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Crypto Stories: John McAfee tells the story of how he first found out about Bitcoin

British-American businessman John McAfee talks about his crypto story and how he discovered BTC.

Secret Network resolves network vulnerability following white hat disclosure

On Nov. 30, Guy Zyskind, CEO of privacy smart contract blockchain Secret Network, said that developers had patched a privacy-related vulnerability and users' funds remain secure. In a document dated Nov. 29, Secret Network wrote that users or developers required no action and that all active nodes were upgraded to correct the exploit on Nov. 2. 

The sequence of events, unveiled late yesterday by the Secret Network developers, began when a group of white-hat computer science researchers contacted the Secret team on Oct. 3 regarding a recently disclosed xAPIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller) architectural bug. The exploit allowed uninitialized memory reads in certain Software Guard Extension-enabled (SGX) Intel CPUs. Secret Network leverages SGX technology to provide confidential execution of smart contracts. 

As stated in their paper, researchers first registered a server as a validator node on the Secret Network, even when they did not have sufficient funds to be trusted to actively validate transactions. The registration process then stored a copy of Secret's global consensus seed inside its SGX enclave. Next, through the aforementioned CPU glitch, researchers extracted the consensus seed of its Secret Node and its private Intel Enhanced Privacy ID key. Finally, with these items, they were able to break Secret's privacy-preserving features and decrypt the internal state of all smart contracts on the network, as well as the digital assets embedded in them. 

Secret developers verified the exploit on Oct. 4 and devised a plan to patch the vulnerability together with researchers and Intel staff. First, nodes were forcefully ejected from the network, and their secret keys deleted. After that, nodes could only rejoin the network if they patched all known vulnerabilities, which was completed on Nov. 2. "With this upgrade, it is now infeasible to mount xAPIC attacks against the Secret Network mainnet," wrote the Secret Network team.

In addition, new nodes joining the network will be limited to server-class hardware only, as to limit the attack surface that user-class hardware presents. Founded in 2015, Secret Network currently has a market cap of $131 million through its native token SCRT. The firm partnered with director Quentin Tarantino to launch Secret NFTs last November.

Secret Network resolves network vulnerability following white hat disclosure

Researchers were able to decrypt all of Secret's internal transactions using an exploit.

Uniswap launches NFT marketplace aggregator

Developers say the tool can help users save upwards of 15% on gas fees when shopping for NFTs.

FTM price rebounds 50% as Fantom reveals 30 years runway (without having to sell its token)

Fantom (FTM) continued its upward momentum on Nov. 30 amid reports that the Fantom Foundation generates consistent profits and has 30 years of runway without having to sell any FTM tokens. 

Fantom's FTM holdings up from 3% to 14%

FTM price gained nearly 13.5% to reach $0.24, its highest level in three weeks. The rally came as a part of a broader rebound trend that started when it bottomed out at around $0.17 on Nov. 22. This amounts to a 50% price rebound in the last eight days.

Interestingly, the rally picked up momentum after the Fantom Foundation's "Architect," Andre Cronje, released the firm's financial records on Nov. 28, revealing that it had $340 million worth of digital assets and had been earning over $10 million annually. Notably: 

Nov 2022 — Over 450,000,000 FTM, > $100,000,000 in stables, > $100,000,000 in crypto assets, $50,000,000 in non-crypto assets. Salary burn rate $7,000,000 / year. We have ~30 years left (without having to touch FTM)

FTM/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Certain crypto and blockchain projects have suffered due to their potential exposure to failing companies.

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FTM price rebounds 50% as Fantom reveals 30 years runway (without having to sell its token)

Fantom (FTM) continued its upward momentum on Nov. 30 amid reports that the Fantom Foundation generates consistent profits and has 30 years of runway without having to sell any FTM tokens. 

Fantom's FTM holdings up from 3% to 14%

FTM price gained nearly 13.5% to reach $0.24, its highest level in three weeks. The rally came as a part of a broader rebound trend that started when it bottomed out at around $0.17 on Nov. 22. This amounts to a 50% price rebound in the last eight days.

Interestingly, the rally picked up momentum after the Fantom Foundation's "Architect," Andre Cronje, released the firm's financial records on Nov. 28, revealing that it had $340 million worth of digital assets and had been earning over $10 million annually. Notably: 

Nov 2022 — Over 450,000,000 FTM, > $100,000,000 in stables, > $100,000,000 in crypto assets, $50,000,000 in non-crypto assets. Salary burn rate $7,000,000 / year. We have ~30 years left (without having to touch FTM)

FTM/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Certain crypto and blockchain projects have suffered due to their potential exposure to failing companies.

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Singapore’s Temasek sees ‘reputational damage’ due to FTX, official says

Despite writing down its $275 million investment in FTX, Temasek still apparently holds its investments in many other crypto-related businesses.

Illicit cross-chain transfers expected to grow to $10B: Here's how to prevent them

Forecasts predict cryptocurrency criminals laundering more than $10 billion through cross-chain bridges by 2025, leading to calls for holistic screening solutions.

Illicit cross-chain transfers expected to grow to $10B: Here's how to prevent them

Forecasts predict cryptocurrency criminals laundering more than $10 billion through cross-chain bridges by 2025, leading to calls for holistic screening solutions.

European Central Bank blasts Bitcoin —community responds

After the European Central Bank released a blog post on the shortcomings of Bitcoin, the crypto community on Twitter took to the comments to defend the cryptocurrency.

Digital identity platform integrates with zkSync for on-chain KYC

RNS.ID’s on-chain KYC solution is designed on a “privacy engine” to encrypt users' data.

Gemini gets regulatory greenlight in Italy, Greece amid lending halt

Winklevoss’ Gemini exchange received the latest regulatory approvals days before its lending product Gemini Earn faced major issues.

BTC price taps $17K as analysis warns of inbound Bitcoin ‘risk events’

Bitcoin faces more than just FTX fallout in December, with macro data due and the Mt. Gox payouts getting closer.

BTC price taps $17K as analysis warns of inbound Bitcoin ‘risk events’

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly returned to $17,000 into Nov. 30 as monthly close volatility loomed.

BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView

Trader: $17,500 monthly close “most bullish outcome”

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD following traders’ predictions to sweep higher levels before consolidating.

Highs of $17,072 appeared on Bitstamp, with the pair nonetheless unable to flip the highs to support. At the time of writing, Bitcoin hovered around $16,900.

$17,000 marks a key range for bulls to reclaim, Cointelegraph reported the day prior, and until this happens, the status quo remains.

“$BTC bulls want to hold 16.8k as first counter trend S/R flip. Back below would represent a minor upthrust,” popular analyst Cheds summarized, revealing a short at the highs.

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What is the best crypto use case? Community answers

A community member argued that the best crypto use case is still how crypto provides a decentralized, peer-to-peer payment system that eliminates middlemen like banks.

Binance acquires regulated crypto exchange in Japan

Binance has managed to expand its services throughout the past year by either acquiring an operating license or buying a stake in a regulated entity.

Binance acquires regulated crypto exchange in Japan

Binance has managed to expand its services throughout the past year by either acquiring an operating license or buying a stake in a regulated entity.

South Korea issues arrest warrant for Do Kwon's former colleagues

Arrest warrants were sought for Terraform Labs co-founder Daniel Shin, three investors and four engineers responsible for TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA initiatives.

South Korea issues arrest warrant for Do Kwon's former colleagues

Amid the ongoing manhunt for Terraform Labs co-founder and CEO Do Kwon, South Korean authorities have spread out their investigations to target other Terra executives. Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for co-founder Daniel Shin and seven other engineers and investors of the firm following suspicion of gaining illegal profits before the massive collapse of the Terra ecosystem.

The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office in South Korea suspected that Shin possessed Terra (LUNA) tokens, which were pre-issued without the public knowledge of investors. In doing so, Shin allegedly bagged profits worth 140 billion won (roughly $105 million) by selling the pre-issued tokens during the bull market.

Arrest warrants were also sought for three Terraform Labs investors and four engineers responsible for TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA initiatives, confirmed local media Yonhap News Agency. On Nov. 19, South Korean authorities seized assets worth over $104 million from Shin under the same suspicion of making unfair profits.

At the time, Shin’s attorney maintained the counter-narrative stating that “Reports that CEO Shin Hyun-seong sold Luna at a high point and realized profits or that he made profits through other illegal methods are not true.”

Speaking against the arrest warrant, Shin pointed out:

Brazil passes law to legalize crypto as a payment method

The law was approved by the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil but still requires the approval of the executive branch to be enacted.

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