Ethereum's Success + What Else Is Hot

GM Readers!📪 It's BitDegree Insider, and the times are knocking at the door.

⭐️Today's selection:

• 👏Ethereum Success
• 🚼FTX's Potential Rebirth?
• 🎯Hackers Attack Yearn Finance
• 🧩️Thursday Quiz
• 👌Selected Meme of The Day
• 📰Bite-Sized News

SUCCESSFUL ETHEREUM UPDATE

Yesterday we presented why the long-awaited Shanghai Update was a big deal.

Today we see its results.

And it's clear that all the doubts, and bets about the ETH price going down, have vanished.

Because, essentially, all those fears about ETH experiencing a sharp drop in value, appeared to be not the case. In fact, the opposite has happened.

Right now ETH fluctuates around $2000. The first time since the middle of August, 2022.

Of course, it doesn't mean that people didn't withdraw ETH from staking at all.

But something else happened!

Let's take a closer look!

As you can see from the chart above, the withdrawals didn't take a steep jump.

Even though people began withdrawing their staked assets, a wave of of new stakers arrived!

And at this very moment, right before publishing this issue, new stake deposits outperform ETH withdrawals.

Well, that's an unexpected turn of events.

It is also interesting to observe who withdraws their staked ETH! For those who might be interested, there is extra data from Nansen on this matter.

Explanation: The Kraken exchange ranks first with 70.8% of the entities waiting to cancel their ETH staking (when it comes to the queue of those when withdrawing, it is not going to happen in an instant!)

Each DAO or exchange has their own reasons behind it. Some would re-stake again. but … Kraken, for example, is the one whose Staking program was stopped by SEC (We talked about it some time ago).

To sum up: After enabling withdrawals from the Beacon chain the next major Ethereum update would be The Surge, focusing on scalability and privacy improvements.

TL;DR: The Shanghai Update was a success. ETH price did not experience a sharp drop, instead got stronger and reached the $2000 mark.

FTX TO RETURN FROM THE DEAD?

So, ETH is doing fine. And, it looks like, it's not only Ethereum that's been showing signs of vitality.

Today we bring you an important update on FTX, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange that left many in the crypto world feeling uncertain.

Amidst the turmoil, there might be a silver lining as the exchange could be on the path to recovery.

FTX went bankrupt, but they have managed to return more than $7.3 billion in cash and crypto assets to their clients, surpassing their January target by an impressive $800 million.

FTX's attorney, Andy Dietderich, has hinted that the company has stabilized and is considering reopening.

This development could bring relief to those affected by the exchange's collapse.

It's safe to say that almost no one really believed that this kind of scenario was possible.

Now, let's discuss the fluctuating fortunes of FTT, the crypto-token associated with FTX.

FTT experienced a surge in price after FTX's legal team revealed that the exchange could potentially be resurrected as part of a broader reorganization plan.

Although the plan hasn't been presented and would still need court approval, FTT's price increased from ~$1.3 to almost $3, eventually settling around $2.44.

FTX's legal team is expected to submit their reorganization plan in July, so stay tuned for further updates.

In related news, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried experienced a setback when his request to tap a $And there is more:10 million insurance policy to cover his legal bills was denied by the bankruptcy court.

And there is more:

FTX's recent report on its liquidation and litigation costs has got people raising their eyebrows.

Law firms involved in FTX's bankruptcy proceedings have received a total of around $32.5 million, not including the fees for the exchange's new head, John J. Ray III.

While defrauded clients may struggle to accept the costs FTX spends on lawyers, partners, accountants, and executives, the exchange argues that without their help, it would be impossible to find and recover hidden assets according to legal standards.

The case is far from over, with experts estimating that the legal fees could reach hundreds of millions of dollars before the courts conclude.

Stay tuned and trade cautiously.

TL;DR: FTX, the bankrupt crypto exchange, is considering reopening.

HACKERS ATTACK YEARN FINANCE

A decentralized protocol lost a huge amount of money due to a misconfiguration of one of the tokenized stablecoins.

And by a lot of money, we mean $10 million.

PeckShield analysts believe the hacker managed to pull this off through a vulnerability in the yUSDT smart contract and, after spending $10,000 in USDT, was able to mint more than 1 quadrillion tokenized yUSDT stablecoins and then exchanged them for other stablecoins.

Lookonchain analysts estimated that the hacker withdrew:

3,032,142 DAI2,579,483 USDC1,785,091 BUSD1 512 528 TUSD1,193,756 USDT

Well... That's nor your average pizza delivery tip.

Interestingly, this yUSDT vulnerability has existed for more than three years!

It was previously discussed that AAVE was also a victim of the exploit, but the team officially reported that their protocols were not affected.

Fun fact, anyone that had $USDT debt in Aave V1 got repaid by the yearn exploiter.

So if you had a borrow position of USDT on V1, you don't have any debt anymore. Some Ying-Yang stuff going on here.

TL;DR: Yearn Finance, the decentralized protocol, got attacked by hackers. It suffered a $10 million loss.

THURSDAY QUIZ

So, today we talked about Ethereum implementing yet another update on their blockchain.

It's all part of their interestingly-sounding plan to climb the peak of the blockchain mountain.

Their roadmap consists of 6 stages.

These stages are:

• The Merge
• The Surge
• The Scourge
• The Verge
• The Purge
• ?????

So, what's the name of the sixth, and the final, stage of Ethereum's update that will allow the blockchain shine in its full power?

SELECTED MEME OF THE DAY

BITE-SIZED NEWS

• After Exploiting Outdated Yearn Contract, Hackers Mint Over Quadrillion yUSDT. The decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem is hit with yet another exploit.
• Montana Moves Closer to Protecting Crypto Miners with the New Bill. Crypto miners in Montana may soon have dedicated "digital asset mining right."
• A Court in Switzerland Approves FTX's Request to Sell Its European Business. FTX's European arm may soon have a new owner.