Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Binance CEO Wealth Dips Amidst Regulatory Challenges

The Bloomberg Billionaires Index has made a significant adjustment, reducing its revenue estimate for cryptocurrency exchange Binance by 38% due to a noticeable decline in the firms trading volumes this year.Binance CEO Wealth Takes a Hit as Bloomberg Billionaires Index Slashes Revenue Estimate　　According to Bloomberg, this adjustment had a substantial impact on Binance CEO wealth, reducing it to $17.2 billion after a $11.9 billion drop.　　This year, Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as CZ, played a part in events that led to Sam Bankman-Fried‘s legal troubles. In November, CZ announced the liquidation of a token connected to FTX, following a report that revealed Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, held a significant position in it.　　The announcement prompted a rush by some FTX customers to withdraw their funds, overwhelming the exchange, which subsequently declared bankruptcy, wiping out Bankman-Frieds fortune that had peaked at $26 billion in March last year.Regulatory Challenges and Market Trends Impact Binance　　Binance had a substantial market share earlier this year, reaching 62% of total on-exchange crypto trades in the first quarter, partly due to a zero-fee promotion for popular trading pairs. However, this share dropped to 51% by the end of the third quarter, according to research firm CCData, as the

2023-10-27Deep Dive

Ethereum Core Developers Confirm Dencun Upgrade Will Not Be Implemented Before Year-End

Ethereum client developers confirmed on Thursday that the anticipated Dencun upgrade will not be implemented in a network hard fork until the end of 2023.　　Last month, with the Ethereum Holesky testnet launching later than planned, it was widely believed that completing the Dencun upgrade before December was unlikely.　　An anonymous Prysm developer, Potuz, confirmed during the latest core developer call that a mainnet fork in 2023 is not feasible. He noted that over the past few months, the 10 developer networks (devnets) that were launched for testing the upgrade have consistently experienced consensus issues, with “none of them going smoothly.”　　

2023-10-27Deep Dive

PeckShield: Attackers Targeting Fantom Foundation Wallet Convert 4,390 ETH into 8 Million DAI

According to PeckShield monitoring, the attacker who targeted the Fantom Foundation-related wallets has exchanged approximately 4,390 ETH for about 8 million DAI. On October 17th, a wallet labeled “Fantom Foundation” was compromised, resulting in the theft of tokens worth around $7 million (about 4,500 ETH).　　In response, the Fantom Foundation issued a statement on the X platform, confirming that a few Fantom wallets, including approximately $550,000 of Fantom Foundation funds, were compromised. The vast majority of the Fantom Foundations funds (over 99%) were not affected and remain secure.　　Additionally, a personal wallet of a Fantom employee was impacted. Some of the affected wallets had been labeled as “foundation wallets” but were later reassigned to a Fantom employee, and this incident is considered a targeted attack on an individual. The official team is currently tracking and investigating the funds lost by the employee.　　

2023-10-27Deep Dive

Coinbase Launches 'Stand With Crypto' Initiative to Counter Proposed Crypto Taxation by the IRS

Coinbase has initiated the “Stand With Crypto” campaign aimed at opposing the transaction information collection proposed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in its cryptocurrency tax laws. The campaigns webpage indicates that cryptocurrency advocates have donated over $2 million, with over 100,000 advocates participating and making over 16,000 contacts with Congress.　　The page also provides a channel for donations, and the current top three donors are barmstrong.eth ($11,584.05), wwarren.eth ($10,047.84), and bleznak.eth ($8,806.03).　　Previously, Coinbase sent a 14-page letter to the IRS expressing serious concerns about the nature and scope of the proposed tax regulations. Coinbase stated, “We have long advocated for the establishment of a tax system that treats digital assets on par with traditional financial assets. The proposed regulations will impose unprecedented, unconstrained, and unrestricted surveillance on the daily lives of Americans, allowing the government to oversee the most private healthcare decisions and even the purchase of a cup of coffee.”　　

2023-10-27Deep Dive

Unciphered Offers To Hack Former Ripple CTO Wallet To Recover 7,002 BTC

Crypto recovery company, Unciphered, claims they can surpass the 10-try limit to unlock former Ripple CTO wallet, which is holding 7,002 BTC ($244 million).　　Stefan Thomas, the former CTO of Ripple, possessed an IronKey hard drive that held 7,002 BTC (currently valued at approximately $244 million). Unfortunately, Thomas forgot the necessary information to access the drive and was left with only two attempts to guess the password.Offering To Hack Former Ripple CTO Wallet　　According to an open letter, Unciphered, a crypto recovery firm, has proposed unlocking a specific IronKey hard drive owned by Stefan Thomas, the former CTO of Ripple. This hard drive contains 7,002 BTC, equivalent to approximately $244 million.　　Next, we pored over everything we knew about your device, utilizing expertise from some of the top hardware hackers, crypto mathematicians, and exploit developers in the industry, looking for any sign of weakness. Spoiler alert: we found one. We got in.　　“After we had performed this feat the first time, we trained and practiced. We rehearsed. We needed to ensure every aspect of the hack was repeatable. And since then, we have repeated this process thousands of times.”　　Unciphered wrote: 　　Additionally, Unciphered claims to have developed a technique to bypass the security measures of

2023-10-26Deep Dive

FTX future direction: Sell the Exchange or Partner for Revival?

The FTX exchange is carefully assessing its future after bankruptcy proceedings, including its extensive customer base of over nine million or potentially forming a partnership with another entity to revive the platform.FTX future direction Decided by Mid-December, Sale or Partnership Possible　　According to a Bloomberg report, a decision on the companys course of action will be made by mid-December, as disclosed by Kevin Cofsky, the investment banker representing Perella Weinberg Partners, during a court hearing in Wilmington, Delaware. Ongoing negotiations are underway with various investors to explore potential binding offers.　　FTX future direction is considering several options, ranging from selling the entire exchange, including its extensive customer base of over nine million users, to forming a partnership with another entity to revive the platform. Cofsky has also considered the possibility of independently rejuvenating FTXs trading platform. However, the identities of potential buyers have not been revealed.FTX Recovers $7B in Assets and Prepares for December Payout　　Since declaring bankruptcy last year, FTX has actively raised funds to meet its creditor obligations. According to court records, FTX administrators have successfully recovered approximately $7 billion in assets, including a significant $3.4 billion in cryptocurrency holdings.　　Furthermore, during the court proceedings, the companys attorney, Andrew Dietderich, reportedly announced

2023-10-26Deep Dive

Binance Self-trade Prevention Launched To Promote User Protection

In a bid to enhance user protection and compliance and reduce undesired fee charges, Binance, the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange, is set to implement mandatory self-trade prevention measures for all spot and margin users, starting at 8:00 AM UTC on October 26.Binance Self-trade Prevention To Boost User Protection　　Binance self-trade prevention (STP) is a crucial mechanism designed to prevent users from unintentionally trading with themselves, a phenomenon that can lead to unnecessary trading fees. Previously, the exchange had offered Binance self-trade prevention on an opt-in basis. However, the transition to mandatory implementation will ensure a more comprehensive and robust approach to safeguarding users.　　The self-trade prevention feature enables users trading on Binance‘s Spot and Margin Markets to set an STP parameter for their orders. This parameter empowers users to determine whether they want the maker order, the taker order, or both to expire in cases where self-trading could occur. The default mode is for the maker’s order to expire.The Exchange Ensures Secure A Trading Environment　　The optional nature of this feature was met with positive feedback, but the move to a mandatory application offers significant advantages. It reduces the likelihood of inflated trade volume, deters manipulative trading practices, and acts as a buffer

2023-10-26Deep Dive

Maestro Fully Compensates Users After Hack, Total Cost: 610 ETH

Maestro is a Telegram bot that provides a set of cryptocurrency-related tools for Telegram users. According to PeckShield monitoring, Maestros assets were stolen, with the attacker transferring the stolen 280 ETH to Railgun. These ETH were stolen through a contract vulnerability on Maestro.　　In addition, an attacker exploited a vulnerability in Maestro to steal 37 million JOE tokens, even though there were only 26 million JOE tokens in the liquidity pool.　　After fixing the vulnerabilities, Maestro posted an announcement on the X platform, stating that they have fully compensated the affected users. The specific measures included purchasing and returning tokens for 9 out of the 11 attacked tokens, costing a total of 276 ETH. For JOE and LMI tokens, due to insufficient liquidity, they couldnt repurchase the tokens in full. Instead, they decided to compensate the affected users with an equivalent amount of ETH, plus an additional 20%, costing a total of 334 ETH. The team has already issued full refunds, with a total expenditure of 610 ETH.　　

2023-10-26Deep Dive

IRS Extends Comment Period for New Cryptocurrency Tax Regulations to Mid-November

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has extended the comment period for the new cryptocurrency tax rules until November 13, 2026. The proposed rules for 2026 will affect sales and transactions conducted in 2025.　　Previously, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released a nearly 300-page proposal that provided clear definitions for “brokers” in the cryptocurrency industry, addressing years of uncertainty in tax reporting. Under the new rules, cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs), payment processors, certain custodial wallet providers, some decentralized exchanges (DEXs), and individuals or entities that redeem issued cryptocurrencies will be required to fulfill tax reporting obligations. The new rules also introduce a new tax form for use by newly designated brokers, resolving confusion over which tax form to use.　　

2023-10-26Deep Dive

Analyst: BTC to Reach Its Peak in December 2025, Expected Price Between $90,000 and $130,000

Crypto analyst CryptoCon stated in a post that according to the halving cycle theory, Bitcoin (BTC) will reach the midpoint of its cycle in June 2024, with a projected price of $47,000. The next cycles peak is expected to occur in December 2025, with price projections ranging from $90,000 to $130,000.　　This model suggests that, just as in the previous white cycle, the current cycle has bottomed since its first peak in August. The black cycle has a double top, with the first peak occurring in April of the red year (blue dot). The white cycle has a single peak.　　In the black cycle, it appears that the first early peak (yellow dot) is above the second peak (purple dot). In the white cycle, the situation is the opposite.　　CryptoCon suggests that this means we are more likely to see the cycles midpoint at $47,000 in June 2024, rather than earlier.　　

2023-10-26Deep Dive

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