BlockSec: Balancer and Its Multiple Forked Protocols Targeted in Exploit, Total Loss Around $83.6 Million

**December 21st** Next week is set to bring a Christmas market surge, with U.S. stock markets closing early Wednesday and remaining closed all day Thursday for the holiday. Market focus centers on whether former President Trump will announce his Federal Reserve Chair nominee over Christmas. Latest nomination odds (per tracking): - **Kevin Hassett** (White House National Economic Council Director): ~54% (leading) - **Kevin Warsh** (ex-Fed Governor): ~21% - **Christopher Waller** (current Fed Governor): ~14% ### Key Macro Events & Data Next Week - **Tuesday**: U.S. Q3 preliminary real GDP (annualized); Q3 preliminary real personal consumption expenditures (annualized); Q3 preliminary core PCE price index (annualized) - **Wednesday**: Bank of Canada Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes; U.S. initial jobless claims (Dec 20 week) - **Thursday**: BoJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda speaks at Japan Business Federation; Japan November unemployment rate ### Market Closure Reminders

Dec. 21 — AI computing protocol Gensyn has wrapped up its AI token public sale, with 7,412 participants contributing approximately $16.14 million total. At the sale’s close, the project held a fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $473 million, with a token price of $0.0473. The Gensyn Foundation noted that token distribution details will be released on Dec. 25.

On December 21st, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announced the company is building a mobile cryptocurrency wallet with built-in AI features. The wallet will only support Bitcoin, USDT, Tether’s new stablecoin USAT, and tokenized gold token XAUT, integrating native private AI via QVAC. A report yesterday noted Tether is hiring a Chief Software Engineer for this mobile crypto wallet. It will be powered by WDK (an open-source wallet development toolkit) and QVAC (a decentralized AI platform launched by Tether).

December 21st — Per HTX market data, Bitcoin has fallen below $88,000, currently trading at $87,998, down 0.17% over the past 24 hours.

December 21 – Per TheDataNerd’s monitoring, an address linked to ETHFI investors deposited 900,000 ETHFI into Binance three hours ago, worth roughly $738,000. Since receiving its first unlocked tokens, this wallet has deposited a total of 31.28 million ETHFI into Binance, valued at approximately $36.58 million.

**ETH Co-Founder Buterin Touts Prediction Markets as Antidote to Outlandish Social Media Takes** December 21, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin posted on Farcaster that prediction markets are an antidote to outlandish takes on emotional topics. He cited two examples: Elon Musk previously claimed a UK civil war was “inevitable,” but Polymarket—a prediction platform—put the probability of a 2024 UK civil war at just 3% (Buterin noted the 3% was still inflated, as some bettors artificially jacked up odds). Buterin argued many social media users exaggerate claims of “definite events” to stoke panic or grab attention, with no accountability. Prediction markets, by contrast, involve real-money bets that better reflect actual probabilities, pushing back against such outlandish views. He later expanded on his stance: unlike social media (where panic can be stoked without consequence) and mainstream media (with sensational headlines), prediction markets have stronger truth-seeking