Algorithmic Stablecoins

Solana-based algorithmic stablecoin NIRV has become the latest stablecoin to fail after dropping 85% from its United States dollar peg following a hack on adaptive yield protocol Nirvana Finance on Wednesday. The flash loan attack, which also saw Nirvana Finance’s native token ANA drop by 85%, resulted in the loss of $3.49 million worth of Tether (USDT), with the SolanaFM team being the first to confirm that the funds were siphoned via a flash loan attack on Wednesday: “Utilizing Solend Protocol’s Flash Loans, the hacker borrowed $10M USDC from the Solend Main Pool Vault which was used to exploit $3.49M USDT from the Nirvana Finance Treasury.”At the time of writing, both NIRV and ANA are down roughly 85% to $0.14 and $1.33, respectively, at the time of writing. On Nirvana’s website, it confirms that the protocol was “maliciously hacked and reserve funds are stolen. NIRV and ANA have lost their collateral, and do not have secured market value.” The Nirvana team is now offering the hac..

Bitcoin (BTC) price rallied toward $24,200 on July 28 after a near-10.5% surge that began a day earlier. The gains appeared after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled intentions to slow down the Fed's prevailing tightening spree. This prompted some Bitcoin analysts to predict short-term upside continuation, with pseudonymous analyst CryptoHamster seeing BTC at $26,000 next. But BTC's potential to recover entirely from its ongoing bearish slumber appears low for at least three key reasons. Bitcoin bulls have been duped beforeBitcoin established its record high of $69,000 in November 2022. Since then, the cryptocurrency has declined by more than 60% while undergoing several mini pumps on its way down. On the daily chart, Bitcoin has rebounded at least five times since November 2021, securing 23%-to-40% gains on each recovery. Nonetheless, it has continued its correction every time after forming a local price top around its exponential moving averages (EMA) and then..

Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor of the Exchequer, and Liz Truss, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, two of the final candidates to become the next prime minister for the United Kingdom, have both previously expressed pro-crypto views. With Prime Minister Boris Johnson soon to be out of office, Sunak and Truss are competing to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and the country, with their views on digital assets likely to influence financial policy. Under Johnson, Sunak requested that the country’s Royal Mint create a nonfungible token as part of an effort to make the United Kingdom a global crypto hub. A member of Parliament who served as chancellor from 2020 until resigning in July, Sunak previously said the U.K. government would prioritize financial technology, including central bank digital currencies and stablecoins, aiming for the country to keep pace with innovation. He has also been behind many proposed financial services reforms p..

Three United States senators have written to Fidelity Investments CEO Abigail Johnson demanding an explanation for the financial services company’s decision to include Bitcoin-exposed funds in its 401(k) retirement plans. “This decision is immensely troubling,” they wrote. Democrats Dick Durbin, Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smith sent their letter Tuesday. The letter, which is around a page and a half long, discussed Americans’ retirement savings habits in general terms with minimal statistics but numerous rhetorical flourishes and strings of adjectives. The money American consumers may invest in retirement funds is “hard earned,” for example, and their exposure to the “cryptocurrency casino” is “a bridge too far.” The authors of the letter asked: “When saving for retirement is already a challenge for so many Americans, why would Fidelity allow those who can save to be exposed to an untested, highly volatile asset like Bitcoin?” There is no call to action in the letter, aside from “We loo..

Ether's (ETH) 53% rally between July 13 and 18 gave bulls an edge in July's $1.26 billion monthly options expiry. The move happened as Ethereum developers set a tentative date for the "Merge," a transition out of the burdensome proof-of-work (PoW) mining mechanism. Ether USD price index, 12-hour chart. Source: TradingViewAccording to some analysts, by removing the additional ETH issuing used to finance the energy cost required on traditional mining consensus, Ether could finally achieve the "ultra-sound money" status. Whether or not sound monetary policy revolves around constantly changing the issuing and burning rules remains an open question, but there's no doubt that the Ethereum developers' video call on July 14 helped to catapult ETH price. On July 26, a sudden dramatic spike in Ethereum network active addresses raised multiple speculations about whether Ether is targeting its previous all-time high. Analytics firm Santiment reported that the number of 24-hour..

Senator Sherrod Brown, chair of the Senate Banking Committee, has penned letters to the CEOs of Google’s parent company Alphabet and Apple calling for the tech firms to provide information on the ways they prevent certain apps from promoting crypto scams. According to the letters published on Thursday, Brown asked Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai for the steps the tech giants were taking in the approval of crypto apps on Apple and Android devices. The senator requested information related to how the companies assessed if apps were “trusted and secure,” prevented possible phishing apps through fraudulent apps and reported such apps to users. “Cyber criminals have stolen company logos, names, and other identifying information of crypto firms and then created fake mobile apps to trick unsuspecting investors into believing they are conducting business with a legitimate crypto firm,” said Brown. “While firms that offer crypto investment and other related services should tak..

The proliferation of cryptocurrencies around the world has been driven by different use-cases, with key differences becoming apparent between developed and emerging market environments. Lou Yu, who heads up KuCoin Labs, tackled the subject after a keynote address during the second day of Blockchain Economy Istanbul in Turkey. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Yu unpacked her experience working with a variety of projects and companies around the world and the key differences between primary and secondary markets. Cointelegraph editor Erhan Karahman interviews KuCoin Labs head Lou Yu at Blockchain Economy Istanbul. Kucoin operates in over 200 countries globally and is well placed to provide insights into the trading habits and trends as well as the innovations in the space, given that it lists, invests and supports various cryptocurrency and blockchain-focused projects. Yu noted that trading communities are particularly active in emerging markets, more so than their developed..

Bitcoin's (BTC) price has been stuck in a descending channel since July 20 and it is currently heading toward the $20,000 support by the end of July. Adding to this bearish price action, BTC is down 50% year-to-date, while U.S. listed tech stocks, as measured by the Nasdaq-100 index, accumulated a 24% loss. Bitcoin USD price index, 4-hour. Source: TradingViewAs the U.S. Federal Reserve tightens its economic policies by raising interest rates and scaling back debt asset purchases, risk assets have reacted negatively. Fed chair Jerome Powell is set to wrap up a two-day meeting on July 27 and market analysts expect a nominal 0.75% interest rate hike. Tensions in Europe escalate as the Russian state-controlled gas company Gazprom is slated to cut supplies to the Nord Stream 1 pipeline starting on July 27. According to CNBC, the company blames a turbine maintenance issue, but European officials think otherwise. Aiding tech stocks' performance on July 27 was the U.S. Senate approva..

In this week's episode of Market Talks, we welcome the founder, chief investment officer and managing director of Morgan Creek Capital Management, Mark Yusko. Mark W. Yusko is an investor and hedge fund manager. He is the founder, chief investment officer and managing director of Morgan Creek Capital Management and also the Co-Founder & Partner of Morgan Creek Digital. The main topic for discussion with Mark is if we are finally at the end of this crypto winter and what that could mean for the future of the crypto market. Are we going to continue to move upwards in price or is there another fall below $17K not far off? With everyone's eyes on the latest FOMC meeting, we ask Mark about his thoughts on the importance of the FOMC meeting and what the hike in interest rates means for you as an individual and the markets as a whole. Even though some people might not want to admit it, it seems the US economy is in a recession, we ask Mark what his thoughts on the matter are and a..

It appears the firm's fortune took a turn to the worst via its exposure to troubled crypto lending service Babel Finance.