Welcome to another edition of Crypto NFT Today! The past two weeks have been full of must-know events that will define the future of blockchain, cryptocurrency, and NFTs.
With President-Elect Donald Trump’s crypto venture partnering with a new platform, the crypto markets increasing more than predicted this week, and more, there’s lots of essential news you should know about. So, let’s dive in and see what’s happening!
President-Elect Trump Crypto Venture Partners With New Platform
A recently unveiled cryptocurrency venture involving U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Steve Witkoff, appointed as his new Middle East envoy, has partnered with a controversial crypto platform allegedly used by criminals and Iran-backed militant groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, according to authorities and financial experts.
World Liberty Financial Inc., established by the Witkoff family just two months before the November U.S. election and with Trump as a financial beneficiary, has raised significant ethical and conflict-of-interest concerns among six U.S. government ethics specialists. Their primary concern is the firm’s partnership with the Tron crypto platform.
Crypto Markets Increase This Week
The cryptocurrency market saw a surge on Wednesday, rebounding after two days of consolidation following Bitcoin’s historic rally to $100,000 last week.
Bitcoin’s price climbed 5%, reaching $101,413.74, according to Coin Metrics. Ether also gained 5%, though it has yet to break past its key resistance level of $4,000. The broader cryptocurrency market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 index, rose more than 6%. Crypto-related stocks also advanced, with Coinbase rising 3% and MicroStrategy surging 9%. Despite the gains, most major players except MicroStrategy remain down for the week.
Dogecoin Network Exploited by Hackers
Dogecoin, one of the most popular meme cryptocurrencies, faced a major disruption on December 12 when a hacker exploited a vulnerability, causing 69% of its network nodes to crash.
The attack was carried out by Andreas Kohl, co-founder of the Bitcoin sidechain Sequentia, using a basic laptop from rural El Salvador. Kohl exploited a vulnerability previously identified by researcher Tobias Ruck, exposing critical weaknesses in Dogecoin’s network infrastructure.
Prior to the attack, Dogecoin’s network had 647 active nodes, according to data from Blockchair. The exploit caused the number of operational nodes to drop sharply to just 205. While the network has since partially recovered to 315 nodes, it remains significantly weakened, highlighting concerns about the resilience of cryptocurrency ecosystems.
Compound Finance Program to Raise Security
Compound Finance, a prominent decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, has introduced a $1 million bug bounty program in partnership with blockchain security platform Immunefi.
Announced on Dec. 12, the initiative aims to enhance the protocol’s security and build trust within its ecosystem by encouraging researchers to identify and report potential vulnerabilities.
The program offers tiered rewards based on the severity of identified issues, ranging from $1,000 for low-risk vulnerabilities to $1 million for critical exploits. All bounties will be paid in COMP, Compound’s native token, reflecting the protocol’s commitment to safeguarding its platform and users.
