30s Summary

Tether crossed a $120 billion market cap for the first time, hinting at a potential crypto rally. In addition, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced an upgrade that will allow Ethereum nodes to run on mobile phones and smartwatches. The Cosmos ecosystem is under investigation due to alleged involvement of North Korean agents in its development. Centralized cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is planning to launch its own blockchain for DeFi applications in 2025. The hacker behind the Radiant Capital theft has reportedly moved most of the stolen resources to Ethereum. Among the top performing cryptocurrencies last week were Goatseus Maximus and ApeCoin.

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Crypto investors are getting a little more hopeful that their luck is about to turn, as Tether manages to hit a landmark value of $120 billion for the very first time. This serves as a pretty good sign in many investors’ eyes, showing a possible start to a smash hit “Uptober” rally, with a lot more people racking up their stablecoins.

Boosting this hopeful investor vibe, Ethereum’s very own co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, announced some special news. The blockchain’s next upgrade, known as “The Verge,” will allow Ethereum nodes to run on mobile phones and smartwatches, while also making the mainnet more accessible and secure.

Tether’s hit record of a $120 billion market cap also implies a possible crypto rally. Tether’s USDT, which is the world’s largest stablecoin, broke this record mark on October 20th. Stablecoins, by the way, play a big role in the crossroad between the world of traditional money (fiat currencies) and digital assets.

When the amount of stablecoin goes up, it’s often seen as a telltale sign that an upcoming bull rally is likely, since it indicates that people are putting their money in stablecoins before they invest in other cryptocurrencies. This increase in USDT could be what sparks the next Bitcoin rally.

On top of this, Vitalik Buterin said that the next upgrade for Ethereum, “The Verge,” is designed to make the network more secure and readily accessible, letting nodes run on devices as small as mobile phones and smartwatches.

“The Verge” aims to lower the hardware requirements needed by implementing something called “stateless verification.” This allows nodes to check over blockchain blocks without needing to store vast amounts of data. Buterin said it’ll make verifying the chain so easy and affordable that even mobile wallets, browser wallets, and smartwatches could do it by default.

Now for a little juicy gossip: rumors have exploded that part of the Cosmos ecosystem may have been developed by North Korean agents. According to an onchain investigation, it drew the FBI’s attention in 2023. Bloggers and crypto enthusiasts have voiced their concerns after the revelation, fearing that some of the developers might have come from the infamous Lazarus Group, a cybercrime group linked with North Korean government.

Moving on, a piece of exciting news has just come from Kraken, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange (CEX), which is making plans to launch its own blockchain known as “Ink” in early 2025. This will be focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. With this launch, Kraken aims to simplify the DeFi process even more and make it easily accessible and affordable for users.

In the end, remember the hacker who masterminded the theft from the decentralized finance protocol Radiant Capital? Almost all of the stolen resources have been moved from layer-2 protocols to Ethereum. This may have been done to hide their location, according to some theories.

This week, most of the 100 biggest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization closed in the green zone. Among the top 100, a newly-launched memecoin called Goatseus Maximus topped the biggest gainer list with a rise of over 125%, followed by ApeCoin which shot up by over 64%.

So, there you have it, a recap of this week’s most exciting crypto happenings. Watch this space next Friday for more exciting stories, insights, and helpful info in this ever-changing crypto world.

Source: Cointelegraph