Home Blog Page 50

RGB And UTEXO Enable Private Lightning Settlements

info@uweb3.io
-
0
RGB And UTEXO Enable Private Lightning Settlements

Tether, the company behind USDT, is preparing to issue the stablecoin natively on Bitcoin through the RGB protocol version v0.11.1. Deployed by the UTEXO software lab, USDT is set to return to the chain where it first launched in 2014 via the Omni-Mastercoin Layer. 

UTEXO, the company leading the commercial rollout, has positioned itself as the issuer and distributor of this Bitcoin-native USDT in partnership with Tether.  “Finally, after eight years of development—if not more—we are the company that is launching USDT over Bitcoin with strong support from Tether,” said Viktor Ihnatiuk, UTEXO co-founder, in an exclusive interview with Bitcoin Magazine. 

The RGB protocol combines its novel client-side validation with the Lightning network for instant, private settlements, while anchoring security to Bitcoin’s UTXO model. Users can expect to be able to handle USDT on native Bitcoin addresses as well as send and receive it over the Lightning network with compatible wallets. 

The RGB protocol on Bitcoin also offers significant privacy features to USDT users as the asset benefits from Bitcoin’s UTXO model, which standardizes fresh addresses for every transaction compared to the account-based address reused commonly in EVM blockchains like Tron, Ethereum or Solana. Address reuse is the first mistake of onchain privacy, yet most altcoins built their interfaces to reuse addresses, despite the risk it poses to users. RGB’s integration with the Lightning network further protects user privacy by moving USDT via the offchain payments network, which leaves few marks on the public blockchain. The deep integration with Tether also means that there are fewer middleman companies charging extra fees or collecting data. 

On the topic, Vktor emphasized that, “We built Utexo so that USDT could move on Bitcoin the way money is supposed to move: instantly, privately, with no surprises on costs. Our partners integrate our API once and can route USDT on the most resilient open network ever built, with full control over cost structure.”

UTEXO vs TRON

UTEXO emerged from a joint venture involving Viktor’s Boosty Venture Studio, Fulgur Ventures, and Tether Investments. The goal was straightforward: bring RGB to mainnet after years of delays under prior development teams. The protocol had been in active development since at least 2016, but failed to be ready for the 2017 bull market, giving the TRON blockchain dominance over USDT volume and usage throughout the developing world, a dominance which it still retains. 

UTEXO of specifically building “the last mile” of software needed for wide USDT deployment across the Bitcoin ecosystem, which includes a software development kit, APIs, mid-level protocols, UI design work and even a mint bridge that is live today at mint.utexo.com. This bridge lets users move USDT across popular blockchains with “deterministic low fees” and no middlemen thanks to its direct integration with Tether as the primary mint. The RGB protocol layer was developed by Bitfinex R&D Strategist Federico Tenga.

“Right now if you want to swap USDT to Bitcoin you need to pay high fees for all these wallets who charge you a one percent wallet fee plus a swap provider charge of one percent plus, and you have slippage one percent as well, so you pay three percent, and also you wait forever until the swap happens” Viktor told Bitcoin Magazine, adding that; “with USDT and Bitcoin over Lightning, for the first time you have two main assets on one chain, you can swap instantly without any slippage. You can swap decentralized USDT to Bitcoin and back on-chain. The price is almost the same as spot markets in Binance.”

Networks like Tron that are primarily used to move USDT also add extra fees, swap commissions and friction to the user experience. They require a different address type, with fees paid in an asset like TRX, which is only ever used to move the stablecoin. With most of the monetary volume in the crypto market concentrated in Bitcoin and Tether, having to buy an altcoin just to pay fees ends up feeling like red tape. 

Bitcoin, as the payment rails of USDT, also comes with blockchain levels of security that other chains simply can not offer. While USDT will always be fundamentally centralized in Tether as a corporation, the rails can also add risk, for example, if a contentious fork occurs or major bugs are found on novel blockchain systems. Bitcoin, being the oldest and most conservative blockchain, delivers a quality assurance of sorts that can not be matched by other chains. 

RGB traces its roots to Peter Todd’s single-use seals back in 2014 and was formalized in 2016 by Giacomo Zucco and Riccardo Casatta. The RGB acronym, originally derived from “Riccardo Giacomo Bitcoin,” was later rebranded “Really Good Bitcoin”. Tether explored the protocol early but faced delays with the previous team. Had RGB shipped on schedule around 2019, the stablecoin landscape and broader DeFi industry might have developed differently around Bitcoin’s UTXO model instead of Ethereum’s account-based system.

As such, bringing USDT back to Bitcoin is a core motivation for UTEXO. Viktor minced no words on the matter: “For the first time in eight years or nine years, USDT is coming back home. We have no chance to fail. If we fail, no one will think about Bitcoin as a settlement layer anymore.”

USDT on Bitcoin via RGB is expected to be launched within weeks, possibly this July, with wallets like Tether Wallet among others announcing support, and exchanges across the world announcing integrations. 

EMURGO Says Hacked Cardano Wallet SecondFi Won’t Reopen

info@uweb3.io
-
0
EMURGO Says Hacked Cardano Wallet SecondFi Won’t Reopen

EMURGO, the Cardano-founding entity behind SecondFi, said Monday the hacked wallet service will not resume normal operations even after ongoing security audits conclude, telling all users to migrate away using its official recovery process. “Although we believe unaffected users remain safe,…

EMURGO, the Cardano-founding entity behind SecondFi, said Monday the hacked wallet service will not resume normal operations even after ongoing security audits conclude, telling all users to migrate away using its official recovery process.

“Although we believe unaffected users remain safe, SecondFi will not resume normal operations, even after the audits are complete,” EMURGO said in a post on its official X account. Going forward, EMURGO said, its role in SecondFi is limited to “a dedicated asset recovery team, tasked solely with returning assets to affected users.”

The Underlying Breach

SecondFi, a rebrand of the Yoroi wallet, is what EMURGO has called “Cardano’s largest wallet provider.” The service was hit by four distinct wallet-draining events discovered June 22, compromising 374 addresses and roughly 16 million ADA, worth about $2.4 million at the time, according to EMURGO’s own June 25 incident report. The team said it separately secured about 129 million ADA through emergency containment.

EMURGO has said compromised wallets should be treated as permanently exposed at the address and private-key level, meaning restoring an affected seed phrase into another wallet will not fix the risk.

Recovery Plan

EMURGO said it has engaged multiple independent firms to review the incident and code, and has submitted a patch closing the identified vulnerability, though investigations continue. It plans to launch a quarantined wallet-status checker this week, pending app-store approval, followed by a secure export tool for migrating funds to a hardware wallet or alternative platform, and an in-person migration workshop in Tokyo.

A dedicated restoration fund is being built into an on-chain recovery system that EMURGO said still requires an external audit before affected users’ assets can be returned. EMURGO said it will publish a full account of who was responsible and why once incident reports and code reviews are finalized.

Trader Loses $2 Million From Malicious DEX incident

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Trader Loses $2 Million From Malicious DEX incident

A trader who swapped $2.01 million worth of Ether on a decentralized exchange has been left with just $14,500 worth of tokens after a router directed the order through a low-liquidity pool, allowing an Ethereum block builder to profit massively from a same-block arbitrage trade.

The trader swapped 1,126.44 of Ether (ETH) but only received 5,776 Lighter (LIT) tokens, in a “textbook case of same-block backrun extraction,” according to GoPlus Security.

“This was a real, highly imbalanced backrunner arbitrage, not a classic sandwich attack,” GoPlus Security said. Titan Builder was the biggest beneficiary, walking away with $1.8 million from the transaction, which took place on Monday at 1:59 am UTC.

Source: Lookonchain

The incident is a reminder of the risks posed by maximal extractable value (MEV) bots and liquidity routers on top of hackers and scammers, which continue to run rampant in the crypto industry.

Don’t sign DEX transactions blindly, trader says

To reduce the risk of such incidents, crypto trader Ruslan Khairullin said traders should read the transaction route before signing the transaction.

“This is what happens when you clicked confirm faster than you read the route. Painful lesson to see in a real time.”

Source: Luke Cannon

How the victim lost $2M to a bot

The victim’s swap routed approximately 1,117 Ether into a low-liquidity AVAIL/WETH pool on Uniswap v3, causing the trade to execute at roughly 120 times higher than what AVAIL could later be sold for, GoPlus Security said.

After the trader received nearly 6.67 million AVAIL tokens at an inflated price, the router involved, 0x router, sold a small amount of externally sourced AVAIL into the same pool to extract about 1,072 WETH before paying out 1,018 ETH, worth $1.8 million, to Titan as a builder reward.

The AVAIL was then swapped for $14,200 worth of LIT tokens, marking a 99.3% loss.

Related: ‘All DeFi unsafe’ claim sparks AI security debate after April hack surge 

Cointelegraph reached out to Titan but didn’t receive an immediate response.

Titan has now made $112.6 million in revenue from its block building services this year, data from DefiLlama shows.

Titan’s biggest day this year came in March when it extracted around $34 million in arbitrage profit from a MEV bot incident on the CoW Protocol.

Monthly change in Titan’s revenue since February 2025. Source: DefiLlama

Magazine: China’s 107 Bitcoin memory thief, Bithumb CEO booked: Asia Express

Bitcoin and ether ETFs drew inflows Monday

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Bitcoin and ether ETFs drew inflows Monday

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs pulled in $265.69 million on Monday, the largest daily inflow in over a month and the second in three sessions after July 2 broke a long run of outflows, per SoSoValue data. Ether ETFs added $20.66 million the same day, led by BlackRock’s ETHA at $23.29 million.

BlackRock’s IBIT absorbed $209.40 million of the bitcoin total, with ARKB taking in $32.98 million and Grayscale’s mini BTC fund adding $42.25 million. GBTC shed $44.45 million, the only fund in the red.

The daily turn has not fixed the weekly picture yet. Spot bitcoin ETFs still lost a net $526.6 million over the shortened holiday week, an eighth straight week of negative flows. Ether ETFs lost $13.7 million on the week.

Total bitcoin ETF assets climbed back to $77.32 billion from a June 30 low of $70.95 billion, helped by both the price recovery and the returning bid. Bitcoin traded near $63,200 as the data landed, per CoinDesk data.

Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve Stalled By Interagency Clash: Report

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve Stalled By Interagency Clash: Report

The Trump administration’s push to establish a US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has reportedly hit a roadblock, as the Commerce and Treasury departments are at odds over how the reserve should be structured and which agency should have primary oversight of the holdings.

US President Donald Trump’s March 2025 executive order called for the SBR to be housed inside the Treasury Department, while other agencies would assist with asset seizures to build the reserve. 

However, concerns have emerged over whether the Treasury has the legal authority to manage the Bitcoin (BTC) holdings, partly because of its volatility, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. 

The Commerce Department has emerged as a contender to oversee the reserve, they said. The Department of Justice is also reportedly working with the departments to determine legally available options, they added.

The Bitcoin reserve is a key part of Trump’s plan to make the US the “crypto capital of the world,” marking a major shift in the government’s approach to digital assets by positioning Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset rather than a seized commodity.

“To deliver on the President’s vision, the Trump administration continues to evaluate the best structure for a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and US Digital Asset Stockpile,” White House spokesperson Liz Huston told Cointelegraph.

Source: Cointelegraph

The US currently holds 328,372 Bitcoin worth $21.1 billion — the most of any nation-state — but has sold portions through court-ordered actions over the years.

Senators look to codify the Bitcoin reserve

Efforts have been made to codify the Bitcoin reserve in Congress through the BITCOIN Act and ARMA Act, introduced in May, which seek to acquire 1 million Bitcoin over five years using budget-neutral strategies.

Related: Has Strategy’s capital overhaul put an end to ‘death spiral’ fears?

One of the White House’s top crypto advisers, Patrick Witt, described ARMA as “Version 2” of the BITCOIN Act and said the White House had spent significant time examining the legal implications of creating a Bitcoin reserve. 

“It’s a breakthrough as far as getting everything in place — legally sound — properly safeguarding the assets,” Witt said at the time.

Under ARMA, Bitcoin must be held for at least 20 years unless it is sold to reduce America’s national debt, which is nearing $40 trillion.

Bitcoin reserve developments viewed bullishly

Despite the interagency issues, many industry advocates say the SBR could strengthen the case for Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset.

“The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve isn’t just bullish for Bitcoin. It validates an entirely new category of capital allocation,” Tim Kotzman, host of the Bitcoin Treasuries Podcast, said.

“Public companies moved first. Nation-states are beginning to follow.”

While 15 nation-states hold Bitcoin, El Salvador is the only country that has formally established a Bitcoin reserve and is making routine purchases.

Magazine: Does ‘Paper Bitcoin’ mean there’s an unlimited supply of BTC?

BONK faces $20 million treasury drain after attacker spends $4 million to pass malicious proposal

info@uweb3.io
-
0
BONK faces $20 million treasury drain after attacker spends $4 million to pass malicious proposal

The sequence began on June 30, when an anonymous wallet submitted a proposal to transfer the treasury’s holdings to a wallet it controlled, per Chainalysis. To pass, the proposal needed yes votes equal to 1% of BONK’s supply, the quorum, or minimum participation, required for it to take effect.

Over July 4 and 5, a separate wallet acquired exactly that much, spending about $4.4 million to buy BONK on the exchanges Bybit and Binance and, by one account, borrowing more through DeFi lending platforms, according to Lookonchain.

Titled “BIP #76 – Sowellian BonkDAO,” the proposal passed with just seven wallets voting, against more than 18,000 members who did not, a turnout of 2.9%.

It cleared quorum by the narrowest margin, 882.38 billion BONK in favor against an 879.95 billion threshold, almost exactly the stake the attacker had spent days assembling.

The 99.9% “yes” result was effectively a single voter agreeing with itself. Its written pitch reads less like a governance motion and more like a boast, promising to “rebuild from the ashes, monetize holdings, stop the bleeding,” with a line noting that “all YES voters are eligible to receive tokens.”

Beneath it sat the only instruction that should have turned heads – a transfer of 4.43 trillion BONK to the attacker’s wallet.

By July 6, the voter held just enough. It cast its entire stake in favor of the proposal, which then passed, and shortly after, about $20 million in BONK automatically moved out of the treasury into the attacker’s wallet.

Ripple Secures Full MiCA License, Completing EU Compliance

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Ripple Secures Full MiCA License, Completing EU Compliance

Ripple has received full Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, the company said in a press release Monday. The license completes Ripple’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) requirements, letting it offer…

Ripple has received full Crypto Asset Service Provider (CASP) authorization from Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, the company said in a press release Monday. The license completes Ripple’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) requirements, letting it offer regulated crypto payments, custody and related services across all 30 countries of the European Economic Area.

Ripple’s official X account confirmed the news the same day, posting “It’s official: Ripple has received its EU CASP license. We are now fully MiCA-compliant and ready to meet growing European crypto demand.”

Building On Preliminary Approval

The full authorization follows preliminary CASP approval Ripple secured in Luxembourg in June, which The Defiant covered at the time. That earlier approval unlocked EEA passporting on a provisional basis; Monday’s authorization removes the conditional status and confirms full compliance under the bloc’s post-transition MiCA regime.

Cassie Craddock, Ripple’s managing director for the UK and Europe, said in the release that “this CASP authorisation means Ripple enters the post-transitional MiCA era fully compliant and ready to scale.” She added that institutions across Europe “are looking to build their digital asset services alongside regulated partners.”

Adding To Global License Count

Combined with its existing EU e-money institution license, Ripple’s CASP approval puts it among a small group of digital-asset firms with full MiCA authorization, according to the company, which said it now holds more than 75 regulatory licenses globally. Ripple did not disclose which other products or jurisdictions the license immediately unlocks beyond the EEA-wide passporting already described.

The approval lands after MiCA’s transitional grandfathering period ended July 1, 2026, a deadline that forced crypto firms operating in the EU to either secure authorization or wind down services to EU clients.

Bitcoin slips after Strategy sells 3,588 BTC for $216 million

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Bitcoin slips after Strategy sells 3,588 BTC for $216 million

“Strategy now has a completely different business model,” wrote Peter Schiff, a longtime no-coiner and critic of Michael Saylor and his company. “Instead of selling common and preferred stock and issuing debt to buy bitcoin, the new strategy is to sell bitcoin to pay interest and dividends, pay off debt, buy back shares it sold, and hope that bitcoin’s price goes way up.”

“You guys who believed selling 32 BTC caused sell-off three weeks ago have some reflecting to do,” said Grant Cardone.

“Everyone was worried about Saylor getting liquidated,” wrote Jeff Sekinger. “Well this is it. This is what it looks like. They will sell chunks of BTC at a loss to fund their credit products that aren’t backed by cash flow. So if BTC doesn’t appreciate, they will continue selling at a loss.”

“I’m on board with the firm moving in this direction, wrote Josh Mandell. “When the usual approach to funding dividends is just selling more shares of common stock, opting to sell a small amount of bitcoin instead essentially behaves like a buyback of the common.”

“Strategy just sold ~1.5 months of dividend obligations in one week,” said Joe Burnett, an executive with fellow bitcoin treasury company, Strive. “At this pace and with 0% BTC appreciation, today’s dividend obligation is funded until 2056 … At ~3.4% annual BTC appreciation, today’s dividend obligation can be funded indefinitely.”

Finally, there’s Strategy CEO Phong Le: “Strategy is evolving from one-way capital issuance to active capital management.”

Fed rate-decision meeting minutes, SpaceX (SPCX) joins Nasdaq 100: Crypto Week Ahead

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Fed rate-decision meeting minutes, SpaceX (SPCX) joins Nasdaq 100: Crypto Week Ahead

This week is characterized by macroeconomic reports, which include the minutes from last month’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, as well as economic data that may provide insights into the Federal Reserve’s next moves.

Crypto-linked equities are also in the news, with American Bitcoin (ABTC) dodging a Nasdaq delisting after a reverse split.

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space transportation and AI company, joins the Nasdaq 100, becoming the fourth member of the tech-heavy index to hold bitcoin BTC$63,915.57. Index membership is likely to boost demand for the shares, partly because tracker funds need exposure to the company and partly because the stock is more likely to meet firms’ investment criteria.

Others include Tesla (TSLA), Strategy (MSTR) and Mercado Libre (MELI). The space exploration firm, which holds 18,712 BTC, is expected to have more weight in the index than the latter two.

Beyond that, geopolitical developments and the further collapse of the yen against the dollar are factors to keep an eye on. Bitcoin’s negative correlation to the yen’s exchange rate against the dollar has been unusually high, with BTC tending to rise when the yen weakens.

What to Watch

(All times ET)

  • Crypto
    • July 6: American Bitcoin (ABTC) to trade after 1-for-15 reverse stock split reduced total outstanding shares to about 73 million.
    • July 7: SpaceX (SPCX) to join the Nasdaq 100 index.
    • July 7: Berachain (BERA) to undergo its PoL Next upgrade.
  • Macro
    • July 06, 09:45 a.m.: U.S. S&P Global Services PMI Final for June est. 51.3 (Prev. 50.7)
    • July 06, 10:00 a.m.: U.S. ISM Services PMI for June (Prev. 54.5)
    • July 07, 11:00 a.m.: U.S. Consumer Inflation Expectations for June (Prev. 3.5%)
    • July 08, 02:00 p.m.: U.S. FOMC Minutes
    • July 08, 09:30 p.m.: China Consumer Price Index YoY for June (Prev. 1.2%)
    • July 09, 08:30 a.m.: U.S. Initial Jobless Claims for period ending July 04 (Prev. 215K)
    • July 09, 09:00 a.m.: U.S. Fed Williams Speech in a keynote discussion on “The Future of Market Liquidity and Functioning”
    • July 10, 08:30 a.m.: Canada Unemployment Rate for June (Prev. 6.6%)
  • Earnings

Token Events

  • Governance Votes & Calls
    • ENS DAO is voting on an executable proposal to renew its Security Council for a two-year term, deploy an updated contract with an extension function, and rotate one multisig signer. Voting ends on July 6.
    • Frax DAO is voting to allocate 42,000 wFRAX over six months to fund the EchoMarket Creator & Distribution Program. Voting ends on July 6.
    • Nexus Mutual DAO is voting on a proposal to approve a 12-month budget of 1,108,875 USDC and 6,930 wNXM for its active DAO teams to fund operations, marketing, product development, and risk management through July 2027. Voting ends on July 9.
    • Arbitrum DAO is voting on a proposal to establish the Fast Feed, a paid, low-latency data stream providing early access to sequenced transaction data on Arbitrum One. Voting ends on July 9.
  • Unlocks
    • July 6: Hyperliquid (HYPE) to unlock 0.2% of its circulating supply worth $30.39 million.
    • July 11: Rain (RAIN) to unlock 7.64% of its circulating supply worth $786.9 million.
    • July 12: PUMP$0.001611 to unlock 29.12% of its circulating supply worth $130.2 million.
  • Token Launches

Conferences

Coinbase AI alert draws backlash after pushing World Cup result before kickoff

info@uweb3.io
-
0
Coinbase AI alert draws backlash after pushing World Cup result before kickoff

Coinbase (COIN) sent users a false “breaking news” alert saying Norway’s soccer team beat Brazil 3-2 in a World Cup knockout match before the game had even started.

The alert said Erling Haaland scored twice in the match at MetLife Stadium. Coinbase’s own prediction-market page still listed the game as weather-delayed at the time.

Users posted screenshots of the notification on X on Sunday. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong replied to one saying he was looking into it with the team. According to one post, the alert was sent at 10:26 a.m. ET. The match didn’t start until 4 p.m.

Max Branzburg, the company’s head of consumer & business products, later clarified that the incorrect story was fixed and the firm “made some updates to avoid these types of inaccuracies in the future.”

“It’s awesome to see the power of AI-enabled 24/7 insights for trading, but obviously still need to tune it to address these types of issues,” Branzburg wrote on X.

The actual match did see Norway beat Brazil, and Haaland scored twice. The final score was 2-1.

1...495051...1,250Page 50 of 1,250