Crypto inflows have hit a five-week winning streak on the back of rumors of impending cuts to United States interest rates in September. Polygon, Avalanche and ZKsync were all hit with Discord scam attacks within 48 hours of each other, and Fetch.ai has announced the creation of a new Innovation Lab in San Francisco, California, aimed at supporting early-stage startups in the artificial intelligence industry.
Crypto investment products see largest inflows in five weeks
Cryptocurrency investors have been increasingly purchasing Bitcoin BTCUSD-related exchange-traded products (ETP) amid concerns over potentially looming interest rate cuts in September.
The crypto investment firm CoinShares reported on Aug. 26 that digital asset investment products saw weekly inflows worth $533 million from Aug. 18 to Aug. 24.
Last week’s purchasing pace of crypto-related ETFs marked the largest inflows in the past five weeks, fueled by anticipation of interest rate cuts in the US. On Aug. 21, US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested that the first interest rate cuts could occur in September 2024.
Among various crypto investment products analyzed by CoinShares, Bitcoin-related ETPs saw the largest inflows last week, totaling $543 million.
The most significant buying came from BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, which recorded $318 million in inflows last week.
Meanwhile, Ether (ETH)-related crypto investment products saw negative flows, totaling $36 million in outflows over the period. Ethereum outflows came despite new ETH ETF issuers continuing to see inflows, but the Grayscale Ethereum Trust offset the buying with $118 million of outflows.
Polygon Discord compromise hits Avalanche, ZKsync hours later
Layer-1 network Avalanche and layer-2 blockchain ZKsync’s official Discord servers have also been hit with exploits less than 48 hours after the Polygon’s Discord was compromised.
In an Aug. 25 post to X, the official account for Avalanche shared that its Discord server had been compromised and urged users not to interact with or click on any links.
According to screenshots shared by members of the Avalanche Discord on X, the attackers posted several links to sham “distribution” schemes for Avalanche (AVAX) tokens, claiming that holders and community members could claim free AVAX.
An hour later, Avalanche’s community lead, Ben Well, wrote that the Avalanche team had “found” the issue and resolved it.
He added that the team was working to restore the server to normal.
However, only one hour after the Avalanche exploit, the official Discord of the ZKsync was also reportedly compromised.
Hackers once again shared malicious links to a sham “round 2 airdrop” scheme, promising users free ZK tokens.
Fetch.ai launches Innovation Lab
On Aug. 23, decentralized machine learning platform Fetch.ai announced the launch of a new innovation hub to advance artificial intelligence — a technology that continues to merge with blockchain applications.
The new Innovation Lab will be based in San Francisco, California, and will back startups working on AI agent solutions or technology that uses AI to perform specific tasks for users. The company announced it would allocate $10 million annually to projects involved in AI agent technology.
“We aim to fund and support projects that bridge the gap between research and market, delivering tangible advancements that revolutionize industries through the power of AI agents,” said Humayun Sheikh, CEO of Fetch.ai.
