Daily News | Ethereum Holesky Testnet Officially Launched, North Korean Hackers Stolen Over $200M in Crypto for 3 Months, SPACE ID Will Receive A Large Unlock This Week

2023-09-18, 04:16

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## Crypto Daily Digest: The Ethereum Holesky testnet has officially launched; North Korean hackers have stolen over $200 million in cryptocurrency in 3 months
According to beaconcha.in data, the <a href="/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a> Holesky testnet has been launched, coinciding with The Merge's first anniversary. This network will greatly improve the testing capability of blockchain smart contracts.

Holesky is expected to have 1.4 million validators to help address the scalability issues of the main network. This is twice the 700,000 validators on Ethereum. Ethereum developers expect Holesky to eventually replace the Goerli testnet, which is expected to close in early 2024.

Recently, James Tromans, the head of Google Cloud Web3, stated in an interview with Cointelgraph that Web3 practitioners need to focus on the business logic in smart contracts, rather than the supply and demand dynamics of tokens.

Web3 developers need to build frictionless solutions to help users manage wallet assets and data, to provide an excellent user experience for Web3 projects. In addition, Tromans also believes that blockchain and smart contracts can bring innovation, reduce enterprise operating costs, and bring new sources of revenue to enterprises.

According to Decrypt, a report released by blockchain monitoring platform Elliptic shows that the North Korean hacker organization Lazarus Group has been associated with five major crypto hacking attacks in the past three months, including this month's attacks on the crypto exchange <a href="/price/coinex-cet" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">CoinEx</a> and the crypto gambling platform Stack.com, the payment company Alphapo and CoinsPaid attacks in July, and the Atomic Wallet attack in June.

Elliptic estimates that Lazarus Group has stolen nearly $240 million in cryptocurrency in the past 104 days. Elliptic pointed out that the organization is re-targeting centralized platforms instead of decentralized ones, possibly because social engineering attacks are more feasible for such targets.

In terms of data, according to official data, Circle has issued a total of $1.2 billion USD in the past 7 days, redeemed $1.1 billion USD, and increased circulation by $100 million. As of September 7th, the total circulation of USDC was $26 billion, with reserves of $26.1 billion, including cash of $1.8 billion, and Circle Reserve Fund holding $24.3 billion.

According to analysis by investment management company VanEck, with the decrease in on-chain economic activity, DeFi's trading volume in August decreased to $52.8 billion, a 15.5% decrease from July. Analysis suggests that despite the poor performance of DeFi tokens in August, there have been positive developments in the ecosystem throughout the month. These developments include <a href="/price/uniswap-uni" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Uniswap</a> Labs rejecting class action lawsuits, as well as Maker and Curve's stablecoin growth.

In addition, VanEck pointed out that the current global interest rate levels, especially in the United States, continue to put pressure on stablecoins. In August, the total market value of stablecoin decreased by 2% to $119.5 billion.

According to Token Unlocks data, two projects will receive a one-time token unlock this week, with ID unlocking $3.68 million in tokens.

At 0:00  (UTC) on September 22nd, SPACE ID will unlock 18.49 million IDs (worth approximately $3.68 million), accounting for approximately 6.46% of the circulation volume;

At 8:00 (UTC) on September 22nd, <a href="/price/1inch-1inch" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">1inch</a> will unlock 535,700 1INCH (worth approximately $132,200), accounting for approximately 0.01% of the circulation volume.
## Today’s Main Token Trends
### BTC
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1695015721BTC.png)
Last week, BTC stabilized near the top of its price range and did not continue to test the $25,500 support level. Short-term trading volume may reach the third target of $27,283 this week, suggesting a small rebound for this month. A significant one-sided market is expected in the fourth quarter.

### HIFI
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1695015739HIFI.png)
Our strategy for HIFI involves positioning at a low level in the range of $0.45 to $0.4997. Over the past two weeks, it reached a high of $2.6352, with a remarkable gain of 585.6%, nearly sixfold return. In a relatively bearish market cycle, there are always standout performers.

The short-term support at $1.4505 has been breached, and the second support at $1.1919 has not stabilized yet. It is expected to find strong support around the third support level at $0.4890 this week. Short-term speculative trading is not recommended, even if it breaks above $1. It would still be considered a rebound from a deeper decline, so a quick entry and exit strategy is advised.

How did we identify this project early on? The key was the lack of discussion in the market, while the trading volume at the bottom was bullish and creating historical highs. Our conservative strategy involved positioning at a low level using a favorable risk-reward ratio. It may not always perform as expected, but it significantly increases the probability of the coin's price surging.

Of course, it requires considerable effort. You may have to analyze the historical trends of hundreds of projects in the market before identifying such a unique short-term opportunity. Remember this: "When there is little interest, and the market shows signs of turning red or green."

### TRB
![](https://gimg2.gateimg.com/image/article/1695015758TRB.png)
TRB has a circulating market capitalization of only $100 million at current prices. Looking at the funding rates, market makers still dominate the spot market. Last week, they were bullish, and short positions had to pay up to 9% in funding fees daily, excluding potential losses.

As mentioned last week, TRB's spot pricing is entirely controlled by market makers. The current market has only 2.5 million circulating chips, with over 90% controlled by the whales. Their chips were acquired cheaply, and retail traders have no advantage in spot or contract pricing.

The conservative strategy to participate in this situation is to hold the spot securely and profit from multi-directional funding rate arbitrage. However, multi-directional funding rate arbitrage also requires consideration of time differences and capital holdings. A more conservative approach is to position at a relatively low level during a single cycle and take profits when it rises to relatively high levels. The short-term has declined significantly, so it is best to adopt a wait-and-see approach.
## Macro: Wall Street is starting to hype up expectations of interest rate cuts, focusing on Thursday's Fed rate decision
In the new week, we will quickly understand the key events that need to be focused on this week, and the first thing is the Federal Reserve's interest rate resolution. The second incident is the American Automobile Association strike.

At 2:00 a.m. Beijing time on Thursday, traders focused on whether the Federal Reserve announced further interest rate hikes. This is a meaningless question, as the Federal Reserve will answer “depending on economic data,” provide ambiguous answers and reserve the right to choose.

But the key to this meeting is whether the market believes in further interest rate hikes, and the market has its own judgment, which will play a decisive role in the initial trend. Last night, I saw rumors circulating on Wall Street, and there was even a bet in the market that the cumulative rate cut would reach 200 basis points by the middle of next year.

Let's take a look at Wall Street's focus on this Fed rate hike resolution:

Federal Reserve's Rate Reduction Forecast: Federal Reserve officials previously predicted four rate cuts in 2024, but now the market is speculating whether there will be even fewer rate cuts. Some economists believe that the Federal Reserve may predict that it will only cut interest rates three times next year, each by 25 basis points. This may indicate that the Federal Reserve is more willing to maintain higher interest rates, as the economic performance is robust.

Whether interest rates have peaked: In June of this year, only a few Fed officials believed that the Fed had completed raising interest rates. However, it is expected that more officials may believe that the Fed's rate hikes have reached a balance and are no longer inclined towards further rate hikes, maintaining the market's 50-50 expectations.

Adjustment of economic forecasts: With strong economic performance, the Federal Reserve may raise its economic growth forecast for 2023 while lowering its core personal consumption expenditure price index (PCE) inflation expectations. However, considering the robust performance of the economy, the core inflation rate for 2024 may be expected to rise, and it may even be predicted that the inflation rate will reach 2% by 2026.

Prediction of neutral interest rates: The Federal Reserve may increase its estimate of long-term neutral interest rates, leading to an increase in overall interest rate levels. This may indicate that there will no longer be extremely low mortgage and other loan rates similar to those seen after the 2008 global financial crisis.

Regarding the American Automobile Association strike incident: On September 15th at 12:00 Beijing time, labor agreement negotiations between the United Auto Workers (UAW) and three major automobile giants, including General Motors, Ford, and Stratis (an automobile group formed by the merger of PSA Group, Fiat, and Chrysler Group), failed, and UAW launched strikes in multiple states in the United States. UAW is the largest labor union organization in the United States, with approximately 146000 members in these three car companies alone.

UAW hopes that the three giants will provide a 40% salary increase for automotive workers in the new negotiation protocol; In terms of benefits, UAW requires all workers to be provided with welfare pensions, a 32-hour work week, and additional living expenses benefits. At the same time, temporary workers and tiered wage systems will be abolished, which means that new employees will need to work for eight years to receive the same treatment as senior employees. However, all three major car companies believe the unions' demands are unrealistic.

It is currently unclear when the strike will be resolved and how it will affect the economy. If the strike continues, it will inevitably impact the economy and the Federal Reserve's decisions, so we will continue to pay attention this week.

In addition, according to CME's "Federal Reserve Observation" data, the probability of the Federal Reserve maintaining interest rates unchanged from 5.25% to 5.50% in September is 99%, and the probability of raising interest rates by 25 basis points to the 5.50% to 5.75% range is only 1%.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Byron B.**, Gate.io Researcher
<div>Translator:Joy Z.
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
</div>

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