Category: Altcoins

Users report that the Solana ecosystem is being exploited by crypto. They claim that their funds were taken from their trusty, internet-connected “hot” wallets, including Slope, Phantom, and TrustWallet.

According to OtterSec, the attack is ongoing and more than 8,000 wallets have been compromised so far. Numerous Solana addresses were linked to the attack, where those wallets accumulated at least $5 million worth SOL, SPL and other Solana tokens from unsuspecting customers.

Although the exact cause of Tuesday night’s attack was not known, it seems to have primarily affected mobile wallet users. The attacker was able to sign (ie. The attacker was able to initiate and approve transactions on behalf of the users. This suggests that a trusted third party service might have been compromised during a supply chain attack.

“We are evaluating the incident impacting Solana wallets and are working closely with other teams in the ecosystem to get to the bottom of this. We will issue an update once we gather more information,” a representative of Phantom, the largest Solana hot wallet, told CoinDesk in a statement. “The team doesn’t believe this is a Phantom-specific issue at this time.”

At this time, it is not clear if the vulnerability is restricted to the Solana Blockchain. TrustWallet and Slope users reported that they lost USDC on Ethereum and Solana.

Solana – fifth largest blockchain by total value locked according to DefiLlama – has seen a rise in popularity over the last year due to its fast transactions and low fees. The native token SOL dropped 4% within hours of the attack.

Solana stakeholders raced to fix the network Saturday night, after an “insane amount” of data flooded the proof of-stake chain, killing validators and grinding down production.

Bots had attacked the Candy Machine, a popular non-fungible token (NFT), minting tool. They created an unprecedented tsunami of traffic with four million transactions requests every second and 100 gigabits per second. This was a new record for the network according to one Solana Foundation representative.

This swarm drove validators from consensus for reasons that are not yet known. At 4:32 p.m., block production was impossible and the network went dark. ET. At 11:59 p.m. ET: The cluster was restarted at slot 131973970 by validators (coordinating through Solana’s Discord channels, and a Google Doc created in part by one of the validators).

Anatoly Yakovenko was the co-founder of validator. He claimed he was travelling during the fracas and credited them with leading the mainnet recovery. On Saturday, he was criticized on Twitter for being “MIA” in a network crisis.

Saturday’s hard reboot did not result in new-and-improved codes populating across the validators, unlike last September’s 17 hour outage. It simply picked up the network’s seven-hour-old failure.

Validators debated whether to temporarily block Candy Machine transactions while they prepared for the restart. Discord members debated whether such a move was censorship. It would not be effective if only two-thirds validators agreed to it. On Saturday night, few were able to opt in.

Others quickly moved to strengthen their defenses. At 11:36 p.m. ET: Metaplex, the key steward for Solana NFT infrastructure, and one closely connected with Candy Machine, tweeted that it would soon implement a 0.01 SOL “botting penal” to help NFT projects stop excessive traffic.

Solana ecosystem services such as Phantom wallet and Mango Markets, a decentralized exchange, struggled to hold up after the RPC node providers returned online.

SOL markets suffered a brief but severe drawdown due to the outage. CoinGecko reports that Solana’s native currency fell to $83.13 at the end of the outage. It then recovered to $89 around three hours later.

CoinDesk was told by a member that Solana core developers are still trying to figure out what happened Saturday and how the apparent botting attack overcame existing safeguards.

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According to a recent filing with SEC, Elon Musk acquired more than 70,000,000 Twitter shares.

Twitter shares’ pre-market price soared by double-digits after news broke that Tesla’s CEO had purchased a 9.2% passive share in the social media platform. Dogecoin’s value also rose after the news was announced.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Elon Musk had taken a 9.2% passive share in Twitter as of March 14th. This stake was valued at nearly $3 billion before the news broke.

This means that he now has 73,486,936 shares in the social media giant. TWTR’s pre-market price jumped 25% from $39.31 (close on Friday) to almost $50 after this news broke.

Musk criticised Twitter’s lack of transparency and freedom to speech on March 26, which was after he purchased shares. Musk also tried to build a new platform at the time.

The price of Dogecoin felt the same effects as almost everything else that is even remotely related to Elon Musk.

Dogecoin was trading at $0.14, before jumping by almost $0.16 intraday shortly after the news broke.

The price of Solana has risen 11% in the last week, as the altcoin rebounded from its recent price drop. Investors are now embracing a bullish narrative because of Solana’s recent updates and partnerships.

The price of Solana could rise to $100

The price of Solana continued to rise as altcoins remained above $100. Analysts have observed a bullish momentum within the Ethereum killer. Solana has posted double digit gains.

The community is optimistic about the Solana price rise following the announcement of its partnership to South Korean gaming giant. Investors have been encouraged by the Solana ecosystem’s latest developments.

Solana has announced the launch of the “Solana Miami” event. This event invites the developer community, which will be held on April 5, to get involved in the altcoin network. Hacker House is part of Solana Miami. It allows Solana’s developer community to create offline applications with guidance from an on-the-ground expert.

Free admission is available to artists and merchants from Miami to exhibit their work to Solana.

Analysts evaluated the Solana price trends and predicted that the altcoin would continue its upward trend, at least $100 above. @TraderKoz thinks the Solana price trend is solid. The analyst is bullish about the Ethereum-killer

The upgrade to Ether’s blockchain, which is the second largest cryptocurrency in circulation, is highly anticipated. This could lead to institutional investors investing more money and helping to increase Ether’s value.

The ultimate goal of Ethereum, the upgraded blockchain, is to make it more scalable and secure. It would also eliminate the need for crypto mining, which is a source of severe criticism.

Bitcoin, with a market capitalization of more than $804 billion, is currently the largest cryptocurrency. However, Ether with a market cap of over $360 billion could become the leader in the future after an infrastructure upgrade called “merge.”

Industry watchers speculate that the “merge”, although a timetable is not yet clear, could occur this summer. There’s a lot at stake for investors already.

Ethereum is not only used to power Ether but also by non-fungible token project (NFTs) and decentralized finance applications (DeFi). An upgrade could greatly increase its value.

Ethereum relies on proof-of-work, where miners must solve complex puzzles in order to validate transactions and create new coins. This process is extremely complex and requires huge amounts of computer power. It’s also often criticised for its negative environmental impact.

According to data dashboard Watch the Burn, Ethereum has already destroyed or burned $5.9 billion worth Ether since August’s implementation of an important upgrade. Although the August upgrade was not related to the merger, it does indicate that Ether issuance has slowed down. Some believe that Ether could become a deflationary asset or one with declining supply which can be used to store value. Bitcoin is already regarded as a safe haven.

Gemini has made a few powerful expansion moves over the last year and a half, cementing its place as one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. Recently, this New York-headquartered crypto exchange owned by the Winklevoss twins has launched in the UK. This expansion comes as a result of the duo’s effort to cash in on the recent boom of crypto investments that occurred since the beginning of the pandemic.

Gemini Exchange and the Winklevoss Twins

The Winklevoss twins might be best known for their legal dispute with Mark Zuckerberg, which ended in a $65 million Facebook settlement. The two used a good portion of this money to invest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrency ventures. In 2015, Gemini Exchange went live, and in May 2016 it became the first licensed Ethereum exchange in the United States. In 2017, with the boom of cryptocurrencies, the Winklevoss twins became billionaires and continued their path down the cryptocurrency financial sector. Today, Gemini employs over 100 people.

What Can UK Crypto Users Expect with the Arrival of Gemini?

Gemini is only the second cryptocurrency added to the FCA’s register, a requirement created to better control activities in the cryptocurrency sector and battle against money laundering. The exchange has also been granted an EMI (Electronic Money Institution) license by the Financial Conduct Authority, allowing it to provide crypto exchange and custody services to institutions and individuals. Aside from this, Gemini has also received approval from the FCA as part of the authority’s Fifth Money Laundering Directive crypto-asset registration process.

With that in mind, both individual and institutional users will be able to use this exchange to store and trade cryptocurrencies in the UK, using their native currency, the British Pound. Residents can make GBP purchases on Gemini using debit cards or deposit money into their Gemini account using several different payment methods, including CHAPS, Faster Payments, and wire transfers.

Gemini exchange also filled for a license to operate in Ireland, which its founders intend to use if the current Brexit situation doesn’t allow the exchange to operate in the EU as well. According to Tyler Winklevoss, going live with their crypto exchange services in the UK is a big step towards further international expansion. As the UK is a global center of financial innovation, it will help advance their mission to empower individuals and organizations through crypto.

Just a reminder, a few months back, in May 2020, the exchange announced a partnership with Samsung, in which Samsung users could link their Samsung blockchain wallets to their Gemini accounts to transfer cryptocurrencies and have an overview of their balances. Currently, this cryptocurrency exchange operates in the UK, US, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore.