Algorand MyAlgo thefts continue; Grayscale’s ETF case proceeds

The biggest news in the cryptoverse for March 7 saw Algorand face criticism over its insufficient response to a third-party wallet breach. Meanwhile, Grayscale defended its rejected Bitcoin ETF conversion in court. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell commented on permissionless ledgers. Plus, research on USDT.

CryptoSlate Top Stories

Algorand blasted over inaction on ongoing wallet drain hack

ZachXBT blasted Algorand’s failure to “acknowledge” an ongoing wallet drain hack.

The self-described “on-chain sleuth” said the Algrorand users had lost millions of dollars in the attack. Yet the project is continuing to drag its feet in helping those affected. “How about you clowns actually acknowledge the ongoing attack stealing millions from community members and assist them.“

On Feb. 27, wallet providers MyAlgo posted a critical advisory recommending all users withdraw funds from Mnemonic wallets stored in MyAlgo.

The post acknowledged “recent hacks” and stated the attack’s root cause is still unknown.

Judges question SEC’s logic during Grayscale’s first Bitcoin spot ETF appeal hearing

Federal appellate court judges questioned the SEC’s arguments during the first appeals hearing on March 7 and asked the regulator’s lawyer what more Grayscale Investments needs to offer to satisfy its requirements regarding a spot Bitcoin ETF.

Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan and Judges Neomi Rao and Harry Edwards of the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., presided over the hearing.

Grayscale lead counsel Don Verrilli told judges that the SEC’s rejection of the company’s spot Bitcoin ETF application was “arbitrary” because the regulator has approved futures-based ETPs and argued that there is no difference between the two as they are both derived from the price of Bitcoin.

Fed Chair Powell addresses concerns over permissionless distributed ledgers in Senate hearing

Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell spoke on March 7 in front of a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

During the hearing, he was questioned by Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming) about permissionless distributed ledgers and whether they had any place within the financial system.

Powell said: “There are real concerns about permissionless public blockchains, and the reason is that they’ve been so susceptible to fraud, to money laundering and all of those things. I think what you heard from the federal banking agencies in one of their reports was that they would tend to look at those as inconsistent with safety and soundness.”

On stablecoins, Powell said that with “appropriate regulation,” they could merge with traditional banks.

China’s WeChat starts accepting CBDC payments

China’s most popular social networking application WeChat expanded its payment options by adding the country’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), according to Forkast News.

WeChat’s payment arm, WeChat Pay, currently has over one billion monthly active users, as reported by Forkast News. The platform only allows digital yuan payments for specific transactions, such as McDonalt’s orders and bill payments. WeChat is also expected to enable direct digital yuan transactions between its users in the near future.

With this decision, WeChat Pay became the second platform that supports the digital yen. The first platform was Alibaba Group’s Alipay application, while WeChat Pay is currently owned by Alibaba Group’s main competitor Tencent Holdings.

Vitalik Buterin token dump sends unsolicited altcoins price down including CULT

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin dumped several unsolicited altcoins (sh*tcoins) during the early hours of March 7, leading to the value of these assets falling.

On-chain analyst Lookonchain reported that Buterin sold 50 billion MOPS, 500 trillion SHIK, and 10 billion CULT tokens for 439.25 ETH.

Blockchain security firm PeckShield corroborated this report and added that the ETH co-founder sold 3.4 million BITE tokens for 4.9 ETH. The firm said Buterin deposited 214 ETH to an EthDev address.

Despite his sales, Etherscan data showed that Buterin still holds 666 SHIK and 10 billion CULT tokens.

Binance’s PoR system shows over $63B in reserves backing 24 assets

Binance, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, updated its proof-of-reserves (PoR) system to include 11 new tokens. These include Mask Network (MASK), Dogecoin (DOGE), Curve DAO Token (CRV), 1inch (1iNCH), and more.

According to the March 7 update, Binance’s PoR system now reflects the reserves held for the added new tokens in addition to the 13 previously added. The total reserves for the 24 assets on Binance exceeded $63 billion as of March 1.

USD Coin (USDC) had the highest reserve ratio at 54,90.54%. Binance held $3.55 billion worth of USDC, while users have a net balance of $64.7 million worth of assets.

Binance USD (BUSD) had the second-highest reserve ratio at 128.81%, while BNB (BNB) followed at a close second at 123.85%.

Research Highlight

Research: Tether shines as leading stablecoin in evolving market

Following the FTX disaster in November, the stablecoin market has significantly changed, losing $12 billion in value.

More recently, the issue was compounded by troubles at BUSD as the New York Department of Financial Services (NYFDS) ordered Paxos to cease token issuance.

Glassnode data analyzed by CryptoSlate showed Tether has emerged as the clear winner in the market restructuring, despite ongoing, long-running suspicions about the token’s ability to meet its liabilities.

Crypto Market

In the last 24 hours, Bitcoin (BTC) fell 1.31% to trade at $22,109.80, while Ethereum (ETH) was down 1.03% at $1,549.80.

Biggest Gainers (24h)

• Mask Network (MASK): +10.27%
• Everscale (EVER): +9.07%
• TrueFi (TRU): +8.7%

Biggest Losers (24h)

• OKB (OKB): -8.76%
• RSK Infrastructure Framework RSK Infrastructure Framework (RIF): -7.61%
• Threshold (T): -7%