Decentral Block Post

On Nov. 30, Guy Zyskind, CEO of privacy smart contract blockchain Secret Network, said that developers had patched a privacy-related vulnerability and users' funds remain secure. In a document dated Nov. 29, Secret Network wrote that users or developers required no action and that all active nodes were upgraded to correct the exploit on Nov. 2. 

The sequence of events, unveiled late yesterday by the Secret Network developers, began when a group of white-hat computer science researchers contacted the Secret team on Oct. 3 regarding a recently disclosed xAPIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller) architectural bug. The exploit allowed uninitialized memory reads in certain Software Guard Extension-enabled (SGX) Intel CPUs. Secret Network leverages SGX technology to provide confidential execution of smart contracts. 

As stated in their paper, researchers first registered a server as a validator node on the Secret Network, even when they did not have sufficient funds to be trusted to actively validate transactions. The registration process then stored a copy of Secret's global consensus seed inside its SGX enclave. Next, through the aforementioned CPU glitch, researchers extracted the consensus seed of its Secret Node and its private Intel Enhanced Privacy ID key. Finally, with these items, they were able to break Secret's privacy-preserving features and decrypt the internal state of all smart contracts on the network, as well as the digital assets embedded in them. 

Secret developers verified the exploit on Oct. 4 and devised a plan to patch the vulnerability together with researchers and Intel staff. First, nodes were forcefully ejected from the network, and their secret keys deleted. After that, nodes could only rejoin the network if they patched all known vulnerabilities, which was completed on Nov. 2. "With this upgrade, it is now infeasible to mount xAPIC attacks against the Secret Network mainnet," wrote the Secret Network team.

In addition, new nodes joining the network will be limited to server-class hardware only, as to limit the attack surface that user-class hardware presents. Founded in 2015, Secret Network currently has a market cap of $131 million through its native token SCRT. The firm partnered with director Quentin Tarantino to launch Secret NFTs last November.

Fantom (FTM) continued its upward momentum on Nov. 30 amid reports that the Fantom Foundation generates consistent profits and has 30 years of runway without having to sell any FTM tokens. 

Fantom's FTM holdings up from 3% to 14%

FTM price gained nearly 13.5% to reach $0.24, its highest level in three weeks. The rally came as a part of a broader rebound trend that started when it bottomed out at around $0.17 on Nov. 22. This amounts to a 50% price rebound in the last eight days.

Interestingly, the rally picked up momentum after the Fantom Foundation's "Architect," Andre Cronje, released the firm's financial records on Nov. 28, revealing that it had $340 million worth of digital assets and had been earning over $10 million annually. Notably: 

Nov 2022 — Over 450,000,000 FTM, > $100,000,000 in stables, > $100,000,000 in crypto assets, $50,000,000 in non-crypto assets. Salary burn rate $7,000,000 / year. We have ~30 years left (without having to touch FTM)

Certain crypto and blockchain projects have suffered due to their potential exposure to failing companies.

Fantom (FTM) continued its upward momentum on Nov. 30 amid reports that the Fantom Foundation generates consistent profits and has 30 years of runway without having to sell any FTM tokens. 

Fantom's FTM holdings up from 3% to 14%

FTM price gained nearly 13.5% to reach $0.24, its highest level in three weeks. The rally came as a part of a broader rebound trend that started when it bottomed out at around $0.17 on Nov. 22. This amounts to a 50% price rebound in the last eight days.

Interestingly, the rally picked up momentum after the Fantom Foundation's "Architect," Andre Cronje, released the firm's financial records on Nov. 28, revealing that it had $340 million worth of digital assets and had been earning over $10 million annually. Notably: 

Nov 2022 — Over 450,000,000 FTM, > $100,000,000 in stables, > $100,000,000 in crypto assets, $50,000,000 in non-crypto assets. Salary burn rate $7,000,000 / year. We have ~30 years left (without having to touch FTM)

Certain crypto and blockchain projects have suffered due to their potential exposure to failing companies.

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly returned to $17,000 into Nov. 30 as monthly close volatility loomed.

Trader: $17,500 monthly close “most bullish outcome”

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD following traders’ predictions to sweep higher levels before consolidating.

Highs of $17,072 appeared on Bitstamp, with the pair nonetheless unable to flip the highs to support. At the time of writing, Bitcoin hovered around $16,900.

$17,000 marks a key range for bulls to reclaim, Cointelegraph reported the day prior, and until this happens, the status quo remains.

“$BTC bulls want to hold 16.8k as first counter trend S/R flip. Back below would represent a minor upthrust,” popular analyst Cheds summarized, revealing a short at the highs.