Matter Labs, the developer behind the Ethereum layer 2 network ZkSync, has decided to abandon its attempt to trademark the term “ZK”. On June 3, Matter Labs said its decision to abandon its attempt to trademark “ZK” stemmed from the reason that “it is impossible to agree with a group of people who are considered reliably neutral by most people.” ”.

Matter Labs once applied to trademark the term zero-knowledge (ZK) in nine countries, then clashed with Polyhedra Network over the use of ZK as a symbol. This led to a week-long controversy with Polyhedra Network condemning Matter Labs' actions and accusing them of bullying and breaking Web3 principles.

After this incident, many industry players supported Polyhedra and argued that such an action by Matter Labs would privatize a public resource. As pushback grew, Matter Labs abandoned its trademark plans, explaining that what may work in the Ethereum ecosystem is not necessarily applicable or effective on a global scale. , due to the diversity of perspectives, interests and stakeholders.

Matter Labs is proud to be part of a movement that cares deeply about cypherpunk values. And we're grateful to the zksync community in particular for the thousands of messages of support we've received, reaffirming that community is everything. ZK summer is coming.

June 1, the official account of the Frax Finance project was hacked, according to founder Sam Kazemian's allegations, this was an inside job at X. Frax Finance, the decentralized stablecoin protocol standing after FRAX USD, lost access to my X account.

Kazemian said in a June 3 Telegram post that the Frax Finance team is "pretty sure" it has identified the culprit, described as a "serial scammer" known to blockchain investigator ZachXBT. "We will do our best to bring that person to justice," Kazemian asserted.

The incident occurred on June 1, when Frax Finance's X account was compromised. Kazemian quickly reached out to his followers on X, seeking assistance in contacting the platform's customer service. However, Kazemian insisted that the passwords were not tampered with and that there were no internal security issues within Frax Finance that could have led to the compromise. Instead, he points to social intervention and insider participation at X.

Currently, Frax Finance's X account is still active, but no new posts have been shown since it was hacked. To date, neither X nor its CEO, Elon Musk, have officially commented on the incident.

Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya predicts Bitcoin will reach $500,000 per coin by the end of the year, based on the trajectory of previous cutting cycles.

The billionaire's forecast surpasses banking analysts such as Standard Chartered and Bernstein, who believe the cuts will be a significant but more modest price stimulus over the next 18 months.

📊In an episode of the All-In podcast, Palihapitiya looks at Bitcoin price performance after each of his halving events. For example, asset prices increased 7.8x in the 18 months after the third cut in May 2020.

'Cutting' is a function in Bitcoin's software that cuts its supply inflation rate every 210,000 blocks - roughly every four years.

📈Based on Bitcoin's performance after the third cut, Palihapitiya predicts Bitcoin will reach $497,977 by October 2025. When averaging the Bitcoin price performance between the second and third cuts, the price is expected to increase to $1.14 million.

The CEO highlighted a "growing group of countries" that may want to adopt a double currency standard, like El Salvador. If Bitcoin really reaches more than 500,000 USD/coin, investors believe that Bitcoin will "completely replace" gold, and even begin to feature trading for hard assets.

Keith Gill, known online as "Roaring Kitty," posted to Reddit that he holds $181.4 million in GameStop (GME) stock and stock options.

After Gill's post, meme cryptocurrencies GME, ROAR and KITTY increased by 315%, 660% and 477% respectively.

Gill's post, titled "GME YOLO Update - June 2, 2024", marks his first Reddit activity in the past three years. Under the account "u/DeepFuckingValue," Gill disclosed $65.7 million in GameStop stock options and $115.7 million in stock.

According to Jason Hitchcock, Head of Ecosystems at web3 development platform thirdweb, Gill's total holdings are equivalent to owning 17 million GameStop shares.

After Gill's post, meme cryptocurrencies inspired by GameStop and Roaring Kitty surged. GME, ROAR and KITTY are up 315%, 660% and 477% respectively, according to data from CoinGecko.

However, none of the reactions were positive. A post on r/WallStreetBets expressed frustration with Gill's long absence and the uncertainty for retail investors.

The article "Meme Coins Soar Triple Digits as 'Roaring Kitty' Returns to Reddit" appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Polkadot's price has been stable over the past few months after a sharp drop in early April. However, things may be changing for the better.

Technical analysis

According to the daily chart, the cryptocurrency has been confined to a bullish compression pattern. This is a typical bearish reversal or continuation pattern that will be confirmed if the price breaks down. Meanwhile, the market has also been oscillating around the 200-day moving average, making gradually higher highs and lows.

Therefore, there is also significant potential for DOT to break the pattern to the upside and rally towards the $9 resistance level. However, everything depends on the direction of the break from the pattern.

When looking at the 4-hour chart, the price action in a bullish compression pattern becomes clearer. DOT checked both the high and low boundaries of the canal multiple times. Currently, it is rebounding from the lower trendline and gaining momentum for a move to the upper trendline.

If successful, the pattern could be broken this time and a new bullish wave could begin. However, if the price declines, a drop to $6 and below would be very likely.

While Polkadot's price slowly made higher highs and lows around the $7 level, a look at the Binance liquidation map tells us why this happened.

The chart shows that the price was unable to fall below $6.8. There may be a specific reason for this behavior. There is a lot of liquidity below $6.8, likely with stop losses and liquidation prices by many large players. Therefore, they protected their positions by pushing prices up.

The same goes for the $8 zone, as there is a lot of liquidity there as well. Therefore, these are the two key levels that the price is currently stuck between, and a break from each could increase the current direction of the market by triggering a series of liquidations.

More than 800,000 ether (ETH) worth around $3 billion have left cryptocurrency exchanges since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the launch of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). ) Ethereum.

According to a quick summary by CryptoQuant analyst Burakkesmeci, the identity of the crypto investors behind these ETH moves remains unknown; however, there is speculation about who they might be.

The SEC approved an Ethereum ETF on May 23, an unexpected turning point for the cryptocurrency industry. The agency began contacting potential issuers a few days before the announcement and approved many subsequent 19b-4 applications for product listing.

Even though approved, the product is not available for immediate trading. Issuers must file their S-1 registrations in the coming weeks before the ETF can go live. Analysts suggest that the first tranche of the ETF could launch by the end of June.

While the cryptocurrency community awaits the ETF launch, large ETH outflows from exchanges over the past week are causing concern. Burakkesmeci said individual or institutional investors could be behind the outflows, noting that the market saw similar BTC moves after the SEC approved a Bitcoin ETF in mid-January.

Whoever is behind the outflows, Burakkesmeci predicts such moves will trigger an ETH price rally soon.

Analysts have predicted that ETH could skyrocket to $20,000 following the launch of the ETF. At the time of writing, ETH is trading around $3,800, up 1.1% over the past 24 hours. If the predictions come true, the market will see crypto assets increase by over 420%.

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, has announced it will stop providing trading services for several cryptocurrencies. Affected coins include OmiseGO (OMG), Waves (WAVES), Wrapped NXM (WNXM), and NEM (XEM). This announcement has led to a significant decrease in the price of the assets involved.

Binance has also introduced new trading pairs such as BTC/MXN and removed some old trading pairs, continuing to adapt its services to enhance user experience and respond to the latest market trends.

Withdrawals from these assets will not be supported after September 17, while delisted coins can be converted to stablecoins on behalf of users after September 18.

Binance did not provide specific reasons behind its decision, reminding that it regularly reviews each listed cryptocurrency to ensure that they meet "a high level of industry standards and requirements." ". Some important factors considered by Binance include team commitment, level and quality of development activity, trading volume, liquidity, and more.

Removing cryptocurrencies from a major trading venue like Binance could significantly impact their price performance. This process can cause negative perceptions about the reputation and future potential of the tokens, reputational damage and other difficulties.

Ripple (XRP) is experiencing volatile market activity, with its stock price lacking clear momentum. However, the price has reached a narrow and critical range, a break of which is necessary to identify a clear trend.

XRP analysis shows that Ripple's price has been confined to a critical range, limited by key resistance at $0.55 and significant support at $0.47, leading to prolonged price action. This pattern mirrors the behavior observed from August to November 2023, before Ripple initiated a sharp upward rally with resistance at $0.73, reclaiming the 100-day and 200-day moving averages.

Currently, XRP is showing similar price action within the same range, fighting a significant resistance area that includes the upper limit of the range and the 200-day moving average.

If buyers overcome this important zone, the uptrend could develop permanently. However, given the existing supply and lack of strong upside pressure, a rejection looks more likely in the near term.

On the 4-hour chart, Ripple's price has been facing extremely low market volatility, leading to weak price action. This shows uncertainty in the market regarding Ripple's future direction. The price has reached a narrow range, bounded by the 0.5 ($0.5310) Fibonacci level and the lower border of the bullish cone at $0.51.

A drop below the pattern's lower trendline could result in a bearish move towards the static support at $0.48.

Conversely, if buyers surpass the 0.5 Fibonacci level, the next target will be level 0.618 ($0.5574) Fibonacci in the short term. In conclusion, Ripple is at a crucial point, with a break from the current range needed to confirm the direction of the next trend.

After a strong rally towards the $71k threshold, Bitcoin faced strong selling pressure, leading to a mild bearish reaction. However, the cryptocurrency encounters a strong support zone that could lead to a sharp rebound in the short term.

Technical analysis shows that after an increase in demand and a strong rally towards the key resistance area of ​​72k USD, Bitcoin encountered selling pressure, leading to a slight decline. The 72k-74k USD price range has special significance, acting as a strong resistance zone that has blocked many bullish attempts in recent months.

On the downside, the significant 100-day moving average at $66k serves as an important support zone. This level comes with notable demand, which could prevent further selling pressure. However, Bitcoin price is currently confined between the 100-day moving average and the $72k resistance zone, with an upcoming breakout needed to kick-start a strong price trend.

Chain analysis shows that major players in the cryptocurrency market, holding large positions, can significantly influence price movements. Analyzing the profits of these players provides valuable information about market sentiment and conditions. The chart shows the strike price for the old shark pool, reflecting the profitable Bitcoin supply ratio.

The chart shows that the strike prices of new sharks have consistently supported Bitcoin throughout its recent strong uptrend towards its all-time high (ATH) of 74k USD. During the recent rejection from $74k USD, the strike price of new sharks supported Bitcoin significantly, contributing to a strong rally. Therefore, the strike price of the new sharks, around 62.8k USD, is currently acting as an important support zone for short-term Bitcoin buyers.

The gains by new sharks, as reflected in the price strike index, show that key players in this market continue to see value in Bitcoin above this support level. This sentiment supports a bullish view as long as the price remains above $62.8k.

Polygon saw significant growth in the stablecoin market this quarter. According to the latest report from Messari, the Ethereum Layer 2 solution stablecoin market has skyrocketed to $1.5 billion, up 19% over the previous quarter.

Tether has solidified its position as the leading stablecoin on Polygon, with the market growing an impressive 29% QoQ to reach $792 million, representing 53% of the total stablecoin market on the network.

This growth has been fueled by several notable developments. For example, in April, Sony Bank initiated a test using stablecoins on the Polygon blockchain, with the ultimate goal of evaluating their potential as a payment method for digital sales across the Sony group.

Additionally, Belgian technology company Settlemint announced plans to develop a stablecoin using Polygon, further highlighting the growing importance of Layer 2 networks in the stablecoin ecosystem.

The gaming industry on Polygon also grew strongly in the first quarter of 2024. Messari recorded a 1,615% increase in the number of daily active addresses related to games on the platform compared to the previous quarter, reaching 207,000 addresses. .

In addition, the number of daily game transactions on Polygon increased by 469% QoQ, up to 734,000 transactions. This growth is mainly due to the immense popularity of MATR1X's game MATR1X FIRE.

Besides the gaming industry, Polygon's decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem also saw notable growth, with the number of daily active DeFi addresses increasing by 67% QoQ to reach 50,000 addresses.

Meanwhile, non-tradeable tokens (NFTs) and social sectors also saw growth, but their scale remained relatively small compared to the gaming and DeFi industries in the Polygon ecosystem during the same period.

Ripple contributed $25 million to super PAC Fairshake, joining an industry-wide effort to advocate for pro-crypto policies and politicians.

Ripple's decision comes as the company is in a legal battle with regulators like the SEC. Ripple is pushing its pro-crypto agenda, asserting that the SEC's strategy to control the crypto industry through law enforcement has proven ineffective.

Ripple highlights the importance of the 2024 election for the industry, highlighting the choice between candidates who support or hinder technological innovation.

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said: "Our contribution to Fairshake is just one of many ways Ripple will actively invest in educating voters about the future role of cryptocurrencies and the dangers of the anti-crypto stance some lawmakers are clinging to in Washington.”

Ripple has been involved in a long-running legal dispute with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for years, after the regulatory watchdog ruled the company had illegally obtained 1.3 billion dollars through the sale of XRP, which it considers an unregistered security.

85-year-old lawyer David Kagel has pleaded guilty to charges in conspiring to commit a cryptocurrency-related Ponzi scheme, costing victims more than $9.5 million.

Kagel, once a legal powerhouse in Beverly Hills, California, now faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for his part in the Ponzi scheme.

Kagel is accused of collaborating with accomplices to lure victims into participating in a fake cryptocurrency investment scheme, promising high returns to investors. Kagel also provided letters on his law firm's paperwork to falsely confirm the legitimacy of the investment programs.

Kagel admitted that he and his co-conspirators used the victim's money for personal gain. Meanwhile, the lawsuit is still ongoing, with Australia's David Gilbert Saffron and Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr. of Los Angeles is awaiting trial on August 13 for his alleged role in the same cryptocurrency Ponzi fraud.

They allegedly used the victims' money for personal expenses instead of investing in cryptocurrency as promised. These expenses include private charter flights, luxury hotel stays, private villa rentals, personal chefs and private security guards.

Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange, has released a new research report on the future of Bitcoin, highlighting the importance of building a scaling solution for the number one network.

In December 2022, Casey Rodarmor launched the Ordinals protocol, creating an increase in demand for the Bitcoin block space. This was followed by the introduction of Bitcoin's fungible token standard, BRC-20, and then the Runes protocol.

These new protocols have attracted a new group of users, traders, builders, and even people with a strong interest in Bitcoin. However, these innovations have led to increased mempools and higher transaction fees.

Between 2022 and 2023, average Bitcoin transaction fees increased 175% from $1.50 to $4.20. In 2024, the fee was increased further to $9. Binance asserts that this highlights the importance of a Bitcoin scaling solution, which could help move some transactions from the layer 1 network to the layer 2 network.

The cryptocurrency community is focused on increasing Bitcoin usage, but users may face high transaction fees in the coming years. If 2% of the world's population made ten Bitcoin transactions per year, the number of transactions could increase to 1.6 billion.

Currently, there are several Bitcoin scaling solutions such as Lightning network, RGB, Stacks, BounceBit and Merlin.

According to blockchain security firm CertiK, the cryptocurrency industry lost $42.6 million in May due to attacks, flash loans, and market exit scams. Even so, about $96.2 million has been recovered, providing some comfort from the economic impact.

Flash loan attacks caused the largest losses in the cryptocurrency industry, totaling about $20.7 million. Sonne Finance suffered the most losses, losing $20 million, followed by TLN Protocol, losing $746,000. GPU and Saturn Token also suffered total losses of $32,394 and $8,343.

Mining attacks also had a significant impact on the industry, accounting for approximately $19.7 million in losses. Gala Games suffered the largest loss, $21.6 million, followed by AlexLab with $4.3 million, Pump Fun with $1.9 million, GNUS.ai with $1.28 million and Orion with $947,000.

Meanwhile, exit scams were less common but still contributed about $1.8 million to total losses. Of these, Trees On Sol lost $1.11 million, Pii Park lost $490,000, Novamind lost $123,019 and Arbalest lost $91,520.

Flash loan attacks continuously lead to large losses in odd months of the year. January, March and May saw losses of $15.3 million, $21.9 million and $20.7 million, respectively. Meanwhile, losses in February and April were less than $150,000 each month.

Meanwhile, February saw the heaviest losses from exit scams, totaling $58.3 million, less than 10% of the total recorded in other months.

Two cybersecurity researchers helped an anonymous cryptocurrency user recover 43.6 bitcoin (BTC) he lost 11 years ago after losing access to the wallet containing the assets.

According to a YouTube video describing the incident, researcher Joe Grand and his friend Bruno "time hacked" to reverse the process of generating a password for a wallet containing BTC. The process was quite rigorous, but helped them regain access to their wallets and recover their lost funds.

The anonymous cryptocurrency user, known only as Michael, said he set up the wallet in 2013 and used RoboForm to generate unique passwords. However, for security reasons, he decided to save the password in an encrypted file instead of on RoboForm.

Michael reached out to Grand in 2022, but he declined. This bitcoin owner persevered and tried again in June 2023. This time, he caught Grand's attention, and they began the process of retrieving the assets.

Grand and Bruno discovered that RoboForm had a flaw in its random number generator that linked each generated password to the date and time it was created on the user's computer. Although the bug was fixed in 2015, the couple believes it must have affected all previously created passwords.

Michael was asked to remember the date he created his password, and while the task seemed difficult, researchers learned that he transferred bitcoin to his wallet on April 13, 2013. They used time parameter and continued testing hundreds of passwords until they discovered the correct password, created on May 15, 2013.

After discovering the correct password, they accessed the wallet and retrieved the bitcoins. When BTC reached around $38,000, Michael divided some of the money with Grand and Bruno, and when the fortune increased to $62,000, he sold some to himself. He currently has 30 BTC worth about $2 million left, and he plans to hold on to them until the asset reaches a value of $100,000.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE) are both famous meme coins, but according to ChatGPT, the likelihood of SHIB entering the top 5 cryptocurrencies is quite low. However, with Shibarium's growth and strong community, SHIB can continue to grow.

Meanwhile, DOGE, backed by Elon Musk and Tesla, has better prospects of joining the top club, boosted by backing from celebrities and market optimism.

ChatGPT also highlighted that favorable regulatory developments and celebrity endorsements could drive further adoption and price increases.

However, to become one of the top 5 coins, SHIB needs extraordinary growth and favorable conditions.

Regarding DOGE, ChatGPT thinks it has a greater chance of joining the top 5 cryptocurrencies this year, thanks to support from famous stars.

Like last weekend, Bitcoin price has corrected and is currently below $68,000.

Altcoins have also been fairly quiet on a daily scale, but the weekly landscape has yielded some monster gains.

Bitcoin got off to a strong start to this week as it skyrocketed from under $69,000 to above $70,500 in just a few hours on Monday. However, the asset's momentum reversed and prices began to fall rapidly.

On Tuesday, the price of the cryptocurrency dropped more than three thousand dollars and almost collapsed below $67,000. The weekend was healthier and BTC stabilized at around $68,000.

Its total market capitalization remains at $1,330 trillion, while its dominance over altcoins is 50%.

Most altcoins have mimicked BTC's daily performance, meaning they have not made any significant moves. So we will focus on weekly performance.

The landscape is quite painful for some major altcoins like Uniswap, which has dropped over 12% during this period. Dogecoin is down 7% and has fallen below $0.16.

In contrast, ETH has small weekly gains, mirrored by TON and SHIB. LINK and WIF have increased the most in the past seven days.

The biggest gainers from the top 100 altcoins are NOT (270%), BRETT (61%), JASMY (50%), TIA (22%), and BGB (21%).

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization has decreased by about $40 billion since last Sunday and currently stands at $2.660 trillion.

The SEC approved an ETH ETF, creating massive volatility for the asset. Analysts predict a strong price rally and significant future growth. 📈🚀

Ethereum has become the focus after the SEC officially approved the launch of the ETH ETF. Its price experienced sharp ups and downs between $3,650 and $3,950 before stabilizing at its current level of around $3,800.

Positive on-chain metrics, such as rising TVL and negative exchange net flows, suggest a bull run may be coming for Ethereum.

Some analysts like Yoddha and Satoshi Flipper are also optimistic. Yoddha believes that ETH's bull cycle is about to begin and could fuel a price explosion up to $20,000.

Satoshi Flipper predicts a bright future for Ethereum based on the assumption that major banks and financial institutions around the world will participate in its ecosystem after the SEC approves the above ETFs.

The price of ETH has increased significantly over the past year, increasing by more than 100%. This positive trend goes hand in hand with the increase in key indicators around the ecosystem.

In a high-profile case involving a massive cryptocurrency fraud, a woman of British-Chinese descent, Jian Wen, was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for her role in laundering Bitcoin proceeds from the scheme. $6 billion investment scam in China.

Wen, 42, was convicted in March of laundering Bitcoin on behalf of his former boss, Yadi Zhang, whose real name is Zhimin Qian.

According to a recent report, Qian allegedly defrauded about 130,000 investors in China, raking in $5 billion through the investment scam.

Although Wen was not charged with directly participating in the fraud, she was found guilty of money laundering by converting Bitcoin into cash and using the money to buy real estate, jewelry, and other items. other luxury.

In 2018, British police confiscated more than $2.2 billion in Bitcoins related to the scam in a massive operation.

During the trial, Wen's lawyer claimed that she had been "deceived and used" by her boss, asserting that she did not know the criminal origin of the BTC she was handling.

However, the judge at Southwark Crown Court rejected these claims and directly stated that the evidence showed that Wen knew she was laundering money from criminals.

The judge also emphasized the complexity and intentionality of Wen's money laundering activities.

With criminal entities increasingly using cryptocurrencies to conceal and transfer illicit assets, British authorities have vowed to crack down on such operations, with the lead investigator stating that they will "leave no stone unturned" to catch criminals who exploit cryptocurrencies for illegal purposes.

Mastercard has launched the Mastercard Crypto Credential, implementing the first peer-to-peer (p2p) test transactions that simplify and secure blockchain transfers.

This new service will allow users on Bit2Me, Lirium and Mercado Bitcoin exchanges to send and receive cryptocurrency using easy-to-remember nicknames instead of complex blockchain addresses. This new capability is intended to enhance transaction simplicity and security, promoting broader cryptocurrency adoption.

According to the official release, the Mastercard Crypto Credential now connects Latin America and Europe corridors, in line with Mastercard's expansion into the digital asset ecosystem and integration of financial solutions.

Users in Peru, Chile, Portugal, Argentina, Guatemala, Panama, Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, Spain, France, Switzerland and Uruguay will be able to make both international and domestic transfers across multiple types different currencies and blockchains.

Mastercard asserts that the launch of p2p trading marks the first use case for the Mastercard Crypto Credential, with the possibility of future expansion into NFTs, tickets and other payment methods based on market trends and regulatory standards. determined.

Mastercard Crypto Credential also seeks to verify interactions between consumers and businesses on blockchain networks. The goal is to increase trust and certainty in trading.