Category: Tokens

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Bitcoin Blockchain Stacks Tokens

STX Token Gains 70% Amid ‘Bitcoin Odyssey’ Announcement, Then Plunges

STX, the utility token of layer-1 blockchain platform Stacks, has seen a 70 percent gain following the announcement of ‘Bitcoin Odyssey’, a US$165 million grants program. Stacks and OKCoin will be putting the pooled money towards developing decentralised apps and furthering Bitcoin. However, the token price plunged soon after.

Positive Reaction to Bitcoin Odyssey Program

The Bitcoin Odyssey program will fund Stacks product development that will reach NFTs, DeFi, and Web3. The announcement will stoke the Bitcoin ecosystem and has already generated a flurry of positive media attention:

However, the positive gain was short-lived as the token dived by 30 percent soon after the announcement. Due to STX’s long wick candlestick it appears that selling opportunities were identified by traders the day after, although the selloff also seemed partly technical.

The STX Token Has Spiked Before

The Stacks Network token had several value spikes towards the back end of 2021. In October STX exploded in value, soaring 57 percent in 24 hours. This followed an increase in demand amid a thriving NFT ecosystem.

Then, in December, another spike was witnessed in reaction to the exit of Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s former CEO, with the token’s value rising by almost 65 percent in a week. Investor speculation peaked over the possibility of Dorsey migrating into the cryptocurrency industry.

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Crypto News NFTs Tokens

Early 2000s P2P File-Sharing Platform ‘Limewire’ Returns as NFT Marketplace

If you were a teen in the early 2000s then you might remember LimeWire, the popular peer-to-peer file sharing platform that became a hub for music piracy. Well, after more than a decade, Limewire is making a comeback – but as an NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace.

LimeWire was shut down by a US federal judge in 2010 after a legal conflict with major record companies over copyright infringement.

Hits and Memories

Now, two brothers from Austria, Julian and Paul Zehetmayr, have bought the rights to the defunct platform and aspire to bring the old memories back by relaunching the site as a marketplace for digital collectibles, starting with music.

In the Twittersphere at least, the news has been greeted with a mixture of nostalgia, humour and cynicism:

LimeWire Debuts in May with Its Own Token

According to the Zehetmayrs, LimeWire will debut in May and will do so with its own utility token. The service offered will be related to music NFTs, including merchandise, exclusive songs, artwork, and backstage content.

Even if you look on Twitter today, there’s hundreds of people still being nostalgic about the name. Everybody connects it with music and we’re launching initially a very music-focused marketplace, so the brand was really the perfect fit for that with its legacy.

Julian Zehetmayr

The duo has also made it clear that LimeWire will not be an alternative for subscription-based streaming platforms like Spotify, rather an “additional channel for artists to sell exclusive music and art directly to collectors”.

As more and more marketplaces come together to try to take on the current market leader of NFT platforms, OpenSea, LooksRare launched in January with the aim of being a community-focused marketplace that intends to develop new features based on what its users want. It, too, is built around its newly launched token, LOOKS, and it seems LimeWire has taken a leaf from LooksRare’s playbook.

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Blockchain Tokens

Pilot Concept: Agricultural Loans Backed by Tokenised Grains: SOYA, CORA, WHEA

Blending agriculture and innovation, Argentine startup Agrotoken and Spanish financial services firm Santander have come up with a concept that allows for loans to be backed by tokenised grains.

These agricultural commodities include wheat (WHEA), soy (SOYA), and corn (CORA). A pilot test is officially being carried out with Argentine farmers, according to a report from the Santander Post Team. The price of each commodity (based on the US dollar) will determine the value of each token.

https://santanderpost-com-ar.translate.goog/articulo/asi-es-la-primera-experiencia-mundial-que-ofrece-prestamos-garantizados-con-criptoactivos/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
Agrotoken and Santander’s new joint venture. Source: Santander Post Team

Easier Loans for Agricultural Producers

Agrotoken has a multichain infrastructure built on Polygon, Ethereum and Algorand, with Agrotoken and Santander propelling their joint mission of providing the agricultural world with fluid access to this new financing system.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eduardo-novillo-astrada-h-387174bb/overlay/photo/

Together with Santander, we are co-creating various financial products to provide agricultural producers with a service with which they can easily and smoothly access a new credit system backed by their grains.

Eduardo Novillo Astrada, CEO & co-founder of Agrotoken

The pilot project will begin its test run in Argentina, with the Santander group investing US$225 million to get the system up and running. Farmers will be able to tokenise their grains online, storing them in digital wallets. The tokens can then be exchanged for any form of agricultural equipment or machinery, alongside the option to use them for collateral loans. Every tonne of grain will be validated with a ‘proof of grain reserve’ (POGR). POGR is a secure, transparent, decentralised system.

Australian Farmers Add to the Blockchain

Aussie farmers aren’t intending to be left off the blockchain and have been making several crypto additions over recent months. In August 2021, 70 million sheep were put onto the blockchain. Australian Wool Innovation Ltd (AWI) partnered with Everledger to tell the story behind their famous Merino wool.

The dairy industry followed shortly after in September 2021 by utilising blockchain technology to improve traceability, enabling participants to track dairy products and allowing for real-time payment.

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Crypto News Scams Tokens

US Siblings Charged With $124 Million ‘Ormeus Coin’ Fraud

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this week charged John and Tina Barksdale for running a cryptocurrency scam called “Ormeus Coin”, which allegedly defrauded at least 12,000 retail investors of US$124 million.

‘Modern-Day Snake-Oil Sellers’

As per a release by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the SEC alleged the sibling duo sold Ormeus Coin to investors as a legitimate project through in-person roadshows, social media, and even ran advertising on a jumbotron in Times Square.

We allege that the Barksdales acted as modern-day snake-oil salesmen, using social media, promotional websites, and in-person roadshows to mislead retail investors for their own personal benefit.

Melissa Hodgman, SEC’s Division of Enforcement
John and Tina Barksdale. Source: dailymail.co.uk

The Barksdales allegedly misled more than 12,000 investors with false statements, such as that Ormeus Coin had a US$250 million crypto mining operation that produced US$5-8 million in monthly revenues.

The project’s whitepaper, which claims the coin is an ERC-20 token, also included a picture of the mining facility that was supposedly owned by the Barksdales.

This picture of the mining facility, which is actually a data centre owned by a third party, was used throughout 2018 for their marketing campaigns.

Pair Faces up to 20 Years in Prison

The Omeus Coin’s website is still up and running and claims the coin is offered in several exchanges including HitBTC, PancakeSwap, and Uniswap. There’s also dubious claims about the project’s business model, such as being powered by “green energy” and being in possession of Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dash mining rigs on its facility.

The complaint was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The siblings now face up to 20 years’ prison for security and wire fraud.

Crypto Scams and Fraudulent ICOs

Ormeus Coin held an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2017, at a time when the ICO bubble exploded as companies were raising incredible amounts of capital out of investors by just launching and marketing a cryptocurrency project.

Those were golden days for scammers who tried to take advantage of the hype and deceive investors with dubious crypto projects. Just two months ago, Aussie cryptocurrency entrepreneur Craig Sproule was charged by the SEC for defrauding investors in a fraudulent ICO.

He Qin, the Australian-born former crypto hedge fund manager who defrauded Aussie and US investors out of US$90 million, recently said he scammed them because he felt “inmense pressure” to succeed because of his Asian heritage.

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Coinbase Crypto Exchange Tokens

Coinbase Introduces ‘Experimental Asset’ Warning for Crypto Traders

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has started rolling out a new ‘Experimental’ label to help inform its users about the potential risks of trading less established assets on their platform.

In a March 8 blog post, Coinbase said it intended to increase the number of newly created and relatively unknown tokens released on the platform and felt the label was necessary to ensure transparency and to educate users:

As we expand our asset offerings, we will be bringing on more, often newly created assets or lesser-known tokens that could come with additional trading risks, including higher price swings and increased order cancellations.

Coinbase blog post

What Assets Qualify as ‘Experimental’?

The new ‘Experimental’ label will initially be applied to all newly added assets and to assets with relatively low trading volumes.

Coinbase says these criteria may change over time and assets will move into and out of the ‘Experimental’ category depending on their age, trading volume and other market factors:

Experimental Assets Not Restricted

Assets labelled as ‘Experimental’ will not be restricted in any way: users will still be able to send, receive, buy, sell and hold assets as normal.

However, users will be required to read a warning message and confirm they understand the risks before trading an experimental asset for the first time.

Labelling Useful for New Users

The ‘Experimental’ label follows the announcement that NFTs are coming to Coinbase soon and the success of its Super Bowl ad, both of which likely attracted new users to the platform. 

Given that many of these users will be relatively new to crypto, the new label may help them avoid some uninformed investment decisions.

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DeFi Tokens Waves

DeFi Protocol Waves Surges 120% in a Week Amid New Partnerships

Developments in the crypto space never cease, and projects that continually evolve and survive in the long term are those that remain at the forefront. At the moment, it is the Waves protocol staying atop the innovation wave, and the biggest reason for its latest price increase is its just-announced partnership with Allbridge.

About Waves

Waves, launched in 2016, is a global open-source platform for decentralised applications (dApps). Based on proof-of-stake consensus, Waves aspires to make the most of blockchain, with a minimal carbon footprint. Waves’ technology stack can benefit in any use cases that demand security and decentralisation, such as open finance, personal identification, gaming, and sensitive data.

Data from TradingView suggests that the price of WAVES has rallied 120 percent since its low of US$8.28 on February 22. As it stands, WAVES is trading at US$17.99, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Why Waves is Pumping

The recent surge of WAVES’ price can be attributed to three different factors:

  • the announcement that the protocol will migrate to Waves 2.0;
  • the partnership with Allbridge that will connect Waves with other popular blockchain networks; and
  • the upcoming launch of a US$150 million fund aimed at fostering Waves’ growth in the US.

Other DeFi tokens such as Anchor Protocol also soared this week amid a new tokenomics model.

Waves’ Partnership with Allbridge

Boosting the price of Waves is its new partnership with Allbridge, a protocol focused on facilitating the transfer of assets between all blockchain networks:

The partnership is part of the larger goal of Waves 2.0 towards universal bridge integration. The intended goal is “to create a unique bridge between Waves and supported EVM as well as non-EVM chains such as NEAR protocol, Solana and Terra”.

According to Waves developers, the goal is to have Allbridge fully integrated by the end of May.

Another DeFi token making waves is Anchor Protocol (ANC), who recently surged 50 percent following the announcement of its new tokenomics model.

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Anchor Anchor Protocol Crypto News DeFi Tokens

DeFi Token Anchor Protocol (ANC) Soars 50% in a Week Amid New Tokenomics Model 

Lending and borrowing protocol Anchor Protocol (ANC) has announced its vision to become the foundational money market on the Terra ecosystem and for DeFi in general.

ANC, the project’s governance token, has rallied from a seven-day low of US$2.68 to a high of US$4.00, gaining almost 50 percent in a week.

Anchor Protocol (ANC) price. Source: CoinGecko

Anchor Protocol offers very high yields for staking, currently 19.32 percent APY on UST stablecoin deposits. This attractive APY beats most others offered in the market.

Anchor is currently the top protocol on Terra in terms of total value locked (TVL). The price rise has seen TVL reach a record US$11.21 billion, doubling in a month and breaking ANC into the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

New Tokenomics Explained

In a recent Twitter thread, Anchor said it was looking to upgrade its tokenomics. The proposal plans to introduce further economic and governance incentives for ANC investors. People who lock up their ANC tokens for between one and four years will receive increased voting power and more ANC emissions. The longer the lock-up period, the higher the voting power and ANC distribution will be.

Retrograde to Build on Terra

Anchor also announced that a new protocol, Retrograde, will be building on Terra and rolling out a new governance structure for the Terra ecosystem:

It is generally bullish news for the price of tokens to rise after the announcement of new protocols building on the network. For example, DeFi token UMA soared 63 percent following the launch of Across Protocol last November.

It is always wise to be cautious of new DeFi protocols, however, as rug-pulls are a dreaded and constant possibility. Avalanche-based Atom Protocol is an example of this, closing down only hours after it was launched last month.

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Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Hackers Tokens

‘Multichain’ Hack Update: $2.6 Million in Crypto Recovered

Cross-chain router protocol Multichain has recovered nearly 50 percent of funds stolen in last month’s hack, amounting to US$2.6 million in cryptocurrencies.

After a month-long fight against the exploit, the Multichain team has also announced a compensation plan for affected users.

On January 10, blockchain security expert Dedaub alerted Multichain to two vulnerabilities in its liquidity pool and router contracts, affecting eight cryptocurrencies including wrapped ETH (WETH), wrapped BNB (WBNB), Polygon (MATIC) and Avalanche (AVAX):

Multichain Enacts Emergency Damage Control

A week later, the Multichain team advised users to revoke approvals for the vulnerable smart contracts as a means of immediate damage control. However, the warning announcement only encouraged more hackers to try the exploit, resulting in losses exceeding US$3 million:

Risk Remains for Users Yet to Revoke Contract Approvals

Multichain advised that the vulnerability of the liquidity pool had been fixed by upgrading the affected tokens’ liquidity to new contracts, but warned: “The risk remains for users who have yet to revoke approvals for the affected router contracts. Importantly, users themselves have to be the ones to revoke the approvals.”

Late last week, Multichain reported that 4,861 of the 7,962 affected users had revoked approvals while advising the remaining 3,101 addresses to take action as soon as possible. Of the 1,889.6612 WETH and 833.4191 AVAX stolen funds, the team was able to recover 912.7984 WETH and 125 AVAX (worth nearly US$2.55 million and $10,000, respectively).

“However, in spite of our best efforts, a total of 976.8628 WETH has been stolen,” confirmed Multichain. To be eligible for compensation through reimbursement of losses, Multichain asked users to submit a ticket on the website by February 18.

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Airdrop DeFi Markets NFTs Tokens

New NFT Marketplace X2Y2 DeFi Token Up 225% Despite Bumpy Start   

X2Y2, a new non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, has seen its token soar 225 percent after launching a ‘vampire attack’ airdrop to attract users from OpenSea.

Following technical difficulties with the drop, the community has had some negative reactions to the way it was handled.

On February 16, X2Y2 launched its Ethereum-based NFT trading platform aiming to rival leading NFT marketplace OpenSea. In also launching a vampire attack airdrop, users from OpenSea who had spent more on their collections were eligible for more rewards and were thus lured away from the top platform.

To be eligible for the drop, users needed to have listed their NFTs on the X2Y2 marketplace:

A vampire attack is a strategic move from new marketplaces to airdrop their coins to users after they complete a set of requirements that increase attraction to their platform.

Since its launch, the X2Y2 token pumped 225 percent but is now trading at lower than its launch price:

X2Y2 price performance. Source: CoinMarketCap

Troubles with the Airdrop Cause Delay

X2Y2’s launch went through a bumpy start after some technical problems with claiming tokens stopped the airdrop for a few hours:

During this time, users criticised the platform’s decision to pause the airdrop, which could have alleviated downward pressure on the X2Y2 price. One user commented: “You have fixed the problems but you don’t resume the airdrop right away? It’s not a good look to wait around for more people to buy in to increase the price before they get dumped on prior to resuming the claiming.”

The project planned to hand out 120 million tokens, but on the day of the launch only 7 percent had been claimed before the airdrop went offline, with users who had already claimed tokens allowed to stake at a massive APY:

X2Y2 is not the only upstart NFT platform launched to challenge OpenSea. Last month, in another example of a vampire attack, LooksRare pitched its LOOKS token to reward users of the platform and hopefully attract existing users from OpenSea.

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Crypto News DAO Hackers Tokens

Build DAO Loses $470,000 Through ‘Hostile Governance Takeover’ 

An unknown actor has taken over the Build Finance DAO by using an inflated number of votes to pass a self-serving proposal, allowing the minting of millions of BUILD and other coins and a subsequent getaway, effectively killing the DAO.

According to a Twitter thread, Build Finance DAO suffered a “hostile governance takeover” with the attacker taking control of the key infrastructure from the DAO. By doing this, the malicious actor was able to wreak havoc on the protocol and drain nearly all of its funds, leaving the community out to dry.

The loss cost the DAO an estimated US$470,000 at the time of the incident. Since then the price of BUILD has tanked after the individual sold more than 1 billion coins into the market, flooding the supply.

BUILD Finance USD price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

It is with deep regret that we have to inform the community of this total and irrecoverable loss of BUILD DAO treasury assets through the deeds of one malicious actor.

BUILD Finance DAO tweet

What is a Hostile Governance Takeover?  

On February 9, a proposal was made to pass full control of the governance contract, minting keys and treasury to a user named ‘Suho.eth’. After a failed first attempt, the attacker took additional steps to hide evidence of the proposal by disabling the gitbooks and proposal bot.

By sneaking the proposal underneath the radar, the unknown actor used a large supply of tokens to vote through the proposal, allowing total control of the DAO.

With all the access rights, the attacker was able to mint 1.1 billion BUILD tokens as well as drain the liquidity pools on two decentralised exchanges, Balancer and Uniswap. After this, the attacker took a further 130,000 METRIC tokens from the project’s treasury, sold them, and minted an additional 1 billion BUILD tokens. 

Since then, the perpetrator has sent a significant amount of funds to the mixing service on Ethereum, Tornado Cash. The funds transferred add up to around 160 ETH, or just over US$500,000 at the time of writing.

A DAO Left With Nothing

After the looting of its treasury and liquidity pools, members of Build Finance tried make contact with the attacker but it seems there is no reparation in sight. With such major damage done to the DAO’s liquidity, it would be difficult to continue with its project goals.

We would welcome a discussion in the discord with community members about the way to move forward from this, but it is difficult to see a future for BUILD with only its brand recognition and IP assets, and no liquid treasury.

Build Finance DAO