The price of Ethereum’s ether (ETH) has broken through the $1,500 mark to hit a new all-time as the recent GameStop (NYSE: GME) trading saga has seen several analysts push for the adoption of cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Bitcoin Core contributor and developer Andrew Chow has disclosed an “unexploitable vulnerability” affecting older versions of the software that has bow been fixed and commonly affected web browsers.

Nasdaq-listed business intelligence firm MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) is still accumulating bitcoin, with a new filing revealing the firm invested $10 million to buy 295 BTC recently. The move comes less than two weeks after buying 314 BTC for another $10 million.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Ether Surpasses $1,500 as WallStreetBets Saga Leads to DeFi Push
• Bitcoin Core Developer Discloses ‘Unexploitable’ Vulnerability
• MicroStrategy Keeps Accumulating, Buys $10 Million Worth of Bitcoin
• UMA, LUNA, SUSHI Are Moving in the Crypto Market

Ether Surpasses $1,500 as WallStreetBets Saga Leads to DeFi Push

The price of Ethereum’s ether (ETH) has broken through the $1,500 mark to hit a new all-time as the recent GameStop (NYSE: GME) trading saga has seen several analysts push for the adoption of cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi).

Ether is currently trading at $1,540 after falling from a new all-time high of $1,574.09. The move higher seemingly came in response to recent turmoil in stock markets, where several brokerage platforms like Robinhood have restricted transactions buying specific stocks to curb volatility brought by a Reddit-fueled pump.

The trading frenzy started after WallStreetBets traders started buying up GameStop after finding there was excess shorting compared to the company’s free float. The pump has forced short interest to plunge as the short squeeze has progressed.

Robinhood and other platforms restricting GME buys after its 1,700% surge, however, saw cryptocurrency analysts point toward the decentralized finance (DeFi) space as a solution, as decentralized exchanges operating on it cannot restrict trading

Coinbase’s annual review has also revealed ETH has a store-of-value appeal, as a growing number of institutions have been taking positions in the cryptocurrency. 

Bitcoin Core Developer Discloses ‘Unexploitable’ Vulnerability

Bitcoin Core contributor and developer Andrew Chow has disclosed an “unexploitable vulnerability” affecting older versions of the software that has bow been fixed and commonly affected web browsers.

The vulnerability, disclosed via a tweet, affected Bitcoin Core versions 0.18 and earlier, but was fixed as of 0.19. The current Bitcoin Core version is 0.21.0. Chow noted that any attempt to exploit it was unlikely to cause damage, saying:

“With the mitigations present in modern browsers and Linux desktop environments, I do not believe that this vulnerability can actually be exploited.”

Chow added that if “it could be exploited” it could see malicious code being executed on the victim’s computer. In theory, the vulnerability would be able to send out false information to a device and install a malicious plugin.

Modern web browsers, however, have built-in systems to avoid such attacks and flag unwanted arguments from going through. Per Chow, it may even be impossible for the vulnerability to cause harm. The attack, it’s worth noting, could affect user devices and not the Bitcoin protocol itself.

MicroStrategy Keeps Accumulating, Buys $10 Million Worth of Bitcoin

Nasdaq-listed business intelligence firm MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) is still accumulating bitcoin, with a new filing revealing the firm invested $10 million to buy 295 BTC recently. The move comes less than two weeks after buying 314 BTC for another $10 million.

MicroStrategy’s recent buys were executed at an average price of $33,810. On the company’s earnings call last week, CEO Michael Saylor revealed the company would continue to “progressively acquire more bitcoin” at prices “that probably keep going up.”

MicroStrategy now holds 71,079 BTC, worth well over $2.5 billion. It’s the publicly traded firm with the most BTC holdings, followed by Galaxy Digital, which holds 16,402 bitcoin.

UMA, LUNA, SUSHI Are Moving in the Crypto Market

Several tokens are 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 that may have higher percentage changes.

UMA (UMA) - UMA is designed to power the financial innovations made possible by permissionless, public blockchains, like Ethereum. Using concepts borrowed from fiat financial derivatives, UMA defines an open-source protocol that allows any two counterparties to design and create their own financial contracts. 

Terra (LUNA) - Terra aims to build a new financial infrastructure that works better for everyone. The network is powered by a family of stablecoins, each pegged to major fiat currencies all algorithmically stabilized by Terra’s native token, Luna.

SushiSwap (SUSHI) - SushiSwap is designed to be an evolution of #Uniswap with $SUSHI tokenomics. SushiSwap protocol better aligns incentives for network participants by introducing revenue-sharing & network effects to the popular AMM model.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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