Is Ether inflationary or deflationary? The classification of Ether as either inflationary or deflationary is a topic of debate. Supporters of the inflationary argument may point to the absence of a hard cap on Ether’s supply. However, the programmed decrease in the token creation rate, the implementation of PoS and its increasing utility in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem suggest a deflationary trend for ETH. Ethereum’s ecosystem facilitates the development of decentralized applications (DApps). Its native currency Ether is used for transactions and as a reward for validators who process transactions. There is no fixed limit on the total supply …

Liquid staking protocol Lido Finance has pushed the big red button in order to activate a protocol safety feature called "Staking Rate Limit" after more than 150,000 Ether was staked with the protocol in a single day. Lido is a liquid staking solution for digital assets, in this case allowing users to stake Ether (ETH) without them needing to have their tokens locked. When a user deposits Ether, Lido issues them a liquid variant of ETH, known as staked ETH (stETH), giving users staking rewards for each day the tokens are held in their wallets. Lido protocol has registered its …

The suspected actors behind the $6 million exploit of decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocol Lendhub have just sent more than half of their ill-gotten gains from January into sanctioned crypto mixer Tornado Cash. Blockchain security firms PeckShield and Beosin alerted their respective followers to the movement of funds on Feb. 27, noting that around 2,415 Ether (ETH) worth around $3.85 million was sent to Tornado Cash from a wallet connected to the Jan. 12 exploit. #PeckShieldAlert ~2,415.4 $ETH (~3.85M) into Tornado Cash from @LendHubDefi exploiters LendHub was exploited, and $6M worth of cryptos was stolen from its protocol on Jan. …

Crypto exchange Coinbase has been named as a defendant in a legal complaint brought by NanoLabs — the company behind the digital currency Nano (NANO) — over alleged trademark infringement. In the Feb. 24 filing with the California Northern District Court, NanoLabs alleged Coinbase's Nano Bitcoin futures contract and Nano Ether futures contract products infringe on trademark rights owned by them. It’s also alleged the infringement has caused NanoLabs economic detriment and weakened its brand identity, resulting in “actual damage and irreparable harm." Colin LeMahieu founded the Nano digital currency in 2014; which was originally named RaiBlocks. It was rebranded …

Ukraine has received over $70 million in the form of cryptocurrencies since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, providing the nation with military equipment and humanitarian assistance. The figures came from a Feb. 24 report by blockchain data platform Chainalysis, which found the majority of the funds to have come in the form of Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC). ETH donors led the way with $28.9 million given, while donors of BTC and Tether (USDT) chipped in $22.8 million and $11.59 million respectively. Donations have also come in the form of nonfungible tokens (NFTs), such as UkraineDAO’s auction of a …

Over $2.5 billion was stolen in cross-chain crypto bridge hacks from 2021 to 2022, according to a report by Token Terminal. But, despite several attempts by developers to improve bridge security, a debate from December 2022 to January 2023 on the Uniswap DAO forums has laid bare security weaknesses that continue to exist in blockchain bridges. In the past, bridges like Ronin and Horizon used multisig wallets to ensure that only bridge validators could authorize withdrawals. For example, Ronin required five out of nine signatures to withdraw, whereas Horizon required two out of five. But attackers figured out how to …

The Ethereum community appears to have taken a bullish view of Coinbase’s newly announced layer-2 network, Base, which has been described as a “massive confidence vote” and a “watershed moment” for the blockchain network. Secured on Ethereum and powered by layer-2 network Optimism, Base aims to eventually become a network for building decentralized applications (DApps) on the blockchain. The layer-2 network is currently in its testnet phase, according to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. 0/ Hello world. Meet Base, an Ethereum L2 that offers a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly way for anyone, anywhere, to build decentralized apps. Our goal with Base is …

The original manuscript of Neil Stephenson’s Snow Crash — the book which coined the term “Metaverse,” — will be auctioned by Sotheby’s, according to a page on Sotheby’s official website. The auction is part of a Feb. 23 series called “Infocalypse” that includes six physical and six digital items related to the famous book. The original manuscript is in Lot 2 of the series. It is “wrapped in original Xerox 4200 Paper,” secured with masking tape and contains “corrections and notations throughout in Neal Stephenson's hand in blue ink.” It also has the title of the book written on the …

An anonymous Ethereum investor has lost more than $2 million trading Ether (ETH) since Sep. 9, 2022, on-chain data shows. Buying Ethereum high, selling low Spotted by on-chain monitoring resource Lookonchain, the "stupid money" trader spent $12.5 million in stablecoins to buy 7,135 ETH after it rallied 10% to $1,790 in September 2022. But a subsequent correction forced the trader to sell the entire stash for $10.51 million. As a result, the trader lost nearly $1.75 million. Interestingly, waiting and selling at today's price would have resulted in a smaller loss of $1.14 million. 1/ Please don't blindly follow the …

On Feb 23, crypto exchange Coinbase announced the launch of Base — an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network. The company claimed this new network will offer a low-cost, secure, and developer-friendly environment for building decentralized apps (dApps) on the blockchain. According to Coinbase, Base is designed to be a bridge for users into the crypto economy, offering access to other L1 ecosystems like Solana and making it interoperable with other chains. It will also provide access to Coinbase's products, users, and tools, as well as easy fiat onramps and powerful acquisition tools. The company plans to progressively decentralize the chain …

In this episode of Hashing It Out, Pacman, the founder and core contributor of the nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Blur, joins Elisha Owusu Akyaw to discuss how Blur has captured the attention of the NFT market. The tides in the NFT ecosystem changed in December 2022 when the newly launched NFT marketplace overtook OpenSea as the largest NFT trading platform by trading volume. Pacman describes this as a similar situation to the progression of the general token market. He explains that Blur created a marketplace that puts professional traders first, a niche not covered by popular platforms that prioritize a …

The founders behind the alleged $340 million “global Ponzi” scheme Forsage have been indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Oregon. The four Russian founders — Vladimir Okhotnikov, Olena Oblamska, Mikhail Sergeev, and Sergey Maslakov — have been formally accused of having key roles in the scheme which raised approximately $340 million from victim-investors, according to a Feb. 22 Department of Justice (DOJ) statement. “Today’s indictment is the result of a rigorous investigation that spent months piecing together the systematic theft of hundreds of millions of dollars,” said U.S. Attorney Natalie Wight for the District of Oregon, …