In the first quarter of 2024, Canaan Inc. generated .1 in revenues versus the .4 million in costs incurred in the same period which resulted in the company recording a gross loss of .3 million. Nangeng Zhang claimed that Canaan’s revenues in the last quarter exceeded expectations due to the company’s persistent sales efforts and […]
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Mining Rig Producer Canaan’s Q1 Unrealized Gains Narrow Net Loss to $39.4 Million
In the first quarter of 2024, Canaan Inc. generated .1 in revenues versus the .4 million in costs incurred in the same period which resulted in the company recording a gross loss of .3 million. Nangeng Zhang claimed that Canaan’s revenues in the last quarter exceeded expectations due to the company’s persistent sales efforts and […]
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Crypto Post-Mortem: Here’s How Pump.Fun Was Exploited For $2 Million
Solana-based platform Pump.fun suffered an exploit that left the crypto community with many questions. The attack stole millions of dollars in users’ funds, but the reasons behind it and the exact amount of the loot were unclear. Amid the uncertainty, some claimed that a crypto Robinhood had emerged.
Million Taken In Crypto Heist?
On Thursday, the platform Pump.fun announced its bounding curve contracts had been compromised. In the post, the team alerted users that all trading was temporarily halted while they investigated the incident.
Pump.fun is a trading platform created to “prevent rugs” by ensuring that all created crypto tokens are safe. The platform allows users to easily launch instantly tradeable tokens with no presale and no team allocation.
This solution became an extremely popular alternative among influencers and users who wanted to create tokens without the complexity or high costs of launching a project.
It uses bonding curve contracts for the tokens, a mathematical model that determines a token’s price based on supply, increasing with the number of tokens bought. After the token’s market capitalization reaches ,000, part of the liquidity is deposited on Raydium to be burned.
Since the attack, the team has assured users that the contracts have been upgraded to prevent further fund loss, adding that the protocol’s total value locked (TVL) is safe.
However, the community’s reports were contradictory and alarming. Some users claimed the attacker had taken million in crypto from the platform’s bonding curve contracts, which worried the affected users.
According to Lookonchain’s report, the hacker was quickly identified. At first, he pretended to be an unaware user, asking what the damages were. However, he later accused the platform’s founders of withdrawing the exact amount stolen a day prior.
An X user claimed the individual chose to “be a Robin Hood, dropping hacked cash to $SOL communities.” The attacker also stated in a post his desire to “change the course of history.” However, his “heroic outlaw” endeavors affected 1,882 addresses.
What Happened?
Despite the speculation and the attacker’s posts, it was later revealed that he was a Pump.fun ex-employee. In its post-mortem post, the platform’s team revealed that the individual had used their position to misappropriate funds from the bonding curve contracts.
The attacker illegitimately accessed the accounts after obtaining the private keys, “using their privileged position at the company.” The former employee used flash loans from Solana lending protocol to steal 12,300 SOL, worth around .9 million.
Per the post, he borrowed SOL to buy as many tokens as possible in Pump.fun. When the tokens hit 100% on their respective bonding curves, the attacker used the keys to access the bonding curve liquidity and repay the flash loans.
Fortunately, the attacker could only access .9 million out of the million liquidity in contracts. Since then, the team has redeployed the bonding curve contracts and offered a plan to help affected crypto investors.
To make users whole, the team will “seed the LPs for each affected coin with an equal or greater amount of SOL liquidity that the coin had at 15:21 UTC within the next 24 hours.” Moreover, they are offering 0% trading fees for the next 7 days. As a user pointed out, this action is “non-trivial” since Pump.fun makes million daily from fees.
‘Big Short’ Investor Michael Burry Goes Hard on Gold, Invests $10 Million in Q1
Michael Burry, an investor famous for making a fortune by anticipating the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis, made a sizable bet on physical gold. According to regulatory filings, Burry’s Scion Asset Management purchased over 440,000 Sprott Physical Gold Trust units, a closed-end fund that invests and holds its assets in physical gold bullion. Big Short’s Investor […]
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Legendary Investor Tim Draper Leads Bitcoin Lending Protocol Zest’s $3.5 Million Seed Round
Draper Associates, the VC firm led by the legendary investor Tim Draper, has led the .5 million seed round of Zest Protocol, a Stacks-based Bitcoin lending market. The round, which also had the participation of Binance Labs, Flow Traders, Trust Machines, and others, seeks to allow bitcoin holders to put their capital to use using […]
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Solana Meme Coin Marketplace Pump.fun Suffers $80 Million Exploit
Pump.fun, a Solana-based marketplace and deployment tool for meme coins, has acknowledged suffering an exploit dealing with the bonding curve contracts in its platform. While the protocol is still investigating the matter, it reported that “the TVL in the protocol right now is safe,” as it has upgraded the contracts to deal with the attack […]
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By The Numbers: Over 1 Million New Crypto Tokens Launched Since April
The crypto community created over one million tokens across all chains in the past month, with Solana and Ethereum leading the crypto token frenzy. According to Coinbase’s director, these numbers doubled the tokens created in Ethereum between 2015 and 2023.
Over 22,000 New Crypto Tokens Created Daily
Coinbase’s director Connor Grogan shared on X that 1 million tokens have been launched since April 1, 2024. The tokens created in the Ethereum Network account for 36% of the total number, with 372,642 tokens launched in the past month and a half.
According to Dune Analytics, 327,553 tokens, around 88% of the total, were launched on the Layer-2 blockchain Base. The surge was seemingly propelled by the memecoin frenzy that has taken over this cycle.
Additionally, Ethereum and Arbitrum saw a significantly smaller number of new crypto tokens launched, with 21,474 and 19,284 new tokens, respectively.
However, Solana took the crown after seeing the creation of 643,227 tokens since April 1. Out of those, 464,563 are memecoins, per Dune Analytics. Moreover, Grogan highlighted that Solana registers an average of 20,000 new tokens daily.
As reported by Solana Floor, on Monday, the blockchain reached a new all-time high (ATH) in newly created tokens, with 23,000. This could be attributed to the market pump propelled by the return of renowned crypto trader Roaring Kitty. Since his comeback to social media, several new memecoins have been created, and the top ones have surged.
BREAKING: Over 23K New SPL Tokens created on @solana in the last 24 hours, a new all-time high. pic.twitter.com/cn4ARy0KwC
— SolanaFloor | Powered by Step Finance (@SolanaFloor) May 14, 2024
The crypto community reacted to the astonishing numbers, with many expressing concerns. One user pointed out that most of these tokens are “just spam to farm sniper bots.” He alleged that some people launch tokens “just to rug pull bots that auto-bought.”
Another user playfully added, “The moral of the story is don’t buy projects created after February 2024.” This year, investors have seen many project launches promising big returns. Instead, investors have suffered rug-pull and other scams.
Overabundance Of Altcoins?
At the end of April, DeFi researcher and Web3 investor Thor Hartvigsen pointed out that while only four months into the year, the market had seen a massive increase in the supply of altcoins.
As a result, this increase accounted for .6 billion in additional liquid supply injected into the market. Hartvigsen added that crypto projects will unlock .5 billion over the years, with many tokens launched in 2023 “also unlocking this year with many cliffs ending.”
Moreover, the market observer highlighted that the average float in market capitalization and fully diluted valuation (FDV) for the tokens launched in Q1 2024 was just 13.6%.
To him, this is only “the tip of the iceberg,” as the crypto market will continue to be flooded with new supplies and tokens. He offered a list of categories he believes will see the greatest number of new tokes this year.
His list included Modular Infrastructure protocols, Liquid Restaking Tokens (LRTs), Bridges and Cross-Chain Messaging solutions, and Perpetual Decentralized Exchanges (DEXes).
On Tuesday, DeFi researcher Ignas shared a list based on the recently launched low-float tokens shared by Hartvigsen. According to him, these tokens are down by 63.6% on average.
According to the researcher, tokens like JUP, ONDO, and STRK have registered a 49.2%, 30.5%, and 74.2% decrease from ATH prices.
Bitfarms Terminates CEO Geoffrey Morphy, Faces $27 Million Lawsuit
Bitfarms Ltd., a global bitcoin mining company, has announced the immediate termination of Geoffrey Morphy as president and CEO, along with his removal as a director. Following his dismissal, Morphy filed a lawsuit against the company, seeking million in damages for alleged breach of contract and wrongful dismissal. Bitfarms is set to defend against […]
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Defi Protocol Sonne Finance Reports Major Security Breach, $20 Million Lost to Hackers
Sonne Finance, a decentralized liquidity market protocol, was hit by a cyberattack, with initial losses of million in USD Coin and Wrapped Ethereum from its Optimism chain quickly escalating to million, as detected by blockchain security firm Cyvers on May 15. Following the attack, Sonne Finance suspended its Optimism Market and assured that […]
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Moonpay Donates $1 Million to Stand With Crypto
Moonpay, one of the largest cryptocurrency onramp and offramp providers, has donated million to Stand With Crypto, a nonprofit that seeks to rally American voters around the cryptocurrency cause. Moonpay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright stated that the donation made would contribute to creating an innovation-fostering crypto framework by helping choose crypto-friendly officials. Moonpay Contributes […]
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