Santiment’s social sentiment tracker found that traders’ discussions on various social media channels like X, Reddit and Telegram between Feb. 25 and 26 are “showing a very high level of confidence” that this dip is the “the one to buy,’” the platform said in a Feb. 28 post to X.

It’s the highest level of crypto dip-buying interest in seven months, it added. 

Bitcoin dropped below $90,000 on Feb. 25, a day after US President Donald Trump announced his planned 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico are going forward.

The price has since shed even more of the gains made post-US election, dropping below $80,000 on Feb. 28, after Trump threatened a further 10% tariff on China, and amid other macroeconomic uncertainty. 

However, the analytics platform says the high interest in buying the dip isn’t necessarily a signal to jump into the market because it can often move in the opposite direction of expectations.

“Ideally, we are waiting for this crowd enthusiasm to die down as a signal that enough pain has hit retail traders to justify a bounce,” Santiment said.

“Markets move in the opposite direction of the crowd’s expectations, so look for declining optimism and shrinking levels of buy-the-dip calls as a bullish signal.”

Related: Crypto market is seeing a ‘tactical retreat, not a reversal’ — Binance CEO

Santiment’s tracker sifts through crypto-specific social media channels such as X and Telegram for the top 10 words that have seen the most significant increase in social media mentions compared to the previous two weeks, according to its methodology.

Bitcoin (BTC) has retreated over 21% in the past 30 days and is down 5% in the last 24 hours, trading at around $80,400, according to CoinMarketCap data. Ether (ETH) is down over 30% in the past 30 days and has fallen 7.54% in the last day, trading at around $2,139. 

In a follow-up post, Santiment said it is unsurprising prices are falling even further after the “retail crowd was all over the prospects of a dip buy.”

“Look for the crowd becoming disinterested or despondent as a sign that the real dip buy opportunity has arrived,” the platform said. 

Google Trends data shows a similar narrative playing out as search interest in “buy the dip” spiked to 100 on Feb. 26 when looking over a one-week timeframe. However, search interest has since dropped to a score of 49 out of 100.

Meanwhile, searches for the term “crypto” hit its highest level of 100 in the last seven days on Feb. 25 and is currently sitting at 87 out of 100.

A value of 100 is classed as peak popularity for the term, according to the Google Trends FAQ, while a score of 0 means there was relatively low volume for the term on that day. 

Magazine: Elon Musk’s plan to run government on blockchain faces uphill battle

The post Bitcoin, crypto ‘dip buy hype’ is now at its highest level in 7 months appeared first on Cyber Cryptonomics.

However, a closer look at its listings suggests that these opportunities are statistically bleak. Some analysts argue the odds are closer to zero, as most new Binance listings follow a predictable pump-and-dump cycle, with no meaningful recovery afterward.

This raises a key question: Is this just the nature of today’s market, or are centralized exchanges actively driving unsustainable speculation?

Recent Binance token listings

Many new token listings at centralized exchanges follow a similar pattern. Prices skyrocket within hours of listing, then crash soon after to stabilize at lower levels.

Here’s a breakdown of all Binance’s new listings since the start of the year:

• LAYER (DeFi) – Listed on Feb. 11, dropped 50% from its listing high.

• TST (Memecoin) – Listed on Feb. 9, dropped 80%.

• BERA (L1 Blockchain) – Listed on Feb. 5, dropped 38%.

• ANIME (Culture Coin) – Listed on Jan. 22, dropped 74%.

• TRUMP (Memecoin) – Listed on Jan. 19, dropped 82%.

• SOLV (DeFi) – Listed on Jan. 17, dropped 78%.

• COOKIE (MarketingFi) – Listed on Jan. 10, dropped 74%.

• AIXBT (AI) – Listed on Jan. 10, dropped 67%.

• CGPT (AI) – Listed on Jan. 10, dropped 68%.

• BIO (Biotech) – Listed on Jan. 3, dropped 88%.

So far, only Berachain (BERA) appears to have a chance at rebounding, thanks to strong fundamentals and an engaged community. The fate of KAITO (an InfoFi token that was listed on Feb. 19) also remains uncertain. But across every sector—DeFi, AI, memecoins, biotech—the pattern repeats.

Related: Bybit exchange hacked, over $1.4 billion stETH moved

Are Binance listings uniquely bad?

Some analysts argue that all new tokens are bound to pump and dump. However, recent listings on other exchanges suggest otherwise. For example, IP (decentralized IP management), listed on Gate.io on Feb. 13, has since surged by almost 5x. Another example is HYPE, which was listed on KuCoin on Dec. 7 and performed well.

In some cases, when Binance lists tokens that already are traded on other exchanges, the familiar pump-and-dump pattern emerges as well. For instance, CGPT had been trading since April 2023, yet its Binance listing in January briefly doubled its price—before crashing below pre-listing levels.

Another example is CAT, which gained 54% on its Binance listing day on Dec. 17 before collapsing 86%. VELO token, which traded since 2022, jumped 147% upon its Binance listing on Dec. 13 before losing 83%. 

Interestingly, the VELO listing on Kraken on Feb. 18 had no major price impact.

Why do CEX token listings pump and dump?

Several factors—alone or in combination—could explain why newly listed tokens dump when trading begins at centralized exchanges.

The most obvious reason is that they provide an ideal exit opportunity for insiders and VCs. Without vesting restrictions, project backers can immediately offload their holdings, cashing out before any real market demand has a chance to form. This could be a signal of the project’s lack of long-term interest or any real utility.

Another contributing factor is limited initial supply and low liquidity. When a token debuts with a restricted circulating supply, early buyers drive prices up quickly. In this case, as more tokens become available—whether through team unlocks, vesting schedules, or liquidity injections—the artificial scarcity disappears, and the price is set to correct.

Finally, over-engineered hype and speculation could play a major role. Exchanges like Binance have a huge user base, and their brand recognition can create what can be described as a “casino effect,” where traders rush in expecting quick and explosive gains rather than sustainable value.

It is also possible, at least in theory, that exchanges can artificially inflate demand, prompting traders to rush in and buy at any price. There is no concrete evidence of such manipulation, but Binance has previously faced allegations of wash trading and market-making tactics designed to inflate demand and trading volume.

Binance itself, however, emphasizes that it has a “robust market surveillance framework that identifies and takes action against market abuse.”

While the above analysis of the recent listings is far from exhaustive, it suggests that some exchanges’ listing mechanics favor short-term speculation over sustainable project growth. By prioritizing trading volume, the exchange benefits from the hype cycle, but this approach risks eroding user trust and drawing regulatory scrutiny. 

Centralized crypto exchanges are not the only player fueling the hype around new token launches. Even the Argentine president Javier Milei has recently been spotted doing the same. Additionally, some CEXs like Binance do attempt to mitigate some of the risks by labeling new listings as “seed” investments and requiring users to acknowledge their high-risk nature.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph. 

The post The crypto exchange listing conundrum continues: Why newly listed tokens keep crashing appeared first on Cyber Cryptonomics.

“TradFi stablecoins will find it harder than they think to win market share,” Hougan said in an X post on Feb. 26.

Hougan referred to the newly announced stablecoin plans by Bank of America (BofA) CEO Brian Moynihan, who on Feb. 25 said BofA would likely launch a US dollar-pegged stablecoin once regulators came up with relevant legislation.

The news came shortly after Jeremy Allaire, co-founder of Circle — issuer of the second-largest stablecoin, USDC (USDC) — argued that all USD stablecoin issuers should be registered in the US.

Stablecoins as new CBDCs?

The BofA stablecoin news triggered mixed reactions from the community, with many seeing the news as a good sign for crypto adoption, while others viewed bank-issued stablecoins as a new version of central bank digital currencies (CBDC).

“So are they going to just ‘rebrand’ CBDC’s and just call them ‘stablecoins’?” one commentator wrote on X.

“Sounds CBDCish,” another industry observer said.

Other community members disagreed, highlighting fundamental differences between a potential BofA-issued stablecoin and a CBDC.

“There’s a fundamental difference. A CBDC is a direct liability of the central bank while a stablecoin is a liability of the issuer. This has huge consequences,” digital asset researcher Anderson wrote.

Community concerns over the US CBDC “rebrand” to centralized US dollar-pegged stablecoins may align with the new US strategy of boosting the US dollar with the help of stablecoins.

On Jan. 23, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that pledged to promote the US dollar’s sovereignty, “including through actions to promote the development and growth of lawful and legitimate dollar-backed stablecoins worldwide.” On the other hand, the order banned the development of CBDCs in the US.

The community is worried that Tether will be outlawed

Amid the BofA news, some in the community expressed concerns over potential implications for Tether, which issues the eponymous USDt (USDT) stablecoin, the largest stablecoin by market capitalization.

“So Tether will likely be outlawed or treated differently compared to other US stablecoins. They are lobbying for this,” one commentator wrote.

Related: Paolo Ardoino: Competitors and politicians intend to ‘kill Tether’

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino took to X on Feb. 26 to describe the new legal stablecoin developments in the US as “very troubling,” referring to a tweet by Rumble founder and CEO Chris Pavlovski.

“I’m getting a strong feeling that this toxic stablecoin legislation is negatively impacting Bitcoin price and hurting confidence in crypto,” Pavlovski wrote. He also suggested that the draft legislation is “designed to kill competition in the stablecoin market.”

Ardoino previously told Cointelegraph that Tether encourages competition in the stablecoin market but doesn’t aim to compete with stablecoin issuers in the US and Europe.

“Our focus has to be where we are needed the most,” he said, adding that Tether’s biggest demand comes from developing countries like Argentina, Turkey and Vietnam.

Magazine: Stablecoin for cyber-scammers launches, Sony L2 drama: Asia Express

The post TradFi stablecoins will find it hard to win market share — Bitwise CIO appeared first on Cyber Cryptonomics.

On Feb. 26, the protocol processed $859.61 million in swaps, marking its highest-ever daily volume, according to data from THORChain Explorer. The momentum continued on Feb. 27, adding $210 million (and counting), pushing total swap volume past $1 billion in under 48 hours.

THORChain enables direct asset swaps across different blockchains, such as exchanging Ether (ETH) for Bitcoin (BTC).

Swapping stolen funds for Bitcoin has been a common tactic of the North Korean state-sponsored hacking group Lazarus. Blockchain analysts have previously reported that Lazarus often converts illicitly obtained digital assets into BTC to obscure their trail.

Related: THORChain approves plan to restructure $200M debt

THORChain’s chain of criticism

The surge comes amid ongoing controversy for THORChain. In January, it paused Bitcoin and Ether lending after accumulating about $200 million in liabilities, triggering a debt restructuring plan. While lending was frozen, swaps have remained active.

THORChain core dev Nine Realms engineer “Pluto” came to the defense while advocating for responsible measures to address illicit activity. Pluto acknowledged that illicit funds have flowed through THORChain but added that the team has taken steps to help wallet and integration partners implement screening services.

THORChain’s (RUNE) cryptocurrency has climbed 36.6% in the past week, CoinGecko data shows.

Bybit hacks good actors and bad actors

Bybit has launched a website to track the laundering of its stolen funds while offering a bounty to exchanges and entities that assist in freezing them. On Feb. 27, the site listed seven good actors and one bad actor, eXch.

No-Know Your Customer (KYC) swap service eXch has drawn criticism for refusing to freeze funds tied to the Bybit hack. EXch has denied laundering funds for North Korea.

Related: From Sony to Bybit: How Lazarus Group became crypto’s supervillain

The record-breaking Bybit exploit on Feb. 21 was attributed to North Korean state-sponsored hacking group Lazarus by ZachXBT, and later confirmed by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Third-party forensic investigations found that Lazarus Group stole Ether from Bybit by compromising SafeWallet credentials. Reports from Sygnia and Verichains revealed that a Safe developer’s credentials were breached, allowing attackers to deceive signers into approving a malicious transaction. 

According to Sygnia, the attack stemmed from malicious JavaScript injected into SafeWallet’s AWS infrastructure. In response, SafeWallet developers rebuilt and reconfigured their infrastructure, implemented new security measures and rotated all credentials to prevent future attacks.

Magazine: THORChain founder and his plan to ‘vampire attack’ all of DeFi

The post THORChain swap volume explodes past $1B after Bybit hack appeared first on Cyber Cryptonomics.

The US Congress is reportedly set to consider legislation that would ban the issuance of memecoins like President Donald Trump’s Official Trump (TRUMP) token.

House Democrats are preparing to introduce the Modern Emoluments and Malfeasance Enforcement (MEME) Act, which would prohibit public officials from profiting from digital assets, California Representative Sam Liccardo told ABC News on Feb. 27.

The draft legislation would prohibit a broad range of public officials and related persons from issuing, sponsoring or endorsing any security, commodity or digital asset.

“Let’s make corruption criminal again,” Liccardo said, adding that US public offices belong to the public and that officials should not be allowed to leverage their political authority for financial gain.

Bill would apply to Melania Trump’s memecoin

The MEME Act, which is expected to be introduced on Feb. 27, will concern the president, vice president, Congress members, senior executive branch officials and their spouses and dependent children.

Liccardo said the bill has a dozen Democratic sponsors who are working to build bipartisan support.

“The Trumps’ issuance of memecoins financially exploits the public for personal gain and raises the specter of insider trading and foreign influence over the executive branch,” he stated.

This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

The post House Democrats propose bill to ban presidential memecoins: Report appeared first on Cyber Cryptonomics.

This has left market participants wondering whether XRP’s price could drop further in the coming days.

XRP price levels to watch under $2.40

XRP’s latest price crash saw it lose key support levels, including the 100-day simple moving average (SMA) at $2.43 and the $2.40 psychological level.

Related: XRP open interest drops to 2025 low — Are altcoin traders giving up?

Traders are now focused on key areas below this level, which XRP might revisit if the ongoing bearishness persists.

Notably:

• XRP’s first area of interest remains between its previous range low at $1.90 (formed on Dec. 9, 2024) and the recent range low at $2.06 (reached on Feb. 25).

• XRP will potentially target the liquidity cluster inside this range if support at $2.15 is lost.

• An immediate reprieve for the bulls would be a sharp reversal from this range, which will indicate buying interest below $2.40.

• Otherwise, XRP could drop lower to retest the fair value cap between $1.51 and $1.82, formed during the rally between November and December 2024.

• Note that the 200-day SMA sits just below this range, suggesting a strong demand zone just above $1.50.

The area above $2.00 represents a strong support zone for XRP, according to pseudonymous analyst Cvotrades, who says losing this will lead to a drop to $1.70.

“Watch the weekly close. If it’s below $2.09, then it sweeps $1.77.”

XRP price bear flag hints at $1.73

From a technical perspective, XRP trades within a bearish continuation pattern that indicates more downside ahead despite the ongoing consolidation.

Key points:

• XRP is trading within a bear flag pattern in the four-hour timeframe, indicating the possibility of continuing with the downward momentum if key support levels don’t hold.

• The bear flag developed after XRP’s drop from $2.60 to a local low of $2.06 between Feb. 24 and Feb. 25.

• The consolidation within the bear flag has XRP trading in an ascending parallel channel, with the price testing critical support levels today, including the lower boundary of the flag at $2.20.

• A breakdown of this level could trigger another price crash.

• The bear flag’s downside target, derived from the height of the previous drop, is approximately $1.73, representing a 22% downtick from the current 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 post Is XRP price going to crash again? appeared first on Cyber Cryptonomics.

“I’m going to be spending quite a bit of time working with lawmakers in Washington DC and quite a bit of time members of the administration to help foster and facilitate with other key leaders in industry the crypto policy,” Hoskinson explained in a Nov. 9 video posted on X.

“The best opportunity” is now, says Hoskinson

“We have to do this, and we have to get it done,” Hoskinson declared.

Hoskinson reiterated that there is “a very high probability” that the Republicans will “not only control the Senate and the Presidency, but also the Congress, the House.”

He believes this makes it “the best opportunity” for the crypto industry to gain clarity. This follows Trump’s election win on Nov. 6, where Trump campaigned on promises to provide a clearer path forward for the crypto industry if elected.

Hoskinson’s announcement comes after a turbulent few years for the crypto industry, with many crypto executives claiming that the US is falling behind the rest of the world.

Blockchain payment network Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse is one example who has voiced multiple public criticisms over the years during Ripple’s prolonged legal battle with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Crypto policy should be written by the “American people”

In March 2023, Garlinghouse stated that the SEC’s regulatory approach puts the US at “severe risk” of falling behind as a hub blockchain and crypto innovation.

Meanwhile, Hoskinson believes that crypto policy should be written by the “American people, the American crypto industry, and by well-meaning lawmakers.”

“None of us signed up to have companies like BlackRock dictate to the United States what crypto policy should be,” Hoskinson claimed.

Related: Trump victory: US crypto industry anticipates clarity, success

Hoskinson mentioned having “personal friendships” with lawmakers and members of the Trump administration, adding that he “hopes to be part of” shaping the policy when Trump starts his administration in 2025.

“That has yet to be decided based upon the fact that they are not even in office yet, and they just picked a chief of staff,” he said.

He hopes the work will lead to a bipartisan bill that will give “absolute clarity” on what is and isn’t a security and commodity and allow crypto participants to ”get back to business.”

Magazine: BTC’s ‘incoming’ $110K call, BlackRock’s $1.1B inflow day, and more: Hodler’s Digest Nov. 3 – 9

The post Charles Hoskinson shares new plans to ‘help foster’ US crypto policies appeared first on Cyber Cryptonomics.

Speaking on topics like cryptocurrencies, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology, Snowden also addressed the impact of venture capital (VC) on blockchain projects, using Solana as an example.

He described Solana as “born in prison” due to its heavy VC funding, suggesting that financial backing can impede a blockchain network’s ability to operate independently.

While he acknowledged Solana’s rapid growth, Snowden expressed concerns that too much ownership has been ceded to investors, though he noted Solana could “become something” in the future.

Related: ‘Cast a vote, but don’t join a cult’ — Edward Snowden at Bitcoin 2024

Decentralization as a safeguard against surveillance and AI

Throughout his talk, Snowden emphasized the importance of decentralization in countering the expansive surveillance capabilities enabled by AI.

He warned of AI-driven surveillance allowing governments and corporations to process large volumes of personal data in real time, potentially paving the way for live data analysis on a massive scale:

“They want to train it on everything, and they want to be able to say, you know, who looks anomalous […] Look at everybody, look at the whole human body, and pick out anybody who is weird.”

Related: Solana open interest hits record high: Will SOL top $200?

VC funding influence

Snowden’s critique of Solana’s early VC investment focused on how such funding could undermine the decentralization and autonomy of blockchain networks.

He cited concerns echoed previously during a vote by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) against a proposal to deploy Uniswap v3 on the BNB Chain.

The venture firm used its 15 million Uniswap (UNI) token holdings vote on Feb. 5 to outweigh the initial 20 million (80.28%) votes for “yes” against the 4.9 million (19.72%) votes for “no.” 

This instance, Snowden suggested, highlighted the control that large, centralized stakeholders can wield over decentralized projects.

Related: Coinbase wrapped Bitcoin deploys on Solana, aimed at growing DeFi market

Open source FTW

Snowden also advocated for open-source tools as an essential medium for countering the centralization of control and touted its ability to empower the individual. 

He described open-source models as “incredibly empowering,” enabling users of open-source models to understand and apply blockchain technologies “much better.”

“The bottom line is, you guys can do this yourself […] I’m telling you guys you don’t understand, if you’re not using it, you need to use this […]  the sky’s the limit.”

Snowden sees open-source AI as an opportunity for individuals to maintain autonomy in a centralized space, encouraging listeners at the talk and users globally to adopt these tools. 

Magazine: Real life yield farming: How tokenization is transforming lives in Africa

The post Snowden calls for decentralization, criticizes VC influence on Solana appeared first on Cyber Cryptonomics.

Additional functionality is coming soon that is expected to enable users to book flights or order takeaway food on Web2 sites.

The NEAR.AI Assistant was launched by co-founder Illia Polusukhin at the Redacted conference in Bangkok on Oct. 10, where the protocol also announced an ambitious plan to build the world’s largest open-source AI model. 

Polusukhin demonstrated the capabilities of the AI Assistant by using it to spin up a backstory, website and logo for a new Frog memecoin and then instantly launching it on Near’s version of Pump.fun.

The assistant was also able to search the web for a custom T-shirt printer and create a mock website interface on the fly.

Polusukhin, who was one of the authors of the groundbreaking Transformer research that led to ChatGPT, told Cointelegraph that while using the assistant to book flights was not yet available in the alpha, “we have a prototype of that, but it’s not live yet.”

He said, “But this is an open platform. Anybody can go right now and add more agents, for example, booking flights, and it will effectively start working in everybody’s assistant.”

“So part of our launch is to showcase what’s possible, and then let people go build lots of different integrations.”

Near Intents

What makes Near’s AI Assistant unique among current AI agents is chain abstraction technology that enables users to swap any asset to any other simply by signing a transaction.

Called Near Intents and available in beta with trading limits, it currently enables native asset swaps between Bitcoin, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base and Near Protocol (NEAR).

It has the potential to connect any chain using any wallet, and it can provide swaps to fiat via a market maker, which opens up Web2 shopping for the agent.

Alex Shevchenko, the founder of Aurora Labs, told Cointelegraph that Solana and Telegram Open Network would be added before the end of the year, followed by Dogecoin (DOGE), BNB (BNB), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), XRP (XRP) and Tron (TRON). Intents brings blockchains without smart contracts into the world of DeFi.

Unlike other crosschain protocols, Intents does not use atomic swaps or an intermediary asset such as THORChain (RUNE) on THORChain. Instead, smart contracts on Near communicate via chain signatures.

Shevchenko demonstrated the technology on stage by plugging in a MetaMask wallet, swapping between Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC), before then swapping again into Bitcoin. 

AI agents talking to AI agents

While the immediate use case is swapping native tokens, Shevchenko said the Intents protocol was designed to enable AI agents to communicate and coordinate to share tasks.

“An AI agent can understand that: ‘OK I don’t know how to open for you a Revolut account, but maybe there is an agent who is able to do this?’ So then they need to figure out how to create an Intent. So one AI agent is saying [to another AI agent], ‘OK, I would like you, for this price, to open up a bank account for my user.’”

The AI agents would make an agreement, including dispute resolution, and then pay in the required currency. 

Related: Near plans to build world’s largest 1.4T parameter open-source AI model

On the back end, market makers ensure the trades go through. This enables them to tap into the liquidity on centralized platforms such as Binance. Current market makers include Peanut Trade, with G20 coming on board soon. 

The technology is open source and available to be built upon, incorporated into any wallet, and allows the use of any market maker.

“This is a reference implementation of the interface. All of the builders who are building their own interfaces can take it and include it,” he said. 

Later at Redacted, Kendall Cole from Proximity Labs said chain abstraction enabled new use cases for Bitcoin in DeFi. He connected a Bitcoin wallet to a fork of the Burrow lending platform and was able to borrow against the Bitcoin collateral. Eventually, he said, users would be able to borrow against their entire portfolio of assets. 

Magazine: AI agents trading crypto is a hot narrative, but beware of rookie mistakes

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DeltaPrime, a decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity protocol, was exploited for $4.8 million worth of Arbitrum (ARB) and Avalanche (AVAX) tokens.

The hack, still under investigation, began when the exploiter contributed liquidity to the protocol, according to onchain intelligence firm PeckShield. In a Nov. 11 post on X, PeckShield said:

“DeltaPrime has been exploited for ~$4.8M worth of crypto on both #ARB & #AVAX.  The exploiter has added liquidity (~$1.3M) to LFJ (formerly Trader Joe) & farmed $USDC on Stargate.”

In response, the DeltaPrime team announced on Nov. 11 that it had paused the protocol on both the Arbitrum and Avalanche blockchains.

The exploit adds to the growing concerns over security in the crypto industry. On Nov. 1, centralized exchange M2 was hacked for $13.7 million worth of digital assets, Cointelegraph reported.

Related: Telegram bot Banana Gun’s users drained of over $1.9M

Will 2024 crypto hacks top 2023?

In a concerning sign for the Web3 industry, crypto hackers stole over $753 million across 155 incidents during the third quarter of 2024, as the total stolen value surged by approximately 9.5%.

In 2024 to date, hackers have stolen nearly $2 billion. This could mean that crypto hacks this year could potentially top 2023, with the first quarter of 2024 seeing $542.7 million worth of stolen funds, a 42% increase compared to the same period in 2023.

However, smart contracts are no longer to blame for most exploits, according to Mriganka Pattnaik, co-founder and CEO of crypto risk and intelligence platform Merkle Science, who told Cointelegraph:

“While smart contract vulnerabilities remain a concern, hackers increasingly target areas outside smart contracts, like private key leaks. These leaks, often due to phishing attacks or insecure storage practices, have led to significant losses.”

Related: Chinese trader laundered more than $17M for Lazarus Group in 25 hacks

In May, a trader lost $71 million worth of crypto in the year’s most high-profile phishing attack. The attacker tricked the trader into sending 99% of their funds to the attacker’s address.

DeltaPrime’s current incident occurred four months after a hacker stole over $230 million from WazirX, an Indian cryptocurrency exchange, in the second-largest cryptocurrency hack of 2024 so far.

Magazine: Caitlyn Jenner memecoin ‘mastermind’s’ celebrity price list leaked

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