A small-scale decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has suffered a rather sizeable smart contract exploit leading to an estimated $120 million being stolen from its protocol. BonqDAO, which is behind the Bonq protocol, told its Twitter followers on Feb. 1 that its protocol was exposed to an oracle hack that allowed the exploiter to manipulate the price of the AllianceBlock (ALBT) token. Bonq protocol was exposed to an oracle hack, where exploiter increased the ALBT price and minted large amounts of BEUR. The BEUR was then swapped for other tokens on Uniswap. Then, the price was decreased to almost zero, which …

Bitcoin (BTC) gained about 40% in January, its best finish in the first month of the year since 2013. The sharp rally caused a change in sentiment and the futures markets which saw backwardation in November and December started trading at a healthy contango in January, according to Glassnode. Coming out of a bear market low, a rally driven by the leaders rather than the laggards is a sign that the bottoming process may have begun. The rise in Bitcoin’s dominance from about 38% in November to above 42% in January is an indication that smart investors may have started …

There are rumors that Dogecoin could switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake (PoS). Do I know if Dogecoin is switching to PoS? No. Do I think it’s going to PoS? Probably not. But I love the “what if” game. As a person who works in the crypto mining industry, I do my best to gauge where the market and mining industry are going, along with how that could play out. If Dogecoin makes a change to PoS or some other change to how new blocks are created, it would have massive ramifications for the mining industry. Here’s a look at a …

The rally in cryptocurrency markets started in early January with a spike in heavily-shorted altcoins and Ethereum (ETH) liquid staking derivative (LSD) tokens due to the upcoming network upgrade in March. Soon gains started to show across the board as buyers started to play catch up. The improving macroeconomic conditions, such as reduced inflation and a stable job sector in the United States, provided additional tailwinds for the positive rally. Bitcoin (BTC) is en route to its most impressive closing for January since 2013. Its price has gained 40% year-to-date from the opening value of $16,530. Another important catalyst for …

Arguably the most dynamic segment within the crypto ecosystem, decentralized finance (DeFi) projects have been revolutionizing how cryptocurrency investors can employ their tokens to access capital and even earn additional income on their crypto holdings. However, using DeFi products such as yield farming, liquidity mining and staking pools can often be a cumbersome experience for most crypto investors. To solve this problem, a new class of crypto tokens was introduced in 2021 that integrated self-generating passive income mechanisms to reward investors with supplementary crypto tokens. Known as reflection or reward tokens, these digital assets are increasingly gaining traction among crypto …

Despite a challenging year for crypto, 82% of millionaire clients had looked into investing in digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) in 2022, according to a recent poll conducted by financial advisory firm deVere Group. The poll results, released on Jan. 30, found that eight out of 10 of the firm's high net worth (HNW) clients surveyed with between $1.2 million and $6.1 million of investable assets sought advice on crypto from financial advisers in the last 12 months. 82% of millionaires seek advice on crypto as Bitcoin soars#PressRelease https://t.co/nv6HSZBxEs — deVere Group (@deveregroup) January 30, 2023 Nigel Green, the …

Traders tend to lighten up positions before important events because they hate uncertainty. The United States Federal Reserve’s policy decision is on Feb. 1, where the central bank is expected to hike rates by 25 basis points. Market observers will keenly watch for any hints about how high the rates could go. That could be one of the reasons for the profit-booking in Bitcoin (BTC) and select altcoins on Jan. 30. Bitcoin’s sharp recovery in January could also be signaling the start of a new bull market, according to certain on-chain metrics. The Profit and Loss Index from on-chain analytics …

USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle has released an accountant-verified report of its treasury reserve holdings backing more than $44.5 billion worth of tokens currently in circulation. Circle’s December 2022 reserve report, which was reviewed by GrantThornton accountancy group, breaks down the current make-up of the stablecoin issuer’s reserve vault. According to Circle, 44,553,543,212 USDC is currently backed by $44,693,963,701 U.S. dollars held in custody accounts. It is worth noting that a significant portion of the latter amount is invested in a variety of U.S. Treasury bonds. As per Circle’s VP of accounting Timothy Singh, the fair value of assets in …

Bitcoin (BTC) has rallied nearly 40% so far in January, which is the best start to the year since 2013. The sharp up-move has turned several on-chain signals bullish, according to on-chain analyst Cole Garner. Usually, a sharp recovery from the market lows, driven by the leader, is a sign that strong hands may be buying aggressively. That could be because traders believe the selling may have been overdone in the near term or they found the valuation to be attractive. After the initial runup, a swift correction could be expected, which will shake out the weak hands. The next …

Azuki, a popular nonfungible token (NFT) project, had its Twitter account compromised on Jan. 27 leading to hackers stealing over $750,000 worth of USD Coin (USDC) by posting a malicious “wallet drainer link” posed as a virtual land mint. Hackers stole $751,321.80 USDC from a single wallet within half an hour of the malicious links being tweeted, according to Etherscan data provided to Cointelegraph by crypto wallet security firm Wallet Guard. The data also revealed that hackers stole a further $6,752.62 worth of USDC from various wallets holding 11 NFTs and over 3.9 Ether (ETH). Wallet Guard stated that the …

Despite the recent negative crypto and macroeconomic newsflow, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization broke above $1 trillion on Jan. 21. An encouraging sign is that derivatives metrics are not showing increased demand from bearish traders at the moment. Bitcoin (BTC) price gained 8% on the week, stabilizing near the $23,100 level at 18:00 UTC on Jan. 27 as the markets weighed the potential impact of Genesis Capital's bankruptcy on Jan. 19. One area of concern is Genesis Capital's largest debtor is Digital Currency Group (DCG), which happens to be its parent company. Consequently, Grayscale funds management could be at risk, …

A bill introduced to the New York State Assembly on Jan. 26 would allow state agencies to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment for fines, civil penalties, taxes, fees, and other payments charged by the state. JUST IN: A New York Senate has introduced a bill to allow #Crypto as a form of payment — Interpret Crypto (@interpretcrypto) January 27, 2023 New York State Assembly Bill A523 was introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Clyde Vanel, who is often seen as a crypto-friendly politician. It allows state agencies to enter into “agreements with persons to provide the acceptance, by offices of …