Coindesk

Solana is on track to extend its four-month run over Ethereum and other smart-contract blockchains in decentralized-exchange (DEX) volume even as the rangebound crypto market struggles to capture trader enthusiasm.Solana-based DEXs have posted total trading volume of just over $60 million this month, nearly double the $34 million on Ethereum, the biggest smart-contract blockchain, according to data source DeFiLlama."Solana’s lower fees and higher throughput continue to attract developers and users, highlighting its growing role in decentralized finance," Tagus Capital said.Solana has held its pole position since October. Notably, in January, Solana-based DEXs achieved trading volume of $258 billion with Ethereum trailing at just $86 billion.Solana's dominance, powered by frenzied memecoin trading, is not limited to transaction volume. Despite its reputation...

More than $500 million was lost to memecoin rug pulls and scams in 2024, according to a report by crypto intelligence platform Merkle Science.The most prolific scams involved social engineering, which is a technique that relies on impersonation and manipulation to gain access to someone's personal data - often in this case celebrities or well-known tech figures.One of these cases saw scammers compromise French footballer Kylian Mbappe's X account. Once they gained access, a link was posted to a nefarious memecoin which rose to a $460 million market cap before being rug pulled.There was also a case involving music artist Wiz Khalifa that targeted his 35.7 million followers on X. A fake WIZ token was promoted, rising to a $3.4...

Non-fungible token (NFT) platform OpenSea denied reports that users claiming a potential airdrop will be forced to complete detailed identification, or know-your-customer (KYC), checks."This is all completely false," OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer wrote on X in response to a post that referred to the terms and conditions on the OpenSea Foundation website.The terms and conditions also said users would be restricted from using VPNs and users in the U.S. would not be able to claim. The page contained "boilerplate language" and was "on a test website for a short period of time," Finzer said.Speculation over an OpenSea airdrop has been swirling since December after it registered an entity named OpenSea Foundation in the Cayman Islands, coinciding with the release...

Ether (ETH) has underperformed year-to-date, declining over 20%, but fundamentals are improving and total value locked (TVL) on the Ethereum blockchain has risen dramatically, Wall Street bank Citi (C) said in a research report Monday."While user activity has been volatile in recent weeks, the fundamental backdrop is not all that murky," analysts led by Alex Saunders wrote.Citi noted that TVL on the Ethereum network has risen sharply, while ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are still seeing inflows, and search interest is rising.Following the U.S. election in November, ether ETF flows turned positive, the report noted, with total inflows of $3.2 billion since their July launch.Stronger user growth on layer-2s and rival blockchain's such as Solana has raised questions about Ethereum's competitive...

Hedge funds hold record short positions in ether (ETH) futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), raising questions about the motivations behind these positions.At first glance, the data could suggest that sophisticated market players anticipate price slides, as discussed on social media. However, this isn’t entirely accurate; carry trades or arbitrage plays primarily drive the record short interest, but some of these short futures trades represent outright bearish bets on the cryptocurrency, per observers.As of the week ended Feb. 4, hedge funds held a net short position of 11,341 contracts in the CME futures, according to data tracked by ZeroHedge and the Kobeissi Letter. The number has increased 40% in one week and 500% since November, according to The...