Optimism Token Prices Slide 7% Ahead of $580M OP Unlock, Doubling Token Supply_can a dog pass a coin

Ethereum scaling blockchain Arbitrum has distributed over $120 million worth of its arb (ARB) tokens to projects built on the network, with some projects selling their allocation immediately, while others plan to use it to strengthen their development and user engagement. The airdrop, which was based on network activity and number of wallets, was sent to over 131 decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), with NFT marketplace TreasureDAO and gaming-focused TridentDAO receiving the largest allocations. Some projects, like Vesta Finance, plan to use their airdrop to bolster their development, while others, like PlutusDAO, will use their allocation in multiple ways to make their project stronger. The airdrop has spurred both excitement and criticism from the community, with some projects selling their tokens immediately, while others are holding onto their allocation in anticipation of future growth.Nansen, a blockchain data analytics firm, has launched Nansen Query, a platform that allows clients to programmatically access unique, curated datasets pulled from Nansen’s databases. The new product aims to help firms perform blockchain analyses more efficiently by demystifying on-chain transaction history and pricing data. It promises to offer users a complete overview of markets to value “up to 60 times faster than competitors.”nnThe product provides coverage for 95% of all on-chain total value locked, or TVL, asset data and 98% of stablecoin deposit data across 17 blockchains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Optimism, Ronin and Solana. Nansen Query differs from Nansen’s base-level offering by pairing data with the company’s proprietary and trading indicators like the “wash trading filter,” which helps identify suspicious on-chain activity by scanning trades between several linked wallets and transactions bounced between various trading counterparties. Nansen’s labeling system achieves that goal by facilitating firms’ analyses of on-chain data, which, while recorded on a public ledger system, can sometimes be difficult to access. nnA query is a request for data from a database or a request for action on that data that allows users to edit large information sets and identify trends among them. A programming language, like SQL, is used to create a query. Nansen’s data analytics tools, which were released in 2019, have gained traction among firms throughout the cryptocurrency industry, including prominent players like Coinbase (COIN), OpenSea, MakerDAO, Polygon, Avalanche and Andreessen Horowitz.Sandwich bots are front-running punters of newly issued tokens such as pepe (PEPE) and chad (CHAD) – meme coins with no intrinsic value that caught wind of Crypto Twitter degens almost overnight as the tokens zooted over 10,000%. A sandwich attack, traps a user's transaction between two transactions, which is then further manipulated to gain profits. This is done by front-running the victim's trade by buying the same asset, and then selling tokens to the victim in the same trade for a slightly higher price. Sandwich attackers aren’t typically a form of exploit but are looked upon in crypto circles as a type of predatory behavior, which skims value from users, leads to a spike in gas fees and doesn’t benefit either the network or the user. The victim might not notice it, but for sandwich bots the gains can run into millions of dollars as they target thousands of wallets and skim a few dollars each time. A wallet named “Jaredfromsubway.eth,” a likely nod to the popular sandwich chain, has spent over $2 million in the past week on Ethereum network fees trying to sandwich traders punting on predominantly low-cap tokens. That has driven up fees of the entire network, data from Dune Analytics shows. Each transaction on the Ethereum network costs over $10 as of Asian morning hours on Wednesday – ten times more than last week’s $1 level. Gas fees have spiked. (Dune) The actions of Jaredfromsubway.eth mean they spent 7% of all fees on Ethereum in the past 24 hours, the data shows, becoming the top spender on the network. That is ahead of fees spent by Arbitrum, a layer 2 blockchain that batches transactions on the Ethereum network, and Uniswap, the most-used decentralized exchange. It is unclear how much Jaredfromsubway.eth made from their front-running actions, but given they spent a significant amount – and continue to do so – the gains likely exceed costs by a significant amount. As such, research firm Sealaunch has estimated Jaredfromsubway.eth's gains at over $1.4 million since Tuesday, as per a tweet. Meanwhile, the pepe frenzy is on in full force. Pepe tokens nearly doubled in value in the past 24 hours as Crypto Twitter traders moved over their DOGE-themed token obsession to bet on the internet meme instead, as CoinDesk reported. Scores of pepe wannabes have popped up as well, as have chad, wojak, and babypepe – each a nod to internet memes. Most of these are unlikely to last beyond a few weeks. But unlike then, entities like Jaredlikesubway.eth is eating the gains while fresh.

Crypto Twitter has a new obsession: Pepe the Frog meme coins. The token, which launched just three days ago, has already raked in $30 million in trading volumes and reached a market capitalization of $33 million. The token has gained over 21,000% in the past three days, with hopes of turning a profit pinning the token's popularity. The token has quickly gained popularity, with over 10,000 individual holders on Tuesday, according to data from blockchain tracker Etherscan. The tokens have a circulating supply of 420 trillion, a reference to '4/20,' another popular cannabis culture slang. The tokens have no connection to the actual Pepe the Frog meme or Matt Furie, the meme's original creator. Crypto Twitter has a history of jumping on memecoins, with tokens such as dogecoin and shiba inu gaining tens of billions in market capitalization in the previous bull market. However, most of these do not last beyond a few weeks. Professional investors have previously told CoinDesk that meme coins and their narratives will always remain a part of the crypto ecosystem. 'Meme trading is a risky way to try to seek excessive return, but when it pans out, the upside can be very huge. So even in a bear market, some of the meme coins will have large up-swing, even if it's just short term,' said James Wo, founder at crypto fund DFG. The premise doesn't matter: if there's money to be made peddling trendy topics, expect a market for it somewhere in niche 's**tcoin' circles.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.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.

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.Sandwich bots are front-running punters of newly issued tokens such as pepe (PEPE) and chad (CHAD) – meme coins with no intrinsic value that caught wind of Crypto Twitter degens almost overnight as the tokens zooted over 10,000%. A sandwich attack, traps a user's transaction between two transactions, which is then further manipulated to gain profits. This is done by front-running the victim's trade by buying the same asset, and then selling tokens to the victim in the same trade for a slightly higher price. Sandwich attackers aren’t typically a form of exploit but are looked upon in crypto circles as a type of predatory behavior, which skims value from users, leads to a spike in gas fees and doesn’t benefit either the network or the user. The victim might not notice it, but for sandwich bots the gains can run into millions of dollars as they target thousands of wallets and skim a few dollars each time. A wallet named “Jaredfromsubway.eth,” a likely nod to the popular sandwich chain, has spent over $2 million in the past week on Ethereum network fees trying to sandwich traders punting on predominantly low-cap tokens. That has driven up fees of the entire network, data from Dune Analytics shows. Each transaction on the Ethereum network costs over $10 as of Asian morning hours on Wednesday – ten times more than last week’s $1 level. Gas fees have spiked. (Dune) The actions of Jaredfromsubway.eth mean they spent 7% of all fees on Ethereum in the past 24 hours, the data shows, becoming the top spender on the network. That is ahead of fees spent by Arbitrum, a layer 2 blockchain that batches transactions on the Ethereum network, and Uniswap, the most-used decentralized exchange. It is unclear how much Jaredfromsubway.eth made from their front-running actions, but given they spent a significant amount – and continue to do so – the gains likely exceed costs by a significant amount. As such, research firm Sealaunch has estimated Jaredfromsubway.eth's gains at over $1.4 million since Tuesday, as per a tweet. Meanwhile, the pepe frenzy is on in full force. Pepe tokens nearly doubled in value in the past 24 hours as Crypto Twitter traders moved over their DOGE-themed token obsession to bet on the internet meme instead, as CoinDesk reported. Scores of pepe wannabes have popped up as well, as have chad, wojak, and babypepe – each a nod to internet memes. Most of these are unlikely to last beyond a few weeks. But unlike then, entities like Jaredlikesubway.eth is eating the gains while fresh.Meme coins have outperformed the broader crypto markets in recent days, but some say profit-taking could reverse the rally. Tokens fashioned after the Shiba Inu dog breed may see imminent selling ahead after days of outperforming the broader crypto market. On Monday, Twitter, a social-media company owned by billionaire and crypto proponent Elon Musk, replaced its popular blue bird logo with that of Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu mascot. Dogecoin (DOGE) prices surged almost immediately – with its futures markets setting a record – as some bet on the increased use of dogecoin on Twitter's platform. That rise caused several other Shiba Inu-themed meme coins to jump multifold, with the sector rising 14% on average. Tokens with larger market caps such as shiba inu (SHIB) rose up to 10%, while smaller-cap coins such as floki (FLOKI), kishu inu (KISHU) and baby dogecoin (BABYDOGE) surged as much as 25%. Meme coins on newer blockchains had their moment, as well. Some dog-themed tokens, such as zkDoge and zkShib on the zkSync blockchain, which went live in March, registered gains of as much as 100%. However, some traders warn that such moves don't indicate a broader trend. 'We do not believe that it is indicative of a long-term bull run. Quite the opposite', Guilhem Chaumont, CEO of crypto trading firm Flowdesk, said in a Telegram message. 'There is a regular pattern of crypto market uptrends with first, bitcoin going through a bull run, then major altcoins pumping, and finally, tokens with small market caps.' Since bitcoin has been experiencing a relatively stable upward trend, meme coins’ rise would indicate the third phase, the end of the cycle. But there is no need to over-interpret such momentary price changes. The sentiment for meme coins is not a new one, and this means there is a high potential that the growth will fade off as usual in a few days, Bonnie Cheung, head of strategy at crypto developer Sending Labs, said. However, there could still be long-term growth for these tokens if fundamental features strengthen in the coming months. Shiba Inu, for instance, is gaining additional traction through the launch of Shibarium, its layer-2 protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain. Dogecoin’s recognition by Twitter and the payment world is also growing, and these trends can help record more sustained growth over the long term. A testnet for Shiba Inu’s upcoming Shibarium platform has seen brisk adoption. Elsewhere, projects like Floki are actively developing games and decentralized-finance tools to cut free from the 'meme coin' tag – at least as far as developer efforts go. Meanwhile, some opine that Twitter’s move could pave the way for mainstream crypto adoption. 'Musk’s supportive tweets and the recent decision to add the Dogecoin logo to Twitter help keep both DOGE and SHIB in the public conversation', Kadan Stadelmann, the chief technology officer of blockchain network Komodo, said in an email to CoinDesk. 'Regardless of whether or not one supports meme coins, it's impossible to deny that Musk is driving mainstream adoption of crypto and creating media attention that wouldn't otherwise exist. This is certainly a net positive for the crypto space as a whole.'

Developers behind the Optimism-based lending platform Kokomo Finance have been accused of conducting an exit scam after manipulating tokens on the protocol to steal $4 million in user funds. The project, which launched on Saturday and quickly gained favor among users, allowed for the trading, borrowing, and lending of wrapped bitcoin (WBTC), ether (ETH), tether (USDT), USD coin (USDC), and dai (DAI). However, on Sunday night, the developers deployed an attack contract cBTC from the main address of KOKO, Kokomo's native token, and set the reward speed, paused a borrow feature, and created a malicious contract to interact with the rest of the protocol. This ultimately tricked the protocol into falsely believing it had more liquidity when there was none. Another developer address was then used to maliciously approve a transfer of spending more than 7,000 sonne wrapped bitcoins, which were then used to swap all user-supplied liquidity to Kokomo, amounting to over $4 million. Social-media accounts and the Kokomo website were quickly deleted, and the tokens fell 97%, wiping nearly all value for holders. The exit scam is the latest in a series of growing attacks and exploits in the crypto market, following an earlier $200 million exploit of Euler Finance, another lending platform.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.AllianceBlock, a blockchain-agnostic platform designed to link traditional (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), has signed a deal to add business data from Crunchbase to its ecosystem. The deal is Crunchbase's first foray into the crypto market. The firm's data, which includes funding rounds as well as information on earnings, will initially be available to AllianceBlock’s Data Tunnel users. The tunnel is a tool that lets users publish, share and consume data in a variety of formats. nnThe agreement follows AllianceBlock's recent deal with investment firm ABO Digital to offer institutional and retail investors a series of tokenized investment products. nnThe AllianceBlock token (ALBT) plunged by 51% last month after Bonq, a decentralized borrowing protocol, was struck with an exploit worth around $5 million. AllianceBlock responded by suspending trading of the token, taking a snapshot before issuing a new token to replace the legacy ALBT. nnAllianceBlock have since then resolved the issue and introduced a new token Nexera (NXRA), which has about $46 million of market-cap, according to CoinGecko data. nn'The buying and selling of data is a multibillion-dollar growth industry that shows no signs of slowing down,' said Rachid Ajaja, CEO and co-founder of AllianceBlock. 'However, until now, decentralized and centralized data providers and users have operated in siloes, unable to interact.'

A rise in open interest shows more participation from crypto traders and a bullish market sentiment, a trading firm said.Open interest in bitcoin (BTC) across crypto derivatives exchanges has surged to $10 billion, a five-month high after leverage subsided in the wake of FTX's collapse in November, according to data from Coinalyze.A rise in open interest, which is a metric that assesses the value of all unsettled derivatives positions, alongside an increase in price is often used to confirm the legitimacy of a move. At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading at around $30,000 after it surged to a 10-month high of $30,540 on Tuesday.Zahreddine Touag, head of trading at Woorton, a crypto trading firm and liquidity provider, said that bitcoin broke out in a 'global risk-on environment,' with the Nasdaq also rising by 10% in the last 30 days.'We think this move is driven by technicals, BTC broke a major resistance at $28.5k and rebounded on its 2023 bullish trendline,' Touag said.'We noticed futures open interest has been moving up vertically which shows more participation from crypto traders and a bullish market sentiment,' he added.'For now, we do not see signs of extreme exuberance; indeed, the fear and greed index is at 61, funding rates are still negative on many exchanges for BTC while short-sellers did not capitulate yet. We will monitor these metrics to predict a potential trend reversal.'It's worth noting that an increase in open interest means that whilst short-sellers have added to their shorts in this region, traders betting on long trades are doing so with leverage that may unwind if price begins to reverse.A total of $98 million in crypto derivatives positions have been liquidated in the past 24 hours as bitcoin momentarily slipped below $30,000, according to CoinGlass.UPDATE (April 10, 2023, 20:03 UTC): Updates quote attribution.Edited by Parikshit Mishra.The recent slide of layer 1 blockchain Canto highlights the fickle nature of crypto investors and the current state of the DeFi sector. Canto's TVL has fallen 35% over the past month, with liquidity continuing to dry up across the sector. Despite its capabilities and offerings, Canto has suffered multiple 60% corrections and periods of consolidation. The issue may not be with the blockchain itself, but rather the lack of appetite from crypto investors as hype recedes. The overall total value locked on DeFi protocols has shrunk from $53 billion to $48 billion since April 15, with liquidity getting sucked into meme coin rug pulls and derivatives markets. To make a comeback, DeFi will need to innovate and offer unique offerings that lure fragile crypto liquidity away from 'get rich quick' schemes. The recent lack of innovation has resulted in copycat lending protocols, and DeFi developers need to think outside the box to attract liquidity.Maple Finance, a blockchain-based crypto lending protocol, is preparing to launch a new lending pool that invests in U.S. Treasury bonds. The pool will allow accredited investors and corporate treasuries based outside of the U.S. to invest their stablecoin holdings in U.S. Treasury bonds and earn a yield. The protocol expects demand for the pool due to crypto investors looking for yields in traditional assets such as government bonds, while trust in banking facilities has decreased after recent bank implosions in the U.S. Maple is also working on additions to its lending offerings, including a new feature called Maple Prime, which will let borrowers actively manage their collateral positions. The protocol plans to expand into open-term lending, which will let borrowers open credit lines to borrow without a maturity date. The developments come as the platform is recovering from a disastrous year for crypto lending that was plagued with insolvencies of borrowers. The MPL token rallied 23% ahead of the community call. The total value locked (TVL) on the protocol dropped to $40 million from $930 million last May, per data by DefiLlama. The MPL token plummeted to as low as $4 from an all-time high of $68.2 last April.