Hacks, Kidknappings and New Beginnings For FTX

The market is rapidly heating up! Every week seems to usher in fresh developments affirming a shift in market dynamics. Investors have decidedly turned bullish, and risk appetite appears to be on the rise once again. Before we delve into today's insights, here's a touch of optimism for the dreamers out there!

ICYMI

• BlackRock iShares Ethereum Trust has been registered in Delaware

• Wealthy clients in Hong Kong can now trade crypto ETFs through UBS

• The founder of Estonia's LHV Bank has lost access to $472M worth of Ether

• The EU Parliament has approved the Data Act, which includes a provision for a smart-contract kill switch

• Former FTX executives are joining forces to create a new crypto exchange

• Poloniex's hot wallets were hacked, resulting in the theft of $114M. Justin Sun offers hacker a 5% white hat bounty

• Binance executives were tricked into a Montenegro business trip, abducted, and forced to empty their wallets, resulting in a total loss of approximately $12.5M

Catalysts Of The Week

• Monday: SushiSwap Dapp connect night, The Graph Datapalooza,  Nakamoto Games Bitget Listing, Centrifuge RWAs webinar

• Tuesday: Hedera DBS, Agoric Pine Street Labs X Spaces, Everdome wallet treasury unlock

• Wednesday: Tezos partnership X spaces, eCash network upgrade, DeFi Chain Metachain layer

• Thursday: Arbitrum Day, Decentraland Smiley World partnership, NYM AMA

• Friday: Internet Computer ICP.Hub CryptoFriday, Hegic epoch duration change, Hedera WalletConnect dev update

State of the Market

Recent crypto market activity has shown signs of stabilizing following the previous week's frenzy. While a temporary pullback occurred, the anticipation for the approval of a BTC spot ETF remains, which will continue to drive market momentum

• Ethereum gained significant attention last week as BlackRock registered an iShares Ethereum Trust in Delaware 

• This move highlighted Ethereum's potential as an institutional-grade investment, leading to a price surge, with Ethereum crossing the $2,000 mark for the first time since July

• Bloomberg analysts have identified an 8-day window starting on November 9, during which there is potential for the approval of multiple spot Bitcoin ETFs. However, it's important to note that the SEC has not provided definitive approval, and the window's opening doesn't guarantee ETF approvals. 

• Investor optimism stems from factors like the SEC's request for comments on proposals and applicants addressing concerns, including measures against market manipulation and surveillance-sharing agreements. The outcome remains uncertain, but the possibility of multiple ETF approvals within this timeframe is significant

• Bitcoin's price has exhibited remarkable volatility, hitting a yearly high and pushing its market capitalization beyond that of Tesla. The notable increase in market cap in a single day reflects Bitcoin's enduring appeal and resilience as a digital asset.

• The Bitcoin futures market has experienced a surge in open interest, indicating a rising interest in Bitcoin trading contracts. Additionally, open interest in Bitcoin futures contracts has decreased by over 5%, with CME now surpassing Binance as the largest exchange in this regard

Industry

• FTX is suing crypto exchange Bybit and its affiliates to recover approximately $953M in cash and digital assets that were withdrawn from FTX just before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a year ago

  FTX alleges that Bybit's affiliate, Mirana Corp., had special privileges and used its "VIP" status to withdraw a significant portion of its assets from FTX, leaving regular customers waiting for withdrawals as the exchange collapsed in November 2022

• South Korean crypto exchange Bithumb is reportedly planning an IPO on Kosdaq in the second half of 2025, with Samsung Securities chosen as its underwriter

  Former Bithumb chair Lee Jeong-hoon, previously accused of fraud related to the exchange's acquisition in October 2018, has rejoined the company as a registered director on its board after being acquitted earlier this year

• JPMorgan's JPM Coin now offers a new feature allowing companies to automate fund transfers based on preset conditions, enhancing their ability to manage cash flow and respond to financial requirements efficiently

  The JPM Coin's programmable payment feature empowers clients to define criteria for automatic fund transfers, enabling actions such as covering overdue payments, meeting margin calls, and potentially leveraging exchange rate discrepancies

• Hackers allege that they have successfully compromised the insolvent Bitcoin ATM company Coin Cloud

• Lightspeed Faction, a venture capital firm, initiates a $285M fund dedicated to supporting blockchain startups

• According to Slowmist scammers operating fake Binance apps are illicitly siphoning crypto funds through a malicious Skype application

• Aptos Foundation is partnering with Seoul Land, a leading South Korean amusement park and media group

• ZachXBT has documented a possible Binance wallet that was compromised for $27M

• BitgetX HK has declared its choice to abstain from pursuing a compliant crypto exchange license within Hong Kong. Speculation has arisen suggesting that BitgetX may have acquired or invested in OSL, Hong Kong's initial licensed exchange

• Hodlnaut, a crypto lending platform, is set to undergo liquidation as indicated by a winding-up order filed by its liquidators in May of this year

• Coinbase introduce Coinbase verifications

Projects

• Midas is introducing a new stablecoin backed by U.S. Treasuries, aiming to participate in the DeFi space by offering tokenized ownership of these assets 

  Notable institutional partners, including BlackRock, Circle, Fireblocks, and Coinfirm

• Stephane Gosselin, co-founder of Flashbots and now CEO of Frontier Research, has introduced "Alfred," a Telegram bot designed to simplify token swaps on the Ethereum network while guarding against MEV

  Alfred, developed in collaboration with research firm Kolibrio, provides Ethereum users with a user-friendly interface on Telegram to create wallets, generate private keys, and initiate token swaps

• RepubliK is making significant updates to both its $RPK token and RepubliK platform, focusing on anti-bot measures, content quality, and user engagement

• $RPK token updates include listing confirmations, ongoing airdrops based on XP, and an extended boosted XP period, while the RepubliK platform is deploying AI content recommendation engines, enabling seamless sharing from TikTok, and increasing video upload length to 3 minutes. Major exchange listings are also in the works

• Pika Protocol to retire Pika token

• Circle has launched version 2.2 of its USDC and EURC stablecoins, incorporating enhancements in account abstraction, security, and reduced gas fees

• Infrared and Kodiak chosen to partner with Berachain

• CoinMarketCap is introducing CMC Labs, a Web3 startup accelerator program

• EigenLayer community selects its next LSTs

• Sushi is now live on Filecoin

• LootRush releases update to allow users to list NFTs securely for rent 

• Near Foundation partners with Eigen Labs

The realized price of Bitcoin has exceeded the realized price for long-term holders: This indicates a potential bullish breakout. This suggests that older, less likely-to-sell coins are currently being outpaced by newer coins in terms of price movement, and market observers are awaiting a sustained breakout and uptrend in realized prices

The Optimism network implemented an upgrade that reduced the activity of "sandwich bots": By introducing a new mechanism for determining transaction fees similar to Ethereum's EIP-1559 update, the network is now able to prevent these predatory practices

There has been a notable decline in BTC and ETH holdings on exchanges: This development highlights users' growing caution about prolonged asset storage on these platforms, likely stemming from recent hacking incidents, particularly evident following the FTX crash

Good Reads

• Bartek dives into how to set up and look for “shadow owners” in Gnosis Safe

• 21shares recap cryptos recent happenings in issue 213

• X-explore unpack the on-chain movements of the Poloniex hacker

• 4pillars release their zkSync Developer Report

• Pragmatic Monkey lays out his investment thesis for Kujira

• Bankless unpack Lens V2

• RWA.xyz unpack their latest research on tokenized assets

• Steak Capital explore 15 groundbreaking projects in the RWA space

• Winter Solider gives his thoughts on why he prefers Facaster to Lens

• In Arthur Hayes' latest article, readers will learn why he believes Bitcoin will outperform bonds during wartime, even if there's an initial sell-off

• Tyrogue gives a thesis on how high Celestia can go

Recommended Tool

21shares has released two useful dashboards to track tokenized commodities and the beginnings of tokenized real estate. Use them to deepen your knowledge as these fascinating developments evolve

Meme Of The Day