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MakerDAO Emergency Proposal: Loan Ceiling and Collateralization Ratio Parity - Defense or Power Grab?
Original Title: Out-of-Schedule Executive Proposal for Community Security
Original Authors: Three Sigma & PaperImperium
Original Translation: Shenzhen, PANews
MakerDAO recently saw an unexpected "emergency governance proposal" that, without any prior notice, swiftly entered the voting process and has since passed (but is still in the timelock phase). This proposal not only significantly raised the borrowing ceiling for the MKR token but also notably lowered the collateralization requirements, leading to widespread community concerns about governance transparency and fairness.
Key Points of the Proposal: Comprehensive Adjustment from Debt Ceiling to Collateralization Ratio
According to the forum's disclosure of the LSE-MKR-A Risk Parameter changes, the core contents of this proposal include:
• Maximum Debt Ceiling (line)
Raised from 25 million USDS to 45 million USDS
• Target Available Debt (gap)
One-time increase from 5 million USDS to 45 million USDS
• Debt Ceiling Increase Cooldown Period (ttl)
Reduced from 36 hours to 20 hours
• Stability Fee
Raised from 12% to 20%
• Liquidation Ratio
Significantly decreased from 200% to 125%
• Liquidation Penalty
Decreased from 5% to 0%
In addition, the proposal also reduces the GSM Pause Delay from the original 30 hours to 18 hours, meaning that in the future, the reaction time for contract execution at the governance level will be further shortened.
These parameter adjustments essentially allow the MKR token, when used as collateral, to receive a higher loan amount (exceeding the previous limit by 2x) and permit higher leverage (collateralization ratio reduced from 200% to 125%). At the same time, the liquidation penalty has been reduced to 0%, significantly lowering the cost of liquidation.
Official Statement: Preventative Governance Attack, Does It Really Exist?
Defensive Reasoning VS. Vague Attack Vectors
Whether it is the proposer or some official channels, they attribute the urgency of this proposal to "prevent potential governance attacks." However, including various community members like PaperImperium, no known specific ongoing attack behavior has been found. There are still many doubts within the community about whether this proposal can truly defend against the so-called 'governance attack' and whether there are deeper motivations.
Dissenters Face Bans
The most controversial aspect is that during the voting period, many users and institutions holding opposing or questioning views (such as GFX Labs) had their accounts banned or muted on official channels like Discord and forums. PaperImperium stated that their personal Discord account and GFX Labs' forum account were also subject to bans during this period, making it difficult for dissenting voices to continue to be heard on official channels.
Multiperspective: Who Benefits, Who Questions?
Short-Term Beneficiaries: High Leverage and Liquidity
• Large Holders or Institutions
With this proposal, users holding a large amount of MKR can more easily borrow more USDS from the Maker protocol, and the reduced collateralization ratio allows them to achieve higher leverage with less capital.
• High-Risk Speculators
For traders willing to take on higher risk, the lower liquidation penalty and increased leverage space undoubtedly provide more room for maneuver.
Long-Term Risk: Potential Impact on Governance and Financial Security
• Governance Centralization and Transparency
In the absence of clear evidence of attacks, bypassing regular processes and rapidly passing proposals inevitably raises questions about whether a minority interest group is exercising undue power.
• Rising Systemic Risk
Significantly reducing the liquidation ratio and increasing the debt ceiling means that the system is more susceptible to cascading reactions under high leverage during market volatility.
• Community Trust Erosion
Muting of dissenters, lack of sufficient justification for emergency measures—these will potentially undermine MakerDAO's decentralized governance reputation.
Motivations Behind the Emergency Proposal
PaperImperium points out that some MKR holders have recently been dissatisfied with MakerDAO's development direction, revenue sources, and community governance, calling for reform. Whether this proposal can be linked to these internal demands is still a key point for discussion.
• Internal Reform Demands
Against the backdrop of "sluggish growth and declining profits," some MKR holders hope to drive protocol reform to improve capital efficiency.
• Governance Factional Dispute
Different interest groups have different demands at the governance level. Using emergency proposals to rapidly advance certain changes may be a means of vying for the protocol's direction.
• External Defense or Internal Operation
The term "governance attack" is not uncommon in the DeFi community, but actual implementation often requires clear on-chain evidence. The lack of concrete evidence in this case has also raised concerns about the possibility of "internal manipulation."
Future Outlook: Whither MakerDAO?
The impact of the emergency governance proposal from MakerDAO extends far beyond the parameter adjustments themselves. The more profound significance lies in questioning the decentralized governance model. Currently, the community is particularly concerned about the following issues:
1. Improvement of Governance Process
How to ensure that future major proposals follow a more transparent, more democratic process, rather than bypassing community consensus in the name of "emergency"?
2. Information Disclosure and Oversight
Disclosure of specific details regarding "potential attacks," explanation and handling of banned users—can a reasonable explanation be provided to maintain the community's trust in governance?
3. Balancing Decentralization and Efficiency
Decentralized governance often has lower efficiency, but an overly centralized decision-making model can lead to abuse of power. How to find the optimal balance between the two will be the core challenge for MakerDAO.
Conclusion: Beware of Governance Black Box, Return to Community Consensus
An "emergency governance proposal" is like a demon-revealing mirror, showing us the most critical aspect of the DeFi ecosystem: when external or internal pressures arise, can the governance mechanism truly withstand the test? As a pioneer in the DeFi field, MakerDAO's reflection on this incident is a warning for the entire industry.
Perhaps, as critics in the community have pointed out, without a clear and transparent governance process, verifiable evidence of attacks, any "emergency" situation could become a tool of power for a few. Only by ensuring open channels of community dialogue and establishing a robust governance mechanism can MakerDAO truly embark on a path of healthy, sustainable development.
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This Week in Review | Ethereum Foundation Chairman and Executive Director Changes; SEC Settles Lawsuits with Multiple Crypto Companies
BlockBeats will summarize the key industry news of the week (2.24-3.2) in this article, and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and grasp industry trends.
This week, possibly influenced by a series of hacking incidents and Trump's tariff imposition, the crypto market saw a significant pullback, with the cryptocurrency market cap falling below $3 trillion. On February 28, Bitcoin dropped below $79,000 with a 24-hour decline of 8.64%; Ethereum dropped below $2,100, triggering a surge in liquidation across the network, mostly from long positions. The situation in the US stock market is also concerning. Early on the 28th, the combined market value of the "Big Seven" in the US stock market evaporated by about $550 billion. Among them, Nvidia fell more than 8%, shrinking its market value by over $270 billion, marking its largest single-day market value loss since January 27. Related Read: "Bitcoin Plunges 20% in 30 Days, What Are the Reasons and What Is the Future Trend?"
On February 26, Bybit officially released a midterm report on the $1.5 billion theft incident (provided by Sygnia), stating that the theft was due to a Safe infrastructure vulnerability, with no abnormalities found in Bybit's related infrastructure. On the same day, Safe posted on social media stating that the attack on Bybit was achieved by compromising Safe{Wallet} developers' devices, leading to malicious transactions disguised as legitimate trades being submitted. External security researchers found no vulnerabilities in the Safe smart contract or in the frontend and service source code. The Safe{Wallet} frontend is currently operational and has taken additional security measures. However, users need to be extra cautious and vigilant when signing transactions.
The next day, Binance founder CZ posted saying that the event report released by Safe uses vague language to cover up the issue. After reading it, there are more questions than answers, some of the questions that come to mind for now include: · What does "compromising Safe { Wallet } developer machine" mean? How did they compromise this specific machine? Was it social engineering, malware, etc.? · How did the developer machine access the "Bybit-operated account"? Was some code deployed directly from this developer machine to prod? · How did they deceive the Ledger verification step amongst multiple signers? Was it blind signing? Or did the signers fail to validate correctly? · Is the $1.4 billion the largest address managed by Safe? Why did they not target others? · What can other "self-custodial, multi-signature" wallet providers and users learn from this incident? Related Read: "Top-tier Crypto Infrastructure Safe Attacked by North Korean Hackers, How Critical Is It to Crypto?"
On February 28, according to monitoring, the Bybit hacker has currently successfully laundered 50% of the stolen ETH. In less than a week, the Bybit hacker has laundered a total of 266,309 ETH (approximately $6.14 billion), accounting for 53.3% of the 499,000 ETH stolen, averaging 48,420 ETH laundered per day, most of which was converted to BTC through THORChain. At the current rate, the remaining 233,086 ETH may be fully laundered in just 5 days. Previously, THORChain faced insolvency, with its savings and loan features being suspended, planning to address a $200 million debt crisis through the issuance of equity tokens. The Bybit hacker has brought $29.1 billion in trading volume and $3 million in fee income to THORChain. On the 28th, THORChain's four-year Chief Developer, @Pluto9r, announced his resignation.
On February 24, the stablecoin digital bank Infini platform was attacked, and the attacker 0x3ac9 has converted all funds to 17,696 ETH (approximately $49.5 million). Subsequently, Infini co-founder Christine responded in a post stating full reimbursement, with the involved engineer identified and controlled, and mentioning that the personal private key was not leaked, attributing the incident to negligence during a previous permission transfer. On the 27th, Christian posted, "Today we officially filed a case on behalf of Infini in Hong Kong. The police's efficiency is very high, and the experience is excellent; one can feel the Hong Kong government's open and inclusive attitude towards digital assets."
On February 27, Mask Network founder Suji Yan posted, "6 hours ago, I turned 29. About 3 hours ago, one of my public wallets was hacked, and $4 million in assets was stolen. All the stolen transactions seem to be manual transfers and lasted for over 11 minutes." According to monitoring on that day, the hacker who breached Suji Yan's wallet has transferred the stolen assets to 7 wallet addresses and exchanged them for a total of 1690.17 ETH. Suji Yan later posted again, stating that the stolen funds were personal assets and that professionals have been involved.
On February 26, it was reported that the SEC dropped its investigation into DeFi company Uniswap Labs. The warning was issued in the form of a Wells Notice, where the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sends this notice to a company before initiating formal litigation, providing the company with a final opportunity to rebut any charges. The specific nature of the SEC's allegations against Uniswap Labs is currently unknown.
On the 27th, SEC documents revealed that the investigation into Gemini Trust Company, LLC has concluded, with no enforcement action being taken. Gemini's co-founder, Cameron Winklevoss, confirmed on social media that the investigation lasted 699 days and they received the Wells Notice 277 days ago. Winklevoss criticized the SEC's regulatory actions for causing significant harm to the crypto industry, accusing the agency of enforcement without clear rules in place, leading to companies incurring high legal expenses and economic losses.
On the same day, it was reported that the SEC and Justin Sun, along with his three companies, filed a joint application in the Manhattan federal court requesting a stay of the case to explore potential settlement options. The SEC filed a lawsuit against Justin Sun and his companies—Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry (formerly BitTorrent)—in March 2023, alleging the sale of unregistered securities through TRX and BTT tokens. Both parties requested a 60-day stay of the case and committed to submitting a joint status report at that time.
On the 28th, according to market reports, the SEC announced the dismissal of civil enforcement action against Coinbase.
Also on the same day, sources revealed that the SEC and ConsenSys have reached a preliminary agreement to settle the SEC's lawsuit against the blockchain software company. This dismissal is subject to committee approval, and it is expected that the regulatory body on Wall Street will soon issue an announcement.
This week, the cryptocurrency fear and greed index dropped to a low of 11, shifting market sentiment from "neutral" to "extreme fear." Note: The fear index threshold ranges from 0-100 and includes indicators such as volatility (25%) + market trading volume (25%) + social media sentiment (15%) + market surveys (15%) + Bitcoin's dominance in the overall market (10%) + Google Trends analysis (10%).
On February 25, FTX founder SBF tweeted again after two years. SBF stated, "I am very sympathetic to US federal government employees, and I haven't checked my email for a few hundred days. And I can confirm, being fired is not as easy as it seems. Firing people is one of the hardest things to do in the world. It's terrible for everyone involved." Related reading: "767 Days Later, What Does SBF's Tweet Mean?"
On February 24, Binance founder CZ publicly disclosed his portfolio at Binance Square, with BNB accounting for 98.51%, BTC for 1.32%, and EURI for 0.17%. CZ stated he doesn't remember where EURI came from, speculating it might be related to the Binance Card. Related reading: "CZ Claims to Be Boring, with Only 1.3% of Holdings in BTC"
On February 25, according to Bloomberg, the traditional financial giant and NYSE's largest market maker with a market value of $65 billion, Citadel Securities, plans to enter the cryptocurrency market-making field, betting that former President Trump's support for the crypto industry will bring market prosperity. Citadel Securities plans to join the ranks of market makers on multiple exchanges, including Coinbase Global, Binance, and Crypto.com, and may initially establish a market-making team outside the US. Related reading: "As Regulations Continue to Loosen, Are US Cryptocurrency Market Makers Making a Comeback?"
On February 28, Bitcoin briefly dropped below $80,000. According to mstr-tracker data, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) currently holds a total of 499,096 BTC, with a total purchase cost of around $33.119 billion, an average purchase price of about $66,357, and the current total value of the Bitcoin holdings is $40.041 billion. The unrealized gain on the Bitcoin holding has decreased to $6.923 billion. On the same day, the company's CEO, Michael Saylor, jokingly tweeted, "If necessary, sell a kidney, but keep the Bitcoin."
On February 26, according to the Modern Express, a Chinese man was found dead in a hotel in Jeju, South Korea, believed to have been killed while trading cryptocurrency. The South Korean police have arrested 4 Chinese suspects, including two women in their 30s, a man in his 30s, and a man in his 60s. It has been confirmed that the 4 suspects fled with 85 million Korean won belonging to the victim. The motive and details of the crime are currently under investigation.
On February 26, it was reported that 21 staff members of Elon Musk-led "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) collectively resigned on February 25 local time. In their joint resignation letter, they stated their refusal to use their technical expertise to "dismantle key public services" and criticized many of Musk's recruits as "political idealists" lacking the skills or experience to perform job tasks. Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated on February 25 that recently laid-off federal employees are welcome to apply for state government positions through an online portal. Currently, DOGE is coordinating federal workforce reductions with the aim of streamlining the federal bureaucracy, but an official tally of job cuts is not yet available.
On February 26, Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyagotchi was promoted to Chair of the Ethereum Foundation. Aya Miyagotchi stated her commitment to Ethereum's values, advocating for diversity and expanding Ethereum's vision and cultural influence. She is dedicated to ensuring that Ethereum's technology and social innovation serve human values. In 2013, Aya Miyaguchi worked in operations for the Japanese region at the Kraken exchange platform. In February 2018, Aya Miyaguchi joined the Ethereum Foundation as an Executive Director, mainly responsible for coordinating and organizing the foundation's activities, including internal affairs, community collaborations such as education, and event hosting. Related Reads: "New Ethereum Foundation Chair Aya Miyaguchi: From Teacher to Crypto Vanguard", "Elegy of the Ethereum 'Leftist'"
Subsequently, on March 2, the Ethereum Foundation announced a new leadership structure, with Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak set to serve as Co-Executive Directors starting March 17. This marks a new chapter in the Foundation's development, continuing to support the growing Ethereum ecosystem.
Regarding this week's Foundation personnel changes, Ethereum core developer timbeiko.eth posted, "The past few months have been eventful to say the least. Despite the obvious, Ethereum still has a lot of changes to make to succeed. Handled correctly, it could become one of the most impactful turning points in history. Ethereum's culture is unique and is a result of both top-down and bottom-up influences. With Aya Miyaguchi as the EF Board Chair and the establishment of formal and informal advisory circles, Ethereum, I believe, can both stay true to its OG values and remain attractive to new forces."
On February 24, it was reported that YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) has invested in the crypto artificial intelligence startup Vana, with Binance founder CZ joining as an advisor. The specific investment amount has not been disclosed. Vana is YZi Labs' first AI investment since its renaming last month. Prior to the renaming, Binance Labs had supported several crypto AI projects, including Sahara AI and MyShell. A YZi Labs spokesperson stated that the focus has now expanded from Web3 to encompass a wide range of areas, including artificial intelligence and biotechnology. The Labs will continue exploring opportunities at the intersection of various fields but are also open to investing in standalone AI and biotech projects to "capture the full spectrum of innovation."
On February 25, according to Guangzhou Daily, a Guangdong court recently concluded a virtual currency fraud case. The case revealed that in May 2018, a certain individual promoted "AA Coin" through an online platform, claiming it had appreciation potential and promising investors that it would be listed for trading on an exchange with expected returns of no less than 5 million RMB. An investor subsequently invested 990,000 RMB to purchase over 1.6 million AA Coins, but these tokens remained locked and unavailable for trading. The court found the defendant, for the purpose of illegal possession, fabricated facts to defraud others of their property, with a particularly large amount involved. The defendant was ultimately sentenced to 11 years in prison for fraud and fined 50,000 RMB. The judgment is final.
On February 24, according to a related page, pump.fun is internally testing the swap feature. The community speculates that it may launch its own Swap platform to replace Raydium, causing a significant drop in the price of the RAY token. InfraRAY, a core contributor to Raydium, posted that completely abandoning Raydium for this highly popular and profitable meme factory would be a "strategic misjudgment." He expressed doubt about whether Pump.Fun building its own trading facility to replace Raydium could succeed. The market believes that Pump.fun is no longer satisfied with being a "liquidity provider" for Raydium but is trying to become the "controller" of liquidity. Over 30% of Raydium's daily trading volume comes from Pump.Fun tokens. If the latter switches to its own AMM, its fee income will be significantly reduced. Related reads: "Pump.fun self-built AMM, can Raydium still dominate meme liquidity pools?", "Data analysis: How much does Raydium rely on pump.fun?"
On February 25, renowned rapper Kanye announced his temporary exit from Twitter, stating, "I'm temporarily out of Twitter. They just deleted my last tweet. Jordan left the NBA." Kanye had stated last week that he planned to launch the YEEZY meme token this week. According to crypto KOL @lokithebird's analysis, Kanye may have transferred (or escrowed) his X account to BarkMeta Doginals for $17 million. Kanye later denied ever transferring (or escrowing) his X account. Related read: "Singer Kanye's coin release mystery: X account suspected sale, another carefully orchestrated 'harvest'?"
"Bitcoin drops 20% in 30 days, what are the reasons and how will it trend later?"
Bitcoin has recently been impacted by a series of hacking incidents, causing a sharp decline in market sentiment and a continuous rise in the total amount of liquidated positions across the network. The cryptocurrency fear index has hit a new low, with market sentiment shifting to extreme fear. Analysis indicates that reasons for the Bitcoin price drop include the IBIT fund liquidation, unfulfilled Bitcoin strategic reserve plan by Trump, and policy uncertainty from the U.S. government. Additionally, market liquidity is constrained, leading to a drop in U.S. stock-related crypto stocks, further exacerbating market unease. Nevertheless, some analysts believe that the current situation is still in the midst of a bull market, and a new high may be reached after a short-term setback.
"Ethereum's 'Leftist' Lament"
This week, former Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation Aya Miyaguchi was promoted to Chair. However, both Vitalik and Aya are facing significant pressure from the community. Aya is seen as an inactive executive, despite her contributions to initiatives like ETH Devcon and global community development. Furthermore, Ethereum's core values always emphasized decentralization and social value, but as the market leans more to the right, more voices are questioning Ethereum's non-profit model, and even calling for a more capitalistic strategy. Community sentiment continues to fluctuate, with increasingly apparent conflicts in values between leadership and members.
"767 Days Later, What Does SBF's Tweet Mean?"
SBF, still in prison, tweeted this week discussing the difficulty of firing employees, stating that this is usually a management issue rather than the fault of the employees themselves. He emphasized that if employees cannot add value to the company, retaining them will only waste resources. At the same time, SBF shifted his political stance, openly supporting Trump, stating that disappointment with the Biden administration prompted him to align with the Republican Party. The Trump administration's "Government Efficiency Department" also carried out massive layoffs to drive cost reductions. SBF's comments align with the Trump administration's policies, particularly regarding layoffs and restructuring.
"Is Wall Street's Largest Market Maker, Citadel Securities, Shorting ETH?"
Recent rumors suggest that Citadel Securities may be one of the institutions holding a $3.1 billion Ethereum short position. As one of the world's largest market makers, Citadel recently entered the crypto market, attracting external attention. As early as 2021, Citadel quietly entered the crypto asset space through partnerships with Sequoia Capital and Paradigm. Its market-making business aligns with the crypto market, making it a significant market player. Citadel's trading strategies and shorting operations have already shown influence in the stock market and have similarly affected ETH's price movements. Therefore, while their shorting behavior is part of risk hedging, they are also considered one of the new "whales" in the crypto market.
"Regulation Continues to Loosen: Are U.S. Crypto Market Makers Coming Back?"
Two major traditional market makers — Citadel Securities and Wintermute — are planning to enter the U.S. crypto market, bringing new vitality to the market. Citadel plans to expand its cryptocurrency market-making business, betting on the policy support of the Trump administration, while Wintermute is preparing to expand its OTC and derivatives business in the U.S. With the gradual relaxation of U.S. regulatory policies, institutional confidence is growing, expected to boost market liquidity and trading activity. However, regulatory and competitive pressures remain challenges, especially the market centralization risk that traditional financial giants may bring, potentially shifting the crypto market from "decentralization" to "centralization."
"How Did This Round's Whales Unload? Check Out the Pits You Fell Into."
The current market correction period has seen a sharp drop in many altcoins, with some project teams manipulating the market through carefully designed unloading methods, such as using one-sided liquidity pools, false buybacks, and spot market control to manipulate coin prices, attract retail investors, and sell at high points. In addition, some project teams attract users to lock up their assets through high-interest staking, providing cover for their own cash-outs. Retail investors should have the ability to think independently in the market, avoid being guided by whale operations, stay calm, and prevent themselves from being harvested.
"SEND Surges Over 500% in 24 Hours, Can Meme New Lottery Site Super.exchange Save the Bear Market?"
Super.exchange is a decentralized asset issuance platform based on the Solana ecosystem, aiming to address issues such as insider trading and excessive price volatility in the traditional meme market. Its innovative Super Curve mechanism optimizes the price discovery process of tokens, avoiding liquidity issues that traditional Bonding Curves may cause, and ensuring the market's continuous growth. The platform also introduces ticker uniqueness and the community-driven $SUPER platform token, enhancing trading transparency and fairness. However, how to build community consensus without short-term stimulation is still a significant challenge that Super.exchange faces.
"Decoding Binance Launchpool Project RedStone: The Dark Horse of the Oracle Track Combining Utility and Innovation"
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"Safe, the Top-Level Infrastructure in the Crypto Hack Attacked by North Korean Hackers: How Important Is Security in Crypto?"
The recent $1.5 billion Bybit and Safe hack has drawn widespread attention, with the hackers executing an almost perfect scheme and leaving no traces to date. Investigations revealed that there were no issues with Safe's front-end code, but the code in the production environment was tampered with, possibly by a long-trusted developer or team member. This incident has exposed vulnerabilities in multi-signature wallet security, especially the significance of Safe in the Ethereum ecosystem, impacting the security of numerous projects and institutions. The event triggered panic in the crypto space, with many starting to doubt the security of multi-signature wallets, even speculating that this could be a signal of the current bull market's end.
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In the current market environment, stablecoin yield opportunities have gradually become an effective way to address challenges and achieve growth. Various platforms offer different yield products, such as Hyperliquid's HLP Treasury (with an annualized yield of 18.61%), Sky Money's Bonus Treasury (8.52%), and the Ethereal platform's points activity (expected annualized yield of 15%-20%). Additionally, the AO project offers approximately 14.37% annualized yield, while Berachain's USDC.e/HONEY liquidity pool provides a 13.79% yield. Sonic platform's airdrop mining activity has also created unique opportunities. Although these opportunities have their own characteristics, risks and rewards need to be carefully evaluated.
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《Pump.fun Reveals Its Hand? Self-built AMM Pool Breaks Free from Raydium's Restraint》
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"Vanishing Liquidity: Analyzing the Multi-Factor Drop in the Crypto Market"
This article analyzes the recent crypto market downturn, citing complex reasons such as the Bybit hack, Ethereum's weakness, stock market volatility resurgence, among other factors. Particularly in the context of decreasing liquidity, the crypto market has lost some momentum. Despite the market correction, this does not signify the arrival of a long-term bear market; technical pullbacks are healthy, and the crypto market still requires liquidity to thrive.
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"Dragonfly Talks About Recent Hot Topics: Meme Cycle Ending, Market Transition Ahead"
This issue's discussion mainly focuses on various hot topics in the crypto industry, including Bybit's encounter with a hacker attack, the Libra Meme coin trading scandal supported by the President of Argentina, and Kanye West's Yeezy token, among others. The downturn in market sentiment may deter some, with Yeezy potentially being the final celebrity coin. Nevertheless, some industry players remain focused on infrastructure and application development, paying little attention to short-term market fluctuations. A guest also expressed hope for more favorable policies to protect benign participants like Coinbase from unnecessary attacks, allowing more resources to combat real illegal activities.
"CZ Claims to Be a Boring Person, Holding Only 1.3% BTC in Portfolio"
Changpeng Zhao (CZ) disclosed his cryptocurrency investment portfolio on the Binance platform for the first time in response to community requests, revealing that his largest holding is the platform's token BNB, accounting for 98.51%, followed by Bitcoin at only 1.32%, and a small amount of EURI. CZ mentioned that he is not a frequent trader and holding BNB and Bitcoin is no different for him. It's worth noting that this is only his holdings on Binance, which may not represent all his assets. Additionally, his primary asset is the held BNB, with estimates suggesting his holdings may be as high as 94 million coins.
"Niche Players Rejoice, Hyperliquid NFT Defies the Odds with a Price Surge?"
The NFT market is gradually moving away from traditional valuation standards. Many projects are combining NFTs with upcoming coin launches, using NFTs to hype up the ecosystem or directly sell token allocations. The NFT trading market on Hyperliquid is slowly gaining traction. Although not fully matured yet, there have been some notable transactions and projects. Projects like Wealthy Hypio Babies and K-16 have shown outstanding performance, attracting many players to participate. At the same time, new projects in the market continue to emerge, such as Hypers and PiP. Despite the overall market uncertainty, players still need to carefully assess the value of community and partnership relationships in NFT minting and trading.
"Review of 'Celebrity Coins' Harvest Records: 15 Tokens in 60 Days, with Almost All Prices Plummeting Over 90%"
TRUMP Coin, launched by Donald Trump, saw its market value surpass $20 billion in just a few hours, attracting a large number of crypto investors. However, this celebrity-effect-driven crypto frenzy quickly turned into a bubble. In just over a month, TRUMP Coin's market value plummeted by over 80%, and other celebrity-backed coins like Melania Coin, Argentine President Coin, etc., also quickly collapsed. The rapid rise and fall of such tokens exposed the fragility of the crypto market and the risk of over-relying on celebrity effects. While they once attracted a lot of attention, the ultimate result was not only massive losses but also raised questions about the decentralization concept.
"Amidst a Sluggish Market, Why is MKR Still Surging Against the Trend?"
In this article, the author points out that $MKR (now $SKY) is expected to perform well in the first and second quarters of 2025, mainly due to a $30 million monthly buyback plan, the near all-time high supply of DAI/USDS, and growth momentum from the upcoming SPK farming launch. Despite the rebrand not being favored by the market, its fundamentals are strong. Coupled with the potential benefits of the U.S. Stablecoin Act, the outlook for the next few months is positive.
"With Regulatory Easing, Is the Crypto Spring Coming to the U.S. Market?"
Recently, there has been a positive shift in the United States' regulatory stance towards the cryptocurrency industry. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the closure of its three-year investigation into Uniswap Labs without taking any enforcement action. At the same time, traditional financial giants such as Citadel Securities and Wintermute are also planning to enter the U.S. crypto market. Additionally, Tornado Cash's founder, Alexey Pertsev, was temporarily released after a Dutch court ruled that his case did not fall under existing laws. These events indicate that U.S. regulatory policy may be gradually loosening to promote the development of the cryptocurrency industry, especially in the field of Decentralized Finance (DeFi).
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This Week in Review | Ethereum Foundation Chairman and Executive Director Changes; SEC Settles Lawsuits with Multiple Crypto Companies
BlockBeats will summarize the key industry news of the week (2.24-3.2) in this article, and recommend in-depth articles to help readers better understand the market and grasp industry trends.
This week, possibly influenced by a series of hacking incidents and Trump's tariff imposition, the crypto market saw a significant pullback, with the cryptocurrency market cap falling below $3 trillion. On February 28, Bitcoin dropped below $79,000 with a 24-hour decline of 8.64%; Ethereum dropped below $2,100, triggering a surge in liquidation across the network, mostly from long positions. The situation in the US stock market is also concerning. Early on the 28th, the combined market value of the "Big Seven" in the US stock market evaporated by about $550 billion. Among them, Nvidia fell more than 8%, shrinking its market value by over $270 billion, marking its largest single-day market value loss since January 27. Related Read: "Bitcoin Plunges 20% in 30 Days, What Are the Reasons and What Is the Future Trend?"
On February 26, Bybit officially released a midterm report on the $1.5 billion theft incident (provided by Sygnia), stating that the theft was due to a Safe infrastructure vulnerability, with no abnormalities found in Bybit's related infrastructure. On the same day, Safe posted on social media stating that the attack on Bybit was achieved by compromising Safe{Wallet} developers' devices, leading to malicious transactions disguised as legitimate trades being submitted. External security researchers found no vulnerabilities in the Safe smart contract or in the frontend and service source code. The Safe{Wallet} frontend is currently operational and has taken additional security measures. However, users need to be extra cautious and vigilant when signing transactions.
The next day, Binance founder CZ posted saying that the event report released by Safe uses vague language to cover up the issue. After reading it, there are more questions than answers, some of the questions that come to mind for now include: · What does "compromising Safe { Wallet } developer machine" mean? How did they compromise this specific machine? Was it social engineering, malware, etc.? · How did the developer machine access the "Bybit-operated account"? Was some code deployed directly from this developer machine to prod? · How did they deceive the Ledger verification step amongst multiple signers? Was it blind signing? Or did the signers fail to validate correctly? · Is the $1.4 billion the largest address managed by Safe? Why did they not target others? · What can other "self-custodial, multi-signature" wallet providers and users learn from this incident? Related Read: "Top-tier Crypto Infrastructure Safe Attacked by North Korean Hackers, How Critical Is It to Crypto?"
On February 28, according to monitoring, the Bybit hacker has currently successfully laundered 50% of the stolen ETH. In less than a week, the Bybit hacker has laundered a total of 266,309 ETH (approximately $6.14 billion), accounting for 53.3% of the 499,000 ETH stolen, averaging 48,420 ETH laundered per day, most of which was converted to BTC through THORChain. At the current rate, the remaining 233,086 ETH may be fully laundered in just 5 days. Previously, THORChain faced insolvency, with its savings and loan features being suspended, planning to address a $200 million debt crisis through the issuance of equity tokens. The Bybit hacker has brought $29.1 billion in trading volume and $3 million in fee income to THORChain. On the 28th, THORChain's four-year Chief Developer, @Pluto9r, announced his resignation.
On February 24, the stablecoin digital bank Infini platform was attacked, and the attacker 0x3ac9 has converted all funds to 17,696 ETH (approximately $49.5 million). Subsequently, Infini co-founder Christine responded in a post stating full reimbursement, with the involved engineer identified and controlled, and mentioning that the personal private key was not leaked, attributing the incident to negligence during a previous permission transfer. On the 27th, Christian posted, "Today we officially filed a case on behalf of Infini in Hong Kong. The police's efficiency is very high, and the experience is excellent; one can feel the Hong Kong government's open and inclusive attitude towards digital assets."
On February 27, Mask Network founder Suji Yan posted, "6 hours ago, I turned 29. About 3 hours ago, one of my public wallets was hacked, and $4 million in assets was stolen. All the stolen transactions seem to be manual transfers and lasted for over 11 minutes." According to monitoring on that day, the hacker who breached Suji Yan's wallet has transferred the stolen assets to 7 wallet addresses and exchanged them for a total of 1690.17 ETH. Suji Yan later posted again, stating that the stolen funds were personal assets and that professionals have been involved.
On February 26, it was reported that the SEC dropped its investigation into DeFi company Uniswap Labs. The warning was issued in the form of a Wells Notice, where the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sends this notice to a company before initiating formal litigation, providing the company with a final opportunity to rebut any charges. The specific nature of the SEC's allegations against Uniswap Labs is currently unknown.
On the 27th, SEC documents revealed that the investigation into Gemini Trust Company, LLC has concluded, with no enforcement action being taken. Gemini's co-founder, Cameron Winklevoss, confirmed on social media that the investigation lasted 699 days and they received the Wells Notice 277 days ago. Winklevoss criticized the SEC's regulatory actions for causing significant harm to the crypto industry, accusing the agency of enforcement without clear rules in place, leading to companies incurring high legal expenses and economic losses.
On the same day, it was reported that the SEC and Justin Sun, along with his three companies, filed a joint application in the Manhattan federal court requesting a stay of the case to explore potential settlement options. The SEC filed a lawsuit against Justin Sun and his companies—Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry (formerly BitTorrent)—in March 2023, alleging the sale of unregistered securities through TRX and BTT tokens. Both parties requested a 60-day stay of the case and committed to submitting a joint status report at that time.
On the 28th, according to market reports, the SEC announced the dismissal of civil enforcement action against Coinbase.
Also on the same day, sources revealed that the SEC and ConsenSys have reached a preliminary agreement to settle the SEC's lawsuit against the blockchain software company. This dismissal is subject to committee approval, and it is expected that the regulatory body on Wall Street will soon issue an announcement.
This week, the cryptocurrency fear and greed index dropped to a low of 11, shifting market sentiment from "neutral" to "extreme fear." Note: The fear index threshold ranges from 0-100 and includes indicators such as volatility (25%) + market trading volume (25%) + social media sentiment (15%) + market surveys (15%) + Bitcoin's dominance in the overall market (10%) + Google Trends analysis (10%).
On February 25, FTX founder SBF tweeted again after two years. SBF stated, "I am very sympathetic to US federal government employees, and I haven't checked my email for a few hundred days. And I can confirm, being fired is not as easy as it seems. Firing people is one of the hardest things to do in the world. It's terrible for everyone involved." Related reading: "767 Days Later, What Does SBF's Tweet Mean?"
On February 24, Binance founder CZ publicly disclosed his portfolio at Binance Square, with BNB accounting for 98.51%, BTC for 1.32%, and EURI for 0.17%. CZ stated he doesn't remember where EURI came from, speculating it might be related to the Binance Card. Related reading: "CZ Claims to Be Boring, with Only 1.3% of Holdings in BTC"
On February 25, according to Bloomberg, the traditional financial giant and NYSE's largest market maker with a market value of $65 billion, Citadel Securities, plans to enter the cryptocurrency market-making field, betting that former President Trump's support for the crypto industry will bring market prosperity. Citadel Securities plans to join the ranks of market makers on multiple exchanges, including Coinbase Global, Binance, and Crypto.com, and may initially establish a market-making team outside the US. Related reading: "As Regulations Continue to Loosen, Are US Cryptocurrency Market Makers Making a Comeback?"
On February 28, Bitcoin briefly dropped below $80,000. According to mstr-tracker data, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) currently holds a total of 499,096 BTC, with a total purchase cost of around $33.119 billion, an average purchase price of about $66,357, and the current total value of the Bitcoin holdings is $40.041 billion. The unrealized gain on the Bitcoin holding has decreased to $6.923 billion. On the same day, the company's CEO, Michael Saylor, jokingly tweeted, "If necessary, sell a kidney, but keep the Bitcoin."
On February 26, according to the Modern Express, a Chinese man was found dead in a hotel in Jeju, South Korea, believed to have been killed while trading cryptocurrency. The South Korean police have arrested 4 Chinese suspects, including two women in their 30s, a man in his 30s, and a man in his 60s. It has been confirmed that the 4 suspects fled with 85 million Korean won belonging to the victim. The motive and details of the crime are currently under investigation.
On February 26, it was reported that 21 staff members of Elon Musk-led "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) collectively resigned on February 25 local time. In their joint resignation letter, they stated their refusal to use their technical expertise to "dismantle key public services" and criticized many of Musk's recruits as "political idealists" lacking the skills or experience to perform job tasks. Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated on February 25 that recently laid-off federal employees are welcome to apply for state government positions through an online portal. Currently, DOGE is coordinating federal workforce reductions with the aim of streamlining the federal bureaucracy, but an official tally of job cuts is not yet available.
On February 26, Ethereum Foundation Executive Director Aya Miyagotchi was promoted to Chair of the Ethereum Foundation. Aya Miyagotchi stated her commitment to Ethereum's values, advocating for diversity and expanding Ethereum's vision and cultural influence. She is dedicated to ensuring that Ethereum's technology and social innovation serve human values. In 2013, Aya Miyaguchi worked in operations for the Japanese region at the Kraken exchange platform. In February 2018, Aya Miyaguchi joined the Ethereum Foundation as an Executive Director, mainly responsible for coordinating and organizing the foundation's activities, including internal affairs, community collaborations such as education, and event hosting. Related Reads: "New Ethereum Foundation Chair Aya Miyaguchi: From Teacher to Crypto Vanguard", "Elegy of the Ethereum 'Leftist'"
Subsequently, on March 2, the Ethereum Foundation announced a new leadership structure, with Hsiao-Wei Wang and Tomasz Stańczak set to serve as Co-Executive Directors starting March 17. This marks a new chapter in the Foundation's development, continuing to support the growing Ethereum ecosystem.
Regarding this week's Foundation personnel changes, Ethereum core developer timbeiko.eth posted, "The past few months have been eventful to say the least. Despite the obvious, Ethereum still has a lot of changes to make to succeed. Handled correctly, it could become one of the most impactful turning points in history. Ethereum's culture is unique and is a result of both top-down and bottom-up influences. With Aya Miyaguchi as the EF Board Chair and the establishment of formal and informal advisory circles, Ethereum, I believe, can both stay true to its OG values and remain attractive to new forces."
On February 24, it was reported that YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) has invested in the crypto artificial intelligence startup Vana, with Binance founder CZ joining as an advisor. The specific investment amount has not been disclosed. Vana is YZi Labs' first AI investment since its renaming last month. Prior to the renaming, Binance Labs had supported several crypto AI projects, including Sahara AI and MyShell. A YZi Labs spokesperson stated that the focus has now expanded from Web3 to encompass a wide range of areas, including artificial intelligence and biotechnology. The Labs will continue exploring opportunities at the intersection of various fields but are also open to investing in standalone AI and biotech projects to "capture the full spectrum of innovation."
On February 25, according to Guangzhou Daily, a Guangdong court recently concluded a virtual currency fraud case. The case revealed that in May 2018, a certain individual promoted "AA Coin" through an online platform, claiming it had appreciation potential and promising investors that it would be listed for trading on an exchange with expected returns of no less than 5 million RMB. An investor subsequently invested 990,000 RMB to purchase over 1.6 million AA Coins, but these tokens remained locked and unavailable for trading. The court found the defendant, for the purpose of illegal possession, fabricated facts to defraud others of their property, with a particularly large amount involved. The defendant was ultimately sentenced to 11 years in prison for fraud and fined 50,000 RMB. The judgment is final.
On February 24, according to a related page, pump.fun is internally testing the swap feature. The community speculates that it may launch its own Swap platform to replace Raydium, causing a significant drop in the price of the RAY token. InfraRAY, a core contributor to Raydium, posted that completely abandoning Raydium for this highly popular and profitable meme factory would be a "strategic misjudgment." He expressed doubt about whether Pump.Fun building its own trading facility to replace Raydium could succeed. The market believes that Pump.fun is no longer satisfied with being a "liquidity provider" for Raydium but is trying to become the "controller" of liquidity. Over 30% of Raydium's daily trading volume comes from Pump.Fun tokens. If the latter switches to its own AMM, its fee income will be significantly reduced. Related reads: "Pump.fun self-built AMM, can Raydium still dominate meme liquidity pools?", "Data analysis: How much does Raydium rely on pump.fun?"
On February 25, renowned rapper Kanye announced his temporary exit from Twitter, stating, "I'm temporarily out of Twitter. They just deleted my last tweet. Jordan left the NBA." Kanye had stated last week that he planned to launch the YEEZY meme token this week. According to crypto KOL @lokithebird's analysis, Kanye may have transferred (or escrowed) his X account to BarkMeta Doginals for $17 million. Kanye later denied ever transferring (or escrowing) his X account. Related read: "Singer Kanye's coin release mystery: X account suspected sale, another carefully orchestrated 'harvest'?"
"Bitcoin drops 20% in 30 days, what are the reasons and how will it trend later?"
Bitcoin has recently been impacted by a series of hacking incidents, causing a sharp decline in market sentiment and a continuous rise in the total amount of liquidated positions across the network. The cryptocurrency fear index has hit a new low, with market sentiment shifting to extreme fear. Analysis indicates that reasons for the Bitcoin price drop include the IBIT fund liquidation, unfulfilled Bitcoin strategic reserve plan by Trump, and policy uncertainty from the U.S. government. Additionally, market liquidity is constrained, leading to a drop in U.S. stock-related crypto stocks, further exacerbating market unease. Nevertheless, some analysts believe that the current situation is still in the midst of a bull market, and a new high may be reached after a short-term setback.
"Ethereum's 'Leftist' Lament"
This week, former Executive Director of the Ethereum Foundation Aya Miyaguchi was promoted to Chair. However, both Vitalik and Aya are facing significant pressure from the community. Aya is seen as an inactive executive, despite her contributions to initiatives like ETH Devcon and global community development. Furthermore, Ethereum's core values always emphasized decentralization and social value, but as the market leans more to the right, more voices are questioning Ethereum's non-profit model, and even calling for a more capitalistic strategy. Community sentiment continues to fluctuate, with increasingly apparent conflicts in values between leadership and members.
"767 Days Later, What Does SBF's Tweet Mean?"
SBF, still in prison, tweeted this week discussing the difficulty of firing employees, stating that this is usually a management issue rather than the fault of the employees themselves. He emphasized that if employees cannot add value to the company, retaining them will only waste resources. At the same time, SBF shifted his political stance, openly supporting Trump, stating that disappointment with the Biden administration prompted him to align with the Republican Party. The Trump administration's "Government Efficiency Department" also carried out massive layoffs to drive cost reductions. SBF's comments align with the Trump administration's policies, particularly regarding layoffs and restructuring.
"Is Wall Street's Largest Market Maker, Citadel Securities, Shorting ETH?"
Recent rumors suggest that Citadel Securities may be one of the institutions holding a $3.1 billion Ethereum short position. As one of the world's largest market makers, Citadel recently entered the crypto market, attracting external attention. As early as 2021, Citadel quietly entered the crypto asset space through partnerships with Sequoia Capital and Paradigm. Its market-making business aligns with the crypto market, making it a significant market player. Citadel's trading strategies and shorting operations have already shown influence in the stock market and have similarly affected ETH's price movements. Therefore, while their shorting behavior is part of risk hedging, they are also considered one of the new "whales" in the crypto market.
"Regulation Continues to Loosen: Are U.S. Crypto Market Makers Coming Back?"
Two major traditional market makers — Citadel Securities and Wintermute — are planning to enter the U.S. crypto market, bringing new vitality to the market. Citadel plans to expand its cryptocurrency market-making business, betting on the policy support of the Trump administration, while Wintermute is preparing to expand its OTC and derivatives business in the U.S. With the gradual relaxation of U.S. regulatory policies, institutional confidence is growing, expected to boost market liquidity and trading activity. However, regulatory and competitive pressures remain challenges, especially the market centralization risk that traditional financial giants may bring, potentially shifting the crypto market from "decentralization" to "centralization."
"How Did This Round's Whales Unload? Check Out the Pits You Fell Into."
The current market correction period has seen a sharp drop in many altcoins, with some project teams manipulating the market through carefully designed unloading methods, such as using one-sided liquidity pools, false buybacks, and spot market control to manipulate coin prices, attract retail investors, and sell at high points. In addition, some project teams attract users to lock up their assets through high-interest staking, providing cover for their own cash-outs. Retail investors should have the ability to think independently in the market, avoid being guided by whale operations, stay calm, and prevent themselves from being harvested.
"SEND Surges Over 500% in 24 Hours, Can Meme New Lottery Site Super.exchange Save the Bear Market?"
Super.exchange is a decentralized asset issuance platform based on the Solana ecosystem, aiming to address issues such as insider trading and excessive price volatility in the traditional meme market. Its innovative Super Curve mechanism optimizes the price discovery process of tokens, avoiding liquidity issues that traditional Bonding Curves may cause, and ensuring the market's continuous growth. The platform also introduces ticker uniqueness and the community-driven $SUPER platform token, enhancing trading transparency and fairness. However, how to build community consensus without short-term stimulation is still a significant challenge that Super.exchange faces.
"Decoding Binance Launchpool Project RedStone: The Dark Horse of the Oracle Track Combining Utility and Innovation"
This week, Binance Launchpool launched the 64th project, RedStone (RED). RedStone is a multi-chain oracle across EVM and non-EVM chains, and has seen rapid growth in the market due to its modular architecture and highly optimized validation mechanism. Compared to traditional oracles, RedStone has enhanced security, scalability, and low latency through the EigenLayer AVS framework, maintaining high stability and accuracy in the market's fluctuations. RedStone's token, RED, will serve as a utility token for staking and participating in DeFi protocols, with an initial circulating supply of 28% and a focus on community growth. The expected price of the RED token is around $2, with the potential for higher valuations in the future.
"Safe, the Top-Level Infrastructure in the Crypto Hack Attacked by North Korean Hackers: How Important Is Security in Crypto?"
The recent $1.5 billion Bybit and Safe hack has drawn widespread attention, with the hackers executing an almost perfect scheme and leaving no traces to date. Investigations revealed that there were no issues with Safe's front-end code, but the code in the production environment was tampered with, possibly by a long-trusted developer or team member. This incident has exposed vulnerabilities in multi-signature wallet security, especially the significance of Safe in the Ethereum ecosystem, impacting the security of numerous projects and institutions. The event triggered panic in the crypto space, with many starting to doubt the security of multi-signature wallets, even speculating that this could be a signal of the current bull market's end.
"Waterfall Washing, Which Stablecoin Yield Pools Are Safe Havens Now?"
In the current market environment, stablecoin yield opportunities have gradually become an effective way to address challenges and achieve growth. Various platforms offer different yield products, such as Hyperliquid's HLP Treasury (with an annualized yield of 18.61%), Sky Money's Bonus Treasury (8.52%), and the Ethereal platform's points activity (expected annualized yield of 15%-20%). Additionally, the AO project offers approximately 14.37% annualized yield, while Berachain's USDC.e/HONEY liquidity pool provides a 13.79% yield. Sonic platform's airdrop mining activity has also created unique opportunities. Although these opportunities have their own characteristics, risks and rewards need to be carefully evaluated.
《Average Return Rate Reaches 400%: Do You Know These Three High-Yield Crypto IDO Platforms?》
IDO (Initial Decentralized Exchange Offering), as a new type of fundraising method, has become an important bridge between project teams and the crypto community. The three major platforms, Echo, Legion, and Buidlpad, each represent different IDO models: Echo focuses on elite recommendations and community-driven initiatives, Legion innovatively introduces a reputation scoring system, and Buidlpad emphasizes compliance and openness. Through different mechanisms, they provide funding support for project teams and offer participation opportunities to ordinary users, advancing the decentralization of crypto fundraising. This also helps project teams find a balance between community and compliance.
《Pump.fun Reveals Its Hand? Self-built AMM Pool Breaks Free from Raydium's Restraint》
Pump.fun has launched a self-built AMM pool, attempting to challenge Raydium's dominant position in the Solana ecosystem. Previously, Pump.fun earned trading fees by providing traffic to Raydium, but with a self-built AMM pool, Pump.fun can control liquidity and redirect trading fee revenue to its own platform. If successful, this strategy could weaken Raydium's revenue and market position, while driving Pump.fun to build its own DeFi ecosystem. This move triggered a sell-off of the Raydium token $RAY in the market, while Pump.fun's test token price surged, demonstrating the potential of its strategy.
《Trump's Son at ETHDenver Roundtable: My Kids Are Playing Meme, Newbies Should Avoid Overleveraging Small Investments》
On February 26, Donald Trump Jr., Co-founder of World Liberty Finance, attended the "DeFi World 2025" conference at ETH Denver and engaged in a roundtable discussion with heavyweight guests from the crypto industry. They discussed crypto regulatory policies, the future of DeFi, and the role the U.S. plays in this landscape. He advocated for the U.S. to lead the financial future by enacting reasonable regulations to promote the development of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Through projects like WLFI, he mentioned that the integration of traditional finance and DeFi can promote financial democratization and provide opportunities for more people. Additionally, he encouraged newcomers to start with small investments, gradually understand how the crypto space operates, and avoid overleveraging. He expressed confidence in the potential and future of crypto technology, believing it can bring revolutionary changes to the global financial system.
"Meme Era Ends, DeFi Resurgence: Which Upcoming TGE Projects Are Worth Keeping an Eye On?"
By 2025, the DeFi space may see a wave of TGEs. While the current TVL has not yet surpassed the 2021 peak, transaction volumes are hitting new highs, reflecting strong interest from both capital and users. Several high-quality pre-TGE projects are worth noting, including Infinex (DeFi trading platform), Babylon (Bitcoin staking protocol), Lombard (DeFi lending platform), among others, showcasing outstanding innovation and team strength. As DeFi gradually returns to its fundamentals, these projects may become key market participants in the future.
"Gambling + AI: Understanding 'GambleFAI' in One Article"
This article outlines the development of GambleFi, which emerged in 2023, saw marginalization in 2024 amid market shifts and the rise of meme coins. As we enter 2025, GambleFAI has emerged, combining the advantages of decentralized gambling and AI technology. With the advancement of AI in Large Language Models (LLMs) and machine learning, GambleFAI allows players to make more accurate predictions, significantly improving their chances of winning. AI agents are driving industry innovation, enhancing prediction accuracy, and offering players greater potential returns, marking a technological leap in the gambling sector.
"Vanishing Liquidity: Analyzing the Multi-Factor Drop in the Crypto Market"
This article analyzes the recent crypto market downturn, citing complex reasons such as the Bybit hack, Ethereum's weakness, stock market volatility resurgence, among other factors. Particularly in the context of decreasing liquidity, the crypto market has lost some momentum. Despite the market correction, this does not signify the arrival of a long-term bear market; technical pullbacks are healthy, and the crypto market still requires liquidity to thrive.
"Ethereum Core Developers Explain: Why a Rollback in Ethereum's Current State is Impractical?"
Ethereum cannot rollback to reverse a hacker attack, as the current Ethereum ecosystem is significantly different from historical incidents like Bitcoin and TheDAO. The fund transfer in the hacker attack did not violate protocol rules, and the funds were quickly utilized, making it impossible to fix through a rollback as done in the past. Furthermore, Ethereum's decentralized applications and cross-chain bridges are highly interconnected, making any rollback attempt potentially trigger uncontrollable chain reactions. Even if technically feasible, a rollback would bring significant social controversy and unforeseeable consequences, rendering it impractical.
"The Ultimate Sonic Handbook: How to Seize the DeFi Flywheel Opportunity?"
This article introduces Sonic's background, Tokenomics design, and the operation of the DeFi flywheel, analyzes potential risks in the ecosystem, and explains in detail how to profit from this mechanism. Through screening multiple projects in the Sonic ecosystem, the author recommends opportunities in areas such as DEX, lending, derivatives, and meme, aiming to help readers seize high-potential projects.
"Dragonfly Talks About Recent Hot Topics: Meme Cycle Ending, Market Transition Ahead"
This issue's discussion mainly focuses on various hot topics in the crypto industry, including Bybit's encounter with a hacker attack, the Libra Meme coin trading scandal supported by the President of Argentina, and Kanye West's Yeezy token, among others. The downturn in market sentiment may deter some, with Yeezy potentially being the final celebrity coin. Nevertheless, some industry players remain focused on infrastructure and application development, paying little attention to short-term market fluctuations. A guest also expressed hope for more favorable policies to protect benign participants like Coinbase from unnecessary attacks, allowing more resources to combat real illegal activities.
"CZ Claims to Be a Boring Person, Holding Only 1.3% BTC in Portfolio"
Changpeng Zhao (CZ) disclosed his cryptocurrency investment portfolio on the Binance platform for the first time in response to community requests, revealing that his largest holding is the platform's token BNB, accounting for 98.51%, followed by Bitcoin at only 1.32%, and a small amount of EURI. CZ mentioned that he is not a frequent trader and holding BNB and Bitcoin is no different for him. It's worth noting that this is only his holdings on Binance, which may not represent all his assets. Additionally, his primary asset is the held BNB, with estimates suggesting his holdings may be as high as 94 million coins.
"Niche Players Rejoice, Hyperliquid NFT Defies the Odds with a Price Surge?"
The NFT market is gradually moving away from traditional valuation standards. Many projects are combining NFTs with upcoming coin launches, using NFTs to hype up the ecosystem or directly sell token allocations. The NFT trading market on Hyperliquid is slowly gaining traction. Although not fully matured yet, there have been some notable transactions and projects. Projects like Wealthy Hypio Babies and K-16 have shown outstanding performance, attracting many players to participate. At the same time, new projects in the market continue to emerge, such as Hypers and PiP. Despite the overall market uncertainty, players still need to carefully assess the value of community and partnership relationships in NFT minting and trading.
"Review of 'Celebrity Coins' Harvest Records: 15 Tokens in 60 Days, with Almost All Prices Plummeting Over 90%"
TRUMP Coin, launched by Donald Trump, saw its market value surpass $20 billion in just a few hours, attracting a large number of crypto investors. However, this celebrity-effect-driven crypto frenzy quickly turned into a bubble. In just over a month, TRUMP Coin's market value plummeted by over 80%, and other celebrity-backed coins like Melania Coin, Argentine President Coin, etc., also quickly collapsed. The rapid rise and fall of such tokens exposed the fragility of the crypto market and the risk of over-relying on celebrity effects. While they once attracted a lot of attention, the ultimate result was not only massive losses but also raised questions about the decentralization concept.
"Amidst a Sluggish Market, Why is MKR Still Surging Against the Trend?"
In this article, the author points out that $MKR (now $SKY) is expected to perform well in the first and second quarters of 2025, mainly due to a $30 million monthly buyback plan, the near all-time high supply of DAI/USDS, and growth momentum from the upcoming SPK farming launch. Despite the rebrand not being favored by the market, its fundamentals are strong. Coupled with the potential benefits of the U.S. Stablecoin Act, the outlook for the next few months is positive.
"With Regulatory Easing, Is the Crypto Spring Coming to the U.S. Market?"
Recently, there has been a positive shift in the United States' regulatory stance towards the cryptocurrency industry. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced the closure of its three-year investigation into Uniswap Labs without taking any enforcement action. At the same time, traditional financial giants such as Citadel Securities and Wintermute are also planning to enter the U.S. crypto market. Additionally, Tornado Cash's founder, Alexey Pertsev, was temporarily released after a Dutch court ruled that his case did not fall under existing laws. These events indicate that U.S. regulatory policy may be gradually loosening to promote the development of the cryptocurrency industry, especially in the field of Decentralized Finance (DeFi).
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