Coinbase’s Base network gets OpenZeppelin security integration

April 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Contract upgrades, admin changes and protocol tweaks can now be made using standard APIs that were previously unavailable on Base.

The OpenZeppelin Defender smart contract security platform has now integrated with Coinbase’s Base network, allowing Web3 app developers on Base to automate security tasks.

According to an April 19 announcement from blockchain cybersecurity firm OpenZeppelin, app developers on Base can now use the Defender software to create multi-signature admin contracts and timelocks, employ Relayers to store keys and sign transactions along with creating automated “sentinels” to monitor the blockchain and react when events occur.

These tools can be used for routine but sensitive admin tasks such as upgrading contracts, tweaking numerical parameters, or pausing a contract should an emergency occur according to the program’s documentation.

The Defender app was available on Ethereum and most other networks in the past, but as it was not integrated with Base, developers could not use it on the new testnet until now.

OpenZeppelin's CTO Jonathan Alexander stated in the announcement that the integration will make smart contracts "more secure and expansive” while Base lead Jesse Pollak signaled excitement at the team-up saying that “security is key for a thriving onchain ecosystem."

Coinbase announced the launch of the Base test network on Feb. 23. It plans to produce a mainnet version as a layer-2 of Ethereum once testing is complete.

Some Ethereum users have speculated that Coinbase wants to help onboard institutional investors to Web3 through the new network as it will feature Masa Finance identity verification tools.

OpenZeppelin is most known for its library of open-source smart contracts which are often modified by developers and used for their own purposes throughout the Ethereum ecosystem.

Binance users get new ETH deposit addresses: Here’s what to do

April 18, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Binance

Binance said retiring old deposit addresses on multiple blockchains is part of its infrastructure upgrade, with the new addresses offering better security and efficiency.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Binance, is disabling multiple old deposit addresses as part of its infrastructure upgrade.

In an announcement on April 18, Binance said it would retire selected deposit addresses and memos in batches on multiple blockchains, including Ether (ETH), Tron (TRX), BNB (BNB) and Stellar (XLM). The crypto exchange said that the retirement of old addresses is a routine and a part of enhancing security and efficiency for the users.

*List of retired deposit addresses on various blockchain networks. Source: Binance*

The users of these impacted deposit blockchain addresses will be notified via email, and the exchange strongly encouraged that all impacted users obtain a new address and memo upon receiving the notification. The notification email will include the expiration date for any outdated deposit addresses. When users get a new address, old deposit addresses will become invalid.

To obtain a new deposit address, users must log in to their Binance account and follow the instructions mentioned in their email notification. The migration is scheduled for between April and June 2023.

The crypto exchange also assured that the funds wouldn’t be lost if someone mistakenly sent assets to expired addresses. However, payments made to addresses that have already expired will not be immediately reimbursed. Users must manually credit the deposits from the old address using the “transaction history” page.

Binance regularly upgrades and maintains its infrastructure from time to time. The exchange recently raised the alarm against 191 high-risk, untrustworthy decentralized applications and fake tokens on its native blockchain network called BNB Chain.

The change in deposit addresses of multiple blockchains, including that of Ethereum, comes just a day before Binance is set to open ETH withdrawal for users. Millions of Ether are now unlocked after the Shapella upgrades on April 12, with major exchanges and custodians having already made arrangements for users to unstake their ETH from the Beacon Chain nearly three years after staking it.

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ETH staking passes withdrawals for the first time since Shapella upgrade

April 18, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Over 1 million ETH has been withdrawn since the Shapella hard fork on April 12. However, a significant number of addresses have restaked their ETH.

The Ethereum blockchain underwent a successful Shapella upgrade on April 12, allowing validators to withdraw their staked Ether (ETH) from the Beacon Chain after three years. After seeing over 1 million ETH in withdrawals in the first week, the amount of staked ETH has now surpassed the number of ETH being withdrawn for the first time since the Shapella upgrade.

Data from the on-chain analytics firm Nansen suggests that more ETH is currently being staked than withdrawn. As of April 17, the ETH staking volume of 124,000 ETH exceeded the withdrawal volume of 64,800 ETH for the first time. In the last 24 hours, the amount of staked ETH was 94,968 against 27,076 in withdrawals. The first round was primarily partial withdrawals from Lido and old validators. It takes approximately three days to get into the withdrawal queue.

*Volume of staked ETH vs withdrawals. Source: Nansen*

The Shapella upgrade was projected as a make-or-break situation for the Ethereum blockchain as millions in unlocked ETH posed a risk of mass selling. However, the majority of the validators are restaking their unlocked Ether. Crypto exchange Binance will open withdrawals on April 19.

Out of the 1 million withdrawn ETH, three addresses restaked a total of 19,844 ETH. Three addresses transferred ETH to centralized exchanges (CEXs) after withdrawal, with 71,444 ETH sent to different exchanges. Other whales did the same, with some sending it to Huobi staking addresses and a few others to CEXs, according to data shared by Lookonchain.

Most early withdrawals are staking rewards, and a few validators, like Kraken, had to exit to comply with a United States Securities and Exchange Commission ruling. Currently, 22,231 validators have signed up for a complete exit out of 574,624, while 910,930 ETH of the 18.6 million staked ETH is slated to be withdrawn.

Another prominent reason for the diminishing withdrawals could be ETH’s price, as the average price of staked ETH is about $2,137.

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Less than 1% of staked ETH estimated to be sold after Shapella: Finance Redefined

April 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The top 100 DeFi tokens surged along with the broader crypto market as the total value locked peaked at a new yearly high of over $54 billion.

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week.

The past week in DeFi was filled with anticipation leading up to the Shapella upgrade on the Ethereum mainnet. The hard fork was successfully completed on April 12, allowing validators to withdraw their staked Ether (ETH) after three years. However, only 253 validators have signed up to fully exit their staked Ether position, with analytics firm Glassnode predicting that less than 1% of the staked ETH will be withdrawn.

Amid all the rejoicing post-Shapella upgrade, an Ethereum researcher has revealed that staking Ether could become a privacy concern, as he had “internally” discovered that staking Ether shows a user’s IP address information.

A hacker minted 1 quadrillion Yearn Tether (yUSDT) after exploiting an old Yearn.finance contract, and then swapped the yUSDT to other stablecoins, allowing them to take hold of $11.6 million worth of stablecoins.

DeFi-based financial inclusion serves to increase liquidity and earning opportunities for African micro-entrepreneurs through Fonbnk’s partnership with Tanda.

The top 100 DeFi tokens had another bullish week, thanks to a late surge in the crypto market after Ethereum’s much-awaited upgrade. Most DeFi tokens traded in green along with the rest of the market.

Less than 1% of staked ETH estimated to be sold after Shanghai upgrade: Glassnode

Just 170,000 Ether of the 18.1 million ETH staked on the Beacon Chain will be unlocked within the first week of the Shanghai hard fork being executed on Ethereum, Glassnode has predicted.

The figure comprises 100,000 Ether ($190 million) worth of staking rewards and 70,000 ETH worth of staked Ether ($133 million), the on-chain intelligence platform predicted in its April 11 report.

Continue reading

Ethereum researcher says staking reveals IP address, sparking privacy concerns

A researcher at the Ethereum Foundation (EF) showed that the IP addresses of ETH stakers are monitored as part of a broader set of metadata, causing the cryptocurrency community to flag Ethereum for privacy concerns.

In an April 12 interview on the crypto podcast Bankless, EF researcher Justin Drake revealed that he learned this information “internally.” The metadata Drake referred to tracks a wide range of information.

Continue reading

Web3 economy to gain more traction in Africa through DeFi-based financial inclusion

Web3 in Africa began with cryptocurrency, with blockchain technology bringing a lot of transformation regarding transparency and people’s control over their finances. The Web3 economy in Africa continues gaining traction with decentralized finance-based financial inclusion.

Fonbnk, the Web3 on-ramp that allows Africans to obtain cryptocurrency assets by exchanging their airtime credits, has partnered with Tanda, a merchant network platform in East Africa, to launch an airtime trading marketplace across Tanda’s network of agents.

Continue reading

Hacker mints 1 quadrillion yUSDT after exploiting old Yearn.finance contract

Blockchain security firm PeckShield recently detected a hack that allowed the attacker to mint over 1 quadrillion yUSDT from $10,000 in the latest DeFi exploit.

According to the security firm, the hacker then swapped the yUSDT to other stablecoins, allowing them to take hold of $11.6 million worth of the tokens. This includes 61,000 Pax Dollar (USDP), 1.5 million TrueUSD (TUSD), 1.79 million Binance USD (BUSD), 1.2 million Tether (USDT), 2.58 million USD Coin (USDC) and 3 million Dai (DAI).

Continue reading

DeFi market overview

Analytical data reveals DeFi’s total market value crossed $54 billion this past week. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that DeFi’s top 100 tokens by market capitalization had a bullish week, with most of the tokens trading in green, barring a few.

Thanks for reading our summary of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Join us next Friday for more stories, insights and education in this dynamically advancing space.

Ether staking withdrawals: Crypto exchanges set calendar for unstaking

April 13, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

A majority of the validators are withdrawing their staking rewards rather than the whole 32 staked ETH.

Ethereum mainnet successfully completed the Shapella upgrade on April 12. The successful execution of the Shapella upgrade means Ethereum validators can finally withdraw their staked Ether on the Beacon chain.

A total of 126,955.07 ETH were withdrawn by validators at the time of writing. Presently, 248,043 out of the 559,549 active validators, or about 44% of them, have the ability to request a partial or full withdrawal. The majority of withdrawals currently vary between 2.8- 3.2 ETH, indicating the majority of the validators are only withdrawing their staking rewards.

*Total staked ETH withdrawal. Source: beaconcha.in*

The average price of staked ETH is $3,149 and it could be another reason why validators are not withdrawing the whole amount. The ETH price is currently trading just under $2,000 with the price acting as key resistance.

*Staked ETH data and exchange holdings. Source: Nansen*

Major crypto exchanges have announced their support for the ETH unstaking with several exchanges already processing withdrawal requests. Coinbase, the world’s first publicly listed crypto exchange announced that ETH unstaking is now live on their platform.

The Shapella Upgrade is complete. Congratulations to the @Ethereum community! ETH unstaking is now enabled on https://t.co/bCG11KNnW0. https://t.co/JcTxAVphGZ
— Coinbase (@coinbase) April 12, 2023

BitGo's chief operating officer Chen Fang took to Twitter to announce that the exchange has upgraded to Shapella successfully and ETH withdrawals are now live on the platform.

Kraken on the other hand started withdrawing validators for their United States customers on April 11 and began processing withdrawals of ETH after the completion of the Shapella upgrade. The early withdrawal of validators by the exchange is caused by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission action brought against Kraken's Ethereum staking product back in February.

For clarity:

Validators are currently able to exit but the associated 32 ETH stake and consensus layer rewards are not able to be withdrawn (aka moved around) until Shapella goes live in around 12 hours

What Kraken is doing right now is exiting their validators
— sassal.eth (@sassal0x) April 12, 2023

Kraken Australia Managing Director Jonathon Miller told Cointelegraph that even though such a high quantity of ETH unstaking might cause some price volatility it will bring users to the ecosystem in the long run. He explained:

“Whilst this unlocking event may create conditions for an exodus from the staking protocol, the ability to freely stake and unstake (in accordance with bonding periods specified by the protocol) could equally attract many ETH holders. The move to unstaking could see a massive movement of assets into Ethereum staking pools.”

Binance the leading crypto exchange by trading volume said it will support the Shappela upgrade and start the withdrawal processing requests starting from April 19. The crypto exchange also added that the withdrawal request can take upto 15 days to process due to processing limitations.

#Binance will support $ETH 2.0 Staking withdrawals starting from April 19, 08:00 UTC.

Due to the processing limitations on the $ETH network, ETH withdrawal requests may take up to 15 days to several weeks to be fully processed.

More details here ⤵️https://t.co/L3iyon58lo
— Binance (@binance) April 13, 2023

Bitfinex, one of the leading crypto exchanges congratulated the Ethereum community on the successful upgrade and said the ETH withdrawal details will be shared soon.

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How will the Shanghai upgrade impact ETH price? Expert explains

April 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

While it may cause downside pressure in the short run, the Shanghai upgrade will be extremely bullish for Ether's price in the mid-to-long term, according to Vivek Raman.

While it may have some short-term negative impact on the price of Ether (ETH), the upcoming Shanghai upgrade will be extremely bullish for Ethereum's native token, as it will attract more capital to staking and increase the network's security, according to Ethereum researcher Vivek Raman.

The Shanghai upgrade, scheduled for April 12, will allow network validators to withdraw funds that have been locked to secure the network since December 2020. The upgrade will complete the network’s transition to a proof-of-stake system, which started last October with the Merge.

Around 18 million ETH will be available for withdrawal following Shanghai. According to Raman, that may lead to some selling pressure on ETH's price in the short term.

However, in the long run, the ability to unstake Ether will “de-risk the ETH investment in a tremendous way,” he pointed out. In particular, institutional investors that couldn’t get involved earlier in staking will feel more comfortable once ETH can be unstaked. More capital entering ETH staking will improve the Ethereum network in the long run.

“The more native proof-of-stake asset that's staked, the higher the cost to attack the chain,” Raman pointed out.

To find out more about the implications of the upcoming Ethereum upgrade, check out the full interview on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe!

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What will be the outcome of the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade?

April 6, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Join us as we discuss the potential outcomes of the upcoming Ethereum Shanghai upgrade and other important developments in DeFi.

In this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Justin Bram, co-founder and CEO of Astaria — which allows users to put up their nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as collateral to earn instant liquidity. Bram also has his own YouTube channel with over 30,000 subscribers.

We kick things off by getting Bram’s opinion on the most exciting thing happening in decentralized finance (DeFi) right now and follow it up by discussing the most important thing happening in DeFi.

We then get into Ethereum layer-2 protocols like Arbitrum and whether Bram is bullish on them or whether he has his eye set on something else.

With the next big Ethereum upgrade just around the corner, we ask Bram what his perspective is on the Shanghai upgrade and the potential of liquid staking derivatives. Is ut going to be as big as everyone hopes and thinks it will be? Does the unlocking of Ether (ETH) represent the offering of some new innovation in the crypto and DeFi space?

By the end of the chat with Bram, we hope the audience will have gotten a better understanding of the most exciting and important developments in DeFi, the potential outcomes of the Ethereum Shanghai unlocks, and the longer-term impact of this on the liquid staking derivatives space, and also the development within the Ethereum layer-2 platform.

We cover all this and more, so make sure to stay tuned until the end. Market Talks airs every Thursday. Each week, it features interviews with some of the most influential and inspiring people from the crypto and blockchain industry. So, head on over to Cointelegraph Markets and Research’s YouTube page, and smash those like and subscribe buttons for all our future videos and updates.

Ethereum price turns bullish ahead of next week’s Shanghai and Capella upgrades

April 5, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

ETH price found news bullish momentum as traders gear up for next week’s major network upgrades.

With one week to go until the Ethereum Shanghai and Capella upgrades on April 12, all eyes are on Ether(ETH). The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization shrugged off rumors and regulatory action against exchanges to hit a seven-month high of $1,922 on April 5.

Ether price has momentum, and here are three strong reasons why.

Multiple positive price achievements

According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, Ether price has posted gains on the seven-day, one-month and three-month timeframes despite market volatility. Ether price gains are also notable from the year-to-date perspective, showing 59% growth.

*ETH/USD price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro*

Ether’s ability to break resistance levels is leading some analysts to believe a $3,000 price target is on the horizon in Q2 2023. The trend shows that whale accumulation remains strong, growing by 0.5% in March, according to data from analytics provider Santiment.

The bullish buying activity may prove on-chain data correct that Ether sell pressure after the Shanghai hardfork will be a non-event.

The uptick in proof-of-stake validation by placing Ether in staking contracts is bullish for the Ethereum ecosystem. Since launching on Aug. 4, 2021, the Ethereum network has witnessed over 18 million ETH staked on the blockchain.

*Total Ether staked. Source: TradingView*

The emergence of liquid staking derivatives has reduced the barrier to entry to participate in Ether staking. Lido, the leader in LSDs and the largest single entity by value, has close to one-third of all staked EtTH. Including interest received, Lido contracts hold 5.9 million ETH from 137,000 unique depositors.

*Lido Ether deposits overview. Source: Nansen*

Ethereum network TVL surges

The total value locked in the Ethereum network is also rising, partially as a result of Lido’s protocol comprising 22.4% of the TVL on the Ethereum network. Despite the TVL starting to drop on March 10 due to regulatory and macro headwinds, the decentralized finance market seems to be recovering.

On April 5, TVL reached $50.8 billion, nearly reaching the yearly high of $51.4 billion from Feb. 21.

The strength of Ether price ahead of the Shanghai and Capella upgrades is visible on-chain through increased usage, whale accumulation and a steady uptick in staking. With only seven days remaining until the upgrade, traders expect continued volatility in Ether price.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors’ alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

LayerZero raises $120M to expand cross-chain messaging efforts

April 4, 2023 Coin Telegraph

LayerZero raises 0M to expand cross-chain messaging efforts

Coin Telegraph

The new funds will be used to increase headcount and expand the company’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Cross-chain messaging protocol developer LayerZero Labs has raised another $120 million, according to an Apr. 4 announcement. The company plans to use the capital to increase its headcount and expand its reach into the Asia-Pacific region. The company had previously raised $135 million in March 2022.

pic.twitter.com/mhJgoovYis
— LayerZero Labs (@LayerZero_Labs) April 4, 2023

LayerZero Labs is best known for its cross-chain messaging protocol, LayerZero, which is often used to create asset bridges between blockchain networks. It is also the developer of the Stargate multi-chain bridge.

With the completion of this fundraising round, the company now has a $3 billion valuation. Over 33 investors participated in the latest funding round, including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, BOND, Circle Ventures, Christie's, OpenSea Ventures, and Samsung Next.

Ryan Zarick, co-Founder and CTO of LayerZero Labs, said the new fundraise will help to create a multi-chain environment where applications can make the best use of each network’s unique benefits:

Imagine a future where a single user-facing application can harness the speed of Solana, the security of Ethereum, and the cheap file storage of Arweave, while also being fully abstracted to the user.

He continued, "This is our vision, made possible by the LayerZero protocol that seamlessly connects all blockchains and enables chain-agnostic applications to be built across various blockchains to create a best-in-class user experience. The days of choosing one chain to build on are over; the future is omnichain applications."

The issue of securing cross-chain messages has become acute in recent years, as more than $3 billion was stolen from blockchain bridges in 2022, according to a report from Chainanalysis. LayerZero has attempted to solve this problem by using a relayer and oracle to secure messages, where a message is only confirmed if both the relayer and oracle agree that it is valid.

On January 31, LayerZero received 37.58% of the vote to become Uniswap’s bridge protocol for cross-chain governance between Ethereum and BNB Chain, coming in second behind Wormhole. On March 30, Gnosis announced that LayerZero would integrate with its multi-bridge platform, Hashi, to further increase the security of blockchain bridges.

73.3% of Q1 rug pulls happened on BNB Chain: Immunefi

April 4, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Binance Coin

Rug pulls and other frauds made up a small percentage of losses compared to hacks and exploits, the report stated.

BNB Chain was the king of rug pulls in the first quarter of 2023, with over 73.3% of such scams in the entire crypto ecosystem happening on the network, according to an April 4 report from blockchain security firm Immunefi.

The report, titled “Crypto Losses in Q1 2023,” investigated a variety of crypto hacks and scams in the first quarter of the year. It found that Ethereum and BNB Chain were the two largest targets for hackers and scammers, with 68.8% of total losses from these networks combined. BNB Chain, in particular, made up 41.3% of total losses from hacks and scams.

One type of scam, in particular, reigned supreme on BNB Chain: rug pulls, a type of scam where developers raise funds and then close up shop without delivering a product or service. Immunefi stated that 73.3% of all rug pulls in the crypto ecosystem happened on BNB Chain in the first quarter.

Immunefi tech Lead Adrian Hetman speculated that the large number of rug pulls on the chain may be due to a culture that promotes forking open-source code:

“BNB Chain still has a serious issue with developers using forked code. Its community lacks a security-first approach and attracts many users looking for a quick way to earn money. That’s why we continue to see the biggest number of exploits and rug pulls in this ecosystem.”

Despite the prevalence of these scams on BNB Chain, Immunefi also stated that rug pulls and other frauds are a much smaller problem in the crypto community than hacks or exploits. Hacks were the “predominant cause” of losses in Q1 2023, the report said, whereas all frauds combined (including rug pulls and other scams) made up only 4.3% of total losses.

The first quarter of 2023 has seen spectacular hacks and exploits, draining millions of dollars from decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. On Feb. 1, the DeFi lending app BonqDAO was the victim of an oracle hack, losing $120 million in crypto. On Feb. 17, decentralized exchange aggregator Dexible was hacked for over $2 million. And on March 13, Euler lost over $195 million of crypto in the largest DeFi attack of the quarter.

Ethereum 2.0