State of the Market: Kyber Hack Drama and STRK Airdrop Insights

GM, Anon! Welcome to this week's Crypto Market Update. BTC has still not crossed the $40K mark. However, it has reached a new high for 2023, touching $38,800 before dipping to $38,500 as of writing. 

Meanwhile, the derivatives market is seeing a huge spike in activity with DEX volume on track to surpass $75B. Plus, the Kyber hacker has some outrageous demands, and we also have some info about the upcoming STRK airdrop! 

Let's dive right in.

State Of The Market: The Crypto Circus

This recent period has been marked by a mix of challenges and breakthroughs. For enthusiasts and investors alike, it’s a realm where change is the only constant, ensuring there’s never a dull moment in crypto!

TL;DR:

• Hacks impacted the crypto space, with notable breaches at Poloniex, Kronos Research, Velodrome, Aerodrome, Heco Bridge, and most notably Kyber raising security concerns.

• Inflows of $346M into digital asset investment products flowed into the space.

• Arbitrum is experiencing increased activity and inflows, surpassing other Layer 2 solutions.

• Blast, an Ethereum-based Layer 2 network, gained attention with a Total Value Locked of $621 million within 10 days of launch.

Hacks

The most notable incident of the week involves the Kyber Network, where the hacker responsible has issued specific demands. This event has drawn considerable attention within the community. Read some of the hacker’s demands below.

The derivatives market is seeing a notable increase in activity, with DEX volume on track to surpass $75B, marking its highest monthly total since February 2022. DYdX is emerging as a frontrunner in the perpetuals ecosystem. Presently, it maintains a strong presence with daily volumes around $1B.

Arbitrum has recently seen a resurgence in activity. This is largely attributed to the introduction of a new Short-Term Incentive Program. Launched in September 2023, this program aims to allocate up to 50M ARB tokens from the Arbitrum DAO Treasury to support its ecosystem, particularly focusing on decentralized applications and DeFi projects. 

Blast, a new Ethereum-based Layer 2 network, has reached a Total Value Locked of $621M within 10 days of its launch, closely approaching Solana's TVL. Blast was founded by Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre, also the creator of the NFT marketplace Blur.

Blue Chip and Majors Overview

Mantle

Mantle (MNT) has been on a tear this past week, going up by 13%. In fact, since October 19, 2023, MNT has been on an upward trajectory, delivering an impressive return of 62.5%. Currently, Mantle ranks as the world’s 6th largest layer 2 platform, boasting a Total Value Locked (TVL) of $218 million.

A critical factor contributing to Mantle's growth is the influx of 'Smart Money.' This term refers to investments from crypto entities known for their expertise, informed decision-making, and advanced technical proficiency. Essentially, it indicates that wallets operated by highly knowledgeable and skilled individuals are actively engaging with Mantle, thereby driving its growth.

Terra Luna Classic LUNC has experienced a remarkable surge, which saw it gain 60% in valuation over the last week. Since October 20, LUNC has gained a staggering 111.4% in valuation. The timing of these gains coincides with Binance's introduction of perpetual contracts for USTC (LUNC's sister token), featuring up to 50x leverage. This development has fueled anticipation surrounding USTC's prospective overhaul, which may incorporate Bitcoin (BTC) as a foundational element, further heightening interest in the token.

• IOTA has seen a remarkable surge of over 40% following the establishment of the IOTA Ecosystem DLT Foundation in Abu Dhabi. This foundation has the distinction of being the first of its kind to be registered under the Emirate's innovative regulatory framework specifically designed for blockchain foundations.

• dYdX experienced an 8.5% decline in anticipation of a significant token release scheduled for December. This event will introduce $500 million worth of tokens into the market, a development that is closely watched by investors and market analysts.

• BNB witnessed a 4% decrease over the past week amidst ongoing legal challenges involving its former chief, Changpeng Zhao (CZ). The situation escalated as CZ was officially designated a flight risk in the wake of the indictment proceedings by the Department of Justice (DoJ).

• APE has registered an 8% increase over the last week, breaking through the critical $1.50 threshold. Market data reveals a significant bullish sentiment among traders, evidenced by the placement of buy orders for 11.6 million APE tokens at the current price level, reflecting strong confidence among investors.

• UNI pumped from $4.90 to $6.35, between November 22 and 28, as liquidity flowed in amid the Binance drama. However, the price has since dumped to $5.90.

• TORN has dumped by 57% since November 27 after its Binance delisting.

• SOL is up 5% this week. This is partly due to the performance of the Solana-based memecoin BONK, which is up 600% over the last 30 days.

• XRP dumped and broke below the $0.60 support line before recovering as whales dumped over 57 million XRP tokens. 

• BLUR is up 7.5% this week due to the overall sentiment around its sister protocol BLAST - a layer 2 platform.

Starknet STRK Airdrop

There is a lot of buzz surrounding the upcoming Starknet STRK airdrop. The buzz started after two screenshots were briefly posted on Starknet’s website, fueling rumors about an upcoming airdrop. Following a lot of speculation, the Starknet Foundation finally confirmed the airdrop/

While the snapshot for the airdrop has already been taken, users can continue to engage and farm the protocol. For those interested, here are some tips to farm StarkNet's ecosystem.

• Setting up your wallet: Start by downloading either the Argent or Braavos wallet. Make sure you have enough funds to cover transaction fees when you bridge tokens into StarkNet.

• Ape in: Platforms like mySwapxyz, 10KSwap, and JediSwap are ideal for token swaps or liquidity provision. You can also lend and borrow tokens with Nostra Finance. Connect your wallet and ape in.

• NFTs: Are you more interested in NFTs? Starknet has platforms like MintSquare NFT, where you can mint, buy, or sell NFTs.

• Registering Domain Names: Connect your wallet, choose your preferred domain name, and determine the registration duration at Starknet ID.

So, even if you missed the snapshot for the airdrop, StarkNet offers a myriad of activities to explore and benefit from. 

Guest Post: Onchain Wizard

Let’s examine the narratives, tokens, and new launches that have been smart money favorites over the last week. 

But first, a 60-second overview of how chainEDGE sources smart wallets.   Instead of relying on “known” wallets or funds, we algorithmically add and subtract smart money based on 6-month realized PnL, adjusting for one-hit wonders, insiders, and low-hit rate traders. Our smart wallet cohort (split amongst snipers, early movers, and gem spotters) has made over $104mm in realized PnL over the last 6 months, on tokens like PEPE, UNIBOT, SHIA, LINQ, RLB, GROK, FUMO, and BITCOIN.   

If you’d like to see me walk through using the platform (and see it in action) check out my latest live stream and my blog.

Today, we see smart money have higher conviction positions (measured as the number of $10k+ holders) in BANANA, BITCOIN, AEGIS, RLB, OLAS, CRESO, and MUBI.

Follow Onchain Wizard for more insights.

Smart Money Movements

Tokens 

• BitStable ($BSSB) has captured the attention of smart money, facilitating stablecoin generation against Bitcoin ecosystem collateral assets—a project that has piqued considerable interest.

• Recently, Smart Money has also acquired some $Auction, likely influenced by the launch of $BSSB on their platform (Bounce Finance).

• Another noteworthy development is the smart money bids on $BYPASS ,this week, a bot enabling users to trade on centralized exchanges like Binance without the need to log in.

• Additionally, $PLANET has caught the attention of smart money, shining in the realm of Real World Assets narratives.

• In the past week, several smart money addresses have accumulated $RVF as well.

Yield Farms

• Smart farmers are actively engaged in farming ETH and stablecoins on Ambient Finance pools on Scroll, waiting for the $Ambient drop, and maybe $Scroll soon too :)

• Lybra Finance continues to be a preferred choice among big investors.

• Smart Farmers are heavily involved with Prisma Finance, participating in various pools offering decent APRs, including mkUSD/USDC - Convex with an unboosted APR of 29.37% and a Total Value Locked of $3.67M!

• Some smart farmers have acquired $BLUR and deposited them on blur.io to farm points for the $BLUR S3.

Major Onchain Movements 

GSR has made a significant acquisition, obtaining $2.5M worth of $HFT which is close to 5% of the circulating supply in the last month and storing them in a newly created address.

A whale (0xd5) recently removed 35% of the onchain liquidity of $Sidus. Explore their Debank Profile.

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