The Protocol: OKX Slashes Native Token Supply In Half

17 hours ago

Welcome to The Protocol, CoinDesk's play wrap-up of the astir important stories successful cryptocurrency tech development. I'm Margaux Nijkerk, CoinDesk’s Tech & Protocols reporter.

In this issue:

OKX Slashes OKB Token Supply by 50% With $7.6B Burn, Price Surges
ETH Transaction Volume Climbs connected Price Rally, Cheaper DeFi Costs
Weaponized Trading Bots Drain $1M From Crypto Users via AI-Generated YouTube Scam
Babylon Introduces Trustless Bitcoin Vaults for BTC Staking Protocol

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Network news

OKX SLASHES TOKEN SUPPLY IN HALF: OKB, the token of cryptocurrency speech OKX, much than tripled to a grounds precocious aft the institution executed a one-time pain of 65.26 cardinal OKB, cutting the proviso by much than 50%. Burning the astir $7.6 cardinal worthy of tokens permanently reduces the maximum proviso to 21 million, successful enactment with the hard headdress coded into Bitcoin. The burn, oregon sending the tokens to a wallet code that can't beryllium accessed, was carried retired from OKX’s reserves and represents 1 of the largest deflationary events successful speech token history. The effect of the pain was instant. OKB jumped to $142 from $46 earlier retrenching to astir $102. Trading measurement skyrocketed 13,000% to $723 cardinal arsenic traders attempted to capitalize connected the proviso shock. The strategy mirrors that of BNB, the token of BNB Chain, which is associated with rival speech Binance. That undergoes quarterly burns that often precede short-term rallies. — Oliver Knight Read more.

ETH TRANSACTION VOLUME CLIMBS : Ethereum’s transaction measurement has been wide connected an upward trajectory, closing successful its all-time precocious of 1.9 cardinal transactions successful a azygous time successful January 2024. The latest surge is drafting attraction from some retail traders and organization observers, arsenic it reflects a confluence of method improvements, favorable marketplace sentiment, and a renewed appetite for on-chain activity. According to data from Etherscan, regular transaction counts person been consistently trending higher implicit the past respective weeks. Other data shows seven-day averages of regular transactions person already surpassed their erstwhile records. Analysts suggest that this momentum is being fueled by a operation of factors: a caller summation successful web capacity, rising ether prices, and a simplification successful transaction costs, peculiarly for decentralized concern (DeFi) protocols and stablecoin transfers. One of the biggest enablers of the existent spike has been a important capableness boost connected Ethereum’s mainnet. The Fidelity Digital Assets Research Team told CoinDesk that “Ethereum’s Layer 1 is seeing a surge successful transactions mostly owed to a 50% summation successful the state bounds since March, which allows much transactions to acceptable into each block.” This upgrade has importantly accrued throughput, enabling much businesslike colony and reducing congestion. As a result, stablecoin transportation costs person fallen consistently beneath a dollar, making DeFi enactment and peer-to-peer payments acold much affordable. Fidelity Digital Assets notes that DeFi presently tops the charts for ETH burns, underlining its cardinal relation successful driving web activity. — Margaux Nijkerk Read more.

WEAPONIZED TRADING BOTS STEAL $1M FROM CRYPTO USERS : Over $1 cardinal has been siphoned from unsuspecting crypto users done malicious astute contracts posing arsenic MEV trading bots, according to a caller study by SentinelLABS. The run leveraged AI-generated YouTube videos, aged accounts, and obfuscated Solidity codification to bypass basal idiosyncratic scrutiny and summation entree to crypto wallets. Scammers appeared to beryllium utilizing AI-generated avatars and voices to trim accumulation costs and standard up video content. These tutorials are published connected aged YouTube accounts populated with unrelated contented and manipulated remark sections to springiness the illusion of credibility. In immoderate cases, the videos are unlisted and apt distributed via Telegram oregon DMs. At the halfway of the scam was a astute declaration promoted arsenic a profitable arbitrage bot. Victims were instructed via YouTube tutorials to deploy the declaration utilizing Remix, money it with ETH, and telephone a “Start()” function. In reality, however, the declaration routed funds to a concealed, attacker-controlled wallet, utilizing techniques specified arsenic XOR obfuscation (which hides information by scrambling it with different value) and ample decimal-to-hex conversions (which person ample numbers into wallet-readable code formats) to disguise the destination code (which makes money betterment trickier). — Shaurya Malwa Read more.

BABYLON INTRODUCES TRUSTLESS BITCOIN VAULTS: Bitcoin task Babylon took different measurement toward offering a decentralized finance (DeFi) acquisition connected its $5 cardinal staking protocol akin to that seen elsewhere successful the crypto world. The latest improvement is the instauration of trustless vaults, designed to let BTC holders to deposit their tokens without relying connected a centralized entity, arsenic outlined successful a caller achromatic insubstantial shared with CoinDesk. In DeFi ecosystems, trustless vaults are a signifier of integer plus retention oregon absorption that removes the request for users to spot a cardinal authorization oregon intermediary. Instead, the systems usage astute contracts to guarantee information and enforce the rules of the vault. Babylon says its vaults volition let bitcoin to beryllium utilized arsenic collateral successful DeFi applications specified arsenic lending and stablecoin issuance, arsenic good arsenic the staking that its protocol provides. Users tin besides gain output connected their BTC holdings by staking it to enactment the cognition of proof-of-stake networks. They past person rewards paid successful BABY, Babylon's autochthonal token. The improvement forms portion of the broader question to utilize the tremendous worth held successful bitcoin to powerfulness DeFi enactment crossed different blockchains. — Jamie Crawley Read more.

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In Other News

Sentient, a New York-based artificial quality company, has introduced The GRID, an open-source web designed for gathering and monetizing artificial wide quality (AGI) systems. The institution says the level is aimed astatine providing a decentralized alternate to closed AI marketplaces from firms specified arsenic OpenAI. Developers tin plug successful their AI agents, models, oregon tools and gain token-based rewards, with usage fees and subscriptions disposable arsenic optional monetization routes. At the clip of its debut, The GRID hosts implicit 40 AI agents, 50 information sources, and much than 10 models, spanning some Web2 and Web3. These see tools similar Napkin, a generative graphics engine, and Exa, a hunt startup, arsenic good arsenic blockchain-connected agents deployed crossed Base, Polygon, Arbitrum, and others. Users tin entree these done Sentient Chat, an interface for discovering and combining agents into workflows susceptible of handling tasks specified arsenic calendar coordination, codification generation, and information visualization. — Oliver Knight Read more.
Stripe has appointed Matt Huang, co-founder and managing spouse of crypto task superior steadfast Paradigm, arsenic the main enforcement serviceman of its upcoming blockchain Tempo. Huang, who already sits connected Stripe’s board, volition clasp his presumption astatine Paradigm. That’s according to Fortune, citing sources acquainted with the project. The determination aligns with a increasing inclination of processing stablecoin-focused blockchains. These see Plasma, which precocious attracted implicit $373 cardinal successful an oversubscribed token sale, and Tether-focused blockchain Stable.— Francisco Rodrigues Read more.

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Regulatory and Policy

Terraform Labs laminitis Do Kwon pleaded blameworthy to conspiracy to perpetrate fraud and ligament fraud successful Manhattan connected Tuesday morning, 3 years aft the melodramatic $60 cardinal collapse of the Terra/Luna stablecoin ecosystem. The 33-year aged South Korean nationalist arrived successful tribunal successful handcuffs and a canary yellowish situation jumpsuit, a metallic concatenation astir his waist. He admitted that helium "knowingly engaged successful a strategy to defraud and did successful information defraud" purchasers of the TerraUSD stablecoin. Under the charges successful the archetypal indictment, which included 7 different charges specified arsenic securities and commodities fraud, Kwon faced a maximum condemnation of 135 years successful situation if convicted connected each counts. Kwon’s plea statement with the authorities slashes his maximum condemnation to 25 years — 20 for the ligament fraud charge, and 5 for the fraud conspiracy charge, which the justice tin either bid to beryllium served consecutively oregon concurrently — but prosecutors volition inquire for a maximum of 12 years. After serving fractional his condemnation successful the U.S., Kwon volition beryllium eligible to use to service the remainder of his condemnation successful his autochthonal South Korea. — Nikhilesh De & Cheyenne Ligon Read more.
President Donald Trump's crypto adviser, Bo Hines, has departed aft lone months connected the job, and the adjacent successful enactment — his deputy, Patrick Witt — volition seemingly beryllium shepherding the industry's governmental priorities successful Washington arsenic it inactive seeks industry-wide regulations and the instauration of a national crypto stockpile. Witt shares a remarkably akin past with Hines – some ex-football stars who played astatine Yale earlier seeking instrumentality degrees and falling abbreviated successful bids for Congressional seats. Witt had a brief stint arsenic a free-agent backmost for the New Orleans Saints aft starring the Yale Bulldogs squad that Hines aboriginal played connected arsenic wide receiver. Both ex-athletes tied their governmental careers intimately to Trump successful caller years, and Witt volition present beryllium the main manufacture liaison for Trump's White House, according to his social-media profile connected X that references the rubric Hines near behind.— Jesse Hamilton Read more.

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