Ethereum
On-Chain Investigator Drops Ethereum Bombshell, Vitalik Buterin Involved In $500M Gatecoin Hack?
New reports reveal that an on-chain investigator has raised allegations connecting Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, to the $500 million Gatecoin hack in 2016. According to the crypto sleuth, Buterin’s Ethereum Foundation was allegedly transferring funds to the Gatecoin hackers’ primary wallet.
Buterin Accused Of Contributing To Gatecoin Hack
TruthLabs, a popular crypto investigator and sleuth on X (formerly Twitter), has accused Buterin of being directly involved in Ethereum’s first hack in 2016, which led to the loss of tokens worth over $500 million today. The crypto analyst disclosed that the wallet funding the Gatecoin hacker had received ETH from only three wallet sources.
The Gatecoin hacker’s original crypto wallet was allegedly funded by a wallet owned by the Ethereum Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the ETH blockchain. The second funding wallet originated from Ethereum’s Genesis Block 0 account. This wallet interacted with two primary addresses—a user-controlled Poloniex wallet and a contract set up by Buterin.
TruthLabs also revealed that the third and final wallet that funded the Gatecoin hackers was similarly generated from a Genesis 0 block. The crypto investigator alleged that the anonymous third wallet was directly linked to the core Ethereum developer, Vlad Zamfir.
Based on these newfound developments, TruthLabs disclosed that an immutable ledger currently indicates that Buterin and members of the Ethereum Foundation were allegedly involved in the $0.5 billion Gatecoin hack. He declared that the Gatecoin exploit most likely occurred 30 days before the Foundation was scheduled to run out of money. Moreover, this timeline precedes the DAO exploit, which saw millions of dollars lost just a few weeks after the Gatecoin hack.
As of now, there has been no official response from Buterin or the Ethereum Foundation regarding the allegations made by TruthLabs. The crypto community also awaits further clarification and confirmation of Buterin’s involvement as the story unfolds.
Silk Road Bitcoin Put In The Spotlight
While he accuses Buterin of being connected to the 2016 Gatecoin hack, TruthLabs also shared insights into the recent developments involving Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht. According to the crypto investigators’ claims, the Bitcoin seized from Silk Road’s wallet helped fund Ethereum’s 2014 ICO project and BTC wallets.
The analyst alleged that Ross’s incarceration had funded the creation of the Ethereum foundation, as the BTC from Silk Road and Mt. Gox had aided in developing the foundation. TruthLabs also called out Buterin for failing to show support for Ulbricht’s release after he was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole in 2015.
Criticizing the Founder, TruthLabs described him as a “stain on the word integrity”, accusing Buterin of shirking his moral responsibilities. The on-chain investigator claimes that Buterin built the Ethereum foundation using Silk Road’s Bitcoin but failed to publicly advocate for Ulbritch’s release — a cause widely championed within the crypto community.
Featured image from Medium, chart from Tradingview.com
Ethereum
Ethereum Eyes Gains: Price History Signals Bullish Moves In February – Data Shows
Ethereum continues to underperform in the ongoing bull market cycle as the crypto asset records another bearish month, raising concerns about its potential to go parabolic in the short term. However, the month of February presents another chance for ETH to grow due to its notable performance in the month over time.
February Likely To Trigger Gains For Ethereum
In spite of bullish expectations in January, Ethereum has failed to produce a major price surge, with hopes now shifted toward February. While January has been underwhelming for ETH, February boasts of significant returns.
Market expert and investor Daan Crypto Trades contends that ETH is poised for potential upward momentum as its historical monthly price trends hint at February being a bullish month for the crypto asset. Looking at past performances, February has recorded gains 7 times out of 8 in the history of ETH.
One interesting thing about this data is the average returns per month. The reoccurring patterns of notable gains during the month are supported by increasing adoption and improving market sentiment.
Data shows that January to May are the best months in ETH’s history. Meanwhile, summer seasons are pretty bad for Ethereum with Bitcoin stealing the spotlight again as the altcoin underperforms during this period.
Even though February has been positive for ETH in the past, Daan Crypto Trades highlighted that traders should not base their decisions solely on historical returns. However, seasonality is a crucial factor in both cryptocurrencies and equities researched and considered by many investors.
Since the upcoming months appear bullish, it is likely that the asset will see a persistent uptrend. This way, Ethereum may gather the necessary momentum to reach a new all-time high in the short term.
Meanwhile, the next key levels to watch are the $4,000 and $4,100 price range as the altcoin gears up for a retest to these targets. Daan Crypto Trades noted that ETH’s upward momentum is testing the upper line of a massive falling wedge pattern.
Thus he believes another retest to these levels is probable once the altcoin breaks out of the pattern. At the price range, the analyst expects ETH to face a major setback, urging investors to monitor the trend closely.
ETH’s Undergoes A Strong Pullback
ETH has taken a major hit as bearish pressure mounts across the entire market, causing a drop close to the $3,000 mark. Data from CoinMarketCap shows that the altcoin has fallen by nearly 9% in the last 24 hours.
This sudden pullback has triggered fear and uncertainty within the community. Nonetheless, investors continue to demonstrate confidence in ETH as they persistently accumulate the altcoin amid recent volatility.
In the past day, its trading volume has increased by more than 120%. Historically, heightened buying pressure has served as a precursor for an upswing. Should this strong investor sentiment hold, Ethereum might undergo a rebound shortly.
Featured image from Adobe Stock, chart from Tradingview.com
Ethereum
Ethereum Set For Significant Changes In Mid-March
Despite facing considerable price challenges, Ethereum (ETH) remains resilient, with vital developments continuing to unfold within its ecosystem. Among the most anticipated advancements is the upcoming Pectra Upgrade, expected to roll out in mid-March.
This upgrade is being hailed as the largest in Ethereum’s history, marked by the introduction of numerous Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) that promise to transform the network’s functionality and user experience.
How Ethereum Validators Could Earn Even Higher Rewards
Anthony Sassano, an independent Ethereum educator and angel investor, has been vocal about the potential impact of the Pectra Upgrade, emphasizing that this upgrade will significantly enhance Ethereum’s user transaction flow through account abstraction, primarily driven by EIP-7702.
Instead of navigating the cumbersome approve-then-swap process, users will be able to execute these actions in a single transaction, substantially simplifying the user experience.
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Another notable proposal, EIP-7251, is set to increase the maximum effective balance that validators can earn rewards on from 32 ETH to an impressive 2048 ETH per validator.
This change means that validators will no longer need to wait to accumulate 32 ETH before they can start earning staking rewards. The upgrade will also allow for the consolidation of validators managed by a single node operator, thereby alleviating some of the network’s operational burden.
Key EIPs To Optimize Network Performance
EIP-7691 addresses scalability concerns by increasing blob throughput. Blobs have been near capacity for months, which has constrained the scalability of rollups and layer 2 solutions while driving up transaction fees for users.
With the forthcoming increase from 3/6 to 6/9 blobs, the network is expected to accommodate more transactions, leading to lower fees and improved performance for users.
The Pectra Upgrade also introduces EIP-7623, which raises the cost of using calldata for rollups. This measure encourages rollups to utilize blobs exclusively, optimizing resource allocation on the network.
In addition, EIP-7002 will introduce a new mechanism that facilitates validator withdrawals at the execution layer. This innovation aims to create fully trustless staking pools, minimizing reliance on intermediaries for processing withdrawals and reward distributions.
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EIP-7685 enhances communication between the execution and consensus layers of Ethereum, allowing smart contracts to interact directly with the staking layer. This development could reduce the need for intermediaries, such as trusted oracles, thereby improving efficiency.
Furthermore, EIP-2537 will make cryptographic processes on the network more efficient, particularly benefiting zero-knowledge (zk) operations that are crucial for scalability and privacy.
In addition to these prominent proposals, the Pectra Upgrade includes four more EIPs designed to streamline network operations. These encompass improvements such as serving historical block hashes from state and supporting validator deposits on-chain, which will further optimize Ethereum’s infrastructure.
Despite these expected upgrades, the Ethereum price continues to hover around $3,200 and $3,300, showing a notable lack of catalysts that could boost the altcoin’s price.
Featured image from DALL-E, chart from TradingView.com
Ethereum
Cardano and Ethereum prices at risk as iDEGEN surges
Cryptocurrencies remain subject to heightened market volatility as the hype surrounding President Trump’s return to office eases. Even so, greed remains the main emotion controlling the market as investors remain optimistic of a crypto-friendly environment under Trump’s administration.
As the bullish sentiment offers support to most cryptos, Ethereum is under pressure from the criticism and leadership issues rocking the Ethereum Foundation. On the other hand, iDEGEN is thriving as it widens its horizon through the video content embedded in its latest V3 upgrade. Beyond its popularity, savvy investors are buying into its potential as a leader in the AI meme coin space.
Ethereum price remains range-bound as its leadership fights negative sentiment
ETH price chart by TradingView
Ethereum price remains under pressure even as the fear of missing out (FOMO) sustains the broader crypto market. Notably, leadership issues within the Ethereum Foundation have alarmed some investors; leading ETH/USD to underperform against other crypto majors like Solana and Bitcoin.
For instance, following the decision to host Trump’s meme coin, SOL/USD rallied to a fresh all-time high of $294.94 on 19th January before a corrective pullback to $254.96 as at the time of tis press release. It is such lost opportunities and seemingly misplaced priorities that have triggered Ethereum’s criticism from its community.
Besides, as seen on SoSoValue, BTC spot ETF’s total net inflow for the week ending on 24th January was at $1.76 billion. In comparison, that of ETH spot ETF was $139.32 million.
Amid this selling pressure, ETH/USD has lacked enough bullish momentum to break the resistance at the crucial zone of $3,500. Indeed, the formation of a bearish death cross about two weeks ago points to the continuation of its range-bound trading in the ensuing sessions.
More specifically, the range between $3,410 and $3,240 is worth watching. Beyond the range’s upper limit, the bulls will likely face resistance at $3,479. On the flip side, further selling pressure will have the bulls defending the support zone of $3,195.
iDEGEN’s robust social capital set to sustain its growth beyond the presale
In 2009, Bitcoin was launched as a decentralized digital currency challenging the fiat currency. What started as an asset with almost no monetary value has since surged to $105,013 with analysts forecasting that it will hit $200,000 in 2025.
iDEGEN bears a comparable potential. In fact, some view it as the Bitcoin of AI meme coins. It has rightfully secured its position as a sentient meme lord revolutionizing the AI crypto space. In just two months, the project that begun on a blank slate has had 1.44 million impressions and over 21,000 holders of the 1,560 million $IDGN tokens already sold.
Evidently, savvy investors are looking beyond its virality and buying into its potential. To begin with, the one-of-a-kind social experiment has a robust social capital that has already propelled it to heights beyond its creators’ wildest imaginations. Not even the two bans on X could contain this project that has redefined the concept of “by the community, for the community”.
In fact, it has emerged stronger, garnering immense attention in the US and the UK. With its latest V3 upgrade, video content is set to advance its popularity even further. By entering the Telegram frontier during its V2 upgrade, the project raised an additional $1 million within 24 hours.
Besides, there is only one month left before its listing on 27th February. As the project captures the attention of more meme coin enthusiasts, anticipation is building up and FOMO intensifying. More savvy investors acknowledge that this may be the only opportunity to own $IDGN tokens at the current price of $0.0146. The early adopters are already sitting on hefty profits with returns of over 13,000%.
Learn more how to buy IDEGEN
Cardano price double top pattern points to a consolidation phase
ADA price chart by TradingView
ADA/USD traded in the green for the second consecutive week even as it dropped by 14% from the one-month high it hit about a week ago. Amid heightened market volatility, the altcoin will likely remain under pressure in the near term.
A look at its daily chart shows the formation of a bearish double top pattern during the first half of the month. Besides, an RSI of 50 points to a period of range-bound trading as the bulls defend the support zone of $0.9608.
At its current level, the crypto is hovering around the 20-day EMA at $1.0055. A rebound past that level will likely have it face resistance at $1.0471.
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