Market

aPriori a prominent project in the Monad ecosystem

A major controversy has erupted in the cryptocurrency world as blockchain analytics reveals what appears to be a sophisticated scheme by a prominent project to redirect millions in airdropped tokens to itself.

aPriori, once considered a star project within the Monad ecosystem, is facing serious allegations after blockchain investigators uncovered suspicious patterns in its recent token distribution. The project had previously raised an impressive $30 million from major backers including Binance Labs (now YZi Labs) and was widely considered a promising candidate for Monad's upcoming mainnet launch.

The project launched its APR token on BNB Chain on October 23rd, quickly reaching a $300 million market capitalization. Community excitement peaked when aPriori announced plans to airdrop 12% of the total token supply to community members ahead of the mainnet launch—a move that initially appeared generous and community-focused.

According to an investigation by blockchain analytics firm Bubble Maps, what happened next has shocked investors. Over 60% of all airdropped tokens were claimed by what appears to be a single entity operating through approximately 14,000 connected wallets.

"We've seen airdrop gaming before, but rarely at this scale or level of sophistication," said a researcher familiar with the investigation who requested anonymity. "The on-chain evidence suggests careful planning."

The investigation revealed a consistent pattern: all suspicious wallets received exactly 0.001 BNB from Binance exchange before claiming the airdrop, then transferred their APR tokens to second-tier wallets, creating a complex network that bears all the hallmarks of a Sybil attack—a method where attackers create multiple identities to gain disproportionate influence.

The​‍​‌‍​‍‌ redirected tokens' estimated value is close to $4 million, but the market effect is a lot bigger than that number. Since the disclosures, the investor mood has gone downhill: APR token price has dropped by almost 2% within 24 hours and is now at around $0.27, and total market capitalization has gone down from $300 million to roughly $51 million. Also, the trading volume has gone down greatly as people from the community are thinking over their positions again.

"A community-focused distribution was the last thing you'd expect and it has in fact turned out to be a private party for a group of few sophisticated people," a well-known crypto analyst wrote on X (Twitter).

The real person behind the facade of the scheme is still a mystery, hence the questions keep coming.

The timing of the scandal is not the best Monad, the flagship Layer 1 project in the ecosystem, is gearing up for its Token Generation Event (TGE). Monad is going to have a public token sale on Coinbase's new platform with a tentative price of $0.025 per $MON token.

Insiders are wondering whether the incident could be the reason for a lack of trust in the Monad ecosystem and postponing the next projects, thus creating a problem of "legitimate" teams building on the platform.

The story behind this scandal is just one of the ongoing problems with trying to ensure the fair distribution of tokens when there are technologically advanced people who can abuse the system designed for genuine community ​‍​‌‍​‍‌members.

The total crypto market cap dropped more than 2%

On​‍​‌‍​‍‌ November 14th, global financial markets went mostly red as both US equities and cryptocurrencies fell sharply, extending only a few weeks of strong gains. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization went down by more than 2% to $3.35 trillion - the lowest point of the quarter.

Bitcoin was the main focus as it lost the $100,000 level for the first time in 188 days. This is a major psychological threshold that reflects increasing caution in the face of inconsistent macroeconomic indicators. Investors who had become used to six-figure Bitcoin prices are worried that this support level breaking will make them abandon their positions.

Moreover, Ethereum declined by almost 6% to less than $3,200 and a large portion of altcoins followed suit. More than $750 million of positions were liquidated in just half a day with 87% of those being long positions which means that this turnaround was both unexpected and overpowering.

According to one market analyst, "Such a liquidation cascade in sync of this kind indicates that the majority of traders were totally unprepared." He also added, "The reversal's timing is very indicative of heavy leverage being used in the rally recent."

The fall performance of cryptocurrencies was complemented by that of stocks. In the US, the stock markets of Big Tech saw their shares decline, thus causing a loss of about $1.1 trillion in market capitalization during just one trading day. The selling pressure seemed to expand from equities to cryptocurrencies with a chain reaction that led to risk repricing across all markets.

After having been over $110 billion removed from crypto market value, the sector is now playing the defensive game, which is typical after a period of sustained enthusiasm. Thus, investors are left wondering whether this is just a healthy correction or the start of a more significant trend ​‍​‌‍​‍‌reversal.

'Big win': Trump declares after reaching deal to end government shutdown.

The​‍​‌‍​‍‌ White House has confirmed that President Donald Trump will be signing legislation to end the shutdown caused by the government tonight, which has been a source of a lot of trouble for federal operations in the last couple of days. This clear-cut move follows the Congress's passing of a short-term bipartisan spending package.

It is said that the political compromise needed for this legislative process was found. The bill, first, got Senate clearance with the support of some Democrats. It, thus, moves to the House, where the final vote is made before the President's signature.

In his public statement, President Trump described the solution as "major victory." As the reason for such a success, he pointed to the Republican concerted effort in overcoming the initial opposition of Senate Democrats to certain budgetary provisions.

"This deal is the result of the kind of work that can be done when we put America first," Trump said to the press. "Federal workers are the ones who will benefit the most from this deal as they will be able to get back to their work of serving the American people."

This is a very significant moment when this pact is being signed as it assures the full functioning of the federal government and thus, the elimination of any further disruptions in government operations and changes in the lives of civilian people. The news is likely to reaffirm the trust that investors put in the political stability of the U.S. and create a positive ripple effect on financial markets across the world.

Market experts expect the resolution to be the removal of the source of uncertainty that had been a major constraint to the economic outlook and hence, the stock markets could continue to be strong until the end of the year.

The shutdown is coming to an end through the very tense negotiations between Republican and Democratic members of Congress that were about funding priorities and policy differences and had resulted in deadlock in the budget discussions in the last several ​‍​‌‍​‍‌weeks.

The US government is open, inflation is down, the market is booming.

Financial​‍​‌‍​‍‌ markets are being energized by a range of positive macroeconomic developments, the most important one being the near end of the US government shutdown that lasted for a month. A temporary funding bill will be passed by the Senate today, bringing back normal federal operations and removing a major psychological stressor from the economy.

Wall Street has reacted in a very positive manner and in a very short time, it has added more than $1 trillion to market capitalization which is a very clear and strong indication of the return of investor confidence.

Outside of domestic politics, President Trump has made public his intention to cut tariffs on India and Switzerland shortly, indicating that the trade war is generally being de-escalated after the progress made recently with China.

Most of all, perhaps, the inflation outlook is very promising. The latest projections indicate that the US Consumer Price Index is expected to fall to 1.5%, which is substantially lower than the Fed's 2% target and will be reached earlier than anticipated. This well-managed inflation provides the Federal Reserve with great flexibility to resort to monetary easing which is very supportive of risk assets.

"The series of positive catalysts we're seeing here is something very different from what we've seen in recent times," said a senior Wall Street economist.

This is almost a perfect macroeconomic scenario that results from the combination of government reopening, booming markets, easing trade tensions, and cooling inflation. The analysts are very optimistic that the conjunction of favorable factors could fuel the expansion of the broader economy and the financial markets up to the end of the year and, possibly, even beyond.

Investors, who had adopted a cautious stance because of the prevailing uncertainty, are now taking positions in anticipation of what could turn out to be a strong closing of an already extraordinary year for the ​‍​‌‍​‍‌markets.

One month until the FOMC meeting on December 10

Markets​‍​‌‍​‍‌ are currently convinced if not outright "convincing themselves" that the probability of a Fed rate cut at the December 10th FOMC meeting is already as high as 66.9% although we are only one month away from this event.

To put it simply, about two-thirds of market participants anticipate that Powell will suddenly change his tone to a more dovish one.

At the same time, the US government is still dealing with the risk of a shutdown. This kind of administrative deadlock has led to a lull in releases of economic data, which in turn has led to traders placing bets blindly as if they were playing poker without looking at their cards.

"The market appears to be extremely confident though it is blind to economic data," shared a seasoned Wall Street analyst.

Once the government gets back to work next month, the market will be flooded with reports that had been held back—job numbers, CPI readings, and PCE data—all at the same time. This information intake can profoundly alter the expectations of rate cuts instantly.

The 66.9% chance of such an event happening may be dropped to 30% just as fast as Bitcoin loses its value after a fake "SEC Approves ETF" tweet.

In essence, high betting is not the same as a sure thing especially when the Federal Reserve is involved—an institution that has a long record of going against market sentiment when it makes sense according to the data.

"The Fed has been showing no hesitation in throwing market expectations off the window when it comes to inflation worries," cautioned a former Fed economist. "If traders are betting heavily on an easing in December they should be prepared for a ​‍​‌‍​‍‌letdown."

Canton Network, Wall Street's Layer 1 Giant, Revealed.

While​‍​‌‍​‍‌ investors are still comparing the battle between the well-known Layer 1 blockchains, a new contestant that has the support of the cream of the crop of Wall Street is preparing to change the face of finance globally drastically.

What was initially just an experiment within the company has quickly turned into Canton Network, a Layer 1 blockchain that is not only innovative but focuses on privacy and enterprise-grade payments. Besides the capital of $397 million raised for the project, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, BNP Paribas, and Nasdaq are among the leading financiers that support Canton as it ventures into the RWA field, a sector that attracts a lot of interest from Wall Street institutions.

By the time Canton is described as a "network of networks," it actually works like that as it interconnects various financial applications in a milieu that ensures their total privacy and safety. Its far-reaching aim: creating a capitalist market system that is always on and open to the whole world of finance 24/7.

"The current financial markets run with a lot of downtime and are very fragmented," states a representative of Canton network. "What we are doing is building a financial infrastructure that is secure at the institutional level is on all the time and at the same time is very efficient."

This is proven to be the case with Canton through quite a few metrics it has in the real world: handling more than 600,000 transactions every day, having a TVL of over $6 trillion, and being the party that deals with the $280 billion worth of US Treasury bonds daily approximately in terms of volume. But in spite of this awe-inspiring scale and triumph, the project has deliberately decided to concentrate on the development of the product instead of taking an aggressive approach to marketing.

The native token of the network, $CC, is characterized by a community-centric allocation plan which is not pretty common in the blockchain industry as no percentage is kept for the team or early investors. The token has already been lent to futures trading on Binance while it is still in the pre-market stage and trading at $0.2.

Leveraging its solid technological base and the confidence that the most influential institutions of Wall Street have in it, Canton Network is not making much noise but is very certain that it is a game changer in the future of global ​‍​‌‍​‍‌finance.

Bitcoin is trading around $101,794

As​‍​‌‍​‍‌ a result of China's declaration that it would suspend an additional 24% tariff on US products for one year and keep the rate at 10% the trade conflict between the US and China looks to be gradually defusing. The diplomatic change has attracted market sentiment which in turn may result in an increased demand for risk assets such as Bitcoin.

Bitcoin (BTC) is approximately $101,794 at the moment and is going through a crucial technical support level at the 50-week moving average where the price has been bounced back for the last three times 2023. Investors are waiting on the edge of their seats to see if BTC will be able to get out of this zone and continue its recovery or it will fall further below this support.

In addition to this, China's Ministry of Finance has confirmed that it will suspend tariffs imposed in retaliation on US agricultural products which include soybeans, corn, wheat, sorghum, and chicken meat starting next week. This decision is mainly due to the summit between newly-elected President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping and the United States cutting fentanyl-related tariffs on Chinese goods by half.

"The relaxation of trade conflicts between the largest economies of the world is likely to give the crypto markets enormous wind from behind," predicted a market analyst. "The elimination of global economic uncertainty usually results in a better environment for risk assets."

Although there is good news on the macro front, the selling pressure is still around as it is evidenced in the announcement of Sequans Communications on the plan to sell off a part of their Bitcoin holdings for the purpose of retiring half of their convertible bonds - a move that may affect the short-term sentiment of the Bitcoin market.

Market participants are at a crossroad now. They want to find out whether the positive effect of the improved relations between the US and China will be stronger than the selling pressure caused by the institutional portfolio ​‍​‌‍​‍‌adjustments.

The market was drowning in blood, the Long side lost 1.7 billion USD.

The​‍​‌‍​‍‌ digital asset market went down in flames during the first days of November, putting out the light to the recovery that was expected to happen quickly, and in that way scaring almost all the investing community. Bitcoin, the most influential digital token of the whole crypto ecosystem, returned in a very uncomfortable manor to the "home" it left without saying goodbye as it went under the psychologically very important $100,000 mark, reaching a low of $99,000.

This fall off the cliff of Bitcoin has led to a market-wide carnage. Ethereum didn't make it either as it dropped to the critical $3,000 support level. The total value of the market fell by more than 6% in just 24 hours, taking back almost half a trillion dollars worth of tokens.

Most of all liquidations figures hurt: the amount of over $2 billion in positions that have been liquidated, with long positions (price increase bets) being responsible for a whopping 77% of losses i.e., about $1.7 billion were totally removed from the market, is what most people talk about. The enormous volume of these liquidations shows that many traders used high leverage to "buy the dip" in the last few days and that now they have to pay dearly for their recklessness.

"This is not a mere price correction," said a market analyst. "It is a huge leverage purge, which is getting rid of weak and impatient positions in the market."

The time aspect makes the case even more heartbreaking as this immediately follows a rather disappointing October. The previous month did not follow its usual trend and recorded a "Red Uptober," i.e., the first bearish October in years. It is now the disastrous start of November that has created a very worried atmosphere among the community and made a question to be repeated all over the place: "Could this month become 'Rekt-vember'?"

The market is currently in a very precarious position. The confidence of investors is put to the utmost test, and the question whether Bitcoin will be able to hold its next crucial support levels and thus stop a further fall similar to the one at the year-end of 2018 is what everyone is wondering.

"It is the typical panic selling that we see, accompanied by liquidations that go on one after another," a crypto fund manager said. "The question of great importance at this moment is whether institutional buyers will come to the rescue and stabilize the market, or will we be facing a longer ​‍​‌‍​‍‌correction?"

Tom Lee's Bitmine Spends $50 Million on More ETH After Crash

Despite​‍​‌‍​‍‌ the continued negative price volatility of the cryptocurrency markets, investment giant Bitmine is making bold countercyclical moves that clearly show a long-term conviction without any hesitation. Tom Lee, a well-known investor, is leading the firm that has been consistently increasing its Ethereum (ETH) position after the market was at its worst on October 11.

Bitmine made major purchases three times totaling almost 12,000 ETH or approximately $50 million, according to the on-chain data. The company decided to buy an additional 3,313 ETH for $12 million last time, which was on November 2.

These moves are a kind of testament to a fiery bullish stance of Lee on the crypto coin and his prediction that Ethereum would become the first asset ever to hit a market cap of $15-16 trillion by 2025. Instead of losing their heads amid short-term fluctuation, Bitmine considers the present market as an excellent opportunity for low-cost asset accumulation.

Bitmine keeps on doubling down on their dominance in the institutional Ethereum space with these successive moves Lee's outfit is the global number one institutional holder of Ethereum by far. Their balance sheet is pretty awesome:

• Total ETH Holdings: 3.4 million ETH
• Percent of circulating supply: 2.81% of entire Ethereum network
• Total Holding Value: $12.35 billion
• Average Purchase Price: Around $3,906 per ETH

They aren't just loading up on Ethereum; Bitmine also holds a fair amount of 192 Bitcoins and has almost $389 million in cash savings.

The magnitude of Bitmine's digital asset portfolio places it as the second-largest institutional cryptocurrency holder worldwide behind only Michael Saylor's MicroStrategy that currently owns Bitcoin worth more than $70 billion.

Bitmine and Lee's moves convey a very loud and clear message to the market: the time to worry and panic among retail investors might be now but this is precisely the moment that long-term-visioned organizations take advantage of to pile up on strategic assets for the future.

"We are not affected by price fluctuations that are visible from one day to another," said a Bitmine representative. "Our investment thesis is predicated on a fundamental belief that Ethereum is the best long-term value proposition as it is the base layer for the decentralized finance and Web3 ​‍​‌‍​‍‌ecosystem."

The formula for calculating how much money you need to retire.

"How​‍​‌‍​‍‌ much money is enough to retire?" Most of us, at some point, are bothered by this question. Among the personal finance community, there is a well-known formula that effectively gives an answer to this question: "The 4% Rule."

1. How the 4% Rule Works

This guideline is based on a landmark financial research called the "Trinity Study." The study showed that if you spread your investments prudently between stocks and bonds, you can take 4% of your total portfolio each year for your living costs and still, in most cases, your portfolio will last for at least 30 years without being depleted.

In other words: If you want to spend $40,000 per year during your retirement, you will need an investment portfolio of around $1 million. With $2 million, the withdrawal of $80,000 annually can be done without losing financial stability.

2. Context Matters More Than Numbers

The amount that is considered "enough" largely depends on your place of residence and the kind of lifestyle you are leading. One dollar can be worth very different things in different places.

For example, a person living in a small city or a rural area may only need $35,000-$40,000 a year to live comfortably, and thus, $1 million in smart investments would be enough to bring about "financial freedom." In Southern Europe, $50,000 yearly may be sufficient for living by the sea, eating out several times a week. The same amount in New York City would not even cover the basic expenses.

So, when figuring out your personal number, it's better to take into account the context of the place where you intend to ​‍​‌‍​‍‌live.

3. Flexibility​‍​‌‍​‍‌ Ensures Sustainability

The 4% rule is merely an indication, it should not be interpreted as a strict law. To be able to keep your investments going through different situations in the financial markets over a period of several years, you have to be flexible:

• In a market decline, thought is given to cashing out less (about 3-3.5%)

• When the market is good, you can withdraw a little bit more

• The availability of this option gives your portfolio the necessary oxygen to "breathe" and thus recover from the last period, which is the only way to be stable in the long term without the danger of running out

4. "Enough" Is About Choices, Not Just Money

Many happiness studies reveal that the happiest people are not the richest ones but rather those who have the liberty to decide on how to spend their time. The time when you are obliged to leave the working period due to economic pressure is the real "retirement" moment – you can still keep doing the things you like but it will be only out of love, not need.

Let's not forget this simple formula when figuring out how much money we need for retirement: Necessary assets = yearly expenses × 25 (Since 4% multiplied by 25 gives 100% of the total assets)

Suppose one wants to keep up annual expenses of $60,000, in that case, he/she will have to have around $1.5M worth of effectively invested assets.

Early retirement doesn't mean to win the race against others by getting off the track faster, rather it means that you get to live more purposeful and in control of your ​‍​‌‍​‍‌life.