Here are some of the major developments from the world of crypto over the past few days
The exchange-traded fund (ETF) for Bitcoin, currently at $71,235, is likely to remain robust until the end of this month, according to research firm Santiment. The data centre noted that Bitcoin ETF volume has not fallen since the asset peaked in mid-March.
“Compared to the trend that began in late February following individual inflows, trader activity is still very high,” it said.
Santiment said it is “probably a foregone conclusion” that more ETF activity will keep Bitcoin strong for the next two weeks. It said that accumulating through ETFs could reduce the chances of rolling over after the stop.
Farside Investors had also reported that the Bitcoin ETF had gained over $200 million in two days over the weekend of April 4 and April 5. That was followed by an $85.7 million debut a few days earlier in the week on April 1, 2024, marking a turnaround after a few strong days in late March of this year.
Industry leaders also remain optimistic. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has said that the crypto market will double in value this year, mainly due to the decline in ETF and Bitcoin.
The ParaSwap AugustusV6 contract, which went into effect on March 18, 2024 contained a critical vulnerability that allowed hackers to extort money from users who approved the update, it has been learnt. The community behind decentralised finance (DeFi) ParaSwap has now agreed to compensate victims with money from the treasury.
On April 4, 2024 ParaSwap’s independent public access organisation (DAO) offered to compensate victims of the AugustusV6 deal. However, the contract contained a serious security flaw that allowed hackers to extort money from users who agreed to upgrade. While a quick retreat prevented a loss of $3.4 million, approximately $864,000 worth of property was lost in the process.
ParaSwap worked closely with Blockchain analytics and security companies Chainalytics and TRM Labs to identify hacker addresses and track financial flows. ParaSwap also announced the same day that it had recovered approximately $500,000 in assets.
According to ParaSwap, offering full payment to at-risk users is a step towards a sustainable project. Although losses reached millions, 52.8 percent of the stolen money was seized. Most of the revenue came from activities at security, including a non-fiction game (NFT) based on the online game Blast called Munchables, reports Cointelegraph,com.
A new class of memecoins leveraging politics, religion, and successful consumer brands could ultimately become more ‘viral’ than animal tokens like Dogecoin, according to Mechanism capital co-founder Andrew Kang. He said memecoins can create a deeper ‘culture’, and this category could be more profitable than the usual meme tokens based on animals and simple jokes.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on April 7, 2024, Kang said a new class of culture coins memecoins centred around cultural values such as politics, brands, religion, and lifestyle have the capacity to be far more viral than the popular memecoins of the last cycle such as Dogecoin DOGE $0.21 or Shiba Inu SHIB $0.000029 coins. Incidentally, BODEN has grown exponentially since its launch on March 9, 2024, gaining over 700,000 per cent since its inception. At present, Boden’s market cap is $473 million, ranking 191st in terms of value according to CoinGecko.
However, industry experts are divided on the impact of memecoins on the crypto industry. Some like BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has said that memecoins are “definitely positive” for social networks, but others have opined that memecoins are a suspected mess that betrays the core tenets of Blockchain technology.