The biggest crypto news and ideas of the day |
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A message from Interchain Foundation |
IBC Eureka: 1-Click Asset Transfers between Cosmos and Ethereum
Cosmos has launched a new bridge product, IBC Eureka, to deliver fast, affordable, and simple 1-click connections between Ethereum and Cosmos chains. IBC Eureka enables transfers from Ethereum for less than $1, including gas and relay fees, in seconds, and ERC-20s will be available for one-click transfers into Cosmos. IBC Eureka starts the distribution for Cosmos’ interchain development platform.
Partners joining the IBC Eureka network include Bitcoin services provider Babylon for its genesis mainnet launch, Bitcoin LST and DeFi partners Lombard, Lorenzo, PumpBTC, SatLayer, and Tower DEX, ZK proving network ZkCloud, data services provider SEDA Protocol, and leading DeFi blockchain Injective. Future chains adding IBC Eureka to their interoperability suite include dYdX and MANTRA.
To learn more about IBC Eureka, visit https://cosmos.network/ibc-eureka |
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Tether, Circle Face Intense Competition |
Ian Allison:
The competition for stablecoin dominance is entering a third phase and companies such as Tether, issuer of the largest token, and Circle, the No. 2, are setting up their positions as the industry faces increased regulation in the form of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regime and U.S. legislation that is working its way through Congress, according to digital asset cryptography and custody specialists Fireblocks.
This latest stage will feature banks, large and small, as well as incumbent payment firms that are weighing up the best way to integrate the tokens into their existing businesses, according to Ran Goldi, SVP of payments at Fireblocks. Stablecoins, blockchain-based tokens that mimic U.S. dollars for the most part, have become big business. Tether's USDT is the clear leader, with a market cap close to $145 billion. Circle's USDC has over $60 billion in circulation and the company is considering a public listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The stablecoin market could grow to $2 trillion by the end of 2028, Standard Chartered said in a Tuesday note. “We are going to see banks issuing stablecoins, as they are under MiCA,” Goldi said in an interview. “You are seeing financial institutions that are fintechs entering such as Robinhood, Ripple and Revolut. By the end of this year, you are going to see maybe 50 more stablecoins."
The industry has already passed through two stages, Goldi said. The first occurred when USDC went up against U.S. regulated trading firm Paxos, which had partnered with crypto exchange Binance to issue BUSD. For regulatory reasons Paxos had to drop BUSD and so Circle won that round, Goldi said, adding that Paxos’ new USDG consortium is growing in stature and likely to play a major role in the future.
The second stage was between Circle and Tether competing fiercely for market share.
Goldi said he believes most of the banks are writing strategic plans that will probably be submitted by the end of this quarter. “It will be interesting to see if banks build something on their own, or use BNY Mellon, for instance, that serves banks, or a vendor like Fireblocks. I think the large tier-1 banks like JPMorgan, Citi and Morgan Stanley will build their own tech, while the tier-2 banks will want to use some hosted tech provider,” Goldi said. “Of course they are banks and they move slowly, so I think they would be looking to approve those plans by the end of this year and perhaps do something in 2026." FULL ARTICLE |
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Binance, KuCoin Face AWS Issues |
Shaurya Malwa:
Crypto exchanges Binance and KuCoin temporarily suspended withdrawals amid reported issues with their data center provider Amazon Web Services (AWS).
"We are aware of an issue impacting some services on the #Binance platform due to a temporary network interruption in the AWS data center," Binance said in an X post.
"Some orders are still successful, but some are failing. If users failed, they may keep retrying."
Binance opened withdrawals just over five minutes after the issue was first reported. Users are still reportedly facing issues placing trades on both Binance and KuCoin, X posts show.
Crypto wallet Rabby and on-chain analytics tool DeBank reported issues in separate X posts as well, with all services unavailable.
|AWS is a cloud computing platform providing services like storage, computing power to all kinds of businesses. An outage may disrupt these services and impact companies relying on AWS for websites, applications, or data storage.
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Optimum Raises $11M for Memory Layer |
Ian Allison:
Optimum, a decentralized, performance-enhancing memory layer for any blockchain, raised an $11 million seed round, inviting its creators from institutions like Harvard and MIT to jump from the world of academia into the commercial crypto arena.
The seed round was led by 1kx with participation from Robot Ventures, Finality Capital, Spartan, CMT Digital, SNZ, Triton Capital, Big Brain, CMS, Longhash, NGC, Animoca, GSR, Caladan, Reforge and others. Optimum is building what it calls the missing memory layer of blockchains, making the way data is stored, accessed and propagated, faster, cheaper and truly decentralized, according to a press release.
At the core of Optimum’s innovation is a method of decentralized coding for distributed systems, known as Random Linear Network Coding (RLNC), developed by Muriel Médard, an MIT professor who is speaking at Consensus Toronto 2025. “If you think of Web3 as a decentralized world computer, people have done an amazing job on the compute part; let's say, the operating system,” Médard said in an interview. “But anybody who's put together a computer knows that you also need a bus, which is the data propagation, and you need a memory, which we call the random access memory, as opposed to more static memory like a disk or the cloud.”
Without a scalable memory layer, blockchains face systemic inefficiencies, according to Médard, such as outdated gossip networks that redundantly propagate data, congested memepools that cause unpredictable delays and bloated nodes that make retrieval costly and complex.
Optimum’s memory infrastructure tackles inefficient data propagation, redundant storage and slow access, using Médard’s RLNC coding scheme.
Optimum is now live on a private testnet and is inviting L1s, L2s, validators and node operators to experience its decentralized memory layer in action. |
DEX KiloEx Loses $7M in Oracle Exploit |
Shaurya Malwa:
KiloEx, a decentralized exchange (DEX) for trading perpetual futures, was hit by a sophisticated attack earlier Tuesday that left users reeling with losses of around $7 million.
The exploit unfolded across multiple blockchain networks and appeared to stem from a vulnerability in the platform’s price oracle system, per blockchain analysis firm Cyvers. An attacker, using a wallet funded through Tornado Cash — a tool that obscures transaction trails — executed a series of transactions on the Base, BNB Chain, and Taiko networks to take advantage of a flaw in the platform’s price oracle system, which allowed the attacker to manipulate asset prices. KiloEx has since confirmed the breach, suspended platform operations, and is now working with partners to trace the stolen funds and blacklist the attacker’s wallet. The DEX offered the hacker 10% of the bounty if they returned 90% of the funds.
Oracles are blockchain-based tools that relay any type of outside data to a blockchain, where smart contracts use that data to make decisions for a financial application. That is, the oracle tells the platform whether ether (ETH) is worth $2,000 or $3,000, ensuring trades happen at fair market prices.
But oracles can be a weak link. In KiloEx’s case, the attacker exploited a price oracle access control vulnerability — essentially, a flaw that let them tamper with data by using flash loans (or temporary liquidity) that tricked the system into believing false prices.
The attacker manipulated the oracle to report an absurdly low price for ETH (say, $100) when opening a leveraged trading position. Leverage allows traders to borrow funds to amplify their bets, so a fake price can create massive distortions.
This made it look like they’d made a huge profit, which they then withdrew from KiloEx’s vault. The attacker repeated this across Base, BNB Chain, and Taiko, exploiting KiloEx’s cross-chain setup to maximize gains before the platform could react.
In one reported transaction, the attacker netted $3.12 million in a single move. This isn’t the first time a DeFi platform has been hit by oracle manipulation. Similar attacks have targeted platforms like Mango Markets in 2022, where $100 million was stolen, and Cream Finance in 2021, with losses of $130 million. |
Opinion: DOJ Retreat Raises Risks |
The U.S. Treasury’s move to shift prosecutorial resources away from crypto may please the industry. But the decision could prove harmful down the line, says Yoav Keren, CEO and Co-founder of BrandShield:
The Department of Justice recently issued new guidance directing prosecutors to scale back their efforts to investigate and litigate cryptocurrency crimes. This subsequently disbands the government’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) in an effort to prioritize immigration and procurement issues over cryptocurrency enforcement. While the DOJ frames this as a move to streamline resources, threat actors are watching – and adapting. While it’s too early to observe its impact on the cryptocurrency world, I believe this move is more than a bureaucratic shuffle – it signals an enforcement vacuum that cybercriminals will rush to fill. Cybercriminals are highly adaptable and thrive in moments of regulatory ambiguity. When criminal enforcement – whether of blue-collar or white-collar crime – becomes limited, threat actors take note and often shift their operations outside the lines of prosecutable conduct. The same is true of the cryptocurrency space. In the digital economy, especially within the decentralized, unregulated, and fast-moving world of Web3 and crypto, this gray area is fertile ground for impersonation scams, fake airdrops, phishing campaigns, and spoofed tokens. Even before this policy change, scams involving fake coins, phishing sites, and wallet siphons were already on the rise. According to the FBI’s latest Cryptocurrency Fraud Report, cryptocurrency fraud amounted to $5.6 billion in losses, a 45% increase since 2022. Now, as the glare of federal scrutiny moves away from the crypto space, individuals, exchanges, and brands otherwise vulnerable to impersonation must prepare for a rise in cryptocurrency fraud. Cybercriminals will continue to exploit platforms and dupe investors, especially in spaces where technical complexity, anonymity, and lack of regulation already hamper detection and enforcement.
FULL ARTICLE |
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The Industry’s Brightest Minds. One Unmissable Event.
Dealmaking. Networking. Big moves. Consensus 2025 is where the industry’s top players connect, innovate, and build what’s next. Don’t miss out. Save 15% with code NODE15. |
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