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Modulus CEO: Risk-Reward Drives Divide on Crypto

Nigeria, South Africa, and Brazil led in awareness, with 99% of Nigerian respondents aware of digital assets like Bitcoin

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Crypto Exchange - Investors King

A recent poll conducted by YouGov and a private blockchain company, with 15,000 respondents across nine languages, showed a growing divide in the understanding of cryptocurrencies and the Web3 movement. By and large, developing nations emerged as the most engaged with digital assets.

Nigeria, South Africa, and Brazil led in awareness, with 99% of Nigerian respondents aware of digital assets like Bitcoin. On the other hand, only one-third of respondents in Japan claimed an understanding of crypto.

“It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Countries like Nigeria have had long-term problems with inflation. Brazil and South Africa are part of the BRICS contingent of fast growing, but still developing, countries. These countries are willing to take more risk for the chance at further developing an industry with long-term growth potential. The populace is looking at ways they can either protect their assets or grow them. On the other hand, established economies in Europe and Asia are taking a more cautious course, especially after the FTX debacle,” said Richard Gardner, CEO of Modulus, a US-based developer of ultra-high-performance trading and surveillance technology that powers global equities, derivatives, and digital asset exchanges.

“Sam Bankman-Fried and company really harmed the industry from a branding perspective. Crypto has long had an image chock full of volatility, but FTX was different. It was a major institution, and its executives spent a lot of money to buy favors from politicians and other institutions. It was the ‘big box store’ of crypto,” explained Gardner.

“As countries continue to regulate digital assets, and as bureaucrats better understand them, the structure will allow the industry to grow again. And, in large part, that means that institutions will begin to come back. Already, in the past few weeks, we’ve begun to see signs that institutions are looking towards crypto again,” Gardner noted.

“What the industry really needs is a shot in the arm in the realm of trust. From Wall Street to Main Street, people want to know that there’s a fair playing field. It is up to exchange operators to work with bureaucrats and politicians to put the guard rails in place to make sure that FTX can never happen again,” said Gardner.

Modulus is known throughout the financial technology segment as a leader in the development of ultra-high frequency trading systems and blockchain technologies. Over the past twenty years, the company has built technology for the world’s most notable exchanges, with a client list which includes NASA, NASDAQ, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Barclays, Siemens, Shell, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Cornell University, and the University of Chicago.

“I’ve been talking about cryptocurrency regulation for the better part of the past decade, and I think there’s strong reason to continue to support it. We build technology that equips exchange operators to play by the rule book that is currently established, and we’ve continued to add features which put them ahead of regulators. It is important for an exchange to be able to say that they’re doing absolutely everything that they can to keep investor funds safe — more than what’s required by law — and that’s exactly what we work towards every day,” said Gardner.

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Cryptocurrency

Dallas Mavericks Owner and Billionaire Tech Investor, Mark Cuban, Falls Victim to Phishing Attack, Losing $870,000 in Crypto Assets

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Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a prominent billionaire technology investor, recently fell prey to a phishing attack, resulting in a loss of approximately $870,000 worth of tokens.

The incident occurred over the weekend after months of inactivity on Cuban’s crypto wallet.

Phishing attacks, a prevalent threat in the crypto industry, deceive users into revealing sensitive information, downloading malicious software, and exposing their private data.

These attacks exploit users’ trust, often causing them to overlook the authenticity of incoming requests on their crypto wallets or unwittingly download counterfeit applications designed solely to pilfer their assets.

Cuban’s crypto wallet was emptied of various assets, including U.S.-pegged stablecoins, staked ETH (stETH), SuperRare (RARE) tokens, and some Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domains, according to blockchain data.

The initial discovery of these suspicious transactions was made by the vigilant on-chain investigator @wazzcrypto.

Fortunately, Cuban was alerted to these transactions, and he managed to safeguard over $2.5 million worth of Polygon’s MATIC tokens.

He accomplished this by promptly logging into his wallet and transferring the tokens to a secure Coinbase exchange address.

Cuban revealed that the phishing attack was apparently initiated through a fraudulent MetaMask wallet application that he had unwittingly downloaded.

This incident marks the second high-profile phishing attack in as many weeks, following Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin’s experience in early September. Buterin’s X account was compromised in a phishing attack, although he did not appear to lose any of his own funds.

Nevertheless, unsuspecting users collectively suffered losses of up to $700,000 by sending tokens to a malicious link that falsely appeared to have Buterin’s endorsement.

As the crypto industry continues to thrive, it is crucial for users to exercise caution and remain vigilant to safeguard their digital assets from the ever-present threat of phishing attacks.

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Ethereum

RxR Analysis Reveals: Ether’s True Worth 27% Higher than Market Price

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RxR, a research-driven partnership between Republic Crypto and Re7 Capital, has revealed that Ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, is currently trading at a 27% discount to its actual fair value.

This revelation comes as a result of RxR’s innovative approach to evaluating the worth of cryptocurrencies. Instead of relying solely on traditional metrics, RxR’s methodology incorporates a blended version of the Metcalfe law that takes into account both the active user base on the continuously expanding Ethereum scaling networks and the users on the Ethereum mainnet.

Ether, as a fundamental component of the Ethereum ecosystem, facilitates a wide range of activities, from simple transactions to participating in network security through staking, earning interest, and even storing non-fungible tokens. As such, the value of Ether has long been intertwined with Ethereum’s network usage.

Lewis Harland, an analyst at RxR, explained the significance of this approach, stating, “Ethereum’s network valuation exhibits a closer alignment with the updated Metcalfe law index when the active user base of Ethereum’s scaling networks is included in the model, in contrast to when it is omitted.”

Harland continued, “The updated model, which factors in these networks, places ETH’s valuation at $275 billion, indicating that the current market capitalization is trading at a substantial 27% discount.”

Ether’s market capitalization consistently tracks the blended Metcalfe law model more accurately than the traditional model, which fails to consider the growing activity on layer 2 networks or offchain solutions built atop the Ethereum mainnet.

In essence, this analysis challenges the perception that Ether might be overvalued, as suggested by the traditional Metcalfe law Model.

The emergence of Layer 2 technology has undoubtedly become one of the most dynamic and exciting developments in the crypto market. Key protocols, such as Coinbase’s BASE, Arbitrum, and Optimism, have found their unique niches within this landscape.

According to data from L2Beat, the total value locked in layer 2 protocols has surged more than threefold in just two years, reaching an impressive milestone of over $9 billion.

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Cryptocurrency

Ripple Labs Objects to SEC’s Request for Appeal in Landmark Cryptocurrency Case

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Ripple - Investors King

Ripple Labs, a leading player in the cryptocurrency industry, has voiced its strong objection to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) recent request to appeal a pivotal federal judge’s ruling.

This ruling determined that cryptocurrency should not be classified as a security when offered to the public.

On Friday, Ripple submitted a request to US District Judge Analisa Torres in New York, urging her to reject the SEC’s appeal request.

The company argued that the SEC is hastily pursuing an appeal on what it deems a fundamental legal issue applicable to all cases involving digital assets.

Ripple contends that the procedural and legal circumstances in other SEC enforcement actions differ significantly.

To proceed with its appeal, the SEC requires Judge Torres’s permission, as her initial ruling was not a final judgment.

Also, the regulator is seeking to temporarily suspend its lawsuit against Ripple, which accuses the company of selling unregistered securities, pending the outcome of the appeal.

Judge Torres’s previous decision was widely celebrated by the cryptocurrency industry, which has been resisting efforts to classify digital assets as securities subject to regulatory oversight.

In her ruling on July 13, Torres distinguished between the sale of Ripple’s XRP token to institutional investors, which she deemed to meet the criteria for an investment contract under federal securities law, and sales to the general public on cryptocurrency exchanges.

The SEC argued that immediate review of the matter was imperative as the ultimate outcome could have implications for other cryptocurrency-related cases, including similar lawsuits filed by the regulator against Coinbase Global Inc. and Binance Holdings Ltd.

It is worth noting that another Manhattan federal judge, Jed Rakoff, explicitly rejected Judge Torres’s approach in the SEC’s case against Terraform Labs and its founder, Do Kwon. Rakoff concluded that the Terra USD token might indeed be considered a security when sold to retail investors.

In its Friday filing, Ripple emphasized that several critical issues remain unresolved in the case, including whether the sales of XRP to institutional investors fall outside the SEC’s jurisdiction. If the SEC’s request for an exceptional appeal is granted, Ripple indicated its intention to challenge the judge’s determination that these sales constituted securities transactions.

This development comes shortly after a significant legal victory for the cryptocurrency industry in another case. An appeals court in Washington recently overturned the SEC’s decision to block Grayscale Investments LLC’s proposed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, and Chairman, Christian Larsen, who are also named as defendants in the case, have joined the chorus opposing the SEC’s request. They maintain that Judge Torres’s ruling aligns with the best interests of the public and that the case should proceed to trial without further delay.

The case, known as SEC v. Ripple Labs Inc., 20-cv-10832, is currently pending in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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