Coin360 Daily Dispatch | Crypto Market Updates & Highlights | February 26, 2024

This article comes to you with the generous support of Stake.com. Discover the excitement and rewards that await you at Stake.com with a 200% deposit bonus!

Crypto Market Update

Table of Contents

Crypto Market Surges

• Bitcoin and Ethereum's Rally
• Ethereum Hits 22-Month High
• MicroStrategy's Massive Bitcoin Acquisition
• Institutional Investments Fuel Crypto Growth

Security and Legal Challenges

• Australian Man's Legal Troubles Over Misplaced Funds
• Blast Ecosystem's Rug Pull Incident

Innovations and Updates

• Frax Finance's New Revenue-Sharing Proposal
• BitForex Goes Offline Amid Financial Turmoil

Strategic Moves and Investments

• Uniswap Investor's Strategic Sell-Off
• Tornado Cash's Security Breach
• USTC's Token Burn Initiative
• PancakeSwap's Affiliate Program Proposal
• Kusama's BEEFY Upgrade for Blockchain Interoperability
• Avail's Funding Round for Blockchain Development

Community and Investigative Efforts

• Blockchain Investigator ZachXBT's Recovery Efforts

Bitcoin and Ethereum's Rally

Bitcoin briefly touched $53,500, reaching its highest price since November 2021, as the crypto rally resumed, with Ethereum also seeing significant gains. Trading volume for Bitcoin increased by 30%, indicating strong market momentum. Additionally, Ethereum and Bitcoin futures open interest is nearing record highs in notional value as per Coinglass data, highlighting escalating investor interest in these markets. This surge in Bitcoin and Ethereum prices, along with increased trading volume and futures open interest, suggests a robust and resuming interest in the cryptocurrency market.

Ethereum Hits 22-Month High

Ethereum (ETH) has reached a 22-month high, trading around $3,150, with open interest hitting a multi-year high of $7.7 billion. The upcoming Dencun upgrade aims to enhance scalability and reduce costs, making Ethereum more competitive. Whale wallets have significantly invested in ETH, with one attributed to Justin Sun purchasing 168,369 ETH worth approximately $487 million. This buying spree, alongside Ethereum's performance and the potential for an ETF approval, has fueled market optimism. However, the motives behind these large purchases and their market impact remain speculative.

MicroStrategy's Massive Bitcoin Acquisition

MicroStrategy has beefed up its Bitcoin stash by 3,000 BTC, investing $155 million at an average price of $51,813 each, between February 15 and 25. This purchase ups their total Bitcoin holdings to 193,000, acquired at an average price of $31,544, making it the largest Bitcoin holder among publicly traded companies. This move coincides with predictions that Bitcoin ETFs could outpace gold ETFs in assets under management within the next two years. Before this announcement, MicroStrategy's X account had fell victim to a hack, leading to a fake token airdrop scam that swindled about $440,000 from users. 

Institutional Investments Fuel Crypto Growth

Bitcoin investment products have seen significant inflows, with over $5.7 billion year-to-date, driven largely by institutional interest and the popularity of Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. The U.S. contributed the most, with $610 million, despite Grayscale experiencing substantial outflows. Other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Chainlink, and XRP also saw inflows, while Solana faced $3 million in outflows, likely due to recent network outages. Total Assets Under Management (AUM) reached $68.3 billion, the highest since December 2021. Despite this, blockchain equities saw $81 million in outflows, indicating a cautious stance among equity investors.

Australian Man's Legal Troubles Over Misplaced Funds

An Australian man, Kow Seng Chai, disappeared after receiving an extra $495,000 from Rhino Trading Pty Ltd. A freezing order from the Victorian Supreme Court has been issued on his assets. In a similar incident, a Melbourne couple spent $10.5 million received in error from Crypto.com before the mistake was discovered.  

Blast Ecosystem's Rug Pull Incident

The Blast ecosystem experienced its first rug pull as RiskOnBlast, a gambling and exchange platform, vanished with over 420 ether ($1.3M) raised from investors. As an Ethereum layer-2 project, Blast attracted over $1 billion in capital. The apparent scam involved the disappearance of an anonymous team after raising over $1 million from retail traders.  

Frax Finance's New Revenue-Sharing Proposal

Frax Finance considers adopting Uniswap's revenue-sharing model for veFXS stakers, pending community approval. CEO Sam Kazemian stated the proposal mirrors Uniswap's initiative. The community will vote on reinstating revenue sharing with veFXS stakers, potentially leveraging the protocol's annual eight-figure revenue. Following the announcement, FXS token's value rose by 17% before slightly pulling back.  

BitForex Goes Offline Amid Financial Turmoil

BitForex's website has gone dark after $57 million was withdrawn, leading to a block on user access. The CEO resigned in January, and the exchange's social media has been inactive since Feb. 21. The exchange previously faced scrutiny from Japanese regulators and was accused of faking trading volume in a 2019 report by Chainalysis.

Uniswap Investor's Strategic Sell-Off

An early Uniswap investor sold $1M worth of UNI tokens during a surge, keeping $10.6M. Uniswap's price hit $10.40, down 19% from the recent peak. The wallet received 5.44M UNI tokens in 2020. Uniswap, a decentralized exchange, distributed UNI as an airdrop. 

Tornado Cash's Security Breach

Tornado Cash, a crypto mixer, faces a significant backend exploit, compromising user deposits and data. Malicious code, injected through a governance proposal, enabled user deposit information redirection and theft. The exploit's technical sophistication is evident, impacting user anonymity and security. Proposed solution involves reverting to a prior IPFS deployment. The website and Discord channel are offline.  

USTC's Token Burn Initiative

USTC's price surged 25% at one point after Terra Classic's community approved Proposal 12073 to burn 800M USTC tokens, representing nearly $32 million. ATOMScan data shows 40.82% in favor, 7.37% against, and 43.9% abstained. USTC price stabilized at $0.038 but retraced to $0.036. LUNC experienced a 2% uptick and a 249.6% surge in trading volume.  

PancakeSwap's Affiliate Program Proposal

PancakeSwap proposes an "Affiliate" initiative for DeFi protocols to fork onto blockchains where it's not deployed. The initiative targets scalability, collaboration across multiple blockchain networks, and staying updated with industry developments. Affiliates must align with PancakeSwap's principles and tokenomics model and will receive support and recognition. The initiative aims to drive mass adoption and branding opportunities.  

Kusama's BEEFY Upgrade for Blockchain Interoperability

Kusama introduces BEEFY upgrade with Snowbridge and Hyperbridge, aimed at seamless blockchain verification on Ethereum and other EVM networks. The move aligns with Polkadot's vision for enhanced connectivity, fostering interoperability. The BEEFY protocol serves as a testament to Polkadot's dedication to building an interconnected blockchain ecosystem, promoting trustless bridges and facilitating greater collaboration within the crypto space.  

Avail's Funding Round for Blockchain Development

Avail, a data availability blockchain project, secured $27M in a seed round to develop Avail DA, Nexus, and Fusion Security. Avail aims to streamline transaction processing on layer-2 networks via Avail DA, connect rollups with Nexus, and enhance security with Fusion. The project seeks to unify and collaborate with various rollup teams.