Charles Hoskinson, Cardano founder and former Ethereum chief executive, criticized an article published by Cointelegraph after an interview where he dubbed Ethereum a ‘dictatorship’ when compared to Cardano’s new governance model.
In an interview with Cointelegraph on the the sidelines of TOKEN2049 conference in Singapore, Hoskinson explained how Ethereum’s (ETH) current governance model is too dependent on its co-founder Vitalik Buterin when it comes to decision-making, though he does not view Buterin as having absolute power.
Shortly after the article was published, Hoskinson took to his X account to claim that he would not be giving the legacy crypto media any more interviews, due to having “had enough of the dramatic headlines and wasted interviews.”
⚡️𝗘𝗫𝗖𝗟𝗨𝗦𝗜𝗩𝗘: Ethereum is a ‘dictatorship’ claims Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.
Hoskinson argues that Vitalik Buterin exerts too much influence over the development of the decentralized network. pic.twitter.com/Nh27nSa2UP
When asked to explain why he compared Ethereum to a dictatorship, the Cardano (ADA) founder said that the decentralized platform looks to Buterin for inspiration on where the blockchain is headed.
Though he does acknowledge that Buterin does not necessarily hold all the power, as Ethereum consists of the Ethereum Foundation, a community and stakeholders that make major decision during core meetings. Even so, he cannot deny the influence Buterin has over the blockchain.
As an example, he highlights how Buterin had a major role in spearheading Ethereum’s shift from sharding-based optimization to rollups and layer-2 networks.
In contrast, Hoskinson claims that Cardano’s own governance model is much more collaborative and ensures that the decentralized platform will still go on long after he is gone.
This is due to the blockchain’s delegate-based model, consisting of researchers and engineers that make up what he calls an Intersect that uses a voting system to determine its next steps.
He goes on to explain how the model solves the problem that has plagued other major blockchains, such as “the anarchy” of Bitcoin’s governance and “the dictatorship” of Ethereum’s model.
Before founding Cardano, Hoskinson was one of the co-founders of Ethereum along with Buterin and held the position of CEO in 2013. He was later removed from the company in 2014 because Hoskinson wanted the protocol to be commercialized while Buterin wanted it to be a non-profit.
On-chain data shows increased selloff from Ethereum whales over the past week. But the asset’s price remained bullish.
According to data provided by IntoTheBlock, net flows for large holders of Ethereum (ETH) decreased from 85,650 ETH in inflows on Sept. 19 to 6,420 in outflows on Sept. 23.
ETH large holders net flows, Sept. 23 | Source: IntoTheBlock
The indicator shows a strong sell-off from Ethereum whales as the price recovered from $2,300 to $2,400 on Sept. 19. At this point, the bullish momentum around the ETH price has mostly come from retail traders rather than large holders.
Data from ITB shows that Ethereum witnessed an exchange net inflow of 150,690 ETH on Sept. 19, but the inflows soon cooled down. ETH saw a net inflow of around $480 million into centralized exchanges over the past seven days.
The large holder to exchange net inflow ratio suggests that retail traders have been more active over the weekend, driving the asset’s price up.
Despite the selloff from whales, ETH gained 15% in the past seven days. The leading altcoin is up by 2.2% in the past 24 hours and is trading at $2,640 at the time of writing. Earlier today, Ethereum touched a local high of $2,685 — reaching this level for the first time in a month — as on-chain signals remained bullish.
ETH 1-hour price chart, Sept. 5-23 | Source: crypto.news
Ethereum’s market cap is currently sitting at $319 billion with a daily trading volume of just over $17 billion.
One of the main catalysts for the market-wide bullish momentum was the 50 basis-point rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve. However, the Ethereum price will need to see stronger accumulation to sustain its upward movement toward the $2,800 mark.
The non-fungible token market has experienced a 4.2% drop in sales volume in the last seven days.
This drop comes after a decent surge of 7.68% as reported in our last weekly NFT sales column. The latest data from Cryptoslam shows that NFT sales volume in the last seven days stood at $73.75 million.
The numbers are down by 4.2% considering the $109 million sales volume in the week prior.
Even though the NFT sales volume came down to the double digits, there has been a 132% surge in NFT buyers. Cryptoslam data shows that NFT buyers stood at 521,640 while NFT sellers were 270,413.
Interestingly, NFT transactions dropped over 26% in the last seven days to 1,217,967. Let us have a detailed look at the blockchains that ruled during this period.
Ethereum and Solana top the list
Source: Blockchains by NFT Sales Volume (CryptoSlam)
As per the data, Ethereum (ETH) has maintained the first ranking with $23.9 million in NFT sales. However, the network saw over 9.6% drop in the sales as opposed to the prior week. Interestingly, 12.24% of the sales came from wash trading.
Solana (SOL) took over the second position with $16 million in sales. Bitcoin (BTC), Polygon (POL) and Binance Coin (BNB) took the next three spots with $13 million, $7.5 million and $3.3 million in sales, respectively.
Wash trading was recorded the least for the BNB network, while Solana and Bitcoin recorded 6.41% and 4.54%, respectively.
Cryptoslam data highlights that NFT sales volume surged on the Solana network by 17.89% as well as on Polygon at 51.3%.
Guild of Guardians Heroes stands as the top collection
Guild of Guardians on the Immutable-Zk chain took home the first ranking for the highest sales volume. The NFT collection recorded $2.86 million in sales volume across 5786 transactions.
Trailing just behind, the DogeZuki Collection on Solana bagged second place with $2.4 million in sales with 61,447 transactions. DogeZuki has held its position strong just like the previous week.
NFT Collection Rankings by Sales Volume (CryptoSlam)
Third on the list with $2.368 million in sales is Sorare on the Ethereum blockchain. The NFT collection enjoyed a total of 108,690 transactions.
CryptoPunks, on the other hand, recorded 25 transactions with a sales volume of $2.2 million, ranking fourth. DMarket on Mythos blockchain is fifth on the list with $2.1 million in sales and 80,713 transactions.
Top NFT collectible sales
These are some of the top NFT collectible sales that happened despite the volatile crypto market conditions.
CryptoPunks #1219 sold for $308,316.94 (130 ETH).
Autoglyphs #337 sold for $223,153.25 (87.6692 WETH).
Autoglyphs #337 sold for $171,000.00 (171000 USDC).
Known Origin #22001 sold for $140,695.52 (55 WETH).
Rapper Iggy Azalea seemingly dissed Vitalik Buterin and his fellow TOKEN2049 attendees in Singapore, dismissing the many panel discussions and Ethereum co-founder’s singing as “loser s—.”
In a Saturday social media post, the “Fancy” singer clapped back at critics, saying: “I don’t complain about watching you all mumble around on conference stages singing songs about crypto or other loser s— I’d be embarrassed as f— to post.”
See below.
Tryna be the Crypto HR department to a room full of people worth 100s of millions at a party for a meme of an ass is crazy hater vibes.
If yall knew all the who’s who in that building last night you’d cry. All you’ve seen is KOL footage. broadcasting a lil degen chaos Is on…
Although Azalea didn’t mention Buterin’s name, it was clear who she was referring to.
Buterin, who co-founded Ethereum (ETH), appeared on stage at TOKEN2049 and sang a song about cryptocurrency. Tron founder Justin Sun tweeted the video of his performance, stating that it “requires a lot of courage.”
Azalea, 34, hosted the event to promote her meme coin, MOTHER, as well as her newly launched casino, Motherland.
The rapper added that those critics would “cry” if they knew who was in that building to attend her event.
Other crypto community members, even those who didn’t attend, came to the Australian star’s defense:
didnt go to party, bought more $MOTHER NGL, most crypto natives are scammers and grifters, I’d rather put $$$ on someone who is building or trying shit even if it doesnt workout.
Azalea’s comments didn’t stop there. She went a step ahead and slammed the ETH network, too. The rapper narrated an incident that happened while she was on a plane where a “tradfi guy” seated next to her asked about ETH.
Azalea stated that she advised him to buy Solana (SOL), citing its entry price and that it was better suited for retail expansion.
The rapper also reiterated her stance in another tweet, praising the Solana network for the way it handles congestion. She also added a screenshot of her Google search where the result mentioned that Solana is generally better at handling network congestion.
A part of the reason for her support towards Solana is because her meme coin, Mother Iggy, is a SOL-based coin. MOTHER gained quick popularity when it was launched on May 29, 2024.
Despite being around for just a couple of days, the meme coin saw its price surge to an all time high of $0.2406 on June 6. That was approximately a 1400% surge from its all time low of $0.004545 on May 31.
However, the meme coin has lost over 70% of its value from its ATH. But amidst all the craze around Iggy’s party and her tweets, MOTHER has surged over 22% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data.
‘Never touch a celebrity memecoin’
The one-sided beef between Azalea and Buterin began after Andrew Saunders, the chief marketing and growth officer of the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchain Skale, blasted celebrity involvement in crypto.
“I come from Hollywood, and I would never touch a celebrity memecoin,” Saunders told Cointelegraph at TOKEN20249. Saunders warned holders: “you’re gonna get dumped on.”
In June, Buterin also took a swipe at celebrity meme coins.
“I’m feeling quite unhappy about with ‘this cycle’s celebrity experimentation’ so far,” he said on X.com. “How do we push things in a better direction?”
I’m feeling quite unhappy about with “this cycle’s celebrity experimentation” so far.
“Financialization as a means toward an end”, I can respect if the end is worthy (healthcare, open source software, art, etc). Financialization *as the final product*, 🤮
Despite significant investment and real technical advancements, today’s crypto custody solutions remain stubbornly anchored in the past. Whether it’s vendors like Web3Auth providing “Wallets as a Service” using multi-party compute or “smart wallets” like Argent—everyone wants it to be easier to custody, recover, and use crypto. And yet, custody still feels stuck in 2021. The reality of adoption has been mostly disappointing.
The convenience conundrum
Traditional finance, despite its flaws, continues to offer unrivaled convenience and peace of mind (at least in middle and high-income countries). Forgot your password? Send a quick reset link to your Gmail. Hit with unauthorized charges? Dispute them with ease and freeze your card through the mobile app.
These safeguards let you engage confidently with the TradFi ecosystem, but they’re virtually absent in the crypto world (outside of risky centralized parties like now-bankrupt Celsius). Managing private keys and securing transactions is complex and unforgiving, demanding a level of tech-savviness that most users simply don’t possess. It’s harder to use crypto than to buy it—which is already hard enough to discourage many people in the first place. The result? Crypto has seen more adoption in gambling than a better version of finance for everyday life that people can use (savings, lending, borrowing).
As the primary access point to crypto, custody solutions need to offer more utility beyond simply holding assets. Users need to feel confident engaging with the DeFi ecosystem.
TVL is not usage
Consider Gnosis Safe, now rebranded as Safe. This platform is the industry leader for controlling funds and making transactions while separating the private key requirements of an account (including even requiring multiple signers to approve a transaction). However, despite having over $100 billion in assets stored within these Safes, their potential remains woefully underutilized.
Over 5,000 Safes are created each month on Ethereum mainnet alone, but these Safes are predominantly used for crypto cold storage rather than active DeFi interaction. These smart contract-based accounts allow users to rotate their keys or have a friend be required to confirm any time these assets are moved.
Ideally, these Safes should become the main way the creator/owners/signers of the Safe interact with DeFi. Over 100 apps (including custom transaction builders and useful DAO tools) exist to make Safes easier to use directly in a standard browser. However, despite these tools, many users still rely on their Externally Owned Accounts—accounts that are secured by a private key and are inherently risky—when interacting with DeFi. Whether it’s buying an NFT on Blur, swapping on Uniswap, depositing to MakerDAO, repaying an Aave (AAVE) loan, or simply sending tokens to a friend, people often create Safes with their EOAs and then continue to use their EOAs—a risky practice firmly rooted in 2021.
The data is telling: excluding raw Ethereum (ETH) (which isn’t an ERC20 token) for Ethereum Mainnet specifically, 99.4% – 99.9% of token transfer volume (in USD terms) happens via a Safe Creator’s EOA, not their Safe! This isn’t just a statistic; it’s a glaring indictment of the industry’s current approach to combining utility and security through crypto custody.
Raw ETH usage may be a positive sign
To put this into a broader perspective, consider how blockchains are used today. Raw ETH, not being a token contract, is typically “wrapped” into Wrapped Ether (WETH) via a 1:1 smart contract to enable it to be more easily used in DeFi. Yet, less than 3% of Ethereum supply is wrapped. A disproportionate amount of activity in crypto is basic peer-to-peer sendings of the native asset, and only a sliver of human-operated addresses actually interact with DeFi protocols.
Unlike DeFi tokens, we do see Safe creators navigating raw ETH via their Safes. Comparing raw ETH transfer volume between Safes and Creator EOAs we not only see an increasing pattern for Safes, but as of May 2024, Safes are seeing more raw ETH usage than the EOAs that created them to the tune of nearly $2 billion worth of monthly volume on just Ethereum mainnet alone.
The path forward: Simplification at the custody, not protocol, level
To be clear, there has been real progress in protecting users since 2021, especially at the wallet layer with projects like Rabby, Rainbow, Coinbase Wallet, and the industry leader Metamask heavily focused on preventing user losses via transaction simulation, approval management, and warnings for potentially malicious contracts. However, these still operate on the framework of users managing private keys that control their funds 1:1.
The industry is experimenting (and investing) heavily in alternatives to this framework, including proposals to: give your account to a smart contract (EIP-3074), turn your account into a smart contract (EIP-7702), abstracting how transactions are themselves created and managed (EIP-4337). These “account abstraction” projects differ in complexity and assumptions and require changes to Ethereum itself.
Striving for widespread consensus on a single, complex, one-size-fits-all solution—such as the notion that “all wallets should simply agree to use the same singleton contract”—is likely a dead end. Instead, the industry should focus on practical UX solutions that can be readily adopted without every app generating an Nth wallet for a user or fiddling (too much) with the inner workings of Ethereum.
The good news is we’re trending in the right direction. More L2s come online every week, lowering the cost of DeFi. The industry is tired of hearing about infrastructure and having more hard conversations on organic user growth instead of airdrop farmers. Apps are launching more mobile native experiences, including integrating wallets as a service and social recovery. The mission for a decentralized, robust, permissionless, censorship-resistant alternative to the modern financial system(s) is alive and well.
BingX has temporarily suspended withdrawals following a suspected hacker attack on its hot wallet, with blockchain analysts estimating losses exceeding $40 million.
Singapore-headquartered crypto exchange BingX has paused withdrawals after detecting a suspected hacker attack on its hot wallet, with blockchain analysts estimating losses surpassing tens of millions of dollars.
In an X post on Sept. 20, BingX’s chief product officer Vivien Lin said that the breach occurred at around 4 a.m. Singapore time on Sept 20, prompting the company to launch an “emergency plan.”
At around 4am 20 Sep Singapore time, our technical team detected abnormal network access, suspecting a hacker attack on BingX’s hot wallet. We immediately started our emergency plan, including the urgent transfer of assets and withdraw suspension. There has been minor asset loss,…
Per Lin, the exchange transferred its assets to secure locations, adding that the loss is still being calculated but reassured users that most assets are stored in cold wallets, which were not impacted by the attack. While the exact scale of the hack was not revealed, Lin says there was a “minor asset loss.”
“There has been minor asset loss, but the amount is small and still being calculated.”
Vivien Lin
Blockchain forensic firm PeckShield, however, suggested that the breach may be more significant, estimating that roughly $26.68 million in assets, including Ethereum (ETH) and Binance Coin (BNB), had already been moved by the hacker. An additional $16.5 million was reportedly drained from the platform soon after. Analysts traced the stolen funds to two wallet addresses and estimate the total loss to be over $43 million.
Lin emphasized that BingX would “fully compensate” for any losses using its own capital and expects withdrawals to resume within 24 hours. The company stressed that trading services are functioning as usual and that user funds remain secure under its layered asset management system.
Base network saw over 34,000 high-risk vulnerabilities in its smart contracts, including malicious boolean checks and library tampering, according to new data.
Blockchain networks face growing security challenges as malicious actors exploit vulnerabilities in smart contracts, with Coinbase’s Base network leading in high-risk detections.
According to data from Trugard Labs, which identified risks using its Xcalibur tool, Base accounted for more than 34,000 high-risk detections in its smart contracts during August.
The Coinbase-incubated network was particularly susceptible to Digital Signature issues, with nearly 22,000 detections related to tampering in standard libraries like SafeMath. Malicious boolean checks on token transfers also posed significant risks, with over 6,300 instances identified on Base. These checks could block or manipulate token transfers, presenting a key vulnerability.
High risks identified across blockchains in August | Source: Trugard
Web2 hackers turn to web3
Trugard Labs identified several other major threats across the Base network, including unauthorized token burns, balance updates, and controlled minting attacks. Hidden balance updates and minting manipulations were also detected across Ethereum and BNB Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain, BSC), though in smaller numbers.
Cross-chain comparison Top by risk share | Source: Trugard
The surge in malicious activity on Base underscores the vulnerability of protocols deployed on the network to exploitation, as cybercriminal groups that once operated in web2 “have now shifted focus to the burgeoning web3 ecosystem,” analysts at Trugard say.
As the decentralized finance sector grows, so does its appeal to threat actors. In the past, web2 criminals specialized in phishing, ransomware, and exploiting vulnerabilities in centralized systems. Trugard says those same tactics are now being adapted to exploit “vulnerabilities in smart contracts, decentralized finance protocols, and blockchain networks.”
Commerzbank has teamed up with Deutsche Borse’s Crypto Finance to offer access to Bitcoin and Ethereum for corporate clients in Germany.
German lender Commerzbank has partnered with Crypto Finance, a Deutsche Börse subsidiary, to offer corporate clients crypto trading and custody services, following its 2023 acquisition of a crypto custody license.
Commerzbank will oversee the custody of crypto assets, with Crypto Finance handling trading services, according to a Sept. 19 release. Gernot Kleckner, Commerzbank’s divisional board member for capital markets, described the offering as a secure opportunity for corporate clients to “seize the opportunities presented by Bitcoin and Ethereum for the first time.”
Commerzbank’s move comes amid rising demand for regulated crypto services in Germany, where Crypto Finance has expanded after securing four licenses from Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. This is not the first collaboration between Commerzbank and Deutsche Börse in the digital asset space.
In 2021, the two worked together on a blockchain-based marketplace for tokenizing assets like real estate and art, in partnership with fintech firm 360X. At the time, Deutsche Börse CEO Theodor Weimer said the platform would help drive the “tokenization and digitization of assets that are not tradable today.”
The German banking sector has been increasingly active in the crypto space lately. DZ Bank, Germany’s second-largest lender, is also preparing to launch a crypto trading pilot for retail customers later this year, allowing cooperative banks to offer direct digital asset trading to customers.
Google Cloud has launched an Ethereum-compatible Remote Procedure Call service to simplify blockchain development and provide a reliable way to interact with blockchain data.
Announced on Sept. 17, Google Cloud’s latest offering allows decentralized applications to communicate with blockchain networks, starting with support for the Ethereum mainnet and testnets, offering a cost-effective alternative to managing node infrastructure.
An RPC is a software protocol that enables one program to request a service from another program located on a different network. In blockchain, RPCs are crucial for DApps to interact with blockchain data, handling tasks like transaction validation, data retrieval, and node communication.
RPC reliability has been a persistent issue in the blockchain sector. Delays or errors in RPCs can affect the functioning of DApps, which often need to handle transactions and data requests instantaneously.
High network traffic or sudden spikes in transaction volumes often cause disruptions, as seen in the past with Ethereum’s layer-2 solution ZkSync, and blockchains like Solana and Manta, which have experienced issues during times of peak demand.
Google Cloud’s Blockchain RPC service aims to solve these issues by leveraging its infrastructure for better reliability.
The service is fully compatible with the JSON-RPC standard, which allows Ethereum developers to integrate it with their dapps with minimal coding by just modifying their RPC endpoints.
Further, it offers a free tier, allowing up to 100 requests per second and 1 million requests per day, supporting real-time and data-heavy applications, catering to both startups seeking an entry point into blockchain technology to large enterprises that need a dependable infrastructure.
Kyle Quintal, Head of Engineering at web3 analytics firm 0xArc, noted that Google Cloud’s RPC service provides “fast response times,” and aligns with the Ethereum Improvement Proposal 1474 standards, which encouraged them to integrate it into their system.
EIP-1474 defines a set of standardized RPC methods for Ethereum nodes.
The Blockchain RPC service is now available globally in preview and Google Cloud plans to extend support to more blockchains over the coming year.
The new initiative is a part of Google Cloud’s broader push into the blockchain sector. Over the years, the cloud computing giant has collaborated with several blockchain projects and platforms like EigenLayer, Aptos, Flare, and Polygon among others.
