Web3 security company Blockaid secured venture capital.

What Happened: The Tel Aviv-based startup raised $27 million in Series A funding led by Coinbase investor Ribbit Capital and early-stage venture capital firm Variant.

Cyberstarts, Sequoia Capital, and Greylock Partners reportedly participated in the funding round.

The capital will be used to enhance product offerings, and customer base and handle the industry’s constantly evolving security challenges.

Why It Matters: In the past three months, Blockaid scanned a total of 450 million transactions, prevented 1.2 million malicious transactions, and safeguarded $500 million in user funds that would have otherwise been lost.

In its recent…

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Bitcoin (BTC) held above $30,000 at the Oct. 23 Wall Street open as analysis said BTC price strength could cancel its “bearish fractal.”

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingViewBTC price preserves majority of early upside

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC/USD as it hovered near $30,700, still up 2.5% on the day.

The largest cryptocurrency had made snap gains after the Oct. 22 weekly close, stopping just shy of $31,000 in what became its highest levels since July.

Now, popular trader and analyst Rekt Capital was keen to see the $31,000 level break.

“Bitcoin has Weekly Closed above the Lower High resistance to confirm the breakout,” he commented alongside…

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Amid the rapid evolution of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the broader Web3 landscape, security is of paramount importance. New threats continue to emerge, making it essential to understand attack patterns for risk assessment and reliability evaluation. In 2023 alone, over $990 million was lost or stolen, according to Cointelegraph’s Crypto Hacks database. 

This growing demand for security has led to the emergence of a diverse ecosystem of Web3 security expertise, ranging from decentralized identity solutions to smart contract auditors, ensuring the safety of this dynamic digital space.

Sign up to the Cointelegraph Research Crypto Hacks Database here

The Lazarus Group, a…

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Over the past 24 hours, Ethereum’s ETH/USD price rose 3.15% to $1,681.45. This continues its positive trend over the past week where it has experienced a 7.0% gain, moving from $1,578.02 to its current price. As it stands right now, the coin’s all-time high is $4,878.26.

The chart below compares the price movement and volatility for Ethereum over the past 24 hours (left) to its price movement over the past week (right). The gray bands are Bollinger Bands, measuring the volatility for both the daily and weekly price movements. The wider the bands are, or the larger the gray area is at any given moment, the larger the volatility.

The trading volume for the coin has increased 4.0% over the…

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Blocknative CEO and co-founder Matt Cutler says that over the past six months, private orders — transactions which do not appear in the public mempool but then do appear on-chain — grew from about 2% to 15% of all transactions on the Ethereum network.

He expects about half of all transactions to be private in a year or so. Designed as a “mechanism of protection,” he explains, the innovation has spawned some unintended consequences.

On the 0xResearch podcast (Spotify/Apple), Cutler explains the reasoning for private transactions: “You’re trying to avoid some of these concerns about adverse settlement and your transaction being part of an MEV attack.” 

MEV, or maximum…

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MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin (BTC) holdings have turned profitable for the first time since July this year as the BTC price has broken through above $30,000.

MicroStrategy up $132M in paper profits

As of Oct. 23, MicroStrategy held 158,245 BTC worth $4.847 billion, up about $132 million from the original amount invested — at an average rate of 29,870 per BTC. In other words, the firm is now up at least $130 per coin.

MicroStrategy Bitcoin holdings as of Oct. 23. Source: BlockchainCenter.Net

MicroStrategy started buying Bitcoin in 2020. The firm ramped up purchases in 2023 as BTC’s price recovered from extreme losses caused by the Federal Reserve’s rate hike policy and high-profile crypto…

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As the giants of the financial world enter the arena, this is a critical do-or-die moment for crypto natives.

The cryptocurrency market is going through some major changes as traditional financial institutions increasingly dive into their world. Take PayPal, for example, which launched its own stablecoin in August 2023, marking a significant milestone as the first major US financial company to do so. 

Another noteworthy event is the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s acceptance of BlackRock’s application for a bitcoin ETF in July 2023. While not a full approval, this move signals a growing, if tentative, acknowledgment of cryptocurrencies as a legitimate asset class.

This wave…

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