Decentral Block Post

Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution Optimism (OP) has disclosed plans to sell 116 million OP tokens to seven private buyers for treasury management purposes

At current prices, the sale will see $159 million worth of OP tokens change hands.

While some observers feared the sale would bring about depressed prices from Optimism “dumping” its tokens on the market, it seems unlikely that the sale of the tokens will have any material impact on the price of OP, due to the sale being private.

Additionally, the tokens are being sourced from the unallocated portion of the OP token treasury — meaning that they are not part of the circulating supply.

As explained on the Optimism website, the tokens are subject to a two-year lock up period, meaning that buyers are unable to sell them on secondary markets.

The team behind Balancer, an Ethereum-based automated market maker, believes a social engineering attack on its DNS service provider was what led to its website’s frontend being compromised on Sept. 19, leading to an estimated $238,000 in crypto stolen.

“After investigation, it is clear that this was a social engineering attack on EuroDNS, the domain registrar used for .fi TLDs,” the firm explained in a Sept. 20 X post.

Approximately 8 hours after the first warning of the attack, Balancer said its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) was actively addressing the DNS attack and was working to recover the Balancer UI.

At 5:45 pm UTC on Sept. 20, Balancer said it was successful in securing the domain and bringing it back under the control of Balancer DAO. It also confirmed its subdomains “app.balancer.fi” and other “balancer.fi” are safe to use again.

However, it suggested any other projects using the same top-level domain should consider moving to a more secure registrar. 

Adult content creators have continued to shift towards decentralized versions of OnlyFans and Patreon, after recent payment difficulties and the ever-present threat of being de-platformed.

Leon Lee, founder and CEO of Only1 — a decentralized version of OnlyFans — tells Cointelegraph there has been a recent power shift from intermediaries to content creators, thanks to Web3.

“The role of intermediaries are diminishing while the role and earnings of creators are increasing,” said Lee.

In August, creators on Patreon reported having difficulties withdrawing their earnings from the platform as payments were being flagged as fraudulent by banks.

Many content creators also haven’t likely forgotten when OnlyFans tried to ban sexually explicit content in 2021, only to reverse the decision days later.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) recovery is facing selling above $27,000, indicating near-term nervousness due to the Federal Reserve’s meeting on Sep. 20. However, long-term investors are unfazed and they have continued to accumulate. Glassnode data shows that Bitcoin’s inactive supply has been at all-time highs since July.

This bullish temperament is not reflected in institutional activity, however. Investors have cut down on their cryptocurrency exposure and are sitting on the sidelines awaiting more clarity on the regulatory and macroeconomic front. Asset manager CoinShares reported that outflows from exchange-traded products hit $455 million over the past nine weeks.

Meanwhile, analysts remain divided about Bitcoin’s near-term price action. Bollinger Bands creator John Bollinger speculated in a X (formerly Twitter) post that Bitcoin could start an up-move but added that it was “too early to answer.”

The volatility could increase after Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference but traders should be careful not to get sucked into a bull or a bear trap. It is better to wait on the sidelines and enter after the volatility subsides and a directional move begins.

What are the important levels to watch for on Bitcoin and the major altcoins? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

USD Coin (USDC), the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization after Tether (USDT), continues expanding across different blockchain networks, now being launched on Polkadot.

USDC issuer Circle has officially launched USD Coin on the Polkadot network, the firm announced on Sept. 19. According to the Circle’s website, Polkadot USDC is immediately available for developers and users as the stablecoin can now be transferred to parachains in Polkadot via the XCM protocol using Circle Account and Circle APIs.

According to the announcement, PolkadotUSDC is natively issued on Polkadot Asset Hub, a common parachain that is designed for issuing, managing, and transferring digital assets across the Polkadot ecosystem.

Circle stressed that Circle Account and Circle APIs only support Polkadot USDC natively issued on Polkadot Asset Hub in the Polkadot ecosystem. This means that users must transfer USDC from their Circle Account to an external Polkadot Asset Hub wallet address prior to using XCM.

When transferring USDT from Polkadot Asset Hub to other parachains via XCM, users must transfer back to Polkadot Asset Hub via XCM prior to depositing into their Circle Account, Circle said, adding:

The lawyer responsible for laundering $400 million from the OneCoin fraud has been denied a motion seeking a new trial, despite a prosecution witness having perjured themselves in the trial against him in 2019.

According to a Sept. 18 report from Bloomberg, 54-year-old lawyer Mark Scott argued that he didn’t know OneCoin was a fraudulent operation at the time and should not be charged for his role in setting up the fund that laundered money for OneCoin founder Ruja “Cryptoqueen” Ignatov. 

Scott was found guilty of money laundering and bank fraud conspiracy in November 2019, with prosecutors finding that Scott earned a total of $50 million through a fraudulent fund that processed payments and transactions siphoned from the OneCoin scheme.

His legal team has been seeking a new trial since, citing a false testimony from a government witness in the original trial. 

However, during a Sept. 18 hearing, United States District Judge Edgardo Ramos denied the attorneys’ request for a new trial, saying he was unconvinced that “an innocent person may have been convicted” despite the false testimony delivered during the 2019 trial by Konstantin Ignatov.

Canadian fintech corporation WonderFi, a firm backed by billionaire Kevin O’Leary, recently announced a strategic partnership between Bitbuy and cryptocurrency ATM provider Localcoin ATM.

The partnership, announced on Sept. 18, will shore up Localcoin’s crypto ATM offerings throughout Canada with Bitbuy’s exchange platform and the “deep liquidity” that comes with it, according to a press release from WonderFi.

Bitbuy was the first cryptocurrency exchange to receive full regulatory approval in Canada. It was acquired by WonderFi in the January 2023 purchase of its parent company, First Ledger Corp., for close to $162 million (206 million Canadian dollars).

Localcoin purportedly operates the largest cryptocurrency ATM network in Canada. According to the press release, its 900 machines make up some 33% of the national total — which stands at approximately 2,700, making Canada second only to the United States in total adoption.

According to the press release, with this partnership, “Bitbuy’s digital asset services will cover nearly 50% of Canada’s Bitcoin ATMs.”

The failure of the bears to sink Bitcoin’s (BTC) price below $25,000-support ignited buying interest last week. The positive momentum picked up further at the start of the new week and buyers are trying to sustain Bitcoin’s price above $27,000.

Market participants seem to be buoyant on expectations that the Federal Reserve will not hike rates this year. The CME FedWatch Tool shows a 58% probability that the rates will remain at the current levels even in the December meeting.

That could be one of the reasons why the strength in the United States dollar index (DXY) has not adversely impacted the price of Bitcoin. However, traders need to be careful as the last ten days in September are known to favor the bears. According to the Carson Group, the S&P 500 Index (SPX) has been positive on average only for two days between Sep. 20 and 30 since 1950.

Could Bitcoin and select altcoins extend their recovery further or will bears pull the price lower? Let’s analyze the charts to find out.

S&P 500 Index price analysis

The S&P 500 Index broke above the moving averages on Sep. 14 but the bulls could not keep up the momentum and clear the overhead hurdle at the downtrend line.

The crypto industry is far too focused on token prices, rather than figuring out how smart contracts can be used to solve real-world business problems, according to Google Cloud's Web3 lead. 

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Google Cloud’s Head of Web3 James Tromans stressed the need to focus more on the business logic in the smart contract rather than the supply and demand dynamics of the token:

“What are the business problems that you want to get executed? When you're running a smart contract to execute some business logic to solve your business problem, you're using a token, but the token is not the thing, it’s the business problem that's the thing.”

“So I would like us to get away from all this talk about tokens and token speculation as if that is Web3 — that is not Web3,” Tromans added.

One of Google Cloud’s main blockchain services is its Blockchain Node Engine, offering users a self-hosted node to access blockchain data, conduct transactions, build smart contracts and run decentralized applications.

Cryptocurrency users frequently fall prey to online hacks with Mark Cuban being just the latest high-profile example how nearly a million dollars can leave your digital wallet.

It is possible to substantially bolster the security of your funds by heeding three simple guidelines that will be outlined in this article. But before delving into these, it's crucial to understand the type of threat that exists today. 

FBI has clear evidence on the Lazarus Group

The Lazarus Group is a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group, known for their sophisticated attacks linked to various cyberattacks and cybercriminal activities, including the WannaCry ransomware attack.

WannaCry disrupted critical services in numerous organizations, including healthcare institutions and government agencies by encrypting files on infected computers and demanding a ransom payment in Bitcoin (BTC).

One of its earliest crypto-related hacks was the breach of South Korean crypto exchange Yapizon (later rebranded to Youbit) in April 2017, resulting in the theft of 3,831 Bitcoin, worth over $4.5 million at the time.

After forming successive Doji candlestick patterns on the weekly chart for the past three weeks, Bitcoin (BTC) is on target to end the week on a positive note. This is an early sign that the uncertainty between the bulls and the bears is resolving to the upside.

Although the recovery is still in its early stages, the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Sep. 20 could boost volatility. The majority of the market participants expect the Federal Reserve to maintain a status quo on rates but surprises could arise during Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference following the rate decision.

Bitcoin’s recovery from the strong support near $24,800 has ignited buying interest in select altcoins, which are providing trading opportunities. For these altcoins to continue their upward trajectory, Bitcoin needs to maintain above $26,500.

Could Bitcoin’s relief rally pick up momentum, triggering buying in select altcoins? Let’s study the charts of top-5 cryptocurrencies that are showing promise in the near term.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin rose above the 20-day exponential moving average ($26,303) on Sep. 14, indicating that the selling pressure is reducing. Since then, the bulls thwarted several attempts by the bears to yank the price back below the 20-day EMA.