🖥 Continuing our dive into the CoinMarketCap (CMC) report on crypto market vibes

In our last post, we covered the cool stuff that happened in the first half of 2024.

Today, we're gonna dig into the current market mood and try to figure out what's popping right now 📣

What's hot in crypto?

1️⃣ Meme coins are on fire

For the first time ever, meme coins are the top dogs in the crypto world, beating out smart contracts, DeFi, and NFTs. Meme coins made up around 23% of page views on CoinMarketCap, racking up over 25 million views in June.

2️⃣ Solana's hype train is rolling

The Solana ecosystem is catching more eyes than Ethereum. Since October 2023, SOL meme coins have been blowing up, with major popularity and price bumps.

🧬 Solana hasn't knocked Ethereum off its throne yet, but the growing buzz shows it's becoming a big player in the crypto game.

3️⃣ AI hype is cooling off

The AI trend is losing steam. After peaking in February, its popularity has dropped, hitting just 6.4% in June.

4️⃣ Crypto is getting back to basics

In the Ethereum world, away from the meme coin craze, the main stories are about real-world assets (RWA) and distributed AI computing.

These trends highlight Ethereum's push to bridge traditional finance with blockchain tech.

💵 The DeFi sector is also going back to its roots, with stablecoins taking the spotlight. Stablecoins offer a safe and predictable way for transactions, savings, and lending.

🌐 What's trending globally?

Analysts have noticed a big shift towards meme coins from more "traditional" cryptos.

They also spotted the market share leaders among meme-token-focused countries:

🇺🇸 USA — 15.54%
🇧🇷 Brazil — 9%
🇮🇳 India — 7.57%
🇮🇩 Indonesia — 6.5%
🇩🇪 Germany — 6.4%
🇷🇺 Russia — 6.2%

Meanwhile, countries like the UK and France are still more into BTC/ETH, DeFi, infrastructure, and institutional markets.

These countries are seeing a drop in the market share of crypto users.

ℹ️ So, what's the deal?

All the data shows that meme coins have snagged the spotlight in the crypto community, Solana is gaining steam, and the AI hype is starting to fizzle out.

Ethereum keeps its eyes on real-world assets and AI, while DeFi is going back to its origins with stablecoins.

In our next post, we'll break down the current state of each sector.

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👮‍♂️ $200M from 25 Hacks: The Secrets of Lazarus Group's Money Laundering Over 3 Years

The Lazarus Group, also known as Bluenoroff or APT38, is a North Korean state-sponsored threat group active since 2009, known for financially motivated cyberattacks.

🔍 This article highlights 25 hacks from August 2020 to October 2023, tracing funds laundered through P2P marketplaces into fiat currency.

🌐 Previously: Sony Pictures Hack

Initially famous for the Sony Pictures hack (2014) and the $81M theft from Bangladesh Bank (2016), the group recently shifted its focus to the cryptocurrency industry.

Reports estimate that since 2017, Lazarus has stolen between $3B and $4.1B.

Key Incidents and Laundering Methods from 2020-2023

➡️ 2020 Hacks: CoinBerry, Unibright, CoinMetro

⚫️CoinBerry: $370K stolen on August 24 due to a software bug
⚫️Unibright: $400K stolen on September 11 due to private key compromise
⚫️CoinMetro: $750K stolen on October 6 due to a security breach

Laundering: Funds were consolidated into intermediary wallets and laundered through Tornado Cash.

🛡 Nexus Mutual Hack in December 2020

On December 14, founder Hugh Karp lost $8.3M to a phishing attack.

Laundering: Funds moved through ChipMixer and returned to Ethereum 🖱

➡️ 2021 Activities: ChipMixer, EasyFi Hack

In March 2021, funds from CoinMetro and Nexus Mutual were laundered through ChipMixer.

In April 2021, the EasyFi hack occurred:

$81M stolen from founder Ankitt Gaur’s device, infected with malware. Funds were transferred to Ethereum and deposited in ChipMixer, then moved to new addresses.

In October 2021, MGNR and PolyPlay hacks were executed:

⚫️MGNR: $24M stolen due to private key compromise.
⚫️PolyPlay: $1.6M stolen through unauthorized transfers.

Laundering: Funds deposited in Tornado Cash and moved through various intermediary addresses ❌

In November 2021, the bZx hack occurred:

$55M stolen after a developer's private keys were compromised. Laundering involved moving funds through Tornado Cash and various intermediary addresses.

➡️ 2022 Activities

In late January, $1.2M was stolen from the ANKR founder. In March, ArthurOx was hacked, losing around $1.7M.

In June 2022, $4.9M laundered from previous hacks was transferred to two Binance deposit addresses.

In September, GeraCoin was hacked, losing $142K.

In October, the Algorand hack resulted in $750K stolen, and Darshan lost $1.75M.

➡️ 2023 Activities

In August 2023, the Steadefi and CoinShift hacks occurred:

⚫️Steadefi: $1.2M stolen through a compromised deployer wallet.
⚫️CoinShift: Funds transferred from multisig wallets, likely due to private key compromise.

Funds were deposited in Tornado Cash, moved through intermediary addresses, and converted to fiat via P2P marketplaces.

By November 2023, 374K USDT was blacklisted, and centralized exchanges froze an undisclosed amount of funds.

Additionally, $3.4M was blacklisted by stablecoin issuers.

Recently, the Japanese exchange DMM Bitcoin was hacked, resulting in over $300M stolen. Lazarus Group remains the prime suspect...

🔐 The activities of the Lazarus Group highlight how sophisticated money laundering methods through mixers and P2P exchanges can be.

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🖥 Continuing our review of CoinMarketCap (CMC) report on the state of each sector

In the first post, we discussed the most interesting events of the first half of 2024.

In the second post, we touched upon the market sentiments.

Today, let's delve into the current state of each sector ▶️

Layer-1 Smart Contracts: The Rise of SOL, TON, and BNB

Layer 1 smart contracts are showing impressive results despite an overall decline. The market cap of this segment is $695.58 billion, which is 3.57% less than the previous quarter.

🔷 However, Ethereum has strengthened its position, reaching 62.11% dominance thanks to the SEC's approval of Ethereum Spot ETF.

BNB and Solana are also on the rise, adding $42 billion and $18 billion respectively for the year. Solana leads in the number of active users, attracting over 1.6 million daily addresses, followed by BNB with 1 million.

Meanwhile, SUI and TON have shown increased activity due to recent grants and popular projects.

⭐️ Network Activity and Revenue

Ethereum continues to lead in transaction revenue despite record low gas fees.

April and May saw the lowest fees since 2020, driven by the growing popularity of L2s and the Dencun upgrade.

⚪️ Ethereum generates 70% of the daily revenue among L1s, about $2.7 million daily.

🧬 Solana ranks second with $900k daily revenue.

In the DeFi sector, Ethereum holds the lead with 84.3% market share, mainly driven by DEX trading and staking.

Meanwhile, Solana attracts attention with meme coins, which generate a significant portion of transactions.

⭐️ Price Performance Leaders

Top platforms by price performance this year:

🥇 Toncoin (+221.5%)
🥈 BNB (+83.6%)
🥉 Ethereum (+45.33%).

Solana also shows growth, albeit more modest – 17.4% for the year 🧬

Layer-2: New Leaders Arbitrum and Base

Arbitrum and Base led in TVL growth in the first half of 2024, increasing TVL by $8.2 billion and $6.8 billion respectively. Base, launched in August 2023, has already become the third-largest L2 by TVL.

User activity is also growing: Linea saw a spike in activity in April due to the "Linea Voyage: The Surge" campaign, and in June, Base surpassed Arbitrum thanks to the launch of Coinbase's smart wallet.

1️⃣ Cross-Chain Bridges

The cross-chain bridge market shows healthy competition. Circle’s CCTP became the leader by volume, covering 15.6% of the market.

The top 5 bridges control 51.8% of the volume, indicating no platform dominance and healthy competition.

2️⃣ NFT

Ethereum is no longer the main chain for NFTs. Bitcoin, thanks to protocols like Ordinals and Runes, leads in trading volume.

Solana ranks first in user activity due to low fees and fast transaction speeds.

However, despite the initial surge in October last year, NFT trading volumes on Solana are gradually declining, reflecting a general downtrend in the NFT market.

3️⃣ Gaming: Pixels and Matr1xfire

Pixels increased its active users by 270% since the start of 2024. Despite the token launch and airdrop in February, the game continues to attract players and even increase their number.

The TON-based Notcoin reached 40 million users, eight times more than Pixels, demonstrating the huge potential of hyper-casual games.

4️⃣ Real-World Assets (RWA)

Fiat-collateralized stablecoins make up 96.6% of the real-world assets market. USDT continues to dominate, increasing its market cap by 22.4% in the first half of the year 💵

BlackRock’s BUIDL fund leads in assets under management, reaching half a billion dollars in less than three months.

5️⃣ Solana and Ethereum Meme Coins

Solana-based meme coins have outperformed Ethereum-based ones, showing results eight times higher.

Political memes, such as TRUMP and BODEN 👤 are also gaining popularity, increasing their market cap by 5100% this year.

In the next post, we will talk about listing...

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🖥 Continuing Our Review of the CoinMarketCap (CMS) Report

In the first post, we discussed the most interesting events of the first half of 2024.

In the second post, we touched upon the market sentiments.

In the third post, we explored the state of each sector.

Today, let’s delve into the factors that could influence the future development of the cryptocurrency market ▶️

🇺🇸 US Politics

Recent developments in US politics have highlighted a significant shift regarding cryptocurrencies 🇺🇸

There are several reasons for this:

1️⃣ Increased Political Influence

The industry has scored victories in Washington, increasing political spending to $80 million for the 2024 elections.

Crypto-focused PACs like Fairshake have raised about $85 million and supported crypto-friendly candidates, including Republican Mark Messmer.

2️⃣ Bipartisan Support

Crypto-friendly legislation has garnered bipartisan support.

For instance, the House of Representatives passed a cryptocurrency regulation bill with the support of Democrats. The Senate also passed a resolution to repeal SEC crypto guidelines.

3️⃣ Changing Administration Stance

The Biden administration has shown a willingness to engage with the crypto industry and wants to work with Congress on crypto policy 👤

4️⃣ Republican Alignment

Republicans, including Donald Trump, are increasingly aligning with the crypto industry, accepting crypto donations.

🌐 Global Crypto Regulation

Governments worldwide are developing new rules for cryptocurrencies ✉️

IOSCO has recommended global standards, and the World Economic Forum's initiative analyzes national regulatory outcomes.

The need for regulation has increased following bank collapses linked to crypto activities 📉

Three important questions for crypto regulation arise:

❓ Where Will Bitcoin Be Stored?

More than 1 million bitcoins are now held in ETFs. Since the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US on January 10, 2024, over 70 such ETFs have appeared globally, attracting more than $28 billion in investments.

🪙The total value of bitcoins in these ETFs exceeds $72 billion.

More than 1,000 institutions hold Bitcoin ETFs in the US, totaling over $11.5 billion. Most of these are hedge funds and asset managers like Millennium Management and Jane Street Group.

❓ Will Coinbase Become a Super Company?

Coinbase provides custodial services for 7 out of the 10 largest Bitcoin ETFs in the US and now controls 78% of the total institutional assets by AUM. Along with its existing crypto exchange business, Coinbase-related wallets now hold a significant amount of bitcoin (about 1.2 million BTC, or 6% of the circulating supply).

❓ How Much Will the Ethereum ETF Market Grow?

On May 23, 2024, the SEC approved spot Ethereum ETFs in the US, leading to a 17.7% increase in ETH price that day. How big is the Ethereum ETF market, and how will it impact ETH price?

🔷Analysts estimate that net inflows into US-listed spot Ethereum ETFs will be around $5 billion over the first four months.

Thus...

The CMC report covers the past, present, and future, providing valuable insights to make our understanding of the crypto world more informed and strategic 🌐

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