Hodler’s Digest, Nov. 24 – 30 – Cointelegraph Magazine

Top Stories of The Week

Dogecoin flips Porsche market cap as DOGE ETP, Musk drive rally

Dogecoin has surpassed the market capitalization of luxury automaker Porsche, driven by endorsements from Elon Musk and the potential launch of an exchange-traded product for the memecoin.

Dogecoin has risen 175% during the past month to a $57.8 billion market capitalization, surpassing Porsche’s $56.1 billion market cap, as of 8:34 am UTC on Nov. 27, Cointelegraph data showed.

Dogecoin has had significant momentum in 2024, partly driven by continued social media endorsements from billionaire Elon Musk. Musk’s recent involvement in creating the nascent Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an agency aimed at cutting government spending and streamlining regulations, has further stoked interest.

ZachXBT alleges former pro-Fortnite player helped steal $3.5M via memecoin scams

Pseudonymous blockchain sleuth ZachXBT alleged a former professional Fortnite player and blockchain security analyst from Australia was involved in memecoin scams that resulted in about $3.5 million being stolen. 

In a Nov. 27 thread published on X, ZachXBT said wallet addresses tied to former pro-Fortnite player Serpent had “high exposure” to several Pump.fun memecoin scams involving hacked social media accounts.

Serpent, who was expelled from the esports organization “Overtime” in June 2020 for alleged cheating, according to gaming TV network Ginx TV, was also known on X as a security analyst and a founder of a threat mitigation system called Sentinel.

Bitcoin CME futures hit $100K for the second time in a week: Will BTC spot price follow?

On Nov. 29, Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) rose to $100,200 for the second time in seven days after initially hitting the milestone on Nov. 22. Bitcoin’s spot price has yet to reach $100,000, but the cryptocurrency shows promise as it briefly hit an intraday high at $98,600 before selling off.

According to The Kobeissi Letter, Bitcoin futures open interest on CME surpassed 40,000 contracts, and prior to the Nov. 28 Thanksgiving holiday in the US, CME Bitcoin futures volumes were at $12.3 billion. 

Trading volumes surged in the European and New York sessions after United States stock markets were closed on Nov. 28 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. A strong spot bid can be observed on Coinbase, where the spread, or “Coinbase premium,” between the BTC/USD price and Bitcoin spot price on Binance has exceeded $200. 

Solana memecoin trader turns $160 into $5.6M with viral token

A Solana-based memecoin trader turned a $160 investment into millions after buying tokens tied to a viral internet meme.

Data from Solana’s blockchain explorer Solscan shows that on Nov. 15, a wallet made two purchases of the Just a chill guy (CHILLGUY) memecoin. 

The trader exchanged 0.50 Solana, worth around $107 at the time, for 9.6 million CHILLGUY tokens on the Solana memecoin generator platform Pump.fun. Hours later, the trader added another 0.246 SOL (about $51) for 2.8 million tokens.

The CHILLGUY token launched on Nov. 15 on the Solana blockchain, riding the wave of the viral “Just a chill guy” meme that gained popularity on social media. The token’s value surged, reaching a peak market capitalization of $643 million by Nov. 27. At the time of writing, the memecoin trades at $0.58. 

Blockchain data suggests the trader sold 2.8 million tokens early for 149 SOL (about $35,000) — missing out on a potential $1.6 million profit. However, the trader still holds 9.62 million tokens, now valued at about $5.6 million.

Crypto hackers steal $71M in November, bringing yearly total to $1.48B

Cryptocurrency hackers continue damaging the industry’s reputation as the yearly value stolen through cyberattacks nears $1.5 billion.

Crypto hackers stole over $71 million worth of digital assets during November, according to an Immunefi report shared with Cointelegraph.

This brings the total crypto value stolen to over $1.48 billion year-to-date (YTD) in 2024, according to the report, which stated:

“In total, we have seen a loss of $1,489,921,677 to hacks and rug pulls in 2024 YTD across 209 specific incidents. This represents a 15% decrease compared to the same period in 2023, when losses totaled $1,757,680,745.”

Winners and Losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $97,414, Ether (ETH) at $3,591 and XRP at $1.76. The total market cap is at $3.39 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are The Sandbox (SAND) at 80.20%, Algorand (ALGO) at 76.80% and Ethereum Name Service (ENS) at 72.86%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Mantra (OM) at 9.55%, POPCAT (SOL) (POPCAT) at 8.38% and FLOKI (FLOKI) at 6.20%. For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraph’s market analysis.

Most Memorable Quotations

“I am not against memes, but meme coins are getting ‘a little’ weird now. Let’s build real applications using blockchain.”

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, founder and former CEO of Binance

“Institutions want to hide payments, workflow, daily work, who they pay, and when. If you have Bitcoin or Ethereum balances, those things are very relevant to other people.”

Avidan Abitbol, project director at Data Ownership Protocol

“The industry is always one attack away from massive damage.”

Mitchell Amador, founder and CEO of Immunefi

“We’re really waiting to see that exuberant move, and then we’ll look at that rotation of capital.”

Pav Hundal, lead market analyst at Swyftx

“I was discussing bitcoin with an investor yesterday and he replied somewhat dismissively ‘It’s just like buying gold.’ No, it’s like buying gold in 1000 B.C.”

Dan Morehead, founder of Pantera Capital

“Altcoins should focus on developing independent strategies to attract new capital rather than relying on Bitcoin’s momentum.”

Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant

Cardano founder predicts Bitcoin DeFi will dominate crypto within 3 years

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said decentralized finance in the Bitcoin ecosystem will eclipse all other crypto DeFi within two to three years. 

He touted the potential for Bitcoin DeFi while making a bold price prediction and highlighting a new model for bridging Bitcoin without using centralized exchanges. 

“I started in the Bitcoin space and I loved Bitcoin. Bitcoin has been a big part of my life and the only reason I’m here today is because Bitcoin exists,” he said in a YouTube video posted on Nov. 27. 

He voiced frustrations with using Bitcoin in the early days, saying: “Bitcoin went from a sleeping giant never to awaken in an innovation coma, to an awakened giant that is four times the size of Solana and Ethereum combined.” He added:

“DeFi in the Bitcoin ecosystem will eclipse DeFi in all ecosystems in the cryptocurrency industry within 24 months to 36 months, and that’s just because of scale and liquidity.”

FUD of The Week

Over 8.6K Solana wallets linked to $21M DEXX hacker

Crypto security firm SlowMist released a document identifying more than 8,620 Solana addresses suspected of being linked to the DEXX hacker.

On Nov. 16, memecoin trading terminal DEXX fell victim to a security exploit, resulting in losses impacting at least 900 unique users. 

According to MistTrack, most victims lost less than $10,000 amid a private key leak, though one individual lost more than $1 million. 

The total loss from the incident was initially reported at $21 million, the second-largest hack in November behind the $25.5 million Thala hack, though Thala recovered all lost assets.

As of Nov. 29, DEXX’s total loss has risen, SlowMist founder Cos told Cointelegraph: “The total loss is estimated to be within $30 million. The price fluctuation of meme tokens has a significant impact on the overall loss.”

North Korean hackers expand social engineering operation to IT firms: Report

Hackers with ties to the North Korean government have reportedly expanded social engineering scams designed to steal cryptocurrencies by infiltrating “hundreds” of large, multinational information technology firms.

According to an article from TechCrunch, researchers at the Cyberwarcon cybersecurity conference identified two North Korean hacker groups called “Sapphire Sleet” and “Ruby Sleet.”

Sapphire Sleet targeted individuals through fraudulent employment schemes by posing as legitimate recruiters and luring unsuspecting victims into interviews or other offers of employment. The hackers would then infect the users’ computers with malware disguised as PDFs or malicious links at some point during the interview process.

Ex-Binance employee sues UK exchange, alleging bribery: Report

A former senior employee at Binance has reportedly filed a lawsuit against the cryptocurrency exchange’s United Kingdom arm, making allegations including bribery and unfair dismissal.

According to a Nov. 28 Bloomberg report, former Binance employee Amrita Srivastava sued the crypto exchange in the UK, claiming that another worker solicited bribes from a customer. She alleged that she was unfairly dismissed from her position a month after bringing the matter to management’s attention in April 2023. 

Srivastava alleged that the unnamed Binance employee accepted the bribe “under the guise of providing consultative services.” An exchange spokesperson reportedly said the alleged bribe “was already known,” and Srivastava’s employment was terminated for “poor performance” at the firm.

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.