Kategorie: Crypto Markets

Daily headlines and news about crypto markets.

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Masa partners with Avalanche to launch its zk-data network

  • Masa announced the launch of its zk-Data Network & Marketplace on Monday.
  • The Avalanche subnet will be powered by AvaCloud.
  • Masa has secured strategic investment from Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund.

Masa, a platform building a zero knowledge data network, has announced the launch of its zk-data network and marketplace.  

According to a news release published Monday, Masa will launch the gasless Avalanche subnet in the first quarter of 2024, bringing a customizable blockchain network for personal data to the public.

The subnet will be powered by AvaCloud, a managed blockchain service that allows users to deploy scalable decentralized networks. 

Masa’s quest to enable further adoption across Avalanche will be backed by the Avalanche Foundation as well as via a strategic investment from Blizzard Fund. Blizzard is a venture capital fund dedicated to growth and innovation on the Avalanche blockchain.

“Avalanche is the ideal launchpad for custom blockchains, having launched 14 custom blockchains by games, governments or enterprises. This is the perfect architecture to support our ZK-Data network and marketplace. By deploying on a dedicated Avalanche Subnet, major financial institutions, AI startups, and large-scale consumer tech applications can access secure, scalable, ZK-encrypted user data without paying any gas,” Calanthia Mei, co-founder of Masa, noted in a statement.

On the Masa platform, users get paid for their data, with the Zero-Knowledge Soulbound Token (zkSBT) designed as the personal data locker. This ensures every user’s digital footprint remains encrypted and private. Those looking to tap into this infrastructure pay for it to get access to zkSBT.

The Binance and CoinList incubated project has grown to encompass over 800k users since its unveiling in August 2022. It has secured over $7 million from investors.

The post Masa partners with Avalanche to launch its zk-data network appeared first on CoinJournal.

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Solana-based Aurory exploited, 80% of liquidity lost

  • Solana-based Aurory loses 80% liquidity in Camelot’s AURY-USDC pool.
  • SyncSpace bridge hacked; $600k AURY withdrawn and market-sold on Arbitrum.
  • Swift response disables SyncSpace, safeguarding user funds, with ongoing investigations.

In some disturbing crypto news, Aurory, a Solana-based gaming ecosystem, has fallen victim to a significant security breach resulting in an 80% loss of liquidity in its AURY-USDC pool.

The breach targeted the SyncSpace Aurory Bridge on Camelot’s native DEX Arbitrum, prompting a swift response from the project team. Here’s a breakdown of the incident and the measures being taken.

SyncSpace Aurory Bridge hack

The Aurory team detected suspicious activity on its marketplace, leading to the discovery of the exploit in the platform’s buy endpoint. The malicious actor managed to manipulate the SyncSpace Aurory bridge, boosting their $AURY balance and withdrawing approximately 600k tokens to the Arbitrum network. Subsequently, the attacker executed a market sell, liquidating the entire stolen amount.

To contain the breach, SyncSpace has been temporarily disabled for maintenance, freezing asset deposits and withdrawals. Fortunately, no user funds or NFTs are at risk, as the stolen $AURY originated from a team wallet designated for withdrawals by accounts without prior deposits.

The team acted swiftly to absorb sell pressure through their market maker and pool rebalancing, ensuring the exploiter has no remaining tokens to sell. Despite SyncSpace undergoing an audit months ago by a top-tier security firm, the breach raises questions about how this vulnerability eluded detection.

Impact on AURY token

In response to the breach, the AURY token experienced a 17% drop to $1.17, recovering some value later. The team is diligently buying back tokens as investigations proceed.

The incident has fueled discussions within the crypto community about the security of decentralized ecosystems.

The Aurory team assures users that a detailed post-mortem analysis will follow once the fix is complete and investigations conclude. SyncSpace is expected to be back online in the coming days, with plans for an Amber patch announcement and an end-of-year event for Seekers of Tokane.

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Arbitrum network back to normal after brief outage

  • Ethereum layer 2 solution Arbitrum had a brief downtime on Friday.
  • An update showed a surge in inscriptions had contributed to the spike in network traffic and gas fees.
  • Arbitrum has since “resolved this issue,” with operations back to normal and gas prices steadily recovering.

Arbitrum, a rollup chain on Ethereum, is running normally after a brief downtime on Friday.

The layer 2 Ethereum scaling solution faced a little more than one hour network outage on December 15. An update posted on the official Arbitrum Foundation account on X noted that the outage happened after a surge in inscriptions triggered a stall in the Arbitrum One Sequencer.

Arbitrum operations back to normal

According to details shared with the community, the Arbitrum One Sequencer and Feed stalled approximately at 10:29 AM ET. The technical hitch led to a significant surge in network traffic and inevitably a spike in transaction fees.

While the platform has yet to provide a full post-mortem of the temporary outage, initial investigations show that rising inscriptions triggered the Sequencer’s failure. Here’s the team’s initial report.

“The Arbitrum One Sequencer is up and running after a temporary outage starting at 10:29 AM EST and resuming at 11:57 AM EST. The team is actively investigating, but we can confirm that a sustained surge of inscriptions triggered the sequencer to stop relaying transactions properly.”

Crypto analyst cygaar noted in a comment on X that its possible people had spammed the layer 2 chain with inscriptions. These overwhelmed the network’s sequencer, creating a huge backlog of transactions and skyrocketing the gas fees.

 In a later update, the Arbitrum team said:

“Gas prices on Arbitrum One have stabilized and operations are back to normal. We’re continuing to gather more information and will provide a full post-mortem in the coming days.”

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SEC denies rulemaking petition filed by Coinbase

  • The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has denied the rulemaking petition filed by Coinbase.
  • SEC Chair Gary Gensler says current laws enough for investor proections.
  • Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda have released a statement disagreeing with the Commission’s decision.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has denied a crypto rulemaking petition filed by US-based crypto exchange Coinbase.

SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement published on Friday that he supports the Commission’s decision. He cited three reasons for his outlook on the agency’s latest course of action in relation to the quest for clear regulatory rules.

“I was pleased to support the Commission’s decision for three reasons,” Gensler stated. 

“First, existing laws and regulations apply to the crypto securities markets. Second, the SEC addresses the crypto securities markets through rulemaking as well. Third, it is important to maintain Commission discretion in setting its own rulemaking priorities.”

Gensler says current laws apply to crypto

The SEC Chair’s comments, on the back of the government agency’s push back against new tailor-made crypto rules, follows recent enforcement actions and lawsuits against major crypto companies and players for alleged securities violations. 

These include Coinbase, Binance and Kraken among others.

Meanwhile, the industry, in the wake of the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, has accused the SEC of doing nothing to protect investors amid its crackdown on exchanges. But Gensler says the existing laws are sufficient for investor and industry players’ protection.

“There is nothing about the crypto securities markets that suggests that investors and issuers are less deserving of the protections of our securities laws. Congress could have said in 1933 or in 1934 that the securities laws applied only to stocks and bonds. Instead, Congress included a long list of 30-plus items in the definition of a security, including the term “investment contract”,” the SEC Chair noted.

Gensler has maintained that most crypto assets are investment contracts and therefore subject to federal securities laws. This year, a US court declared that XRP, which the Commission alleged to be a security, was not. But despite the legal losses against Ripple, subsequent lawsuits by the watchdog have listed multiple tokens as unregistered securities.

Noting that the SEC’s rulemaking as it addresses crypto securities, Gensler said he disagrees with Coinbase’s assertion that “now is the right time” for a change to the rulemaking.

According to the SEC Chair, several crypto-related cases and undertakings are underway and results of these could inform whether or not a change to the regulatory regime is needed.

In a separate statement, SEC Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda said they “disagree with the Commission’s decision.” 

The two Commissioners note that the petition raises key issues related to new technologies and that addressing them is “a core part of being a responsible regulator.”

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Namada Shielded Expedition testnet participants to get 3% of token supply

  • Namada’s “Shielded Expedition” testnet offers 3% token rewards in a multiplayer game.
  • Participants compete in an “Asteroid Mining Competition,” accumulating ROID points.
  • 30 million NAM tokens (3% of supply) up for grabs, driving engagement and network testing.

Namada, the proof-of-stake Layer 1 blockchain protocol developed by the Anoma Foundation, has kicked off its “Namada Shielded Expedition,” an incentivized testnet promising participants 3% of the total token supply as rewards. The multiplayer role-playing game serves as a prelude to Namada’s mainnet launch in early 2024. Let’s dive into the details of this cutting-edge initiative.

This strategic move aims to engage users in a multiplayer role-playing game while rigorously testing the network’s capabilities.

Asteroid Mining Competition 

In this innovative testnet, participants, including validators and users, are thrust into an exciting “Asteroid Mining Competition.” The objective is simple yet profound: accrue ROID points by navigating the intricacies of Namada’s consensus algorithm, CometBFT, and proving its resistance against Sybil attacks.

A total of 30 million NAM tokens, equivalent to 3% of Namada’s one billion total token supply, are up for grabs. Participants will be ranked based on their accumulated ROID points, fostering a competitive environment and encouraging users to explore Namada’s features. The testnet, commencing on January 15, will run throughout the month, providing a window for users to test and contribute to the network’s refinement.

Namada’s strategic initiatives

This recent testnet launch follows Namada’s announcement of a community airdrop, earmarking 65 million tokens (6.5% of the total supply) for researchers, developers, and stakers on Cosmos Hub and Osmosis blockchains. These initiatives underscore Namada’s commitment to community involvement and development as it positions itself within the broader Cosmos ecosystem.

Namada’s proof-of-stake Layer 1 blockchain, scheduled for a first-quarter 2024 mainnet launch, promises asset-agnostic multichain privacy. Leveraging zero-knowledge proofs and featuring a native Ethereum bridge, Namada is poised to play a crucial role in enhancing privacy and interoperability across different blockchain networks.

The dynamic approach to testing and community engagement underscores Namada’s dedication to refining its protocol and building a robust and innovative blockchain ecosystem.

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