Slippery Slope
Cryptic ball: not the phantom menace.
Another day, another hack in the cryptoshere that surrounds us. Yes, I started yesterday's newsletter the same way, but there has been another, more critical attack over the past 24 hours! Prices remain unaffected, which is good.
- What happened? We're still waiting the official post-mortem, but security researchers and white-hat hackers have spent the whole day figuring out the complex situation. In brief, no blockchain or bridge was hacked this time.
- Instead, it seems the blame falls on Slope, "the easiest way to discover web3 applications" (lol!) and its "first cross-platform wallet", initially built for the Solana ecosystem but also integrated with Ethereum and backed by big names.
- The likes of Sequoia, Jump, Alameda, CMS, Circle, and many more all invested on "the most trusted decentralised exchange and wallet". That's bad, as most of their users lost their funds today - unless they were using a hardware wallet.
- The current hypothesis - still pending confirmation - is that, somehow, the "Slope wallet sent plaintext seed phrases to external integration partners". That's a big blow to everyone who lost upwards of $6 million so far.
- Initially, some people blamed the Phantom wallet, Solana's most popular wallet, but it seems "there's currently zero evidence" they are to blame. The haters even blamed Solana's blockchain! As always, pitchforks come first...
- Anyway, back to the markets, it's great to see that prices didn't crash in face of bad news. On the contrary, both crypto and stocks are back in the green after some less interesting days as the Taiwan FUD and inflation fears fade!
- More interestingly, the Nasdaq is practically no longer in bear market territory, Apple is just 10% away from its ATH (thank you, dear reader for the tip), and several tech stonks have pumped hard today. Will crypto be next?
Overall, I continue bullish this August. After all, the last sacrificial lamb has been butchered, with Saylor abandoning Microstrategy's CEO post, even if he didn't relinquish control. I feel bears are about to get squeezed - so buckle up!
Chart art: not so fast.
Three things: not that cristal clear.
- The Saint Eclectic shares some support for the victims of Slope's hack.
- MacBrennan argues "Ethereum is starting to realize it's losing as builders are leaving the ecosystem in droves".
- Fourpoops (lol) argues "Ethereum is starting to realize it's winning as builders are entering the ecosystem in droves".
Tweet tip: not that singular.
Meme moment: not that funny.
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