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Cross-chain router protocol Multichain has been exploited for nearly $130 million after an attacker siphoned capital out of numerous token bridges. The lockup assets on the Multichain MPC address have been moved to an unknown address abnormally, with the team not sure what happened and currently investigating. It is recommended that all users suspend the use of Multichain services and revoke all contract approvals related to Multichain. The unexpected outflows stripped Multichain’s Fantom bridge of nearly its entire holdings in wBTC, USDC, USDT and a handful of altcoins, worth over $130 million. On-chain sleuths described the activity as highly unusual, with Fantom Foundation CEO Michael Kong looking into it. Multichain has been under pressure for over a month due to failing tech and its AWOL CEO. The trio of unexplained outflows from Multichain’s Fantom, Moonriver and Dogecoin bridge contracts sparked fears on crypto Twitter that a hack could be afoot. Binance CEO Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao said that the exploit does not affect users on Binance itself, with assets swapped out and deposits closed a while back. Assets transferred out of the Multichain Fantom bridge include at least $20 million of altcoins going to 0x9d57, with other transfers seeing outbound moves of 1,023 wBTC ($30.9 million), 7,214 wETH ($13.6 million), and $57 million USDC between two separate addresses. Multichain’s Moonriver bridge contract has seen $6.8 million in token outflows with nearly all its wBTC, USDT, USDC and DAI going to 0x48BeAD. An address identified as Mulitchain’s Dogecoin bridge has seen over $600,000 in outflows of USDC. UPDATE (July 7, 2023, 09:17 UTC): Updates headline and adds context on the exploit throughout.The recent rise of the meme coin bald (BALD) has raised questions about the involvement of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of Alameda Research. On-chain data suggests that the deployer contract of BALD has interacted with wallets linked to Alameda, and crypto sleuths have found connections between Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research and the deployer wallet. However, it is unlikely that Bankman-Fried is behind the scam, as he is currently under strict bail conditions and has limited access to the internet. The article also explores the connections between BALD and other DeFi projects, and the sudden removal of liquidity from the token's trading pairs. The rise of BALD and its subsequent fall has left many holders in the lurch, and the future of the token remains uncertain.An Ethereum wallet funded by a beneficiary of the Multichain exploit has sold $2.4 million of Chainlink's token (LINK) and $1.8 million worth of WOO Network (WOO) tokens on Uniswap, causing the price of WOO to slump by 8%. The wallet, which was created on Friday morning, received funds from an address tagged as 'suspicious' by etherscan. It obtained the tag after it received lockup funds from Multichain team's multi-signature address despite being unknown to the Multichain team. Multichain ceased operations last month after the company's CEO Zhaojun and his sister were held in detention by Chinese police. The bridging protocol was exploited a few weeks prior with $130 million being stolen across several blockchains before being sent to the wallet tagged as suspicious on etherscan. Alongside deposits of WOO and LINK, the wallet received $800,000 worth of CRV tokens and $870,000 worth of YFI, both of which are actively being sold on Uniswap.

A bug in a token issued by decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Yearn Finance was exploited this morning, leading to millions of dollars in losses. The exploit occurred on Aave version 1, and the losses could total over $11 million, with the stolen assets being spread over U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins dai (DAI), tether (USDT), USD coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD), and tru USD (TUSD).nnAccording to security firm PeckShield, the exploit was caused by a misconfigured yUSDT token, which allowed the attacker to mint over 1.2 quadrillion yUSDT using a $10,000 initial deposit. This was then used to trick the Yearn Finance protocol into cashing out millions in stablecoins. nnAave developers have clarified that the protocol was not directly impacted and that the exploit was mainly due to the misconfigured yUSDT token. The current size of v1 is $18 million, and the current size of the Aave safety module is $382.50M. Version 2 and version 3 of Aave were not impacted at writing time. nnThe exploit is the latest in a series of high-profile hacks and exploits in the cryptocurrency space, with over $67 million in crypto lost to hacks and exploits in February alone, according to a report by Immunefi. nnThe incident highlights the risks associated with decentralized finance and the importance of proper security measures to protect against exploits and hacks. It also underscores the need for ongoing monitoring and updates to ensure the security of DeFi protocols and their users.The multichain decentralized exchange (DEX) Dfyn has released version 2, which features dedicated vault contracts to protect against liquidity pool exploits, as well as enhanced trading features and order matching. The new version also introduces decentralized limit orders, which match trades at exact prices transparently via smart contracts, and concentrated liquidity on individual ticks for better security and price precision. Additionally, the Signal smart contract-based order routing system finds the optimal trade path for users swapping two assets, ensuring the best trades and prices with minimal slippage and no maximal extractable value (MEV) risk. The new version aims to eliminate challenges such as impermanent loss and liquidity mining, and create an inclusive multi-chain decentralized finance ecosystem with a feature-rich, easy-to-use DEX at its heart. Co-founder Ramani Ramachandran highlighted the technology's ability to scale and create a more secure and inclusive ecosystem. The new version is live now and available for users to experience.Shiba Inu developers are working towards a public restart of the Shibarium network after a much-hyped launch was marred by network issues and a faulty bridge. The network was closed to the public following the issues, but developers are now monitoring validator data and transactions before a planned reopening. The project's key developer, Shytoshi Kusama, announced that the network is almost ready to reopen and has implemented new mechanisms to prevent a repeat of the outage. The Shibarium network is an Ethereum layer-2 network that uses SHIB tokens as fees and has a focus on metaverse and gaming applications. A testing period for Shibarium saw significant success, but the launch was plagued by issues, causing SHIB prices to plunge 10%. Developers have since responded to the outage, stating that there was no bridge issue and that the problem occurred due to an unprecedented mass influx of transactions from users. The network is set to reopen once the errors are fixed, and validators are already being allowed to start taking initial steps for the reopening. SHIB prices were down 4.3% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data.

The newly launched zkSync Era blockchain is seeing brisk activity as value locked on the network crossed $100 million this past weekend amid a flurry of new token releases. Data from L2Beat shows over $69 million worth of ether (ETH) and nearly $30 million in USD coin (USDC) stablecoins have been locked on zkSync. The amount is likely distributed among several zkSync-based projects for purchasing ecosystem tokens or providing liquidity to exchanges on the network. The value locked on zkSync has climbed to over $100 million. More than 3.3 million transactions have been conducted on the network since it went live on March 24. The network can process 4.4 transactions per second. The network supports 'ZK rollups,' which are a type of blockchain scaling system based on cryptography known as zero-knowledge proofs. These features are seen as a key advance in speeding up blockchain transactions and reducing the cost of network activity. Populating the zkSync ecosystem are decentralized-finance tokens, which power lending, trading, and borrowing services, and meme coins fashioned after the popular Shiba Inu dog breed. DefiLlama data shows that decentralized exchanges SyncSwap and Mute hold over $30 million in locked tokens. Mute's native MUTE tokens have a market capitalization of $47 million. SyncSwap hasn't issued tokens as of early April. Over $19 million is locked on SyncSwap's liquidity pool for USDC and ether - which is paying annualized yields of 46%, or one of the highest figures in the crypto market as of Monday. As such, meme coins are making a mark as well. DEXScreener data shows tokens such as ZKDoge, ZKInu, and ZkSync SHIB have attracted millions of dollars in trading volumes since their recent launches. Traction on these meme-coin tokens has been tepid so far, with highly volatile prices and market capitalizations of under $5 million. Some say the zkSync launch has been muted relative to the hype, however. 'The recently launched zkSync Era mainnet is a sign that the evolutionary trend in the overall blockchain ecosystem is unimpeded; however, the low number of projects building on it is a sign that the Web3.0 world isn't fully prepared to welcome this innovation for now,' Maia Benzimra, head of institutional marketing at SpoolDAO, said in a Telegram message. Benzimra added that adoption may surge quickly as and when more innovative projects are built for users. 'The trend can change within the twinkling of an eye when innovative products building solutions that address the core needs of users are designed and launched. zkSync is notably a major upgrade for addressing the scalability of the Ethereum protocol, and in no time, it is bound to find its rhythm and carve out a functional niche for itself in the ecosystem.' Edited by Parikshit Mishra.Rook's well-funded offshoot Incubator DAO is holding a vote on its financial future where the organization could liquidate its entire $25 million treasury for payouts directly to ROOK token holders. The vote, which runs through Thursday, considers a proposal to 'rage quit' Incubator DAO by divvying up its $25 million treasury among holders of the ROOK governance token. The vote is being orchestrated by activist investors who for weeks have debated the future of Rook (an Ethereum-based MEV project) on Discord. The prospect of ROOK owners receiving a share of the money has contributed to a tripling of ROOK's value over recent weeks. It was trading at $42 at press time, slightly over the price that some community estimates have placed on each token's value relative to its share of the treasury.Investors are flocking to meme coins like Pepecoin (PEPE) and other newly issued tokens in the hopes of replicating the success of the controversial cryptocurrency. However, the trend has the potential to disrupt the huge rallies bitcoin and ether have seen this year. Despite the shocking magnitude of PEPE's rise, finding the next big meme coin is next to impossible, with every winner surrounded by the ashes of many failures. On-chain data makes it easy to track whale activity, and several newly issued meme tokens have surpassed PEPE in trading volume over the past weekend. The meme coin trend has essentially created a black hole that sucks liquidity out of the market, potentially impediment for other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) or ether (ETH).

A new report by on-chain analytics firm Santiment suggests that pepecoin (PEPE) may face challenges in its rise to the top of meme coins due to the absence of retail investors. Despite its stellar rise to a $1.5 billion market cap in a few weeks, pepecoin's trading volume of $2 billion is significantly lower than that of shiba inu (SHIB) and dogecoin (DOGE) during their peak. The report notes that retail participation in the market for PEPE is far less than what DOGE and SHIB experienced in previous years, which could result in dwindling volumes for meme coin projects among retail traders. However, PEPE's social volume within the crypto media is on par with DOGE and SHIB during their peak periods. Some pepecoin holders remain bullish on the token's potential, citing its popularity among influential Crypto Twitter users and the general populace. Despite the challenges, the report suggests that PEPE has untapped potential for growth when overall market conditions are better.Conic Finance, a new tool for capturing yields from the prominent stablecoin swapping service Curve, has attracted over $60 million in deposits just over a week after launch. The platform offers unlocked yield rewards to users by diversifying exposure across the Curve ecosystem while increasing rewards. Each omnipool allocates liquidity of a single asset into different Curve pools, boosting CRV rewards earnings and providing up to 21% annualized yields on USDC, DAI, and FRAX. Holders can lock their CNC tokens for vlCNC to participate in Conic governance and directly control how liquidity is allocated across Curve pools. The high yields offered by Conic could generate value for its own CNC token, making it an attractive option for traders looking to earn yields without locking up their tokens for long time periods. Curve uses smart contracts to offer an efficient way to exchange stablecoins while maintaining low fees and low slippage, and depositors on Curve earn annual yields of up to 4% from one of the many pools on the platform. veCRV allows users to participate in platform governance, earn higher rewards and fees, and receive airdrops, but it effectively locks up liquidity, creating opportunity costs for users. Protocols like Conic offer a solution to this issue, allowing users to gain exposure to the Curve ecosystem without locking up their tokens for long time periods.Crypto users are bridging millions of dollars in funds to the zkSync network in anticipation of a potential token airdrop. The move comes after layer 2 network Arbitrum confirmed its native token, ARB, to users based on their prior network activity. The tokens are claimable on Thursday, but futures markets are already pricing the tokens from $1.40 to over $9 apiece.According to data from Nansen, nearly $8 million worth of tokens have flowed to the zkSync network in the past week. Additionally, DefiLlama data shows the total-value-locked metric on the zkSync-based decentralized exchange ZigZag ballooned to over $13 million on Tuesday from last week's $1.5 million, all in tether (USDT) stablecoins.The anticipation of the Arbitrum airdrop has brought renewed interest in airdrop hunting across other chains that have yet to launch a token. The confirmation of the Arbitrum airdrop also means that farming activity will shift away from Arbitrum and towards other chains.Crypto users who frequently interact with new and existing platforms will likely receive an airdrop at some stage, which has quickly spurred the narrative of 'airdrop farming' in Crypto Twitter circles. Strategies from Crypto Twitter participants for a chance to claim the tokens - if and when they are issued - include bridging to zkSync, providing liquidity on decentralized exchanges such as ZigZag, and conducting a few trades every week.zkSync is a zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup, a trustless protocol that uses cryptographic validity proofs to provide scalable and low-cost transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. In zkSync, computation is performed off-chain and most data is stored off-chain as well.The movement of funds to zkSync and the anticipation of the Arbitrum airdrop have led to a significant increase in the total value locked on the network, with the potential for more airdrops to be announced in the future. As such, crypto users are advised to keep a close eye on developments and be prepared to act quickly to claim any potential airdrops.

Despite efforts by Solana developers to discourage spammy transactions, a majority of the network's compute is still being wasted on failed trades, according to an analysis by crypto infrastructure company Jito Labs. In one recent epoch, arbitrage transactions took up 60% of overall compute space, with 98% of attempts failing. The result is wasted blockspace and capital burnt on losing trades. The issue is attributed to Solana's infrastructure, which prioritizes the first submitted transaction, creating an incentive for arbitrage bots to submit multiple duplicate transactions. Recent changes to Solana's backend, including the introduction of priority fees and local fee markets, have not effectively addressed the issue. MEV (maximal extractable value) opportunities remain, and spam transactions will persist as long as they do. Jito Foundation is building a specialty client for the Solana network that optimizes for MEV.The floor price of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection has slumped to a five-month low of 55.59 ether (ETH), according to Cryptowatch data. The slide in non-fungible token (NFT) prices occurred after pseudonymous holder 'franklinisbored' said on Twitter that he sold the majority of his collection. On-chain data shows that the user sold at least 27 BAYC NFTs over a 12-hour period, securing 1439.5828 ETH ($2.8 million) in the process. Franklinisbored explained his decision was due to 'unfortunate' real-life issues that prompted him to liquidate his NFTs. He fell victim to a rug pull on a nearly 2,000 ETH investment, which appeared 'credible' due to who else had invested in it. ApeCoin (APE), the native governance token for the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, remains flat over the past 24 hours in terms of its dollar valuation despite falling against ether trading pairs.New zkSync-based decentralized exchange Merlin was exploited for over $1.8 million during a public sale of its mage (MAGE) tokens. The attack occurred despite Merlin touting an audit conducted by blockchain security firm CertiK. On-chain data reveals that $1.82 million in total had been stolen, with the funds being bridged back to the Ethereum network before being converted to ether. The project garnered hype among Crypto Twitter users for its attractive yield offered on deposits. Merlin developers did not issue any statement regarding the funds drain on Wednesday at press time. CertiK's Twitter response to the loss of funds included plans for compensation, but the company has since deleted the tweet. The exploit was not a complex or sophisticated one, as blockchain data suggested that an entity with control of the liquidity pool was able to drain the funds easily. The total amount raised during the public sale will determine the final price of tokens for all users, developers said Tuesday. Arkham Intelligence provided on-chain data that revealed the funds were bridged back to the Ethereum network before being converted to ether.