The Solana (SOL) memecoin frenzy continues as a trader turns $226,000 into well over $1.6 million by gambling on a token with a beanie-wearing dog as its mascot. 

Between Dec. 13 and Dec. 15, a crypto trader bought over 19 million Dogwifhat (WIF) tokens, a dog-themed memecoin, as it debuted on the markets within the Solana network. According to blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain, the trader bought the tokens at an average price of $0.01137. Currently, the tokens’ total value hovers at around $1.69 million, making the trader about $1.47 million in profits within five days. 

Thanks to the token $WIF, this trader turned $226K into $1.69M in 5 days.

This trader bought 19.86M $WIF between…

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Crypto exchange FTX has been burning through approximately $53,000 every hour over the three months ending Oct. 31 — just on bankruptcy lawyers and advisers, the latest round of compensation filings show. 

Court filings from Dec. 5 to Dec. 16 have shown that the bankruptcy lawyers have charged an accumulated total of at least $118.1 million between Aug. 1 and Oct. 31. Over the 92 days, this equates to $1.3 million per day or $53,300 per hour.  

The largest bill came from the management consulting firm Alvarez and Marshall, which charged $35.8 million for its services for the three months.

Alvarez and Marshall charged a total of $35.8 million in fees to the FTX estate. Source:… Read more on Cointelegraph

Blockchain-based lending is regaining momentum this year, with the value of active tokenized private credit now sitting at $582 million — a staggering 128% increase from a year ago.

While still far off from its peak of $1.5 billion in June 2022, according to data from real-world asset loan tracker RWA.xyz, the resurgence could signal that loan-seekers are looking for blockchain-based alternatives to traditional financiers amid a recent rise in interest rates.

The current average percentage rate is 9.64% for blockchain-based credit protocols, while financiers have been offering small business bank loan interest rates between 5.75% and 11.91%, according to a Dec. 1 report by NerdWallet….

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Crypto market hype and the “commercial release” of several highly anticipated blockchain games will likely onboard “tens of millions” gamers to Web3 in 2024, according to Web3 gaming execs.

“2024 is a growth year in terms of bringing people on to Web3,” said Yat Siu, co-founder of gaming and venture firm Animoca Brands, in an interview with Cointelegraph.

In the last three months, around 1 million — or more — unique active wallets have played Web3 games daily, according to DappRadar data. However, Siu believes there could be up to 100 million more next year.

“Many of the gaming titles that are about to be released were in alpha or beta stages in 2022 and 2023 and are now… Read more on Cointelegraph

All Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) nonfungible tokens (NFTs) stolen from the peer-to-peer trading platform NFT Trader have been returned after a bounty payment. 

NFTs worth nearly $3 million were stolen in the hack on Dec. 16. As per public messages, the attacker attributed the original exploit to another user. “I came here to pick up residual garbage,” they wrote, requesting ransom payments to return the NFTs.

“If you want these NFT’s back then you need to pay me 120 ETH […] and then I will send you the NFT’s, it’s as simple as that, and I never lie, believe me […],” reads one of the messages.

A community initiative led by Boring Security…

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Investors put funding into a range of NFT upstarts this week as the digital collectible market sees signs of life and entrenched NFT groups stumble. 

The Web3 arm of Japanese messaging app LINE raised $140 million — and its most immediate next venture is integrating a mobile-enabled NFT platform called DOSI with LINE’s existing NFT marketplace, LINE NFT. Peter Thiel-sponsored private equity firm Crescendo led the funding round in LINE NEXT.

Elsewhere across the NFT marketplace, Metagood secured $5 million in seed funding led by Sora Ventures. Metagood’s Osura marketplace is one of several vying for market share in Bitcoin ordinals trading. Osura brands itself as a marketplace for…

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Bitcoin’s (BTC) eight-week winning streak is likely to end as the price is down nearly 4% this week. The recent weakness indicates profit-booking by traders but it does not change the short-term uptrend. The pullback will also help reduce the froth that may have been building.

After the initial shakeout, strong hands are likely to re-enter the crypto market as the macro environment remains bullish for risk-assets. The decision by the Federal Reserve to pause rate hikes and possibly reduce rates in 2024 could further boost demand for crypto products.

Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360

However, nothing goes up in a straight line. After sharp rallies, traders generally book…

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Immortal was a play-to-earn chess app that used crypto rails to monetize chess games. But after “heavy cheating” marred the game experience, the platform shut down its financialized crypto features.

Immortal is a free online chess site. Until recently, users could accrue CheckMate (CMT) token rewards while playing. 

The platform also hosted a marketplace for chess piece NFTs. The NFTs have sold for as much as $14,300, but sales netted only a few cents following the announcement. 

Immortal raised $15.5 million in a Series A led by The Chernin Group in September 2022.

In the project’s Discord, Immortals NFT owners lamented the loss in value of their assets. 

Read more: Web3…

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