Welcome to today’s Datawallet Daily. As always, we bring you the essential updates from the cryptocurrency market over the past 24 hours:
- Jupiter Airdrops $700M to Early Users on Solana
- Ripple Chairman Loses $112.5M in 213M XRP Hack
- Federal Reserve Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged
- FTX to Repay Customers, Won’t Restart Defunct Exchange
Jupiter Airdrops $700M to Early Users on Solana
Jupiter Exchange executed a massive $700 million JUP token airdrop to nearly 1 million Solana wallets. The JUP token’s price increased from $0.41 to $0.72 following the 10 a.m. ET launch, elevating its market cap above $6 billion.
Despite the scale of the airdrop, Solana managed to maintain its operational stability, although there were reports of RPC nodes facing difficulties in the initial 30 minutes, impacting user experience. The event tested the network’s capacity and infrastructure, revealing both strengths and areas for improvement in handling large volumes of transactions and user engagement.
Ripple Chairman Loses $112.5M in 213M XRP Hack
Ripple’s co-founder and executive chairman, Chris Larsen, revealed that his personal XRP accounts were hacked, with approximately 213 million XRP, equivalent to $112.5 million, reportedly stolen. The breach was initially reported by crypto analyst ZachXBT, causing concerns that Ripple itself had been hacked.
Larsen swiftly took action to freeze affected addresses and involve law enforcement. The stolen XRP was allegedly funneled through multiple exchanges in an attempt to launder the funds. While Ripple accounts were not compromised, the incident is among the significant cryptocurrency hacks of 2024, briefly affecting XRP’s price before stabilizing.
Federal Reserve Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged
The Federal Reserve announced its decision to maintain existing interest rates following the Federal Open Market Committee’s two-day meeting. This marks the fourth consecutive rate pause, driven by persistent inflation and robust labor demand. The Fed expressed optimism about achieving employment and inflation targets. Chair Jerome Powell emphasized the need for sustained positive economic data before considering rate reductions.
Stock and cryptocurrency markets reacted, with Bitcoin dipping 0.8% and Ethereum losing 1% after the announcement. The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 initially faltered but recovered. Analysts are closely monitoring upcoming economic data to gauge the timing of potential rate cuts, with March seen as a possibility.
FTX to Repay Customers, Won’t Restart Defunct Exchange
FTX anticipates complete customer reimbursement following a court hearing. However, the recovery is contingent on the date of FTX’s actual bankruptcy, which has sparked debate among claimants. Bitcoin’s price has rebounded to over $43,000, significantly higher than its value at the time of FTX’s collapse. Many claims are based on assets that depreciated during the tumultuous period preceding the bankruptcy.
FTX’s native token, FTT, initially surged more than 11% after the news of the company’s plans but quickly fell sharply, experiencing a 15% drop on Wednesday. FTX has abandoned plans to relaunch its platform due to a lack of buyers and is focused on compensating former clients.
Other breaking news
- Tether Reports $2.9B Q4 Profit and $5.4B Excess Reserves
- Hong Kong Investigates Worldcoin Over Data Privacy
- Binance Faces Lawsuit from Hamas Victims
- Celsius to Distribute $3B to Creditors Post-Bankruptcy
- LayerZero and Delegate to Launch “Clusters” Naming Protocol on Multiple Chains
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