Polymarket Exploit Arbitrage, Sonic Airdrop Accidentally Burned by Random Person, What's the Overseas Crypto Community Talking About Today?

Publication Date: January 19, 2025
Author: BlockBeats Editorial Team

Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market has seen complex developments across multiple dimensions. The mainstream discussion has focused on the escalating regulatory standoff between Coinbase and the banking camp, as well as the Polymarket vulnerability exploit exposing the risk management weakness of prediction markets. In terms of ecosystem development, Solana has accelerated RWA and payment implementation, Ethereum continues to enhance its infrastructure around AI and DeFi components, and the Perp DEX track has shown signs of intensified competition amid declining revenues and project migration disputes.

I. Mainstream Topics

1. Coinbase at Odds with Banking Camp over Crypto Legislation

The White House is considering fully withdrawing its support for the cryptocurrency market structure bill if Coinbase does not return to the negotiating table and reach a profit-sharing arrangement with banks. The bill, seen as the "Trump President's bill," has caused the White House to be quite annoyed by Coinbase's unilateral move on Wednesday, even describing it as a "rug pull" on the White House and the entire industry. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong responded by stating that the White House had maintained constructive communication before and that the team is discussing how to support community banks, but White House political support apparently still depends on the negotiation outcome. Meanwhile, Trump has publicly denied offering the Fed chair position to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and threatened to sue JPMorgan Chase within two weeks for its involvement in "debanking" practices. This discord is also seen as an extension of power play between JPMorgan Chase and forces like BlackRock.

The overall community sentiment is largely in favor of Coinbase, with many believing that traditional banks are trying to manipulate the bill details to cement their own interests, with some even shouting "banks go home" or "no bill is better than a bad bill." Some view this conflict as a political theater within the financial-industrial complex: Coinbase represents the emerging forces against the traditional financial order. However, another faction criticizes the White House for leaning more towards banks than users. The atmosphere is highly charged, with discussions focusing on "prioritizing user protection over giving way to banks," and many even believe that Coinbase's tough stance is forcing the industry to innovate faster.

2. Polymarket Exploited with Vulnerability Arbitrage: Weekend "Low Liquidity Harvesting"

A trader (@a4385) exploited Polymarket's 15-minute "Up or Down" short-term market (such as XRP, BTC) over the weekend when liquidity was low. By purchasing around a $1 million worth of the underlying asset on the Binance side, they manipulated the price, forcing the market to settle in their favor, earning a net profit of over $233,000 in a single trade. This operation was repeated multiple times, directly draining funds from several trading bots' pools, with one bot even losing its entire year's profit. More controversially, Polymarket's volume and influence have grown to the point where it can reverse lever Binance's price, exposing a structural flaw in prediction markets under short-term mechanisms.

The community reacted with both shock and complexity to this "Wall Street Bets-style" operation: Some called it "crazy" and "highly technical," while others criticized Polymarket for lacking sufficient risk control and restraint mechanisms, allowing the market to be easily manipulated. More voices pointed fingers at the liquidity provider, arguing that its risk management was ineffective and quote adjustments were not timely, leading to bots being repeatedly "harvested." Some also argued that this was not merely abuse but a thorough exposure of liquidity design flaws under weekend stress testing. Overall, public opinion is calling for stricter mechanisms while also acknowledging that this arbitrage event precisely demonstrates that Polymarket is entering a new stage of "external market impact."

3. WalletConnect Launches POS Stablecoin Payment Service

WalletConnect partnered with Ingenico to launch stablecoin payment functionality on POS terminals, attempting to bypass traditional banking and credit card networks through "on-chain direct payments." The service integrates as an additional "tag/app" on existing POS systems: After scanning, users can select a chain (e.g., SOL, ETH) in wallets like MetaMask and complete the signature to achieve on-chain payments. Some view this as a significant breakthrough for on-chain assets moving to offline consumption scenarios, but the actual process still heavily relies on users informing cashiers and completing multiple manual steps.

The community widely praised this as a "BD Masterclass" landing, using minimal modifications to bypass intermediaries and drive stablecoin real-world adoption. However, criticisms are also concentrated: The UX still appears cumbersome, as users not only need to explain what "WalletConnect stablecoin payment" is but also select chains, sign, leading to awkward communication and low conversion. Many believe it is difficult to replace crypto cards in the short term (the latter requires no additional training, just tap and go), and a more feasible approach would be to add "supports stablecoin payments here" stickers, provide staff training, and offer a more intuitive interactive experience. The overall tone is optimistic, but most emphasize that this is just the first step, with key issues such as merchant accounting, reconciliation, and user habit migration to be addressed in subsequent steps.

4. Visa's On-Chain Credit Card Settlement Accounts for Over 90%

Visa, through early partnerships with emerging card issuance project providers (such as Rain, Reap) and related infrastructure providers, has secured over 90% of on-chain card transaction volume. Its core strategy is "single-point integration, scale replication": by partnering once to reach dozens of downstream card products, thereby rapidly expanding coverage. The report emphasizes that Visa's high adaptability allows it to quickly capture the incremental demand brought by native crypto issuers; meanwhile, Artemis's comprehensive study further elucidates how stablecoin payments bridge digital assets with the global commercial system through card networks.

The community has high praise for Visa's Crypto Lead Cuy Sheffield, believing that he has steered Visa away from the "disruption" path within 2–3 years post-graduation, seen as a representative of an "internal CEO" figure. The discussion not only acknowledges Visa's strategic decisions and first-mover advantage but also warns of looming threats: CBDCs, super apps, and more native blockchain payment networks that could gradually erode the card networks' moat. Some perspectives suggest that the banking system's vitality may be more resilient than card networks, and stablecoin cards may only be a transitional solution. Overall, the community still recognizes Visa's leading position but also urges it to adapt to the next generation financial order through deeper infrastructure entrenchment (e.g., equity/ownership structure in relevant networks).

II. Mainstream Ecosystem Updates

1. Solana

5 Metal ETFs Go On-Chain: From Gold and Silver to Copper, All Tradable 24/7

Remora Markets announced the launch of 5 new real-world asset (RWA) products on Solana, tokenized ETFs of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and copper, corresponding to $GLDr, $SLVr, $PPLTr, $PALLr, $CPERr, now tradable on-chain in real-time, supporting tokenization, programmability, and on-chain operations. Supported by Step Finance, the project aims to bridge the asset pathway between TradFi and DeFi.

The community is excited about this wave of "commodities tokenization," seeing it as another key advancement in achieving 24/7 trading of traditional assets on Solana. Many view it as a demonstration of "Tokenize everything" and look forward to bringing more commodities (even oil) onto the chain. At the same time, there are significant doubts: some criticize the weak liquidity, struggling to fill orders over $10,000, leading to a "looks good, feels clunky" situation. Some joke that "uranium is next," with an overall optimistic atmosphere, but a clear consensus—adequate liquidity is essential to truly attract large funds.

Rainmaker Introduces Ghost Wallets

Rainmaker introduces Ghost Wallets feature: users deposit SOL and AI agents automatically grow the funds 24/7 (e.g., participating in sports prediction markets), then spend directly anywhere via Neo card. This feature emphasizes privacy—on-chain activities cannot be traced back to specific users and is partially supported by Radr Labs, attempting to address the friction users face in cashing out after gains on Pump.fun through "withdrawal KYC + waiting period."

The community widely praises this "Privacy + Automation + Consumption Loop" design, calling it a "huge win," noting its significant reduction of redemption friction and KYC pain points. Many emphasize "privacy is everyone's right." Of course, some are curious about the actual operational model and even worried about its potential risks and compliance boundaries. Overall feedback remains mostly positive, with discussions also boosting attention for $RAIN and $RADR.

2. Ethereum

x402 Hackathon Finale: Foundation Reveals Winning Projects, Betting on "AI + Payment Infrastructure"

The Ethereum Foundation-supported x402 hackathon concluded with the announcement of winning projects, including: Superfluid's x402-sf (native continuous subscription payment infrastructure), Cheddr Payment Channels x402 (efficient micro-payment channels), x402rorg (refund and arbitration protocol), among others. The overall direction is clear: to provide more efficient payment and trust components for AI and agent-based economies on Ethereum.

The community generally believes that such projects are hitting the key vertical of this cycle, the "intersection of AI and decentralized infrastructure," and acknowledges their role in driving agent-based economies, micro-payments, and composable financial modules. A few people joke, "The project is good, but when will the price pump," yet the main discussion still revolves around practical value, maintaining an overall positive atmosphere.

Optimism Launches Actions: Compressing DeFi Integration from "Weeks" to "Hours"

Optimism releases the Actions SDK, an open-source TypeScript toolkit that allows developers to quickly integrate DeFi functions such as lending, trading, and payments, shortening the integration cycle from weeks to hours. This SDK supports embedded wallet systems like Privy, Turnkey, Dynamic, and is compatible with mainstream protocols like Aave, Morpho, while also adapting to multiple EVM networks, including Ethereum, OP Mainnet, and Base, providing a unified configuration file to manage assets, chains, and compliance settings.

Developers strongly applaud its direction of "turning complex integrations into standardized calls," with some even describing it as an efficiency leap from "2000 lines of code to 20 lines," expecting it to further drive the migration of payment applications and Fintech onto the chain. However, there are voices questioning whether traditional finance will truly accept an on-chain 5%-10% revenue model or remain in the wait-and-see phase. The overall sentiment is optimistic, believing this will accelerate the expansion and implementation of the Optimism L2 ecosystem.

Base Ecosystem Project Ethos Hosts Vibe Coding Hackathon

The Ethos Network hosted the Vibe Coding Hackathon on the Base chain, with the goal of building a reputation system for the Ethereum ecosystem: turning "trustworthiness" into a verifiable, tradable, composable on-chain asset through a mechanism of peer-to-peer review and ETH staking. The event was divided into multiple categories, with a prize pool of tens of thousands of dollars, aiming to provide a more reliable trust foundation for the crypto world.

Participants showed great enthusiasm, viewing it as an "insider opportunity" or even a potential entry point into the industry. Some shared their leaderboard experiences, while others expressed concerns about the fairness of the selection process, joking that "if they win, they might still be suspected of insider dealings." The overall atmosphere was lively, with a strong sense of community collaboration, but some voices were heard requesting a more open judging mechanism to increase participation from non-Ethos employees and reduce controversies.

3.Perp DEX

Hyperliquid Revenue Declines, Pump.fun Still Making Millions Daily

DefiLlama data shows that Hyperliquid dropped out of the top five in the 24-hour revenue ranking, in stark contrast to Pump.fun, which continues to maintain a daily revenue of over $1 million, almost unaffected even during market downturns. This contrast quickly raised doubts in the market about Pump.fun's revenue structure: whether there are wash trades, bot-driven volume inflation, or other unnatural traffic.

The community was generally shocked by Pump.fun's "consistently high revenue," with evaluations ranging from "outrageous" to "suspicious." Many suspected that its internal mechanism was creating fake volume to attract more funds, and some even called for ZachXBT to intervene and investigate. Some directly referred to it as a "money laundering machine." The overall discussion was filled with skepticism and ridicule but also implied a consensus: Hyperliquid's decline indicates intensified competition in the Perp space, where the traffic is not loyal.

Trove Major Dump $HYPE + Solana Migration: Chain Move, Gambling Funds, TGE Delay Triple Red Flags

Trove Markets announced a shift from Hyperliquid to Solana, citing that its liquidity partner sold about $5 million worth of $HYPE, causing the project to halt development on HyperEVM. The project team requested ICO participants to connect their Solana wallets to claim $TROVE tokens, while ZachXBT revealed that the team bridged $45,000 of angel round funds to a "casino deposit address," further fueling fraud suspicions. The TGE was also postponed to January 19 at 4:00 p.m. UTC.

The community response has been overwhelmingly angry: many have directly labeled it as a "classic rug pull / last-minute scam," demanding a full refund and criticizing the team for gambling behavior and inadequate disclosure in advertising. Some have also mocked this as a "social experiment," suggesting that the chain migration, TGE delay, and unusual fund flows raise multiple red flags. Overall sentiment is highly negative, with widespread predictions that $TROVE will quickly collapse after launch, and calls for further investigation.

4. Others

Sonic unclaimed airdrop manually burned by a "random bystander": Contract lacked permission control

The unclaimed airdrop from Sonic Labs (approximately 16 million $S) was manually triggered for burning by a community member due to a lack of access control on the burn function—anyone could invoke it. The final burn amounted to around $1.28 million. This incident thereby indirectly exposed the team's confusion in contract design and process management.

While some in the community hailed the triggerer as a "hero," others ridiculed the Sonic team as "headless flies," with some even quipping that "random bystanders are more diligent than the development team." Many viewed this as a clear engineering and risk control flaw, further deepening suspicions about Sonic's vague roadmap, governance chaos, and potential fraud. Of course, some have interpreted this from another perspective: it resembles more of a live demonstration of "community self-rescue"—albeit in a rather ironic manner.