Ethereum miners are increasing the network’s gas limit by 25% in a bid to keep up with rising network usage and keep fees down. The gas limit increase is expected to allow Ethereum to handle about 44 transactions per second instead of 35.

Researchers from crypto-focused security firm OpenZeppelin have discovered a “high severity” vulnerability in the Ethereum and DeFi wallet Argent that could have allowed attackers to steal users’ funds.

Compound has overtaken MakerDAO in terms of value locked thanks to its new COMP token, which is being distributed to users who interact with the protocol.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Ethereum Miners Are Increasing the Network’s Gas Limit by 25%
• Researchers Discover ‘High Severity’ Vulnerability in DeFi Argent Wallet
• Compound Overtakes MakerDAO as DeFi App With Most Value Locked

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) is trading at $9,421.55 (0.64%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $1.85 bn. As for ether (ETH), it is trading at $235.17 (2.11%) with a daily Top Tier volume of $563.94 million. The MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index is currently tracking at 3,108.51 (1.27%).

Ethereum Miners Are Increasing the Network’s Gas Limit by 25%

Ethereum miners are in the process of increasing the network’s gas limit from 10,000,000 to 12,500,000 in response to increasing network usage tied to the growth of decentralized finance products.

On Ethereum, users pay gas fees to include transactions in blocks, and the network’s block size is bounded by the amount of gas that can be spent, which is now increasing to 12,500,000. While with Bitcoin there is a fixed block size, Ethereum gas limits vary according to the limits miners signal to the network, which they do by publishing the maximum gas they accepted in the most recent block.

Per block, miners can adjust the gas limit up or down by about 0.1%. Etherscan data shows the limit is slowly trending toward 12,000,000 at press time. According to Bitfly, the firm behind the ETH mining pool Ethermine, the gas limit increase will allow Ethereum to handle about 44 transactions per second instead of 35, but it will also increase the recourses needed to run the network.

Ethereum’s miners have increased the gas limit significantly in September 2019 as well, when they moved it from 8,000,000 to 10,000,000.

Researchers Discover ‘High Severity’ Vulnerability in DeFi Argent Wallet

Researchers at crypto-focused cybersecurity firm OpenZeppelin have discovered a “high severity” vulnerability on the popular Ethereum mobile wallet Argent, which helps users access the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

In a blog post OpenZeppelin published, they add the vulnerability would have allowed attackers to take over the wallets of Argent users that had not activated the “guardian” feature, which gives selected accounts permission to execute actions on the wallet like locking it or approving wallet recovery.

Without the features, attackers could trigger a recovery process and steal funds. The attacks could be stopped if a user monitors their wallet and cancels the recovery request within a 36-hour default recovery period, in which Argent warns the user the recovery attempt is being made.

If the user blocked the theft attempt, hackers could then target them with a denial of service attack that would leave their funds frozen. Before March 30, wallets were created by default without the “guardian feature,” but Argent has now fixed the vulnerability.

OpenZeppelin has, nevertheless, identified 329 wallets holding roughly $37,000 in ETH that are at immediate risk.

Compound Overtakes MakerDAO as DeFi App With Most Value Locked

Compound has overtaken MakerDAO over the weekend to become the decentralized finance protocol with the most value locked in it, as it currently has over $611 million worth of cryptocurrency locked, while Maker has $453 million, according to DeFiPulse.

Compound’s COMP token is now trading close to $300, according to CryptoCompare data. Users are earning COMP tokens, the application’s governance token, for lending crypto and for borrowing it using Compound. The token has seen users flock to Compound.

So much so that last week, before COMP tokens started being distributed, there were less than $100 million locked on Compound, and over $40 million locked on MakerDAO. Most of the tokens, it’s worth noting, are held by founders, team, and investors, with supply being subject to a vesting period in most cases. COMP tokens will be completely distributed to users over a period of four years.

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