Ethereum's Transaction Surge Under Scrutiny Amidst "Address Poisoning" Attack Concerns
Ethereum's network activity recently reached a new peak, recording 2.9 million transactions in a single day. Despite this impressive volume, the price of ETH has shown a tepid reaction. This subdued response suggests that the surge in transactions may not be driven by genuine user demand growth but rather by a large-scale "address poisoning" attack.
Analysis indicates that approximately 80% of the abnormal increase in new addresses is linked to stablecoins. Furthermore, about 67% of these newly active addresses initiated their first transfers with amounts less than $1, a pattern consistent with "dust attacks."
In a sample analyzed, roughly 3.86 million addresses received "poisoned dust" during their initial stablecoin transaction. Attackers are reportedly using smart contracts to send minuscule amounts of stablecoins to hundreds of thousands of addresses. This tactic aims to pollute users' transaction histories and trick them into mistakenly transferring significant sums to fake addresses that closely resemble legitimate ones.
The feasibility of these low-cost attacks has been amplified by the significant drop in transaction fees following the Fusaka upgrade implemented in early December.
Consequently, Ethereum's record-breaking transaction volume might be inflated by spam transactions, diminishing its credibility as an indicator of increased network demand. The market has not interpreted this surge as a positive catalyst for ETH prices.
Elon Musk Announces X Algorithm Open Source, Acknowledges Need for Improvement
Elon Musk announced on the X platform that the platform's recommendation algorithm, while still requiring substantial improvements, is now open source. The X team is actively working on enhancing the algorithm, and making it public allows users to monitor the adjustment process in real time.
This new algorithm is built upon the same Transformer architecture that powers xAI's Grok model.
South Korea to Abolish "One Exchange to One Bank" Rule, Paving Way for Crypto Derivatives and Corporate Trading
South Korean financial authorities are planning significant reforms to the digital asset regulatory system. A key proposed change is the abolition of the "one exchange – one bank" binding restriction. This move is expected to facilitate the issuance of crypto derivatives and enable corporate accounts to participate in trading, aiming to dismantle the current market monopoly structure and boost liquidity.
Regulators believe that while this restriction is not legally mandated, its long-standing existence, primarily due to anti-money laundering requirements, has stifled competition among exchanges and limited user choices.
These forthcoming policy changes are slated to be incorporated into the second phase of legislation for the Digital Asset Basic Law. There is already a consensus among both parties in the National Assembly regarding certain aspects of regulatory deregulation.
For context, South Korea's "one exchange, one bank system" historically required each cryptocurrency exchange to sign a real-name verification agreement for deposit and withdrawal accounts with only one bank, and vice versa. This system was developed to strengthen anti-money laundering (AML) and accountability measures. Current discussions and procedural steps are underway by financial authorities to abolish or significantly relax this system.
MegaETH Mainnet Set to Launch January 22nd for Global Stress Testing
MegaETH's mainnet is scheduled to launch on January 22nd, according to an official announcement from the project. The initial phase will involve a 7-day global stress test, with the objective of processing 11 billion transactions and achieving transaction speeds of 15,000 to 35,000 transactions per second (TPS).
During this stress test period, multiple on-chain interactive applications will be deployed to rigorously assess the system's stability under high-load conditions. Following the successful completion of the stress test, the mainnet will officially open. The initial integration will focus on DeFi and consumer applications driven by USDM.