Track market-moving stories before they get noisy

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced that it will suspend deposits for the altcoin TROY (BSC) starting January 2, 2025. This decision was made due to a potential security issue related to the TROY-BEP20 token contract. The exchange emphasized that this action was taken to ensure user security.

Binance Ends Support on BSC NetworkBinance stated that it will no longer support TROY coin deposits through the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) network. The company mentioned that it attempted to communicate with the project team to verify the collateral situation concerning coins issued on the BSC network. However, it was emphasized that the project team did not provide adequate explanations regarding the matter.

Binance TROY (BSC) AltcoinThe cryptocurrency exchange specified that it would only resume deposits for TROY once it is deemed secure. Additionally, it was noted that no separate announcement would be made regarding this issue.

Ethereum Network Transactions UnaffectedOn the other hand, Binance announced that users can continue to deposit and withdraw TROY through the Ethereum $1,623 network. The cryptocurrency exchange indicated that these services are not affected by the aforementioned security concerns. Binance also added that it aims to contribute to the transparency and sustainable growth of the cryptocurrency ecosystem while prioritizing user safety.

Such actions in the cryptocurrency market are a continuing concern for users. Measures taken by major exchanges like Binance are significant for the reliability of the sector. Users must closely monitor such announcements and plan their transactions accordingly.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

ETH Liquid Restaking Protocol YieldNest Raises $5.2M in Contribution Round

A 71-year-old digital artist in India fell victim to scammers pretending to be an NFT art dealer.

According to a local report, Shivaprasad R (name changed), a practicing chartered accountant (CA), lost INR 1.58 lakhs (approximately $1895) in fees to the scammers who promised to buy out his art.

Shivaprasad is a professional artist whose work has been featured in several local exhibitions and posted on Instagram and Facebook. In October 2023, the scammers, claiming to be an “NFT art dealer,” introduced the artist to a platform dubbed nfttradeplace.com.

The scammer told the victim that they would like to purchase his paintings for 42 ETH, or INR 1.09 crore, a significant sum in India. The negotiations were all held virtually, via email and Facebook.

The digital artist took up the offer and listed three of his artworks for  10 ETH and another one for 12 ETH. On February 1, 2024, the victim was asked to pay 0.115 ETH to the scammer’s platform as a “gas fee.”

“The victim made the payment from his crypto wallet, which he set up at the scammer’s behest,” a cybercrime investigator was quoted saying.

Following the completion of his first sale, the artist requested a withdrawal of 6 ETH from his earnings. However, despite waiting for days, no transaction was initiated. Upon checking again, Shivaprasad was asked to pay a “delay fee” for supposedly holding up the withdrawal of his cryptocurrency.

“This delay fee was never discussed nor was it exhibited on the website,” the victim said in a statement.

He added that since he wasn’t in possession of any ETH, he had requested the scammers to accept the delay fees in fiat currency. The scammers agreed to this request, and the victim went on to make four payments to the accounts of Mohammed Ekramul Haque and Mohammad Farooq. It has not been confirmed whether these people are the masterminds behind this scam.

Shivaprasad made the last payment to the scammers on March 15. He noted that the platform “kept asking [him] for further payments” to be able to withdraw his 6 ETH. 

This was when the victim realized that his NFT clients had duped him. On April 17, the victim contacted the cyber police and filed charges under  66C (punishment for identity theft) and 66D (punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resources) of the Information Technology (IT) Act and 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

“It is highly difficult to trace cryptocurrency trails. As of now, bank details and domain details of the email address used by the scammers have been sought,” an officer familiar with the matter said.

Cryptocurrency scams have seen a significant uptick in India, despite crackdowns from local authorities. Last week, the nation’s Enforcement Directorate (ED) launched an investigation into a $800 million Ponzi scheme involving a Bollywood celebrity. 

Prior to that, a job recruitment scam was flagged in the nation, which saw scammers draining their victims’ crypto wallets using spyware disguised as applications touted as essential for the onboarding process. 

Table of contents

This was supposed to be the good-news day. The US-Iran peace deal is signed, oil is down 9%, and the war that crushed crypto in May is officially over. Yet Bitcoin is sliding below $63,000 and the week’s bounce is fading. The reason is simple and a little uncomfortable: one hawkish Fed meeting is outweighing a peace deal. Here is what’s happening with BTC and ETH, and the bigger question now hanging over the market.

Bitcoin is trading near $62,547 on June 19, 2026, down about 0.3% on the day and roughly 2.9% over the week, slipping below the $63,000 level (live prices on CoinGecko). Ethereum sits near $1,693, down about 0.1% on the day but still up around 1.8% on the week, continuing to hold up better than Bitcoin. BTC’s market cap is around $1.25 trillion, ETH’s near $204.5 billion.

The strange part is the backdrop. This should be a risk-on day, and instead crypto is drifting lower. Here is why.

Good news that isn’t moving the market The US-Iran peace deal was formally signed today, June 19, in Switzerland. President Trump authorized reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the naval blockade is lifted, and oil prices have fallen about 9%. Lower oil is disinflationary, which in theory eases the pressure on the Fed and helps risk assets like crypto.

So why is Bitcoin falling? Because the market has already moved on. The peace deal was telegraphed for days and is now priced in, a classic “buy the rumor, sell the news” outcome. More importantly, investors are rotating attention toward stocks and away from crypto, and the one thing dominating sentiment is not Iran. It is the Fed.

The Fed is still the story Wednesday’s FOMC meeting continues to cast a long shadow. The Fed held rates but delivered a hawkish dot plot: nine of 18 officials now project a 2026 rate hike, the year-end median jumped to 3.8%, and new Chair Kevin Warsh scrapped forward guidance entirely. The message was that rate cuts are off the table for 2026, possibly until 2027 or later.

That hawkish reality is now outweighing the Iran relief. Analysts at Marex describe crypto positioning as “defensive and thin” after the Fed, meaning traders are cautious and trading volume is light. In a thin market, prices drift, and right now they are drifting down. The peace deal removed a headwind, but the Fed added a bigger one, and the Fed is winning.

Why Ethereum is still holding up better The one bright spot remains Ethereum’s relative strength. ETH is up about 1.8% on the week while Bitcoin is down 2.9%, continuing a divergence that has held through the week.

ETH’s resilience comes from its own demand drivers: treasury firms like BitMine accumulating aggressively, ETF inflows returning, and the Glamsterdam upgrade on track for the second half of 2026. There is also the rotation question. After months of rising Bitcoin dominance during the crash, some capital appears to be rotating toward Ethereum, which historically leads when altcoins start to recover. Whether that continues is tied to the biggest question now facing the market.

The big question: will there be an altseason at all? Here is what traders are really debating after this week. With oil down, the Iran deal signed, and the macro picture clearing in some ways but tightening in others, the question is whether this cycle delivers an “altseason,” the period when altcoins outperform Bitcoin, at all.

The case against: a hawkish Fed, high rates, and rising Bitcoin dominance all delay altseason. Capital concentrates in Bitcoin during uncertainty, starving altcoins. The case for: Ethereum’s relative strength this week, returning ETF inflows, and structural institutional interest in ETH and other majors are the early ingredients of a rotation. ETH leading on the week is exactly what the start of an altseason looks like. The honest answer is that it is unresolved, and the next few weeks of Fed signals and dominance trends will decide it.

BTC and ETH: Key Levels to Watch Bitcoin: $62,000 is the immediate support, with the critical $60,000 floor below it that has held three times. On the upside, reclaiming $64,350 and then $66,000 would revive the bounce. A break of $60,000 would be a serious bearish signal.

Ethereum: $1,650 is the key support analysts are watching, with $1,600 below it. On the upside, ETH needs to reclaim $1,800 and then $2,000 to confirm its relative strength is turning into real leadership.

Bottom line Bitcoin at $62,547 and Ethereum at $1,693 are drifting lower as the week’s bounce fades, with a signed Iran peace deal failing to override the hawkish Fed. The macro tug-of-war is clear: geopolitical relief on one side, tighter-for-longer monetary policy on the other, and right now the Fed is winning.

Ethereum’s continued relative strength is the one encouraging signal, and it ties directly to the question of whether an altseason is coming. Watch Bitcoin’s $60,000 floor and Ethereum’s $1,800 resistance. Those two levels, plus the next round of Fed signals, will decide whether this fade is a pause or the start of another leg down.

FAQ What is the Bitcoin price today?

Bitcoin is trading near $62,547 on June 19, 2026, down about 0.3% on the day and 2.9% on the week, slipping below $63,000 as the week’s bounce fades despite the signed Iran peace deal.

What is the Ethereum price today?

Ethereum is trading near $1,693 on June 19, 2026, down about 0.1% on the day but up roughly 1.8% on the week, continuing to outperform Bitcoin.

Why is crypto falling despite the Iran peace deal?

The peace deal was priced in ahead of the June 19 signing, a “sell the news” outcome. More importantly, Wednesday’s hawkish Fed meeting, which signaled possible 2026 rate hikes, is outweighing the geopolitical relief and keeping crypto positioning defensive.

Why is Ethereum outperforming Bitcoin?

Ethereum benefits from aggressive treasury accumulation by firms like BitMine, returning ETF inflows, the upcoming Glamsterdam upgrade, and a rotation of capital toward ETH as Bitcoin dominance potentially peaks, an early sign of possible altcoin strength.

Will there be an altseason in 2026?

It is unresolved. A hawkish Fed and rising Bitcoin dominance delay altseason, but Ethereum’s relative strength, returning ETF inflows, and structural institutional interest are early ingredients of a rotation. The next few weeks of Fed signals and dominance trends will decide it.

What are the key levels for BTC and ETH?

Bitcoin support is $62,000 then the critical $60,000 floor, with resistance at $64,350 and $66,000. Ethereum support is $1,650, with resistance at $1,800 and the key $2,000 level.

This is not investment advice. Cryptocurrency is highly volatile. Always do your own research and never invest more than you can afford to lose.

Dash Scores 10% higher Following Debit Card Integration Backed by MasterCard and One Other

10 Best Crypto Desktop Wallets for 2024

BTCFi explained: How Elastos uses Bitcoin’s security to power DeFi

Dai savings rate may bring added advantage to DeFi ecosystem

Crypto Scam Projects: How To Spot Fake Tokens

Justin Bieber, Jimmy Fallon, Donald Trump Crypto Portfolio Exposed

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Released a List of its Favorite Cryptocurrencies; Same ‘Tokens’ To Be Included in Bakkt As Well?

Steem Community Stands Its Ground Amid Tron Takeover

Bitcoin price has turned downward again, but exchanges seem optimistic and continue listings. The largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, continues the accelerated listings it started at the end of 2021. A recent announcement was made for a new altcoin. So, which cryptocurrency will be listed?

Last Minute Altcoin ListingCoinbase announced that it will support the Stader (SD) Token, an ERC20 token on the Ethereum network. The listing will be simultaneous on Coinbase and Coinbase Global. Deposits are already active for the listing expected on July 30. If the necessary liquidity conditions are met, the pair will go live at 1:00 PM (ET). For now, only the USD pair will be available.

The exchange is not adding an experimental label to this altcoin, which is positive for SD Token. Following the news, the SD Token price rose above $0.7. The token is already available on many cryptocurrency exchanges, and due to its recent popularity with upper wicks, investors are advised to be cautious about quick returns. The price increased by 40% just today.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not constitute investment advice. Investors should be aware that cryptocurrencies carry high volatility and therefore risk, and should conduct their own research.

ETH Wallets Holding $164 Million Back Danny Ryan for Ethereum Foundation Leader

Stader (SD) Defies Market Slump With 67% Surge on Bithumb Listing Announcement

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) closed the first quarter of 2026 down 23%, driving exhausted traders to pivot capital into a surprising alternative asset class: physical Pokémon cards.

Prominent crypto analyst Trader Mayne and pseudonymous collectibles expert CBS discussed on Wednesday how the Trading Card Game (TCG) market is absorbing liquidity as digital assets continue to trade sideways.

The “Bitcoin” Of CollectiblesVintage Pokémon cards are exhibiting price resilience, with CBS highlighting the 1999 Base Set First Edition Charizard as the “Bitcoin of the TCG market.”

TCGs are attracting crypto capital thanks to their scarcity, liquidity, and decoupling from wider digital assets.

Unlike altcoins with constant token unlocks and inflationary supply, vintage cards have fixed, verifiable caps.

High-end graded cards operate with near-instant liquidity at trade shows and online marketplaces, allowing traders to flip $50,000 physical assets in minutes.

And while Bitcoin and equities dumped over the last four months, vintage trading cards largely held their value or appreciated.

CBS views the current environment as a “land grab,” noting that wealthy millennials in their 30s are aggressively replacing traditional antiques with nostalgic physical investments.

Markets Held Hostage By HeadlinesBack on the traditional charts, Mayne emphasized that technical analysis is currently taking a backseat to geopolitical “tape bombs.”

Mayne noted this instant risk-on bid reveals the market’s total desperation for a de-escalation catalyst.

Until a formal ceasefire occurs, Mayne expects violent volatility and warns against forcing leverage in the middle of a headline-driven range.

Prediction markets currently price the odds of U.S. “boots on the ground” in Iran by the end of April at greater than 50%.

Mayne also took aim at Strategy Inc (NASDAQ:MSTR) and its Chairman Michael Saylor over the aggressive marketing of the company’s new 11.5% yield product, STRCH.

Saylor recently deployed heavily criticized, AI-generated promotional videos to advertise the fixed-income product to retail investors.

Mayne compared the marketing tactics to the peak-euphoria days of the collapsed Terra/Luna Anchor Protocol, labeling the campaign “unbelievably cringe” and warning that such aggressive retail targeting damages the broader credibility of the Bitcoin ecosystem during an already fragile market structure.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

© 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

[adinserter block="1"]

Travala.com, a blockchain-based hotel booking platform, has announced that crypto users can now pay with the stablecoin Tether (USDT). Travelers can book a stay at any number of accommodations around the world on the online platform by using USDT.

Travala.com is an Amsterdam-based travel firm with over 17,000 employees around the world. The company’s platform offers crypto users access to over two million properties in more than 90,000 destinations across 230 territories.

In addition to Tether, Travala.com also accepts crypto payments in the form of Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin, Binance Coin, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, and Cardano. The company touts that its prices are up to 40% cheaper than other travel booking platforms.

Says CEO Matt Luczynski,

“Part of our mission is to provide our users with a wide choice of the most well known and used cryptocurrencies so it made perfect sense for us to integrate USDT as a payment option on Travala.com.”

Tether is the most popular cryptocurrency in terms of trading volume. At time of writing, Tether’s 24-hour trading volume is over $26.6 billion compared to Bitcoin’s $22.1 billion. Ethereum is a far third at $8.47 billion.

[adinserter block="1"]

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Keattikorn

Travala Adds Second Stablecoin, Tether (USDt) As Crypto Payment Option For Booking Hotels

AltDex Launches Cryptocurrency Index of Gaming-Related Tokens

New Tron Partnership Lets Gamers Earn Crypto for Streaming

OnchainLens monitoring reported on December 21 that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has sold multiple cryptocurrencies over the past two days—including UNI, ZORA, BNB, KNC, OMG and other meme tokens—totaling tens of thousands of dollars. Following those sales, he transferred approximately $564,672 in USDC and 27 ETH (valued at roughly $80,364) using the privacy protocol Railgun.

Relevant content

Vice President of Strive: Strategy's STRC Has Essential Differences from the Luna/UST Model

Strive Vice President Joe Burnett wrote in an article that prior to the TerraUSD collapse, roughly $18.7 billion in UST was in circulation, backed by just $3.1 billion in Bitcoin reserves, and UST allowed immediate redemptions. Currently, Strategy holds around $51.5 billion in Bitcoin, corresponding to a circulating STRC supply of approximately $10.5 billion, while STRC is not an immediately redeemable asset. He stressed that the two differ significantly in collateral structure, asset coverage ratio, and redemption mechanism, noting "they are clearly completely different models."

1 minutes ago

trade.xyz launches contract trading for Japanese storage stock Kioxia (KOXIA)

According to official announcements, trade.xyz has launched contract trading for Japanese storage stock Kioxia (KOXIA), supporting up to 10x leverage. The Kioxia (KIOXIA) product tracks the value of each common share of Kioxia Holdings Corporation, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (stock code: 285A). Its price conversion mechanism converts the underlying Japanese stock price from yen to U.S. dollars based on the current USD/JPY exchange rate. Kioxia manufactures NAND flash memory and solid-state drives (SSDs) for use in data centers, consumer electronics, mobile devices, and enterprise storage.

1 minutes ago

Japanese storage chip manufacturer Kioxia's share price rose more than 12%

According to Bitget market data, the share price of Japanese storage chip manufacturer Kioxia Holdings (铠侠) surged by 12%.

1 minutes ago

Coinbase secures Luxembourg’s MiCA license, to base its EU operations in Luxembourg.

According to an official announcement, Luxembourg has officially become Coinbase’s registered MiCA Home under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. Moving forward, Coinbase will use Luxembourg as its EU business hub to provide compliant crypto asset services for users across EU member states.

1 minutes ago

The KyberSwap attacker has transferred another 2000 ETH to Tornado Cash, with over 80% of the stolen funds now laundered.

According to PeckShield’s monitoring, an address identified as the KyberSwap attacker has once again transferred 2,000 ETH to Tornado Cash. Over the past two years, this attacker has cumulatively transferred and mixed 16,100 ETH via Tornado Cash, equivalent to roughly $40 million at current prices, accounting for over 80% of the $48.8 million lost in the KyberSwap attack in November 2023. Some of the stolen funds have not yet been fully transferred.

1 minutes ago

James Wynn closed out his 40x Bitcoin short position, netting $30,000 in profits, and shifted to opening a 50x S&P 500 short position.

According to monitoring by OnchainLens, James Wynn has liquidated his 40x leveraged Bitcoin (BTC) short position, pocketing roughly $30,000 in profit. He subsequently opened a new 50x leveraged S&P 500 (SP500) short position at a price of 334.42, betting on a future decline in the US stock market.

1 minutes ago

Railgun [RAIL] has hit a key milestone that could scale privacy for DeFi like never before. The privacy mania has been so loud on token price gains, but the underlying protocols haven’t been very useful or scalable until now. 

From Zcash to Tornado Cash, users could only deposit funds and shield them (hide) from the public or explorers. You can only park the funds there with limited utility. 

However, to swap into a DeFi or use a lending protocol, one had to unshield and move the funds, making it easy to correlate and track the activity – A zero usability apart from hiding balances that limits legacy privacy protocols. 

Now, the Ethereum [ETH]-based project has successfully tested Railgun_connect on CowSwap, effectively allowing private wallets to use DeFi platforms without unshielding and moving funds. 

The project said, 

“RAILGUN_connect is a first-of-its-kind tool for privacy and is a huge leap in making private addresses as functional as public ones.”

The team billed the feature as a ‘universal plug-and-play’ that will ‘eliminate the heavy work needed to build an integration to use a DeFi application from a private balance.’

Railgun leverages zero-knowledge proofs for shielded transfers, so interactions with DeFi frontends don’t compromise decentralization or privacy. 

Railgun traction hits record high The push for DeFi privacy at scale aligns with Ethereum’s vision and increasing appetite for such solutions. 

In fact, the number of shields per day for tracking private wallets has been rising sharply since 2025. In early 2026, the daily average shield hit a record high of 326, further confirming the massive demand for privacy.

Source: X/Etherscan Additionally, the cumulative volume on the privacy protocol reached a record $4.5 billion, up from $2.4 billion a year ago. This translated into nearly 100% growth, or 2x, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. 

Source: Dune The native governance token, RAIL, didn’t fall behind amid this growing network traction. In fact, after the pullback earlier in the week, the token recovered 25%.

This was part of a broader privacy coins rally after the E.U.-U.S. tensions eased, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff pause in favor of a potential Greenland deal. 

Source: RAIL/USD, TradingView  Final Thoughts  Railgun unveiled Raingun_connect, a ‘plug and play’ feature to scale DeFi privacy  The privacy project has seen a record daily shield of 326 amid rising demand for privacy solutions. 

PeckShield: WUSD/GLOVE liquidity pool attacked, resulting in losses of approximately $207,000.

PANews reported on May 25th that, according to PeckShield monitoring, the WUSD/GLOVE project on Ethereum suffered an attack, resulting in a loss of approximately $207,000. After obtaining the funds, the attackers converted the stolen assets into approximately 98 ETH and transferred them to the privacy protocol Railgun.

Share to:

Author: PA一线

This content is for market information only and is not investment advice.

Follow PANews official accounts, navigate bull and bear markets together

Recommended Reading

Related Topics

The Ethereum Foundation's Kohaku Initiative released an SDK enabling seamless integration of shielded pool protocols like Railgun, Tornado Cash, and Privacy Pools directly into wallet interfaces, with 4337 relaying now operational.

The Ethereum Foundation's Kohaku Initiative announced the release of its SDK for integrating privacy protocols into Ethereum wallets without intermediaries.

The team achieved a major milestone with v0.0.1-alpha.21 of the kohaku-eth/railgun integration, which now features operational 4337 mempool relaying for private transactions. Tornado Cash and Privacy Pools integrations are in development.

Kohaku aims to make end-to-end privacy the default for Ethereum users by abstracting away the complexity of interacting with existing shielded pool protocols.

Rather than relying on protocol-specific relaying infrastructure, the SDK enables all privacy protocol transactions to route through the 4337 mempool—a shift the team describes as a major contribution toward user-controlled privacy without dependence on centralized relayers.

Wallets in the worksThe initiative is actively demonstrating practical applications of the SDK beyond theoretical research. Developers have created a CLI-based wallet that consumes the Kohaku SDK to showcase real-world functionality. Wallet integrations are underway, with production wallets including Ambire preparing implementations. A browser extension experimental wallet developed in collaboration with breadcoop is also in progress.

Kohaku's scope extends beyond the work currently highlighted. The initiative is also developing infrastructure for post-quantum accounts, multisigs, and hardware wallet support, according to the team.

The SDK documentation is being expanded to improve developer experience, with the team emphasizing that wallet integration timelines require patience as production implementations move forward.

The Kohaku Initiative represents the Ethereum Foundation's focus on bringing privacy solutions from the research phase to real user adoption. Code is available on GitHub, and vision documentation for the CLI wallet component is publicly accessible. The team plans to showcase progress at Berlin Blockchain Week.

Sources: Ethereum Foundation Kohaku GitHub | Kohaku CLI GitHub Repository | Kohaku Vision Documentation | X Announcement

Manifold Finance's FOLD token crashes to 64 cents from a $87 peak amid product disappointment.Founder Sam Bacha goes quiet, responds to concerns with memes and jokes.Once-promising startup raised $2.5 million from VCs before downward spiral.Manifold Finance, a onetime buzzy crypto project, has plunged into turmoil.

Its erratic founder is unreachable, the price of its token is plummeting, and frustrated supporters are pleading for updates.

Manifold’s token, FOLD, hit an all-time low of 64 cents on November 8 — 98% off its 2022 peak of $87 — even as crypto markets surged on the election of Donald Trump as the US president.

Fold’s worth peaked at more than $87, and it was trading above $30 as recently as April. In 2022, the venture’s market value topped $128 million. Now it’s only $2 million.

Disappointing responseThe token has crashed amid a disappointing response to Manifold’s year-old liquid staking product, which was meant to compete with the likes of crypto giants Lido and Rocket Pool.

It has also suffered as a prominent backer stopped providing liquidity for the token on decentralised exchange SushiSwap earlier this year.

Meanwhile, founder Sam Bacha has not provided regular updates on a forthcoming product meant to reverse Manifold’s declining fortunes. Self-imposed deadlines have come and gone.

Bacha has occasionally commented in a 2,500-person Telegram chat without offering any explanation as to his whereabouts or Manifold’s progress, instead cracking jokes and sharing irrelevant memes, infuriating some supporters.

Lost supportEven one of Manifold’s most prominent investors, crypto influencer Jordan Fish, better known as Cobie, said in the group Telegram chat that he has lost faith in the company.

“I invested in it in 2021, and at the top, it was worth like $5m and now it’s worth 0,” Fish told DL News. “I don’t know what to tell you, yeah, seems like it failed, crypto investments are risky, maybe I should’ve sold the top, it is what it is.”

‘When did you last talk to Sam? He still alive?’

—  Supporter on TelegramPhilipp Zahn, a co-founder of Manifold partner 20squares, declined to comment to DL News, but called the company a “former client.”

Bacha and Alexander Bradley, Manifold employee, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Manifold isn’t Bacha’s first project to go sideways.

His last crypto startup, Block Array, appears to be defunct, and has been dogged by allegations of fraud. What’s more, this isn’t the first time he’s gone weeks without providing the status updates that are de rigueur in the crypto industry.

But with the collapse of Manifold’s token and supporters’ anger boiling over, Bacha’s behaviour has taken a more ominous tone.

It’s the latest example of the pitfalls that come with crypto’s freewheeling culture.

Past troubleBacha graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2013, according to his LinkedIn account, which noted he had stints at AT&T and Amazon before founding his first blockchain-based startup in 2017.

Block Array’s website and white paper were inaccessible on Friday. The X account for its Freight Trust product has been suspended. Freight Trust’s token, EDI, is seldom traded and, despite a total supply of 600 million, had no market value Friday, according to Etherscan. Block Array’s token, ARY, is also worthless, according to Etherscan.

Malicious botsManifold was founded in 2021 to help crypto traders avoid front-running from malicious bots. It raised $2.5 million from P2P.org, Marshland Capital, and several other venture investors.

A version of that anti-front running software was developed for SushiSwap, a decentralised crypto exchange.

But it was quickly shelved due to software bugs. SushiSwap declined to integrate a retooled version of the software, opting to pursue development of an in-house version instead.

After forays into other crypto middleware, Manifold eventually pivoted to liquid staking, a multibillion-dollar business long dominated by DeFi giant Lido.

But Manifold’s liquid staking token, mevETH, saw little uptake after its launch a year ago; the market value peaked at $36 million in March.

Certain transactionsSince then, it has been working in collaboration with German research firm 20squares on a new product, XGA.

XGA is meant to ensure prompt confirmation of certain transactions, which sometimes wallow on Ethereum when a user doesn’t pay a sufficient fee.

Manifold investors held out hope XGA would lift the company from its doldrums. Without warning, however, Bacha stopped providing regular updates on his company’s work.

‘Where were you for the last 30 days? Why not a single reply here in the channel?’

—  Supporter in Telegram channelCrypto security firm KebabSec had started an audit of XGA’s code, Bacha said in a September 2 update shared in the Telegram group chat. It is unclear whether that audit has been completed.

Bacha also said Manifold would begin testing XGA on an Ethereum-based test network September 17. A revamp of FOLD’s so-called tokenomics would be detailed by the end of that month, he added.

None of that appears to have happened.

“When did you last talk to Sam? He still alive?” one supporter asked in the Telegram chat on October 28.

Later that day, Bacha broke his silence to ask for feedback on Manifold’s revamped website. And he promised he would promptly share more information.

“I will post the long awaited update today comrades,” he wrote.

That update never came.

Dim moodOn October 30, Bacha took to Manifold’s seldom-used governance forum to propose the Manifold community move its conversation to social media app Discord.

The proposal was panned by supporters, who said that was the least of their concerns.

“Where were you for the last 30 days? Why not a single reply here in the channel? The mood is pretty dim,” one wrote.

“I was being vetted to become Trump’s new Crypto Czar,” Bacha replied in an apparent joke.

Missed deadlinesIn a subsequent message, he took aim at supporters who had accused him of blowing past self-imposed deadlines.

“Deadlines proclaimed by me in Telegram do not constitute any sort of binding agreement,” he wrote.

After the November 5 election, Bacha returned to the chat to share a meme derived from the film “Superman II” in which a supervillain commands, “Kneel before Zod!”

Supporters fear the worst.

“We don’t know if Sam is even coding. We don’t even know if there’s anything happening,” one wrote.

Two possibilitiesThere were two possibilities, the commenter continued: either the company was about to fold and “they don’t know how to tell us,” or “they’re working tirelessly” to release XGA.

On November 11, Matthew Land, a partner at Marshland Capital, an investor Manifold, said in a separate Telegram channel he had spoken with Bacha over the preceding weekend.

Land declined to comment when contacted by DL News Friday.

In his Telegram message, Land said he had told Bacha of “the importance of communication” and of resolving FOLD’s liquidity issue.

“As I said before, ball’s in Sam’s court and on Sam’s timeline,” Land said.

“He understands what’s up imo but we have no impact on his decisions/timeline to address them unfortunately.”

Correction, November 15: A previous version of this story stated that Matthew Land spoke to Sam Bacha about FOLD’s price. It has been corrected to state they spoke about FOLD’s liquidity issues. This story was also updated to note that Land declined to comment.

Aleks Gilbert is a DeFi correspondent based in New York. Have a tip? Contact him at [email protected].