GeckoPulse: Exploits Galore

SwapNet Breached

They thought they were being safe, but the hacker had other plans.

On-chain DEX aggregator SwapNet has suffered a $16.8M exploit across multiple networks such as Ethereum, Base and BNB Chain.

According to blockchain security firm Peckshield, the attacker had specifically targeted SwapNet user activity through Matcha Meta.

Over $10.5M worth of USDC was stolen on Base, which was converted back into ETH and sent back to Ethereum.

The Matcha Meta team confirmed the issue, explaining that only users who had turned off the one-time approval feature were vulnerable to the exploit.

Without this option, users had granted approval directly to the underlying aggregators on Matcha Meta, which included SwapNet.

While the affected smart contracts have been temporarily paused, the team has since urged users to revoke smart contract permissions on all other individual aggregators.

CertiK Wants to go Public

Crypto security firm CertiK has become the latest company to announce its plans for an IPO, according to its CEO Ronghui Gu.

According to Gu, CertiK aims to become the first ‘public Web3 cybersecurity firm’.

Despite its past controversies, the firm had successfully raised $88M in funds at a $2B valuation back in 2022.

Earlier in the year, CZ’s family office, YZi Labs, had also formed a strategic partnership with CertiK, investing an ‘8-figure sum’ into the company.

Stress Test Season

The MegaETH L2 has launched a global stress test for its upcoming mainnet earlier today.

The dedicated website for the stress test displays real-time performance of the network including transactions per second and total transactions, with comparisons to both Solana and Base.

Additionally, users can already access 3 ready-to-use dApps on the network - Crossy Fluffle, Stomp, and Smasher.fun.

Since the stress test went live, the network has maintained a steady rate of over 16K transactions per seconds, with over 1.3B cumulative transactions executed.

However, the team is looking to hit its target of 15K -35K average transactions over the 7-day testing period.

Additionally, MegaETH will also be running a mixture of ETH transfers and AMM trades through the Kumbaya DEX until they reach a total of 11B transactions.

Users can now transfer their ETH through the official MegaETH bridge, which will take around 30 minutes to finalize on Ethereum.

Besides that, FLuffle holders and public sale participants will also be eligible to free gas drops from the network’s faucet.

MegaETH’s native MEGA token is currently trading at $0.19 on pre-markets, implying a fully diluted valuation of $1.9B

Trump's Space Force

Trump-backed World Liberty Financial is partnering up with Spacecoin to enable DeFi over satellite internet.

The partnership will involve further integration of World Liberty’s USD1 stablecoin into Spacecoin’s ecosystem.

Additionally, both projects have agreed to a token swap, although the terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed.

World Liberty's WLFI token is currently trading around $0.17, with a market cap of $4.6B.

In Other News

Stealing $40M From the Government. Blockchain investigator ZachXBT identified John Daghita, the son of Dean Daghita, president of Command Services & Support (CMDSS), as the thief behind $40M of stolen crypto funds. CMDSS manages seized crypto funds for the US government.

$145M ETH Whale Resurfaces. An ETH whale returned from dormancy after 9 years, transferring 50K ETH, worth $145M to a Gemini wallet on Sunday.

Farcaster Refunds $180M to VC Investors. Merkle Manufactory, the firm behind decentralized social platform Farcaster, will refund venture investors the $180M it raised after the protocol was sold to infrastructure firm Neynar.

Feeling Birbish. NFT project Moonbirds has confirmed the TGE date of their upcoming BIRB token. BIRB will launch on Solana on January 28.

Ledger’s $4B Valuation. Further details on the upcoming IPO of hardware crypto wallet Ledger has emerged. Goldman Sachs is apparently advising the firm who is seeking a $4B valuation.

Bitcoin and Gold. Crypto asset manager Bitwise is debuting a new ETF pairing gold and Bitcoin together called the ETF Proficio Currency Debasement ETF.  The ETF will trade under the ticker BPRO in the New York Stock Exchange.

Just DONT. Solana treasury firm DeFi Development Corp. has launched a Solana memecoin with ticker, DONT. An early sniper managed to buy $4K worth of the token before the public announcement, earning $200K in profits.

The Quantum Task Force. Crypto exchange Coinbase is creating an independent advisory board to study the effects and protect Bitcoin against quantum threats. Studies will also extend to the Ethereum blockchain as the group endeavors to protect the cryptographic security of modern day blockchains.

A Volatile Start for BitGo. Crypto custodian BitGo Holdings, which IPO last night, saw its shares surge 36% before sharply retracing. BTGO ended the day up 2.7% from its IPO price at a valuation of around $2B.