Another Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Recalculation
On March 9, after another recalculation, Bitcoin mining difficulty increased by 1.43%, reaching 112.15 T. Despite this growth, it could not fully compensate for the 3.15% decline recorded two weeks ago. However, the indicator again approached the historical record of 114.17 T, set in January.
Glassnode analysts note that the hashrate has not yet reached the February maximum of 844.95 EH/s. The current value is 813.5 EH/s. According to the Hashrate Index, mining profitability has fallen to its lowest levels since February, falling to $46 per PH/s per day.
Ethereum Rate Drops 20%
Ethereum has lost 20% of its value over the past seven days, breaking a key uptrend line that formed after the Terra collapse. CoinDesk analysts believe that such technical dynamics may signal the end of a three-year bull cycle.
Additional pressure on the market was exerted by a fall below the $2,100 level - this is the mark in August 2023 that indicated weakening sellers. The decline from March 3 to March 9 was the most significant for the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization since November 2022.
USDT Transaction Costs Increased in Tron Network
The Gas Free feature has not lived up to expectations in terms of reducing the cost of Tether (USDT) transactions on the TRON network, which was noted by the developers of the re:Fee Telegram bot, designed for buying and renting energy. In late February, TRON creator Justin Sun introduced Gas Free, a mechanism that allows you to pay network fees without using the native TRX token. He also invited crypto wallet developers to collaborate to integrate this feature.
On March 7, the TronLink team published a guide to using Gas Free, but it turned out that "gas-free" transactions are significantly more expensive than standard ones. Users need to pay 10 USDT to activate the feature, and the commission for each transaction will also be 10 USDT.
For comparison, a regular USDT transfer costs $3-6, and using re:Fee allows you to save up to 60% on fees. Depending on the number of transactions, the re:Fee energy cost ranges from 3.5 to 5.8 TRX ($0.80-$1.30) instead of the standard 13.4 TRX ($3).
Vulnerability Found in Trezor Wallet
Hardware crypto wallet maker Trezor has fixed a vulnerability in its Safe 3 model that was discovered by a research team at competitor Ledger, the company's CFO Charles Guillaumet said. The issue was related to the microcontroller that performed cryptographic operations, making the device vulnerable to sophisticated attacks. In response, Trezor implemented Secure Elements chips to protect the PIN code and cryptographic data.
The company assured that users' funds remained safe and no further action was required. Trezor also emphasized that Ledger Donjon researchers were unable to extract private keys or PIN codes. Wallets remain protected if purchased through official channels.
Sandwich Attack Victim Loses Over $700,000
A crypto trader swapped ~$732,583 in USDC for ~$18,636 in USDT across six swaps, becoming the victim of a major sandwich attack. He used the USDC-USDT liquidity pool on Uniswap V3.
As explained by The DeFi Report founder Michael Nadeau, the MEV bot preempted the trader's transaction, creating a price imbalance between the assets. The bot also instructed the block builder bobTheBuilder to process its transaction first.
The attacker uses special software to monitor the mempool for large unfinished trades. Then, he conducts two transactions - before and after the victim's swap, artificially inflating the price of the purchased assets and locking in profits on the resale.
To avoid such attacks, experts recommend reducing the allowed slippage, switching to aggregators with MEV protection, and setting up a custom RPC that hides transactions from public mempools.
Only 4% of People Own Bitcoin
According to research by River, only 4% of the world's population owns Bitcoin. The highest concentration of holders is in the United States, where 14% of residents own digital gold. North America leads in cryptocurrency adoption among people and organizations, while in Africa this figure is only 1.6%.
Analysts note that Bitcoin has mastered only 3% of its potential market, including governments, corporations, and institutional investors. The main barriers to mass adoption remain low levels of financial and technical literacy, as well as skepticism - many still consider Bitcoin a scam. High volatility creates an additional complication, hindering its use as a store of value and exchange, especially in developing countries. Despite the progress, experts emphasize that Bitcoin is still in the early stages of global adoption.
