The Singapore-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has revealed in a statement it detected large withdrawals of bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin SV (BSV), ETH, Stellar Lumens (XLM), XRP, LTC, TRON (TRX), and Tether (USDT), as well as various Ethereum tokens.

The total value locked in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols has surpassed the $10 billion mark over the weekend. It took these protocols over two and a half years to reach $1 billion in total value locked, and less than a year to grow to $10 billion.

Pantera capital’s cryptocurrency hedge funds have seen significant gains so far this year, partly thanks to the boom in decentralized finance. The firm’s bitcoin fun grained 61%, while its digital asset fund is up 168%, and its initial coin offering (ICO) fund is up 323%.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Crypto Exchange KuCoin Hacked for Over $150 Million
• DeFi Protocols Now Have Over $10 Billion in Total Value Locked
• Pantera Capital’s Crypto Hedge Funds Report 100% Returns As DeFi Space Grows
• SXP, STORJ, ADA Are Moving the Crypto Market

Crypto Exchange KuCoin Hacked for $150 Million

The Singapore-headquartered cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has revealed in a statement it detected large withdrawals of bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin SV (BSV), ETH, Stellar Lumens (XLM), XRP, LTC, TRON (TRX), and Tether (USDT), as well as various Ethereum tokens.

In a live stream over the weekend Johnny Luy, CEO of KuCoin, revealed one or more hackers obtained the private keys to the trading platform’s hot wallets and transferred what was left in them to new hot wallets, abandoning the old ones and freezing customer deposits and withdrawals.

Two Ethereum addresses belonging to the exchange sent over 11,480 ETH to the hackers’ address, along with over 150 Ethereum-based tokens worth more than $1450 million. Tether and several cryptocurrency exchanges, including Bitfinex, blacklisted the wallet addresses the funds were moved to.

KuCoin’s cold wallets, which aren’t connected to the internet, were not affected by the security breach. The price of KuCoin’s exchange token KCS is down over 7% in the last 24 hours.

DeFi Protocols Now Have Over $10 Billion in Total Value Locked

The total value locked in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols has surpassed the $10 billion mark over the weekend. It took these protocols over two and a half years to reach $1 billion in total value locked, and less than a year to grow to $10 billion.

This rapid growth can be partly attributed to the yield farming trend that took place this year, in which DeFi protocols started offering users who interact with them their own governance tokens, both bolstering yields and improving their decentralization.

According to DefiPulse data, the top protocols are decentralized exchange Uniswap, with over $2 billion locked in it, the Maker protocol with $1.95 billion, and lending protocol Aave with $1.52 billion. In total, over $11 billion are locked in the space.

Pantera Capital’s Crypto Hedge Funds Report 100% Returns As DeFi Space Grows

Pantera capital’s cryptocurrency hedge funds have seen significant gains so far this year, partly thanks to the boom in decentralized finance. The firm’s bitcoin fun grained 61%, while its digital asset fund is up 168%, and its initial coin offering (ICO) fund is up 323%.

Pantera Capital’s long-term ICO fund is, meanwhile, up 270% thanks to the performance of Yeanr.Finance’s YFI, Terra’s LUNA, Polkadot’s DOT, and other DeFi-related tokens. Year-to-date, the firm’s funds have outperformed the S&P 500 and other hedge funds.

The returns have helped Pantera Capital’s life-to-date return of its ICO funds go over 0%, while the life-to-date return of its bitcoin fund moved from 10,162% to 16,361%. Joey Krug, co-chief investment officer with Dan Morehead, wrote in Pantera’s September 2020 investor letter:

“We’ve been positioning the funds towards decentralized finance. We started acquiring these types of assets some years back, and it’s exciting to see the DeFi space gaining momentum.”

Pantera Capital is one of the largest investors in some popular decentralized finance projects, having participated in Polkadot’s first token sale that raised over $144 million. The digital asset fund's holdings also include ether, XRP, ZEC, BAT, and others.

SXP, STORJ, ADA Are Moving the Crypto Market

There are several tokens leading the charge in the last 24-hour period. Some of these are well-known cryptocurrencies with rather liquid trading pairs, so we’ll be focusing on these over low-cap cryptos who may have higher percentage changes.

Swipe (SXP) – Swipe powers the Swipe Wallet, which helps bring users a cryptocurrency to fiat funded debit card, allowing them to spend crypto at over 60 million locations worldwide where Visa is accepted. It’s also powering Binance’d crypto debit card, and an SXP token airdrop is ongoing at the exchange. SXP’s price is up 37.28% in the last 24 hours.

Storj (STORJ) – Decentralized cloud storage platform Storj allows anyone to rent idle hard drive space and earn additional revenue doing so. Its STORJ token is up 12.77% in the last 24 hours.

Cardano (ADA) – Cardano’s ADA is up nearly 10% after the network moved to introduce a governance voting system and launched a $250,000 ADA fund to develop its ecosystem.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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