Ethereum stalls amidst news of another DeFi exploit
The crypto market faced a slew of DeFi hacks through Q1 2022, with such incidents up by 72% compared to 2021.
- Ethereum’s valuation currently stands at $362 billion, representing a crypto market share of approximately 19%.
- Incidents related to decentralized finance (DeFi) hacks have surged by 72% compared to 2021.
- Non-fungible token (NFT) transactions scaled up to an all-time high of $1.67 billion last year.
Ethereum (ETH) has continued to float around the $3,000 despite touching a relative high of $3,167 on Thursday. The ongoing volatility has resulted in the altcoin’s monthly gains slipping to just +1.5%. At press time, ETH is trading at $2,963.
This turbulent price action coincides with news of another major hacking incident to affect the crypto market. Earlier this week, blockchain security provider BlockSec noted that DeFi protocol ZEED had been on the receiving end of an attack. The miscreant exploited a vulnerability in how the protocol distributes rewards and minted additional tokens. However, in a surprising turn of events, the attacker fumbled a massive portion of their stolen funds, leaving behind approximately $1 million of stolen crypto in a smart contract designed to self-destruct automatically.
The DeFi market has seen a growing number of such incidents in recent months. Over the first quarter of 2022 alone, more than $1.3 billion worth of digital assets has been stolen from exchanges and platforms. These incidents are up by 72% compared to 2021.
Such cases not only malign the image of the crypto market as a whole but can also have a major impact on investor confidence. This is especially true for individuals still on the fence regarding the overall legitimacy of the digital asset industry.
Australian media giant goes all-in on NFTs
Reports say that Australian sports firm Basketball Forever has just launched its latest offering, an NFT-centric project called Hoop Hounds. It maximizes its fan engagement efforts and provides token owners with real-world benefits. In recent months, there has been a major upsurge in the number of utility-focused NFT projects similar to Bored Ape Yacht Club and Top Shot, where token owners are provided with access to real-world events and products instead of their purchases.
NFTs have continued to generate a lot of interest globally, with reports suggesting that throughout 2021 alone, these offerings have recorded transactions of over $17 billion. If NFTs can maintain current levels of interest, they could help drive the value of the digital asset market even higher.
Interested in cryptocurrency? Learn more about the basics with our beginner’s guide to Bitcoin, dive deeper by learning about Ethereum and see what blockchain can do with our simple guide to DeFi.
Disclosure: The author owns a range of cryptocurrencies at the time of writing.
