Crypto Flipsider News – Bitcoin (BTC) Falls 2%; Aptos (APT) Loses 45%; Moola Market Recovers $8.4M; Ethereum Shanghai Testnet; Bluesky Roadmap

Read in the Digest:

Bitcoin (BTC) falls while stocks rally as $940 million is pulled from exchanges.

Aptos (APT) falls 45% on first trading day following APT airdrop.

Celo’s Moola Market recovers $8.4M from the $9.1M looted in recent attack.

Ethereum launches test network to prepare for the Shanghai Upgrade.

Jack Dorsey’s decentralized social media app ‘Bluesky’ unveils roadmap.

Bitcoin (BTC) Falls While Stocks Rally as $940 Million Is Pulled from Exchanges

In an uncommon event of movement against the stock markets, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) fell by as much as 2.3% over the last 24 hours, while major stock indexes continue on solid upward trajectories.

The price of BTC, which opened for trade today at $19,650, is down 2.1% in value, trading at $19,144 at the time of writing. Bitcoin’s fall indicates a loosened correlation between BTC and stocks the all-time high recorded last month.

The 24 hour price chart for Bitcoin (BTC). Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin’s drastic price drop comes as 48,000 bitcoins (worth $940 million) were pulled out of Coinbase Pro. CryptoQuant reported that the Bitcoins were moved by institutional investors in over-the-counter trading deals.

According to CryptoQuant, the number of bitcoins moved is the largest volume transferred among crypto exchanges since the infamous crash of June this year. In addition, it marks the second-largest all time stash of BTCs to be moved.

Flipsider:

Exchange outflows suggest investors are withdrawing their crypto from exchanges in a shift from selling mode to accumulation mode.

Why You Should Care

Maarten Regterschot, a CryptoQuant contributing analyst, ehighlights that the movement of Bitcoin off of exchanges is a pattern that preceded the famous Bitcoin bull run of 2021.

Aptos (APT) Falls 45% on First Trading Day Following APT Airdrop

The mainnet launch of the Aptos (APT) blockchain, dubbed as a supposed “Solana-killer”, was greeted with high expectations. However, with the blockchain failing to live up to its promises from the get-go, the APT token has taken a nosedive on its very launch day.

After months of testing, Aptos Labs, the firm behind Aptos, a Layer-1 blockchain developed by ex-Meta employees, promised processing speeds of up to 160,000 transactions per second (TPS). However, on launch day, the blockchain barely managed 3.88.

As a result, after the APT airdrop, in which “early network participants” received free APT tokens, the price of the token took a swift nosedive, falling by more than 45%.

After opening for trade for around $8.55 according to CoinMarketCap, the price initially swelled to a healthy $13.73. However, it wasn’t long before its value plummeted back to earth, with APT now trading at $7.69 at the time of writing, after falling as low as $6.69 as per CMC metrics.

The 24 hour price chart for Aptos (APT). Source: CoinMarketCap

Flipsider:

Aptos’ allocation of 49% of all APT tokens to developers and private investors has raised concerns about the network catering to venture capitals.

Why You Should Care

The uncertainties surrounding the launch of Aptos have proven to be a major contributing factor to the poor performance of the token.

Celo’s Moola Market Recovers $8.4M from the $9.1M Looted in a Recent Attack

Moola Market, a non-custodial liquidity protocol on the Celo Network, was forced to temporarily halt lending operations on October 19th after $9.1 million worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen, as an attacker manipulated the prices of MOO to borrow against their newly-inflated MOO collateral.

The perpetrator of the $9.1 million Moola Market exploits returned 93% of the stolen funds, worth close to $8.4 million, less than 12 hours after the developers contacted law enforcement, netting themselves a “bug bounty” of approximately $500,000.

The attacker initially purchased $45,000 worth of MOO, depositing it as collateral to borrow CELO. The attackers then borrowed 243,000 CELO from Binance, depositing it all as collateral in order to borrow more and more MOO tokens until its price had increased by 6,400%.

The attackers gained $6.6 million worth of CELO, and $1.2 million of MOO, along with $644,000 Celo Dollars (cUSD), and $740,000 Cello Euros (cEUR), totaling an overall loss for the protocol of $9.1 million.

Flipsider:

Moola’s suspension of activities is set to continue until such a time as the protocol can follow up with the community about its next steps, and safely restart operations.

Why You Should Care

The return of the funds reduces the damage done to the DeFi sector in October, which already ranks as the biggest month for hacks in crypto history.

Ethereum Launches Test Network to Prepare for the Shanghai Upgrade

In preparation for the Shanghai upgrade, the first major uprgade after its move to Proof of Stake (PoS), Ethereum has launched “Shandong”, a testnet for developers to begin testing out their protocols on Shanghai.

According to the announcemen,t released by EF DevOps, Shandong will play an important role in selecting which Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) will be activated on the Shanghai upgrade.

Five major EIPs have already been highlighted for deployment on the testnet, and some of the EIPs being considered could address some of the network’s efficiency and scalability issues. One of the most anticipated of these proposals is the EIP 4895.

The EIP 4895 will allow developers to test the “unstaking” of their staked ether (ETH) on the Beacon Chain, and the withdrawal of these stakes, along with any rewards they may have earned in the meantime.

Flipsider:

Ethereum’s transition to PoS has raised a lot of concerns over decentralization and its recent loss of censorship resistance.

Why You Should Care

The Shandong testnet aims to give developers enough time to test their protocols to ensure a smooth transition when Shanghai launches sometime next year.

Jack Dorsey’s Decentralized Social Media App ‘Bluesky’ Unveils Roadmap

Three years after first introducing the idea of decentralized social media as a way to limit corporate and governmental influence on major social media platforms, Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky app has released its roadmap.

The website for the decentralized social media protocol has also been launched, while the underlying protocol for Bluesky was renamed from ADX to Authenticated Transfer Protocol.

According to Bluesky, the AT Protocol will run on a federated network, and will include interoperation, enhanced performance, and algorithmic choice features. The protocol gives users access to an open market of algorithms, such as those seen in search engines.

There has been excessive demand for the Bluesky app waitlist, which quickly filled up, requiring third-party intervention. Bluesky has since changed mail providers, and is still accepting new waitlist applications from users looking to test the beta ahead of the platform’s launch.

Flipsider:

Ye, formally known as Kanye West, has been hit with a $250 million lawsuit after agreeing to buy crypto-friendly social-media site Parler.