In the midst of an eventful week for the cryptocurrency world, Ethereum took the spotlight with a significant sale.
On Oct. 9 2023, a wallet affiliated with the Ethereum Foundation made headlines by selling 1,700 $ETH , as reported by Lookonchain. The transaction amounted to an impressive 2.74 million USDC, valuing each #ETH at $1,611, and the sale took place on Uniswap.
This move leaves the mentioned Ethereum Foundation address with a remaining balance of 240,678 ETH, along with 7,096 $USDC , 49,658 $DAI , and 10,125 $ARB tokens.
Following the headlines, crypto enthusiasts started speculating whether the Foundation's sale could mark a local top for the markets. In the past, the #Ethereum foundation successfully sold a chunk from its wallets at local tops as per the following graph.

With the news of the sale circulating around the internet, ETH's price took a 3% dump as the #ETH #BTC pair continues to struggle.

Upbit, South Korea's leading cryptocurrency exchange, managed to fight off an astonishing 160,000 hacking attempts during the initial six months of this year, according to a recent regulatory filing reported by local news outlet YNA.
On average, this equates to an astounding 879 hacking attempts daily. Although the filing did not delve into specific methods employed by hackers, common tactics such as email phishing and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are presumed to have been used.
The numbers shared for 2023 stand at 2.17 times the number of hacking attempts recorded in the first half of the 2022. In contrast, the exchange experienced just over 73,200 cases in the same period last year, emphasizing the escalating frequency and sophistication of hacking attempts.
Although Upbit might not be a household name beyond South Korea, it plays a pivotal role in the cryptocurrency market. The exchange facilitates trades worth billions of dollars, offering a diverse range of token options and trading pairs.
Earlier this year, Upbit made headlines when it processed an impressive $2.5 billion in XRP trading volumes within a 24-hour timeframe. Consequently, XRP tokens traded on Upbit commanded a premium of up to 10% compared to the global XRP markets at that time.
Upbit's ability to defend off such a staggering number of hacking attempts underscores the importance of robust cybersecurity measures in the ever-evolving landscape of digital assets.

In a shocking turn of events, Stars Arena on the Avalanche network fell victim to a devastating cyber attack earlier today, resulting in the loss of nearly all its locked funds, $3 million worth of $AVAX tokens.
The first signs of trouble surfaced in the wee hours of Saturday when a vigilant user, @0xLawliette (formerly known as @0xlilitch), raised concerns about a potential exploit.

Stars Arena's developers confirmed the devastating attack via a tweet shortly after, sending shockwaves through the #crypto community.
Stars Arena had drawn comparisons to Friend.Tech, a social app on Ethereum that rapidly gained popularity, amassing over 100,000 users within weeks of its August debut. Both platforms allowed users to purchase "keys" or "shares" of Twitter users, granting access to exclusive chatrooms with various privileges. These shares' values were incredibly volatile, leading some users to speculate on them akin to trading tokens and making profits from the price fluctuations.

It took until October for Stars Arena to ramp up its popularity. Ava Labs members, including founder Emin Gün Sirer, had endorsed the app through multiple posts on Twitter, helping Stars Arena to reach wider masses.
Some users had even managed to rake in substantial profits, earning up to 1,000 AVAX in trading fees from the platform. The application's popularity had also contributed to a 6% spike in AVAX token prices at one point during the week. However, users that kept their profits on Stars Arena have now lost them, unless the developers came out with a fix to save the day.
#AVAX

Despite a promising 5.5% intraday surge to $28,600, #BTC lost momentum this week. This setback was credited to the highly anticipated launch of #Ethereum futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as it failed to generate substantial trading volumes.
On top of the ETF hype settling down, recent comments from U.S. Federal Reserve representatives added to concerns about an imminent economic downturn.
Considering $BTC has been stuck between its 25,000-30,000 range for the last. 8 months, #crypto enthusiasts has been wondering why the orange coin has been struggling to break out of this range.
Macroeconomic pressures weigh on Bitcoin's price
U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision, Michael Barr, expressed his anticipation, this week, of slowed economic growth due to higher interest rates restricting economic activity. The impact of the current monetary policy is yet to be fully realized, creating uncertainty.
Additionally, the real yield on U.S. 10-year Treasuries reached 2.47%, its highest level in nearly 15 years, contributing to the strength of the U.S. Dollar Index (DXY). The U.S. became a more attractive investment destination compared to Europe and China due to its resilient economy and robust growth prospects.

Diminished activity for leverage Longs in Bitcoin trading
Bitcoin monthly futures usually trade at a slight premium over spot markets, implying that sellers demand higher prices, delaying settlements. This causes BTC futures contracts to maintain a 5%-10% annualized premium, a situation that can also be spotted in other financial markets.
Signaling a lack of demand for leveraged long positions, BTC futures premium continues to hover below the 5% neutral threshold. On top of this, spot trading on traditional exchanges, like #Binance has dwindled to levels not seen since late 2020.

Crypto trading volumes has been suffering since early 2023 as retail investors continued to distance themselves from the space while prominent U.S.-based trading firms, such as Jane Street Group and Jump Trading, also did the same.
Investors' confidence in a spot BTC ETF drops
Bitcoin owes much of its 68% price gain in 2023 to the expectations of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approving a spot Bitcoin ETF. While the BTC Spot ETF was delayed at every chance, $ETH futures-based ETFs on October 2nd failed to generate significant demand, causing the overall hype surrounding the ETFs.

Stars Arena, previously known as Starshares, has emerged as a prominent player on the Avalanche network (#AVAX ). Since its launch in late September, Stars Arena has experienced a remarkable surge in popularity, capturing the attention of crypto enthusiasts and industry analysts alike.
According to DappRadar, Stars Arena's daily transactions witnessed a meteoric rise, reaching over 215,000 transactions on Oct. 2. The transaction volume on Stars Arena surpassed $1.7 million on the same day. Considering the platform averaged around 16,000 transactions in late September, it has also been struggling to keep up with demand due to overloaded servers.

One of Star Arena's key features is linking Twitter accounts, enabling users to instantly create profiles and trade tickets of others on the platform while interacting with them.
Active Stars Arena users have been praising platform's accessibility compared to its competitors. Despite Stars Arena's rapid growth, Friend.Tech maintains a substantial lead in the SocialFi space, boasting 7.25 million monthly transactions and $33.4 million in weekly volume.
At the moment, Stars Arena's statistics show 691.8 thousand monthly transactions and $6.4 million in weekly volume, indicating room for further expansion.
The surge in Stars Arena's popularity has also positively impacted the $AVAX token, driving its value from $9.21 to the current trading price of $10.70, at the time of writing.
Analysts attribute this boost to the significant increase in Avalanche network transactions, emphasizing the transformative potential of a single groundbreaking application in the crypto industry.
How will the SocialFi hype affect AVAX's price?

When I looked at the$AVAX chart, I noticed that there were. no weekly retests given at the 40-43 level at the beginning of the bear market. If the tides turn in #crypto markets, AVAX could retest the weekly zone marked on my chart on the back of the SocialFi hype.