The Roundup: Base jump, Binance user numbers, and North Korean hackers

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Happy Friday!

Adam Morgan McCarthy here to run you through this week’s biggest stories.

Coinbase’s Ethereum layer 2, Base, went live this week. The crypto exchange launched its public mainnet on Wednesday, which it plans to make more decentralised over time.

Base joins a crowded field of new Ethereum layer 2 projects connected to crypto firms, including Binance’s BNB Chain, MetaMask’s Linea, and ByBit’s Mantle.

The network has over $65 million in total value locked as of Thursday evening, according to DefiLlama. Base has made nearly $1.4 million in fee revenue since the beginning of August.

Analysts at TD Cowen said the network will have a non-material impact on Coinbase’s earnings in the near term.

Base wasn’t the only launch this week. PayPal entered the stablecoin game on Monday. PayPal’s decision comes as US members of Congress push for a landmark stablecoin bill.

Speaking of regulation, the Securities and Exchange Commission plans to appeal the ruling in the Ripple case — and it could have big consequences for Binance and Coinbase.

Have a great weekend,

Adam Morgan McCarthy

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How North Korea’s Lazarus Group used a fake job offer to steal $37m from CoinsPaid

CoinsPaid, a crypto payments provider, was hacked for $37 million last month. North Korea-linked Lazarus Group was most likely behind the attack, according to a report shared with DL News. The group used a range of tactics including enticing CoinsPaid employees with fake job advertisements.

Read the full story here.

Why 150m Binance customers ignore regulatory woes and pile in anyway

Changpeng Zhao said Binance now boasts 150 million customers, with 22 million joining in the last three months. Investors may be shrugging off regulatory issues because the exchange offers deep liquidity — which trumps regulation, according to Coalition Greenwich.

Read the full story here.

Exclusive: Polygon-backed D8X raises $1.5m with plan to bring DeFi to institutional crypto traders

Perpetual decentralised exchange protocol D8X secured $1.5 million in pre-seed funding from Polygon and other investors. Perpetuals are a type of derivative contract that has no delivery date, trading in perpetuity.

They serve a similar function to contracts for difference, or CFDs, in traditional finance. The exchange wants to bridge institutional investors to the DeFi space to trade crypto derivatives.

Read the full story here.