Tron TRON Industry Weekly: The market has shifted from neutral to panic, Solana Ecological LRT may explode

1. Forecast

1. Macro-level summary and future forecast

The US CPI rose 3.0% year-on-year and 0.5% month-on-month, the largest increase since August 2023, indicating that the inflation slowdown has been reversed and the rate cut may be reduced only once this year. It is expected that the Trump administration will continue to implement trade protectionist policies and strengthen economic and trade cooperation and competition with other countries, and geopolitical risks will continue to affect the stability of international trade and financial markets. Investors need to pay close attention to international economic trends and policy changes to deal with potential risks.

2. Market changes and early warnings in the crypto industry

Overall, prices are affected by multiple factors, including global economic data, monetary policy expectations, and changes in market sentiment. The specific trend of the price is due to the large differences between bulls and bears in the market, and Bitcoin and Ethereum are still fluctuating at low levels, failing to form a sustained unilateral market.

The prices of other mainstream cryptocurrencies and altcoins are also showing great volatility. Some altcoins have increased by more than 30% in the short term, but the market lacks clear momentum for rising, and the price trend is significantly affected by news events. Investors still need to continue to be vigilant about the potential impact of policy risks, market volatility risks and global economic uncertainty on the crypto market.

3. Industry and track hot spots

Legend, founded by a former Compound executive, was invested by A16Z and Coinbase, provides decentralized financial services, emphasizes security, transparency and scalability, integrates DEX, lending, pledge and other functions, and creates a comprehensive DeFi ecosystem; ZenGo, adopts MPC Technology, eliminates seed phrase risks, provides a secure self-hosted wallet experience, supports multiple assets, 3D face unlocking, convenient recovery, and leads the new trend of on-chain wallets; Mirai Labs launches Partnr, a consumer-oriented on-chain proxy product, promoting users and agents Interaction, optimize communication, improve participation, and tokenized DeFi strategy vaults to help on-chain operations and promote new driving force for on-chain activities.

2. Market hot tracks and weekly potential projects

1. Potential track performance

1.1. What’s special about Legend, a DeFi platform founded by a former

Compound executive, A16Z and Coinbase jointly invested $15 million?

Introduction

Legend is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform designed to provide a range of financial services focused on security, transparency and scalability. Based on blockchain technology, Legend aims to provide users with tools to conduct decentralized transactions, lending, pledges and earnings farming while maintaining control over their assets.

The main features of Legend include:

1. Decentralized Exchange (DEX): A user-friendly platform for exchanging a variety of cryptocurrencies and tokens, using smart contract technology to ensure secure peer-to-peer transactions without the need for centralized institutions.
2. Lending: Users can lend their digital assets to earn interest or borrow money using assets as collateral. The platform operates through smart contracts and automatically enforces terms and conditions without intermediary.
3. Staking: allows users to participate in the consensus mechanism or liquidity provision of the network, and receive rewards for contributing to the security and liquidity of the platform.
4. Earning farming: Provides users with the opportunity to earn passive income by providing liquidity to various liquidity pools, usually rewarded in the form of local tokens on the platform.
5. Security and Transparency: Based on blockchain technology, Legend ensures that all transactions are publicly verifiable and tamper-free, reducing the risk of fraud or manipulation.
6. Scalability: Leveraging a layer two solution or side chain, Legend is designed to handle high transaction throughput while minimizing transaction fees and network congestion.
7. Governance: Users may have the opportunity to participate in governance decisions, such as protocol upgrades or fee adjustments, usually through a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

By using Legend , individuals can access financial services typically controlled by traditional banks and other centralized institutions, but in a trustless and open source manner. Whether it is trading, earning interest, or participating in decentralized governance, Legend positiones itself as a comprehensive DeFi ecosystem.

Comments

According to limited information at present, the main features of Legend:

• Mobile-first design: Legend adopts a mobile-first strategy, aiming to provide users with convenient mobile DeFi services.
• Self-hosted wallet: The platform has built-in self-hosted wallet, so users can safely manage assets without relying on external wallets.
• Cooperation with DeFi Agreement: Legend cooperates with multiple decentralized financial agreements to integrate various services in the Ethereum ecosystem and provide transactions, lending and other functions.
• Fiat currency channel: Its Legend Pay provides a compliant fiat currency channel for the Web3 platform, supporting the recharge of various fiat currencies such as the US dollar, euro and pound

By integrating multiple DeFi services, Legend is committed to providing users with a comprehensive, safe and convenient decentralized financial experience.

1.2. Tether plans Web3 wallet business and briefly analyzes the first

self-hosted wallet ZenGo using MPC technology architecture

Introduction

ZenGo is a self-hosted crypto wallet that uses multi-party computing (MPC) technology to provide enhanced security, eliminating the risk of seed phrases. It supports over 380 assets, offers 3D face unlocking and triple authentication recovery capabilities, and allows secure transaction, purchase and storage of cryptocurrencies.

1. ZenGo 's security model

Self-hosting is safer than hardware wallets

Upgrade to a crypto wallet with no seed phrase vulnerabilities, powered and protected by multi-party computing (MPC) technology: This technology is used by institutions to host billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies. ZenGo has the world's largest open source MPC library and holds several patents for consumer wallet security innovation.

MPC: Farewell to seed phrase vulnerability

ZenGo is the first crypto wallet to apply the advanced security features of MPC to consumer wallets, offering a self-hosted wallet without seed phrase vulnerabilities. This is an order of magnitude more secure than a wallet based on seed phrases: even more secure than a hardware wallet.

2. What is MPC and how does it work?

MPC stands for secure multi-party computing (Multi-Party Computation), a field of cryptography that originated 30 years ago.

Typically, MPC allows two or more parties to jointly calculate the function output without revealing their input. For example: Using MPC, a group of friends can safely calculate their average salary ("output") without revealing each person's specific salary ("input").

For cryptocurrency wallets, MPC makes it possible to create a secure key management system that does not have a single point of failure (i.e., traditional "private keys") and multiple parties (such as remote servers and mobile phones) can jointly perform all the required ones. cryptographic features (such as key generation, transaction signature and transaction verification) without any parties revealing their respective secrets. It is important to emphasize that in MPC, a single private key is never generated, split or refactored: this makes it safer than the traditional model based on a single private key.

By implementing this type of MPC technology, consumer-oriented wallets (and institutional services) can safely design a decentralized asset management system, eliminating single point of failure of private keys. This provides a safer self-hosting option that prevents private keys from being stolen (because there is no single private key that can be stolen) and key loss, as each party can individually back up their secret inputs to a single one a way that will expose and endanger the entire system.

This design brings many advantages:

• Easy to recover
• Single point failure without phishing attacks
• Completely controlled by the user

3. What is Zengo 's recovery suite? **
   **Your recovery kit allows you to restore your Zengo wallet when you delete an app or replace a device. For your security, you need to create a recovery suite before depositing funds into your wallet.

Recovery Kit, by May 23, 2024, consists of 3 necessary certification factors:

• Email authentication
• 3D Face Unlock
• Recover files (storage in your cloud service)

Now, it consists of only 2 necessary certification factors:

• Email authentication
• Recover files (storage in your cloud service)

While 3D facial unlocking is not a requirement for account recovery, it is recommended as an additional authentication factor to enhance account security. However, 3D face unlocking remains a requirement for advanced security features in Zengo Pro, including legacy transfer and theft protection.

Comments

ZenGo's greatest contribution is to implement and popularize multi-party computing technologies, making it possible to build user-controlled on-chain wallet services, which can rival or even surpass managed wallets in terms of quality, user experience and security.

"On-chain" is not only the only way to achieve the industry's bigger goals, but also the default model that every financial service will eventually go, as it will bring significant economic advantages, true transparency, openness and universal access. We believe this is inevitable, and this process has already happened before our eyes, as the trend of funds flowing out of the exchange gradually emerges.

Financial services of the future will be a layer of lightweight software that runs on your phone, partially or completely controlled by users, driven by math and encryption, decentralized enough to resist censorship, but simple enough that anyone can Use to participate in and build a better life.

1.3. Mirai Labs, a Web3 game studio famous for its horse racing game

Pegaxy, entered AI. What are the characteristics of its AI agent Partnr?

Introduction

Partnr builds a consumer-facing on-chain proxy encryption product. These products are designed for use by ordinary users and encrypted native users, and also support the participation and interaction of agents. The combination of these two will drive a wider range of user adoption (user) and on-chain activity (agent).

Architecture diagram

The architecture diagram shows the interaction between front-end clients, back-end servers, hybrid inference engines, quality verification modules, blockchain-based token management, external integration services, and memory sharing protocols.

Components

front end

• Creator interface : Allows to configure, create and manage agents (set their backstory, style, domain knowledge, etc.).
• User interface : For ordinary users to chat with agents and view rewards.

Agent Manager

Responsibilities :

• Maintains the registry for all agents and their configurations.
• Handles agency-related business logic such as dialogue routing and state management.
• Interfaces with the LLM engine, passes the context and receives the response.

Architecture :

• Stateless microservices, deployed in containers, support horizontal scaling.
• Use a relational database or document storage to persistent proxy configuration.

LLM Engine

Responsibilities :

• Generate a chat response based on the user's letter message and the context of the proxy.
• Use custom rating metrics to evaluate the quality of user messages.
• Supports real-time interaction and asynchronous batch processing for fine-tuning of data.

Architecture :

• Deploy on a GPU-enabled server or dedicated hardware accelerator.
• Use container orchestration (such as Kubernetes) to scale according to your needs.
• Modular design allows plug-ins to replace models (such as GPT-J, LLaMA, custom fine-tuning models).

Data storage

• User Message : Capture conversation history and comments (quality evaluation).
• Fine-tuning datasets : regularly aggregated from tagged high-quality interactions.
• Agent Configuration : Stores the backstory, style, and custom logic associated with each agent.
• Database : Use SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL) or NoSQL (MongoDB) to store proxy configuration, user messages, and reward transactions.

Comments

User interaction in Partnr Chat will optimize the communication between agents and users and improve the efficiency of their monetization intentions. Chat will start with an initial set of proxy and extend to include user-generated proxy. Vaults is a tokenized DeFi policy vault designed for proxy ownership and control. These vaults can be designed as static DeFi policies or as "custodial" vaults that can be accessed by the agent, which are used to perform on-chain DeFi and transaction operations.

2. Detailed explanation of the project that week

2.1. Fragmetric, based on Solana's LRT protocol, raised US$7 million in

seed rounds, a brief analysis of its potential in the SolanaLRT ecosystem

Introduction

Fragmetric is a native liquidity re-staking protocol based on Solana, designed to enhance the security and economic potential of the Solana ecosystem. By leveraging Solana's token expansion capabilities, Fragmetric has effectively implemented NCN reward allocation. In addition, Fragmetric has designed a practical solution - the Normalized Token Program to utilize various liquid staking tokens (LSTs) in the re-staking platform. Fragmetric’s mission is to build a secure, transparent and efficient restaking infrastructure that empowers users and supports the stability of the Solana restaking ecosystem.

The three core goals of Fragmetric

1. Develop security standards for liquidity re-staked tokens (LRTs)
   Fragmetric develops and maintains a first-class LRT standard to ensure that rewards are assigned to users accurately. Through established LRT standards, LRT can be used in various protocols, enabling users to earn both restake rewards and additional benefits.

2. Delegate user deposits to a secure and profitable re-staking agreement NCN/AVS
   Fragmetric will establish a governance-based risk management committee to verify the profitability and security of NCN and AVS to ensure the best rewards for users.

3. Promote the growth of the Solana restaking ecosystem through SANG By restaking on Fragmetric, users will become the guardians of SANG (Solana Network Guardian) – the guardians of protecting and enhancing the Solana ecosystem. Fragmetric and SANG contribute to the ecosystem by researching, developing and releasing new NCN/AVS products to ensure decentralization and sustained growth.

Technical analysis

1. Fragmetric Protocol

deposit **
**When users deposit SOL, LSTs, or other SPL tokens into Fragmetric, they will receive an equal amount of $fragmetric assets (for example, fragmentSOL).

Standardized token program **
**This program developed by Fragmetric maintains the exact conversion ratio between deposited assets and minted $fragmetric assets. The user 's consolidated deposits (SOL, LSTs, and other tokens) form a unified asset basket that Fragmetric allocates to different restaking protocols and NCN/AVS.

Reward distribution **
**The assets are entrusted to cooperative validators who ensure the security of the NCN/AVS network. The proceeds from these delegations will be allocated to the $fragmetric asset holders. Fragmetric acts both as a portfolio manager and as a liquidity layer between users and restaking agreements.

2. $fragmetric How do the asset holder receive a reward?

Basic income **
**$fragmetric Assets inherit the gains from any deposited assets that naturally generate rewards, such as LSTs (current staking tokens), which generate staking and MEV returns. When users unstaken, they may receive more SOL (or other base tokens) than they originally deposited, reflecting the average annualized rate of return (APR) of all earning assets in the asset basket. Conversely, if a deposited asset itself does not generate any income, then that portion of the deposit will not generate income for the corresponding $fragmetric asset token.

NCN/AVS Rewards **
**In addition to standard returns, the NCN/AVS protocol can also allocate rewards in the form of SOL, local tokens, or other assets. Fragmetric takes advantage of Solana 's unique transfer hook feature to track and distribute these additional rewards accurately. Each $fragmetric asset transfer updates the user's qualification for NCN/AVS income, and users can receive these rewards at any time.

It should be noted that the $fragmetric asset is OPOS (Only Possible on Solana) LRT, and its advanced reward allocation mechanism relies on Solana-specific features, which are not available on Ethereum.

3. Using $fragmetric assets in DeFi

Because the $fragmetric asset is a liquid re-staked token (LRT), it can be used in DeFi for a variety of purposes. For example, fragSOL can be used for:

Loan collateral **
**Use fragSOL as collateral in the lending agreement to borrow other assets while still earning pledge and re-pled rewards.

Liquidity provision **
**Provides fragmentSOL as liquidity in a decentralized exchange (DEX) pool. This not only increases overall liquidity, but also allows liquidity providers to receive transaction fees on the basis of earning pledge rewards.

Trading on DEX **
**Trading fragSOL on a decentralized exchange. Users can purchase fragSOL directly without depositing it into Fragmetric and can be sold at any time to get liquidity immediately.

fragSOL is the first $fragmetric asset launched by Fragmetric and is at the heart of the Fragmetric ecosystem.

4. Agreement Ecology

Fund **
**Funds are the main module in the Fragmetric ecosystem that manages user assets. It accepts deposits of SOLs, LSTs and other supported assets and mints corresponding Fragmetric assets. The minting process utilizes pricing data from a standardized token pool (introduced in the next section). In addition, the fund manages withdrawal requests by retaining adequate liquidity and performing these requests regularly, allowing users to withdraw their assets in a timely manner.

Fund 's deposit and withdrawal **
**The following figure shows the interaction between the user, $fragSOL fund and the oracle system:

Deposit: The user deposits SOL or supported LSTs (including JitoSOL, mSOL, BNSOL, bbSOL) into the fund.

Cast fragSOL: After receiving the deposit, the fund mints fragSOL for the user. The number of tokens minted is determined by the current price data, reflecting the total value of the underlying asset.

Withdrawal: The user can request a withdrawal, prompting the fund to destroy the corresponding fragSOL and retain an equal amount of SOL for the user to withdraw. These withdrawal requests are processed periodically.

Pricing fragSOL: The price of fragSOL is calculated dynamically based on the total value of LSTs managed by the fund, ensuring that the tokens accurately represent each user's share in the asset pool.

Operator

Operator is responsible for managing pledge, re-pled, withdrawal operations and the execution of re-pled strategies. It handles all asset flows of funds and rewards and configures investment strategies through integration with various staking and restaking agreements.

Operators in the protocol are responsible for managing asset flows based on dynamically changing configurations. These configurations are adjusted based on withdrawal requests and governance-driven replenished portfolios.

Operator ensures that the amount of assets between the funds, reserved funds, replenishment agreements and pledge agreements is reconciled. Its tasks include setting target amounts for reserved fund accounts (to handle withdrawal requests) and determining the amounts for destaking and restaking to maintain these goals. Operator configures investment allocation according to the latest configuration and entrusts funds to the NCN node Operator.

Standardized token pool

The standardized token pool is responsible for accurately minting and destroying fragSOL and nSOL tokens. By standardizing the price of deposited tokens, Fragmetric can delegate or cut one token in the restake agreement, thus gaining a significant advantage in how to delegate or cut the number of tokens for each LST. The supply of nSOL and fragSOL is the same. Users of the Fragmetric protocol will only receive fragSOL, and nSOL will be restaked and delegated to the NCN node. When a cut event occurs, the cutter who finds malicious behavior of the NCN node receives nSOL. Cutters can then claim SOLs and LSTs from standardized token pools by transferring and destroying nSOLs.

Pricing based on staking pool

For LSTs like mSOL, bSOL, and JitoSOL, the pricing mechanism directly accesses the on-chain state data of their respective staking pools. These data include the current value of the pledged assets, the total amount of tokens issued by the pledge pool, and any allocations of performance indicators or rewards. By using this data, the system can accurately determine the prices of these LSTs, thereby calculating the value of the corresponding fragSOL.

This direct access to the staking pool data ensures that the price of fragSOL is closely related to the actual performance of the staking pool, providing users with a reliable and transparent pricing mechanism.

Summarize

For Fragmetric, user income is the biggest highlight. If the underlying deposit generates a pledge or MEV reward (such as SOL or other LST), it will automatically compound, causing its value to grow over time. If no pledge or MEV reward is generated by the deposited assets, the NCN/AVS reward will be received only through the agreement. These NCN/AVS rewards will be accumulated in a dedicated reserve account and can be claimed by any user holding at least one $fragmetric asset. The amount of reward you receive is proportional to your holding time and the amount of $fragmetric assets you hold. fragSOL is also the core of Fragmetric, which represents the positions held by users during the Jito re-staking process of the Fragmetric protocol. Similar to liquid staking tokens such as JitoSOL, BNSOL, and bbSOL, they provide users' staking positions, while fragSOL provides users' restaking positions. If you hold fragSOL, you can receive a reward from the restaking agreement and you can use it simultaneously in your DeFi application.

3. Industry data analysis

1. Overall market performance

1.1 Spot BTC&ETH ETF

Analysis

Last week's trading day (February 10 to February 14) US Bitcoin spot ETF had a cumulative net outflow of US$585.8 million. The specific institutional trading situation is as follows

Analysis

Last week's trading day (February 10-February 14) Ethereum spot ETF had a net outflow of US$26.3 million in a single week. The transaction situation of institutions is as follows

ETF, November 1, ET) Ethereum spot ETF total net outflow of 10.925,600 US dollars

1.2. Spot BTC vs ETH Price Trend

BTC

Analysis

This week, the focus is on the effectiveness of support around $94,500. If it falls below, it is likely to continue to form a new bottom around $90,000. Once a support pattern is formed, it can be regarded as a new entry point. As for the sign of bulls' strong turn, it is still a breakthrough and Stand firmly at the 100,000 US dollar mark.

ETH

Analysis

For Ethereum, the range of 2600 to 2900 US dollars is still the relative bottom area and can be used as the second entry point. Once the $2600 is broken, the range of 2100 to 2600 US dollars can be regarded as the best entry area, and Once the price stabilizes at $3,300, it can be regarded as a signal that the bulls will turn stronger. Before this, Ethereum may continue to experience a double-bottom pattern of stock absorption.

1.3. Panic & Greed Index

2. Public chain data

2.1. BTC Layer 2 Summary

Analysis

This week, the Bitcoin Layer 2 (L2) ecosystem has seen several important progress:

1. Blockstream enters the Japanese market

Blockstream has announced its opening of an office in Tokyo to accelerate the adoption of Bitcoin’s layer 2 solutions, autonomous custody options and realistic asset tokenization in Japan.

2. Significant growth in Hemi protocol

Before the emerging Bitcoin Layer 2 solution, Hemi protocol, had locked a total value of US$260 million on its private main network before it was officially launched, showing the market's strong focus on layer 2 solutions that improve Bitcoin scalability and functionality. interest.

These advances highlight the dynamic developments in the Bitcoin Layer 2 space, reflecting increased institutional interest, technological advances, and wider adoption of solutions designed to enhance Bitcoin’s scalability and functionality.

2.2. EVM &non-EVM Layer 1 Summary

Analysis

This week, several important advances have emerged in the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) and non-EVM Layer 1 blockchain fields:

EVM compatible with Layer 1 blockchain

1. Injective plans to add EVM support : Injective announced plans to add local high-performance EVM support on its Layer 1 blockchain. This move aims to improve the functionality of the network by enabling Ethereum-compatible decentralized applications to run on the Injective platform.
2. Sonic main network is officially launched : Sonic, an EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, has been officially launched on the main network. The platform provides developers with attractive incentives and strong infrastructure, with 10,000 transactions per second (TPS) and sub-second confirmation time.
3. Waterfall Network Performance Breakthrough : Waterfall Network achieved a new high of 12,778 transactions per second (TPS) on its mainnet, surpassing its previous peak and consolidating its position as a highly scalable EVM smart contract platform.

Non-EVM Layer 1 Blockchain

1. Aptos Foundation proposes integration of Aave : Aptos Foundation proposes a governance proposal seeking community support for deploying Aave protocol v3 to the Aptos mainnet. If approved, this will be the first time that the Aave liquidity protocol has been deployed on a non-EVM blockchain.
2. Near protocol is compatible with MetaMask : Near protocol becomes the first non-EVM blockchain to be fully compatible with MetaMask. This integration improves accessibility of Near blockchain, facilitates interaction of decentralized applications, and drives wider adoption of Web3 technology.

2.3. EVM Layer 2 Summary

Analysis

This week, several important advances have emerged in the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) Layer 2 ecosystem:

1. Uniswap Labs launches Unichain L2 main network

Uniswap Labs officially launched its Ethereum-compatible Layer 2 network "Unichain" after four months of testing and more than 100 million on-chain transactions. The mainnet aims to increase transaction speed and reduce costs for users and developers within the Uniswap ecosystem.

2. Coinbase 's Base network expands in NFT and DeFi fields

Coinbase's Layer 2 network Base has significantly increased its market share in the NFT and DeFi sectors. This expansion highlights the growing popularity of Base and its role in promoting scalable and cost-effective decentralized applications.

3. Tezos ' Etherlink L2 contract deployment surges by 184%

Tezos' EVM-compatible Layer 2 solution, Etherlink, reported a 184% increase in contract deployments in the fourth quarter of 2024, with more than 1,700 new contracts deployed. This growth highlights the growing adoption of Etherlink and its contribution to the scalability of the Tezos ecosystem.

4. Ramp Network introduces direct cash withdrawal of Ethereum L2 through MetaMask

Ramp Network partnered with MetaMask to enable users to sell their cryptocurrencies directly from the Ethereum Layer 2 network. This integration simplifies the process of converting crypto assets into fiat currencies, improving user experience and accessibility.

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4. Macro data review and key data release nodes next week

The US CPI data in January exceeded market expectations, up 3.0% year-on-year, higher than the previous value of 2.9% and market expectations of 2.9%. The core CPI, excluding food and energy prices, also exceeded expectations, up 0.4% month-on-month, higher than the previous value. Affected by the rise in energy, used cars and services prices, the growth rate of US CPI continued to rise on the same month-on-month basis.

This week (February 17-February 21) important macro data nodes include:

February 20: Number of initial jobless claims in the United States to February 15

February 21: U.S. University of Michigan Consumer Confidence Index Final Value

V. Regulatory policy

As the heads of the two major U.S. regulators will be held by people familiar with the crypto industry, the United States has officially arrived. Although there is no definite information about the establishment of U.S. Bitcoin reserves, there are other Countries and regions have become the mainstream narrative at present.

Japan

On February 10, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the Japan Financial Agency (FSA) plans to lift the ban on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency ETFs.

South Korea

Kim So-young (transliteration), vice chairman of the Korea Financial Committee, held the third meeting of the Virtual Assets Committee and decided to promote the plan of legal persons to open virtual asset real-name accounts in three stages. First, law enforcement agencies, non-profit legal persons, virtual asset exchanges, etc. are allowed to "cash" due to "enforcement agencies, non-profit legal persons, and virtual asset exchanges. "Institutions that require the participation of opening an account will be gradually expanded to professional investment legal persons (investment and financial purposes) and ordinary legal persons in the future. In addition, the Korea Financial Commission plans to allow charities and universities to sell donated cryptocurrencies in the second quarter, and plans to gradually pilot 3,500 listed companies and professional investors in the second half of this year.

India

Indian authorities seized nearly $190 million in cryptocurrency related to Bitconnect in an ongoing investigation into the crypto Ponzi scheme, which was cracked in 2018, causing losses of about $2.4 billion to 4,000 investors in 95 countries. Bitconnect was launched in 2016 and closed down in 2018. Bitconnect founder Satish Kumbhani (accused by the U.S. Department of Justice in February 2022) has set up a global network of promoters to pay them commissions to promote the Ponzi scheme.