- Stocks are reacting positively to this morning’s U.S Q4 GDP release, which showed GDP grew 2.9% annualized, beating Dow Jones’ 2.8% estimate. The S&P was up 0.27%, while the Nasdaq gained 0.74%. Although the growth rate slowed compared to Q3, the beat above expectations gives bulls additional ammo in their outlook for a soft landing. Attention now turns to the remaining Q4 earnings releases and next week’s Fed meeting, where the Fed expected to raise rates by a slower pace of 25 bps. BTC is down 0.14%, trading near $23k. After attempting to break out yesterday, it faced resistance at $23.8k and returned between $22.3k - $23.3k, where it has ranged since last Friday. ETH is underperforming, down 0.90%. Layer-1 competitor FTM is the top gainer of the top 100, up 21.9%, following an announcement to upgrade account abstraction on its network. The upgrade will enhance the dApp user experience by turning wallets into smart contracts, enabling Web2-like features such as password recovery, and allowing users to pay network fees in tokens other than FTM.
- The governance token of decentralized exchange dYdX has risen 16.79% over the past day after the team announced they would postpone a scheduled token unlock. The unlock was originally scheduled for Feb. 3rd, which would have seen more than 150 million tokens allocated to early investors, or 15% of its total supply, become eligible for trading. This allocation is now set to unlock 83 million tokens on Dec. 1st, with the remaining vesting throughout 2024 - 2026. Shorting token unlocks had become a widespread trade throughout the bear market as traders bet there wouldn’t be enough buying demand to support selling pressure from additional tokens. DYDX is one of many protocols that have seen price action around unlocks reverse, counterintuitively gaining value as more supply is set to enter the market. While DYDX runs a profitable exchange business, it has been criticized for exclusively accruing profits to its foundation entity rather than token holders.
- NFT creator and Moobirds collection co-founder Kevin Rose has fallen victim to a hack that stole more than $1.1 million of his NFT holdings. According to Moonbird’s collaborator Arran Schlosberg, Rose “was phished into signing a malicious signature,” allowing the hacker to transfer over the tokens. On-chain analyst “Quit” explained that the exploiter gained access through a phishing site that replicated OpenSea’s seaport contract, allowing the NFTs to be sold as one listing. He recommended “proper wallet segregation,” where users have separate wallets for selling and storing NFTs. While wallet segregation can help avoid future hacks, sadly, this is another episode showing how far user experience in crypto still has to go, as even the most prominent crypto natives fall victim to misleading transactions.
dYdX Postpones Token Unlock, Moonbirds Founder Kevin Rose Hacked
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