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DeFi Options Platform FinNexus Exploited; FNX Token Crashes By 90%

May 18, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

DeFi hacks and rug pulls have become common by the day.

FinNexus, a decentralised finance [DeFi] options platform, was the most recent victim of a malicious entity’s exploit. While FinNexus has yet to publish a post-mortem report, the firm has cautioned users to withdraw their funds from the pools.. Its tweet regarding the same read,

“We regret to inform our traders and investors that the FinNexus erc20 contract appears to have been hacked. For safety reasons please withdraw your funds from the pools. The team is working on this issue and we will provide updates as they become available.”

The platform’s claims of the event being a smart contract hack was rebuffed by popular DeFi analyst and researcher, Chris Blec who speculated that either this is a case of a stolen admin key or was used maliciously by a team member.

What exactly happened with the DeFi Platform?

After digging deeper, another DeFi research analyst Igor Igamberdiev observed that FinNexus [FNX] contract deployer changed the token owner to some address on both Ethereum [ETH] as well as Binance Smart Chain [BSC] network. This address reportedly minted 323 million FNX [which was worth around $6M] on Ethereum and 60 million FNX [approximately $1.6 million] on Binance Smart Chain.

Following the minting, the attacker started dumping coins. In total, the decentralized options platform incurred a loss of $7.6 million.

So now the community was left wondering if this was a case of rug pull or stolen private key and FinNexus is yet to provide a conclusive report on the same.

FNX Crashes

Following the development of the exploit, the DeFi platform’s native token, FNX, crashed by more than 90% in the last 24-hours. Before the exploit, it was trading above $0.3 however, its price went on a downward spiral to a new low of $0.062, at press time. The crash could be attributed to the fact that a major portion of FinNexus’ token collateral was liquidated during the attack.

Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Burns $6.7B Worth Shiba Inu Coin [SHIB]

May 18, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Shiba Inu coin [SHIB] is not the only Dogecoin knock-off to have been riding on the latter’s immense popularity. But its rise to prominence can be attributed Ethereum co-founder and crypto billionaire Vitalik Buterin’s association with it.

Vitalik Buterin Burns 41% of Shiba Inu Coins

Buterin has reportedly destroyed $6.7 billion worth of the Shiba Inu coin [SHIB]. Coin burn is a process by which digital currency miners and developers burn or permanently remove tokens from circulation, thereby reducing the total supply and hence slowing down inflation rates. Hence, this move does look promising for investors of the latest canine-featured meme coin. So far, its price has positively reciprocated and registered an uptick from $0.000013 to $0.000016 on the 17th of May.

In a note attached to the transaction, Buterin revealed that he was impressed by how the dog token communities have treated the recent round of donations made for COVID-related relief funds.

He had also stated,

“I’ve decided to burn 90% of the remaining Shiba tokens in my wallet. The remaining 10% will be sent to a (not yet decided) charity with similar values to crypto relief (preventing large-scale loss of life) but with a more long-term orientation,” wrote Buterin in the transaction hash”

Dog-themed Bull Part Halts

The latest move comes a week after the Ethereum exec donated 50 trillion SHIB to India Covid Relief Fund, alongside other cryptocurrencies. However after Buterin made the donation for covid relief, the value of Shiba Inu coins took a massive plunge by more than 40%. The Shiba Inu coin Founder, Ryoshi had a tacit understanding with Buterin to never sell these coins, which helped the coin to carry on artificial scarcity.

The bull run that was started by Elon Musk’s gimmicks came to an abrupt end right after Buterin went on to liquidate trillions of the tokens he was gifted.

At the time of writing. SHIB’s market cap was found at $6.49 billion, while its trading volume over the past 24-hours rose to $4.23 billion.

The Great Bitcoin Dump; A Week That Was All About Elon Musk

May 17, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Seems like BTC advocates are not a fan of Elon Musk anymore.

The Tesla Founder is not having the best time on Twitter at the moment. He is being taken down by Bitcoin advocates all over the world. His crime? He might have just suggested dumping his Bitcoin holdings.

First, it was Tesla suspending BTC as a mode of payment on the grounds of environmental concerns that triggered a massive fall in the price of the crypto asset. But this time, it’s this response to a hypothetical question that was enough to send Bitcoin down the bear hole again.

When a user named ‘Crypto Whale’ tweeted a scenario that “Bitcoiners are going to slap themselves next quarter when they find out Tesla dumped the rest of their BTC holdings,” Musk’s response was a plain “Indeed.”

So is it over between Tesla and Bitcoin?

The tech giant did not clarify which part of the question he affirmed to and that is what puzzled the community leading to yet another huge sell-off episode.

Bitcoin posted double-digit losses over the past 24-hours as it spiraled all the way down to $43K, a level that was last seen three months back. In addition, the broader crypto market also flashed red with the collective market cap falling to $2.01 trillion.

Musk seems to have been losing face in the crypto community. But that did not stop him from going around challenging some of the biggest BTC bulls in the space. Be it Peter McCormack or MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, the Tesla chief has taken a not-so-sly jibe after extending his rants from the long-brewing environmental impact to yet another debate of PoW and network centralization.

At a time like this, one would definitely not want to hear Peter Schiff’s take on the entire episode. Nevertheless, the gold bug went on to question the influence of Elon Musk’s tweet on BTC’s price and even called buying Bitcoin a “gamble” rather than investment. However, he was quickly burned by none other than Bitcoin bull developer Udi Wertheimer, whose tweet read,

“BTC down 30% and still outperformed gold on YTD? must be painful fam”

Never a dull day in crypto, eh!

Dogecoin [DOGE] Bears’ Fresh Salvo Could Trigger Damaging Sell-off

May 17, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Even Elon Musk has not been able to save Dogecoin [DOGE] from the market-wide pullback that has resulted in the collective crypto market cap dropping to $2.19 trillion. It had previously gained a huge fancy among investors which led the rally above $0.7 in the first week of May.

The Tesla Founder SNL appearance and DOGE advocacy did go too well as the Shiba-Inu-themed meme coin dropped drastically soon after. It was replaced by Cardano [ADA] as the fourth largest crypto-asset by market cap on the leaderboard.

After a depreciating by more than 5% over the last 24-hours, Dogecoin [DOGE] was priced at $0.502. At the time of writing, the digital asset registered a market cap of $65.18 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $10.04 billion.

Dogecoin [DOGE] Daily Price Chart:

Dogecoin [DOGE] formed a lower high after retracing its steps from the recently established ATH. The uptrend was cut-short as bearish pressure intensified. The decreasing volume failed to back the price of the meme coin which explained the current downtrend.

The moving averages, 50 DMA [Pink] and the 100 DMA [Blue], however remain unfazed by the latest price action and continued to provide support as they hovered at $0.29 and $0.17 respectively.

DOGE Technicals Look Bleak

Amidst the market rout, the technicals are deep into the bearish hole. The red closing bars of Awesome Oscillator, for instance, indicated a weak bearish momentum. The MACD also showed no signs of reversal in near future after sustaining a bearish crossover last week. This was indicative of a weak buying demand in the DOGE market.

The RSI, on the other hand, still held its fort a little above the 50-median depicting a phase of balance.

If the sell-off further intensifies, Dogecoin [DOGE] its first levels of support at $0.45. Upon breaching this level, the token could suffer a damaging fall to $0.25. Its resistance level was found to be at $0.69.

Bitcoin [BTC] Whales Seem Less Confident But PlanB Is Bullish As Ever

May 17, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Bitcoin [BTC] is not making waves anymore. After an unprecedented ride, in the first quarter, the trend has changed drastically. While it still continued to be the undisputed market leader, its dominance has declined to 40%. After getting caught on to the bearish trend, the BTC whales have resumed selling and short-term prospects are looking a little bleak.

This was revealed by the blockchain intelligence firm Santiment which noted that the Bitcoin holders holding 100 to 10k BTC have moved more than $5.7 billion worth BTC from their wallet. Its tweet stated,

“Our data indicates that the high-alpha group of ‘Bitcoin Millionaires’ holding between 100 to 10,000 BTC have now shed 120,000 coins ($5.74 billion) from their wallets in the last 5 weeks. This is the least amount of coins held by this group since Feb. 10.”

In line with this trend of high selling pressure, the analytic platform also revealed Bitcoin’s supply that is sitting on cryptocurrency exchanges has currently bounced back to its highest level since the 14th of January this year. This essentially meant the amount of the tokens being deposited into exchanges has risen was indicative of fear and less confidence among the investors in the BTC market.

Interestingly, 14th of May also marked the largest day of exchange inflows since the Black Thursday crash in March last year.

In addition, the supply of Tether [USDT] was close to 2021-low. This was a cause of concern since it could suggest that investors are reluctant to buy the latest dip.

But Bitcoin Could In Fact See More Gains

According to PlanB, Bitcoin still has a lot of levels to climb before the bull season closes. In the latest tweet, the analyst well-known for applying the stock-to-flow [S2F] model to Bitcoin, has forecasted that the digital currency could register another meteoric rise in the coming months in the midst of massive downside correction.

PlanB stated that

“Bitcoin’s relative strength index (RSI): we are at the typical mid-bull-cycle drop in RSI (yellow circles), between 2013 and 2017. Excited about the next couple of months.”

Cardano [ADA] Continues To Attract Buyers After Smashing Past $2.4-level

May 16, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

The latest downside correction has failed to dampen Cardano’s [ADA] price which smashed up a new all-time high nearing $2.5 this week. The crypto-asset claimed the fourth position in the leaderboard after accruing weekly gains of nearly 40%.

Unfazed by the turbulent week, Cardano has managed to sustain the winning streak of four straight daily green candles. It was still trading close to its peak at $2.4 after rising by 13.05% over the past day. At the time of writing, the digital currency’s market cap was pushed to $76.47 billion.

In addition, the volume of ADA traded in the last 24 hours also increased to $15.84 billion.

Cardano [ADA] Daily Price Chart:

Cardano [ADA] noted a sharp move as it broke from two-month long rangebound this week. Along with the upward price movement, the crypto-asset was accompanied by rising volume which backed the uptrend.

The diverging Bollinger Bands depicted a period of high volatility in the coin market which could further push its price higher.

Bulls Are In Control

The long green closing bars of Awesome Oscillator depicted an increasing bullish momentum in ADA’s price in the near term. The MACD has also risen substantially in tandem with the price action indicating a strong buying demand from the market participants.

Similarly, the RSI also shot above the overbought territory signifying a sentiment of massive buying pressure among the ADA investors which, in turn, could further catalyze the price of the token.

The above chart indicated a bullish phase for the coin. Even if the buying demand exhausts, a consolidation near the highs would still be a positive sign since it would imply that the market participants are buying on dips but not dumping their coins on corrections.

This positive projection, however, will invalidate if ADA turns down and drops below the immediate breakout level $1.56.. This, in turn, could pull Cardano’s price down to another key support level of $1.05.

Chainlink [LINK] Investors Are Still Hopeful Despite Despite Price Drop

May 16, 2021 by Chayanika Deka

Chainlink [LINK] has undergone a correction since this week’s all-time high above $52. This was prompted by the crash in prices of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies after Tesla’s fallout. The altcoin rush, that kicked off last week had pushed several tokens to soar higher, was rather short-lived.

LINK exchanged hands at $43.84 after testing crucial support area. While the uptrend has come to an abrupt halt, the investors in the coin market are still confident about its price movement in the coming days.

According to the latest stats, Chainlink market participants are moving their tokens out of cryptocurrency exchanges and into cold storage at a rapid pace. This was revealed by the crypto-analytic platform Santiment, which also stated that nearly 2.5% of LINK’s total circulating supply has exited crypto exchanges in the period of the last two months alone.

Moreover, the amount of LINK tokens held by the top 10 crypto exchange addresses has taken a serious plunge by a factor of 67.6% in the past six months. Its tweet regarding the same read:

“It’s been 6 days since Chainlink’s new ATH of $52.88. 2.5% of LINK tokens have moved off of exchanges in the past 2 months alone, and the top ten exchange addresses hold less than a third token now [23 million LINK] compared to 6 months ago [71 million].”

Ambitious Chainlink 2.0 Game Plan

LINK’s price has been rising steadily since the beginning of the year. The digital asset has formed three main tops this year which were followed by a period of correction and subsequent leg up breaching the previous high. The latest price movement was accompanied by a major development in the ecosystem.

Chainlink had recently unveiled a new whitepaper, Chainlink 2.0, dubbed as the ‘next steps in the evolution of decentralized finance [DeFi].’ The whitepaper had detailed the ambitious roadmap for 2.0 as well as the launch of a new architecture for the creation of hybrid smart contracts. The proposed system aims to deliver scalability and security to the LINK ecosystem.

Hence, LINK’s price was expected to exhibit swing points and start trading higher, above the current peak.

Singapore’s DBS Private Bank dives into the crypto-verse with trust solutions

May 16, 2021 by Sahana Kiran

The surge in the demand for crypto has reached Singapore as the region’s prominent bank went on to roll out a cryptocurrency trust solution.

Bitcoin [BTC] took the entire crypto-verse to another level following its five-fold growth over the last couple of months. The crypto market was put on a pedestal as its market cap grew over $2 trillion. This caused an array of people to flock into the industry which further impacted the demand for digital assets. In a recent report by the Business Times, it was revealed that DBS Private Bank, a prominent bank in Singapore it was taking its interest in crypto a step ahead.

Singaporean bank ventures into crypto trust solution

DBS Private Bank was seen addressing the needs of its clients with the launch of its crypto trust solution. The trust reportedly supports prominent assets like Bitcoin [BTC], XRP, Bitcoin Cash [BCH] as well as Ethereum [ETH]. With this platform, the bank hopes to aid the clients of the bank to invest and manage their crypto.

Joseph Poon, the group head of the Singaporean bank spoke about the platform’s latest venture and said,

“Our trust structure allows clients to conveniently hold these assets, with a peace of mind that they will be safely managed and passed on to their intended beneficiaries.”

This isn’t the first time that the bank had exerted its interest in crypto. Back in December 2020, the bank rolled out its very own cryptocurrency exchange. After witnessing massive growth with regard to volume from the crypto exchange, the platform decided to expand its inclination towards crypto.

Furthermore, Poon spoke about the next few steps and stated,

“In recent years, more clients have expressed interest or are already invested in digital assets and we expect this trend to accelerate as cryptocurrencies turn more mainstream.”

With 120 clients and trading volumes of 30 million Singapore dollars to 40 million Singapore dollars, in the first quarter of 2020, DBS Digital Exchange’s plunge into the crypto-verse could spruce up the digital asset market in the region.

Cardano [ADA] and Polkadot [DOT] continue to dwell with the bull while others crash

May 15, 2021 by Sahana Kiran

Cardano [ADA] and Polkadot [DOT] were the only two assets that were enjoying their stay in the bullish arena. All the other coins including Bitcoin [BTC] were losing all their gains. The king coin was back below $50K once again as it failed to form a stringent line of support. The overall market cap was also disrupted as Bitcoin slumped below $1 trillion.

Cardano [ADA] climbed on to the fourth position in terms of market cap. The asset took over altcoins like Dogecoin [DOGE] as well as XRP as its market cap hit a high of $68.16 billion, during the time of writing. Furthermore, the altcoin was trading for $2.19 with a 15% rise in the last 24-hours. The entire week was rather beneficial for ADA as it bagged gains up to 34%.

Cardano [ADA] one-hour price chart on Binance

The short-term price chart of ADA revealed contradicting notions. The Chaikin Money Flow [CMF] indicator suggested the intervention of the bulls as the CMF marker was over the zero median. The Awesome Oscillator, however, was noted laying out red closing bars which further insinuated the presence of the bears in the ADA market.

This confusion did not stop Cardano traders from buying the altcoin as the Relative Strength Index indicator pointed out strong buyers’ sentiment in the market.

Polkadot [DOT] one-hour price chart on Binance

Polkadot [DOT] was seen heading towards its all-time high while all the other coins were seen dropping down. The altcoin, during the time of writing, was priced at $46.18 with an 11% soar in the last 24-hours. The market cap of the altcoin was $42.85 billion.

DOT on its one-hour price chart revealed strong bearish sentiment. The Parabolic SAR indicator put forth dotted lines over the candlesticks further announcing bear takeover. The MACD line took over the signal line further insisting on a bearish crossover.

Additionally, a sellers’ market was noted by the Money Flow Index indicator used in DOT’s short-term price chart.

Jack Dorsey’s Square platform to refrain from buying anymore Bitcoin [BTC]

May 15, 2021 by Sahana Kiran

The founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey has time and again revealed his interest in crypto, particularly Bitcoin. Dorsey was so fond of BTC that he even went on to mention the asset on his Twitter bio. However, now, Dorsey’s payments platform, Square has revealed that the company would no longer purchase any additional Bitcoin than it already has.

Speaking at a recent interview, Amrita Ahuja, the chief financial officer of Square addressed the platform’s interest in Bitcoin and its future plans with regard to the king coin. While the Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey-led platform has already about $200 million worth of Bitcoin, its financial officer noted that this would be it.

Jack Dorsey’s Square will not add on to its $200 million worth of BTC

Jack Dorsey’s Square platform went on to buy several Bitcoins throughout 2020 and this year. While this amounted to a total of $200 million, the platform announced that for now it was done making investments. Ahuja said,

“We don’t have any plans at this point to make further purchases. There’s no plans at this point to re-evaluate where we are from a treasury standpoint.”

Bitcoin [BTC] witnessed a steep fall over the last couple of days. As the community continues to send out angry tweets at Elon Musk, the price of BTC was back below $50K. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading for $48,717 with a 2% drop in the last 24-hours. Despite this, Ahuja noted that there were several “opportunities” for the platform to “learn with Bitcoin.”

Albeit this, Ahuja did not entirely shoot down the potential purchase of the king coin. She added,

“We’re always evaluating and as ever, I think we’d be customer-led. [..] As we see the evolution of the bitcoin product or crypto products in general, I think we’ll make further assessments at that point.”

Additionally, the market cap of BTC was seen crumbling down below $900 billion. This further impacted the overall market cap which was noted at $2.28 trillion.

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