall revenue has increased by 65% and it has enough energy to make profits and with the constant demands of partnership with top tier companies sooner of later it is sure to spike.

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Flare from Google Cloud Offers Cheap Blockchain Nodes

In conclusion, Web3 developers can now easily and economically install blockchain nodes with Flare Network’s Blockchain Machine Images on Google Cloud. This solution supports popular networks including Avalanche, Ethereum, and Bitcoin.

Launch of the Blockchain Machine Image

Flare Network unveiled its Blockchain Machine Images solution on October 25. It provides a useful node-as-a-service choice via Google Cloud. This application makes it possible for developers to quickly establish nodes for networks like Avalanche, Ethereum, and Bitcoin, which streamlines and speeds up node maintenance.

Affordable node services

At about $300 per month, a dedicated Flare node for Blockchain Machine Images is a cost-effective option for companies. Comparable services can cost up to $2,000, which is far less than this. Remote procedure calls (RPC), data indexing, and unlimited workloads make the platform popular for a wide range of applications.

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Improving the Flare Ecosystem

The service also supports Flare’s attestation providers, who safeguard and validate the network’s external data sources, including Bitcoin. According to Josh Edwards, VP of Engineering at Flare, Blockchain Machine Images will facilitate infrastructure maintenance and ensure consistent data access across Flare’s ecosystem for these crucial businesses.

Blockchain Democracy App Released by Georgia Opposition Party Prior to Elections

In brief The United National Movement has introduced United Space, a blockchain-based application intended to encourage civic engagement and voter turnout by providing incentives for participation, ahead of Georgia’s parliamentary elections. The app, which is powered by Rarimo, presents a liquid democracy paradigm and allows anonymous voting.

Blockchain Voting with United Space

In a move to address low voter turnout, Georgia’s United National Movement, an opposition party, has launched United Space, a blockchain-powered identity app. United Space leverages the Rarimo zero-knowledge protocol to reward citizens for participating in democratic processes and enable anonymous voting. The party plans to better link United Space with the country’s Public Service Hall in order to investigate experiments with Universal Basic Income and other digital governance alternatives if elected.

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Voting Security and Anonymity

Rarimo’s Freedom Tool, a zero-knowledge proof technique for confirming citizenship, is the foundation upon which the app is based. Voters can take part in the democratic process with unparalleled privacy by uploading their encrypted identification documents onto a safe, on-chain registry. Given Georgia’s political unrest stemming from authoritarian worries, this degree of anonymity is essential.

Civic Involvement and Benefits

Through a points system, United Space promotes greater civic engagement in addition to voting. By participating, citizens can accrue points and become stakeholders in strategic assets and public services. While Kitty Horlick of Rarilabs highlights the app’s function in transforming citizens into direct stakeholders in public resources, Giorgi Vashadze, MP and head of the United National Movement, views United Space as a tool to strengthen democracy in Georgia and beyond.

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Ethereum Engineer Criticizes Solana’s Potential as a “Global Backbone” Blockchain

In brief, According to Ryan Berckmans, an engineer and member of the Ethereum community, Solana does not have the infrastructure necessary to function as the cornerstone of an international financial system. Solana’s lack of decentralization, high bandwidth requirements, and technical limitations, he says, provide a more sustainable model than Ethereum’s Layer 1 and Layer 2 environment.

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Solana’s Shift from “Monolithic” to Layered Solutions

Solana initially promoted itself as a high-throughput, single-chain platform capable of handling global transactions. Since then, though, it has begun implementing Layer 2 (L2) solutions, renaming them “Network Extensions.” This change is more in line with Ethereum’s proven L2 approach, which has allowed a number of applications to create unique L2 appchains on the platform.

Technical Difficulties Preventing Solana from Developing a Global Backbone

Berckmans claims that there is an issue with Solana’s single-client strategy, which just uses the agave rust client. At least three independent customers with a balanced stake distribution are necessary for a robust global backbone. Firedancer, Solana’s second client, has had delays that have been made worse by a lack of research resources and protocol specification. Furthermore, the platform’s reach in areas with lower network capacity is restricted by Solana’s 10Gbps upload suggestion, which raises centralization issues. The outage history of Solana was also brought to light by Berckmans, who pointed out that the protocol-level fallback mechanisms required for continuing block production during finalization issues are absent from the system.

Decentralization and Market Share Concerns

Berckmans raised concerns about Solana’s decentralization, citing that around 98% of Solana’s initial token allocation went to insiders, in contrast to Ethereum’s 80% public sale. He also points to the emergence of zero-knowledge (zk) proof aggregation, which enhances L2 settlement capabilities, as a challenge to Solana’s reliance on Layer 1 execution scaling.

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The Benefits of Ethereum for Corporate Adoption

Solana’s market share will probably decrease if big companies like Coinbase, Sony, and Visa choose Ethereum L2 solutions, according to Berckmans. He claims that although Solana has performed exceptionally well in several domains, its structural flaws prohibit it from acting as the foundation of an international financial system.

Google Cloud Joins MANTRA Chain as Validator

An overview

In collaboration with MANTRA Chain, Google Cloud will now be the layer-1 blockchain network’s main infrastructure supplier and validator. The partnership will use MANTRA’s accelerator program, which is scheduled to begin in early 2025, to promote innovation in tokenized real-world assets (RWA).The program will offer resources like cloud credits and technical support from Google’s web3 and AI teams to developers building within the ecosystem. The OM token saw a 2% increase following the announcement, as staking went live on the MANTRA mainnet.

Boosting MANTRA’s RWA Initiatives

On Oct. 23, MANTRA Chain, an L1 blockchain designed for tokenized real-world assets, announced Google Cloud as its primary validator and infrastructure partner. Known for its crypto partnerships with networks like Flare and Aptos, Google Cloud will now help MANTRA Chain extend its ecosystem’s developer support through initiatives like a testnet faucet on Google’s web3 Portal, providing developers with free MANTRA testnet tokens for application testing.

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RWA Accelerator Program

The MANTRA-Google Cloud collaboration will also roll out an RWA accelerator in Q1 2025, giving select projects cloud credits and access to web3 and AI support from Google. To execute this, MANTRA has partnered with the AI solutions provider BCW Group.

OM Token Sees Boost

Following the Google Cloud announcement, the OM token saw a 2% gain in 24 hours. MANTRA mainnet users can now bridge and stake OM tokens to MANTRA validators, including the new Google Cloud validator, marking an expansion of the platform’s staking capabilities.

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Bittensor’s TAO Soars with Major Gains and Trading Volume Spike: What’s Next?

Summary

Bittensor has been popping off lately, getting heights by jumping up to 7.12% in a matter of just 24 hours and leaving every other AI altcoins in the dust. TAO’s trading volume has also been overflowing as it has almost shot up by a whopping 104.58%. This has brought major hype regarding this coin.

Bittensor has taken crypto market scene by a storm after its token, known has TAO rose its trading volume by a staggering 104%. With the already increasing crypto market with Bitcoin (BTC) reaching heights like $71,500 as of writing, TAO is also making huge progress. This overall upswing of the market have also benefitted other AI altcoins but Bittensor just stands out with what it has managed to achieve.

Just in the last 24 hour, TAO managed to rise by over 7.1%. At the time of writing, TAO’s is priced at $544 after its 7% increase. Its overall trading volume surged by 104.58%. It makes the average volume $211 million in a day, this milestone has not been reached by most other AI altcoins. This proves Bittensor is on a constant upward rise lately. In comparison, other altcoins like Injective (INJ) rose by 6.53% and even Near Protocol (NEAR) rose by just 5.84%. Other altcoins like Artificial Superintelligence Alliance  and Internet computer also show similar results. Hence we can conclude that this upswing has benefitted Bittensor the most, and it has also further increased investor favorability for AI-themed coins.

Therefore, with such positive rise and being backed by heavy investors, the alt-coin is sure to get more gains. If this condition continues, it will retake the $584 resistance level.

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