Alpha-Packed: Friday 8 Sep

⚡ Alpha

• Omni Network DotNames Domains mission is live. Omni Network is layer 1 blockchain built to connect all rollups and previously raised $18 million led by Pentera Capital.

• Caldera Bootcamp Week #4 campaign is live. Caldera is modular blockchain platform and previously raised $9 million led by Dragonfly and Sequoia Capital.

• Catalyst missions are live. Catalyst is a cross-chain AMM and previously raised $4.2 million with participation from The Spartan Group, Circle Ventures, Alchemy Ventures, and more.

• Binance September market insights report is live. The report highlights the state of the cryptocurrency market and provides insights on SocialFi, adoption of new Layer 2's, EigenLayer, and other topics.

🪂 Airdrops

• Connext airdrop post-mortem of claim issues. Hacker controlled wallets (hijacked) mass claimed and DOS’d Tokensoft's API.

📰 TRADFI News

• ARK Invest and 21Shares file for spot Ethereum ETF with the SEC.

• J.P. Morgan exploring blockchain-based digital deposit token for cross-border payments and settlement.

• Genesis Global Capital files lawsuit against Digital Currency Group over $600 million of unpaid loans.

• SBF's request for immediate release denied, but pretrial release referred to 3-judge panel.

• Ex-FTX executive, Ryan Salame; pleads guilty to criminal charges, released on $1 million bond, and agreed to surrender $1.6 billion in assets.

• Tornado Cash co-founder, Roman Storm; pleads not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

• Former OpenSea manager, Nathaniel Chastain; opts to serve prison sentence for insider trading while his appeal is pending.

• Theodex CEO sentenced to 11,196 years in jail over 2021 $2 billion cryptocurrency exchange collapse..

• Lawsuit from ParaFi Capital, Framework Venutures, and 1kx against Curve Finance CEO, Michael Egorov; rejected because Egorov didn’t live in the state when alleged misdeeds took place.

• Binance delisting privacy coins (Monero $XMR, MobileCoin $MOB, Firo $FIRO, and Horizen $ZEN) for Belgian users later this month.

• Texas pays Bitcoin mining firm, Riot Platforms; $31.7 million in energy credits after it reduces energy usage by 95% during heatwave.

📰 DeFi News

• CFTC announces enforcement actions against Opyn, 0x, and Deridex for illegally offering leveraged and margined retail commodity transactions in digital assets among other charges.

• Privacy paper, "Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance: Towards a Practical Equilibrium," co-authored by Vitalik Buterin, explores new compliance opportunities made possible by Privacy Pools, where users can provably dissociate from illicit funds.

• Fuel "Beta-4" testnet is live. Introduces public P2P access and multi-token support, enables native-level NFTs, multi-asset pools, and more.

• $FDUSD stablecoin market cap grows 51% to nearly $400 million with 90% of the supply held on Binance.

• Reddit releases NFL team Reddit Collectible Avatar NFT's. Priced at $25 each and limited to 500 per team.

🛡 Security and Exploits

• Sim-swap attack thread. Covers what sim-swapping is and how to protect yourself.

• Apple releases security patches for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS which addresses two zero-day vulnerabilities.

• Google releases security patches for Android which addresses a high-severity vulnerability and several other flaws.

• FBI identifies North Korean hacker group, Lazarus Group; as culprits behind Stake exploit.

• MystenLabs Bug Bounty Program is live. Rewards range from $1,000 up to $30,000.

• Euler Finance hack caused by bug fix. Whitehat hacker, Kankodu; submitted a bug report and claimed a bug bounty, but the bug fix introduced the function with the vulnerability.

• Victim loses ~$24 million worth of $rETH and $stETH in a phishing scam.

• GMBL COMPUTER exploited for 471 $ETH after referral system abuse. Exploiter has already returned 235 $ETH.

• Wallet Guard MetaMask Snap waitlist is live. Allows for transaction insights directly within MetaMask.

💰 Funding

• Coinbase Ventures leads the Base Ecosystem Fund with investments in six new projects.

• Brine Finance, a decentralized order-book exchange; completed a $16.5 million Series A round led by Pantera Capital.

• Trident Digital Group, a "next generation" cryptocurrency lending business; completed a $8 million Seed round led by White Star Capital and New Form.

• Socket, an interoperability protocol; completed a $5 million strategic investment round with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Framework.

• PrimeVault, an institutional-grade asset management product; raised an undisclosed amount with participation from Hashkey Capital, Alchemy, Y Combinator, and more.

• Pera Wallet, an Algorand wallet; announces investment from Algorand Foundation, Borderless Capital, Arrington Capital, and DWF Labs.