Bitcoin Reaches $112,000 High
Bitcoin has come close to $112,000 this week, helped by steady inflows into crypto ETFs. On Binance, the BTC/USDT rate peaked at $111,980. By press time, the price had fallen to around $107,350. BTC's market cap temporarily surpassed $2.2 trillion, putting it ahead of Amazon and Google, and behind only Apple ($3 trillion), Nvidia ($3.24 trillion), and Microsoft ($3.38 trillion). Among the leading cryptocurrencies by market cap, Solana, Dogecoin, and Cardano have outperformed BTC in the last 24 hours.
Solana Launches New Alpenglow Consensus Protocol
Solana is preparing to implement a new consensus protocol, Alpenglow, with block finality in 150 ms, which will allow it to compete with Web2 in response time. The testnet is expected in the coming months.
The current finality time is over 12 seconds, 100 times longer than stated. Thanks to the concept of "optimistic confirmation", the new protocol can reduce latency to 100 ms. Such speed will open up opportunities for Solana in areas where real-time work is critical. Alpenglow is called the largest protocol upgrade in the history of the network.
As part of the initiative, the TowerBFT and Proof-of-History components will be replaced with Votor and Rotor. The first is responsible for voting and finalization: a block is finalized in one round with an 80% response rate or in two rounds with a 60% response rate, the fastest scenario is chosen. Rotor redistributes the load between nodes, eliminating bottlenecks and increasing throughput. The prototype is already working, and a full launch on the main network is planned for the end of the year as part of SIMD.
Cetus Protocol Hacked on Sui Network
Cetus Protocol, a liquidity provider on the Sui network, suffered a major outage on Thursday morning, with more than $220 million being withdrawn from its pools. Initial reports indicated that about $11 million worth of SUI was withdrawn from the SUI/USDC pool. Following the incident, the price of SUI fell 7% to $3.9, while other Cetus pool tokens plunged, some by as much as 80% due to the massive liquidity outflow.
According to Lookonchain, the hacker converted the stolen funds into USDC and transferred them to the Ethereum network. He spent about $58 million to buy 21,938 ETH at an average price of $2,658. The Cetus team paused the smart contract immediately after discovering the anomaly and launched an investigation. Sui said it is working with Cetus to assess the damage and will share updates as they become available.
Cardano Foundation Prepares to Publish Audit Report
The Cardano Foundation is set to publish a treasury audit report amid allegations of embezzlement of 600 million ADA. NFT artist Masato Alexander claims that Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson used the genesis key to change the ledger and transfer 318 million ADA during the Allegra hard fork in 2021. He provided evidence of the transaction that accompanied the protocol upgrade, as well as a commit on GitHub. According to him, these funds generated 25 million ADA in staking income.
Alexander also noted that Cardano's genesis block dates back to October 2017. In response, Hoskinson announced that an independent audit related to that event is being prepared and expressed regret for the loss of community trust.
FIFA Partners with Avalanche to Launch Own Blockchain
FIFA has announced the launch of its own blockchain based on Avalanche, taking a step towards strengthening its digital ecosystem. The new network will be compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), and the FIFA Collect NFT collection will be migrated from the Algorand and Polygon platforms.
According to FIFA Collect CEO Francesco Abbate, the decision is driven by the desire to provide greater speed, scalability and security. The integration with Avalanche, he noted, will also simplify the use of popular crypto wallets and lay the foundation for the further development of FIFA digital assets. Once the migration is complete, support for Algorand and Polygon will be completely discontinued. The launch date of the new platform has not yet been disclosed.
Bitcoin Pizza Day
On May 22, the crypto community traditionally celebrates Bitcoin Pizza Day — the day when Bitcoin was first used to pay for real goods. In 2010, programmer Laszlo Heinitz bought two pizzas from Papa John’s for 10,000 BTC, marking the beginning of the history of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. At that time, the cost of BTC was about $40. Today, this amount is equivalent to $1.1 billion. This transaction became the first proof that digital currency can perform the function of exchange, going beyond an experimental asset.
Bitcoin Pizza Day has turned into a symbolic holiday for the industry: users share memes, hold meetups and educational sessions, tell their stories on social networks. Some communities celebrate the day with charitable initiatives and support for open source projects.
