GM, frens! Ambire here with our weekly newsletter. Today we’re talking about Vitalik’s wallet getting hacked, SEC’s war on Stoner Cats, Web3 on Fire’s latest podcast, Sony partnering with Startale to develop a new blockchain, Binance kicking Polygon and Sandbox off its NFT platform and Friends.Tech reviving itself (among some other reads). Let’s get down to it:

Vitalik’s Twitter gets hacked

According to a post by crypto security company PeckShield, it seems like Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin's Twitter account got hacked.

In the tweet that has since been deleted, Buterin included a seemingly legitimate link that was actually a redirect to the scammers' site, employing a phishing technique.

The post from Vitalik Buterin's account claimed that Consensys will be launching an NFT to celebrate the arrival of the Proto-Danksharding feature on Ethereum, and it could be obtained for free with the shared link.

But, of course, users who clicked on that link ended up losing their funds.

At that moment, the ETH network remained remarkably stagnant. Transfers carried an average fee of $1.83, while the cost of swaps via Uniswap amounted to around $4.17. These price levels had not been seen since at least November of the previous year, following the FTX crash.

SEC’s war on Stoner Cats

The US Security & Exchanges Comission (SEC) fined Stoner Cats 2 LLC, the owners of the Stoner Cats NFT collection for 1 million dollars. But instead of being put off, NFTs of the "Stoner Cats" have increased in value by 250%, with trading volumes spiking 7,256%.

In addition to the fine, Stoner Cats 2 LLC has to create a “Fair Fund”, which is a type of account established under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 as a way to return profits from defrauded investors. The SEC will technically operate this fund.

An interesting note in this case is that the "defrauded investors" in question have traded the NFTs more than 10,000 times and earned Stoner Cats $20 million in royalties.

This raises the question of whether these investors should be considered victims of fraud or simply speculators in a volatile market.

And even if they are considered victims, will they be able to get back the exact amount that they paid for the NFTs?

At the time of minting it was worth 0.35 ETH per token, which would now equate to a value of around $5 million. Plus, nothing would really stop the users from reselling the tokens on the open market and potentially earning a profit.

Ambire’s Web3 on Fire Podcast is back with Diana Chen, founder of Rehash

In this week’s episode, explore the intricacies of decentralized media with insights from Diana Chen, founder of Rehash - a Web3 podcast. The conversation is a deep dive into the evolving landscape of Web3, from the role of podcasts to the importance of community. Make sure to follow on Twitter so you don’t miss any episodes!

Sony plans to develop it’s own blockchain

Sony Networks Communications and web3 infrastructure developer, Startale Labs, have announced a collab to launch a new type of blockchain.

This blockchain, Sony hopes, can become the backbone of the new web3 world. The two companies have set up a joint venture called Sony Network Communications Labs with the aim to develop blockchain technology and Startale Labs brings in experience from their own Astar Network, which is claimed to be the number one smart contract platform in Japan.

According to CoinGecko, Astar platform has achieved a market cap of over $280 million, making it the 110th largest crypto.

This move by Sony is also reflective of their plans to enter the gaming market; through their PlayStation brand, they recently filed a patent that will allow players to transfer NFTs between different games and consoles.

Binance kicks Polygon NFTs off its NFT platform

Binance NFT marketplace is making some big changes. As of September 26th, the platform will no longer support Polygon Network. Users will not be able to buy, list or sell NFTs from Polygon post this date.

The integration of Polygon on Binance NFT happened in March this year, so Binance decided to drop Polygon only 6 months later Binance NFT users must withdraw their Polygon NFTs from the platform by the end of the year.

The Sandbox NFT staking program is also being dropped. Sandbox LAND NFT's will automatically be unstaked at the end of this month.

In light of these changes, MATIC, Polygon's native token has seen a slight drop of 2.2%.

The news of these changes has left many NFT Polygon aficionados worried but in the end, it remains to be seen how this decision will really affect the NFT space.

Friends.Tech is experienced a revival. Why?

Friends.Tech, a decentralized social network, has seen a rapid resurgence only two weeks after critics declared the platform dead. This surge in user interest is reflected in the social platform's total value locked (TVL) which now stands at $20 million. With this renewed momentum, Friends.Tech has experienced a corresponding rise in trading volume and platform fees.

Various theories have emerged from the crypto community to explain Friends.Tech's rapid recovery. For instance, a TokenTerminal report proposed that Friend.Tech has enjoyed growth due to the fact that it has no direct competitor and its launch was timed strategically to coincide with Base's public mainnet launch in order to maximize activity on both platforms.

Popular crypto trader Hsaka has also attributed the sudden surge of Friends.Tech's TVL to the fact that users have discovered rewards for depositing crypto assets into the platform.

It appears Friends.Tech is able to ride on these developments and remain relevant in a crowded DeFi space, with its user numbers and transactions growing steadily since its launch in August.

It’s good to keep in mind that despite the recent surge, Friends.Tech is still subject to market volatility and any slip up could quickly lead to a decrease in users and transaction volume.

Other worthy reads:

Thread on TON meta by Hercules

Some stats on Ethereum Liquid Staking:

DeFi tool list from Emperor Osmo:

The fun page

That's all for now, frens.

We'll see you next week. And remember, the market conditions are temporary, but our commitment to building a better DeFi is here to stay. Thanks for joining us, and we look forward to seeing you back next week. Cheers!

Yours, The 🔥 Team

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