Cryptocurrency

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. HTX exchange hacked… again  In the fourth hack affecting the HTX (formerly Huobi Global) ecosystem in just two months, the exchange lost $13.6 million via a hot wallet hack that occurred on November 22.  In its November 23 announcement, the exchange promised to

The director of Netflix’s sci-fi series Conquest reportedly used $4 million from the show’s budget to bet on Dogecoin (DOGE) and made $27 million in the process. Now the director, Carl Erik Rinsch, wants another $14 million from Netflix, according to a Nov. 22 report in The New York Times citing a confidential arbitration proceeding.

Traders hate uncertainty; hence, the settlement between Binance, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and the United States Department of Justice is likely to be viewed as a positive for the cryptocurrency space. Analysts largely remained positive on the deal, but a few sounded cautious due to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s pending lawsuit against Binance. Bitcoin (BTC)

Circle has launched a new standard to streamline the process of launching its stablecoin, USDC, on new networks, according to a Nov. 21 blog post.  The new “bridged USDC standard” allows developers to launch the token through a two-phase process. In the first phase, the third-party developer has control of the token contracts, and the

When memecoins go parabolic, it’s usually a market top signal and a warning that investors’ euphoria has peaked. The market witnessed similar speculative fury in the 2020 to 2021 bull market when Dogecoin (DOGE) chased after $1, Shiba Inu (SHIB) rallied by tens of thousands of percent, and NFT prices hit eye-watering six to seven-digit

The company behind Atomic Wallet has asked a United States court to dismiss a class action suit seeking damages from a $100 million hack arguing the claims should’ve been filed in Estonia where it’s based. In a Nov. 16 dismissal motion in a Colorado District Court the Estonian firm argued it has “no U.S. ties”

Yearn.Finance’s governance token (YFI) plummeted over 43% in just five hours on Nov. 18 after rallying almost 170% early in the month, stirring fears about a possible exit scam.  During the dramatic drop in value, over $300 million was wiped out in market capitalization from November’s gains, according to data from CoinMarketCap. At the time

Fidelity, an asset management firm overseeing $4.5 trillion in assets, has become the latest firm to seek approval for a spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF). In a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on November 17, Fidelity proposes to list and trade shares of the Fidelity Ethereum Fund on the Cboe BZX

Bitcoin (BTC) circled $36,000 after the Nov. 16 Wall Street open as analysis hoped for a deeper BTC price comedown. BTC/USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView Bitcoin traders map out likely bottoms Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed a retracement from intraday highs of $36,600. Having failed to establish a breakout beyond 18-month highs

A recent video from blockchain security firm CertiK made a series of “inaccurate” claims about a potential security vulnerability in Solana’s crypto-enabled Saga phone, Solana Labs has said.  In a Nov. 15 post on X (formerly Twitter), CertiK claimed the Saga phone contained a “critical vulnerability” known as a “bootloader unlock” attack which would supposedly

Ethereum Layer 2 networks reached a new milestone on November 10, reaching $13 billion of total value locked (TVL) within their contracts, according to data from blockchain analytics platform L2Beat. According to industry experts, this trend of greater interest in layer 2s is likely to continue, although some challenges remain, especially in the realms of

The price of a memecoin drawing its namesake from Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence project “Grok” plummeted over 70% after blockchain sleuth ZachXBT alleged the token’s social media account was recycled from a scam token project. In a Nov. 13 X (formerly Twitter) post, ZachXBT shared screenshots showing various social media accounts and websites tied to

I just spent an entire week working in virtual reality using the new Meta Quest 3. While the experience still mostly sucked, I came away with some renewed optimism for VR in the workplace. As I took Ron’s outstretched, virtual hand for a handshake, my actual hand — in the real world — clumsily whacked

Solana’s native token, SOL (SOL), experienced an impressive 22% surge on Nov. 10, breaking past the $54 mark for the first time since May 2022. Notably, this surge occurred amid the continuous selling of SOL tokens by FTX’s bankruptcy estate. The Delaware Bankruptcy Court approved the sale of the failed exchange’s assets, which included 55.75

BlackRock has argued that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission doesn’t have any legitimate reason to treat spot-crypto and crypto-futures exchange-traded fund applications differently. BlackRock’s plan for a spot-Ether (ETH) ETF called the “iShares Ethereum Trust” was officially confirmed on Nov. 9, after Nasdaq submitted the 19b-4 application form to the SEC on the firm’s

The price of Solana (SOL) has soared 40% this week to establish a new 2023 high at around $58.  That is Solana’s best weekly performance since January 2023. Many factors have contributed to the gains, including a general cryptocurrency market uptrend led by Bitcoin ETF euphoria and growing appetite for risk overall. Solana (SOL) weekly price chart.

News of BlackRock registering the iShares Ethereum Trust increased expectations that the asset manager may eventually apply for an Ether (ETH) spot exchange-traded fund. This is a positive sign as it shows that BlackRock’s cryptocurrency aspirations are not limited to Bitcoin (BTC). Market observers are increasingly optimistic that spot Bitcoin ETFs will be greenlighted by the

The Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA), a nonprofit organization that represents firms in the crypto staking industry, published an updated version of its “staking principles” on Nov. 9. Previous version of the POSA staking principles. Source: POSA POSA represents 15 different firms in the staking industry, including Alluvial, Ava Labs, Blockdaemon, Coinbase, Credibly Neutral, Figment,

Toncoin (TON) price reached its highest levels in almost a year as crypto traders assessed a slew of optimistic updates in its market, including the recent launch of “Giveaways” on Telegram. In result, Tron (TRX) is now the tenth-biggest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of over $9 billion — its highest ever.  Telegram CEO buys

Janice McAfee, the widow of tech impresario John McAfee, is still in the midst of grief. She is doing “odd jobs to feed herself,” has run out of funds, and still doesn’t know what really happened to her husband. Since the death of crypto guru and antivirus pioneer husband John McAfee in a Barcelona prison