Finally Caught a Break! 😅
Plus, ⏳ Coinbase faces heat over SOL delays, 🤐 Scroll’s Peng breaks silence on airdrop, 🔥 Bitcoin traders pile in, and more!
Good Friday! I’m Juan Aranovich, managing editor of Unchained.
In today’s edition:
🌟 Sentiment shift? Ether finally rallies
🤔 Coinbase blamed for Solana hiccup
🚨 XT.com hit in $1.7M hack
🛠️ “Lesson learned” — Scroll reacts to backlash
📈 Record futures action
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What’s Poppin’?
By Juan Aranovich and Tikta
Ether Gains 19% Against Bitcoin in a Week After Months of Underperformance
Ether has spent most of 2024 trailing far behind its peers. While bitcoin and solana hit new all-time highs this cycle—$99,655 for bitcoin and $263 for solana—ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, has remained stuck in their shadows.
Trading at around $3,550 at the time of writing, ether is still 26% below its Nov. 2021 peak of $4,891. Even in terms of market dominance, ether has struggled, it went from commanding over 20% of the total crypto market cap in 2021 to just 13% today.
Over the past week, ether is finally showing signs of life. The ETH/BTC ratio — a metric that compares ether’s performance to bitcoin (BTC) — jumped 19%, marking its strongest weekly performance in months. The surge is notable not just for its size but for what it represents: a potential shift in sentiment toward Ethereum, which many had written off for this year.
Coinbase Sees Delayed Solana Transfers on Thanksgiving
Coinbase was the subject of scrutiny on social media after the platform displayed 45-minute wait times for a Solana transfer on Thanksgiving day.
“We understand your Solana transactions are experiencing delays, which can be due to wallet maintenance or blockchain issues. Our team is aware and working on a fix, but we don't have an estimated resolution time,” Coinbase’s support account on X said in response to one user’s complaint.
The Solana Foundation’s head of strategy Austin Federa called the statement “disappointing and deceptive,” noting that the issue had nothing to do with the Solana network itself, but rather, an issue on the exchange side.
A few hours later, on X, a Coinbase protocol specialist said the issue had been resolved, while also pointing out that uniform support across the 50 plus blockchains that Coinbase supports can be difficult.
“I think there’s a case to be made that uniform support isn’t sufficient for keeping up with Solana under its current load,” he said.
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Crypto Exchange XT Hacked for $1.7 Million
XT.com, a Seychelles-based crypto exchange, was hacked for $1.7 million on Thursday, according to onchain transactions flagged by blockchain security firm PeckShield.
The XT team assured users that their funds were safe, and that the platform would be back to normal soon. The exchange also briefly suspended withdrawal and deposit services for all tokens after the incident.
At the time of writing, withdrawals for Tron-related tokens, BTC and TON had been resumed, while all deposit services were functional.
“We always maintain reserves 1.5x greater than user assets to ensure maximum security,” said the XT team in a statement.
Scroll Co-founder Addresses ‘Shade’ Over Airdrop Design
Ethereum layer 2 Scroll co-founder Sandy Peng broke her silence on the project’s controversial airdrop in October, which included accusations that the core team may have been airdropping SCR tokens to their own wallets.
“Some founders are pre-launch engagement farming so hard and throwing shades so wild that I felt the need to address a few things,” said Peng on X.
She explained that the protocol Treasury was used to seed core DeFi liquidity on Scroll, and that Marks (the system to set airdrop allocations) to team wallets were negligible.
“In hindsight, removing Marks for clarity would’ve been better. Lesson learned,” she said. According to Peng, the protocol is restructuring to align to its next development phase.
Scroll’s total value locked (TVL) surged in the days leading up to its airdrop, but dropped dramatically after the snapshot was taken. Unchained wrote about why this situation could have been prevented.
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Bitcoin Futures Open Interest Hits Record $63 Billion
Bitcoin futures open interest, which represents the number of active positions held by traders, hit a record high of $63 billion earlier this week, according to data from Checkonchain.
The level of open interest has surged dramatically since the date of the U.S. election, when it sat around $40.5 billion.
Bitcoin’s recent rally beyond the $99,000 mark likely attracted more traders to open positions, as investors grow more optimistic on the outlook for bitcoin's price. However, at press time, bitcoin was trading around $96,500, down by 2.5% the last week.
Increased participation from hedge funds, asset managers, and other institutional investors on platforms such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has also boosted open interest of late.
Daily Bits… ✍️✍️✍
🇭🇰 Hong Kong proposed tax exemptions for crypto investment gains and other assets held by private funds and family offices, aiming to boost its status as a global financial hub and attract institutional interest in blockchain innovation.
🎮 A crypto player outsmarted Freysa, an AI agent designed to resist manipulation, by exploiting its code logic, securing a $47,000 prize after 482 attempts by 195 participants in a unique adversarial gaming challenge.
📈 HyperLiquid launched its HYPE token, achieving a $4.2 billion fully diluted market cap with $165 million trading volume in its first hour, fueled by a 31% circulating token supply.
🌐 Coinbase said it would not support Celo’s migration to a layer 2 network in Optimism’s Superchain, drawing criticism from the Celo community as a potential setback for Ethereum’s scaling roadmap.
🇹🇼 Taiwan accelerated the implementation of strict anti-money laundering rules for crypto providers, effective Nov. 30, mandating compliance registration with penalties including imprisonment and fines for non-adherence.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🇨🇭⚡ Switzerland's Canton of Bern parliament approved a motion to explore Bitcoin mining as a solution for utilizing surplus energy, stabilizing electricity grids, and creating economic opportunities in collaboration with local mining firms.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 2.1%, trading at $97,053
ETH is down 0.7%, trading at $3,592
BTC dominance: 54.4%
Crypto market cap: $3.51T
*All data as of today, 06:40 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
Recommended Reads
The Block: Memecoin momentum fades as DeFi tokens soar, price data suggests
CoinDesk: Why Costa Rica Is Taking a Hands-Off Approach to Regulating Crypto
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