Крипторынок на краю: биткоин ниже $100 000, инфраструктурные атаки на DeFi и новые вызовы для инвесторов Crypto Market on Edge: Bitcoin Falls Below $100,000, DeFi Infrastructure Attacks, and New Challenges for Investors

The leading cryptocurrency has dropped below a crucial psychological threshold, while the hacking of DeFi protocols has stirred issues within the sector. The founder of Samourai Wallet was sentenced to five years in prison, along with other notable events from the past week.

The last week has significantly rattled crypto investors, with digital gold slipping below $100,000 on two occasions.

Monday kicked off with a cascading decline that persisted until Wednesday, November 5. On that day, the first test of the psychological benchmark occurred. Within just 24 hours, the liquidation volume exceeded $1.78 billion.

Following this, the asset slightly recovered to $105,000, but on Friday it faced another correction, dropping to $99,000. Although the coin was quickly bought back, it couldn’t reclaim its previous levels.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades around $102,700, having lost nearly 8% over the week, with a market cap of $2.04 trillion.

The leading cryptocurrency’s decline also dragged down other assets, some of which experienced more severe losses. Ethereum briefly fell to $3,000, but has since recovered to $3,400, though its seven-day drop still exceeds 11%.

Other assets among the top ten by market cap also entered the «red zone.» Solana experienced a 14% loss, XRP lost 10%, and BNB saw a 9% decrease.

The [Fear and Greed Index](https://forklog.com/cryptorium/chto-takoe-indeks-straha-i-zhadnosti-v-kriptovalyutah) fell to 22, indicating a zone of «extreme fear.»

In this declining market, the privacy coin sector notably stood out. Over the past 24 hours, its market cap increased by 40%, reaching $41.6 billion.

Leading this segment was [Zcash](https://forklog.com/cryptorium/chto-takoe-zcash-zec), which surged by 45% over the week. The coin has already [exceeded](https://forklog.com/news/tsena-zcash-preodolela-rubezh-v-500) the $600 mark. Monero rose by 23%, while Decred saw a 100% increase.

The market downturn was also accompanied by outflows from [ETFs](https://forklog.com/cryptorium/chto-takoe-bitkoin-etf). U.S. Bitcoin products faced one of their worst weeks, [losing](https://sosovalue.com/assets/etf/us-btc-spot) $1.22 billion.

Ethereum funds, in total, experienced [withdrawals](https://sosovalue.com/assets/etf/us-eth-spot) of $507 million. Interestingly, despite the trend, Solana ETFs [gained](https://sosovalue.com/assets/etf/us-sol-spot) $136 million.

In addition to the overall stagnation of the crypto market, issues arose in the realm of [decentralized finance](https://forklog.com/cryptorium/chto-takoe-detsentralizovannye-finansy-defi). This was triggered by a series of hacking attacks.

On November 3, news broke of a breach in the DeFi protocol Balancer, where hackers [managed to extract](https://forklog.com/news/defi-protokol-balancer-podvergsya-vzlomu-na-116-mln?utm_source=fltgmain&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=fltrack&sntzd_campaign=1) at least $128 million.

It is presumed that the attackers exploited a vulnerability in Balancer V2 pools, creating a malicious contract that deceived the system when generating new liquidity pools. The stolen assets were quickly laundered through crypto mixers.

This breach compelled the Berachain Foundation to [conduct](https://forklog.com/news/berachain-provela-hardfork-posle-vzloma-balancer-na-128-mln) an emergency hard fork. The network was halted to fix a vulnerability in the native [decentralized exchange](https://forklog.com/cryptorium/chto-takoe-detsentralizovannye-birzhi-dex) BEX. This decision aimed to prevent the stolen tokens from being moved out of the network and to avert further incidents.

Following Balancer, the Stream Finance protocol also fell victim to an attack. On November 4, the project [paused](https://forklog.com/news/stream-finance-priostanovil-rabotu-posle-poteri-93-mln) withdrawals and deposits, announcing a loss of $93 million in assets.

Consequently, the Staked Stream USD (xUSD) token lost its parity.

Analysts at YieldsAndMore [suggested](https://forklog.com/news/eksperty-podschitali-soputstvuyushhij-ushherb-ot-vzloma-stream-finance) that these incidents could trigger a cascade of liquidations and collateral issues, estimating the potential associated damage at $285 million.

According to them, the collapse of xUSD affected several stablecoins, including deUSD and scUSD, as well as treasuries. At-risk «synthetic» tokens xUSD, xBTC, and xETH are also highlighted.

Their speculations were confirmed a few days later. On November 6, the «stablecoin» USDX from Stable Labs [lost](https://forklog.com/news/stejblkoin-usdx-poteryal-privyazku-k-dollaru-i-upal-do-0-3) its peg to the U.S. dollar. Within 24 hours, the asset’s value plummeted over 60%, dropping to $0.3. Currently, the asset has further declined to $0.1.

In the community, urgent voting was initiated regarding the forced liquidation in the USDX/USD1 market to minimize potential losses. The majority accepted the initiative.

Simultaneously, the Elixir protocol announced the discontinuation of support for its stablecoin deUSD due to the Stream Finance hack. As of the latest reports, the team has already repurchased approximately 80% of coins from holders at a 1:1 ratio in USDC.

Despite Ethereum’s lackluster market performance, its on-chain metrics are hitting new records.

The Ethereum ecosystem recorded a new all-time high for transactions per second (TPS). After including statistics data from the decentralized exchange Lighter’s [L2](https://forklog.com/cryptorium/chto-takoe-resheniya-masshtabirovaniya-vtorogo-urovnya) network, the metric [reached](https://forklog.com/news/propusknaya-sposobnost-ekosistemy-ethereum-dostigla-rekordnyh-24-000-tps) 24,192.

Lighter alone achieves over 4,000 TPS, while its closest competitor, Base, only manages 112 TPS.

The technological foundation for this new record is attributed to the [Pectra](https://forklog.com/exclusive/apgrejd-pectra-na-puti-k-masshtabirovaniyu-i-massovomu-prinyatiyu-ethereum) and [Dencun](https://forklog.com/cryptorium/chto-izmenit-hardfork-dencun-v-seti-ethereum) hard forks, which significantly enhanced transaction processing speed on the second level.

Ryan Sean Adams, host of the Bankless podcast, pointed out that L2 has increased Ethereum’s scalability by 200 times since October. He linked this with the advent of [ZK](https://forklog.com/cryptorium/chto-takoe-dokazatelstvo-s-nulevym-razglasheniem-zero-knowledge-proof) technologies and speculated that achieving 100,000 TPS is possible in the coming months.

Co-founder of the blockchain Vitalik Buterin commented on the event, emphasizing that the network of the second-largest cryptocurrency is «scaling up.»

Additionally, during the week, the Ethereum Foundation [relaunched](https://forklog.com/news/ethereum-foundation-perezapustila-programmu-grantov) its grant program. The new model implies a «proactive approach» to supporting projects.

This initiative aims to address resource scarcity by transforming a reactive approach into a proactive one. It should ensure that funding is directed toward priority objectives within the ecosystem.

The program is structured across two channels: a «Wishlist» and «Request for Proposals.» The first list outlines the general areas where the foundation identifies «important gaps and opportunities for progress.» The second details specific issues and «invites applicants to propose targeted solutions.»

On November 6, a U.S. court [sentenced](https://t.me/forklog/46089) co-founder of Samourai Wallet, Keonne Rodriguez, to five years in prison, the maximum requested by the prosecution. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $250,000.

The verdict for the second co-founder of the wallet, William Hill, is scheduled for November 19.

Before the hearing, the prosecution [sent a memorandum](https://forklog.com/news/osnovatelej-samourai-wallet-obvinili-v-soznatelnom-otmyvanii-deneg) to the judge, stating that the suspects «repeatedly incited, encouraged, and prompted criminals» to use their platform for concealing illicit funds.

The document included screenshots of conversations and posts in which Rodriguez described cryptocurrency mixing as «money laundering.» Additionally, in 2020 and 2023, Hill allegedly promoted Samourai on darknet forums, claiming that the project would «cleanse dirty bitcoins» and make them «untraceable.»

Previously, Rodriguez and Hill [struck a deal](https://forklog.com/news/osnovateli-samourai-wallet-priznali-vinu-v-otmyvanii-deneg) with law enforcement, partially admitting guilt in creating an unlicensed service that facilitated the laundering of millions of dollars gained through criminal activities.

Head of the National Bank of Kazakhstan, Timur Suleimenov, [announced](https://forklog.com/news/kazahstan-sozdast-bitkoin-rezerv-obemom-do-1-mlrd) the creation of a state cryptocurrency reserve amounting to between $500 million and $1 billion.

The fund is set to debut in 2026, with the operator being the country’s main platform for blockchain technology development — the Astana International Financial Center. The reserve will primarily comprise digital assets confiscated in criminal cases related to illegal mining and trading.

The structure does not intend to invest directly in cryptocurrency but rather to engage with it through exchange-traded funds.

Management will be overseen by a state investment platform. After its launch, foreign partners may be invited. The crypto fund will be part of Kazakhstan’s strategy to institutionalize the crypto industry.

For the first time, Suleimenov [spoke](https://forklog.com/news/v-kazahstane-podderzhali-ideyu-o-rezerve-iz-konfiskovannyh-bitkoinov) about establishing a cryptocurrency reserve financed by confiscated bitcoins back in June. In September, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev [tasked](https://forklog.com/news/ai/prezident-kazahstana-poruchil-sozdat-gosudarstvennyj-kriptorezerv) to expedite the implementation of this initiative.

In the same month, the National Bank [announced](https://forklog.com/news/v-kazahstane-vypustyat-stejblkoin-na-blokchejne-solana) a pilot project for a «stablecoin» pegged to the national currency — the tenge.

Anatoly Kaplan discusses why it is important to [return](https://forklog.com/exclusive/korporativnyj-antihrist-i-ego-melkie-besy) to the humanitarian values of early internet days in light of the «corporate Antichrist» and the global financial system crisis.

We explain why the crypto chaos in Asia is [more significant](https://forklog.com/exclusive/kriptohaos-azii-vazhnee-stavki-frs) than the Federal Reserve’s interest rate.

How the internet [learns to charge](https://forklog.com/exclusive/click-to-pay-istoriya-mikroplatezhej-ot-w3c-do-lightning-network-i-x402) for clicks: from the first HTML initiatives and experiments in the 90s to x402 — a standard attempting to merge data transfer and value transfer into one protocol.