$182m hack, ‘crypto is dead’ and XRP defies Easter weekend slide

Hackers have stolen $182 million from Ethereum-based stablecoin project Beanstalk Farms.

Stablecoins were invented to protect investors from the volatility of cryptocurrency prices, giving them a place to ‘shelter’ their investments without cashing out into fiat money such as dollars or pounds sterling.

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Those such as Tether or USDC typically back their $1 peg with cash reserves – but Beanstalk took a different approach. It invited participants to invest tokens in return for a yield – buying ‘beans’ – while the higher the holding, the more say they would have in the governance of the project.

The hackers took out a flash loan to acquire enough voting rights to drain its reserves.

Rise & fall of crypto culture

A prominent developer within decentralised finance has lamented the ‘rise and fall of crypto culture’.

Andre Cronje is a former technical adviser at the Fantom Foundation and founder of Yearn.finance.

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Writing ‘Crypto is dead. Long live Crypto’, he bemoaned the culture surrounding cryptocurrency investments.

“I have long been vocal on my disdain of crypto culture, and my love for crypto ethos. Reading that might sound weird, but crypto ethos is concept like self-sovereign rights, self custody, self empowerment. Crypto culture is concepts like wealth, entitlement, enrichment, and ego,” he explained. “Crypto culture has strangled crypto ethos.”

He also said the cryptocurrency financial systems are being built by people with little knowledge of how monetary systems work: “I often feel that a lot of what is being built in crypto is being built by people that read a Wikipedia article on bonds, or seigniorage, or debt instruments and then thought to themselves, ‘they can do this better’.”

Axie Infinity hack linked to North Korea

The FBI says the $620 million cryptocurrency hack from Ronin Network, a Sky Mavis bridge protocol linked to popular videogame Axie Infinity, was the work of North Korea.

On March 23rd, hackers stole more than $600m worth of Ethereum and USDC in an attack which was only discovered six days later.

US authorities say hacking group Lazarus Group and APT 38 were behind the heist.

“The FBI, in coordination with Treasury and other US government partners, will continue to expose and combat the DPRK’s use of illicit activities – including cybercrime and cryptocurrency theft – to generate revenue for the regime,” it added.

Cryptocurrency prices

The overall market cap of the more than 18,900 coins is at $1.89 trillion, down from $1.92tr before the Easter weekend, a fall mitigated by a 4.5% bounceback in the last 24 hours.

Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – is below $40,700 at the time of writing (7am UK), down from $41,300 on Thursday morning ahead of the Easter weekend. BTC is 1% up in a week.

Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – fell from $3,100 to just above $3,000. ETH, set for a huge upgrade soon, is 1% up over the course of a week.

Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token fell $5 to $416, leaving it 2% up over seven days.

The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP gained 3 cents to 77c, which leaves it 9% up over seven days.

Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token dropped $5 to $102 and is 1% down on its price last Tuesday morning.

Terra, described as a programmable money for the internet, gained around $1 to top $89 and move above Cardano in the crypto valuation table. Its payment token LUNA is 6% higher than its price a week ago.

Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, shed 4c to 93c. It is 2% down over the course of a week.

Avalanche, a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments, came out of nowhere months ago to break into the top 10 currencies. Its AVAX token shed around $4 to $77.41 and is more or less where it was a week ago.

Meme coin Dogecoin was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE remained around 14c while it is 1% up over seven days.

Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, dropped 16c to $18.19 and is 3% higher than its price a week ago.

For valuations of the top 250 coins by market cap plus 24-hour price change and volume traded, see below.

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