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Nothing to see here, people! 👀
Plus, 📉 Bitcoin ETFs lose steam, 💴 Mt. Gox transfers mount up, 💎 Top two DeFi players pull in $75B, 🔮 Solana’s future, and more!
Happy holidays! I’m Tikta, a reporter at Unchained.
In today’s edition:
🚣 Hyperliquid says it’s watertight
🫴 Bitcoin ETF investors pull funds
🚛 Mt. Gox rides rally to move money
💰 Aave and Lido bank it
☀️ Solana shines
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What’s Poppin’?
By Tikta
Hyperliquid Labs Denies Reports of North Korean Exploit
Hyperliquid Labs, the company behind the eponymous decentralized exchange built on its own layer 1 blockchain, has come out swinging in response to speculation it has been targeted by North Korean hackers.
The firm has denied reports of an exploit of any kind, and specifically one by North Korean state-backed hackers.
“All user funds are accounted for,” a member of the Hyperliquid team said on Discord. “Hyperliquid Labs takes [operational security] seriously. No vulnerabilities have been shared by any party.”
MetaMask developer Taylor Monahan was among those warning that the crypto trading platform faced an elevated risk of being targeted by North Korean hackers.
“Someone claiming to be a security party previously attempted to reach out to Labs,” the Hyperliquid team said. “To be clear, there was never any allegation of any exploit on Hyperliquid.
“This party added a scam account to a group chat and later communicated with insults and profanity,” the team said. “Given the level of professionalism displayed, Labs conferred instead with trusted parties and confirmed it is following best practices.”
Bitcoin ETFs See $1.3B of Outflows in Four Days
U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds have clocked up their longest streak of outflows since the days leading up to the election of Donald Trump as America’s next president.
The 12 spot bitcoin ETFs listed in the U.S. recorded $1.3 billion of outflows over the four most recent trading days, according to data from investment management firm Farside Investors.
The outflows coincide with a downward turn for bitcoin, which lost support above the $100,000 mark last week.
After falling to a low of $92,400 on Dec. 20, bitcoin has since regained momentum and is currently trading at around $98,000.
Mt. Gox Transfers $364M to OTC Market Maker B2C2
Bankrupt Japanese crypto exchange Mt. Gox has been among those making the most of bitcoin’s rally past $100,000 in mid-December.
The exchange has been sending installments of 200 BTC to 300 BTC to over-the-counter market maker B2C2 Group every weekday since bitcoin breached the historic milestone on Dec. 5, onchain wallet tracker Lookonchain found.
In total, Mt. Gox has transferred a total of $364 million to B2C2 Group.
Wallets belonging to Mt. Gox identified by blockchain analytics platform Arkham indicate that the exchange still holds $3.5 billion worth of bitcoin.
Mt. Gox began repaying its creditors after a decade-long bankruptcy process earlier this year.
As of July, the exchange had paid back 41.5% of the 142,000 BTC that it is set to distribute to creditors.
DeFi’s Top Two Protocols Exceed $75B in Net Deposits
Decentralized lending protocol Aave and staking protocol Lido surpassed the $75 billion net deposit mark for the first time this month, according to data from analytics platform Token Terminal.
Net deposits — distinct from total value locked (TVL) — are the total sum deposited into a DeFi protocol, excluding transaction fees and synthetic tokens.
Aave currently has around $34 billion in net deposits, while Lido has $33 billion. Together, the two account for 40% of the $166 billion deposited in DeFi protocols.
The uptick in deposits comes amid a broader resurgence in the DeFi market, whose TVL has more than doubled this year.
This year has been a transformative one for Solana. With a surge in developer activity, bold innovations in DePIN, and its ambitions to become a “decentralized Nasdaq,” the ecosystem is making waves. But are these changes enough to differentiate it from competitors like Ethereum and L2 solutions such as Base?
In this episode of Unchained’s podcast series, Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation, and Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius, join our founder and CEO Laura Shin to discuss how Solana is carving out its niche. They debate whether Base is a serious contender, why they’re not concerned about the 2025 token unlocks, and how Solana’s unique approach to MEV could shape its future. Plus, they tackle the ecosystem’s broader challenges and why they believe Solana’s vision will endure.
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⚖️ Montenegro’s Constitutional Court has unanimously rejected an appeal against extradition by Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwan, backing a lower court’s ruling for his removal from the country. He is wanted by authorities in both the U.S. and South Korea.
⏮️ Runes’ transaction share on the Bitcoin network has dropped to new lows, sinking to just 1.67% of daily transactions — a stark reversal from when the protocol accounted for more than half of Bitcoin transactions between April and November.
🧪 Decentralized Science protocol BIO Protocol has spun up a community proposal to expand its native token BIO to the Solana ecosystem. The proposal also calls for setting up cross-chain bridge infrastructure and allocating an additional 1% of funds from ecological incentives to establish a cross-chain liquidity pool.
🇷🇺 Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov says the country has been using digital assets such as bitcoin in foreign trade, a tactic that has allowed Moscow to get around Western sanctions imposed in response to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Today in Crypto Adoption...
🪙 Six mutual funds tracking bitcoin will begin trading in Israel after the country’s finance sector regulator granted final approval for the products last week.
👏 South Korea's cryptocurrency user base reached 15.6 million in November, equivalent to more than 30% of the country's population.
What Do You Meme?
📈 Your Market Update 📉
BTC is up 0.6%, trading at $95,771
ETH is up 0.4%, trading at $3,376
BTC dominance: 54.5%
Crypto market cap: $3.47T
*All data as of today, 06:40 am ET. Source: CoinGecko
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