a16z Leads $80M Funding for Layer 1 Story Protocol

PIP Labs, the developer of the Story Protocol blockchain, has raised $80 million in a Series B funding round led by a16z crypto, bringing its total funding to $140 million. Story Protocol, a Layer 1 blockchain, is designed to tokenize intellectual property (IP) and make it programmable, aiming to protect creators' rights in the AI era by allowing them to register and control their IP.

With over 200 teams already building on Story, the platform is expected to launch its mainnet later this year, promising new ways for creators to earn royalties and ensuring that AI systems can license and compensate IP owners seamlessly. Story Protocol is being developed using the Cosmos SDK and will be fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) upon its mainnet launch.

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MakerDAO's Chronicle Launches an RWA Oracle with M^0

MakerDAO's Chronicle is launching a real-world asset oracle through its integration with the Ethereum-based stablecoin minting protocol M^0, which uses US Treasuries as collateral for its cryptodollar, $M. The oracle will independently validate and provide real-time updates on M^0's off-chain collateral, enhancing the transparency and security of the minting process.

Chronicle's involvement in this initiative follows a series of industry collaborations, with the team aiming to lead the next wave of Web3 innovation by integrating real world assets into the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. M^0 recently raised $35 million in a Series A funding round led by Bain Capital Crypto, thanks to growing interest in RWA-backed stablecoins.

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Crypto Whale Loses $55M in DAI Phishing Attack

A crypto whale lost $55.4 million in Dai stablecoins due to a sophisticated phishing attack that exploited a vulnerability in the victim’s externally owned account (EOA), which controlled a Maker vault. The attacker used the phishing tool Inferno Drainer to lure the victim into signing a malicious transaction, enabling them to transfer ownership of the victim’s decentralized service proxy (DSProxy) to a new address under their control.

Once in control of the DSProxy, the attacker set the protocol's owner address to their own wallet and drained the vault, minting 55.4 million DAI, which was then transferred to addresses now associated with ongoing money laundering. The attack is part of a broader trend of increasing vulnerabilities in DeFi protocols, with the industry seeing over $1.19 billion in losses from hacks and scams so far in 2024.

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Hacked McDonald’s Instagram Pushes GRIMACE Memecoin

McDonald's Instagram account was hacked to promote the Solana-based meme coin GRIMACE, which briefly surged to a market capitalization of $20 million before plummeting to less than $1 million. The compromised account featured posts suggesting that the token was an "experiment" and the profile page included messages referencing a rug pull and a claimed theft of $700,000 in Solana.

This incident highlights the ongoing volatility in the Solana meme coin market, which has seen significant fluctuations in August, driven in part by the Pump.fun meme coin generator, which has been a major player in the space since its launch earlier this year. The GRIMACE token incident follows a recent trend of social media hacks being used to exploit the volatile meme coin market.

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Data of the Day

Ethereum's market dominance has declined by over 1.5% since November 2022, while Bitcoin's dominance has surged from 38% to 56% of the total digital asset market, reflecting a shift in investor focus. During the same period, the altcoin sector experienced a more severe decline of 5.9%, as capital continued to flow toward more established assets like Bitcoin.

Despite Ethereum’s price increasing by 66% since November, its relative share of the market has decreased, highlighting the growing concentration of capital in top-tier digital assets.

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More Breaking News

• Bitfarms acquires Stronghold Digital Mining for $125 million, expanding its power capacity to over 950 MW by 2025.
• Tron's Sundog token surged 25% as excitement grew around the newly launched SunPump meme coin generator.
• Aave deployed Aave V3 on the Era mainnet using ZKsync technology, enhancing DeFi privacy and institutional applications.
• Tether plans to launch a new stablecoin pegged to the UAE dirham, aiming for licensing under the UAE Central Bank’s regulations.
• Binance's new CEO, Richard Teng, plans a long-term growth strategy for the exchange, dismissing the need for an IPO.

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