Mixin Network, a prominent decentralized wallet service provider, has been rocked by a massive security breach resulting in a loss of $200 million.

The breach, attributed to vulnerabilities in its cloud service provider’s database, has raised questions about the platform’s dependence on centralized infrastructure.

Mixin Network, known for its support of 48 public blockchains and an impressive total network asset value exceeding $1 billion, halted deposit and withdrawal services following the breach.

This incident has prompted discussions within the crypto community regarding the risks associated with centralization in decentralized platforms.

In response to the breach, Mixin Network has taken swift action, enlisting the expertise of blockchain security specialists from SlowMist.

The company has pledged to resume services only after thoroughly addressing identified vulnerabilities, a decision reached through consensus among all network nodes.

The plan for asset recovery will be announced in due course, and Mixin founder Feng Xiaodong will provide a detailed explanation in a public livestream.

The Mixin incident follows closely on the heels of the JPEX cryptocurrency exchange scandal in Hong Kong, which has left countless individuals reeling from financial losses totaling $178 million.

Experts now speculate that these recent setbacks may lead the Hong Kong government to reconsider its enthusiastic promotion of Web3 technologies, as concerns over security and public sentiment cast a shadow on the region’s cryptocurrency ambitions.

Carlton Lai, head of blockchain and cryptocurrency research at Daiwa Capital Markets, said, “I think this scandal will have a pretty sizeable negative impact on retail sentiment, given its significant local presence and the various celebrities involved.”

As Hong Kong grapples with the fallout from these high-profile incidents, the future of cryptocurrency in the region remains uncertain, with questions of regulation and security taking center stage.

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.

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).