Cryptocurrency markets are recovering after last week’s underwhelming performance as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and other major digital assets are showing signs of life. The global cryptocurrency market cap is above the $1.1 trillion market cap, and the short-term outlook for crypto assets remains bullish. In addition, the trading volume for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana is up significantly, providing a hopeful week ahead.
Bitcoin and Ethereum Scaling Solutions Provide Confidence for Investors
One reason for Bitcoin’s and Ethereum’s price hikes in the last couple of weeks is the hype around the Eth network merge scheduled in September. Ethereum will transition from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake consensus model, contributing to an eco-friendly network and providing the infrastructure required to scale the blockchain for a new paradigm of crypto adoption.
While Ethereum traders are excited about the merge, Bitcoin’s lightning network also saw a large influx of users this year, especially after Cash App integrated the scaling solution into its mobile app, exposing Bitcoin’s fast transactions to millions of users.
For those unfamiliar with the Lightning Network, it essentially enables wallets, exchanges, and services to perform cryptocurrency transactions off-chain, solving the issue of long confirmation times and high gas fees.
There are differences between Ethereum’s multi-chain approach and Bitcoin’s off-chain solution, but both are looking to provide an alternative to the current state of legacy layer-1 blockchains which can get easily clogged during peak transaction days or high-traffic events like popular NFT mints or price fluctuations.
Solana Recovered After Supposed Network Hack
After news of the Solana hack broke out last week, many thought that SOL would see a substantial price collapse. However, nothing could be further from the truth as Solana managed to avoid a Terra Luna-type collapse.
Following an investigation, Solana developers concluded that Slope wallet was at fault for exposing their clients’ private keys to a centralized server, making it extremely easy for hackers to access and withdraw all the funds.
Since Solana’s network cryptography wasn’t compromised, users who never used Slope’s wallet are safe from losses, and SOL is free to trade as always. While this week has been challenging for the cryptocurrency, Solana managed a 6.76% gain in the past 24 hours, capitalizing on today’s uptrend for Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Moreover, Slope offers a 10% bounty for the hackers to return the funds safely to the wallet so that they can redistribute them to affected users. Rather than risk investigation and prosecution, if the hackers return 90% of the funds, they get to keep 10% of their “earnings” free of worry from facing a lengthy prison sentence.
Hackers – please see below for our bounty offer in return for the safe return of our users' assets.
Wallet address: DyQ96GwjkHkGSzYEB4NaPk2NxsXyRTMNHKJQd3fziABf pic.twitter.com/pePeWfaB7m
— Slope (@slope_finance) August 5, 2022
There is a 48-hour ultimatum on the offer, which will be rescinded shortly after the time limit. According to Slope’s official announcement on Twitter:
“We ask that the attacker return 90% of the stolen funds within 48 hours of 8:30 pm UTC August 5, 2022. Upon receipt of these funds, we will not make additional efforts to investigate this matter or pursue any legal action.”
As of August 8th, based on the transaction history of Slope’s provided address, the hackers have yet to return the tokens. The address received several small deposits, likely nominal support funds from community members.
The good news is that Solana’s hasn’t been affected much due to the hack, only dropping slightly last week. SOL is trading at $42.87, up 6% in the past 24 hours. Its market cap is $15 billion with a 24-hour trading volume of $1 billion, up 65% in the past 24 hours.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any projects.
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