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Some scammers are trying to defraud unsuspecting users by issuing fake PayPal USD (PYUSD) tokens on various blockchains, capitalizing on PayPal's recently launched dollar-pegged stablecoin. Over 66 fake tokens have propped up on networks such as Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base, and others as of Asian noon hours on Tuesday, according to DEXTools data. The majority of these have been floated on Ethereum, where the original PYUSD exists. The scammers are issuing these tokens, naming them 'PYUSD,' adding liquidity with ether or another token, and offering them to users on decentralized exchanges. This is possible as anyone can call a smart contract and issue tokens on Ethereum (or other blockchains) for a few cents, and the presence of decentralized exchanges means tokens can instantly be issued, supplied with liquidity, and traded soon after. Most of the supply of these tokens are likely purchased by their creators after issuance, giving the illusion of a trendy token while being a honeypot in reality. The hustle may yield a few thousand dollars in a few hours for such developers, making it a profitable, albeit wholly unethical, venture. However, some developers may pull all liquidity from the fake tokens hours after issuance, causing prices to drop 100% and leaving speculators holding digital dust. It's important for users to be cautious and not fall for these scams, as they can result in financial losses and damage to one's reputation.The foundation behind layer 2 blockchain Optimism has sold 116 million OP tokens ($157 million) to seven separate buyers, according to an announcement on the Optimism governance website. The token sale was described as a 'private' and 'planned' event with the tokens originating from an unallocated portion of the OP Token treasury. Optimism's treasury remains at around $1.25 billion, all of which is made up of its own token, DefiLlama data shows. The seven buyers will be allowed to delegate the tokens to third parties in order to participate in blockchain governance. The foundation also issued its third community airdrop earlier this week, with over 31,000 users receiving a share of 19.4 million tokens. Circulating supply, however, remains relatively low compared to the total supply with a further 570 million tokens being allocated to future airdrops. OP's circulating supply is 18.59% of its total supply, according to CoinMarketCap. OP is currently trading at $1.35 having lost 2.19% of its value over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data.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.'

The attacker behind Euler Finance's $200 million exploit has apologized and returned more funds to the protocol, seemingly in a series of messages sent on the blockchain. The hacker, who now identifies as Jacob, sent over 7,000 ether and $10 million worth of dai stablecoins to the protocol in the past 12 hours, bringing the total amount returned to over $120 million. The attacker had previously sent over 51,000 ether to Euler over the weekend. In a message encoded in a transaction, the hacker apologized for their actions, saying 'I f**d up' and 'I didn't mean all that.' The lending protocol suffered an exploit earlier this month that resulted in almost $200 million being lost over four transactions in dai, wrapped bitcoin, staked ether, and USD coin. The attacker used a flash loan to conduct the attack by temporarily tricking the protocol into falsely assuming it held varying amounts of eToken and dToken. Euler had earlier threatened legal action and offered a $1 million bounty to the hacker in return for the funds.BNB Chain, a popular blockchain network, is set to undergo a significant upgrade on June 11 at 21:30 UTC. The upgrade, dubbed 'Luban,' will incorporate three distinct enhancements aimed at improving the network's speed and security. nnThe Luban hard fork will introduce several new features, including the 'Fast Finality' mechanism, which ensures that once a block is finalized, it cannot be reversed. This reduces the risk of chain reorganizations by malicious actors. Additionally, the upgrade will introduce 'Cross Chain Relayer Management,' which aims to mitigate potential security issues in the BSC Bridge. Finally, the 'CometBFT Light Block Validation' system will be implemented to verify specific blocks from other CometBFT-compatible blockchains and enable data transfer between them. nnThe upgrade is expected to attract investors and users to the BNB Chain ecosystem, as it will provide developers with even better features and tools to build on the network. The bnb token (BNB) will also benefit from the upgrade, as it will contribute to the value proposition for the token in the future. nnThe Luban hard fork is a significant milestone for the BNB Chain, and it demonstrates the network's commitment to improving its speed and security. The upgrade is expected to be a major boost for the blockchain ecosystem and will help to drive the adoption of the bnb token. nnIn conclusion, the Luban upgrade is a significant development for the BNB Chain, and it is expected to have a positive impact on the network's speed, security, and adoption. The upgrade will provide developers with new features and tools to build on the network, and it will contribute to the value proposition for the bnb token. The BNB Chain is set to become an even more robust and secure blockchain ecosystem with the implementation of the Luban hard fork.Hector Network, a Fantom-based protocol and OlympusDAO fork, is considering a legal wrapper to shield its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) from regulatory scrutiny. The proposal, known as Hector Improvement Proposal 40 (HIP 40), would establish a new legal structure for the DAO, rooted in the Cayman Islands, to administer treasury and voting, and own DAO assets. However, this move has sparked criticism from the community, as it would allegedly undercut their powers and give broad powers to employees of Hector Network. The future of Hector Network is in flux, as leaders hold a vote on the plan, which ends on May 20. Other DAOs, such as SushiSwap, have also endeavored to change their legal formation in response to growing regulatory scrutiny of decentralized crypto projects. The proposal has ignited a heated debate within the Hector Network community, with some arguing that it would dilute their powers over the entity and give too much control to employees. The setup would ensure Hector’s own employees would have final say over all proposals considered by the DAO. The only non-employee, the pseudonymous Sonoro, is currently the chief of a group of “oracles,” community members who currently have the power to write HIPs but under the new setup have the right to review and comment on proposals. Lazer, a pseudonymous member of Hector’s oracle committee, said HIP 40 would give Hector “team complete power over the composition of their so-called ‘oracle group’ and therefore unilateral power to propose HIPs and further distance the community from governance.” Zeus, the pseudonymous operational lead of Hector, did not immediately comment on the setup of the steering committee. In a private message on Discord, he said “nothing will change to the token holders’ governance btw, it's just more legal protection in corporations, taxes, and possible regulatories.” Zeus said a community AMA will occur in the coming days. The proposal has sparked a heated debate within the Hector Network community, with some arguing that it would dilute their powers over the entity and give too much control to employees. The future of Hector Network is uncertain, as leaders hold a vote on the plan, which ends on May 20. Other DAOs, such as SushiSwap, have also endeavored to change their legal formation in response to growing regulatory scrutiny of decentralized crypto projects.

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.Dogecoin's daily transaction volume has reached lifetime highs after the introduction of the DRC-20 token standard, which allows developers to issue tokens that take network fees in the form of dogecoin (DOGE). According to data from BitInfoCharts, the network saw over 645,000 transactions on Sunday, briefly crossing both Bitcoin and Litecoin transactions that day. This is a significant increase from the average daily transaction volume of around 20,000. The introduction of DRC-20 has added value to dogecoin and laid the path for potential decentralized finance (DeFi) services built on the blockchain. However, the token deployment has also attracted criticism, with some pointing out that it may lead to network congestion and that it moves away from dogecoin's aim of being used as an everyday currency. High fees and network congestion are valid concerns for any blockchain, as they may lead to the network becoming expensive and slow for everyday users, potentially damping adoption plans. Bitcoin's own 'Bitcoin Request for Comment' (BRC-20) standard went live in March, opening the floodgates to two-year high fees as a Bitcoin-based meme coin trading frenzy gained notoriety on the network.More than 410,000 eligible airdrop participants did not claim their TIA tokens worth almost $1 million. Celestia, the modular blockchain that claims to scale with more users, has struggled to wrangle much of a market share in its first week, with less than 350,000 transactions registered in the four days following its release. Data from Mintscan shows that current transactions per second (TPS) on Celestia is 0.19. This doesn't necessarily translate to a lack of technical function, but it does mean a lack of activity on the blockchain. UnmuteDegen Chain Racks up Millions in Volumes; Latest in Custodia Bank's Legal Battle Against the Fed. Around 190,000 users claimed Celestia's airdrops on Tuesday despite more than 600,000 being eligible to do so, leaving slightly less than $1 million in unclaimed value. The token currently trades at $2.33 with a market cap of $329 million. Daily trading volume peaked at $475 million on Wednesday. It has since dropped to around $170 million, according to CoinMarketCap. Despite a slow start in terms of activity, Celestia network validators can currently receive around 23.39% APR as a yield for staking the native TIA token, considerably higher than Ethereum's rate of 3.8%. The performance of the TIA token has also been impressive compared to the likes of sui (SUI) and aptos (APT), both of which were airdropped to early adopters over the past year, and both endured bitter downturns after being issued. The stability of TIA can be attributed to a low level of inflation, as early investors and core developers have their token allocation locked up until October 2024.

After a week of bickering, cooler heads began to prevail in the Aragon Association's governance crisis. The market responded with gusto, with the ANT token rallying to its highest levels for May. Luis Cuende, co-founder of Aragon, proposed $30 million in ANT buybacks using a smart contract to buy all tokens trading higher than the 30-day moving average. He also called for Aragon's $200 million treasury to gradually transfer to the Aragon DAO over a period of five years. The proposal extended a banner rally for the ANT token, which climbed from its Wednesday low of $2.75 to $2.98 immediately prior to his post and shot up to $3.25 and higher afterwards. The proposal seemed to cool a volatile situation that exploded with the Aragon Association's decision to throw its DAO into lockdown to protect against a “51% attack.” The barbarians at its gates were the so-called RFV Raiders, a loose collective of activist crypto traders including the crypto hedge fund Arca who had called for buybacks of the ANT token to bring its value in line with the treasury. The Aragon Association reversed a community-approved plan to move its $200 million treasury to ANT holders’ control, out of fear that the RFV Raiders would plunder it. One member of the activist collective told CoinDesk that between all of them they have enough voting power to win any vote over the team’s objections, including the ability to block grant allocations. There was no guarantee that Cuende’s proposal would be implemented, and the Aragon Association did not immediately respond to CoinDesk. However, there were signs Wednesday that after days of bickering, banning, conspiratorial allegations, open letters, and accusations of “decentralization theater,” cooler heads were prevailing. Three activist investors that CoinDesk spoke to said the proposal was a good start.Some Aave version 2 (V2) users are temporarily unable to access their funds stuck on the decentralized exchange's deployment on the Polygon blockchain after a strategy containing a faulty bug went live last week. The issue is caused by a compatibility bug in the ReserveInterestRateStrategy contract, which is a core contract in Aave that helps calculate and apply interest rates to borrowed loans. The bug has affected tokens such as tether (USDT), bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), and polygon (MATIC). However, a fix is already in place, and voting on the governance proposal is underway to update the faulty strategy. Other versions of Aave on Polygon continue to work smoothly as of Tuesday. AAVE tokens were up 2.7% in the past 24 hours, in line with a broader market jump.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.

An unidentified attacker has taken over the DAO of Tornado Cash, a privacy-focused crypto mixer, with a malicious proposal that granted them fake votes. The attacker has withdrawn 10,000 votes as TORN tokens and sold them, causing a 40% slump in token prices. The attack does not impact the actual Tornado Cash protocol, but the community is working on proposals to revert the changes made to the code. Some have suggested creating a new contract and airdropping new tokens to holders. The attack highlights the potential vulnerabilities of DAOs and the need for robust security measures to prevent such incidents.Crypto traders are using the Stargate bridge in the hope of being eligible for a rumored LayerZero airdrop. Volume on the Stargate cross-chain bridge has surged by 30% in the past 24 hours, with investors attempting to meet the criteria for the airdrop. The protocol recently surpassed $1 billion in monthly volume for the first time, and the STG token has jumped by 95% in the past 24 hours. Although LayerZero hasn't announced a token, the protocol's code mentions a native token, leading to speculation of an upcoming airdrop. A number of high-profile airdrops in the past 12 months have yielded significant returns for minimal effort, and airdrop hunters are hopping on Stargate governance proposals in the hope of receiving a larger allocation of LayerZero's rumored token. More than 6.4 million STG tokens were staked for a recent proposal on whether to make decentralized exchange Velodrome an STG hub on the Optimism blockchain. LayerZero didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.Aave token holders have started voting on two governance proposals in response to the systemic liquidation risk posed by Curve founder Michael Egorov's large borrowing position on the lending protocol. The proposals, authored by on-chain risk management platform Chaos Labs, aim to disable the borrowing of CRV on Ethereum and Polygon V3, as well as reduce the liquidation threshold of CRV. The votes, which end on August 12, are direct responses to the averted liquidation threat posed by Egorov's lending positions on Aave, in which he deposited 34% of CRV's total market cap to borrow upwards of $63 million. The proposals have been motivated by the recent Curve exploit, which saw the price of CRV plummet and put Egorov's assets under liquidation pressure. Despite Egorov's efforts to pay off portions of his debt through OTC deals, the potential liquidation has prompted Aave token-holders to take action to prevent further risk. The proposals aim to disable the ability to short CRV via the Aave protocol and reduce the liquidation threshold for CRV, which would prevent crypto users from borrowing CRV to dump and further impact its price. Aave is currently trading at $67.78, while the price of CRV is 61 cents, per CoinDesk market data. Chaos Labs CEO Omer Goldberg indicated in the governance vote that the motivation behind one of the proposals is to disable the ability to short CRV via the Aave protocol. The votes have been prompted by the recent Curve exploit, which exposed serious risks in the DeFi ecosystem. The outcome of the votes could have significant implications for the future of Curve and the broader DeFi market.