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Welcome to The Node! This is Marc Hochstein (filling in for Daniel Kuhn) here to take you through the latest in crypto news and why it matters.

In today's news: ETF inflows rebound  ...  Short sellers take on bitcoin miner ... Breached exchange tries to make it right with customers ... A twist of fate put Selkis in the room with Trump ... Be careful what you click on.

The takeaway: No hot takes today, folks. I'm still recovering from Consensus 2024. In lieu of an essay, go watch Riva Tez's 🔥 presentation from last week's event: How Crypto Wins the Narrative War.

ETF inflows rebound

U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds saw over $880 million in inflows on Tuesday, provisional data released on Wednesday shows. This marked the best day of inflows since March and the second-highest overall since 11 bitcoin ETFs went live in January. BTC rose above $71,000 during Asia hours; as of this writing it was up about 2% on a 24-hour basis at  $70,876.21.

Short seller takes on miner

Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms underperformed peers on Wednesday after prominent short-seller Kerrisdale Capital said it's short Riot stock and (as a hedge) long bitcoin (BTC). Kerrisdale called Riot's business model "a dysfunctional hamster wheel of cash burn" and accused the miner of gouging retail shareholders through its at-the-market (ATM) funding strategy. 

Newsletter breach

Several cryptocurrency businesses are reporting an ongoing “supply chain email breach attack” that uses newsletter mailing lists to send users malicious phishing links. The breach targeted an unnamed vendor that manages mailing lists for crypto companies. Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino and CoinGecko founder Bobby Ong confirmed a breach has taken place. "Several crypto companies may be affected via email blasts of fake token launches," Ong said. Careful what you click on.

Making it right

Japanese crypto exchange DMM Bitcoin has outlined plans to raise $320 million to purchase bitcoin (BTC) and repay victims of last week's hack. According to a statement on its website, all BTC held by users will be guaranteed by obtaining support from "group companies." DMM Bitcoin is a subsidiary of DMM Financial, which is itself a unit of DMM Group, a conglomerate founded in 1999 that earned 347.6 billion yen ($2.2 billion) in 2023.

Twist of fate

Did a single NFT purchase change Washington's mind on crypto? Valentin Pletnev couldn't use his ticket for a Mar-a-Lago Trump gala, so prominent crypto figure Ryan Selkis went instead. Neither expected the U.S. policy whirlwind that followed... RTWT by CoinDesk's Sam Kessler.

Radix's New $10 Million Ecosystem Fund Is Paving the Way for DeFi's Mass Adoption

There's a growing recognition that for DeFi to truly go mainstream, it needs to offer attractive yields – but more so it needs to provide intuitive experiences, robust security and compelling use cases. Reality, though, has often fallen short of that dream. Unsustainable yields and speculative tokens have drawn criticism that some projects are more focused on enriching insiders than building lasting value.

Clearly, we need a solution to fix these issues head-on. Continue reading

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