Bitcoin is still lurking around US$19k – the volatility expected after the US inflation data update didn’t really find a crypto-market direction. Meanwhile, Mango Markets hack news and a little-known layer 1 called Casper are causing a stir.

Judging by the crypto majors at least, it was a fairly sedate weekend for price action, although more volatility for the market is overdue according to various analysts, such as Michaël van de Poppe:

“Bitcoin is squeezing and ready for a breakout move above $19.6k,” the crypto-chart-watching Dutchman further noted.

Raoul Pal, a stupidly rich British former hedge fund manager and the co-founder of financial media company Real Vision, also believes October is still in for some action. Judging by one of his latest Twitter threads (below), though, it might well be in the opposite direction from the “Uptober” crypto narrative.

Pal compares the current macroeconomic situation with past bear markets and stock market crashes, citing October as a frequent month for a “generational low”. (Although, he also points out other market bottoms that extended into November and a bit beyond.)

Something about history not repeating but rhyming, perhaps? (Do, however, bear in mind Kraken Australia boss Jonathon Miller’s take on the words “let’s dig in” at the end of this article.)

 

Mango Markets hacker comes clean

Seventeen days into October and it’s reportedly been one of the worst months for hacks in crypto history in what’s actually been the worst year so far for DeFi exploits overall. And that’s according to the analytics company Chainalysis.

The Solana-based DeFi platform Mango Markets was the biggest of those October hacks so far, with more than US$100 million drained.

There’s been some pretty crazy updates on this situation, however, starting with the hacker offering to return stolen funds with the proviso that criminal charges won’t be pursued:

It seems, however, that the trail leading to the hacker or hackers wasn’t exactly well covered. As a result, the main person responsible – New York-based “digital art dealer” Avraham Eisenberg – then felt compelled to identify himself across the weekend, claiming his actions were legal.

As things stand, Eisenberg and his “team” appear to have returned more than half the funds – US$67 million to the Mango Markets DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation).

It’s also been reported by Decrypt and other US crypto media sites that Mango Markets agreed to cut a deal with the hackers for him/them to keep US$47 million as a “bug bounty”.

And that’s a form of reward usually given to ethical “white-hat” hackers helping protocols to find chinks in their armour.

This whole Mango episode is crazy, highly questionable stuff, and continues to prove that decentralised finance, while a fascinating and incredibly innovative sector, still has major teething problems to overcome. Tread there with extreme caution.

Onto some general daily crypto price action.

 

Top 10 overview

With the overall crypto market cap at US$963 billion, up about 1% since this time yesterday, here’s the current state of play among top 10 tokens – according to CoinGecko.

While the market’s main pace setters, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), are cruising sideways, a few other crypto majors have been bleeding out a bit over the past few days.

Looks like XRP could do with another good update regarding its parent company Ripple’s legal stoush with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. We’ll keep you posed on any major developments.

Layer 1 smart-contract protocols Cardano (ADA) and Solana (SOL) are also well down on a weekly timeframe.

Cardano, in particular, is one of those polarising projects, which has a bit to do with its highly intelligent, highly outspoken founder Charles Hoskinson. It gets a lot of hate, particularly from the Ethereum community, but like XRP, ADA’s supporters can be extremely… evangelical.

 

Uppers and downers: 11–100

Sweeping a market-cap range of about US$7.1 billion to about US$381 million in the rest of the top 100, let’s find some of the biggest 24-hour gainers and losers at press time. (Stats accurate at time of publishing, based on CoinGecko.com data.)

DAILY PUMPERS

• Casper Network (CSPR),(market cap: US$520 million) +25%

• Synthetix (SNX), (mc: US$550 million) +12%

• Quant (QNT), (mc: US$2.53 million) +6%

• Aave (AAVE), (mc: US$1 billion) +4%

• Chainlink (LINK), (mc: US$3.5 billion) +3%

Casper, eh? What’s up with this one, then, aside from the price? Firstly, what is it? It’s yet another proof-of-stake layer 1 blockchain, which has a focus on helping large, institutional enterprises build effective blockchain-enabled services.

And that’s something its CEO Mrinal Manohar reportedly believes most other blockchains are ill-equipped to provide.

Why is it pumping today? Tricky to determine at a quick glance. Perhaps insiders know something the rest of us don’t. A quick scroll down its available markets on CoinGecko and CSPR is not yet listed on the largest exchanges (it’s on OKX, Huobi and KuCoin, for example, but not Coinbase, Binance, FTX or Kraken).

Perhaps, like ADA and XRP, CSPR is building out a rabidly loyal, hopium-fuelled supporter base in search of the next bullrun major protocol moonshot. We’ll see.

 

DAILY SLUMPERS

• Huobi (HT), (market cap: US$916 million) -4%

• Terra (LUNA), (mc: US$404 million) -4%

• Chain (XCN), (mc: US$1.38 billion) -2%

• EOS (EOS), (mc: US$1 billion) -1%

• Tezos (XTZ), (mc: US$1.2 billion) -1%

 

Around the blocks

A selection of randomness and pertinence that stuck with us on our morning moves through the Crypto Twitterverse…

Last but not least, Kraken Australia boss Jonathon Miller has a way to improve your Twitter experience. Let’s dig take a quick look…

(Quickly checks articles to see if we’ve used the phrases “let’s dig in” and “simple steps” just lately. Phew, think we’re clean.)

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