API3 unveiled a new generation of solutions designed to make decentralized finance faster, more efficient, and more sustainable.
API3 is focusing on improving the infrastructure behind DeFi to ensure long-term growth and better performance for developers. It is rolling out its latest technology aimed at improving how DeFi protocols access real-world data, according to a press release shared with crypto.news.
With DeFi growing rapidly, API3 (API3) is working to make data feeds more efficient and valuable for developers.
Oracles are crucial to DeFi because they bring important data, like prices, onto blockchains. However, traditional oracle services mainly focus on delivering data, leaving room for improvement.
API3’s new Oracle Stack addresses this by adding extra features, including recapturing value lost due to Miner Extractable Value — a common problem in DeFi transactions.
In May, API3 announced it surpassed $1 billion in Total Value Secured, marking a tenfold increase over the past 100 days. The platform’s oracle services secured assets across 20 protocols, with PAC Finance accounting for over half of the total.
In February, the API3 token saw a 70% surge following its listing on Bitget, though its market cap later dropped to $252 million.
The Oracle Stack
According to API3’s Strategy Lead, Ugur Mersinlioglu, this new solution helps developers get the data they need and reclaim value lost during data processing. By using API3’s oracle, developers can boost their protocol’s performance, drive growth, and reduce fees.
The Oracle Stack is designed to work across multiple blockchain networks, making it easy for developers to integrate into different platforms.
With over 160 data feeds across 37 networks, API3 aims to provide DeFi protocols with the tools they need to remain competitive. API3 also offers a tool to help developers switch from other oracle services, like Chainlink, to its platform.
Helium, Solana’s top Decentralized Public Infrastructure Network, outpaced the broader altcoin market in the last seven days, with cat-themed meme coin Simon’s Cat also leading with double-digit gains.
According to price data from crypto.news, Helium (HNT) has jumped 27.6% from its lowest point of $6.66 on Aug. 30 to an intraday high of $8.5 on Sep. 6, a level not seen since March 12, 2024. Over the past seven days, Helium has soared by more than 17.3%, positioning HNT as the top gainer among the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market value.
Meanwhile, the total crypto market valuation has decreased by 3.5% in the last 24 hours, settling at $2.05 trillion. Bitcoin declined by 2.2%, and Ether saw a 2.3% drop.
Helium’s weekly bullish momentum aligns with the continued growth in its mobile subscriber base. Helium Mobile, which connects to global hotspots for data sharing and communication without relying on traditional cellular or WiFi networks, saw its subscriber count surpass 100,000 in early August, reaching 112,867 by Sep. 6. This marks a 300-fold increase in just one year, according to Helium Mobile data.
HNT also gained attention after two major U.S. telecom companies began testing its network as part of a carrier offload program, where carriers redirect traffic to Helium’s network during periods of congestion. These tests have reportedly attracted nearly 790,000 users, transferring over 20.47 terabytes of data.
At the same time, Helium’s trading volume has been on the rise, averaging more than $25 million daily, despite Binance delisting HNT futures earlier this year.
HNT’s price rally is being fueled by a 254% increase in total open interest over the past seven days, reflecting growing trader engagement. Coinglass data shows that open interest in the futures market surged to $10.87 million on Sept. 6, the highest level since Dec. 25, 2022. This is especially noteworthy as Binance had delisted HNT’s futures earlier this year.
HNT price, MA Cross and RSI – Sep. 6 | Source: crypto.news
Technically, HNT is exhibiting strong bullish momentum, with the formation of a golden cross—where the 50-day and 200-day Moving Averages intersect—acting as a key bullish indicator. Combined with a mid-range Relative Strength Index around 63, the market conditions seem close to the overbought level, however, suggesting room for further gains.
The recent price surge saw Helium break through the critical resistance at $7.98, signaling ongoing reversals. As previously noted by crypto.news, the $7.98 level is significant as it marks August’s highest swing point and the upper limit of an emerging double-top formation.
Next, Helium buyers are likely to aim for the $8.50 level, which could pave the way for a move toward the channel target of $10.50.
Cat-themed token see double-digit gain
Amid the weekly surge in HNT, cat-themed meme coins were also seen enjoying a green period, while the broader meme coin market fell by 2.9% to $38.6 billion at the time of writing.
Simon’s Cat (CAT), a meme token themed after the popular animated series, surged by 18.47% over the past week and debuted on Aug. 23. Positive community sentiment is evident on platforms like CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap.
In a strategic move, 20% of CAT’s total supply was airdropped to the Floki community, intended to attract more investors to the BNB ecosystem. However, this airdrop led to a temporary dip in CAT’s price. Despite this, Binance, a major cryptocurrency exchange, has expressed support for the initiative. The token is traded on several well-known exchanges, including BingX, Gate.io, KuCoin, and MEXC.
Even with the recent price dip, market analysts are optimistic about CAT’s potential for growth. Analyst IBCIG has highlighted that Simon’s Cat coin is undervalued, particularly on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC), noting its resilience in tough market conditions. They anticipate a strong rebound, especially with potential strategic moves from Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.
Additionally, analyst Ted is encouraged by CAT’s climb above $0.000028, seeing it as a precursor to a potential bullish trend. He believes sustained interest could propel the token towards a billion-dollar market cap.
Crypto market maker DWF Labs has plans to launch a stablecoin product that may compete with Ethena’s USDE.
According to Andrei Grachev, co-founder of DWF Labs, the crypto trading and market-making startup has finalized the design for its synthetic stablecoin.
Synthetic stablecoins operate on a soft peg with fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar and are underpinned by collateral assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and other assigned cryptocurrencies.
To maintain parity, synthetic stablecoins rely on opening and closing short-leveraged positions for the underlying collateral. While supposedly decentralized, this design could introduce extra volatility due to its dependence on perpetual trades tied to other tokens.
Grachev shared that DWF Labs’ synthetic dollar would support a basket of collaterals, including the three largest stablecoins: Tether (USDT), Circle’s USD Coin (USDC), and (DAI), which was recently rebranded to USDS by Maker’s switch to the name Sky.
The X post from DWF Labs’ Grachev also listed other underlying assets, such as Ethena’s (USDE), BTC, Ethereum (ETH), a limited list of long-tail altcoins, and blue chips.
DWF Labs had not confirmed if the blue-chip category referred to non-fungible tokens, although the label suggests highly acclaimed NFTs may be involved.
Entering the synthetic dollar market could position DWF Labs against Ethena, the issuer of crypto’s largest on-chain collateralized stablecoin, USDE. Launched for public trading in February, Ethena’s offering has captured $2.69 billion in deposits, with pledged monthly attestations for its product.
Most of this total value locked exists on Ethereum’s blockchain, valued at about $2.58 billion, according to DefiLlama, with the remainder spread across networks like Mantle, Arbitrum, and Blast.
DWF Labs could face the same skepticism that synthetic dollar protocols have encountered within the crypto community. Following Ethena’s launch, decentralized finance leaders like Fantom developer Andre Cronje compared the sector to TerraUSD, the algorithmic stablecoin involved in a $60 billion ecosystem collapse in 2022.
AAVE, the native token of the decentralized lending platform Aave, has recently attracted attention from whales as its price surged by over 11% on Sep. 5.
At the time of writing, Aave (AAVE) had climbed to become the 42nd largest cryptocurrency, up from its 47th position on August 20. The token’s market capitalization exceeded $1.98 billion, marking a more than 4% increase in the past 24 hours.
According to price data from crypto.news, AAVE was trading at $132.95, rising from its weekly low of $116.13 reached just the day before. The token has seen a significant 60% increase over the last 30 days. Despite this recent rally, AAVE remains 80% below its all-time high of $661.69, achieved in May 2021.
The latest surge in AAVE has been largely driven by a major jump in whale activity. On Sep. 5, Lookonchain reported that two whales acquired around $2.2 million worth of AAVE within a span of less than three hours.
Moreover, the previous day, another whale purchased a substantial 50,604 AAVE tokens, valued at approximately $6.78 million, with an average price of $134.60 per token. This brought their total holdings to 125,605 AAVE tokens, valued at about $16.9 million at current prices.
AAVE has increasingly gained traction among whales in August, likely due to its solid fundamentals. Data from DeFiLlama shows that Aave holds over $11 billion in assets and has generated more than $281.39 million in fees this year.
Moreover, data from IntoTheBlock reveals that whales controlling over 1% of Aave’s circulating supply now hold 59.17% of the total supply. The high concentration of large holders suggests that AAVE’s price is being influenced by whale activity.
Additionally, there has been a sharp increase in both the inflows and outflows of AAVE among large holders, with inflows rising by 326% and outflows by 353% over the last week. However, the net flow of AAVE among large holders surged by 61% in the same period, indicating strong buying interest that has helped drive the upward momentum in AAVE’s price.
The recent price surge in AAVE also comes after Donald Trump announced his DeFi initiative, World Liberty Financial. This project plans to develop a decentralized financial system using Aave’s non-custodial lending platform and Ethereum’s infrastructure.
Gabriel Shapiro, a legal adviser for the initiative, explained that it will function as a “lightweight non-custodial feeder” into Aave, enabling users to make deposits without the need for creating a fork. The venture aims to introduce Trump supporters to DeFi, which has bolstered confidence in Aave’s potential for mainstream adoption and spurred speculative buying.
Major liquidation levels
Currently, key liquidation levels are around $130.2 on the lower end and $139.8 on the upper end, with intraday traders highly leveraged at these points, according to on-chain analytics firm Coinglass.
If market sentiment shifts and AAVE’s price drops to $130, nearly $1.78 million in long positions could be liquidated. On the other hand, if sentiment improves and the price climbs to $139.8, about $5.04 million in short positions may face liquidation.
At press time, data indicated that bears were in control, with the potential to trigger liquidations of long positions at lower levels.
Near Protocol’s X page was apparently breached by hackers who seemed uninterested in promoting sham airdrops or rug pulls.
On Sept. 4, bizarre posts were seen published from the X account of layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchain, Near protocol (NEAR).
Account hijacks like this are common in cryptocurrency, with bad actors often targeting decentralized finance protocols. Typically, hackers leverage compromised access to launch phishing campaigns and steal funds.
However, the Near Protocol hacker deviated from this pattern, instead posting a series of anti-crypto messages aimed at crypto users and the heart of web3.
Delete your X account, go outside, and pick a normal life, you manlets. There is 0 good to come of this. Trust me.
Unknown Near Protocol hacker
At the time of writing, unknown individuals still controlled Near’s X page and continued to criticize the $2 trillion cryptocurrency ecosystem and its underlying blockchain industry. This marks the second time the L1’s X account has been hacked this year, following a previous incident in May.
Near Protocol hacked on Sept. 4 | Source: X
While seemingly different from other breaches, Near Protocol ranked among a growing list of DeFi and crypto-related projects that have suffered hacks.
According to crypto.news, X accounts belonging to members of the Trump family were recently used in a scam promoting a Solana-based (SOL) memecoin. In late August, football star Kylian Mbappe’s likeness was used to steal over $1 million from crypto traders.
Hackers have also hijacked accounts owned by heavy metal band Metallica, Frax Finance founder Sam Kazemian, and pseudonymous crypto trader GCR.
Cryptocurrency prices remained on edge on Wednesday, Sep. 4, as sentiment in the financial market worsened.
Bitcoin (BTC) dropped below $57,000, Ethereum (ETH) hovered below $2,500, while the crypto fear and greed index moved into the fear zone for the first time in weeks. The same situation unfolded in the stock market, where the Dow Jones, Nasdaq 100, and S&P 500 indices continued their downtrend.
Still, some cryptocurrencies performed relatively well. Ethervista (VISTA) rose by over 120%, reaching a high of $32.3, giving it a market cap of $27 million.
AAVE (AAVE), the popular lending protocol, rose by 8% to $135.56 while Uniswap (UNI) rose to $6.61, its highest point since Aug. 26.
Ethervista is gaining momentum popular
Ethervista is a recently launched platform that allows users to create meme coins on Ethereum’s network. It is relatively similar to Tron’s SunPump and Solana’s Pump.fun.
Data shows that the network is gaining momentum. According to DeFi Llama, Ethervista has already generated over $1.64 million in fees and accumulated over $5.3 million in assets.
Another report indicates that Ethervista ranked sixth in terms of ETH gas consumed on Wednesday. The platform has handled over 32,500 transfers and has accumulated over 5,700 users.
Historically, hyped tokens tend to do well initially before retreating. Recently, Sun Token soared to $0.0448 during the SunPump hype but has since crashed by almost 40% from its highest point last week.
Whale buys AAVE
AAVE’s price jumped to an intraday high of $135.56, its highest level since Aug. 25, after a large buyer continued accumulating the token. At its peak, AAVE was up by over 90% from its lowest point in July.
According to Nansen, some whales have continued to accumulate AAVE in recent days. One individual purchased AAVE tokens worth $538k and converted them into aETHAAVE, indicating a long-term hold strategy.
The largest onchain buyer had been accumulating $AAVE during this date range and outside of it to own a total of 4,133 $AAVE (worth $538k)
They would then deposit this into Aave to receive aETHAAVE, which implies they have a longer time frame for this trade pic.twitter.com/9pPO5rMjmV
Uniswap, the largest decentralized exchange in the industry, saw a rise after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged it with offering derivatives. The CFTC ordered Uniswap to pay a $175,000 fine and to cease and desist from violating the Commodity Exchange Act.
In a dissenting statement, Commissioner Summer Mersinger argued that the agency was implementing regulations through enforcement. He expressed concern that one of the targeted DeFi protocols might choose to litigate rather than settle, stating:
“Wielding the hammer of enforcement against these DeFi protocols may result in some short-term “wins,” but in the long-term, without more, it will only create problems.”
Uniswap remains the biggest player in the DEX industry by far. According to DeFi Llama it handled over $4.55 billion in assets in the last 7 days.
Bitcoin closed August in red, but experts are divided on whether September could bring a recovery, with some pointing to macroeconomic shifts, potential rate cuts, and rising institutional interest as reasons for optimism.
Coinglass data shows that, since 2013, Bitcoin (BTC) has often recorded losses during September, making it the worst-performing month for the digital asset. On average, Bitcoin has dropped by -5.36% in September, with gains in only four of the past thirteen years. This consistent poor performance has made investors uneasy, fearing that the trend could persist in 2024.
Yet, there are signs this September might break from tradition. Traders are anticipating that a potential interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve could increase demand for riskier assets like Bitcoin. At the same time, institutional interest is higher than before, driven by the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January. Adding to this sanguinity, Bitcoin’s hashrate has hit an all-time high of 746 EH/s, signaling a potentially bullish shift despite recent price fluctuations.
Nevertheless, skepticism remains among some analysts who believe the bearish trend could still prevail.
Rate cuts and market sentiment
Georgii Verbitskii, Founder of TYMIO, suggests that a rate cut could push Bitcoin to test the upper end of its current trading range. He told crypto.news that if central banks go ahead with the anticipated rate cuts, Bitcoin might draw more investors seeking a hedge against inflation.
“Given that [Bitcoin] has been trading sideways for the past six months, a big breakout before the year’s conclusion may be logical.”
He added that pro-crypto legislative moves in the United States might further elevate market sentiment and drive investment.
Meanwhile, Casey Grooms, co-founder of Soulbound, underlined that Bitcoin’s recent price action has been influenced by high macroeconomic uncertainty, with a critical pivot in Federal interest rates shaping market sentiment.
Grooms pointed to the Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index, which remains steady at 2.5%.
“With the closeness to the basic target of 2%, the interest rate cut pivot may happen sooner than expected,” Grooms told crypto.news.
He added that while the Federal Reserve is closely watched, other central banks, like the Bank of England and the Bank of Canada, are already cutting rates. If this trend continues, it could boost global liquidity, weaken fiat currencies, and make Bitcoin more attractive as a store of value.
Bitcoin ETFs as a potential catalyst for recovery
In contrast, Jonathan Hargreaves, Global Head of Business Development & ESG at Elastos, maintained a more measured outlook. He pointed out that, although stronger macroeconomic factors and new ETF developments could support Bitcoin, September has often been a month of mixed signals, with alternating phases of growth and decline. As such, he expects September to start on a bearish note but hopes for a rebound in the final quarter.
Bing Wang, Head of Legal at BasedVC, suggested that this year’s cycle could diverge from past patterns due to the ongoing inflow of capital into Bitcoin Spot ETFs and the anticipated Federal Reserve rate cut.
“If institutional capital continues to flow into Bitcoin ETFs, BTC price could sustain above key support at $60,000,” Wang told crypto.news. Similarly, QCP Capital analysts indicated earlier that Bitcoin could be looking for support, but at a lower range, around $54,000, before any significant rebound might occur.
Wang also pointed to a drop in whale transactions—large transfers over $100,000—signifying that major holders are clasping onto their Bitcoin.
“They are likely holding on to their BTC, which implies there is likelihood of gains in Bitcoin this September and beyond. However, large scale profit-taking could push BTC lower, so keep that in mind.”
Injective, the popular Cosmos-based blockchain for decentralized finance, continued retreating amid concerns about its ecosystem.
Injective (INJ) token retreated to $16.90 on Sep. 3, its lowest point since Aug. 8. It has dropped by over 67% from its highest point this year, erasing most of the gains it made in 2023. Its valuation has dropped from over $4.8 billion in March to $1.65 billion.
Ecosystem challenges remain
Injective’s price action has coincided with the sell-off of most altcoins as the crypto fear and greed index remained at the neutral point of 47.
This decline has occurred despite a significant increase in the network’s on-chain transactions. According to its website, Injective has handled over 918 million transactions since its launch.
However, concerns persist about its ecosystem in relation to its valuation. Data from DeFi Llama shows that its DEX protocols handled $43.7 million in the last seven days, making it the 23rd largest chain in the industry, lagging behind platforms like Osmosis, Mantle, and Blast.
Injective’s DEX volume has been in steady decline after peaking at $611 million in March this year, indicating that its DEX ecosystem is not experiencing growth.
The total value locked in the Injective ecosystem has retreated to $46.5 million, making it the 51st largest chain. This TVL has also been decreasing after peaking at $72 million earlier this year. Additionally, the volume of stablecoins in its ecosystem has dropped to $22.6 million.
Injective’s performance in the DeFi industry is notable because its goal is to become the blockchain for the financial services industry.
Injective token has also retreated as its staking inflows have declined. Data shows that the network has experienced outflows in the past two days, while the staking yield has retreated to 10.4% from last month’s high of 18.7%.
INJ token has pulled back after reaching a high of $52.96 in March. Recently, it has formed a series of lower highs and lower lows, indicating that bears are in control. In a note, Altcoin Sherpa, a trader with over 222,000 X followers, warned that the token remains at risk of further downside.
$INJ I think that the chart is still bearish overall and I don’t see an end to that quite yet. Lower highs across the board. Should bounce *somewhere* but I don’t know where the real bottom is. Personally I doubt it reaches former ATH this cycle but I could be wrong https://t.co/R9j7XC8GDcpic.twitter.com/505agAKWv6
Injective has also remained below the 50-day moving average, while the accumulation/distribution indicator has continued to decline, pointing to increased distribution.
Its volume has also continued to fall, suggesting more downside. This sell-off will be confirmed if it drops below the descending trendline that connects the lowest swings since April 12.
21.co is expanding the lineup of wrapped tokens, bringing its Wrapped Bitcoin to the Ethereum blockchain.
21.co, the parent company of crypto exchange-traded products provider 21Shares, has announced the launch of its Wrapped Bitcoin (21BTC) on the Ethereum blockchain.
In a Sept. 3 press release, the company said the latest product is launched in partnership with Flow Traders, one of the world’s largest market makers. Unlike traditional “lock-and-mint” methods, 21.co emphasizes that it stores the underlying assets in cold storage without the need for a bridge.
Eliezer Ndinga, head of strategy and business development, digital assets at 21.co, says the launch of 21BTC on Ethereum allows customers to “have peace of mind as they explore decentralized applications and new opportunities on the Ethereum blockchain – and 21.co is utilizing our knowledge and economies of scale managing crypto ETPs to make this a reality.”
Wrapped tokens are digital assets that represent a cryptocurrency from one blockchain on another blockchain. They are typically backed one-to-one by the original asset and allow users to utilize the value of the original cryptocurrency on different blockchain networks, increasing liquidity and enabling cross-chain transactions.
For example, Wrapped Bitcoin allows (BTC) holders to use the cryptocurrency within the Ethereum ecosystem for decentralized finance activities.
In addition to Wrapped Bitcoin, 21.co also boasts a set of other wrapped tokens, including for Binance Coin (BNB), (XRP), Avalanche (AVAX), and others. Its wrapped tokens are also built on Onyx, 21.co’s proprietary digital asset lifecycle platform, which has facilitated the creation and redemption of over $6.7 billion in crypto-backed products.
The latest addition comes just a few months after in May, 21.co launched 21BTC on Solana, offering users native access to Bitcoin on the Solana network.
