Information on social media platform X(formerly Twitter) suggests that Friend.tech founders 0xRacerAlt and Shrimppepe have connections to a failed NFT project, Kosetto.

Kosetto NFTs

Kosetto is a tradeable NFT wearables project launched last December on Ethereum. The project, which consisted of 1,689 items, sparked significant excitement with users flooding social media platforms with posts about it. However, after it had introduced a Chrome extension for its NFTs in January, the project went silent in February after promising that “something big was coming.”

OpenSea’s data shows that the floor price of the collection is currently 0.01 ETH, around $17. The last sale for the NFTs occurred in February, with its total sales volume at only 5 ETH.

As of press time, Kosetto’s website was unavailable, displaying an Error 402.

Describing the project’s sudden demise, Justin Kalland, the Vice President of Innovation at Horizen Labs Ventures, said:

“The entire thing just disappeared, last update was in January that a Chrome extension was available. No communication or warning to users.”

Link to Friend.tech founders

On X, several crypto community members have pointed out that the struggling NFT project was linked to the Friend.tech founders.

Kalland pointed out that a search of 0xRacerAlt’s tweet shows that they have deleted several links to the NFT project and that the Friend.tech founder held an official position on Kosetto Discord.

CryptoSlate confirmed that 0xRacerAlt and Shrimppepe play an active role in Kosetto’s Discord community.

According to on-chain data, a wallet associated with Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin sent 600 Ether worth roughly $1 million to Coinbase earlier today.

The motive behind the transaction remains speculative as of press time. Usually, transfers to exchange are translated to mean an intention to sell. With Ethereum’s price recently struggling, Buterin’s transaction could further exert more selling pressure on the digital asset.

Meanwhile, on-chain sleuth Lookonchain reported that Vitalik.eth wallet repaid 251,000 RAI on DeFi platform Maker and withdrew 1,000 ETH (around $1.67 million) on Aug. 20.

The wallet known as “vitalik.eth” was created seven years ago and contained 3,993 ETH, worth $6.5 million as of press time. CryptoSlate, using the Arkham Intelligence dashboard, confirmed that the wallet belonged to the Ethereum co-founder. Other digital assets in the wallet include $84,000 worth of USD Coin (USDC) and $58,000 worth of Wrapped Ethereum (WETH).

This is not the first time Buterin would transfer assets to a crypto exchange. Earlier in the year, the Ethereum co-founder sent 200 ETH to Kraken in March. Around the same period, Buterin dumped several unsolicited altcoins (sh*tcoins) for 439.25 ETH.

ETH price struggling

Buterin’s transaction is coming on the heels of last Thursday’s crypto market flash crash. Last week, ETH’s price fell below $1700 for the first time since June and continued to trade under the mark as of press time.

According to CryptoSlate’s data, ETH traded at $1667 at the time of writing after a slight decline of 0.18% in the last 24 hours.

However, data from blockchain analytical firm Glassnode shows that Ethereum holders are jealously guarding their holdings as they rapidly send their assets off crypto exchanges. According to the data aggregator, the amount of ETH held on exchanges is 14.88 million, a level not recorded since 2018.

A price glitch on Gemini saw the value of Ripple’s XRP rise above $1 on Aug. 10 after the crypto exchange relisted the digital asset, according to data from the exchange.

Visa is taking significant strides toward simplifying blockchain transactions. In what could be a game-changer for users, the payment giant has been working on an experimental solution that allows for the payment of on-chain gas fees with a Visa card.

Mustafa Bedawala, a product manager at VISA, shared the publication while detailing a perceived problem with crypto wallets; the constant need to manage ETH balances for gas fees.

The typical process of using Ethereum requires users to purchase ETH either on an exchange or via an on-ramp service, followed by transferring ETH to their wallets to ensure sufficient coverage for fluctuating gas fees. This constant shifting of gas prices often results in users either overpaying or falling short of their ETH supply, adding a layer of complexity and friction.

Visa Card payments for gas fees

Visa’s proposed solution leverages Ethereum’s ERC-4337 account abstraction standard and a feature known as the “paymaster” smart contract, which facilitates off-chain gas fee payments. The process is envisaged to work as follows:

1. A user initiates an Ethereum transaction through their wallet, which then sends the transaction details to the paymaster web service.

2. The web service calculates the cost of the gas fee and subsequently charges the user’s Visa card using Visa’s Cybersource system to process the card payment.

3. Following this, the web service sends back a digital signature to the wallet, approving the payment. This approval is valid for a specified time window.

4. The wallet attaches this signature to the transaction and forwards it to Ethereum.

5. The paymaster smart contract then verifies the validity of the signature and covers the gas cost to process the transaction.

The attacker who targeted Curve Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, has begun returning some of the stolen funds. The attacker sent 4,821 Ethereum (ETH), worth approximately $9 million, in a series of transactions to Alchemix Finance, one of the victims.

Earlier today, the attacker had sent an on-chain message to Alchemix, asking the protocol to confirm its address before the funds were sent. The attacker further explained that he returned funds because he did not want to ruin the projects.

The TRON (TRX) network exhibited considerable growth in Q2 in daily active accounts, new accounts, and transactions, as metrics increased by 14%, 13.4%, and 28.9%, respectively, according to a recent report by Messari.

Tron Q2 Growth.

This growth coincided with the launch of BitTorrent Bridge and Stake 2.0, among other developments, showing promising expansion of the network’s capabilities and user engagement.

Messari’s report notes that the surge in network activity boosted revenue by 11.6% quarter-over-quarter in TRX terms, translating to a 22.2% increase when measured in USD.

Interestingly, the revenue growth led to a significant amount of TRX being burned, supporting the token’s value in an otherwise flat-to-down market. TRX outperformed most Layer 1 tokens during the quarter, with its market cap swelling by 14.7% compared to the average 23% decline of other major L1 tokens.

The report also highlighted TRON’s ongoing efforts to expand DeFi as applications and infrastructure providers began integrating TRX liquid staking and the decentralized resource marketplace.

TRON’s most prominent DeFi protocols, such as JustLend, JustStables, SUN, and JustMoney, saw increased Total Value Locked (TVL) during the period, reflecting vibrant activity in the network’s DeFi sector.

Across the network, TVl grew 7% when denominated in dollars, but the underlying amount of TRX fell by 7.9%.