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This Week in Crypto: Bitcoin Tumbles, Binance Flags Altcoins, and Vitalik Buterin Portfolio

Posted: October 1, 2019

Dubbed by many the fastest growing Ponzi scheme on Ethereum, the smart contract FairWin has emptied its account, according to data from Etherscan. Just a few days ago, the account possessed almost 50,000 ETH (~$9 million).

While the nature of the withdrawal has not been confirmed, the total volume of withdrawing addresses suggests that concerned users had taken their funds out after multiple crypto-users on social media speculated that the smart contract was actually a Ponzi scheme. 

It is unclear whether the contract was drained by its owner, some malicious actors or concerned users, but the multitude of withdrawing addresses suggests the latter.

According to Horizon Games’ Blockchain Researcher & Developer Philippe Castonguay, the “scheme” contains critical vulnerabilities which put the funds at risk.

The https://t.co/1HHnXNCWsL Ponzi Scheme contains critical vulnerabilities that put all funds at risk.

Spread knowledge (especially in Asia) ? Users need to withdraw their funds and stop interacting with the contract ASAP.

Details on the exploits will be published soon.

— Philippe Castonguay (@PhABCD) September 27, 2019

Later, Castonguay expanded on the details of the three main vulnerabilities he’d discovered on the Ethereum smart contract. One allowed the owner or administrator to drain the account and another allowed the admin to lock withdrawals. The third vulnerability allowed anyone to steal the deposits.

CTO of Kleros, Clement Lesaege, also posted a detailed explanation concerning the vulnerabilities on Reddit.

After the vulnerabilities were publicly announced, FairWin’s team responded to Lesaege by stating,

“Thank you for your suggestion. We have already found the vulnerability, but we don’t think it is a vulnerability. The contract is judged and the invitation code generated by the user for the first time will be used as the final invitation code. So the loophole is invalid.

In addition, we have real-time monitoring on our side. Once it is entered, it will be invalid. The intruder, we will alert at the first time, and then exclude the intruder.”

According to Castonguay’s more detailed blog post on the matter, there is no evidence to say that the funds were withdrawn by malicious attackers. The last successful withdrawal took place yesterday at around 9.21pm +UTC.

Ahmed Barakat

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June 22, 2026

A tax proposal posted to the Ethereum Research forum by Kleros founder Clément Lesaege would let ETH validators vote to redirect up to 10% of staking rewards to public goods funding. If a majority of validators signal above zero, that rate becomes mandatory for every validator on the network, including those who voted for none.

For Bitmine (BMNR), which has staked 4.72 million ETH through its MAVAN platform and projects $258 million in annual net staking revenue, the exposure range is $50–100 million in lost income per year.

Ethereum Validators Face 10% Staking Reward Redirect Plan for Ecosystem Funding

A new proposal on Ethereum's $ETH research forum wants validators to redirect up to 10% of their staking rewards toward ecosystem funding. If a majority signals support, the contribution becomes… pic.twitter.com/16PgRfEBd5

— BSCN (@BSCNews) June 22, 2026 That figure is not speculative padding. It represents the direct arithmetic of applying a forced yield reduction to the single largest ETH staking position held by any public company. The proposal is still a forum post, not an EIP. That distinction matters – but so does the direction of travel.

Discover: The Best Token Presales

The ETH Validator Redirected Revenue Tax ProposalLesaege’s post, titled “Validator Redirected Revenue,” frames the mechanism as a solution to a coordination failure. According to his ETH tax proposal, Ethereum’s shared infrastructure generates value for everyone but is funded by no one in a structured, protocol-level way.

His proposed fix is a signaling system embedded in the consensus layer. Each validator declares a preferred redirect rate between 0% and 10% of their staking rewards. If more than 50% of total staked ETH signals are above zero, a single rate is selected and applied universally.

Ethereum ResearchNow, a validator that voted for 0% redirection does not retain its full yield if the majority crosses the threshold, as it gets swept into the mandatory rate alongside everyone else. Funds flow automatically to an allocation smart contract, with a splitter routing capital to designated recipients such as Gitcoin, Octant, and audit organizations.

Lesaege explicitly described the post as a conversation-starter: “We seek further feedback before working on a technical implementation to put forth as an Ethereum Improvement Proposal.” As of now, no EIP number has been assigned.

A parallel mechanism called Validator Revenue Redistribution (VRR), presented by Ethereum Foundation researcher Devansh Mehta at EthCC, provides the technical plumbing layer. Mehta described the threshold dynamically, “If 51% put their flag up, all 100% of stakers have to part with a portion of their rewards.”

Photo by Morthy Jameson on PexelsDiscover: The Best Crypto to Diversify Your Portfolio

Bitmine’s MAVAN Platform: The $258M Revenue Thesis Exposed to Protocol GovernanceBitmine’s May 8-K reported 4,718,677 ETH staked via MAVAN, or 87% of its 5.42 million ETH total holdings and 4.49% of total ETH supply. The 7-day annualized yield at that date was 2.73%, against a CESR benchmark of 2.81–2.84%. At full deployment, Bitmine projects $296 million in gross staking rewards and $258 million in net staking revenues annually.

Photo by Brett Sayles on PexelsThe math for a protocol-level redirect is straightforward. Each 1 percentage point reduction in effective annual yield on 4.72 million ETH costs approximately $94 million per year in gross rewards at an ETH price around $2,000.

However, a 10% redirect of the current 2.73% yield diverts 0.27 percentage points, translating to $25 million per year flowing away from BMNR’s validators. At this rate alone, the direct hit is meaningful but not existential.

The $50–100 million exposure range reflects a wider scenario set. If the mandatory redirect rate compounds with any secondary compression in overall validator economics like reduced participation incentives, institutional validators exiting to restaking or L2 yield strategies, or ETH price movement, the effective yield impact on 4.72 million ETH staked.

Staking revenue is not a secondary income line for Bitmine. It constituted more than 93% of quarterly revenue in Q2 FY2026, and the company declared a $0.01 annual dividend in January 2026. Bitmine is the first large-cap crypto company to do so, funded directly by staking income.

A material yield cut would pressure that commitment in a way that no operational decision by management can offset. The ETH validator tax is not a cost Bitmine can engineer around; it is a protocol-level deduction from the asset class itself.

Discover: The Best Token Presales

The bank’s 60 million customers can now buy BTC and ETH through the firm’s Ion app.

The largest banking institution in Latin America has opened the doors for all of its clients to get exposure to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Itaú Unibanco, Brazil’s largest bank by assets under management, is now offering BTC and ETH trading to its more than 60 million clients. Users can access both tokens through the company’s Ion app.

In December 2023, Itaú launched the cryptocurrency trading platform for select clients. According to the firm’s Head of Digital Assets, Guto Antunes, the bank decided to expand its operations due to weekly surveys showing high demand for crypto services.

Although the company is only offering the two largest assets by market capitalization, the idea is to add support for other tokens in the future. "It starts with bitcoin, but our overarching strategic plan is to expand to other crypto assets in the future," Antunes said last year.

Institutions in Brazil have been relentlessly pushing the envelope when it comes to crypto services in the country. Alongside Itaú’s crypto trading platform unveiled last year, Brazilian neobank Nubank partnered with Circle to offer USDC access to the company’s 80 million customers.

Latin America is quietly becoming a regional powerhouse in terms of crypto adoption. Recently, a grassroots Argentinean organization called Crecimiento revealed plans to create a Crypto Silicon Valley in Buenos Aires. Across the Andes, Chile has been paving the way for friendlier regulation in terms of fintech companies, with the country approving a new financial technologies law in 2023.

And the region is one that desperately needs more financial inclusion. It is home to more than 650 million people, of which 122 million are unbanked, while citizens of several nations grapple with double and triple-digit inflation.

BeInCrypto Institutional Research: 15 Blockchain Infrastructure Firms Powering Wall Street Adoption 

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Abermals ist Solana unter die psychologisch wichtige Marke von 200 US Dollar gestürzt: In den letzten 7 Tagen ging der Preis um 16 Prozent zurück und bewegt sich nun bei 183 US Dollar. Zu Jahresanfang bewegte sich Solana bei 217 US Dollar, am 6. Januar übersprang Solana sogar die 220 US Dollar-Grenze. Auch wenn es in den letzten Tagen steil bergab ging, bleiben die langfristigen Prognosen aber positiv. Einige Experten sind überzeugt, Solana könnte noch in der ersten Jahreshälfte in Richtung 300 US Dollar gehen; werden von der SEC die ersten Solana Spot ETFs zugelassen, könnte das ebenfalls positiv für weitere Preisexplosionen sein.

Kein Grund zur Sorge: Der Preis könnte sich 2025 verdoppeln Analyst Ted Pillows ist überzeugt: Solana könnte in diesem Jahr in Richtung 400 US Dollar gehen – das behauptet er jedenfalls auf X. Auf lange Sicht würde es keine negative Markteinschätzung geben; es bestehe zudem eine sehr hohe On Chain-Aktivität im Netzwerk von Solana. Dabei hebt der Analyst auch vor, Solana würde bereits in unterschiedlichen Anwendungsbereichen zum Einsatz kommen – etwa im Bereich dezentraler Finanzanwendung (DeFi), künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) und Meme Coins. Diese breite Nutzung zeigt ganz klar, dass das Netzwerk von Solana durchaus relevant bleibt.

2024 ging es für Solana steil nach oben: Im Januar 2024 lag der Preis bei rund 85 US Dollar, im März ging es dann über 200 US Dollar. Das Allzeithoch wurde am 23. November aufgestellt: 263 US Dollar. Im Ranking der Top Kryptowährungen laut Marktkapitalisierung befindet sich Solana auf Platz 6 mit knapp 90 Milliarden US Dollar.

Solana ist mit Sicherheit eine jener Kryptowährungen, die für 2025 empfohlen werden kann – vor allem, wenn man langfristig investieren möchte.

Zudem gibt es neben Solana noch Solaxy, eine neue 2 Layer-Lösung, die ebenfalls ein nicht zu unterschätzendes Potential hat.

Hier geht es zur Homepage von Solaxy

Sollte man in Solana und Solaxy investieren? Bei Solaxy handelt es sich um die erste für Solana geschaffene 2 Layer-Lösung, die innerhalb kürzester Zeit viel Aufmerksamkeit auf sich ziehen konnte. Im Zuge des aktuellen Presales wurden bereits über 9,5 Millionen US Dollar eingesammelt. Das Ziel, das bei Solaxy verfolgt wird? Durch eine weitere Skalierungsebene soll die Performance von Solana optimiert werden. Solana, bekannt für die sehr hohen Geschwindigkeiten und die relativ geringen Transaktionskosten, stößt nämlich bei einem immer größer werdenden Wachstum regelmäßig auf Belastungsgrenzen. Hier kommt eben Solaxy ins Spiel und bietet eine neue Lösung an.

Spielen bei Ethereum die Layer 2-Lösungen längst eine Schlüsselrolle, so steht Solana bei der Massenadoption vor vergleichbaren Problemen und Herausforderungen. Solaxy will einerseits an der Skalierbarkeit schrauben, andererseits auch die Netzwerkrobustheit verbessern. Das Projekt verfolgt den innovativen Ansatz, indem es Ethereum und Solana kombiniert. Durch diese parallele Speicherung der Transaktionsdaten auf Ethereum soll eine höhere Ausfallssicherheit erreicht werden.

Des Weiteren punktet man mit einer flexiblen Architektur, die erlaubt, dass Vermögenswerte problemlos zwischen den beiden Netzwerken übertragen werden können. Das heißt, Entwickler können auf neue Möglichkeiten zugreifen und Multi Chain-Anwendungen entwickeln, die dann auf den Stärken der beiden Blockchains basieren.

Hier geht es zum Presale von Solaxy

Der Plan: 138,046 Milliarden SOLX Token sollen ausgegeben werden. Um das Projekt auf lange Zeit zu sichern, werden 20 Prozent der Token als Reserve aufbewahrt. 15 Prozent der Token stehen für das Marketing zur Verfügung, damit das Wachstum und in weiterer Folge die Bekanntheit von Solaxy vorangetrieben werden kann.

25 Prozent der Token stehen für die frühen Unterstützer bereit. Also jene, die schon während dem Presale investieren. Nach dem Ende des Presales stehen 10 Prozent für die Listung auf einer Kryptobörse zur Verfügung.

Der größte Anteil der Token wird für die Weiterentwicklung verwendet – das sind 30 Prozent der Token.

Derzeit können all jene, die von Solaxy überzeugt sind, über die Homepage Token erwerben. Was man dafür benötigt? ETH, USDT oder BNB sowie eine kompatible Wallet, damit die Token dann übertragen werden können. Die Token können übrigens gestaked werden. Die Rendite geht bis zu 370 Prozent.

Draufklicken und in Solaxy investieren

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BlackRock, in partnership with Securitize, has launched the USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). This innovative offering aims to provide qualified investors an opportunity to earn US dollar yields by leveraging blockchain technology.

The fund’s debut took notice when a $100 million transaction involving USDC stablecoin was executed on the Ethereum network. As a result, BlackRock’s Ethereum address became a magnet for meme coins and NFTs.

BlackRock Now Holds Meme CoinsBlackRock introduced BUIDL, offering qualified investors a channel to earn returns on their US dollars via blockchain. This venture marks a significant departure from traditional investment mechanisms. Indeed, it promises to redefine the financial system.

“This is the latest progression of our digital assets strategy. We are focused on developing solutions in the digital assets space that help solve real problems for our clients,” Robert Mitchnick, BlackRock’s Head of Digital Assets, said.

The strategic maneuver into the crypto market was underscored by a notable transaction where $100 million in USDC. Presumably, the funds serve as the financial bedrock for BUIDL.

The crypto community’s response to BlackRock’s initiative was swift and vivid. Indeed, the fund’s Ethereum wallet, distinguished by its address 0x13e003a57432062e4EdA204F687bE80139AD622f, became a magnet for meme coins and NFTs airdrops. Among these digital assets, four meme coins have stood out:

DETF Token (DETF), with 250,000 tokens valued at $15,385.66, Realio Network (RIO), comprising 10,000 tokens worth around $13,800.10, unshETHing_Token (USH), totaling 500,000 tokens, estimated at $12,749.20, and Shina Inu (SHI), amounting to 9,197,214,541 tokens worth $9,165.50. Read more: 7 Hot Meme Coins and Altcoins that are Trending in 2024

BlackRock Crypto Holdings. Source: EtherScanAs BlackRock embraces a new era of investment, combining traditional finance’s rigor with blockchain technology’s dynamism, the decision to hold or sell these meme coins still awaits.

When Bitcoin began gaining prominence, few bodies were as concerned as the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC]. A currency that is not tethered to a single person or entity, operating on something that cannot be shut down, and plied by a technology that is immutable, irreversible and transparent, it was the perfect problem for regulators.

From being touted as the currency of the Dark Web, to having derivatives contracts in its name being traded on the CBOE and CME, the regulatory journey of Bitcoin has been like no other. One would think regulators have eased their concerns with cryptocurrencies, but things were just getting started.

ICO: Initial Coin Onslaught Regulators were not immediately taken aback by the 2017-price surge. Instead, they remained on their toes and began a severe crackdown on the digital assets market.

In 2019, many crypto-entrepreneurs began registering their issuances as “tokens” and hence, escaped the regulatory hassle that would follow a security registration, which was when the SEC began to take a closer look. Stephanie Avakian, the SEC’s Co-director of Enforcement, said in a statement following one such case,

“We have made it clear that companies that issue securities through ICOs are required to comply with existing statutes and rules governing the registration of securities…we continue to be on the lookout for violations of the federal securities laws with respect to digital assets.”

Some were genuine cases, however, there were multiple cases of deliberate manipulation. Take the case of Maksim Zaslaviky, who raised money for two separate projects, “RECoin” and “Diamond,” tokens allegedly backed by real estate and diamonds. Zaslaviky pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and argued that laws surrounding digital currencies were “unconstitutionally vague.”

Jay Clayton, the SEC’s Chairman, made it clear that the SEC will not budge on the definition of a “security.” Months after clarifying that all ICOs are securities and “if it’s a security, we’re regulating it,” Clayton stated,

“If you have an ICO or a stock, and you want to sell it in a private placement, follow the private placement rules. If you want to do any IPO with a token, come see us.”

In fact, the ICO fervor got so tense that the SEC created a new role to oversee cryptocurrencies. Valerie Szczepanik, who previously served in the SEC’s cyber-unit, was given the brand new position of Associate Director of the Division of Corporation Finance and Senior Advisor for Digital Assets and Innovation. In the SEC’s press release, her role was defined as,

“Ms. Szczepanik will coordinate efforts across all SEC Divisions and Offices regarding the application of U.S. securities laws to emerging digital asset technologies and innovations, including Initial Coin Offerings and cryptocurrencies.”

SEC’s home turf Due to increased regulatory oversight of the SEC, projects began leaving the US in search of other markets. The main concern for entrepreneurs was the definition of their issuance and if that would lead to the SEC stepping in, especially if they confer a “security” tag. Robert Greene, a former member of the Chamber of Digital Commerce’s Token Alliance, told Longhash,

“The SEC’s regulatory posture has certainly driven projects seeking to conduct an open digital token offering to locate outside of the United States.”

Some projects went a step further. BitTorrent, which saw its early-2019 token sale finish in 15 minutes and generated $7.1 billion, restricted US residents from taking part, owing to increased regulatory scrutiny.

The ICO craze didn’t continue to 2019, particularly in the US. As seen in the chart below, the number of projects from January 2018 to November 2019 almost dropped to 0.

Token Problem The setting in 2018 was vastly different from the one in 2019. ICOs were on a decline, moving to the premise of Initial Exchange Offerings [IEO] where internal governance of partnered exchanges come into play, rather than external regulation. The SEC’s focus hence waned from nabbing ICO criminals to defining a “token.”

Even though issuances present different regulatory cases, they’re unified by a common theme – the SEC is concerned not with the tag “security” or “token,” but the underlying means of fundraising and its purpose, said Chainalysis’ Chief Technical Counsel, Michael Moiser.

In a joint statement, the three most important financial regulatory bodies of the United States – the SEC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC], and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network [FinCEN] reiterated this principle,

“As such, regardless of the label or terminology that market participants may use, or the level or type of technology employed, it isthe facts and circumstances underlying an asset, activity or service, including its economic reality and use (whether intended or organically developed or repurposed),that determines the general categorization of an asset.”

Four token issuances which caught the SEC’s attention and set the stage for regulation were – Block.one, Telegram, Kik, and Blockstack.

Block.one’s EOS

A previous piece covering Block.one’s regulatory issues can be found here.

Block.one was fined $24 million by the SEC for its EOS token sale in 2017-2018. The Brendan Blumer-led company clarified that the fine pertained to ERC-20 tokens issued on the Ethereum blockchain which are “no longer in circulation or traded.”

Stephen McKeon, Associate professor of finance at the University of Oregon and former Chief Strategy Officer at Security Token Academy, told AMBCrypto that this is an issue of “transitional securities,” based on when the token sale occurred and when the fine was imposed. He stated,

“The settlement could affirm the viewpoint that a network’s token should always be offered as a security during an initial raise, but a future sale of that asset might later be deemed to fall outside of securities laws once the asset’s network is “sufficiently decentralized.”

In relation to the Howey Test, once a network is “sufficiently decentralised,” it would not satisfy two of the determining factors and hence, “what was once a security is no longer treated that way by the SEC,” clarified McKeon.

Like the case of EOS, cryptocurrencies can essentially fall out of the “security” definition if it “evolves,” according to the SEC’s Director of Corporation Finance, Bill Hinman. Clayton seconded the ‘Hinman doctrine’ in a letter to cryptocurrency advocacy firm, Coincentre, stating,

“A digital asset may be offered and sold initially as a security because it meets the definition of an investment contract, but that designation may change over time if the digital asset later is offered and sold in such a way that it will no longer meet that definition.”

Telegram’s GRAM

The SEC halted Telegram’s GRAM token sale less than a month before its opening. Telegram told investors that discussions with the federal agency had been ongoing for eighteen months. Yet on 11 October, the SEC filed an emergency action against the platform for “conducting an alleged unregistered, ongoing digital token offering in the U.S.”

Steven Peikin, Co-director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, stated,

“Telegram seeks to obtain the benefits of a public offering without complying with the long-established disclosure responsibilities designed to protect the investing public.”

Moiser said that the case of Telegram directly ties to the SEC, CFTC and FinCEN’s joint statement [issued on the same day as the Telegram complaint], and is based on ‘function, not label.’ Next, the coming together of messaging and token sales is a case in its own regard, and hence, the SEC took the extra measure. Moiser added,

“The messaging app-to-crypto token space is an important one to watch, for fast adoption through existing networks, as well as natural synchronicity with privacy-oriented users.”

Telegram’s use as a covert-messaging device was also a concern. The Chainalysis CTO added that the messaging application came in for far more “scrutiny” owing to its alleged use by “nefarious actors.” The privacy messaging platform is the “number one source for terrorist organizations online,” according to Steven Stalinsky, Executive Director of the Middle Eastern Media Research Institute [MEMRI], a think-tank that released a 253-page report on how terror-outfits’ use of GRAM could be a “security threat.”

Moiser was surprised that Telegram, with its deep pockets and ability to put forth a strong legal team, could not, at the very least, avoid a “temporary restraining order.” He stated,

“Given their resources, knowledge of the publicly stated illicit finance concerns and ability to work through these issues in advance with regulators before market actions, the impact on investors from them not doing so makes this important in an unfortunate way.”

Kik’s KIN

In 2017, Kik, another lesser-known messaging platform, issued a token sale for their crypto Kin, raising $55 million from US investors in the process. Kin’s sale commenced during a period when the messaging service saw little use. The same was attested in the SEC’s June 2019 filing.

The crux of SEC’s complaint follows previous cases, stating that Kik “sold the tokens to U.S. investors without registering their offer.” The complaint was further divided into two parts – the value and the promotion. The value at the time of the complaint was “about half of the value that public investors paid in the offering.” Secondly, the SEC alleged that Kin was marketed as an “investment opportunity.”

Kik further told investors that a “profit” could be expected from their investment, which, according to the Chief of Enforcement in the Cyber Unit division of the SEC, Robert A. Cohen, satisfies the Howey Test. He stated,

“Future profits based on the efforts of others is a hallmark of a securities offering that must comply with the federal securities laws.”

Months after the complaint, Kik hit back, stating that the regulator has made a consistent effort to “twist the facts” by “misrepresenting the documents and testimony” gathered. Kik demanded a Jury trial and detailed 200 points of clarification against the SEC’s initial complaint. 

The tussle got so heated that FT called it the “acid test for whether certain digital tokens count as securities.” It was hence, one of the most pivotal regulatory cases of 2019.

Blockstack’s STX 

In July 2019, Blockstack saw its token offering – Stack [STX], approved by the SEC under Regulation-A. This was the first case of token issuances that was approved by the regulator. An alternative to an IPO, Regulation A is based on two tiers. Tier 1 pertains to offerings up to $20 million within a 12-month window, while Tier 2 has a ceiling of $50 million over the same period.

The case of Blockstack’s approval was hailed as being historical for token issuances under the purview of the SEC. The National Law board stated,

“The SEC’s decision to qualify Blockstack’s offering circular represents a milestone for Blockstack, as well as the blockchain industry as a whole. It is a key step down what may be a viable pathway for companies to raise capital to develop open, cryptographically secured networks powered by digital assets.”

Kraken’s Steven Ehrlich, in a piece for Forbes, stated that Blockstack’s approval was important for three reasons. The $28 million offering will be widespread between retail and institutional investors. Blockstack is ahead on development, having over 170 applications operating on its blockchain. Being over half a decade old, Blockstack belongs to the ‘old-guard’ of crypto-companies and serves as a “good barometer to assess the industry’s progress as a whole.”

With the cases of Kik and Telegram happening before and after Blockstack’s approval, the SEC took a more nuanced view with the blockchain company, compared to the messaging giants. Blockstack’s fundraising could be a “path to SEC-approved IPO-type fundraising with a crypto-token,” stated Moiser. He added,

“While many noted the $2mm that Blockstack spent to achieve this, it sets a precedent and blueprint that can be replicated on the shoulders of that capital investment.”

Lowering of the Iron-Fist

Token issuances were the most important regulatory decisions that the SEC had to make this year, and their approach from 2018 to 2019 has evolved. While in 2018, retail fever was pushing projects towards ICOs, the basket was spoiled by a few bad apples that used the method of raising funds for nefarious reasons, which rightly ushered scrutiny.

Moving on from the iron-fist decisions, the SEC immediately came out and stated that the ‘tag’ is secondary to ‘activity’ and ‘means.’ Four token security decisions dominated the sphere, with the messaging giants getting the short-end of the stick, more so due to other reasons surrounding their issuances, rather than the method itself.

For Kik, it was the financial situation and Kin’s drop in valuation, while for Telegram, it was the platform’s reported use by terror-elements. The regulatory decision for Block.one underlined the case for a more nuanced approach to token regulations, which looked at the lifetime of a token. Blockstack’s case also spelled out the alternative to IPO-means towards securing an SEC green light for crypto-fundraising.

All-in-all, it can be stated that the SEC is looking at the complete picture of token issuance, issuer, network, means, and amount before regulations are meted out.

Token issuances are not dead, they’re evolving.

Welcome, once again, to your week in crypto. Granted, this may read like my week in crypto, but, as a faithful reader of Decrypt (you are, aren’t you?), some of the stories you’ve read may well be the ones I’ve written. So let’s make this our week in crypto. 

And what a week we’ve had: Telegram battled the SEC; hackers exploited a DeFi loophole to net nearly $1 million; and Cristiano Ronaldo’s ended up on the blockchain. 

Cristiano Ronaldo goes on the blockchainDue to a strange contortion of the cosmos, beloved footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has ended up on the blockchain. Back of the net; goal!; score!; off-side! Choose your favorite soccer-related pun, but don’t let it distract you from the truth: Ronaldo is on the block, and he’s here to stay. 

To be more precise, his likeness has been uploaded onto Sorare, a fantasy football game that’s based on the blockchain, due to a licensing agreement with his soccer club, Juventus FC. The premise is smart: buy a Cristiano Ronaldo card, or win one in a pack, and you’ll have one of only 111 in existence. That’s because the card is a non-fungible token, or NFT, which means it can’t be duplicated or replicated.

Sure, you can copy-paste Ronaldo’s image into another file, and tokenize that, but it’s not the same. If it’s not Sorare-branded—and in today’s super-sized-extra-patty-no-cheese hyper-capitalist economy, that’s what matters—it’s not legitimate. Sorare hopes that, if their fantasy football game takes off, then the value of rare tokenized representations of soccer players will rise. Based on Ethereum, the tokens could be used elsewhere, even as collateral to secure DeFi loans.

Hackers stole nearly $1 million using flash loans on DeFiThis week, a hacker has exploited decentralized finance software tools to net $645,000. Another hack last week used the same modus operandi to grab $350,000. That means that the exploit has caused the system to lose around $1 million.

Hackers used “flash loans” to take money from DeFi programs. Here’s how Decrypt described the incident: “A clever set of instructions—all executed in one big transaction—enabled the trader to leverage current weaknesses in the DeFi ecosystem for their own gain. By using several decentralized financial tools, and a small dose of price manipulation, they were able to take home a lot of Ethereum.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. 

In fact, so big and clever were the hackers, that they caused bZx to shut down their system temporarily while they sort out the issue. One PR flack told Decrypt he saw the bZx team at a stall at ETH Denver. Following the hack, its booth was empty.

Don’t shoot the messengerTelegram, the operators of the 300 million-strong messenger app, this week defended itself in a court case with the SEC from allegations that the $1.7 billion token sale for its upcoming blockchain network, the Telegram Open Network, constituted an unregistered securities sale. 

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, "reserved"—meaning the judge, Judge Kevin Castel, will be issuing a written ruling before April 30. The timing matters: Due to a peculiarity in the purchase agreements Telegram issued for Grams, investors could be entitled to claim their money back if the network doesn’t launch by April 30.

A bunch of companies, like Polkadot, Dfinity, and Kik, also raised money in SAFT sales, a fundraising mechanism that’s popular among crypto companies. Kik has been battling the SEC for its cryptocurrency, Kin, for roughly the same thing, since June. The court case near bankrupted Kik, which also ran a messenger app with a similar number of users to Telegram. Kik laid off the majority of its workers, was bought by another company that introduced ads into its app, and split from Kin. 

Yankun Guo, a lawyer who set up her own practice in Chicago to help early-stage startups, told Decrypt that Judge Castel has to weigh up the implications of impeding Telegram’s operations versus allowing the token sale to continue, she said, “which could signal to other companies that their activities are legal and potentially allowing illegal activity to occur.” 

That’s because, lawyers told Decrypt, the counsel for both sides is well equipped, and the project is large enough that it’s likely both sides will battle it until a court ruling is made. The SEC has settled other cases; indeed, this week it forced crypto project Enigma to return funds raised in a $45 million ICO to investors. But if the SEC and Telegram don’t settle, the judge would rule and the case would set a legal precedent, and potentially even result in new legislation being passed. All this would affect the future of token sales, crypto exchanges, and venture capitalists.

On the outcome of the Telegram hearing, Guo said, “The fact that Judge Castel had granted an emergency restraining order signals that he believes the SEC position has merit and is likely to succeed.”

John Berry, a partner at Munger Tolles & Olson LLP, told Decrypt that Judge Castel’s decision was purely to sustain the status quo. “He's got to issue his ruling on a thorny issue,” he said, but added that the longer Judge Castel delays his ruling, the more likely it is he’ll rule in favor of Telegram. 

In this case, the worn-out journalistic cliché applies: if Judge Castel issues his ruling too late, for investors, and Telegram, only time will tell. 

Daily Debrief NewsletterStart every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Startup Solana Seeks A $2-$10M Raise; DISH and KIN Jumping To A New Blockchain?

Delegated proof-of-stake (DPOS) is a consensus mechanism in which coinholders stake their coins with large node operators (aka delegates, witnesses, or block producers). Instead of mining, coinholders elect delegates to create blocks and provide computing power.  This is less energy-intensive than proof-of-work schemes, and allows much higher transaction throughput than other blockchains.

DPOS was created by Dan Larimer, who introduced the system via Bitshares, Steemit, and EOS. Many other platforms also use DPOS as well, including Lisk, TRON, Tezos, and ARK.

But although DPOS has become popular, it has also attracted plenty of controversy from critics who say it’s too centralized. Is that a real issue? Let’s take a deeper look.

How Many Node Operators Does DPOS Give Power To? The most basic concern comes from the fact that most DPOS-based blockchains put power into the hands of just a few delegates. EOS, for example, has just 21 active delegates (or “block producers”) at any time. However, other blockchains have more delegates. Here are the numbers at a glance:

Number of delegated block producers for various DPOS chains. Tezos stands out because it uses a variant of DPOS called liquid proof-of-stake. The number of delegates (or “bakers”) who are active on Tezos is always in flux. In practice, Tezos has had more than 400 bakers at times, and about 100-150 are active each day—but the protocol can support even more bakers if needed.

Additionally, some blockchains use a “hierarchical” variant of DPOS, in which different parts of its blockchain network serve different roles. Vite, for example, has just 25 snapshot block producers at the top of its hierarchy. However, it can also support an unlimited number of consensus groups, which provides greater decentralization.

How Widely Distributed Is Coinholder Voting? Now let’s look at how coinholders vote for delegates. In theory, some delegates might accumulate a lot of votes, but in practice, coinholders tend to vote more or less equally for each active block producer. For example, take EOS and TRON, where each delegate gets roughly equal support from coinholders:

Vote distribution for EOS and TRON, based on data from TronScan and EOSAuthority. These charts only show votes for active delegates. If we were to include votes for standby delegates (aka candidates), voting would be even more widely distributed. That doesn’t mean that power would be more widely distributed, though – just that other delegates might gain power at different times.

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Is Bitcoin More Centralized Than DPOS? Bitcoin doesn’t rely on DPOS. It relies on mining, which is usually considered far less centralized than DPOS because each miner competes individually to create blocks. Bitcoin does not have large delegates, but miners usually combine their hash power in mining pools, which do gather power.

In fact, mining pools have made Bitcoin mining very centralized at times. By some measures, Bitcoin is more centralized than EOS and other DPOS-based blockchains. Currently, about 12 pools dominate Bitcoin mining.

Compare the distribution of Bitcoin hashpower among mining pools, against how EOS users have distributed their votes among block producers:

Bitcoin mining hashrates by pool, based on data from Blockchain.com, vs votes for EOS block producers. Since 51% of hashing power can exert control over a network, it would only take four mining pools to collaborate in order to reverse a BTC transaction. Mining and DPOS work in different ways, so this is a very reductionist (but widely circulated) portrait of power consolidation.

However, delegates and mining pools do have one thing in common: both types of entities wield influence. Users can, in either case, express their approval or disapproval — either by moving between pools, or by voting for other delegates.

Is Proof-of-Stake More Decentralized Than DPOS? Proof-of-stake (POS) is an older consensus model that allows coinholders to stake their own holdings by locking up funds in a contract. Unlike DPOS, this is not done to support a delegate – instead, individual stakers are chosen to create new blocks. This selection process is usually weighted in favor of those with more at stake and/or the age of their stake.

Proof-of-stake and DPOS both rely on economic incentives and penalties to prevent power from centralizing around wealthy entities. However, this is hard to visualize, and there are two areas in which staked wealth could be concentrated: staking pools and exchange-based custodial staking.

That said, Emurgo has discussed the ways in which Cardano could prevent centralization among stake pools, and SFOX has speculated about the implications of exchange-based staking for Ethereum 2.0. In any case, proof-of-stake allows users to allocate their funds to large entities, but it still requires precautions against centralization.

Is the Lightning Network More Centralized Than DPOS? One of the main advantages of DPOS is the fact that it provides excellent scalability and high transaction throughput. DPOS can achieve this because it relies on just a few high-powered nodes rather than many small nodes. EOS can handle about 3000 transactions per second, whereas Bitcoin can handle only seven.

Bitcoin and other non-DPOS blockchains typically achieve greater transaction speeds through second-layer scaling solutions like the Lightning Network. Although Lightning is quite unlike DPOS, it does have a tendency toward centralization. One Lightning node operator, LNBig, provides about 2/3 of Lightning’s channel capacity:

Lightning Network channel capacities, based on data from 1ml.com At first glance, Lightning would seem to be far more centralized than anything we’ve looked at, and naturally, many people have observed this.

However, it’s not clear if LNBig’s dominance actually puts Lightning at risk of an attack, as Lightning nodes don’t work like DPOS nodes – instead, they simply provide payment channels.

Why Does It Matter? Decentralization matters for two reasons (and possibly more). If a blockchain or related system becomes centralized over time, it is possible for those who have gained power within that system to attack or undermine it. Second, if a system is centralized by design, the operators of that system can exert control over users.

However, it’s important to consider that resource centralization doesn’t translate directly to centralized power. Every system is designed to allocate power to node operators in a different way, which means that direct comparisons can be misleading. Simplified charts are popular, but they present an incomplete picture of reality.

So what’s the verdict? Well, on one hand, delegated proof-of-stake blockchains are somewhat more decentralized than their critics give them credit for. On the other hand, DPOS chains are still quite centralized in an absolute sense. Since DPOS is still quite young, it’s hard to say how it will be seen in the future — and the next few years could be critical.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Mike Dalton. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.

What Is PolySwarm? A Guide to The Threat Detection Marketplace

Editor's note: The Matic Network is now known as Polygon.

The Matic Network (MATIC) is a project that’s been working on a solution to the scalability issues of the Ethereum blockchain.

Their vision is to improve scalability through proof of stake sidechains, and they believe that once scalability issues are resolved we’ll also get lower transaction fees, faster confirmations, and a number of other benefits. They are also one of the latest ICOs to be conducted on the Binance Exchange Launchpad.

Yet, how is this project different from the other scalability solutions?

In this Matic Network review I will take an in-depth look into the project and attempt to answer this. I will delve into their tech, development, roadmap and the long term potential and use cases for the MATIC token.

Matic Network GoalsIn addition to solving scalability issues, the Matic Network is also focused on improving usability without losing the benefits of decentralization. They also hope to leverage the existing developer community in providing improved dApp functionality and improved user experience.

The founders of the Matic Network noticed that even though dApps are being proposed and developed in large numbers, the networks they run on are hardly prepared to support mass adoption of dApps. Plus in many cases, the user experience is quite poor, and the dApps are not designed to be approachable for the average user.

Overview of the Matic Network. Image via Matic.network

The first blockchain chosen to highlight the potential of Matic is Ethereum. The developers began with a working implementation on the Kovan testnet. While it is an adapted version of the Plasma network, ultimately the Matic development team envisions using it as a side chain scaling solution for any blockchain.

In 2019 the team was able to first launch an alpha mainnet in June, which was the first Matic sidechain working on top of the Ethereum mainnet, which allowed developers to begin building and testing dApps. That wasn’t the end though. In September the beta mainnet went live as well. This included new features such as Heimdall, Bor and Plasma predicates.

Below is a deeper look at the problems of current blockchains and how the Matic Network plans of solving them.

Addressing Blockchain ChallengesDespite how advanced blockchain technology has become, there are still a number of problems that they face. In some cases, trying to improve one challenge could lead to potential sacrifices on other features.

The Matic Network has taken stock of all of the challenges that blockchains currently face and have attempted to address these through a number of solutions.

ScalabilityScalability can be achieved by adding additional side chains horizontally, with each side chain theoretically adding the capacity for 216216 transactions per second using the same proof-of-stake checkpoint layer. This gives the Matic Network the ability to scale to millions of transactions per second.

Size of BlockchainBecause public blockchains require each node to manage a full copy of the blocks and state of the chain, as time goes by and the blockchain grows larger, fewer nodes tend to participate, which threatens the decentralization of the blockchain.

In the case of the Matic Network, it is possible for the primary layer to store only the blocks from the last checkpoint to the most recent checkpoint. It can do this because all the prior blocks have been submitted to the main chain. This allows even mobile devices to run a node.

Slow TransactionsIn most cases, blockchain transactions are slow, especially when it comes to proof-of-work blockchains. Matic uses Proof-of-Stake (PoS) to avoid this limitation, but in a special way so it is also able to maintain decentralization.

Matic Network Architecture. Image via Whitepaper

In the Matic Network consensus is done through a selection of block producers who are chosen by a set of stakers. Matic then uses proof-of-stake as a layer that validates blocks and publishes Merkle roots of the side chain blocks to the Ethereum mainchain. This allows Matic Network to keep block confirmation times under 2 seconds while also providing a high level of decentralization.

Low Transaction ThroughputIn public blockchains, there is always a lag between blocks as there needs to be enough time between blocks to ensure propagation. Block sizes are also intentionally kept small to encourage rapid propagation. This limits the number of transactions per block.

Matic Network avoids this problem by producing blocks in a Block Producer layer. This allows for the rapid creation of blocks, and decentralization is ensured through the use of proof-of-stake checkpoints. This configuration theoretically allows for 216216 transactions per second on each side chain.

Multiple micropayment channels with other off-chain solutionsSolving the problem of opening multiple channels to allow for micropayments is complex, and several projects have proposed solutions. The Matic Network has solved this issue by using an Ethereum Virtual Machine, which negates the need to open payment channels for micropayments.

Instead, any valid Ethereum address is also a valid Matic address, which means any receiver doesn’t need to be in the Matic Network. They only need a Matic Wallet to retrieve the payment.

High Transaction FeesThe limited block size of most blockchains has led to variability in fees based on the pending transaction pool, and in some cases, fees have become exorbitantly high for periods of time.

Matic is able to take advantage of economies of scale by completing a large number of transactions in the Block Producer layer. This keeps costs for each individual transaction low.

Poor UsabilitySo far most dApp user interfaces are quite poor compared to established centralized counterparts. This needs to change. If mass adoption is to occur the dApp user experience needs to be as good as, or better than, the current centralized apps.

The Matic team is working to create mobile and web browser integrations and protocols to improve usability in a secured interaction environment for dApps.

The MATIC WalletThe team at MATIC has been working on a wallet that aims to bridge the gap between scalability issues and the user experience of the Ethereum network. The wallet plans to make it easier for users to interact with the dApps that are deployed on Ethereum and Plasma chains.

The wallet will significantly increase transaction speed by allowing access to two different networks at the same time. Additionally, it permits connecting desktop Dapps to mobile Wallets using end-to-end encryption as simple as by scanning a QR code. This allows for user interaction with dApps without the private key leaving their device.

Matic Mobile Wallet UI. Image via iTunes Store

The MATIC wallet currently remains in beta and the team is cautioning everyone not to send mainnet tokens to the wallet or they will be lost. Anyone who downloads the wallet now, there are both Android and iOS versions available, will receive MATIC test tokens.

Taking a bit of a closer look at the reviews of the wallet, they are pretty average. Users seem to be taking issue with the fact that the wallet forces either fingerprint access or Facial idea. This is a particularly sticky point especially for privacy hawks in the crypto field. It is also slightly troubling that the Matic support team has not responded to any of these questions.

Matic DaggerAnother really interesting product in the Matic suite is Dagger. This is basically infastructure which provides reliable and scalable real-time events. You can think of it as akin to an offchain solution where information needed within a dApp is fed from.

What's really neat about Dagger is how easily it can be integrated with your current dApps. Very few lines of code are required in order to get any event stream from the Ethereum blockchain. All of the integration code can be obtained from their Javascript library in their GitHub.

Matic Dagger Unique Selling Points

Dagger also helps you to engage with your users when they are offline. Essentially, you can listen for user specific events 24/7. Once these events come through you can send notifications via email or DMs to make the apps more user friendly.

Potential use cases for this? Well, you can use it to ensure the safety of your users and notify them in case their are any suspicious transactions. This could help them react almost instantaneously.

The Matic Network team remains quite small, consisting of the three co-founders, eight engineers, a head of operations and one community manager. The project has also added a pair of Operations & Marketing VPs in the past year, a VP of Finance and Operations, and several individuals whose focus is the design including a Head of Design.

Jaynti Kanani is the CEO and one co-founder of Matic. He comes from a software engineering background and was most recently a data scientist at Housing.com.

Sandeep Nailwal is the COO of Matic and a second co-founder. In addition to working as a blockchain developer he also previously held the position of CEO of Scopeweaver, and CTO (E-commerce) of Welspun Group.

Matic Network Co-founders

And finally, there is Anurag Arjun, who is the third co-founder of Matic and the CPO (Chief Product Officer). His background is in engineering and he has over a decade of product management experience.

The Matic Network is also partnered with several important blockchain projects, including MakerDao and Decentraland. In addition, Ari Meilich and Esteban Ordano, the CEO and CTO of Decentraland serve as advisors to the project.

Matic Marketing and Social NetworksWhile Matic has a good group of partners and advisors, and it is notable that they’ve been chosen to launch their ICO on the Binance Launchpad platform, they have very poor social media presence.

On Reddit, which is known as one of the top social platforms for crypto, the Matic Network has grown from just 13 readers in April 2019 to 1,600 readers in March 2020. The YouTube channel has over 1,300 subscribers, and the Twitter account has grown to 32.5k followers since in the 11 months from April 2019 when there were only 2351 followers.

Matic also has a Medium blog, which was previously updated once a month or every few weeks. It’s been updated more frequently recently, and the team has been doing a good job in keeping the community updated on developments from the project.

The largest group of followers is the project’s Telegram channel, where there are more than 30,000 members.

Taken all together, there has been huge growth in the social presence of the Matic Network in 2019, highlighting just how strongly people have gotten behind the project.

MATIC TokenThe Matic Network conducted an ICO on the Binance Launchpad platform on April 24, 2019. Unlike a typical ICO where tokens are simply sold, Matic conducted their ICO as a lottery, with a total of 16,666 winning lottery tickets.

There is a total supply of MATIC of 10,000,000,000 and 19% of that, or 1,900,000,000 were made available for the ICO. That means each winning lottery ticket received 114,068.44 MATIC, which was $300 worth at the ICO price of $0.00263.

Register on Binance to Participate in IEO

Lottery tickets were allocated based on each users BNB balance, with the final calculation occurring at 00:00 UTC on April 24, 2019. Ticket claims for eligible users begans at 08:00 UTC on April 24, 2019 and continued for 24 hours.

Once the ticket claim period ended the winning tickets were drawn and announced at 14:00 UTC on April 25, 2019. Payments were made in BNB within 24 hours with users ensuring they had sufficient BNB in their account if they had a winning ticket.

The MATIC tokens will allow holders to become stakers and receive staking rewards once staking is implemented on the network. As network usage increases the value of MATIC tokens is expected to increase commensurately.

MATIC Price HistoryFollowing the ICO, in which MATIC tokens were priced at $0.00263, the price took off like a rocket to the moon. In less than one month, by May 21, 2019 price had reached an all-time high of $0.045017.

Of course price didn’t remain at those elevated levels, but it also didn’t sink all the way to ICO levels. In fact, price hasn’t dropped below the $0.01 level, although it did come close in October 2019.

MATIC Price Performance. Image via CMC

December 2019 saw a huge spike that took price from $ 0.012603 to $0.042440 in the span of two weeks, however a week later price had given back all those gains. There was no fundamental reason for the rise or crash, and some have said it was all due to market manipulation.

As of February/March 2020 MATIC has been marching higher again, lifted first by news of staking going live on the testnet, and then a week later by the Indian Supreme Court lifting the ban on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading in India. As of March 11, 2020 the MATIC token is trading just above the $0.02 handle

Matic Network StrengthsOne of the strengths of the project is the broad number of available use cases. These include decentralized exchange, identity features, credit scoring, atomic swaps, payments, and gaming networks among others.

One very interesting feature Matic has been developing is Zappier integration through Dagger. This allows developers to connect Ethereum platforms with hundreds of applications and is expected to help boost user and developer adoption.

DevelopmentSomething that I am quite interested in when looking at cryptocurrency projects and ICOs is the amount of development work that is being done. One of the best ways to assess this is through the amount of code commits they have pushed in to their public GitHub.

So, I decided to dig into the Matic Network GitHub and take a look at the code commits that have pushed. These are only the repos that they have made public and there are many more that are still being worked on. Below are the commits for the top two most active public repos.

Code commits to repos in past 12 months

As you can see there has been quite a bit of activity in these repos. This is in fact more than we have seen on other projects that have completed their ICO 2 years ago. There are also a further 13 other public repos.

Moreover, it is important to point out that these are only their public commits to their main GitHub. According to this Binance Rating Report, they are working on a further 17 private repositories that have plenty more code.

All this shows that the Matic Network is indeed actively rolling out product and working on their protocol. This should be seen as another pro of the project when compared to other ICOs.

This frenetic pace of development can be considered reasonable when one is to look into their updated roadmap.

ConclusionMatic is focused on improving the scalability of Ethereum in an adapted Plasma network. Because scalability is so important to the Ethereum network there are several competing projects aiming to do the same, but if Matic can deliver a solution first, or the best solution, they stand to become one of the top blockchain projects.

It was encouraging to see MATIC growing its community rapidly in 2019. It not only shows the ability of MATIC to market its product, but also shows the belief and support from the community. And of course the ruling of the Indian Supreme Court in March 2020 that lifted the ban on cryptocurrency trading is ultimately a positive for Indian blockchain projects like MATIC.

The mission of Matic hasn’t been proven yet, but development on the testnet, and both alpha and beta mainnet implementations seems positive. One thing the project could use is the implementation of staking. They’ve been promising this since the beginning, and actually implementing it could bring a whole new group of MATIC users and investors.

Analyst Reveals Top Altcoin Picks for H2 2024

There are many great ideas in the blockchain space. While projects like Bitcoin worked to change the way we view money, other projects like the GET Protocol have their sights set on more focused issues, like the sale of event tickets.

While many startups have come and gone in the last few years, the team at GET Protocol has shown it has what it takes to survive, and expand an interesting business model.

We all love to see live events, but the ticketing system that most venues use is less than perfect. In some places, there are major companies that get in the middle, and make a huge markup on an event’s ticket sales.

As tickets are sold into the public sphere, things get even more complex. Not only are tickets marked up by unauthorized resellers, counterfeit tickets are also an issue for everyone in the events industry. When overpriced or fake tickets are sold, it is bad for everyone by the unscrupulous actors.

GET Protocol has a blockchain-based solution to mitigate all these risks, and it has been shown to work in the real world.

GET Protocol is Working Today The Guaranteed Entrance Token Protocol (GET Protocol) project was founded in the heady days of 2017 and has been able to expand its global reach, even as cryptos and blockchain struggled through a rough 2018, and volatile 2019. Unlike many start-up companies that have big dreams and no income, GET Protocol is the opposite.

One of the company’s most recent success stories involves the new Klaytn blockchain platform, which GET Protocol was invited to join as an initial service partner. Klaytn is backed by South Korea’s Kakao (via Kakao subsidiary GroundX), which is the nation’s largest mobile platform.

According to the Klaytn homepage:

Klaytn is a service-centric blockchain platform that provides easy development environment and friendly end-user experience. It is an advanced hybrid platform, combining an enterprise-grade performance based on solid reliability and significant stability with an open access in a decentralized trust system. The platform allows real world applications of large scale to be produced right away.

The move to work with the Klaytn platform is a natural progression for GET Protocol, which has sold more than a quarter-million tickets via the platform since it went live. That number is projected to expand by as much as 800% over the next calendar year, as more people use the service.

How it GETs Done As mentioned above, the existing ticketing chain has multiple flaws that affect entities at every level, from the performing artist to the venue, all the way down to the person who is buying the ticket.

GET Protocol addresses the entire ticketing chain by ensuring transparency at all levels. Unlike some systems that make tickets non-transferable, the GET Protocol platform allows tickets to be resold by end-users, but not at a profit.

Here is how GET Protocol works for everyone in the ticketing ecosystem (via GET Protocol whitepaper):

Users: GET ensures that event participants enjoy a secure and stress-free ticketing experience, and provides a simple and inexpensive way for ticket holders who cannot attend the event to securely sell their tickets to other consumers/users.

Content-creators: The GET Protocol prohibits commercial ticket resellers from disturbing the value chain; artists can be certain that their fans pay a fair price for a guaranteed, authentic ticket.

Event organizers: GET provides a scalable ticketing protocol to manage ticket sales for any size events in a secure and controlled manner. GET controls and accounts for the true value and cost of transactions, the ticket and possible margins/discounts. The blockchain ensures transparency in the true price and properties of the tickets sold. This transparency by design aims to eliminate middlemen from the value chain. The protocol increases market efficiency as a whole while increasing margins for the stakeholders delivering actual value.

Venues: GET provides users with an honest and fraud-free experience that promotes a higher occupancy rate of the venue. The token will also allow venues to offer dynamic pricing of their tickets and thereby maximizing for attendance. As tickets are only used by actual attendees it allows for accurate re-marketing (on opt-in basis) and giving discounts to their loyal and non-scalping customers of their venue.

It is easy to see that GET has created a system that works at every level of the ticketing ecosystem, and makes sure that anyone who is working within the rules is given a fair position to use, or sell their tickets. Additionally, GET ensures that any secondary ticket sales are free from corruption, as well as scalping for abusive profits.

Grassroots Success Story in Native Holland GET was founded and is based in the Netherlands, where it has found a home in the local economy. One of the most recent successes for the company was an agreement it signed with ITIX, a Dutch company that works with the entertainment industry.

ITIX was founded a decade before GET, and today the two companies will be working to use blockchain and the internet to deliver the best possible ticketing experience to the Dutch public. ITIX has sold more than 14 million tickets in its history, which bodes well for an expansion of GETs usage rates.

GET Protocol CEO Maarten Bloemers commented on the new partnership:

Our partnership with Dutch ticketing company ITIX is very exciting in various ways. Not only will we learn how to make the technical onboarding for ticketing companies as easy as possible with a committed local partner, also the opportunity costs for choosing not to service theaters directly but through an established brand are virtually non-existent. GET Protocol is extremely committed in helping ITIX grow in market share with our unique features, to both our benefit.

There is little doubt that GET will learn more about how to expand into the existing marketplace with this new partnership, which should help the company to continue its global growth trajectory. The world needs companies like GET, who are committed to creating fair systems that reward entities who play by the rules.

GET Tokenomics The GET platform doesn’t require that end-users interact with a blockchain interface of any kind, which makes it an easy sell for ticketing platforms that don’t want to make buying tickets a hassle. On the other hand, the GET Token has compelling tokenomics that could see its exchange value rise over the next few years.

While the end-users won’t use GET tokens directly, they are at the core of the GET platform and are designed to drop in quantity as the platform is used. This may lead to a virtuous price cycle for the tokens as the usage rate of the GET platform rises, and the amount of tokens in circulation drops.

GET Protocol has a Growing Niche Market Live performances aren’t going anywhere, and GET has created a platform that allows people to buy tickets, and ensures that they are the real deal. Not only is the legitimacy of a ticket ensured for every entity in the ticketing ecosystem, but end users are also able to sell their tickets to other end-users at fair prices.

The team at GET has demonstrated that it can launch a great idea, and develop it in adverse market conditions. Blockchain is a novel solution to numerous problems, and GET is demonstrating that blockchain has a home in the global ticketing ecosystem.

If you want to learn more about GET, GET tokenomics, or the recent, successful sale of GET tokens in Korea, have a look at the company’s website, or Medium account. GET is bringing honesty and transparency to a long-overlooked market, and the company likely has a bright future ahead of it!

Nicholas Say

Nicholas Say was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has traveled extensively, lived in Uruguay for many years, and currently resides in the Far East. His writing can be found all over the web, with special emphasis placed on realistic development, and the next generation of human technology.

Radiant Capital, a lending and borrowing protocol for users to borrow various assets across multiple chains, is rapidly closing in on Aave, looking at earnings data over the past six months.

Radiant Capital Earnings Rising: What’s The Trigger? According to Token Terminal statistics on November 8 shared by one user on X, @Flowslikeosmo, Radiant Capital generated $5.8 million in revenue despite a relatively lower level of liquidity than Aave. @Flowslikeosmo, who claims to be a crypto researcher, said Radiant Capital’s earnings will likely explode in the upcoming sessions, especially once the 2.8 million ARB begins to be deployed.

Radiant Capital earnings | Source: Token Terminal via @Flowslikeosmo on X Radiant Capital is a popular cross-chain decentralized money market through which users, regardless of their choice blockchain, can either lend their assets and earn passive income or borrow assets trustlessly. This way, the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol has opened up liquidity and boosted access to multiple blockchains.

Related Reading: Dogecoin In Tight Zone: Why A Rally Will Happen If DOGE Clears $0.076

To perform effectively, the protocol relies on LayerZero, which enables trustless and decentralized communication between blockchains using Oracle Relays, allowing platforms to be more interconnected and ledgers to be more interoperable. As Radiant Capital offers services, the DeFi protocol generates earnings or revenue primarily from fees. 

The platform charges a protocol fee on all transactions. Earnings from this allow the team to be operational while allowing the protocol to generate revenue.

However, it should be noted only 15% of this fee is used to cover operational expenditure, with the rest redistributed to users as yield. Besides, there are fees billed to users taking flash loans. The protocol rewards providers with RDNT to incentivize liquidity provision, depending on the amount provided and the duration locked.

ARB Airdrop, Will RNDT Rally To New 2023 Highs? Earnings generated depend on the activity level, directly influencing protocol fees accrued and the number of users taking flash loans. Following Radiant Capital’s recent announcement that it plans to airdrop 2 million ARB following the Arbitrum DAO‘s approval of a proposal first floated in late September, activity could skyrocket in the coming months, boosting earnings.

Moreover, the protocol’s liquidity is expected to increase with this approval. The ARB airdrop will be used to incentivize liquidity provision. Additionally, Radiant Capital will strike more partnerships, allowing it to expand to other chains, including Ethereum and Arbitrum.

Radiant Capital price trending upward on the daily chart | Source: RDNTUSDT on Binance, TradingView According to Dune Analytics data, the number of RDNT holders continues to rise, mirroring its general price performance. Thus far, RDNT is up 40% from October lows. The immediate resistance level at $0.33 must be broken for the coin to rally, even registering new 2023 highs.

Feature image from Canva, chart from TradingView

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On-chain data suggests that whales are accumulating large amounts of Maker (MKR) and Aave (AAVE), two leading decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens. This accumulation trend coincides with a broader cooling-off period in the crypto scene days after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs. 

Whales Accumulate MKR And AAVE According to ScopeScan data, Anchorage Digital, a digital asset custody firm, purchased a significant amount of MKR on January 15. The firm acquired 12,103 MKR tokens, valued at approximately $24.7 million, from Coinbase, a leading crypto exchange in the United States. 

Two whales, “0xbb5f” and “0x4a7,” also accumulated large quantities of MKR and AAVE. Specifically, “0xbb5f” bought 50,000 AAVE and 2,452 MKR worth around $5.03 million and $4.95 million from Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange. Meanwhile, 0x4a7 purchased 39,000 AAVE and 2,350 MKR, valued at approximately $3.95 million and $4.75 million, also from Binance.

Whales Accumulating Maker and Aave | Source: Scopescan These whale purchases signal a strong belief in the long-term potential of MKR and AAVE. Maker and Aave are two of the world’s leading decentralized lending and borrowing protocols across DeFi. MKR serves as the governance token for MakerDAO, which also manages the DAI decentralized stablecoin. On the other hand, AAVE is the governance token of Aave, a top decentralized lending platform. 

According to the latest DeFiLlama data, Maker and Aave have total value locked (TVL) of over $8.4 billion and $7.3 billion, respectively.

Top DeFi protocols | Source: DeFiLlama Notably, whales are accumulating MKR and AAVE when the DeFi scene is recovering following the sharp contraction from 2022. The industry manages over $56 billion, with Ethereum hosting more liquid DeFi protocols, including Lido DAO when writing in mid-January 2024. 

Will Maker and Aave Rally To New 2024 Highs On Recovering DeFi? Last year, MKR and AAVE were among the top-performing DeFi tokens, with MKR rising by over 200% and AAVE appreciating by more than 150%. Protocol-specific fundamentals, including the launch of Spark in Maker, partly drove this strong performance.

Aave launched the GHO stablecoin and the Lens protocol on the Ethereum sidechain, Polygon. Moreover, expectations of the spot Bitcoin ETF forced aggressive traders to consider top DeFi protocols, lifting altcoins.

Maker price trending upward on the daily chart | Source: MKRUSDT on Binance, TradingView As whales accumulate, there is more headroom for these tokens to grow. Presently, AAVE and MKR are lower, based on their respective performance in the daily chart. However, overly, the uptrend remains. To illustrate, MKR is within a bullish breakout formation with a critical support level of around $1,560. Any surge past $2,300 might ignite demand, lifting the token to new 2024 highs.

Feature image from Canva, chart from TradingView

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