Decentral Block Post

The price of Solana (SOL) has plunged more than 6% the last 24 hours, amid fears that bankrupt crypto exchange FTX may soon liquidate its significant portions of the token and other Solana-affiliated crypto assets. 

According to a combination of data from Solscan, which has added up the value of the three publicly available FTX cold storage wallets, the FTX estate holds a combined $1.5 billion in crypto assets on the Solana network.

Of that weighty figure, Solana tokens account for just $128 million.

The rest of the amount is comprised of numerous Solana-based altcoins such as Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Maps token (MAPS), Serum (SRM) and a number of other tokens colloquially referred to as “Sam coins” — a jest at the former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.

Still, the idea that liquidators may soon unleash $128 million worth of SOL and hundreds of millions worth of other SOL-affiliated tokens onto the market hasn’t inspired much confidence in the market.

Not a single fraud proof has been submitted on Arbitrum since it first launched its mainnet with the built-in security feature in August 2021, according to Ed Felten, co-founder and chief scientist of the Arbitrum-building Offchain Labs.

Operating as an Ethereum layer-2, Arbitrum’s interactive, multi-round fraud proofs work by allowing a layer-1 verifier contract to decide whether the challenger’s fraud-proof submission is valid. If so, the fraudulent validator’s stake is slashed.

Fraud proofs are submitted by challenging validators when it considers another validator to have fraudulently or otherwise incorrectly assembled an incoming batch of transactions into the next block.

However, Arbitrum’s mainnet is yet to see a fraud-proof attempt let alone a successful challenge, Felten told Cointelegraph at Korean Blockchain Week on Sept. 4:

“Not on mainnet. We did have one or two on Ethereum proof-of-work (POW). After the Merge, [...] there was a version of Arbitrum running on the Ethereum POW fork and somebody did try to steal all the data and there was a successful challenge which defeated that.”

Ethereum staking protocol Lido Finance has assured both Lido DAO (LDO) and staked-Ether (stETH) tokens remain safe despite hackers allegedly exploiting a known security flaw in LDO’s token contract.

Lido didn’t confirm any exploits, but acknowledged the security flaw was known and reassured LDO and stETH funds remain safe in response to a Sept. 10 post by blockchain security firm SlowMist.

SlowMist said LDO’s flawed token contract allows bad actors to facilitate “fake deposit” attacks on exchanges because LDO’s token contract enables users to execute transactions even where they don’t have sufficient funds. This code deviates from the Ethereum Request for Comment 20 (ERC-20) token standard, according to SlowMist.

However, Lido Finance argued the flaw is built into all ERC-20 tokens — not just Lido’s LDO token:

SlowMist said the “fake deposit” attacks came from LDO’s token contract executing transfers where the value is larger than what the user actually owns, triggering a false return as opposed to reverting the transaction. While the firm said Lido's token contract has recently been exploited via this attack, no on-chain evidence was provided.

Bitcoin (BTC) traded in a narrow range this week and is on target to form the third consecutive Doji candlestick pattern on the weekly chart. The cryptocurrency markets did not receive any support from the United States equities markets, which ended the week on a negative note. The S&P 500 Index dropped 1.3% while the Nasdaq closed down 1.9%. 

Bitcoin’s weakness has dragged several altcoins lower, with many testing multi-week lows. This indicates that the broader crypto market is in a firm bear grip. Negative markets make it difficult for buyers to identify short-term bullish trades as rallies hardly sustain. However, it could be a good time for long-term investors to build a portfolio.

According to a recent Amberdata report, 24% of asset management firms are appointing senior executives dedicated to the implementation of digital strategies. Down the line, 13% more firms plan to adopt a digital assets strategy. This indicates “seriousness about implementation as well as senior management buy-in,” the report added.

Could Bitcoin break out to the upside, boosting buying interest in altcoins? Let’s study the charts of top-5 cryptocurrencies that are showing promise in the near term.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin has been trading near the $26,000 level for the past few days, indicating a tussle between the bulls and the bears.

Pepecoin (PEPE) price has crashed nearly 85% from its record high of $0.00000448 in May 2023. What's more, its bearish momentum is likely to continue in September. 

Back-to-back Pepecoin security breaches

Pepecoin has suffered two concerning security breaches in the last two weeks.

First, on Aug. 24, Pepecoin's rogue founding team members transferred $16 million worth of PEPE tokens to exchanges to potentially sell them. That created concerns across the community about a potential "rug pull scam," causing a 30% decline in the PEPE market.

Then, on Sep. 9, Pepecoin's official X (aka Twitter) handle confirmed that an anonymous entity dubbed "lordkeklol" had hacked their accredited Telegram channel. 

PEPE price has dropped over 12% since the news, hinting that the back-to-back security breaches have eroded investors' confidence in the memecoin project.